OPUS Archives and Research Center is thrilled to announce that beginning January 8^th the Joseph Campbell and Marija Gimbutas Library will be open to the public from 2:30-4:30 every Saturday, no appointment necessary!

The library is located at Pacifica Graduate Institute’s lower campus – 249 Lambert Road, Carpinteria CA 93013.

Joseph Campbell’s library contains over 3,000 books covering the various fields of mythology, literature, art, philosophy and religion. A number of the volumes are rare and many of the books contain Campbell’s marginalia.

Marija Gimbutas’ library holds over 1,600 books with an extensive collection on archaeology, as well as numerous volumes about religion, anthropology, linguistics, mythology, folklore, and art.

For more information on the library or the manuscript collections at OPUS Archives please visit our website at www.opusarchives.org or call us at 805.969.5750.

“Obscurity of expression is natural to the psyche. Prime example, our dreams; mere glimmerings. Saving the psyche’s phenomena calls for an alchemical method of chaos, a method which indulges the soul’s surprising beauty and inventive freedom, and speak both of the psyche with psychology and to the psyche with imagination” (Hillman, Alchemical Psychology, 2010).

Alchemical Psychology, Uniform Edition volume 5

Taliesin, meaning “shining brow”, was a Welsh poet in the 6^th century and a legendary character of magic and knowledge, one of the twice born. He is also known as Taliesin Ben Beirdd -Taliesin, Chief of Bards. According to the legend, Taliesin began life as Gwion Bach who was a servant of the goddess Cerdiwen. A mere 3 drops of liquid from her wisdom potion gifted him with the fire of deep and powerful wisdom. The transgression required that he undergo many transformations to escape Cerdiwen’s wrath and the final magical leap was being born from her, thus becoming the twice born and the wise.

Taliesin, as Gwion Bach, looking after Ceridwen's cauldron on the shores of Llyn Tegid.

To read a translation of the Welsh Mabinogion, which tells the tale of Taliesin, visit http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/mab/mab32.htm, The Mabinogion, tr. by Lady Charlotte Guest, [1877], at sacred-texts.com

The Book of Taliesin (NLW Peniarth MS 2) National Library of Wales Journal

ARAS (The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism) just released a new book titled The Book of Symbols: Reflections  on Archetypal Images, published by Taschen. Taschen prints some of the most gorgeous books…and I am so excited to get a copy for the office!

ARAS - Book of Symbols

The Book of Symbols combines approximately 350 original essays about particular symbols with images from cave art to contemporary art. The thought-provoking texts and 800 beautiful, full-color images come together in a unique way to convey hidden dimensions of meaning.

The Charities or Graces are divinities whose power is beauty and all the qualities of charis – beauty, grace, goodwill and favor – as it manifests in the world and the cosmos.

Hesiod (Greek epic 8th or 7th B.C.) tells of their birth – “Eurynome (Broad Pasture), the daughter of Okeanos, beautiful in form, bare him [Zeus] three fair-cheeked Kharites (Graces), Aglaia (Glory, Beauty), and Euphrosyne (Merriment), and lovely Thaleia (Festivity), from whose eyes as they glanced flowed love that unnerves the limbs: and beautiful is their glance beneath their brows” (Theogony 907 ff trans. Evelyn-White.)

A love that unnerves the limbs…I love that line. And yes, their representation in art through the ages certainly has that power.

We are nigh upon celebrating Thanksgiving, expressing  gratitude for what we have and what we can share. Here at OPUS we wish you a holiday that is graced by the Charities and their beautiful glances.

Judy has been a volunteer here at OPUS in our preservation program for over a year. Each week she digitizes the audio lectures we have of James Hillman, Marion Woodman and a few others sprinkled in, though these are her favorites. These lectures are on audio cassette tapes –you remember those, right?! We asked Judy to share what being at OPUS means to her:

“The excitement and joy of being here at OPUS is reconnecting with depth psychology. I have no one in my life right now involved in all this stuff. So to come back and listen to these people whose books I have read, whose lectures and conferences I have attended, is the chance to get reacquainted, reminded. I am working on my dreams, asking ‘what is my fate, my destiny’? And to work on this again now, as I am in a completely different place in my life, is powerful.

Being here helps get me back to the important things and way from the minutiae. After a couple of hours of listening to the tapes I realize ‘oh, right, this is what is important in life – psyche, soul’ – not the being busy, all the doing.”

We are in gratitude to Judy for her time and dedication. We are also in deep thankfulness to our donors who make the digitization preservation program possible. Your donations help us purchase the equipment that allows us to preserve the fragile materials in the collections – audio cassette tapes, photographs, and slides.

To show our thanks we have created an audio archive page on our website for you to listen to the lectures we are digitizing and directly experience the benefit of this work. Click here and enjoy!

“We need images and myths through which we can see who we are and what we might become. As our dreams make evident, the psyche’s own language is that of image, and not idea. The psyche needs images to nurture its own growth; for images provide a knowledge that we can interiorize rather than ‘apply,’ can take to that place in ourselves where there is water and where reeds and grasses grow” (Downing, The Goddess, 2).

Sulis was a water goddess who presided over the hot springs at Bath, now Somerset. These springs were called Aquae Sulis and had curative powers.

Sulis

She was one of the most important Roman/British deities and though a water goddess she also had solar powers which some claim is due to the heat of the springs. Another connection is that Sulis comes from the root suil which means ‘eye’. The connection between the eye and the sun as eye of the heavens is ancient and widespread across cultures.

The 'sacred pool' of Sulis. Roman Baths, Bath.

In this video Joseph Campbell reveals the symbolism of solar and lunar consciousness that lies within the ritual activities of bullfighting, a serpent ritual and marriage.  This is how it breaks down: the bull fighter or the priestess is the solar figure, the consciousness principle that is moving towards the birth of the new. The bull or serpent is the lunar principle, the moon power which seeks to unify and perpetuate life as it was. When the two figures meet as with the priestess and the serpent what is a ritual enactment of the sacred marriage – the solar and lunar unite – conjunction.

This video is a brief excerpt from interviews filmed with Joseph Campbell shortly before his death in 1987, previously unreleased by the Joseph Campbell Foundation – http://www.jcf.org