Events

HONORING THE DIAMOND BODY MYSTERIES: Pregnant Darkness and Birth of the Light Body

FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 2026 | ZOOM LECTURE | 7:30p – 9p ET

On January 9th, we will explore a little bit of the fabric that depth psychology has as its true inheritance in the full round of Life, Death and the Beyond: The Diamond Body Mysteries. Honoring the descent mysteries and the Archetypal Mothers of the Nigredo, we will then explore the birth of emerging connection with the light and experiences of the resurrection body, the light body. 

Drawing from dreams, the work of Jung, Yeats, and Henri Corbin, along with experiences from the recent death process of my partner, Tom Elsner, threads will be woven in image, symbol, myth, dream and embodied experience to honor this evening in some small way, the mystery of the Diamond Body. 

“Die before we die”, we all know the line so well in depth psychology; it is the cornerstone of all transformation. And here, from my point of view, is its twin: “In dying discover the light body before we literally die as well.”  

My hope is that tuning in together in this hour and a half to this material from real human life and death processes, near-death experiences, and sprinklings from the works of these luminaries, the time together with discussion and our shared field will create a place of reflection for the value of cultivating the subtle body dimension.

And this work is done by its very nature for the good of the world soul in these times.  The dismemberment-rememberment forces of the psyche, so present in the order-disorder paradox, touch all of our lives more and more strongly as the collective problem is mounting.  Our work with our own little piece of earth, our own vessel of consciousness as an offering for the good of the world, for the good of the collective unconscious, is real.  And the need to give life to the religious instincts in the psyche comes to us with growing urgency in these times.  The creation of the shared field together this evening is also part of this offering. (see Nathan Schwartz Salant’s book The Order Disorder Paradox, and chapter 3 Modes of Relating in Narcissism and Character Structure) 

Staying with the reality of the collective transmutations a little longer, with Yeats, his question is ever more alive as a burning question of our age:  “What rough beast its hour come round at last slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?” What is happening with the collective unconscious and the changing god image as madness in culture mounts?  Appreciating the “Rough Beast” and the way it is emerging now as demonic greed and militaristic fascism, many of us feel the need to make fresh offerings to the spirit of the depths in these times to help with the balance between consciousness and the collective unconscious. In this vein, this alchemical contemplative work with the Nigredo Mysteries and the Diamond Body is of utmost value. It allows the axis to the transcendent to grow individually and in relationship and allows new transmutations of spirit to happen. It allows consciousness to tune in with the One who knows better the way with and through what is to come.

Events

ACTIVE IMAGINATION SEMINAR:
Connecting with Source, Honoring the Abject Black and Fresh Connection with the Ally

SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 2026 | ZOOM WORKSHOP | 1-4p ET

For this workshop, we will bring threads from the lecture and discussion and begin the processes of active imagination. Honoring the Mothers of the Nigredo as the true ground of transformation, we will then turn to work with Jungian analyst Jeff Raff’s discoveries in his book, Practical Guide to Ally Work. We will bring his wisdom into active imagination with the intention of making fresh contact with your ally, your star, your vertical axis to draw the energy down into the rest of your being and your life.

The workshop aims to help participants develop various practices for cultivating attunement to the subtle body dimensions. The midline lives in every person, it is every being’s birth right. Osteopathy, cranial sacral work, Taoist alchemy each work with this energetic midline phenomenon. And many people are having spontaneous dream phenomena where tutelary spirits begin teaching these realities to the dreamer. This level of alchemical work is waking up in the psyche at large. Learning to attune to and differentiate the energy bodies (along with the bodies of complexes) is a big part of the work needed these days for the alchemical stone to grow in both worlds.

Meditations and Active Imagination with shamanic music by my friend, Kirsten Kairos, will be offered to help participants open to finding fresh contact with one’s own star, their own vertical axis informed by the transcendent.

Monika Wikman, Ph.D, is a Jungian analyst and astrologer. Author of Pregnant Darkness: Alchemy and the Rebirth of Consciousness. Editor and contributor to Living with Fire: The Alchemical Imagination of Nathan Schwartz Salant and his contributions to Depth Psychology, Chiron Publications, 2026. She has also contributed chapters, articles and poems to numerous publications including a chapter in The Dream and Its Amplification, edited by Erel Shalit and Nancy Furlotti. A graduate of the Jung–Von Franz Center for Depth Psychology in Zürich, she taught for many years in the graduate department at California State University, Los Angeles, and was a dream researcher at UCSD Medical Center on “Dreams of the Dying.” She hosts a non-profit project under Earthways.com, The Center for Alchemical Studies. Podcasts with Monika on various topics can be found at chasingconsciousness.net/episodes, shrinkrapradio.com and speakingofjung.com.

Monika Wikman + The Center for Alchemical Studies - Santa Fe, New Mexico

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