Saturday, May 24th, 2025
10:45 AM-4:00 PM Eastern Time zone
please see Schedule PDF below for details
Live via Zoom. Registered participants will receive all lecture recordings.
This conference will be presented in English with simultaneous translation in Russian.
$70
*All current Advanced and Master Fairy Tale students do not register, the conference is included in the class tuition*
5 CE credits available
$55
Follow this link to view which Boards of Approval recognize Continuing Education hours offered for this program. 

"Every traveler has a home of his own, and he learns to appreciate it the more from his wandering.”
​-Charles Dickens

While the world of fairy tales, dreams and fables continues to teach us  about the natural archetypal  rhythms of life, we have stopped listening to these voices. Without the guidance of the Self,  we are taken over by the irruptive forces of the dark unconscious. Drowning out Psyches call for a life of; decency, kindness, morality and justice, are the siren’s song leading us to our untimely demise. 
Jung was a visionary who called on humanity to find our way back to soul, yet once again, we are caught in the vortex of an archetypal possession, living with an even greater estrangement from what matters most in life.  Jung, and M.L. von Franz’s more than 50 years studying the wisdom of fairy tales, called us to undertake a profound inward journey into the depths of the unconscious, where the Self resides. These ancient stories serve as invaluable maps for our inner pilgrimage, back to what truly matters, guiding us with kindness, wisdom, and hope, into the depths of the psyche and soul. 
Within these stories we find a way home, to soul, and to those mercurial and benevolent helpers so often found in fairy tales who under the cover of darkness accompany and guide us in our journey to The Self.  Here as in the story of Amor and Psyche and many other tales, these figures appear when we most need them, offering promise and a way towards a life of liberation and transformation.
M.L. von Franz reminds us that, "In many myths and fairy tales, there is not only difficulty in getting into the Beyond but terrible difficulty getting back."  Drawing on the steerage of Michael Meade, one of the most important voices in modern times, Jungian Analyst Elizabeth Colista, and Kevin Richard, Chair of Fairy Tale Studies, we will look to these perennial stories for guidance in a world gone awry.

Featured Guest Presenter
Michael Meade, Mythologist
Holding the Thread of Life
​
Internationally acclaimed author and mythologist, Michael Meade, offers an exclusive pre-recorded lecture crafted specifically for this conference—bringing his unique voice and depth of insight into the archetypal power of fairy tales.​
The human soul is mythic by nature and each person carries the thread of an essential plotline that tries to become conscious in the course of life. Our inner myth involves a core imagination that has the power to orient our life and move our soul towards its innate destiny.
At each critical crossroads in life, the story of the soul tries to break through and become more conscious to us. At this critical time on Earth a transformation of all levels of life is underway. There can be no better time to learn the pattern set within our souls and claim the mythic thread that brought us to life to begin with. Ours souls are here to transform, when enough people transform their lives, human culture transforms as well.

Faculty

Elizabeth Colistra, Jungian Analyst
Rehabilitating the Heart: The Transformation of Feeling Values in Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen
​
In this presentation, we will explore The Snow Queen, a complex fairy tale divided into seven shorter stories. This long and winding tale follows the story of a young girl and boy, Gerda and Kai, and the trouble they both get into regarding their hearts. It is the heart which allows us to experience feeling values of love, empathy, compassion and relatedness. 
​
In Jungian psychology, it is the realm of the archetypal feminine principle, the anima, and Eros. The Snow Queen teaches us the dangers of being too one-sided: either too naively in the heart, or too cooly in the mind. Separated and eventually conjoined, the heart and mind, Eros and Logos, both require distillation and refinement. If we can submit to this process, not only does it lead to the rehabilitation of the heart, but a chance for love and insight to reign together equally and powerfully in the psyche of individuals and the larger collective consciousness. 
Kevin Richard, Chair of Fairy Tale Studies
Captive Hearts: Archetypal Stories of Masculine and Feminine Liberation

​Fairy tales, though simple in narrative structure, often reveal complex, psychological, and archetypal dynamics. They are timeless in their essence and reveal the intricate dance between the Masculine and Feminine forces within us all. Although filled with energy, these forces often settle in patterns shadowed by entrapment and possession.

By exploring countless stories depicting the hasty abduction and possession of 'the coveted,' we uncover a profound insight: that which eludes internal integration is often the object of external possession.We are all familiar with oppression and entrapment in our profane world. Still, we usually fail to understand the unconscious dynamics that fuel these conditions. 
Fairy tales give rich symbolic depictions of this unseen world and provide profound insight into the paths that lead to deeper despair or liberation.Together, we aim to shed light on the shadowy patterns that cloud our journey towards Soul. Here, it is through fairy tales that we find the wisdom of Psyche and a way home.

Conference Schedule

5-2025_fairy_tale_conference_schedule.pdf
File Size: 130 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
$70
*All current Advanced and Master Fairy Tale students do not register, the conference is included in the class tuition*
​

5 CE credits available
$55

Follow this link to view which Boards of Approval recognize Continuing Education hours offered for this program. ​
Live via Zoom. Registered participants will receive all lecture recordings.
​
This conference will be presented in English with simultaneous translation in Russian.

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Unit 3A
Mystic, CT 06355
(860) 415-5004     [email protected]