“I have often asked reproachfully, “Why does this damned unconscious talk such a difficult language? Why doesn’t it tell us clearly what’s the matter?” Now Jung’s answer was that it obviously can’t. It doesn’t speak the language of the rational mind. Dreams are the voice of our instinctual animal nature or ultimately the voice of cosmic matter in us.” 

Marie-Louise von Franz, The Way of the Dream, p. 217 (1994)

Program Description
​A meaningful life is one lived in relationship to the Self and to the archetypal rhythms of nature. While we each need to navigate our own way through life, we learn of these natural rhythms and the life offered by the Self when reading fairy tales, legends, and the mythological journeys of heroes and heroines. It is through these texts that we hear a voice which extends beyond our personal understanding of life, a voice that both beckons us on to riches, while also warning us of great tragedy. 
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Dr Rosaly Roffman reminds us that "mythology is the story of humanity’s relationships to the divine", while Marie-Louise von Franz provides a profound understanding of fairy tales and their articulation of archetypal dynamics –which she referred to as "nature’s constants", allows us to understand the wisdom of the Self. This is the world of Psyche revealed to us through fairy tales.
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Through fairy tales, we are brought into the world which Jung referred to as "The Spirit of the Depths" where each adventure speaks to our hunger for soul, and each story illuminates that invisible path which leads to and at times, unfortunately even away from The Self. Here is a telling of time eternal, and the voice of the "antique soul" teaching us about life as it has been recounted by generations eternal. 
 
In this course, students will learn the art, love, and the discipline of seeing the depths of meaning contained within fairy tales and strengthen and perhaps re-awaken a passion for these seminal stories which remind us that “once upon a time in a land far, far away” is present here and now in our own psyches.​​

Course Objectives

• Through an in-depth study of the work of Marie Louise von Franz, we will deepen our understanding of the archetypal significance of fairy tales and how they reveal the nature and dynamics of the Psyche.  
• Draw on an archetypal, symbolic, and objective approach to fairy tale images and themes, as a way to discover the Wisdom of the Psyche.   
• Become familiar with the development and structure of fairy tales from their archetypal underpinnings, motifs, cultural influences.
• To examine patterns in fairy tales such as the archetypal elements of the story, recurring motifs and numbers. We will look at the components of the tale; title, exposition, characters, conflict, plot progression and lysis.   
• We will examine how the actual beginning of the fairy tale, the initial condition, provides unique insights into the unfolding of the story. These early conditions reveal the central archetypal pattern expressed in the fairy tale, and as von Franz taught us, with this understanding, we can often “predict” how the story may progress through the conditions and themes unique to the archetype expressed in the story.  
• Since many of the original features of fairy tales have been contorted to fit our collective preference for “living happily ever after”, we will reintroduce the original presence and purpose of the Shadow archetype in fairy tales.   
• Deepen our awareness of how fairy tales are a vital portal for the presentation of archetypal material and how these themes are often found in film, literature, current events, and our own life experiences.

Course Highlights

• Presentations from an international faculty of Jungian Analysts and Archetypal Pattern Analysts will demonstrate how myths, legends, fables, and fairy tales are filled with images and meaning that can guide us to greater wisdom.  Our approach to stories and sacred texts will honor the work of Marie Louise von Franz, Jung, and other seminal figures in this specialized field.  Students will have direct access to some of the foremost leaders in the modern-day study of archetypal patterns in stories, including Dr Hansueli Etter who, for many years, was a colleague of von Franz.​  
• This certificate program will provide students not only with the opportunity to observe in-depth translations of fairy tales but will also allow direct learning through participation.  Several sessions will be dedicated to a real time learning experience. Students will enhance their ability to understand; initial conditions, identify the archetypal pattern, and discover the archetypal processes within the fairy tale. 
• Students will learn how to work with fairy tales and the art and discipline of identifying key archetypal elements of the Feminine and Masculine; the Shadow, Anima/Animus, the Self, psychological functions, and symbols of the Self within the story.
• We will be working with fairy tale images and themes as they relate to Archetypal Coherence in a story. In this light, the program will focus on archetypal structure and processes and the presentation of universal, archetypal patterns.

Online Course Format 

• Classes are held live on Tuesday evenings from 7:30 pm - 9.00 pm US Eastern Time.
• The only session not following the Tuesday format is the opening lecture presented by Dr. Hansueli Etter taking place on Saturday September 21, 12 noon - 1:30 pm US Eastern Time.
• All sessions take place live via Zoom which allows all participants to see one another during the live classes.  
• In addition, each session will be recorded and shared with all participants to ensure that those who may miss a class can access the recordings at any time. This also gives students an opportunity to review the content in their own time. 

Certification Course Class Dates 2024 

• September 24
• October 8, 22
• November 5, 19
• December 3, 17

Upcoming Advanced & Master Fairy Tale Analysis Course

​The Assisi Institute’s Advanced and Master Fairy Tale Analysis Certification program begins January 14- May 20, 2025,
on alternate Tuesdays 7:30 pm -9:00 pm
Registrations for this course will open in the Fall.
Annual Fairy Tale Conference will be held virtually on May 23 & 24, 2025, details to be sent out closer to the date.

Cancellation and Refunds Policy 
A full refund minus a $50 administrative fee, is given if cancellation is made prior to one week (by September 9th) before the beginning of the series. A 50% refund is given if cancellation is made less than one week before the series begins.

Register here

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Faculty

Kevin Richard, Chair of Fairy Tale Studies
Kevin is an Archetypal Pattern Analyst, and Chair of Fairy Tale Studies at the Assisi Institute. He has been with The Institute since 1993 and has served as the Institute’s Director of Studies. He continues to serve as a speaker, student mentor, consultant, and as of 2021 serves on the Assisi Foundation’s Board of Directors.  As a Senior Faculty member of The Assisi Institute, his presentations examine the interface of science and Jungian Psychology, initial conditions, and the objective role of images in art, stories and in the human condition, bringing this work to our  students living in the former Soviet Union and throughout Latin America.

Kevin also serves as an administrator in the Rhode Island (RI) Family Court system.  Through several decades of working with the Court and its respective population, Kevin has overseen large judicial programs and departments; worked on policy and system reform, served as an advocate for children; and worked as a counselor. He has been appointed to numerous committees designed to address areas of child welfare, juvenile justice, and areas of mental health.  In 2015, he was part of a three-person delegation from Rhode Island invited to the White House in order to address the growing concern with child trafficking.

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Dr Michael Conforti, Founder and Director of the Assisi Institute
He is a faculty member at the C.G. Jung Institute of Boston, the C.G. Jung Institute of New York, and for many years served as a Senior Associate faculty member in the Doctoral and Master's Programs in Clinical Psychology at Antioch New England. A pioneer in the field of matter-psyche studies, he is actively investigating the workings of archetypal fields and the relationship between Jungian psychology and the New Sciences. 

He has presented his work at; The C.G. Jung Institute – Zurich, and Jungian organizations in Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Israel, Italy, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, the Ukraine and Venezuela. He is the author of Threshold Experiences: The Archetype of Beginnings (2007) and Field, Form and Fate: Patterns in Mind, Nature and Psyche (2002). His books have been translated into Italian, Russian, and Spanish.

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Rozan Christian​    
She is a certified Archetypal Pattern Analyst and Senior Faculty at The Assisi Institute, where she teaches for our English-speaking students in addition to our students in the Former Soviet Union and in Latin America.   Dr. Christian maintains a private practice in Dallas, Texas, focusing on the identification of unconscious processes in her clients’ lives.  She specializes in understanding the archetypal meaning of fairy tales and their application today, offering seminars in Fairy Tale Interpretation in Texas.  

Dr. Rozan Christian is a licensed professional counselor in the state of Texas, with a doctoral degree in counseling from the University of North Texas as well as a master's degree in education from Southern Methodist University (SMU). She serves as an adjunct professor in the Master of Science in Counseling Program at SMU and supervises post-graduate interns seeking professional counseling licensure. In addition, she has published in professional journals, co-authored chapters in books, and presented at national conferences about the effects of life-changing events, including near-death experiences.

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Special Guest Presenter: ​Dr. Hansueli Etter
​​Dr Hansueli F. Etter is a long-time colleague of M.L. von Franz and founding member of The Research and Training Centre for Depth Psychology according to C.G. Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz in Zürich. He is also the President of the Foundation for Jungian Psychology in Kusnacht.  Dr. Etter has a PhD in Anthropology and lectured for many years at the University of Basel. He graduated from the C.G. Jung Institute in Zürich in 1982 and works in private practice. His main interest and research lie  in the topics of the religious dimension of Jungian psychology and in the secret relation between psyche and matter. He is a published author of many books and papers in German and in English.

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