Southwestern College Santa Fe, NM
The following images and words arose out of the 2014 spring Archetypal Psychology course. The students moved into dialogue with their soul and its language of image. My heart swelled tenfold as I witnessed these students share themselves…may you be touched as well.
“The experience of this class has been a letting go of so many old ideas that no longer serve me or the universe. Don’t be afraid to speak your Truth. It is fear that holds back your voice and that doesn’t serve anyone.” –Teresa Flanagan
“Looking at my life as a “living mandala” shifted my consciousness in a way words cannot express but can be seen in my art pieces made throughout the quarter. My soul has spoken from the depths of my unconscious through my art making, dreams and the beating of my heart. The never ending journey of my living mandala has been filled with archetypal imagery, marriage of opposites (shadows) and centering within myself. I will always cherish my final mandala and will look at it always, to remind myself how much I have gone through to become the person I am today.” –Holly Feder
“This class was a truly transformational, alchemical, Soul process through which each one of us discovered new parts of ourselves waiting with love for us to embrace and become! All of life is a message from our Soul. We are never outside of meaning and grace. Every word, experience, gesture is a direct message from our Soul” – Lynsey Rubin
“I have received an incredible gift from this class. By realizing how to create art again for my soul. I have found my connection to soul again.” – Katy Thompson-Graves
“Heather gave us a great introduction to archetypal psychology! I especially appreciated how she introduced us to a wide range of theoretical perspectives through excerpts of a variety of books on archetypal psychology.” – Jacob Gotwals
“The experiences I had and the knowledge I gained about myself through the archetypal world has shown me so much of my true being. I feel that this class allowed me to become re-acquainted with portions of myself that have been hidden since childhood and introduced new parts of my soul and heart to me that I had not yet met. Just remember to play and live with heart, life is a cycle and it is short.” – Lindsey MacIntyre-Nieswiadomy
“Working this quarter with the course work has brought me some of the most beautiful affirmations. One of which is a deeper understanding of “self-containment”. Self-containment is achieved when an individual recognizes personal energy is directed. This type of intention is an attainable level of personal mastery. It can be viewed as a responsibility that comes with free-will-choice, and free-will-choice is only present in the light of awareness. Personal energies are both conscious and subconscious; they are physical, emotional and mental. The more a person embraces personal responsibility the more accountable they become for directing their energy. Lines of consciousness can be clearly followed through the hologram even when they travel the subconscious. Self-containment also reveals the freedom of interpretation of the perceptual differences expressed by Other. When self-contained these differences are not met with reactive emotion. Negative experiences become mute to a self-contained individual, being hurt or upset exist only in relationship to personal interpretation of situations.Working with mandalas, archetypes and dreams has given me a taste of what is possible in my personal evolution.” – Christina Calderon
“I often felt like in our studio, I could feel everybody’s souls planting fields of art seeds. I could see things growing in our studio. It was as though we created a community imagination garden, and it was fantastic. I’ve found magic in many of my classes at Southwestern, but I never had the experience of actually seeing the imaginations of my class members and facilitator coming to life before my third eye” – Caitlin Harper
“Never forget to look inside you, to the dreams of your childhood. Never stop exploring and discovering, but use your youthful energy and creative imagination.” – the wise child within Christine Miller
“Hollis describes how we not only have biological and physical instincts that aid in our survival, but spiritual instincts that speak to us through images and aim to fill that necessary part of our humanity that spirituality holds. I believe that art has the ability to speak to us in those ways, especially when working with mandalas and the archetypal symbols that they utilize. I end this class with the idea that mandalas are one of the many tools available for accessing the unknown and mysterious components of our minds and the universe, that so often go unacknowledged and undervalued. In archetypal symbols we find the universal threads that connect the hearts and minds of humanity and all living existence.” – Hope Fowler
Archetypally yours,
Heather Wulfers, ATR-BC, LPAT, LPCC
Heather is an archetypal art therapist, clinical supervisor and course instructor in Santa Fe, NM. Heather currently serves as Adjunct Faculty at Southwestern College teaching Archetypal Psychology and Internship Seminar as well as at the Santa Fe University of Art & Design teaching Who Am I? an Intro to Art Therapy. Feel free to view her website for more.
