Everything is alive with archetypal wisdom but few understand the complex language of images, ancient patterns, and the value of collective intelligence. All societies and cultures have inherited rich frameworks that underlie human endeavors, actions, identities, and their innovations. This salon brings focus to the wisdom of the collective unconscious and the genius of ancient patterns living in all corners of life and work—they underpin our imagination and understandings of every product, relationship, identity, and initiative that we form. Organizational and startup innovators, as well as business development, strategy, marketing, leadership, and other professionals are invited to join a rich dialogue to gain greater skill and understanding of how to work with the archetypal realm—a profound engagement that enhances creativity, impact, and depth. 

From the author of Narrative Generation and a leading specialist in depth psychology, join a group of innovators and startup professionals engaging in a deep dialogue on how to bridge narrative, storytelling, and applied mythology to expand awareness and impact. This salon, part of a summer series, will concentrate on the crucial differences and intersections of story, myth, and narrative as well as their critical role in underpinning every human interaction and endeavor—an essential awareness for strategists, innovators, marketers, designers, business developers, and others. Join us for an important dialogue that will delve well below the surface of common understandings of these transcendent living concepts. 

Most of modern life is deprived of the traditional threads of ritual that were once the strongest elements of successful groups and communities. On this one-year anniversary of the publication of Narrative Generation, we will host a generative dialogue on the profound value and purpose of rituals to foster social bonds and to build stronger organizations and communities. This way of sacred honoring has been the vital foundation for the most creative and innovative societies throughout history—a process which seeks a return to bring greater meaning to our personal and work lives.

Accessing your personal depths and tending aspects of the soul are critical sources of creativity, growth, and purpose too often neglected or overlooked in their value for driving performance and change. For individuals and teams wanting to make greater impact, it is essential to have a deeper understanding of the numinous and hidden forces at work in any endeavor. This salon will host a formative exploration in how to form a living bond and dialogue with the deeper psyche—to build a greater alignment between personal calling, the soul of one’s work, organizational initiatives, and social impact. 

Organized and Facilitated by: The Collective Future Society (Ann Badillo, Maya Zuckerman, Dana Pearlman, and Edward Santana)

Powerful threats to the very foundations of our democracy must be met by impassioned individuals and groups who are called to imagine and envision a greater collective future. To forge and initiate this process, we are assembling a special and dedicated group of technologists, healers, storytellers, strategists, leaders, futurists, systems-thinkers, artists, and others who are committed to identifying and collaborating on the design of a larger process to support collective growth and change. We are asking you to join us in a unique gathering of minds and souls at an overnight retreat at IONS EarthRise center, for time of ritual, storytelling, soul tending, strategy, and the sharing of wisdom and sparks of innovation. Together, we will engage in a process of imagining into the re-design and re-visioning of our democracy, such as ideas on civic engagement, the future of democracy, the building of movements and narratives, searching for technology and business contributions to a vibrant living democracy, and the archetypal intersections of activism and professional life (the emerging professional-activist-citizen archetype). Our gathering will be led by the wisdom of the collective circle including each person’s unique contributions, as well as hearing into the deeper psyche, the elders, the unconscious, and the callings of the Earth and nature in this pristine setting. Since antiquity, small groups have gathered to listen to social struggles and to dream the future into being. Please join us in helping to host and weave these critical threads of our collective future and to advance the health of the planet. EarthRise at IONS is located just 30 miles north of San Francisco. It is easily accessible from the East Bay and North Bay, as well as from San Francisco, making it one of Northern California’s premier retreat sites. 

Expand awareness and connection with audiences and stakeholders by delving beneath the veneer of surface marketing and outreach. Build efforts that emerge from deeper levels of the creative unconscious by accessing elements of collective experience and intelligence. Join this salon and bring your expansive self into dialogue with others on ways to foster wider perspectives—by exploring non-reductive, inverse, and receptive ways of being. Important ideas from aboriginal, ancient, modern, and post-modern frameworks will be discussed and integrated with ideas on intersectionality, re-visioning, feminine consciousness, de-territorializing, and ero-centrism. The art of seeing-through will highlight the ineffectiveness of many ego-formulated marketing constructions, as well as simplistic archetypal rip-offs that lack depth. The salon will explore the meaning of “in-spiration” what it is to offer the deep soul a seat at the table. 

Leaders and innovators must come to grips with the realities of human complexities in the workplace and forge a greater capacity to understand the light and shadow aspects of individuals and groups. Too often dysfunctions and disorders run rampantly, wreaking havoc on individuals, teams, operations, and projects. Few organizations gather the intelligence needed to run conscious high-performing environments. Businesses and organizations are built and driven by the human psyche and emerge from human relationships, yet too little focus or effort is paid to the conscious and unconscious dynamics that underpin our actions and endeavors. These issues include individuals (and groups) that demonstrate high levels of conflict, contempt, and/or common disorders such as high narcissism, borderline behaviors, and addictions. Many situations and conflicts that seem too relationally or psychologically complex, go unrecognized or are swept under the rug. However, these create lingering perils and missed opportunities to deepen organizational wisdom and relationships. Join this salon to examine how to explore this difficult territory, from identifying and getting honest about dysfunctions to seizing new approaches for expanding the depth of organizational life. 

Many understand the powerful pull of attraction and desire in personal domains, but what is it to live a life that taps into the same kind of passion and longing for one’s work? The Greek god, Eros, is symbolic for one of the most powerful and numinous archetypal forces we can ever experience—one which emerges in every creative act, innovation, and artistic expression known. Eros is not limited to personal domains through sex and love; Eros is much greater and includes the highest expressions of passionate pursuit, driving desire, and a soul-level longing to merge with something other. This salon will bring attention to the ubiquity of Eros and the importance of allowing those creative forces to awaken parts of oneself in professional domains. The event will also celebrate the first anniversary of Jung and Sex, an acclaimed book that reveals C.G. Jung’s spiritual and archetypal contributions to a deeper understanding of human sexuality. 

Leaders and innovators must come to grips with the realities of human complexities in the workplace and forge a greater capacity to understand the light and shadow aspects of individuals and groups. Too often dysfunctions and disorders run rampantly, wreaking havoc on individuals, teams, operations, and projects. Few organizations gather the intelligence needed to run conscious high-performing environments. Businesses and organizations are built and driven by the human psyche and emerge from human relationships, yet too little focus or effort is paid to the conscious and unconscious dynamics that underpin our actions and endeavors. These issues include individuals (and groups) that demonstrate high levels of conflict, contempt, and/or common disorders such as high narcissism, borderline behaviors, and addictions. Many situations and conflicts that seem too relationally or psychologically complex, go unrecognized or are swept under the rug. However, these create lingering perils and missed opportunities to deepen organizational wisdom and relationships. Join this salon to examine how to explore this difficult territory, from identifying and getting honest about dysfunctions to seizing new approaches for expanding the depth of organizational life.