ONLINE SEMINARS IN ENGLISH
by ddr. MATJAŽ REGOVEC, PhD, DFAstrolS, DPsychAstrol, qualified Jungian psychoanalyst

ALCHEMY – COSMOLOGY (PSYCHOLOGICAL ASTROLOGY) – PSYCHOANALYSIS SERIES

*THE ALCHEMY OF RELATIONSHIPS – AN INTRODUCTORY SEMINAR INTO THE SERIES*
7 October 2023
In this introductory seminar to the series, we are going to explore some basic tenets of the traditional alchemy as art and science. We are going to deal with the four elementary processes – the burning (calcinatio), solidifying (coagulatio), evaporating (sublimatio) and dissolving (solutio), as well as the three phases – the starting blackness (nigredo), the developing whiteness (albedo) and the final redness of full life (rubedo) and their corresponding planetary archetypes. We are going to see how alchemy can be used as the basic tool of relatedness – both to our own inner selves, as well as to important others and the collective.

*ALCHEMY OF SPIRITUAL RE-ALIGNMENT AND THE INTUITIVE COGITO*
11 November 2023
What is spirituality if not living our life to its fullest potential? Yet, to live it, we need to discover what constitutes our individual meaning first. By working on ourselves with the techniques of active imagination, psychoanalysis, as well as our physical action in our daily lives, we are going to be able to free the very spirit that alchemists knew was imprisoned in the very matter of our own inner potential. In order to understand this process, we will draw upon the dynamics of the planetary archetypes of personal spirit: Mars, Jupiter, Pluto, and the Sun.

*ALCHEMY OF MIND AND REASON*
9 December 2023

The mind or ‘thinking cogito’, as we named it, is the most eccentric of all human capacities to perceive, operate and create. It has no body, yet its basic tools – concepts and essences – are very powerful. They offer a perspective on life, which is from above and neutral, bringing freedom and non-attachment of living – indeed, the sublime. Although the alchemy of the mind is traditionally called sublimatio – a process in which the material of our lives evaporates into knowledge about ourselves, we will also focus on the processes of solutio and coagulatio. These two processes relate to the transformation of thinking from the collective to the individual. We are going to touch once again on the very mystery of the birth and development of an individual.

THE ALCHEMY OF THE SOUL – SUBLIMATIO AND CALCINATIO OF THE PSYCHE
13 January 2024

What are psychic symptoms and how do we distinguish them from the symptoms of the mind and reason? We are going to look at the three levels of the psychic symptoms that belong to the cosmological areas of Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio. Then we are going to explore the will of these psychic symptoms and how do the sublimatio processes, cosmologically represented by Libra, Aquarius and Gemini, help to integrate them on one hand, and calcinatio processes, cosmologically represented by Leo, Sagittarius and Aries on the other.

*ALCHEMY OF THE PHYSICAL AND THE BODILY COGITO*
10 February 2024
The alchemy of the body and its cogito (perception, action, and creation of our physical bodies) can be experienced as most powerful since it materializes the whole of the alchemical process of our personal journey and the resulting transformation of our lives. It is the birth of the individual. In alchemy, the corresponding traditional process was “coagulatio”. Coagulatio means that we are not only witnesses, but also objects of our very own alchemical opus. Yet, the alchemy of the body also means the sublimatio and calcinatio of the physical. We will look in detail at both six facets of sublimatio and calcinatio of the body, represented cosmologically by the air and fiery signs of the zodiac.

*THE ALCHEMY OF LIFE OPPOSITES*
9 March 2024

In our March seminar, we are going to explore some alchemy of life’s opposites and their dynamics to symptoms. What opposites are, and how they fungate within our cogitological model of man, where cogito is the four-dimensional man’s unitary ability to perceive, to act, and to create images of the world, of oneself and important others, and of the image of god on both individual and collective levels. We are going to work through the six systemic structural cosmological frames of life opposites, as indicated and suggested by the cosmological mandala of the zodiac. These are Aries-Libra, Taurus-Scorpio, Gemini-Sagittarius, Cancer-Capricorn, Leo-Aquarius, and Virgo-Pisces axes of the archetypal cosmological patterns of man’s being. With the help of some alchemical processes traditionally depicted by the art and science of alchemy, we will interpret the role and mission of some symptoms that connect to the dynamics of life’s opposites.

*THE ALCHEMY OF INITIATION AND ARCHETYPES OF CARDINALITY*
13 April 2024
How are we initiated into new forms of life and what are the levels of this very primary movement of our Being? The archetype of initiation and its alchemy finds its way through the cosmological fields of Aries (spiritual birth), Cancer (being born emotionally), Libra (birth of mind) and Capricorn (being born in a material body). We are going to look specifically at the alchemy of all four of them. What do we mean by alchemy here? It is the very transition of life from their precedent, pre-nascent forms of the initiation that are contained in the cadent archetypes of Pisces, Gemini, Virgo and Sagittarius. What alchemical images can we use in order to portray these processes of life progressions? And how do we ground these experiences practically with the help of our individual cosmograms?

*THE DIAMOND OR THE ALCHEMY OF FORM, STABILITY AND VALUES*
11 May 2024
Cosmological fixity has a function of preserving and enhancing the already born and the established. Without fixity, things and processes would not grow to their full form, stability and wealth. These forms of the body, psyche, spirit and mind are represented by the archetypes of Taurus, Scorpio, Leo and Aquarius. By exploring the planetary archetypes (Venus and Saturn, Mars and Pluto, the Sun, Saturn and Uranus) of their values we are going to draw near to their very alchemical essences – in order to participate in one of life’s greatest mysteries, that of maturation and of coming to fruition.

*CADENT QUALITY, ALCHEMICAL DECAY AND THE RENEWAL OF LIFE*
8 June 2024
Cadence in cosmological terms entails the sophistication of everything already formed and brought to fruition. Full forms now need to be distributed, and not only sophisticated, but also decayed in those cases, where further development is no longer viable. Cadence is thus both a great test, as well as an opportunity for upgrading life. This is where we discover what remains permanent yet sophisticated on one hand, and what needs to be let go of, in order for a new cycle of life to be initiated in the future, on the other. The alchemy of Gemini (mind analysis), Virgo (practical sophistication techniques), Sagittarius (the cadent paths of the spirit) and Pisces (the emotional transcendence) is going to be explored with the help of the archetypes of their planetary rulers.

*SEPARATIO AND CONIUNCTIO – THE HIDDEN DIMENSIONS OF MAN’S TRANSFORMATION*
6 July 2024
In this final seminar of the alchemy-cosmology-psychoanalysis series, we are going to track the archetypes of separation and unification that feature prominently in the alchemical tradition. The two processes can be seen as complimentary and essential to each other, for there is no unification of male and female, child and parent, conscious and the unconscious, love and power, progression and regression, etc. without their, albeit temporary, separation. The planetary archetypal tracks of coniunctio (Neptun and Pluto) and those of separatio (Uranus and Saturn) are going to lead our way into the two hidden dimensions of woman’s and man’s transformation and the resulting progression of their lives.

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The seminars are taking place online (via Zoom) on Saturdays between 4.30 and 6.30 pm CEST (UCT +2, GMT +2). There is 120-minute time format, of which 90 minutes is the theoretical presentation, followed by a 30 minutes workshop, where we are going to work with the IPAL Method with two participants from the group. The cost of each seminar is 39,50 €, budle of 10 seminars offers 20% discount and free ebook.

Ddr. Matjaž Regovec, holds doctorates in psychology and philosophy. Trained and qualified originally as a Jungian, he is nowadays an independent psychoanalyst at the IPAL Institute. Having been working as a psychoanalyst and a psychotherapist for 30 years now, he also offers some individual consultations with the IPAL Method. He is the author of numerous books in Slovenian, Serbian, Hungarian, Russian and English language. He lectures and holds workshops worldwide.

Matjaž works best directly under the Sun, and his third-house Saturn in Pisces draws him next to the sea, on the island of Crete, where he wrote some of his recent books. He enjoys cooking, the art of horticulture and travelling, exploring different cultures, their ancient history, religion and other historical facets of human spirit and cosmological heritage. He understands alchemy and symbolic cosmology as a means and inspiration for the integration of the divide between mind on one hand, and body-psyche-spirit dimensions of man on the other. The very same processes that once upon a time were identified on the alchemical stove, may nowadays be usefully applied in working upon oneself in order to enhance one’s quality of life and well-being.