The Anima Mundi Project
“Friends gather at a well-tended place, and together prepare a way for humanity.””
The Inspiration: Eranos
Site of the Eranos conferences, Ascona, Switzerland
“Eranos has come into existence at a time when the collective unconscious is peculiarly disturbed, and is breaking through all over the world in religious, political, social, and other manifestations. Historically and astrologically, we live in a period of transition from one age to another—from one side of the Zodiac to the another—from the sign of Fishes into that of Aquarius, and this constellation causes all the upheavals in the world today.”
It is unfortunate that the words above ring true today, even though they date from 1939 when the world was on the brink of war. Yet it is within this tumultuous political era that a shining star of multidisciplinary intellectual scholarship began. International thought leaders from the worlds of religious studies, physics, biology, psychology, and the humanities came together to share ideas and gain new inspiration each year in Ascona, Switzerland. These gatherings were called the Eranos Conferences, and serve as the inspiration for the Anima Mundi Project.
What insights and solutions might germinate and grow when the multidisciplinary energies of progressive academics and practitioners combine? What might the legacy of intellectual community provide toward a collective healing? These are exciting questions amidst a particularly disturbed time, as Ms. Fröbe-Kapteyn so eloquently described above.
Collaborative Principles
The Anima Mundi Project strives to hold the inevitable tension between the need for differentiation and distinction inherent in the masculine principle of LOGOS; and the need for connectivity and depth inherent in the feminine principle of EROS. We celebrate the depths of psyche, the flow of the true present, and a transcendent alignment with spirit and divinity. Wellness and growth comes from each dwelling place. Our physical wellness, our psychological experiences, and the environment we inhabit are all interconnected. The health and balance of one adds to the health and balance of the totality.
These principles guide all programming — classes, study groups, collective discussion. Although virtual connection has offered new inroads and access, the power of physical space and presence can be its own alchemical vessel of change. Located in Cleveland Heights, OH, groups of up to 20 can gather and learn. The Anima Mundi Project invites holistic and soul-based approaches to personal development and community building. For more information, please email hallie@theanimamundiproject.org or call 216.916.2070
“Eranos as dream continues to evolve, to individuate, pulled by the calling of the future, informed by soul bodies of the past, and, most elementally, informed by the spirit of the place .... The entity itself individuates, as do those implicated in her evolution. Her “becoming” pushes our own further development.”