I'm in a very creative crossroads where I'm thinking a lot about how to create more opportunities in the community for collaboration, interaction, and pathways for people who want to share their work to find ways to do so. This is one aspect of expanding the Alliance from more of an "academic" site to more of an "activist" site in which those who are listening to the call of soul can be supported in finding next steps and options for getting their work in the world.
When I created the Alliance, I was coming from a place of Academia, but now I see how profoundly technology, in combination with human creativity. can help take depth psychology to the streets.
Among those ideas I'm putting into place, along with the Alliance board, are
1) DiscoverRings(TM)—small groups of 6 or so people with similar interest who come together to inquire into a topic and share their own experience and knowledge. These could be on shamanism, dreamwork, mythology, ecopsychology, poetry, art, and so much more. Please message me via my "page" if you're interested in starting a small group on a topic you're passionate about.
2) A lecture series where members can record approximately 30-minute audio talks or presentations that can be broadcast to the community in a forum where open phone lines would allow members to discuss what they've heard—kind of a "lunch and learn"; these talks would then be archived into a library, a sort of DepthX (think TEDx) space for those who are interested. Please message me if you're interested in recording a talk, lecture, or presentation with slides.
3) Building opportunities to inquire into "Depth Psychology as a Vocation". Let me know if you'd like to be part of (or lead) a small group of likeminded others who are looking for ideas, training, and support in this arena.
4) Book Clubs: I instigated one each month in 2012 and they seemed to be well received, not to mention fun and stimulating for authors. Let me know if you're interested in hosting a month-long online written Forum about a book your wrote--or simply one you love.
5) In-person Meetup groups in various cities and regions. If you'd like to host or establish these small groups where you would discuss a topic or bring in a speaker, let me know. I'm happy to help you set it up.
5) Other ideas?---what would be meaningful for you to have access to via the Alliance? Weigh in!
--Thanks to everyone for getting involved by responding here!
Replies
I love the idea of "taking depth psychology alliance to the streets"...perhaps, the streets paved and unpaved are ready for yous. The time is ripe for the inclusion of "Soul" back into the culture..Depth Psychology Alliance a beehive but the bees are yet to discover their way to and from this hive. The international communities of those of us who have been on a path of seeking soul in relationship with living beings, with nature, with psyche and spirit, with cosmos have been traveling backwards in time wandering the world, often in solitary journeying as there has been no home for us in this post modern fragmented world. We have sought wisdom and acceptance in the community of the wise men and women who have gone before us.
But now, the path narrows and the time has come for those of us who have been in search of meaning, soul, community and spiritual yearning to return home. We have long been wanderers. This may be the moment in time when our wandering begins to lead us back to one another and to the gardens from which we have long been exiled. Here, we may find community...it is a beginning, the seeds are scattered far and wide. We are the ones who are responsible for the gathering, the sorting and the planting.
"take depth psychology to the streets" - It won't happen until, in my opinion, only members can see what's going on here (of course only members should be allowed to contribute). For instance, "depth psychology" (dubinska psihologija) was actually the term that allowed me to start thinking in a more focused and systemic way about some parts of my psyche, a starting point for me to see that stuff coherently instead of confusion and fragments. Still, I would have never searched in the Web "depth psychology", I came here when I was looking for Zachary Stinson (if I had searched for him just a week earlier or later, I would have NEVER found you), someone I still haven't found (someone else has sent an e-mail message about me to Zachary's existent or not e-mail address). The activities on the front page are sometimes five, sometimes less than a day old. That's all search engines (those websites that we use for searching, but they haven't paid me to advertise them) can find. Otherwise, we have the same blog post or discussion, with the identical content and quality, read here by 3 and somewhere else (on a more open website) by 300 or 3000 readers, i.e. those who want readers are forced to post the same thing somewhere else. Or hesitate to post here. It's not going to happen, but I'll feel better when I post this comment.
Outside of that, I'm more willing to follow what's going on here from the background. To improvise and move back and forth between this and other kinds of activities.