The NY Mythology Group

There will be two meetups (see below for FREE PDF)
1st meetup: Read Introduction and then chapter 1 through chapter 9.
2nd meetup: read chapter 10 to end of novella.

Apuleius’s The Golden Ass, in Robert Graves’s lively translation, is one of the great works of ancient Latin literature, yet it remains sadly unfamiliar to many modern readers.

It is an invaluable work of mythology and mythopoetic imagination, preserving a rich world of ancient stories, symbols, religious ideas, magical practices, and archetypal images.

The novel is a remarkable mixture of adventure, comedy, eroticism, magic, violence, and spiritual transformation.

The story follows Lucius, whose fascination with magic leads to his accidental transformation into an ass. His subsequent journey through suffering, humiliation, and encounters with the strange and often brutal dimensions of human nature eventually culminates in his initiation into the mysteries of Isis.

At the heart of the novel is the beautiful tale of Psyche and Amor (Cupid)—a myth of love, separation, trials, suffering, and eventual reunion. Psyche’s journey can be understood as an archetypal story of the soul undergoing transformation through love and adversity.

From a Jungian perspective, The Golden Ass can be approached as a symbolic journey of psychic transformation. Lucius’s metamorphosis, Psyche’s trials, descent into darkness, and eventual encounter with the divine resonate with themes of individuation, the unconscious, archetypal transformation, death and rebirth, and the integration of the psyche.

Apuleius’s mythopoetic imagination therefore offers a remarkable ancient expression of themes that would become central to Jungian depth psychology.

Please arrive early.
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Jung, Gnosticism, Alchemy, and the Religious Function of the Psyche

I have been studying the depth psychology of Carl Gustav Jung since the 1980s. And since the publication of Jung's The Red Book (Liber Novus) in 2009, I have devoted particular attention to studying the relationship between Jung's psychology, Gnosticism, and Alchemy.
In this presentation, we will explore Jung's concept of the "religious function of the psyche"—the natural human tendency to seek meaning, wholeness, and experiences of the numinous through dreams, symbols, myths, and spiritual experience.

For Jung, this religious function is not limited to organized religion. It can also express itself through secular and everyday activities, including creative work, relationships, personal values, the search for purpose, and the symbolic meaning we find in ordinary life.

We will examine key Gnostic themes such as gnosis, Sophia, the divine spark, Anthropos, and the Pleroma, and how they influenced Jung's understanding of archetypes, the Self, and individuation.

We will also consider important alchemical symbols and processes, including the nigredo, albedo, rubedo, coniunctio, Mercurius, and the Philosopher's Stone, as expressions of psychological transformation.

Together, Gnosticism and Alchemy provided Jung with a "symbolic language for describing the lifelong process of individuation," the movement toward greater consciousness, integration of opposites, and realization of the Self.

This will be our 2nd and final meetup: on this mythical novella, so please read chapter 10 to end of novella (see below for FREE PDF)

PLEASE NOTE: 1 pm start (arrive early, if possible).

Apuleius’s The Golden Ass, in Robert Graves’s lively translation, is one of the great works of ancient Latin literature, yet it remains sadly unfamiliar to many modern readers.

It is an invaluable work of mythology and mythopoetic imagination, preserving a rich world of ancient stories, symbols, religious ideas, magical practices, and archetypal images.

The novel is a remarkable mixture of adventure, comedy, eroticism, magic, violence, and spiritual transformation.

The story follows Lucius, whose fascination with magic leads to his accidental transformation into an ass. His subsequent journey through suffering, humiliation, and encounters with the strange and often brutal dimensions of human nature eventually culminates in his initiation into the mysteries of Isis.

At the heart of the novel is the beautiful tale of Psyche and Amor (Cupid)—a myth of love, separation, trials, suffering, and eventual reunion. Psyche’s journey can be understood as an archetypal story of the soul undergoing transformation through love and adversity.

From a Jungian perspective, The Golden Ass can be approached as a symbolic journey of psychic transformation. Lucius’s metamorphosis, Psyche’s trials, descent into darkness, and eventual encounter with the divine resonate with themes of individuation, the unconscious, archetypal transformation, death and rebirth, and the integration of the psyche.

Apuleius’s mythopoetic imagination therefore offers a remarkable ancient expression of themes that would become central to Jungian depth psychology.