Oracular Consciousness
In Ancient and Modern Life
December 4th, 1998
Presented by Dianne Skafte, Ph.D.
Jung sometimes cast the I Ching before a session to gain a divinatory reading on the work that would follow. He used intuitive skills to such a degree that he was known to describe dream material of his patients before they even told him their dreams. Clearly, Jung cultivated his own oracular consciousness—the ability to draw upon inspired sources of guidance beyond the personal self. We, too, can become more attuned to guidance which comes into our lives through dreams, synchronicities, messages from nature, and even random voices overheard in a crowd. In this presentation, Dr. Dianne Skafte discusses her research on oracles in many times and cultures. Participants will have an opportunity to exercise their own oracular consciousness in an experiential practice. The ancient oracles haven’t stopped speaking, she argues. We’ve just forgotten how to listen.
Dianne Skafte received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. For the past ten years she has taught depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute (Santa Barbara), and she is a past Academic Dean of that institition. Her book, Listening to the Oracle (HarperCollins, 1997), has been translated into German, Spanish, and Dutch. Dr. Skafte lectures widely in the United States and Britain on oracular traditions.