The Insect and the Dark Sun
Presented by
Eva Wertenschlag-Birkhäuser, MA, Diplomate Jungian Analyst
Sunday, December 12, 2021, 11 am – 1 pm PST (UTC – 8)
This presentation will provide an experience of the dreams and paintings of the Swiss artist Peter Birkhäuser (1911-1976). A unique aspect of Birkhäuser’s paintings is that they express a modern individual’s call by the inner world.
During his life, the neuroses and depression that afflicted him became an opening to the creative power of the objective psyche. Birkhäuser was given new life and meaning by allowing this unknown factor to express itself on canvas. Who is this unknown guest, that sometimes takes the shape of an insect? It turns out to be the completely “other” who fertilizes the soul. Its dark eye seems to be the sun in its nocturnal state when the light is reborn.
Marie-Louise von Franz had this to say about one of Birkhäuser’s dreams:
“A wonderful dream! These dream images show impregnation by the dark god. The dark chthonic god is trying to make the soul fecund. We are living in outwardly evil times, but underneath great things are in motion, as at the time of Christ’s birth. This underlying process, the hieros gamos, is being illustrated here. It is the fundament of the world, but it is taking place in you.”
Birkhäuser’s work is thus a dialogue with the unknown “other,” and their mutual transformation. The “other” turns out to be the creative spirit of nature, of our instinct, the bringer of renewal. The artist’s own individuation process can be seen as a pregnancy depicted in pictures, bringing forth a new myth.
Eva Wertenschlag-Birkhäuser, MA, Diplomate Jungian Analyst, born in Basel, Switzerland, is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Berne. She received her diploma as an analyst from the C.G. Jung Institute Küsnacht (Zürich) and is President of the Research and Training Centre for Depth Psychology (Zürich) where she is also a faculty member and a training analyst. She has published several books on the religious and healing dimensions of her father’s artwork. In her forthcoming book on the creation myth of the West African Dogon people, she explores their archaic vision of the creation and transformation of consciousness.
English language book on the artwork, with plates: Windows on Eternity
Peter and Sibylle Birkhäuser-Oeri Foundation website
Learning objectives:
- Explain how archetypal movements in the collective unconscious can contribute to individuation.
- Explain the underlying process by which creative activities, such as painting, may become a dialogue with the unconscious and thereby lead to an individual’s transformation and renewal.