Marion Woodman
August 15, 1928 – July 9, 2018
– Beloved mentor, elder and friend . . .
Dear Pacifica Community,
Our beloved mentor, elder, and friend Marion Woodman died this morning. She lived an extraordinary life, touching so many with love and care. Her way of embodied presence brought healing to so many experiencing pain and suffering. Her passion for a Jungian Psychology of Body and Soul gifted our field with a revolutionary “fire,” animating a psychology of depth with the radiance of the goddess. And, too, her deep, intimate, and unconditional care for the soul-body of Pacifica continues on, blossoming now, like the roses in her garden, available to us this day and to the many generations who will walk these grounds into the future. We grieve Marion’s death, we feel her in our bones, as she would say. And, too, we experience the resonance of her life and work, knowing that each of us who knew her or read her words is forever enriched.
Today, we take time to be in the beauty and sadness of mourning. In the days ahead, I will share with you our plans for honoring Marion’s life in community.
“Love is the real power. It’s the energy that cherishes. The more you work with that energy, the more you will see how people respond naturally to it, and the more you will want to use it. It brings out your creativity, and helps everyone around you flower. Your children, the people you work with–everyone blooms.” ― Marion Woodman
“At the very point of vulnerability is where the surrender takes place-
that is where the god enters. The god comes through the wound.”
– Marion Woodman
Marion Jean Woodman (nee Boa) was an accomplished academic and renowned author, whose popular books and lectures on mythical archetypes resonated with millions of women longing for a language to explore the primal, unconscious elements of feminine identity, died on July 9 in London, Ontario. She was 89.
She was an internationally recognized analyst (after years of standing her ground and advocating on behalf of her inner guidance) – she is one of our field’s most highly acclaimed and distinguished Jungian analysts. Marion embodies ‘the rarest of treasures’ that takes a person beyond the desire for personal recognition and accomplishment.
Dr. Woodman’s own self-transformation, in her mid-40s, stood as an example to the many others for whom she would become a catalyzing influence. In the early 1970s, after a long career as a high school English and drama teacher, she moved from Ontario to England with her husband, Ross Greig Woodman, a college professor who was on sabbatical at the time. There she entered analysis with Dr. E. A. Bennett, a renowned practitioner of therapy rooted in the work of Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and collaborator with Freud.
That experience drew her to the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, where she completed training in 1979 before setting up practice back in London, Ontario. She adapted and applied Jung’s ideas about the mythical archetypes underpinning the psyche to help her clients resolve problems like depression and eating disorders. Centuries of “patriarchal thinking,” she concluded, had obscured elements of primal feminine consciousness, in both men and women.
It was a privilege to know Marion Jean Woodman. Her tending to psyche, body and the dream has touched many throughout the years. Her support and care has meant so much to the Pacifica Body as well.
We celebrate Marion with honor and gratitude.
“A life truly lived constantly burns away veils of illusion, burns away what is no longer relevant, gradually reveals our essence, until, at last, we are strong enough to stand in our naked truth.”
– Marion Woodman
We cordially invite you to attend
Celebrating the Life
of Marion Woodman
Beloved Pacifica Elder
Pacifica Graduate Institute
Ladera Lane Campus
Saturday, January 19, 2019
10 a.m. -9:00 p.m.
Sunday, January 20, 2019
9:00 a.m. -11:30 a.m.
Reception will follow closing
To join us, Register at https://retreat.pacifica.edu/marion-woodman/
