Featured Essay

ARAS SF Teen Vision Project 2025 ~ A Journey with Symbols
by Stacy Hassen, PhD

It is like an eye and a seeing of the soul, whereby the state of the soul and her intentions are ofttimes made known to us, and through the rays and the glance [of heaven] all things take form. –Marsilio Ficino (attributed to)

Enthusiasm charged the air July 14, 2025, as four teens answered the call to adventure from a flyer design with the Eye of Horus and crossed the San Francisco C. G. Jung Institute’s threshold. Welcomed into the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (ARAS), each teen took a seat around tables pushed together, covered in craft paper, and adorned with a vase of sunflowers. The inaugural ARAS SF Teen Vision Project ~ A Journey with Symbols, a free, two-week immersive art, creativity, and story summer program for teens fourteen to eighteen years of age, was underway. Inspired by Jung’s work tending psyche and based on curriculum developed by National ARAS, New York, that relies upon Joseph Campbell’s “hero’s journey,” the teens created original artworks in a variety of mediums inspired by universal symbols. The explorations on weekdays from July 14 to 25, included visits to murals and a museum, presentations with symbolic images, learning how to access the online archive, workshops with Institute analyst members, teachings with notable local artists all interspersed with useful terms, daily principles, drawing, painting, sculpting with clay, and journaling. The direction and design of this unique program was intentionally crafted for youth in the Bay Area to guide them to relate with archetype….

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