The Solar Myths and Opicinus de Canistris

C.G. Jung held an ‘extemporaneous’ seminar on “The Solar Myths and Opicinus de Canistris” at the 1943 Eranos Conference. In a complete version for the first time, this book presents all of the known material relating to the seminar, including notes taken by two of his students, Alwine von Keller and Rivkah Schärf Kluger, and the outline that Jung himself prepared. Opicinus de Canistris (1296–c. 1352) was a priest and cartographer from near Pavia, Italy. His typically medieval cartography is characterized by historical, theological, symbolic and astrological references along with a curious anthropomorphism, which depicted continents and oceans with human features. Jung recognized this as a projection of Opicinus’ inner world and interpreted the maps of the world as mandalas, where the integration of the shadow, the dark principle, was missing.

From the contents:

Opicinus de Canistris. Concluding Seminar, Eranos, Ascona, 1943 (Speaking Notes by Carl Gustav Jung)

Notes on Jung’s Seminar held on August 12 and 14, 1943, by Alwine von Keller and Rivkah Schärf Kluger

Rivkah Schärf Kluger. A Life Fuelled with Intensity of Spirit and Rare Depth of Soul, by Nomi Kluger-Nash

Alwine von Keller (1878–1965). A Biographical Memoir, by Riccardo Bernardini, Gian Piero Quaglino, Augusto Romano