Mediating the Transcendent Function Through Active Imagination:

A Lecture With Lourdes Hernandez

Date and Time:  July 10, 2026 7:30PM - 9:00PM EST

This Program WILL BE RECORDED.

In the Prefatory Note to Collected Works Vol. 8, Jung raises the crucial question; “How does one come to terms in practice with the unconscious?” and proceeds to explore this question in the essay, “The Transcendent Function” (CW 8, par. 131–193).  In tonight’s lecture and tomorrow’s workshop, we will study this essay to deepen our understanding of why mediating the transcendent function is essential for individuation and how it can be facilitated for ourselves and for our clients.

Jung’s concept of the transcendent function is among the least understood ideas in analytical psychology, despite the fact that he addressed it in eight published works and five seminars.  It is a foundational cornerstone of Jungian theory, offering a framework for understanding many of his major writings and his day-to-day analytic practice.  We will consider how, throughout Jung’s body of work, the transcendent function underpins nearly all of his central concepts, preceding archetypes, the shadow, anima/animus, and the Self. 

In a 1945 letter to P.W. Martin, Jung identifies engagement with the numinous as fundamental to psychological healing, boldly calling it “the real therapy” (Letters, Vol. 1, p. 37).  Tonight, we will explore how Jung discovered the transcendent function and how we might access, or court, this numinous “real therapy” to mediate it for personal growth.  We will examine selected passages from the essay to consider what he meant my “transcendent” and how he tied it to his method of active imagination.  And finally, we will contrast Freud’s reductive interpretation of psychic activity with Jung’s synthetic approach, which engages the unconscious, mediates opposites, and activates the transcendent function, all of which support individuation.

Suggested reading: C.G. Jung, Collected Works, Vol. 8, par. 131–193

Suggested preparation: Bring an example, personal or from a client, that illustrates how active imagination and the transcendent function have facilitated psychological transformation in your analytic work to share with the group for discussion.

Prices:

Non-Members:  $41.00/ticket

Individual Members:  $34.00/ticket

Senior 65+ Members:  $29.00/ticket

Student Members:  $13.00/ticket

Lourdes Hernandez is a Jungian analyst, marked by the traumas of war and political asylum when her family fled Cuba to take refuge in the United States. She holds post-graduate degrees from Pacifica Graduate Institute and Regis University in hermeneutics, counseling, and Jungian and Archetypal Studies. After a period of study in Zurich, Lourdes completed her analytic training with the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts and has a bilingual private practice in Boulder, Colorado. Lourdes is a lifelong musician and visual artist who values the curative power of the symbolic psyche and its restorative interventions.