THE

Gnosis, Initiation, Individuation, and

the Four Streams of Western Mysticism

This Year-Course explores the Symbols, Artistic Artefacts and Spiritual techniques of Four Esoteric Mystery Streams in Western Culture. Through the medium of art illustrated Lectures, and related monthly workshops, combining Active Imaginations, Meditations and Artistic exercises, participants will be led to a deepened understanding of how these symbols and practices remains relevant in the contemporary context of self-development.

The modern soul hungers for what the Grail once signified — the renewal of the wasteland within.

Bernard Lievegoed

This is not a course for knowledge alone, but in participation and awakening the imagination as a living organ of perception. Through the alchemy of image and practice, participants often find their inner life quickening: dreams deepen, intuition sharpens, old stories soften into meaning. Each session offers not just insight but nourishment for those who feel something in them still longs for mystery, for beauty, for an authentic path of self-discovery in a disenchanted world.

Jung made clear that far from simply rejecting society’s norms and “dropping out,” “individuators” had a responsibility to create new values and achieve new levels of inner discipline. Although “individuation is exclusive adaptation to inner reality and hence an allegedly ‘mystical’ process,” society has a right to “condemn the individuant if he fails to create equivalent values, for he is a disease. ”Individuating means “stepping over into solitude, into the cloister of the inner self . . . inner adaptation leads to the conquest of inner realities, from which values are won for the reparation of the collective. Individuation remains a pose so long as no positive values are created. Whosoever is not creative enough must re-establish collective conformity . . . otherwise he remains an empty waster and windbag . . . society has a right to expect realizable values . . . ”Jung’s terminology sounds abstract, but his meaning is simple. It’s not enough to withdraw from society and seek your own salvation, your own individuation. The individuator must return to society (“collectivity”) to contribute his or her new insights, his or her new values, which must be at least equal to if not greater than the norm.”

Gary Valentine Lachman, Jung the Mystic: The Esoteric Dimensions of Carl Jung’s Life & Teachings

No prior artistic training is required to participate, as the emphasis is not on’ finished art’ but rather on unlocking the creative process and on our capacity to strengthen imagination as a step toward Individuation. The inspiration for this course derives from the work of several modern thinkers: Carl Gustav Jung, Rudolf Steiner, John Matthews and Bernard Lievegoed.

**Start date: **5th of January 2026 Course fee: $490 or 3 monthly payments of: $175 **Course duration: 12 months

Each monthly module includes:

**

A pre-recorded lecture.

A 90 minute live workshop (recorded) hosted on Zoom (third Sunday of every month)

Reading Material

Guided meditations or Active Imagination/Art Applications/Esoteric Exercises

Membership of a dedicated and facilitated student forum

Additional video and readings recommendations

**Registration for this course has now closed. For more information please contact **anja@appliedjung.com

“When the soul turns inward, she walks the path once trodden by the initiates.”

Marie-Louise von Franz

NOTE: Recordings of all live sessions are made available to course participants within 48 hours of the live session.

Lecture 1: Introduction: Foundational concepts of the Course

What is Individuation and what is Initiation? What is a Mystery Stream? What is the ‘WorldCross’ of Plato?

An overview will be given of the historical development of Western Initiation traditions,tracing their roots to ancient Mystery Centres throughout the world and highlighting theirevolution into the modern era. Participants will be introduced to the themes that underpinthese traditions, setting the stage for deeper exploration in the months ahead.

Lecture 2: The Hibernian Mysteries. The Western stream

The Pupil encounters Two Great Statues in the Temple: Transformation of the ‘Life Body’.The Mystery of the Logos. Druids, Stone Circles and the Books of Kells and Lindisfarne.

Lecture 3: The Arthurian Mysteries

An exploration of the key elements of the Arthurian Mystery. Merlin, the ‘Knights of theSword’, the Faery Realm, the Lady of the Lake, and the Round Table of the Stars.

Lecture 4: The Grail Mysteries. The Eastern stream

The Grail legends in various forms. Joseph of Arimathea . The Cauldron of Rebirth, TheGrail Chalice, the ‘Knights of the Word’ and the’ Stone that fell from the Crown of Lucifer’.What is ‘Manas’.

Lecture 5: ‘What Ails thee?’ The Eastern Stream continued

The links of this stream to Buddha, to Persia and to Manichaeism. Parzifal as a ‘Modern’Initiate. The Symbols of the’ Wasteland’ and of the ‘Dolorous Wound’. The ‘Meal along theway’. The union of the Eastern and Western Streams in the 9 th Century and in again in the!3th Century School of Chartres.

Lecture 6: Odin and Yggdrasil ( the World Tree). The Northern Stream

Baldur and Vidar, Michael and the Dragon. The 13 the Century Sagas: The Edda. The primacy of the Ego, the Quest for Freedom and the Mystery of Courage . Fiery Bridges and the ‘Externsteine’ in Paderborn.

Lecture 7: The Three Norns at the Well. The Northern Stream continued

Who are three Norns named Urd, Verdandi and Skuld? The web of Destiny. An Instructiveexamination of a Norse related Painting by Anna May.

Lecture 8: The Temple of Hatshepsut’. The Southern Stream

The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut as a meeting point of Streams. Mummification, the‘Transformation of Substance’. Mani and the origin of Icon Painting in Egypt.

Lecture 9: Solomon, Hiram and the Queen of Sheba. TheSouthern Stream continued

Cain and Abel, the ‘Temple Legend of Seth and the three seeds from the tree in Paradise’.The Hiramic roots of the Templar Order and of Rosicrucian Alchemy.

Lecture 10 : Ephesus and Eleusis

Eleusis combines the Chthonic (Earth) Mysteries with the Cosmic Mysteries. The Drama ofPersephone and Demeter and Dionysus. Artemus at Ephesus and the creative power ofSpeech.

Lecture 11 : The Gnostics and the Manicheans

Jung’s ‘Basilides of Alexandria’ and the ‘Sermons to the Dead’. The union of Jewish,Hellenistic and Persian (Zoroastrian) traditions. Alexandria in the First Century BCE . Thewidespread dissemination of Gnostic Symbolism. The Journey of Mani to China and theMani Scroll paintings.

Lecture 12 : Conclusion: “The Still Centre of The Turning World”

The Four Stages of Individuation and the Four Mystery Streams? Why do the Four Mysterystreams meet historically in modern times? A summary of the Individuation JourneyUndergone in this course and its implication for the Future Self Development Work.

THE

Gnosis, Initiation, Individuation, and

the Four Streams of Western Mysticism

This Year-Course explores the Symbols, Artistic Artefacts and Spiritual techniques of Four Esoteric Mystery Streams in Western Culture. Through the medium of art illustrated Lectures, and related monthly workshops, combining Active Imaginations, Meditations and Artistic exercises, participants will be led to a deepened understanding of how these symbols and practices remains relevant in the contemporary context of self-development.

Welcome to The Invisible Church! Thank you for joining us. This course will start on the 5th of January, when your first Module Lecture will be made available.

This is your go-to page to access course materials. Overview and preparatory materials appear here & below prior to start date.

Your course forum will be made available closer to the start date.

Course Facilitators

Support Team Contacts

Course Contents

This Course is the fruit of my 50 year long journey in the pursuit of what people often call’ The Ageless Wisdom’ or the ‘Inner tradition’. There are of course many traditions ofWisdom, varying in technique and emphasis : Mysticism, Gnosticism, Transcendentalismetc. This programme of lectures and workshops identifies four principal streams of ‘MysteryWisdom’ including some of the most important Western ones ( which are less talked about and less known than the Eastern ones) and attempts to share a practically orientated summation of what I have been able to integrate from them. Others have blazed the trail for me...

When I was about age 17 the mother of one of my school friends lent me a book aboutKabbalah and a book by Carl Jung. These books set me on a search to find an authenticway to what I would now call ‘The Path to Self-Knowledge and inner development’ althoughthe phrase might sound a bit grandiose to contemporary ears. Jung speaks of psychological‘Individuation’, a process which ,although he largely described it in secular scientific terms, he nonetheless saw as analogous to what the ancient Alchemists called ‘Initiation’. In 1983 Iwrote my Masters’ Thesis on Goethe, focussing on his Alchemical approach to the study ofColour. Rudolf Steiner’s approach to Goethe’s writings and the challenge of how to come toa modern understanding of Alchemy has been crucial to my work. For some years I was a university lecturer with a research focus on Romanticism ,Modernism and Esoteric influences on Avante Garde Art.

The Alchemists spoke of Self-Development as ‘The Great Art’ : this is the idea that one’s own life and what one creates of it is the greatest Art of all. ‘Self -Transformation’, thishighest of all arts of course ideally involves the practice of many ‘lesser’ arts. The best wayto experience ‘Mystery Wisdom’ is not through purely academic study but through a study ofmyths, artworks , meditation and active imagination practices. Part of this course willtherefore be to involve the participant in a meditative and /or a creative exercise of theirchoice. The process is more important than the product.

From the age of ten I knew I wanted to be an artist, to paint and to draw, especially human faces and figure compositions . The result of this is that many years later I became aprofessional portrait painter, in the course of my work I therefore met many interestingsitters, most notably Nelson Mandela, who sat for me twice. My abiding search tounderstand contrasting World-views and world Mythologies was the source of inspiration formy 28 square metre canvas ‘T’Kama-Adamastor’ for the Witwatersrand University Archive. Ihave lectured on art and exhibited my art in many countries.

I am also very interested in growth patterns in natural forms, in trying to grasp the archetypal ‘gestures’ of how forms are built up in nature and in how one can co-create with the intelligence of nature around us. This led me to curate three major exhibitions on Water, on Air and on Plants. I have always seen the pursuit of ‘Self- understanding’ on the path of Self-development as synonymous with the attempt to transcend the merely personal level of artistic expression.

Testimonials

As this beautiful year of Art as a Path to Inner Schooling comes to a close, I want to express my deepest gratitude to everyone in our community, especially to those of you who shared your work and your vulnerability. To Cyril, there is something truly transcendent in how you teach. This course has shifted me— psychologically, artistically, and spiritually. It has changed the way I create, the way I see art, and the way I understand myself as an artist.

Dawn Trkla Espinoza

This post serves to give my thanks, and appreciation for all of your beautiful art works and inner explorative shares . I am forever enriched . Thank you Cara Snyman for all your guidance , shares , organisation and feedbacks . I am so grateful for the content and wonderful generosity of Cyril Coetzee. What an incredible gift to us all . I have received it with so much gratitude . The tasks have been my great friend in the past year. I will miss this wonderous guidance and I dearly hope for that follow up training . I will be there.

Devona Hollins

I want to thank Cyril for a rich and life changing, delightful journey through art from so many perspectives historically that incorporated some of the masters and the current interpretations of these themes shared from each who have been present on this page. Thanks to all who have offered your work and/or your comments here generously contributing to a transglobal community of collective depth and inner schooling. This experiences will linger long with me, often transmuting the pandemic isolation into a deep cycle of growth and adventure I had not expected when we began a year ago.

Gwen Pincomb

This journey has felt like an expansion, an opening through my heart and soul. TV brings such shards of glass from a shattered world. This course gave me an appreciation, a rich depth to daily life. Thank you.

Mary Manning