Tristan & Isolde:

This course explores the myth of Tristan and Isolde as a profound symbolic text at the intersection of medieval romance, operatic genius, and the modern quest for inner transformation. Drawing from the work of Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, and Robert A. Johnson, we will trace how this archetypal story maps the soul’s encounter with love that is both ecstatic and annihilating—what the troubadours once called amor de lonh, love from afar, which elevates and wounds in equal measure.

At its heart, Tristan and Isolde is a myth of initiation: a passage into a consciousness where love is not sanctioned by tribe, church, or law, but by the inner authority of the heart. Following Campbell, we examine the 12th-century emergence of courtly love as a revolutionary development in Western culture—one that placed the individual's experience of love above social contract or religious creed.

Through Jung’s lens, we will see the lovers as twin aspects of the psyche, drawn into a liminal space where eros becomes a force of individuation. Their fateful union—sealed by a love potion that awakens rather than creates their desire—echoes the archetype of the coniunctio: the mystical union of opposites at the heart of alchemical transformation

Tristan & Isolde:

The Alchemy of Love, Death, and Individuation

with writer and educator
Béa Gonzalez

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A central focus will be Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde, a 19th-century Romantic reimagining of the legend that speaks in the language of unresolved harmony and longing without end. Wagner’s use of the Tristan chord mirrors the psychic disorientation that occurs when eros breaks through ordinary consciousness. We will explore short selections from the opera—particularly the Liebestod (Love-Death)—as a musical rendering of what Jung called the numinous: an overwhelming encounter with the transpersonal.

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4 Sessions

LIVE-VIDEO SEMINAR SERIES

WEDNESDAYS

FEBRUARY 4, 11, 18 & 25, 2025

4-6pm Pacific / 7-9pm Eastern
+ Video recording will be available

This course is ideal for those interested in depth psychology, myth, and music.

Béa Gonzalez

Béa Gonzalez is a writer, lecturer, and educator. She has an MA in History and Literature from the University of London. Her novels have been published in Canada by HarperCollins and in seven other countries. Her second novel, The Mapmaker's Opera, was adapted into a musical by Kevin Purcell and featured at the 2014 New York Musical Theatre Festival. She is also the founder of SophiaCycles, a project aimed at teaching metaphorical thinking through an examination of classical works, myth and fairy tales, and she co-hosts two podcasts: Gatherings and Archetypes and the Planets.

Recommended Course Reading:

Tristan [A.T. Hatto translation] - Gottfried von Strassburg

libretto of Tristan und Isolde - Richard Wagner