We are proud to send you this special edition of ARAS Connections along with an offer to all members of the IAAP and IAJS of a free three month trial membership to ARAS Online.  The Jungian world is full of hidden or little known treasures.  The ARAS archive was just such a hidden treasure with very limited access, even to Jungian analysts, until quite recently when the Archive’s 17,000 images and commentaries were digitized and made available on our newly created website, www.aras.org.

Over the past decade, we have undergone a remarkable transformation in making our unique Archive both more available and diverse.  At its heart, ARAS is inspired by the vision of making symbolic imagery from around the world and from the beginning of time come alive for those wanting to explore archetypal content and process.  ARAS Online is many different things.  First and foremost, we are an Archive of symbolic imagery.  We place this imagery in cultural and archetypal context.  Through our timeline and search engines, we allow the user to explore a symbol through different times and cultures.  We are also a growing library of articles and books that explore everything from A to Z, from Amplification to Zombies.

ARAS Connections is a free quarterly journal publishing articles on art and symbols.  It also contains features such as The Poetry Portal where poets are invited to write a poem inspired by a work of art from ARAS. Most recently, ARAS Online added the Concordance - a remarkable search tool, which allows users to search Jung’s collected works on specific topics.  In addition, we have  finalized a collaboration with ARTstor, which will give ARAS Online users access to outstanding art collections from major galleries and museums, world-wide.  At the same time, we are in the process of growing the Archive by adding new images from Africa as well as new research on images from China and other Asian countries.  We are also growing our outreach to the world through book publications such as The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images, published by Taschen, and locally, through education programs such as our Pioneer Teen Program. Recently we formed an International ARAS Advisory Board and we offer programs like this three month free trial to ARAS Online to all IAAP and IAJS members. 

In order to acquaint you with ARAS, we demonstrate below how analysts and candidates can use ARAS in the research of specific symbolic imagery.  We also show how teenagers can learn about symbols through the world of art in our education program,  All of this shows how ARAS can be used by many different kinds of people, from analysts to artists, poets, dreamers, educators and students of all ages.

We want you to enjoy this three month trial subscription; we want you to receive our free, quarterly ARAS Connections; we want you to look at our library (and hopefully offer your ideas for new articles to include); we want you to use the Concordance; and we want you to learn to treasure the art of exploring symbolic imagery cross-culturally and in depth.  At the end of the free trial period, we hope you will want to continue using ARAS by becoming a subscriber and supporter.

With best wishes,

Ami Ronnberg, Curator ARAS

Tom Singer, President ARAS Board

From the time I started training as a Jungian Analyst, I began to visit ARAS to research themes and images that would come up in my readings, as well as in clinical material and dreams. During many courses throughout my training, we were required to give audio-visual presentations on a given or chosen image or theme, so stopping in to ARAS to research images as well as historical and archetypal written references for these themes became a regular, and delightful, habit. 

Images from the archive were available for creating a slide show or power-point presentation, which would bring the theme to vivid life in the classroom.  I continue to use the online archive frequently, both as a supplement when I teach and as a resource when  I write and give public presentations. When I teach candidates in training, I frequently send my students to the archive or the website, to amplify images that they come across in their readings and clinical work, and have them share these amplifications in class with power-point presentations, along with the clinic material that they are amplifying. This is often the most enjoyable and enriching aspect of classes, for both the candidates and the instructor.

Here you will find two fine examples of the kind of historical and psychological amplification of the image that candidates will often present in class:

Amplification of the Chariot by Anita Morse

Reflections on Mediating the Analytic Process as Imaged in the Mermaid by Tracy Sidesinger, Psy.D.

Over the last few years, ARAS has been working with teenagers to discover the world through art and symbols. We have established an exciting internship program and a two-week free summer program called Pioneer Teens during which the students learn different skills and techniques in art-making to create works of art inspired by a visual symbol of their choice from the Archive. To further inspire and deepen their understanding of art, the program includes fieldtrips to cultural institutions, galleries and artists' studios. The program culminates in an open house with an exhibition of the teens' art work expressed in any format chosen such as drawing, painting, collage, or sculpture, accompanied by an artist's statement.

Read more about the teen programs and see images of teen artwork.

To sign up for your free trial to ARAS Online, please click here and fill out our join form.  In the Membership Level section, please select the free 3 month trial option. Once you have completed the form, you will have instant access to our entire archive. We hope you exploring it!