Description

Steven Herrmann

(Online Lecture)

The Medicine of Spiritual Democracy

Friday, September 18, 2026

7:00 – 9:00 pm PST

This lecture explores Spiritual Democracy as an archetypal force that renews both the individual psyche and the democratic experiment. Drawing from Humboldt’s Cosmos, Whitman’s “Democratic Vistas,” Melville’s Moby Dick, Dickinson’s visionary poetics, William James’s warning that “democracy is on trial,” and Jung’s 1948 epistle to UNESCO, we will trace a lineage of thinkers who saw inner freedom as the ground of outer liberty.

At the center is the First Amendment’s promise of religious freedom, the Iroquois Great Law of Peace, and the Four Freedoms—each expressing an instinct toward equality rooted in the World Soul. Spiritual Democracy names the medicine that arises when the Self awakens: a shamanic, imaginative, and peacemaking energy that moves through individuals as vocation, creativity, and ethical action.

In a time of national strain, this archetype offers a way to restore dignity, deepen dialogue, and remember the sacred work of living together.

Steven Herrmann, PhD, MFT, is a poet, teacher, and Jungian analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. A widely respected voice in American visionary studies, he is the author of eleven books, including the two works that anchor this keynote weekend— Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward and Emily Dickinson: A Medicine Woman for Our Times. Steven maintains a psychotherapy and analytic practice in Oakland, California.