MJA Spring Salon Series: "The Shadow of God..."

As the Minnesota Jung Association premieres its Spring Salong Series, we welcome Alejandra Aschittino-Rodriguez presenting “The Shadow of God: Jung and Saramago on Divine Ambivalence.” This premiere Salon event will be Saturday, March 15, 2026 from 2:00-3:30pm in-person at the Carondelet Center in St. Paul, MN.

Description: Join Alejandra for an exploration of the nature of God through two radical reinterpretations of the divine. Drawing from Carl Jung’s Answer to Job and José Saramago’s The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, this presentation examines how both thinkers confront the moral and psychological complexities of divinity. Beginning with Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious, we will consider his portrayal of Yahweh as a divided psyche—immense in power yet unaware of His own shadow—whose encounter with Job initiates a process of divine self-awareness culminating in the incarnation of Christ as a symbol of psychological integration. In dialogue with this, Saramago’s human and ethically torn Jesus exposes the contradictions of a God entangled in His own designs. By juxtaposing Jung’s psychological myth of divine individuation with Saramago’s literary critique of transcendence, the discussion reveals two distinct yet converging visions of a God seeking wholeness.

Bio: Alejandra Aschittino-Rodriguez is a Jungian enthusiast who has a private practice in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Alejandra’s theoretical framework for examining human behavior and working with clients is based on a combination of Psychodynamic Theory, Internal Family Systems, existential counseling, and somatic interventions. In other words, she believes that to overcome life’s problems and find motivation for change, the client needs to first develop an awareness of their past behavioral patterns, present reactions, and the logic and emotion surrounding the problem, as well as reactions to this logic and emotion.

Alejandra worked with individuals and institutions in Ecuador, South Africa, India, and Slovenia as a Watson Fellow, conducting a research project that examined the effect culture has on grief after graduating from college. Additionally, she has worked with Family Means to create intensive training on working with Minnesota’s minorities in palliative care and collaborated with The Hubs Center for Lifelong Learning to develop an education course on Job loss and grief, as the COVID-19 pandemic elevated unemployment rates across the state and nation.

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