Bequest

The Baucis Society recognizes the generous and visionary people who have designated the Philemon Foundation as a beneficiary in their estate plans. People can make a difference in the world with the actions they take every day.

Bequests can be made to the Philemon Foundation to ensure an enduring impact. Given the opportunity, most of us would like to leave a legacy that gives meaning to what we have valued during our lifetimes and assure that what has been precious to us in life will be cared for when we are gone. By pledging support through estate planning, Baucis Society members help to assure that the work of bringing Jung’s complete work to the world will continue.

BENEFITS TO YOU

A bequest to the Philemon Foundation qualifies your estate for a charitable deduction equal to the entire value of your bequest. There is no limit to the amount than can be deducted from your estate for charitable purposes. Planned gifts can benefit the Philemon Foundation while helping you to save taxes and pass more on to your heirs.

BENEFITS TO THE PHILEMON FOUNDATION

Your gift will continue the help you have already offered to the Philemon Foundation by supporting the scholars, editors and translators who are working to make the entirety of Jung’s work available to the world.

For more information about becoming a member of the Baucis Society, please contact us at cbecker@philemonfoundation.org

ABOUT BAUCIS

Baucis appears in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and in Goethe’s Faust with Jung’s fantasy figure Philemon. In the Metamorphoses, Ovid tells how Jupiter and Mercury, disguised as mortals, went wandering through the hill country of Phrygia. Searching for somewhere to rest, they were refused at a thousand homes. One old couple, Philemon and Baucis, graciously invited these strangers into their humble cottage. They had been married in this cottage in their youth and had grown old there together, contentedly accepting their poverty.

During the meal they prepared for their guests, the couple noted how their flagon refilled itself automatically as soon as it was emptied and began to suspect that their guests might be other than mere mortals. They offered to kill their only goose to honor their guests. The goose took refuge with the gods, who decreed it should not be killed.

Revealing themselves, Jupiter and Mercury informed the ancient couple that those around them would be punished, but that they would be spared. With the gods they climbed to safety on a nearby mountain. Upon reaching the summit, they could see that the country surrounding their cottage had been flooded. Only their cottage remained, and it had been transformed into a splendid temple with columns of marble and a roof of gold.

To repay them for their hospitality and kindness, the gods granted the old couple any wish.

They replied that they wished to become priests and serve in this shrine to the gods for the rest of their lives and to die at the same time as a testimony to their enduring love. And so it happened. When they died, the gods transformed them into intertwining trees, one oak and one linden, so that they might continue to live side by side as they had done in their mortal lives. This powerful myth, that so deeply moved Jung, is about commitment that lasts beyond a lifetime.