Rosalyn’s talk is called “Expanding Empathy and Cultures of Care by Re-centering the Mother Archetype”
Our planet is in crisis due to the devaluing of the Mother archetype. From the minimal support human mothers are given for raising children, to the mass exploitation of farm animal mothers, to the endless extraction from our Mother Earth, we can see this devaluing everywhere. The culture of commerce, and hero-based narratives idolizing the individual over the collective have effectively replaced ancient narratives of how to live in harmony with the earth and each other. This has bred a narcissistic mindset where we see a dangerous decline in empathic ways of being. No other archetype symbolizes communal care and empathy more than the life-bringing and nurturing Mother. Mother, by very definition, is “life creator.”
Many myths depict the wastelands that ensue when gods or people fail to honor the feminine, including the Lady of Llyn-y-Fan Fach (Celtic mythology), Demeter (Greek), and Nuwa (Chinese). These stories demonstrate the vital importance of re-balancing the feminine with the masculine as well as returning the Mother archetype to her rightful place at the center of communal life. This restoration of the natural order is a key part of the healing process and the rebuilding of cultures of empathy and care.
About Rosalyn
Rosalyn is a writer, herbalist, and ritualist. She resides in the coastal redwoods of northern California where she makes herbal medicines and body care products foraged from the surrounding forest. She also facilitates community grief and earth-based healing rituals. She believes it is women’s grief and anger that can fuel real global change, but she believes women must first reconnect with the earth and re-establish that relationship before they can speak to what is fundamentally missing and leading humanity off course. To that end, she is passionate about leading women back to nature and to their natural, deeply feeling, intuitive states. To learn more, visit www.rosalynfay.com.
To hear Rosalyn’s talk and many others, join us at the Mythologium!
The Mythologium is a conference and retreat for mythologists and friends of myth, held July 29 – 31 via Zoom in the Pacific time zone.