Author: joanna

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Quan Dieu (Dante) Luong

Dante’s talk is called “Interpreting the Norse God ‘Thor’ in Novels and Movies”

With the rapid growth of popular cultures, the Norse god Thor has become an endless inspiration among screenwriters, novelists, and game designers. However, most previous studies only evaluated this figure within the same sources, namely between books, instead of between different forms of media. Henceforth, this theoretical research applying Diffusion Theory aims to fill in these limitations by analyzing the interpretations of Thor’s mystical identity and appearance in the two most popular leisure resources: movies and novels. Previous studies described Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as the symbol of both ancient power forces and post-human ability as he expressed normal human emotions (e.g. arrogance and love) or performed humanistic activities (e.g. flying planes or using phones). On the contrary, novels like Neil Gaiman’s American Gods placed the mighty Thor as a supporter of the protagonist on a mystical quest. The results suggest film producers, game creators and novelists view Thor at different angles during content development. Mythologists are encouraged to view his story and companions critically to develop new scientific theories.

About Dante

Quan Dieu “Dante” Luong” holds a bachelor’s degree in English Studies, specializing in English Language Teaching (ELT) at Hoa Sen University, Vietnam. He will soon receive his master’s degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Dante is an educational researcher who has been conducting many projects on English teaching methodologies and innovations in students’ attitudes and beliefs towards this subject. His contributions to and efforts in such academic words have been recognized and inspired by his colleagues and students. Dante also has a keen interest in myths, cryptids, legends, and fairy tales around the world. Having seen several mythological-based televisions, reading topic-related books, and teaching mythology as a higher education’s practicum project, he realized that there are fantastic stories across the globe that have been forgotten by time and wait to be explored by compassionate mythologists or myth hunters. Despite his experience in doing research and presenting his works at many conferences, this is his first time presenting his works at the Fates and Graces Mythologium, where he can give his favorite research topics and work toward his future goal of pursuing the degree of mythological studies.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Rev. Pamela Dawn Hancock

Pamela’s presentation is called, “Birth Trauma, Medusa & Me: Soul-Healing and the Poetics of Mind”

My revolutionary presentation will dream the Medusa myth onward, by examining, “On the Medusa of Leonardo Da Vinci in the Florentine Gallery” by Percy B. Shelley, through the lens of depth psychology.  My story starts in the Spring of 2018 when Medusa charted her course for me.  Although I had planned every detail of the birth of my son, his cesarean delivery abolished an old way of being.  From that moment on I became a new alchemical being—born in the nigredo of one of the darkest moments of my life.  Albeit feeling emotionally and psychically beheaded by the process, it was looking towards the works of James Hillman, C. G. Jung, and James Hollis that brought me back to life once again.  This presentation will examine my imaginal “dismemberment” by way of the poem in which I found a mirror to my pain.  By reflecting on the tragedies and following the synchronicities presented to me I was led to a cure for my aching heart.  I will show how following the archetypal thread that led me into the center of a serpentine goddess’ puzzle, provided me with soul-healing and the opportunity to illuminate the dark recesses of birth trauma through myth and metaphor. 

About Pamela

I was born and raised in Southern California where I currently reside with my husband and children. As a child I found the Sacred at the lake near my parents’ cabin. The big pine trees surrounding it were my sacred space—my church. It was there that I began to understand that we are all part of the Divine Web of All Creation. At the age of twelve I sought comprehension of that Web by starting my study of the World’s Religions. While obtaining my B.A. from the University of Redlands, Johnston Center, I delved into Feminist Spirituality, Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism. I moved in and out of different spiritual practices after College, weaving together the energies of all of the Archetypal-Forces with whom I entwine. In 2011 in ritual with the group I led, I heard the call: Nourish others’ understanding of their connection to the Sacred in all things! So off I went to Starr King School for the Ministry (a Unitarian Universalist Seminary) where I received my Master of Divinity, and the Chaplaincy Institute for Ordination as an Interfaith Minister. Having battled a long-time kidney illness, I almost died of an infection after completing Seminary–but found solace in finding my true path of Alchemy and Depth Psychology during this difficult ordeal. After a full recovery I began the adventure to obtain my PhD. in Depth Psychology with a specialization in Jungian & Archetypal Studies, from Pacifica Graduate Institute—where I am now dedicating my dissertation work towards designing a program for Trauma Survivors to embark on an individuation quest. I am dedicated to building bridges between communities, bringing people together to honor the sacred in all things, supporting environmental advocacy, and helping women embody all parts of their true selves. 

Visit my website at www.revpameladawn.com.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Dr. Andrea Slominski

Andrea’s talk is titled “Social Distancing and Our Return to Hestia: Our Collective Heroine’s Journey to the Underworld, to Heal, Liberate, and Reclaim the Archetypal Feminine”

Hestia’s realm and energies spring from the archetypal feminine. Attributes contained within the archetypal feminine include relationship, intuition, creativity, nurturance, compassion, the cycles of the natural world, nature itself, and the immanence of divinity.

The world has been driven back to Hestia when our lack of relationship and compassion are destroying the ecosystems that sustain our lives.

At home, in retreat from a deadly pandemic, we are face to face with our own mortality. We are terrified for those we love. Confronted with our frailties and personal faults, fear, panic, and uncertainty are forcing us into the mythic underworld of our worst nightmares.

Our collective Heroine’s Journey, launched from the realm of Hestia, is forcing us to evaluate our relationships with each other and the planet. We are being taken together, down, and within. Covid-19 forced us to see that we are all connected and dependent on one another for survival.

The conscious feminine must be honored and reestablished in our experience of life. We must embrace intuition, creativity, compassion, nurturance, relationship, and the ecological balance of nature if we are to survive.

About Andrea

Andrea M. Slominski, Ph.D. is a cultural mythologist, women’s midlife coach, author, teacher, and speaker. “Dr. A.” is the creator of The Midlife Re-Boot! Method, a program developed to guide women to recreate themselves and rediscover their True North at midlife. She has been a featured workshop facilitator and speaker at women’s events and conferences. “Dr. A.” also teaches women’s entrepreneurship for Women’s Economic Ventures in Santa Barbara, CA. Her most recent published work includes a guest blog, “The Rise of Regency,” for Dr. Carol Pearson, and “Bearing the Unbearable,” an essay in  If I Don’t Make It, I Love You: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings, edited by Amye Archer and Loren Kleinman. You can find her via social media and her new web site, www.drandreaslominski.com. Her podcast “ The Regent’s Room,” is launching soon.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Dr. John Bonaduce

John’s presentation is titled “Mythobiogenesis: The Cellular Origin of Myth, Religion, and Ritual”

Mythobiogenesis seeks the origin of myth, religion, and ritual not only in the vastness of human history, but in the confining nucleus of a human cell. This place of origin is by no means obvious and we refer to it simply as a “trysting place,” the secret rendezvous of mind and body. Data in support of the existence of such a trysting place abound. These data exist in the forms of our most transcendent myths, our most sacred scriptures, and even in our most cherished bedtime stories. Such is the production line of psyche and soma. It is a fruitful collaboration: Psyche (which is the totality of human consciousness) and soma (that is the human body as defined by its elements) are partners in a seamless division of labor. The human psyche donates lavishly from her store of culturally-conditioned imagery ranging from pretty portraits to terrifying monstrosities. But the story structure is lifted straight from the human body. Those step-outlines which govern the cell cycle turn out to be very fine narrative formats as well. Larger-scale cellular processes, like the struggle of male gametes to survive in their advance toward an egg, also make fine story templates, structurally complete with beginning, middle, and end.

Mythobiogenesis presupposes a powerful interpenetration of mind and body in an intimate collaboration of psyche and soma. Biological events too small for the unaided eye are translated into the greatest of epics and the most compelling of our rituals. The results include the sacrament you received at Mass last week and the fairy tale you will tell to your daughter this evening.

About John

For twenty years, John Bonaduce has served as choirmaster in several Los Angeles Parishes. His contemporary ensemble, Shantigarh, can be heard in various platforms including Spotify and iTunes. John graduated with a degree in history from UCLA, obtained his masters in conducting at CSULA and, realizing he needed something practical to fall back on, pursued mythological studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute, receiving his PhD this year.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Dr. Amy Lawson

Amy’s talk is called “Dorothy’s Dream Cure: The Asclepian Temple of Oz”

In ancient Greece, the incurably sick made pilgrimages to Asclepian temples in search of healing through dreams. Removing themselves from daily life, they traveled to these holistic healing centers where they utilized amenities such as exercise facilities, massage, healthy food, and arts-based practices to restore health and balance until they were ready for the culmination of their journey: a night of incubation in the temple during which Asclepios would gift them with a curative dream or vision.

In The Wizard of Oz, an orphaned and disconnected Dorothy Gale travels in dream to the land of Oz, accumulating friends along the way, in order to ask the Wizard to send her back home. Although he turns out to be simply a man, the Wizard helps Dorothy and friends realize that they possess within themselves what they have been searching for all along.

This paper examines the parallels between Dorothy’s journey and the pilgrimages of the ancient Greeks, arguing that Oz can be seen as a modern-day Asclepian temple and the container for Dorothy’s dream cure.

About Amy:

Amy Lawson, M.D., is a practicing pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay area. She is writing a dissertation combining medicine and mythology for a Ph.D. in Jungian and Archetypal Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California. She is interested in ways depth psychology can be used to reconnect modern medicine with its roots, improve patient experiences, and decrease physician burnout through creation of meaning.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Dr. Nicola Tannion

Nicola’s presentation is titled, “Joaquin Phoenix: A Messenger for the Zeitgeist”

The two films Mary Magdalene and Joker are on the surface joined by one common element: American-born actor, director, and producer, Joaquin Phoenix. Both films are vastly different in the time period, costumes, make-up, and context. As the protagonist in each film, Phoenix’s ability to traverse the worlds through the characters of Jesus and Joker indicates the presence of the mythological figure Hermes. Film, in general, reveals the underlying concerns of the populous, and as such the polarity of the choices we in the zeitgeist face today. This presentation will use archetypal, mythological, and depth psychological perspectives to examine Phoenix as a conduit for the Divine Messenger archetype both on and off the screen, the messages themselves, and the possible future realities for America.

About Nicola:

Nicola Tannion holds a PhD in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA (2017). As writer, teacher, and bridge-builder she is adept at creating an awareness of the connections between different cultures and worlds, ideas, and communities. Nicola has presented at national and international conferences: Popular Culture conference (United States 2018, 2019), Australasian Irish Studies Conference (Australia 2018), and as adjunct faculty at Antioch University Seattle.

Visit Nicola’s website at www.nicolatannion.com.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Dr. Jody Gentian Bower

Jody’s presentation is called, “Edenic Comedies—The Missing Fourth in Louise Cowan’s Theory of Comedy”

In The Terrain of Comedy, professor of English Louise Cowan proposed that all comedies can be categorized as Infernal, Purgatorial, or Paradisal, depending on how the plot plays out. Jody Gentian Bower argues in this presentation that many comedies—particularly those featuring women as the main protagonists—fall into a fourth category. Following Cowan’s naming scheme, Dr. Bower calls this the Edenic comedy. In addition to describing the unique characteristics of the Edenic comedy, Dr. Bower delineates how careful and deliberate use of costuming, lighting, props, secondary characters, and background contributes to the distinctive “archetypal field” of each type of comedy.

About Jody:

Jody Gentian Bower is a cultural mythologist who earned her PhD in Mythological Studies with a Depth Psychology Emphasis from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2012. She is the author of Jane Eyre’s Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine Story (Quest 2015), which examines the “wandering heroine” story that has been told for centuries, and The Princess Powers Up: Watching the Sleeping Beauties become Warrior Goddesses (Mandorla 2020), about the evolution of female agency in scifi and fantasy shows over the last 80 years. She writes and lectures about archetypal and mythological motifs in modern culture and blogs about movies at jodybower.com. She is currently at work on a historical romance, set during the War of 1812 and based on a family legend.

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How to write a proposal for a conference

Are you daunted by the idea of writing a proposal for that fascinating conference you’ve been eyeing for months? We hear you. We’ve been there. And we want to share what we learned.

The proposal.

A proposal is a succinct pitch for a broader body of work. It is a window into the material you will be presenting, like reading the commentary on the back of a novel or watching the trailer for a film. 

Most proposals have these basic components:

  • A word limit is part of the beauty of a proposal. Abiding by the word limit shows that you are familiar enough with your topic to provide a concise and clear focus for your presentation. After all, brevity is intriguing.
  • Context. Orient your readers to your topic. Identify what you are researching, your source material. Pull readers in with a vivid image, capture their attention with reference to a story, or place them within a certain historical time period. Contextualizing your topic allows readers to follow along with your thought process.
  • A thesis, argument, problem, or question. The proposal should present a clear statement or theory that is to be analyzed, amplified, or argued.
  • A methodology or an approach. How are you approaching your topic? Are you looking for mythological themes? Are you using a feminist lens to analyze a movie? Perhaps you are using a poststructural methodology. Bring the reader along on this journey.
  • So what? How does your presentation contribute to the ongoing conversation? What makes your work different? How have you synthesized various findings to create something unique? This is the heartbeat of your work and it is what you want attendees to take away from your presentation. 

Edit twice, submit once.

Already read through your presentation multiple times? Read it again. 

Look for repetition. Track your thread of logic. Do you hold the reader’s hand through your thought process? This is a wonderful time to cut unnecessary words to align with the word count and to create a succinct clarity. Read it aloud. Do you get caught on certain phrases as you read? Others will as well. Reword or cut out those phrases. Editing is like polishing a precious piece of jewelry; it allows your work to shine.

Click Send, and celebrate!

Great job! Every submission is an accomplishment in and of itself.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes our keynote speaker, Glen Slater, PhD

We are thrilled to announce that, in keeping with our 2020 theme of myth and cinema, our keynote speaker at this year’s Mythologium will be Glen Slater, PhD.

Cinema Magic and the Cosmological Function of Myth

The mythic dimension of cinema is widely recognized. Heroes venture forth, soulmates search for each other, ordinary people are caught in battles between good and evil. The gods reappear in enduring themes like love and war, in the urging of spiritual quests and in the arrangement of underworld abductions. Whereas some find all this merely entertaining, others experience a form of immersion in divine drama. 

In this presentation, I will suggest that the mythic quality of a film is not only attributable to the themes and characters that comprise the screen story, but has to do with the way the story is conveyed. That is, what largely generates mythic quality is the art of filmmaking itself. 

I will focus on the way film portrays an ordered and meaningful cosmos. It does this by mixing several powerful elements that engage and guide our imagination. Four such elements—setting, cinematography, editing and music—and the role they play in conveying the more-than-human quality of existence will be highlighted. 

About Glen

Glen Slater teaches at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California, where he is Associate Chair of the Jungian and Archetypal Studies Program. He has written for a number of Jungian publications, edited the third volume of James Hillman’s Uniform Edition, Senex and Puer, as well as the essay collection, Varieties of Mythic Experience. He regularly uses film in his classes to illustrate and explore archetypal patterns, teaches a course on mythology and cinema, has published many film reviews and is the past film review editor of Spring Journal.      

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The Credo of the Mythologium

The credo of the Mythologium is simple: we believe in our tribe. We believe that when mythologists gather, magic happens. We believe that everyone can help that magic along.

The Mythologium is a conference and retreat for mind and soul. Scholars present their latest research, and we read poetry and do group writing meditations. Time away from the normal routine in a beautiful place helps incubate ideas. 

Here are four guiding principles of the credo of the Mythologium and how we put them into practice.

We share ideas. We inspire each other. We amplify each other’s work.

At the Mythologium, everyone has something to teach everyone else, and that everyone has something to learn from everyone else. That exchange happens as each of us opens up to giving and receiving. When an entire room full of mythologists opens up to giving and receiving, the flow of ideas is electric.

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We entertain ideas and possibilities the way Hestia entertains her guests, with grace and hospitality.

Like at most conferences, panel sessions at the Mythologium close with a discussion period, but we don’t call these discussions Q&A sessions. Our goal is not to test the rightness or wrongness of ideas; our goal is to bring many ideas forward to play. In this, we take a page from the playbook of improv theater.

Improv actors never say, “No, but–” to what comes before their lines, because that stops the action. They always say, “Yes, and” to what comes before, and then they add their own ideas to carry the action forward. We do the same with ideas about mythology. We say, “Yes, that idea exists, and so does this other thing that just occurred to me.” We say, “Yes, that idea exists and it seems to imply this other one.” We say, “Yes, that idea exists and look, so does its opposite, both at the same time.” 

So, in the tradition of improv theater, we call our discussions Yes-And sessions. 

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We celebrate the community of mythologists–our own mythocosmos.

One way we celebrate our community is by hosting meals to feed body and soul. The Mythologium runs all day on Friday, all day on Saturday, and half the day on Sunday. So Friday and Saturday we host lunch for the whole group. Saturday night we host happy hour, with beer, wine, soft drinks, and appetizers. And Sunday morning we host breakfast together. Some of the most interesting conversations and connections happen during these convivial gatherings over food and drink.

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We cherish the alchemy of being together.

Like the transformation that happens in the alchemical alembic, new ideas arise when mythologists bask in the simple pleasures of each other’s company and conversation. When we gather, we become more than the sum of our parts. The soul of the community quickens, and in so doing it quickens the souls of all our tribe members.

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