Author: joanna

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Mythologium 2022 Theme

The 2022 Mythologium will be held July 29-31, 2022, and the theme will be Myth and Ecological Consciousness.

Myth and Ecological Consciousness

Ecological consciousness involves an awareness of the intricate relationships among beings in an ecosystem: animals (including people), plants, places, and things. These connections allow ecosystems to flourish. Becoming aware of those connections brings us closer to awareness of what the Buddhist leader Thich Nhat Hanh calls our “interbeing.” But all too often, we experience what seems like the opposite: an over-focus on individualism and separation, an instinct to harm or be harmed, a fevered hunger for more-more-more. 

How does mythology comment on ecological consciousness? What myths, images, and archetypes foster or subvert eco-consciousness? As mythologists, how can we think and work more ecologically? How can mythic eco-consciousness help us strengthen connections between each other and between groups? What does myth suggest about the balance between eco-consciousness and individual needs, desires, and agency?

Register for the 2022 Mythologium

Areas of focus

We are especially interested in presentations that center the following areas of focus:

- Colonialism and decolonization
- LGBTQIA voices and issues
- BIPOC voices and issues
- Climate change
- Social justice
- Technology
- Feminism
- Gender
- Politics
- Media
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Top 10 Reasons to Attend the 2021 Mythologium

#10 – Dr. Dennis Patrick Slattery’s keynote speech, “Healing into Wholeness: Healing as Myth and Method”

Here’s an excerpt from the abstract:

“This presentation will explore the power of a contagion as a large encompassing metaphor, to heal as it wounds. Such a pollution can be an occasion, even opportunity, for the gods to enter the arena to provoke us into a level of awareness that we could not have understood without an invasive infection that inflects our lives into a greater mytho-spiritual consciousness.”

Wow, count me in!

#9 – Professional networking!

If myth is your thing, this is your conference. The Mythologium is the perfect place to meet new mythologists and re-connect with old friends. Connections like those can lead to speaking, writing, and/or teaching opportunities, not to mention friendships and fantastic conversation.

Sounds amazing!

#8 – Creative camaraderie!

When you gather with the community of mythologists, your ideas will meet new ideas, and everyone’s ideas will mingle together and lead to even more ideas that might never have emerged otherwise. It’s a creative playground for your mythic mind!

I want to play on the mythic playground!

#7 – It’s been a tough year.

Your self-care has never been more important than it is right now. Yes, yours. And as we know, self-care means soul care. The conversation of mythologists is an oasis for the soul, where you can refresh yourself with wisdom, insight, and inspiration all having to do with this year’s theme of Myth and Healing.

Mythologium, take me away!

#6 – The dopamine rush of learning!

At the Mythologium, everyone has something to teach everyone else, and everyone has something to learn from everyone else. That exchange happens when each of us opens up to giving and receiving. Then the flow of ideas is electric! If you love learning, you’ll love the Mythologium.

I love learning!

#5: Hear from some of today’s myth makers!

This year’s Myth Makers panel features the novelist Jamie Figueroa and the poet Dr. Raïna Manuel-Paris. Jamie and Raïna will share selections from their work, as well as reflections on myth, healing, and their creative process.

You had me with “myth makers”

#4: Delve into the topic of “Confronting Colonialism and White Supremacy in Myth,” a panel sponsored by the Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association.

On this panel:

  • Dr. Rosalie Nell Bouck will present on “’Held Embrujadas’: Reading Mesoamerican Myths of Femininity as a Radical Response to Contemporary Colonialism.”
  • Sea Gabriel will present a talk called, “Who’s Your Daddy? The Norse, The Nazis, and The World Stage.”
  • Dr. Brandon Williamscraig will address “The Myth of Peace and Conflict Done Well.”
Um YES, more conversations like this please

#3: Revitalize your connection with nature through the “Myth and Restoring Ecological Consciousness” panel, sponsored by iRewild.

On this panel:

  • Kayden Baker-McInnis will present on “Rewilding the Cultural Imagination to an Ecological Consciousness.”
  • Dr. Craig Chalquist will present on “Storied Nature: When Myths Heal the Split Between Us and Everything Else.”
  • Jennifer Degnan Smith will present on “The Shape of Water: Restoring Ecological Consciousness.”
Seriously?!? These conversations sound amazing!

#2 – Explore the ancient connection between the body and myth in the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s discussion of “The Myth of the Body and the Body of Myth.”

In this panel, leaders from the Joseph Campbell Foundation will be in conversation with each other and with Renda Dionne Madrigal, PhD, a Turtle Mountain Chippewa clinical psychologist, around Campbell’s ideas concerning myth and healing, as well as practices from the cultures and traditions he studied, including those of First Nations people. 

Yeah, my body could use some myth

#1 – Activate your mythic imagination!

This year’s Mythologium features 50 mythologists speaking on 18 different panels. Panel topics range from Mythic Healers to Healing Tales of Wonder, Healing Psyche and Soma, and many, many more.

Mythic imagination, ACTIVATE!

We can’t wait to join you in this immersion in the images and metaphors of myth and healing!

Dr. Stephanie Zajchowski and Dr. Joanna Gardner from the Fates and Graces team
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Mythologium 2021 welcomes Will Linn and Andre (AJ) Fleuridas

Will and AJ’s talk is called “Healing Journey and Return”

By studying the myths we see in art, we can better understand the myths we experience in our lives and in our culture. Could there be a way to use this deeper understanding to engage our cultural and personal myths and to heal them?  

Where Eliade describes the renewal of a culture as dependent on the re-enactment of its creation myth, Jung sees the renewal of self as dependent on the integration of repressed other. This presentation argues that the redemption of inner and collective wastelands depends on the living out of a new myth that is, at once, a renewal of the original creation myth AND an integration of repressed other. In a search for healing threads through the pandemic, this talk seeks to address the creation myths we are reliving, the otherness we are integrating, the wasteland(s) we are attempting to redeem and the new myths we are starting to tell.

This multimedia, interactive presentation will utilize musicmaking, video, written media, interactive webpages, writing prompts, and reflection to offer a grab-bag of tools attendees might use to recognise and heal personal and cultural myths.  

About Will and AJ

Will Linn, Ph.D. is the founder of Mythouse.org and the General Education Department at Hussian College in LA Center Studios, where he teaches mythology, storytelling and philosophy. Will has appeared in several documentaries and TV series. He is the co-creator of a radio show for the Santa Barbara News-Press called Mythosophia, and he co-hosts the Myth Salon. His collaborators include many of the world’s leading mythologists and story experts. After working for the Joseph Campbell Foundation in a variety of roles for seven years, he supports musicians, filmmakers and brands on the development of their stories.

AJ Fleuridas is the head of technology at Mythouse.org, with experience mediamaking, educating, and building technical systems. His web-dev, media-making, and communication-tech skills have brought him the fortune of working with leaders across the planet with the purpose of changing the world of education and of storytelling. Some highlights include working to innovate technology, media, and education with the Global Schools Alliance in New Zealand, Autens in Denmark, Liger Leadership Academy in Phnom Penh, the city of Helsinki, and HundrEd. 

To hear this talk and many others, join us at the Mythologium!

The Mythologium is a conference and retreat for mythologists and friends of myth, held July 30 – Aug 1 via Zoom. Register here!

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Mythologium 2021 welcomes Rosalyn Fay

Rosalyn’s talk is called “Rewilding: A Reclamation of Primordial Belonging”

After 25 years of city living, I found myself deep in the Underworld of health issues, crushing debt, a crumbling career, and a deadened soul. In desperation, I begged God, the Universe, anyone who could hear, for guidance. “Move to nature‚” a voice whispered. For the first time in years my body relaxed. Heeding the call, I left the city for the Coastal Redwoods. There, in the sanctuary of a single room cabin and the stillness of the forest, I began an eight year journey of reclamation. That simple act of surrender ushered me on a mythological journey of healing decades of disconnection from both the natural world and my own wild soul. My inner stories of unworthiness, shame, and not belonging, as well as decades of repressed grief and rage, rose to the surface. Yet I remained surrendered, and in doing so, ravens, wild boars, a 1500 year-old tree, a fiery Texan crone, a feral cat, a Gandalf-like homeless man with flowers in his hair, and roses appeared as guides. The consistent messages were to slow down, simplify, and trust my own wild heart, which eventually led me back into the circle of life, a magically animate world, and my own belonging within it.

About Rosalyn

Rosalyn is a writer, a women’s empowerment and grief facilitator, ritualist, herbalist, storyteller, and a lover of wild things. She is a devout listener of the quiet realms, to children, the elderly and plants. She is a firm believer in the simple primary satisfactions of life and the unbridled creative spirit. She resides in the northern California redwoods in a tiny house she built where she writes, sings, dances, and makes hand-crafted goods and herbal medicine for the local farmer’s markets.

Devoted to the slow, intuitive, feminine way of the senses and body, you can often find her wandering the local woods harvesting edible and medicinal plants, singing with the birds, listening to the wind, dancing barefoot, celebrating and grieving life inside ancient trees, and writing about her experiences.

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 30 – Aug 1 via Zoom. Register here!

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Mythologium 2021 welcomes Gelareh Khoie

Gelareh’s talk is called “Artemis, Apollo, and the Dance of Oracular Healing“

Living in a world of rapidly refracting kaleidoscopic consciousness, the besieged ego-self tends to become mired in restless seeking that often leads to exhaustion and confusion. By focusing on the healing potential of the ritual of dance portrayed in the mythology of psychocosmic party-starter twins, Artemis and Apollo, I convey an oracular dimension of healing which could, if adopted, facilitate the maintenance of perfect creative tension between ego and Self.

About Gelareh

Gelareh Khoie is an Iranian-American artist, writer, scholar, and DJ with over thirty years of experience as an entrepreneur and creator. Currently a doctoral candidate at Pacifica, she is researching the spiritual potentials of music and dance conveyed through the sociocultural phenomena of the 1970s known as disco.

To hear Gelareh’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 30 – Aug 1 via Zoom. Register here!

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Mythologium 2021 welcomes Annalisa Derr

Annalisa’s talk is called “Embodied Menstrual Rituals as Healing Praxis: Affirming Female Power in the Myth of Mary Magdalene”

Throughout Western history, powerful women, such as Mary Magdalene, have long been symbols of dangerous femininity. In particular, female bodies have been sites of patriarchal fantasies and projections of feminine danger. “The myth of menstrual danger” is one such feminine danger that has been a destructive legacy leading back to the early stages of Western civilization.

The dehumanizing depictions of “the myth of menstrual danger” have been used to control women’s bodies and devalue women’s place in society. Even more troubling, I believe this myth contributes to women’s internalized menstrual shame through a process termed “internalized sexism.”

Locating myself within the traditions of feminist spirituality, archeomythology, women’s history, and performative embodiment techniques, my presentation illuminates how I re-mythologize Mary Magdalene—and other goddesses and heroines—in ritual menstrual art performances to affirm female power and heal “the myth of menstrual danger.”

I do this in two primary ways: first, by framing Mary Magdalene within the Neolithic Great Goddess worshipping traditions, and second, with enactments of ritual performances that re-potentiate menstrual blood to symbolize feminine powers of death and regeneration. By remythologizing Mary Magdalene within a tradition that views the bleeding female body as life-affirming, menstrual embodiment becomes a radical act of self and collective healing.

About Annalisa

Annalisa Derr is a professional actress turned ritual theatre creatrix, budding goddess scholar, and doctoral candidate in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute. The working title of her dissertation is _Healing “the Myth of Menstrual Danger”_. Her current performance series, “She Bleeds the World into Existence,” utilizes menstrual art as an embodied research method and as sacred activism. She is founder of Journey to the Goddess TV on YouTube, an interview and soon-to-be travel series with the aim to regenerate ancient feminine wisdom for modern women.

To hear Annalisa’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 30 – Aug 1 via Zoom. Register here!

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Mythologium 2021 welcomes Gabriel Keczan

Gabriel’s talk is called “The Cultural Somatics of Myth & The Crisis of Masculinity”

We are in a crisis of masculinity. As a collective body of culture, we are going through a massive initiation as multiple crises of the world intersect. This is a time of radical reclaiming, healing and transformation. The ancient Russian tale of the Firebird contains clues and guidance on our paths of awakening. In this presentation, Gabriel will carry in the story of the Firebird and, together with the audience, feed the story and explore its relevance in our lives and for this moment in order to turn crisis into a catalyst for courage and growth.

About Gabriel

Gabriel Keczan is a transformational men’s coach, somatic counselor and art therapist living in the mossy, time-bending giants known as the mountains of the Kootenays in Western Canada, the un-ceded homeland xaʔxáʔ tumxʷulaʔxʷ of the Sinixt Nation. He founded Sacred Pathways Foundation to help restore rites of passage for male youth as well as create more initiatory spaces for men using myth, art and connection with nature.

To hear Gabriel’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 30 – Aug 1 via Zoom. Register here!

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Mythologium 2021 welcomes Dr. Julie Hugonny

Julie’s talk is called “The Last Man on Earth: A New Myth for a New Trauma“

Science fiction literature is a relatively new invention. Born from the traumas of the French Revolution, the quite literal killing of King and God, the genre started as a secular retelling of the End of Times. Apocalyptic narratives thus appear as the shape science fiction took at its very inception, the fantasized, non-prophetic story of the Last Man on Earth. The Last Man, this lone figure standing on the ruins of civilization, becomes an extremely popular type through the 19th century; its ubiquity is the sign it was a needed myth, welcome prism through which to look at the modern world.

Following James Berger’s study of catastrophe and trauma and my own work on early Apocalyptic literature, I will present this obsessive retelling of the end of the world as a way to process the brutal changes brought by the social, political and personal upheavals of the time. Far from para-literature or pure fantasy, science fiction is both a sign of trauma and the means to heal from it, and the archetype of the Last Man the guide to walk us through grief. The versatility of the genre, and its helpfulness in allowing us to take control of the narrative, haven’t abated since its creation.

About Julie

Julie Hugonny earned her Ph.D. in French literature from New York University in 2014. Her dissertation, The Last Man: Apocalyptic science fiction literature from the nineteenth century to World War I, deals with disasters, epidemics, devolution and the end of the world. Her teaching and research interests are: nineteenth-century French and English literature, science fiction in literature and film and depictions of monsters in popular culture. She is currently a lecturer at the University of Stirling.

To hear Julie’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 30 – Aug 1 via Zoom. Register here!

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Mythologium 2021 welcomes Kathryn Makeyev

Kathryn’s talk is called “Once Upon a Wounded Time”

Once upon a time there was an opportunity for homo sapiens to come together. The first step in healing a divide is to acknowledge the wounds that we have as well as those we have given to others. Make no mistake, social injustice, global warming, and the pandemic are wounds. Real forgiveness begins by giving up hope that the past could have been any different.

James Hillman told me (ok, not me) that Aphrodite is missing in the pantheon of the United States. This lack of beauty has caused depression, mental illness and anxiety. I think that if she were present she would tell us: “your place is a dump—clean it up!” But a failure to acknowledge our shortcomings has been one of our serious problems. Therein lies a trail.

We are being called to find our beauty again (not to make America great again). The quest is to re-enchant our cosmos. Not only is this possible, it is not particularly difficult because the cosmos is on our side. Separation is the real illusion.

Let it be told about the Age of Aquarius: Once upon a time there were wounds.

About Kathryn

Kathryn has lived for over 30 years in San Luis Obispo, home of the Slo Transit Company, the Slo Real Estate Development Company, the Slomotion Film Festival, and likes it more each day. She is finishing a novel (slo-style) about reincarnation through history, and is currently recovering from the PTSD brought about by the Trump administration.

To hear Kathryn’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 30 – Aug 1 via Zoom. Register here!

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Mythologium 2021 welcomes special guests from the Joseph Campbell Foundation

This panel will address “The Myth of the Body and the Body of Myth”

The ancient connection between the body and the stories that humankind has crafted around the body’s functions, purpose, and capabilities has been a key theme in mythological narratives for thousands of years. Healing, both physical and psychological, has been approached through forms ranging from rituals to mindful practices. In this panel, leaders from the Joseph Campbell Foundation will be in conversation with each other and with Renda Dionne Madrigal, PhD, a Turtle Mountain Chippewa clinical psychologist, around Campbell’s ideas concerning myth and  healing, as well as practices from the cultures and traditions he studied, including those of First Nations people. 

Renda Dionne Madrigal, PhD, Clinical Psychologist at Mindful Practice, Inc.

Renda is a Turtle Mountain Chippewa clinical psychologist and UCLA certified mindfulness facilitator. Featured on the cover of Mindful magazine in 2018, her workshops on Mindful Families, Storytelling as Healing, and Theatre of the Oppressed are popular nationally in the United States. She has over 20 years of experience creating and directing evidence-based family and child programs for better health. She regularly incorporates storytelling, writing, and mindfulness into her work. Her new book, The Mindful Family Guidebook, is available from Penguin/Random House.  

Bradley Olson, Phd, MythBlast Series Editor at the Joseph Campbell Foundation

Brad is currently a psychotherapist in private practice at Mountain Waves  Healing Arts in Flagstaff, Arizona. His work with clients is heavily influenced by his interest in  Jungian analytical psychology and mythological studies. Brad is also the author of the  acclaimed Falstaff Was My Tutor blog, which earned him a nomination for the 2012  Pushcart Prize in nonfiction. 

Robert Walter, President of the Joseph Campbell Foundation 

In 1979, Bob began work with Joseph Campbell on several projects, including Campbell’s  multivolume Historical Atlas of World Mythology, for which Bob became editorial director. As Campbell’s literary executor, following the famed mythologist’s death in 1987, Bob completed  and supervised the posthumous publication of the Historical Atlas. In 1990, when Bob and  Joseph Campbell’s widow, Jean Erdman, together with his family and close friends, founded the Joseph Campbell Foundation (JCF), Bob was named vice president and executive director.  He was appointed JCF president in 1998. He has spoken internationally about the connections between myth and healing. 

This panel will be moderated by Joanna Gardner, PhD, Senior Editor on the Editorial Advisory Group at the Joseph Campbell Foundation.