Tag: Beauty

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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 Dr. Jody Gentian Bower

Jody’s talk is called “The Beautiful Fruits of Barrenness”

Most of the synonyms for barren begin with “un”—indicating not what it is, but what it is not: unfertile, unproductive, unfruitful. Or they are adjectives like empty, arid, sterile, desolate, indicating a lack of value. But what are we missing when we define barrenness only in terms of what it is not? Ann Zwinger tells us that to see the beauty of the tundra, the seemingly lifeless areas of the cold high places in the world, “takes close looking, a scaling down of anticipations . . . a getting down on hands and knees—or even stomach—to examine.” In her presentation, Jody Gentian Bower will take a close look at barrenness, arguing that not only can it be a thing of beauty in itself, but may enable different and innovative ways of being creative and nurturing.

About Jody

Jody Gentian Bower, PhD, is a cultural mythologist and the author of “Jane Eyre’s Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine Story” and “The Princess Powers Up: Watching the Sleeping Beauties Become Warrior Goddesses.” She has lectured widely over the past decade about hero and heroine stories, and blogs about myths and archetypes in popular culture at jodybower.com. She is currently at work on a book about barrenness as well as a work of historical fiction based on a family legend.

To hear Jody’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!