Tag: Death

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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Dr. Katherine Bailes

Dr. Bailes’s presentation is called “Death, She Sings a Heart Red”

The title is a quote from Toni Morrison’s book, Beloved.  In the story, one of the characters, Paul D., describes his heart as a “rusted shut tobacco tin lodged in the place where his heart should be.”  This description resonated with me after reading the book in 1998.  I first read the book in Dr. Dennis Slattery’s Epic Imagination course and revisited it after the recent death of my father. 

In this presentation, I will explore the concept of storing, hiding and/or preserving one’s metaphorical heart, as expressed by Morrison’s characters in Beloved, Hesiod’s Pandora, Greek myths of Zagreus Dionysus, and my own experiences.  After summarizing the examples from literature, I will explore the ritual performed by Baby Suggs in Beloved, and the background for such trauma-inspired rituals found in the worship of Dionysus.  I will offer up sample rituals and/or a simple guide for creating a personal ritual for those who want to open the “box” where their own heart might be stored.  

About Dr. Bailes

Katherine J. Bailes, JD, PhD is a practicing attorney and an adjunct professor of mythological studies at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas. Dr. Bailes holds a BFA in painting from the University of North Texas and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Kansas, School of Law. She obtained a master’s degree and PhD from Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, California. Her dissertation entitled “The Themis Principle: Mystery and Irrationality in the U.S. Legal System” focuses on the mythological aspects of the law as expressed in ancient cultures through goddesses such as Athena, Themis, Inanna, and Maat. She serves in a variety of leadership positions in art, law, and teaching, successfully combining these fields through her understanding of story and the human capacity for myth making.

To hear Dr. Bailes’s talk and many others, join us at the Mythologium!

The Mythologium is a conference for mythologists and friends of myth. This year’s Mythologium will be held July 28-30 in-person and online in the Pacific time zone.

Learn more and register
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Mythologium 2022 welcomes Chrissy Stuart

Chrissy’s talk is called “The Dark Light of Duende: The Phosphorescence of Death”

At the heart of the mythological and ecological lies ambiguous paradox. The profundity of life and death is bridged by an invisible dimension of experience that we can safely navigate through the mythopoetic image. This presentation will investigate the mysterious eco-theoretical terrain of death through an archetypal analysis of the mythology of light and darkness, as represented in the traje de luces–or “suit of lights” worn by Spanish matadors.

The way death is perceived as an “unseeable” image is a prevalent idiosyncrasy in western and American cultural psyches. This can be witnessed in our lack of community traditions, rituals, and consciousness surrounding death and grief, as illustrated in the global events of the COVID-19 pandemic and the environmental crisis. My objective is to enumerate the many ways in which the pathologized image of death illuminates the beyond. Through the ontological lens of elemental light–a brief presentation of recent light sculptural work and transdisciplinarity research in my field of holography–I will demonstrate the ecological power of the pathological in its capacity for interconnection by bridging light and darkness, the visible and invisible, and life and death. This generative process creates new ways of seeing and being in the world.

About Chrissy

Chrissy Stuart is a light sculpture artist, depth psychological scholar, holographer, and transdisciplinarity researcher. Stuart utilizes light optics and glass casting techniques to record light waves–not ordinarily visible to the human eye–onto transparent objects to explore the invisible dimension of experience tied to the realm of death, the imagination, and the unknown. In her quest to understand the hidden forces beyond our control, complexities of multidimensional reality and universal interdependence are unearthed. Stuart views working with the unconscious as a form of research inquiry, and her light sculpture praxis perpetually reveals that consciousness is transformed by an encounter with the unknown. Stuart’s transdisciplinarity work addresses the notion that it is only in working with the darkness that a luminosity specific to transformation can emerge.

To hear Chrissy’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.

Learn more and register
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Mythologium 2021 welcomes Dr. Edward M. Smink

Edward’s talk is called “What Have I Done to Deserve This? Are the Gods or God Punishing Me?”

My intention in this discussion is not to go into a psychospiritual or philosophical discussion about the meaning of suffering. Rather, I want to focus on the fact that this question still resonates to this day, a question steeped in the human experience of the ancients and in their mythology. Somehow, we inherited the notion that only the gods or God heals. No wonder we ask the above question. I want to explore with you these ancient mythologies and how they affect us centuries later. I will also bring into perspective some of the depth psychologists that have addressed these issues.

About Edward

Edward M. Smink, PhD defended his doctoral thesis, “Thresholds of Afflictions: The Heroic Journey of Healing,” at Pacifica in May of 2010 and graduated with a PhD in Depth Psychology. He has over forty years of experience in healthcare as a nurse, crisis and pastoral counselor, executive leader, facilitator of mission, ethics, value and leadership formation and community health. Since his last presentation at the Mythologium in 2019, titled “Who Hugs the Hugger, A Mythology of Self-Care,” Edward has reached out to caregivers suffering from compassion fatigue as a life coach, presenter, and speaker, and promoted his book The Soul of Caregiving, A Caregiver’s Guide to Healing and Transformation. He has been a guest on several bogs on Caregiving and is in the process of coming out with a revised edition of his book and creating an on-line webinar course. More about him and his work can be found on his website.

To hear Edward’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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The Mythologium welcomes Kathryn Makeyev

Kathryn will present on the topic of reincarnation

What happens if I die? Incredibly we in the West often think if instead of when. A belief in reincarnation as a series of improving lives opens the conversation, and eases fears. I will present a Western view of Eastern ideas from my dissertation “Reincarnation: A Myth of Rebirth.” We will conjure Pythagoras and maybe Krishna and ask what they think about near-death and out-of-body experiences.