Gaia Archives - Fates and Graces Mythologium

Mary’s talk is called “Myth and Mother Earth: Exploring the Landscape of the Psyche Through the Eyes of Gaia”

Mother Earth and humans’ relationship to her have been revered and widely recognized throughout time and across cultures. However, she and our relationship with her gradually became shrouded by reductionistic thinking, patriarchal ideologies, and narrow mechanistic mindsets. C. G. Jung esteemed the natural world and was deeply convinced of the psyche–nature kinship and its essentiality to individuation, yet he withheld asserting his sentiments because he could not prove them empirically.

In an era when the planet and her people are imperiled, this presentation calls attention to the archetypal nature of the unconscious and its implicit interconnectedness with the natural world. Considering this relationship through the lens of depth psychology and feminist theory, the presentation also illuminates the reciprocal relationship between psyche and nature, and the critical need to cultivate it, and considers how the ill-treatment of the earth and women are connected. Consequently, it helps deepen our psychological and ecological sensibility, expands the idea of individuation, highlights our biased social structures, and elucidates how the treatment of the feminine is tied to the exploitation of the planet.

About Mary

Mary Murphy is a depth psychologist and life coach in Northeastern, MA, where she maintains a private practice focused on women’s issues that begins with building a relationship with the Self. Mary holds both a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Depth Psychology with emphasis in Jungian and Archetypal Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute and an M.B.A from Northeastern University. She can be reached at mary@hercoach.com or via her website at www.hercoach.com.

To hear Mary’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.

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Johanna’s talk is called “Saving Mother Earth: Gaia’s Return”

One might consider the presence of Gaia and what she can teach us as a way into developing the ecological empathy that will ultimately save us and our beloved planet.

Tracing the Ur-Goddess and what her story can teach us, this talk examines her many aspects in Greek and other mythologies as her stories give us a window into the universe and a meditation on our relationship and treatment of her gift-earth itself. She has been present as Pachamapa in Andean culture, Prithui in Hindu culture, Kokyangwuti in the Hopi tradition and the Spider Grandmother who is with the Sun god, Tawa as creator of the Earth. I argue as well that she is present in the person of Hildegard von Bingen, a twelfth-century mystic who speaks of our need to care for the earth. Hildegard’s appeal is for us to be prophets and warriors in the defense and preservation of Mother Earth. We shall discover that it is in developing a sensitivity to this gift Gaia gives us, that we can find ways into a more reasoned and life sustaining practice of living in the world. Story and myths are powerful tools in which we can make this discovery.

About Johanna

Johanna Fisher is a professor at Canisius College, a Jesuit college in Buffalo, NY. She teaches medieval literature and German Language and Literature and is Co-Director of Women and Gender Studies. Her scholarly interests include twentieth century German literature and poetry as well as representations of gender in medieval literature. Johanna was born in Breitengussbach, Germany, and studied at the University of Erlangen- Nürnberg. When she is not teaching, she resides in Lübeck, Germany.

To hear Johanna’s talk and many others, join us at the Mythologium!