Tag: Goddess

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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Dr. Andrea M. Slominski

Dr. Slominski’s presentation is called “Myth Illuminates the Heart of Humanity, and it is Eternally, Blessedly Feminine.”

Myth illuminates the heart of humanity. The heart is the noble seat of love, compassion, empathy, intuition, creativity, feeling, relationship, and nurturance. These are attributes of the archetypal feminine. The heart is held, nurtured, opened, protected, led, expanded, and emboldened by the eternal sacred feminine.

All of humanity, and many other beings on this planet, were born through an embodiment of the feminine, the mother. This is our first relationship. This is our first narrative, our first story.

As life progresses, we can turn to the stories of the goddesses to understand our expanding narratives and be reconciled to our hearts. Many of the goddesses’ stories exemplify all the pain and glory that a human heart can experience. These metaphoric narratives invite us to embrace the shadow and the light of love, the full and the empty heart. They call us to compassion and empathy for ourselves and each other. They invite us to embrace each other as we go through our personal experiences of life’s universal rites of passage. This is the relational energy of the heart, and it is eternally, blessedly feminine.

About Dr. Slominski

Andrea M. Slominski, Ph.D., is a women’s midlife coach, speaker, and author. In her Ph.D. research and study, she explored the new life stage for women that emerged over the past 120 years. She names this new life stage from ages 45-70—Regency—and identifies it as women’s new power years.

Her coaching addresses the deep work of Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging, which can shift during midlife. Women’s midlife includes the pre-programmed physical, psychological, and spiritual transformation of women’s lives.

Her work is rooted in the principles of depth and archetypal psychology. She leads Regent women to reclaim their passions, develop their purpose, and rediscover their “True North.” She inspires her clients to live their most authentic lives in service of the greater good.

She has shared her passion for mentoring midlife women at conferences, workshops, summits, and corporate events. She has published articles and given papers and addresses at international academic and cultural conferences.

Since starting her practice in 2015, Dr. A. has supported over three-thousand women through her coaching, mentorship, online gatherings, journals, and Covid-19 support programs.

To hear Dr. Slominski’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 Johanna Fisher

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!

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 2022 welcomes Morgan Azali

Morgan’s talk is called “A Revolting Voice: W.B. Yeats and the Renaissance of the Soul”

When W. B. Yeats published A Vision, he declared it would proclaim “a new divinity.” The new divinity that he foresaw was the revolt of the soul against the intellect — an apotheosis of all humanity through the reemergence of an ecological consciousness. Inspired by the theosophy of Madame Blavatsky, Yeats had long predicted humanity’s return to the golden age of the Goddess through a reinstatement of the chthonic and lunar tradition. Dionysious Psilopoulos, in The Prophets and the Goddess, investigates this quest that consumed Yeats’s being but skims past an integral component — the importance of Yeats’s hermetic training in his lifelong dedication, not only to the transient cycles of the Goddess, but to the restoration of unity and balance. Through a close analysis of A Vision, citing esoteric and scholarly sources, as well as Jungian theories of the unconscious, this presentation works to demonstrate how magic and mythology may serve as the foundation for both the renaissance and balancing of consciousness, ecology, and soul.

About Morgan

Morgan Azali dwells at the intersection of wellness, creativity, mythology, and magic. She recently completed a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing from Deakin University where her research focused on the influence of western esotericism in the life and work of W. B. Yeats. Weaving this together with her background in holistic health, she is interested in the ways that creative and spiritual practice can function as healing modalities on both the personal and the global scale.

To hear Morgan’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. Join us to rekindle your mythic spark!

Learn more and register
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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 2020 welcomes Dr. Dolores Aguanno

Dolores’s talk is called “Tracing the Divine Feminine in the Lands of Oz”

When characters of mythic narratives descend into the underworld, they often return transformed and bearing treasures of the dark, gifts of the Divine Feminine. This presentation will explore various aspects of the Divine Feminine and how its presence through various personifications of the Goddess archetype morphs in the musical narratives of Oz: The Wizard of Oz (1939 film version), The Wiz (1979 film) and Wicked (2003 Broadway musical, film to be released in 2021). As the characters ease on down the road or trip onto their demise, the Goddess also dances and weaves her influence throughout their journeys. Whatever path they take, all are changed. Dorothy’s journey in The Wizard of Oz and The Wiz are both quintessential examples of the mythic structure of the Hero’s Journey. Wicked, the Musical, offers the possibility of another mythic structure: the Eternal Return, a pattern of the cyclical nature of sacrifice, death, and rebirth. In it we follow Elphaba, Dorothy’s shadow persona, in her soul journey, rather than an egoic journey of the hero. She does not return to her community as the Hero with the elixir, but rather she descends back into the Underworld, the unconscious, with her new wisdom. Using audio and video clips, photos, and graphic images in this presentation, we will see how these personified archetypal images of the Divine Feminine act as transformers bringing conscious awareness to what was previously unconscious in the psyche of both the characters and their audience. 

About Dolores

Dolores Aguanno, PhD. is a cultural mythologist, theatre educator, actor, spiritual counselor, student of bioenergetics and yoga, and the mother of two recently married daughters! Dr. Aguanno holds a Ph.D from Pacifica Graduate Institute (2010) in Mythological Studies with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology where she wrote her dissertation on Musical Theatre and the Mythic Imagination. She is the founder and artistic director of dee-Lightful Productions, a musical theatre education program for kids ages 7-17, in Culver City, California, now celebrating its 20th anniversary. She has produced and directed over 80 productions, with hundreds of children, many of whom have gone on to careers in the performing arts, theatre and film tech, and performing arts education.  She is also an actor and has directed and taught adult actors, having had her training and start as an acting teacher at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York. She has been a licensed spiritual practitioner with the Agape International Spiritual Center in LA, under the mentorship of Rev. Michael Beckwith since 1995, where she has taught numerous workshops on spirituality and the arts. Most recently, she became a Certified Master Trainer of the Energy Codes with the Morter Institute for Bioenergetics, under the tutelage of Dr. Sue Morter, bridging science, spirit and human possibility. Always an avid student and adventurer, her life has been one long mythic journey so far, traveling many different roads. She plans to take the next few decades of her life to continue to weave together and integrate all of the wonderful things that she’s passionate about.

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The Mythologium welcomes Andrea Slominski

Andrea’s presentation is called, “The Goddess and Women’s Embodiment in Four”

Representation of Goddess has transformed throughout human history. From the early forms of the Great Goddess unearthed at Catal Huyuk and decoded by Marija Gimbutas, through the work of Jane Ellen Harrison who explored the archaic Greek development of dual and triple female deities, to the poetic interpretations of Robert Graves with his adoption and popularization of the triple goddess as Maiden, Mother, Crone, we can see the development of the expression, interpretation, and experience of the goddess throughout history. In the last century the life span of women has expanded statistically from 45-50 years to nearly 90 years. Running parallel to the increase in life expectancy, women’s lives have also expanded from three stages to four, psychologically and spiritually. If women are the metaphoric embodiments of the goddess in the flesh, if we are living metaphors of the goddess’ creative power as womb and tomb, and if we are living metaphors of the cycle of the seasons, as personified in the seasons of a life, then it is fundamental that the metaphors of the goddess have expanded right along with us. We are the goddess and she is us. Women cannot separate themselves from the goddess anymore than the goddess can separate herself from women. The goddess’ metaphors have transformed in the past, have done so again and will always continue to reflect the lives of women. I maintain that we are now squarely in four, Maiden, Mother, Regent, Crone. The four-fold goddess is one expression of the new emerging mythos that may, hopefully, find its full expression in the balancing of the masculine and feminine attributes within the psyche and in the external world.

Andrea holds an M.A degree in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology and is a Ph.D. candidate in the same field. She has created a coaching/counseling program that guides women during midlife and menopause to rediscover their authentic selves, so often back-burnered during the hectic householder years. In her creative and supportive workshops and one-on-one coaching/counseling, she incorporates the work of personal story and depth psychology, honoring the changes women’s psyches and bodies must navigate through the profound transformations of midlife and menopause. A writer, speaker, coach, and workshop facilitator, Andrea’s leadership in creative expression and group dynamics was honed for over 25 years as a producer and a director for the stage, in TV and video projects, and as a college adjunct instructor.

You can connect with Andrea through her website, Facebook, Instagram, and email.