Category: Events

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2020 Mythologium regretfully announces that Emily Miller’s presentation has been canceled

CANCELED: “The Next Mythogenetic Zone: The Forest”

This presentation explains the circumstances that have led to the Aokigahara Forest in Japan becoming known as “the perfect place to die.” Ancient cultural practices mythologize the Jukai forest, a sacred cultural realm of the metaphorical, liminal, physical, and psychological realm. I will discuss the perception of suicide in Japan. By its very nature, this research requires an examination of the concept of the underworld and deep psychological engagement, especially in the difference between Eastern and Western psychology.

While watching the film The Sea of Trees, written by Chris Sparling, I was profoundly affected by the main character,  Arthur Brennan’s deep psychological pain and his inability to recover without a deep immersion in the physical landscape and his own shadow. The Jukai Forest is a complex alive matrix where old myths are pivoting in place. Forests are both sacred and profane in the individual and collective consciousness. The Suicide Forest, as well as all forests, are living mythogentic zones capable of reciprocity that possess positive implications for humans, and the environmental problems we are now experiencing. Shinrin-Yoku, or forest bathing, is a new form of ritual, spreading throughout the world, sending droves of humans back to the forests seeking communion and healing. As a ritual, forest bathing can create new narratives with matrixial capacities that contain eco-psychological transference fields we as humans may enter and use to address our disassociation from the more than human Earth, offering adaptive theories for the many plagues confronting our suffering contemporary world.

About Emily

Emily E. Miller earned a BA double major in Philosophy and English and did graduate work in the Master of Education program at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, with a Philosophy Department Scholarship. She studied in Ireland in 1992. She owned Greensweep Landscape and Design for 20 years in Nashville. Before returning to earn her MA in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute, she was a successful fine artist of acrylics on canvas and board in local galleries and shows in Nashville and Florida, and many of her works are in Nashville private collections. She has published poetry in Rising to the Dawn, “The Writer’s Journal,” and “The Awakening’s Journal” with Chicago Press. Emily is currently working on an autobiography of her struggles before and after finding her father on ancestry.com at 53 titled, When Death Would Not Have Me. She maintains a Joseph Campbell Scholarship and is writing her dissertation on “Eurydice in the Contemporary Female Imagination.”

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Black Lives Matter

The Fates and Graces Mythologium condemns the brutal murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and all our Black brothers and sisters who have died at the hands of racist systems, culture, behaviors, and beliefs. We mourn their lost lives, and we mourn for the trauma and denied opportunity that our culture has inflicted on all Black people.

Black lives matter. Black mythology matters. Black mythologists matter. 

We commit to cultivating an inclusive community that celebrates diversity, amplifies the voices of marginalized mythologists, and honors sacred narratives of the whole human family. We call on all mythologists to join us in rooting out racism in our field, whatever it takes for as long as it takes. We commit our mythic imaginations to this work. 

We join our voices to those who call for justice and a deep re-visioning of our collective values. Our sorrow is our call to action to address and redress racism. We also commit to our ongoing awakening as an organization, and to dismantling the structures and assumptions that hold us all back, especially in the field of mythological studies. Now more than ever, let us inspire each other, amplify each other’s voices, and cherish the alchemy of being together. As we lift each other, we all rise. 

We’ll talk more about this at the Mythologium. Meanwhile, keep marching, keep raising your voice, and keep creating a more just, caring, compassionate world. 

Our blessing and love to you and yours.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Heather Taylor and Odette Springer

A special panel featuring two mythologist-filmmakers

Joining us at this year’s Mythologium are two documentary filmmakers who are also mythologists: Heather Taylor and Odette Springer. Heather is the writer, director, and producer of the award-winning documentary, Breaking Through the Clouds: The First Women’s National Air Derby. Odette wrote, directed, and produced the critically acclaimed film about the B-movie industry, Some Nudity Required.

The Mythologium is delighted to host an interview and conversation with these visionary members of our community. We will hear about their creative process, their mythological perspectives on film, and their experiences as women in the film industry. We’ll make sure to leave time for audience discussion, so join us and bring your questions.

Breaking Through the Clouds: The First Women’s National Air Derby

Breaking Through the Clouds is the inspiring true story of twenty female pilots — including Amelia Earhart — who defied convention by racing across America in propellor airplanes for nine grueling days in the summer of 1929. With little navigational aide and plenty of public scrutiny, these aviators succeeded as pilots in an era when women rarely drove cars. Facing cultural stereotypes, mechanical failures, threats of sabotage, navigational challenges, and endless chicken dinners, the women persevered. Whether fighting a fire in the cockpit, landing in a pasture full of cows, or facing criticism and demands for the derby to stop after the death of a colleague, the women captured the world’s attention as they rallied to prove this was more than just a race. Despite several heartbreaks and setbacks, there were many moments of joy, laughter, and pure wonder. Wearing breeches and goggles during the day and ballgowns in the evening, the women shared a genuine camaraderie while making a statement in a new era with new technology and new dreams. They became ambassadors of flight in the golden age of aviation, proving women could be independent, competitive, self-sufficient, intelligent, competent, graceful, and above all, really good pilots.

About Heather

Heather Taylor is the producer, director, writer, and researcher of the award-winning documentary Breaking Through the Clouds: The First Women’s National Air Derby. Currently airing on PBS stations across the country, Breaking Through the Clouds has received top honors from more than a dozen film festivals as well as a prestigious award from the National Aviation Hall of Fame, presented by Harrison Ford, Eugene Cernan, and six additional aviation legends of today. 

Heather formed her production company Archetypal Images, LLC to capture and harness the light that comes alive in people’s eyes when they find inspiration and purpose in life. Before starting her own company, Heather worked at Discovery Communications. Heather has a Masters Degree in Producing Film and Video and is currently in her second year of the Mythology Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Heather’s attraction to myth is especially strong regarding finding one’s voice and stepping into stories that promote healing while helping a person find their own genius. Learn more at http://breakingthroughtheclouds.com. 

Some Nudity Required

About Odette

Odette Springer, Ph.D is a writer, independent film producer and classically trained musician. She has been a singer/songwriter and composer for over 25 films for such companies as HBO, Showtime, Paramount Studios and the Disney Channel, as well as numerous international television networks. Her first feature documentary about Hollywood’s B-Movie industry premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. She shot 48 hours of footage and obtained the rights to use clips from over 30 erotic/slasher/action adventure feature films. Her film eventually evolved into 90 hours of footage that became a harrowing personal journey and resulted in the critically acclaimed Some Nudity Required, which immediately secured worldwide distribution.

Currently, Odette teaches writing as part of the Joseph Campbell Writers Room at Studio School in Los Angeles. In addition to publishing her poetry, she has published academic essays in several anthologies and lectures on trauma and the creative process. Her most recent article, “Renaissance,” can be found on the Joseph Campbell foundation website. She holds a B.A. in Piano from Manhattan School of Music and a Ph.D. in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her dissertation focuses on trauma and the creative process and is entitled Changing Woman: Calling The Feminine Home. She is fluent in French, Spanish, and Dutch, has traveled extensively around the world, and has a quirky sense of humor.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes the Joseph Campbell Foundation

Opportunities for mythologists to get involved

Leaders from the Joseph Campbell Foundation will offer a presentation outlining a brief history of the work of the organization, exciting future endeavors, and how Mythologium attendees can be a part of collaborating with JCF. The panel will include Bradley Olson, JCF MythBlast Editor; John Bucher, JCF Content Curator; and Joanna Gardner, JCF Senior Editor.

The Foundation’s mission revolves around preserving, protecting, and perpetuating Joseph Campbell’s mythic vision. A global community of artists, scholars, writers, educators, and questers, the organization endeavors to create and promote conversations and work in mythology and comparative religion.

About Bradley

Bradley Olson, Ph.D., is a former police officer who returned to school to earn a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and literature, two Master’s degrees in psychology, and a Ph.D. in Cultural Mythology. Dr. Olson 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 has earned him a nomination for the 2012 Pushcart Prize in nonfiction.

About John

John Bucher, PhD. is the Content Curator for the Joseph Campbell Foundation. He is a strategist, communicator, and cultural mythologist based out of Hollywood, California. He is also an author, podcaster, and speaker.

He is the author of six books including the best-selling Storytelling for Virtual Reality, named by BookAuthority as one of the best storytelling books of all time. Disruptor named him one of the top 25 influencers in Virtual Reality in 2018. John has worked with companies including HBO, DC Comics, The History Channel, A24 Films, The John Maxwell Leadership Foundation and served as a consultant and writer for numerous film, television, and Virtual Reality projects. He teaches writing and story courses at the LA Film Studies Center and holds a PhD in Mythology and Depth Psychology. John has spoken on 5 continents about using the power of story and myth to reframe how products, individuals, organizations, cultures, and nations are viewed.

About Joanna

Joanna Gardner, PhD is a writer, mythologist, and magical realist. She is a founder of the Fates and Graces Mythologium. Joanna serves as Senior Editor on the Educational Task Force of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and as a thought leader with the think tank iRewild, where she works on the Healing Stories initiative. She completed her doctoral degree at Pacifica Graduate Institute in mythological studies with an emphasis in depth psychology. Her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction appear in a variety of venues, available at joannagardner.com/stories. To contact Joanna, email joanna at joannagardner dot com.

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What to expect when you’re expecting a Mythologium

No doubt you’ve attended more webinars, video classes, and other online events by now than you ever thought possible. It’s inspiring to see how quickly and creatively everyone moved their jobs, lectures, doctor’s visits, church services, and school rooms online.

And now the virtual 2020 Mythologium is coming up fast. But the Mythologium is much more than just a webinar. This conference is a two-and-a-half day immersion into the latest research by dozens of mythologists, with live discussion sessions following each panel, plus poetry and writing exercises to help you process your own responses in real-time. We find this format deliciously rich for sharing ideas, sparking new ones, and coming together as a tribe. 

But how will the Mythologium translate to cyberspace? Here’s a preview of what lies ahead.

Logistics

  • The Mythologium will run all day on Friday July 31st and Saturday August 1st, and half the day on Sunday August 2nd. 
  • During some sessions the whole group will be together, during some sessions we’ll run two parallel tracks, and sometimes we’ll do smaller breakout groups so everyone can be on video. The good news is that we’ll record all panel sessions so you can catch up afterwards on any presentations you missed due to double booking.
  • For writing exercises, you’ll need your favorite writing supplies. We’re partial to paper and pens (Joanna loves Moleskine journals and Pilot Juice retractable gel), but you do you. Hammer and chisel, typewriter, finger-paints — whatever medium helps you express your ideas, make sure to have it handy.
  • We will build in coffee, snack, and meal breaks so you can stretch and rest your eyes from the computer screen, so assemble the snacks and drinks you’ll need to keep you going ahead of time. 
  • Speaking of drinks, plan on a virtual happy hour. Lay in some of the gifts of Dionysus if you’d like to partake in a convivial beverage.
  • Make sure you’ll have a quiet place and/or headphones so you can hear well.
  • We’ll be streaming quite a bit of video and audio, which means network bandwidth. For the best experience, you might want to turn wifi off on any devices you don’t need that weekend — and sweet talk your housemates into using cell service while you’re online.

What happens next

  • Between July 15 and July 31, you’ll receive printed conference materials in the mail, with some goodies thrown in for fun, and all the information you need to log in.
  • Spread the word to all your mythophilic friends! Share this post, follow us on social media, and if you haven’t already, join our email list at: myth2020.com

We couldn’t be more excited to present the Mythologium as a virtual conference and retreat. We are counting the days until we gather online!

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes J. Emile Moss

J. Emile’s talk is called, “Psychic Reality Lost & Found: Evocations in Language and Vision”

The term “psychic” is as fraught as it is interesting: connoting both the neon-lit side street phenomenon of the tarot card reader as well as the complex conceptions of the human psyche found in the psychological tradition, that which is psychic draws a huge range of associations and intellectual responses. C.G. Jung famously asserted that “only psychic existence is immediately verifiable. To the extent that the world does not assume the form of a psychic image, it is virtually non-existent.” In essence, all that we perceive is psychic reality. Through the diverse lenses of divinatory poetics, new comparative mysticism, and depth psychological thought, this presentation begins to explore the primacy of psychic reality and calls for the necessary reinstantiation of the psychic as a broad mode of conception.

About J. Emile

J. Emile Moss is an interdisciplinary poet, musician, mythologist, educator and psychospiritual intuitive based in Portland, Oregon. The J. is for Jesse (they/them, he/him). Jesse received an MA in the study of Mythology with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, as well as a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They are currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Pacifica exploring the jazz musician Sun Ra’s personal mythology. At the core of Jesse’s work is the belief in the deep power of the psyche, the guidance of dreams, the living force of language and poesis, and the revelatory capabilities of narrative – both personal and collective. 

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Arthur George

Arthur’s talk is called, “The Mythology of Groundhog Day and the film Groundhog Day“

Our holiday Groundhog Day may seem merely to be simple, trivial fun, but it has a profound mythological underpinning of which most people are unaware. So too does the Bill Murray film Groundhog Day, whose makers understood this mythology and worked it into the film. The myths, which go back to the ancient classical world, are about rebirth and personal transformation. I will argue that the myths underlying the holiday involve the hibernation of that most mythical creature, the bear; oracles and divination (including about the weather); and legendary caves in which historical and legendary people reportedly became enlightened and transformed (e.g., Pythagoras, Zalmoxis, Epimenides, and Apollonius of Tyana). This presentation will explain the underlying mythology and then show how it was used to great effect in this film about spiritual transformation. And you will learn the mythological reasons why a sunny Groundhog Day, when the critter sees his shadow, portends more winter. This presentation is based on the Groundhog Day chapter of my new, peer-reviewed book, The Mythology of our Seasonal Holidays, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan.

About Arthur

Arthur George is a mythologist, cultural historian, blogger, and winemaker; formerly he was an international lawyer. He has written the award-winning The Mythology of Eden (2014) about the mythology of the biblical Eden story, and before that the leading and award-winning history of St. Petersburg, Russia, entitled St. Petersburg: the First Three Centuries. His newest book, The Mythology of America’s Seasonal Holidays: The Dance of the Horae, will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in September. He has a mythology blog, frequently speaks at scholarly conferences, institutes, JCF Roundtables, and other audiences on mythological topics, and authors articles on the same. He is currently finishing a book about the mythology of wine, which will be published this autumn.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Dr. Bradley Olson

Bradley’s talk is called, “Thinking Myth: Seeing the Nothing That is not There and the Nothing That Is”

Using poetry, mythic images and stories, I will demonstrate that the compelling power of myth rests upon nothing. There is a nothing at the heart of myth that is not nothing, but is rather a no-thing. A no-thing is a something that should not be confused with a nothing, but developing this discernment is, as Wallace Stevens’ poem, The Snow Man, illustrates is more than a difficult grammatical task, it is an often arduous intellectual and emotional undertaking. But the no-thingness of myth is often overlooked in favor of understanding gods as things in themselves, or even energies, with which one may have some sort of personal connection. Mythic stories and figures are then amalgamated into a kind of catch all, an ersatz deployment of different traditions, times, and locations against the existential dread which results from living an irreducible and fundamentally subjective human life.

One reason this can be so is that so few contemporary people know these stories. If they are familiar with elements of the story or the culture out of which it arises, they may still be unfamiliar with the details. They will still delight in the story because the no-thingness of myth is so present and so powerful.

About Bradley

Bradley Olson, Ph.D., a former police officer, is a writer and a depth psychologist in private practice in Flagstaff, AZ for the past 25 years, and is also a mythologist with a Ph.D. in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Dr. Olson is the editor (and frequent contributor) to the MythBlast series on the Joseph Campbell Foundation website (jcf.org). 

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Dr. Olivia Happel-Block

Olivia’s talk is called, “Frankly My Dear, I Do Give a Damn:  Teaching Film as Mythic Literature”

Film Studies is a field which examines the techniques of storytelling through film and the impact which it has upon society. From the high school classroom to student filmmaking to film festivals, our academic and cultural society is starting to look at what makes a movie great and why we care so much about these films. In my Film Studies course, I hold that a film functions as our “text” much as a novel would in a traditional English course. My students examine film through the lens of literary, dramatic, and cinematic criticism along with Joseph Campbell’s “Hero Cycle”. 

In this presentation, I explore my approach of teaching film as mythic literature in order to gain the skills of summary, analysis, and critique along with an appreciation of the mythic storytelling behind good films. I outline my use of genre and media studies alongside the use of prompt response and my film analysis form. My goal is to share how one may approach teaching film as mythic literature to understand better how to integrate film and myth in teaching key rhetorical skills. 

About Olivia

Olivia Happel-Block, PhD, is a Latin, Mythology, Theory of Knowledge, English, and Film Studies teacher at Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta, CA. There she serves as the Extended Essay Coordinator (a four thousand word research essay composed by IB students over the junior and senior year). She has created her own curriculum for both the Mythology and Film Studies course at DPHS. Her dissertation, That Which Is Not Yet Known:  An Alchemical Analysis of Michael Maier’s Arcana Arcanissima, explores themes of mythology, alchemy, and religion. Olivia serves as the Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association’s Vice President. She has presented at the American Academy of Religion Regional Conference as well as the Pop Culture Association’s Regional and National Conference. Her academic interests include myth, religious studies, alchemy, and classics. She seeks to pursue the #immutablediamondbody throughout her life, scholarship, and career. Follow her on Instagram @doctorhappel. 

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Jane Alvey Harris

Jane’s talk is called, “Fiction and Film: The Winged Serpent and the Journey to Prajna-Paramita”

Reaching the “Wisdom of the Distant Shore” is synonymous with the search for and discovery of our individual manifestations of transcendence, or the universal quest for personal mythology. The act of fictionalizing personal history, including trauma, repressed memories, and/or emotions, allows an author/screenwriter to both unmake and examine situations from a protected distance, and to ultimately reframe experiences from a position of strength. Exploring established cognitive pathways and rerouting responses to triggers through the lens of archetypal psychology empowers writer, reader, and viewer, as they each witness the often painful separation of paired opposites, and celebrate their eventual reunification. The process of crafting a book/screenplay becomes a vehicle on the journey to Prajna-Paramita for the writer. For the audience, the finished product is a tangible incarnation of the Winged Serpent, present in multiple forms and providing catharsis, insight, and entertainment.

About Jane

Jane Alvey Harris is the author of the My Myth Trilogy, a hard-hitting, issue-driven contemporary account of a seventeen-year-old girl whose reality fractures when her childhood abuser re-enters her life. RIVEN, SECRET KEEPER, and PRIMED are fictionalized documentations of a survivor’s journey to make peace with her wounded egos and achieve self-acceptance. Jane writes that through the process of weaving her tale, “I realized I was laying my hands directly on the tattered pieces of a buried map leading to rich interior landscapes I’d never acknowledged or explored before because I considered them ugly, worthless, and humiliating.” Best-selling RIVEN and SECRET KEEPER, the first two books in the trilogy, have won multiple awards. More importantly, they have started an international dialogue about living with PTSD, and ways in which victims of childhood abuse can do more than survive, they can thrive. Book three, PRIMED, will be released in September of 2020. RIVEN has been optioned for a feature film.