Category: Events

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Linda Marshall

Linda’s talk is called, “Seeking Insight through Athena”

We are currently living with the air of transition hanging heavily all around us. In the tradition of depth psychology, I turn to mythology for insight; and more specifically to the myth of Athena. It was Athena’s mother Metis, already pregnant with Athena, who was swallowed by Zeus when it was foretold that she would give birth to a son who would overthrow his father. What does this swallowing of the feminine and the voice of “other” in order to preserve patriarchal power, have to tell us about the wounding inherent in this country today? I believe that Athena offers a path towards healing when her importance as a mother’s daughter is fully recognized. Understanding Athena as both a mother’s daughter and a father’s daughter, presents the creative possibilities inherent in the interpenetration of the swallowed “other” with the wounded patriarchal culture presently causing such destruction in its determination to maintain control. I would offer that Athena offers a symbolic path towards re-energized possibility when the hidden power and wisdom of the marginalized feminine and the voice of “other” re-emerges in equal voice with the wounded masculine, leading towards a more inclusive image of what it means to be human.

About Linda

Linda holds a Masters in Engaged Humanities and the Creative Life from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is interested in the power of story and the creative impulse in understanding both our personal and our collective lives. She is presently pursuing her PhD in Jungian and Archetypal Studies at Pacifica. She is working on a dissertation focused on the re-telling of Athena’s story and how a fuller understanding of those myths might lead us to a new perspective of the world as we find it today, as well as our individual lives within it.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Dr. Devon Deimler

Devon’s talk is called, “The Owls Howl at Midnight: From Midnight Movies to ‘Twin Peaks’ Return as Ultimate Reality TV”

From the late 1960s through the mid-70s, a new cinematic phenomenon arose in the dark: the midnight movie. Low-budget, high-vision experimental films like El Topo, Night of the Living Dead, Pink Flamingos, Eraserhead, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show were original hybrids of horror, humor, cringe, and camp. Each re-mythologized tropes and iconographies of their cinematic ancestors with a sense of ironic romanticism and serious play. The midnight movie also created highly engaged mimetic ritual participation in these mythologies; cult film thus ventured into the (sac)religious dimension. This presentation addresses the mythologies and rituals of these films, as well as the mythical nature of the midnight movie itself, including its associated aesthetic qualities, psychological states, and reputation as the witching hour of outcasts, uncanny occurrences, and Dionysian revelry and transgression. Dreams, nightmares, surreal irrationality, and absurd subversion rule deep night and the midnight movie. In conclusion, we will briefly explore how the midnight movie impacted the work and public reception of its final standout, David Lynch, especially his series Twin Peaks—perhaps the best example of how enigmatic filmmaking can hold the midnight hour and continue unfolding a mythology in contemporary settings.

About Devon

Devon Deimler, PhD is an artist, writer, and mythologist. She is Curator at OPUS Archives and Research Center—home to the collections of James Hillman, Joseph Campbell, and MarionWoodman, among others—and is Scholar in Residence, Special Editions Editor, and
Founder/Curator of the Cinemyth Film Series at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles. She earned her doctorate in Mythological Studies with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute with her dissertation, Ultraviolet Concrete: Dionysos and the Ecstatic Play of Aesthetic Experience, which received the institute’s Dissertation of Excellence award. Devon earned her BA in Interdisciplinary Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she focused on event-based work and modern through contemporary art and film history. Her professional experience in art and music includes founding an independent record label and collaborative event project, Wildfire Wildfire Productions, working as Assistant to the Director at the Dennis Hopper Art Trust, and teaching photography and modern art history and studio practices at American University Preparatory School in DTLA. Learn more at devondeimler.com.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Amy Slonaker

Amy’s talk is called “The Gospel According to Jughead: Monster Theory and Comparative Popular Culture Practices as Hermeneutic Lenses”

In certain hermeneutical pursuits, scholars use monsters and their symbols as comparative tools for cultural analysis. This scholarly lens, called Monster Studies, asks questions and analyzes problems through the lens of “The Monster.” As part of a critical reflection on Monster Studies, this presentation will use this lens in an intertextual, antidiachronic comparison of the “monsters” of two beloved American narratives from the 1940’s: Archie Comics and Oklahoma! These two continuously existing brands are now riding the crest of another pop culture wave coinciding with their new focus on storytelling through the lens of the monster/outsider. This presentation compares the characters of Jughead from Archie Comics and Jud Fry from Oklahoma! to the outsider narrator, Judas the disciple, as he appears in the first-century Gnostic text, The Gospel of Judas. I suggest that all three texts act as a form of midrash that provide narrative supplement and work to highlight issues of community concern. For first century Christians, an issue of concern was how the all-knowing Jesus could be betrayed by a mere mortal/disciple. The Gospel of Judas addresses that concern through the perspective of the betrayer himself. Likewise, the newly-elevated perspective of the outsider-narrators in Archie and Oklahoma, I argue, raise the contemporary community issue of active shooters and incel culture. This presentation uses the lens of popular culture comparison as discussed by Jeffrey Kripal to conclude that the dark characters of our narratives may hide real life concerns; supporting Jeffrey Kripal’s suggestion that “not everything imagined is imaginary.”

About Amy

A cat fancier from Goleta, California, Amy Slonaker graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a double major in Religious Studies and Political Science. During her 20+ year law career, she lived in Seattle, San Francisco, New York City and London. In 2017, she enrolled at Pacifica Graduate Institute where she is currently pursuing her PhD in Mythological Studies with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology, with an expected completion date of 2022. A lover of popular culture, Amy has dabbled in an array of art media including installation art, costume/set design, public performance art, and psychedelic liquid light shows. Her favorite musical is Oklahoma!

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Dr. Raina Manuel-Paris

Raina’s talk is called “What Women Want: The modern implications of an ancient tale on the difficulties of being a woman in a man’s world”

Revisiting the legend of “The Wedding of Dame Ragnell and Sir Gawain,” we gain insight into What Women Want, the riddle paused to King Arthur and which he must solve to keep his head. We reveal if it has changed much over the centuries. With an illuminating detour from fairy tales to modern heroines in Cinema and the women who play them, this proposal offers a mytho-poetic approach to the heart of the tension between the feminine and the masculine and whether it can be resolved.

About Raina

Raina Manuel-Paris, Ph.D. has a multi-cultural and multi ethnic background. She holds a Masters degree from Columbia University in screenwriting and directing and a Ph.D. from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Mythological studies with an emphasis in depth psychology. Her work as a poet and writer, filmmaker, teacher and speaker illuminates the various paths to spiritual transformation, the relationship to ourselves and others, to love and compassion, to light and shadow. She is a published author of books, (The Mother-to-be’s Dream Book, published by Time Warner), and articles ( Trauma,War, and Spritual Transformation for the Magazine of Jungian thought, Psychological Perspectives) and has been a professor of Myth and Symbol, Magic and Ritual for the past seventeen years. She is a meditation guide and a speaker. She has lectured on the Goddess: from ancient times to the #metoo movement, Love as Primal Agent of Change, Love and Sacred Medicine, the Handless Maiden: a mytho-poetic guide to wholeness, on the Tarot as a guide through the
cycles of life and death. Her latest lecture on The In-Between, Liminality in Uncertain Times, as well as other lectures and writings, can be found on Youtube.com, through PRS.org, on the Joseph Campbell foundation website (jcf.org) and on her website
www.rainamparis.com. Her poetry can be heard on NPR, All Things considered, Poetry month. And was selected for the commemorative edition of Solo Novo, Psalms of Cinder&Silt. She is currently working on a novel.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Colleen Salomon

Colleen’s talk is called “The Path of Ashes: Journeying to the Underworld in ‘The Robber Bridegroom'”

The tale, “The Robber Bridegroom,” is a strange and dark story, one collected by the Brothers Grimm in the early 19th century, but with roots that go back thousands of years. Not surprisingly, this eerie account of a young woman’s solitary journey into the forest and her courageous escape after a traumatizing ordeal has not enjoyed the attention of the Grimms’ more popular stories. It is considered by many scholars to be a “Bluebeard Tale”—a warning to young women about the dangers of marriage. While I do not dispute that conclusion, I believe the story holds a great deal more: in fact, it harbors ancient knowledge of the passage into the Underworld. In this presentation, I will demonstrate that there are secrets woven into the story regarding the use of poison and trance that reveal the maid’s motivations for her journey, which link her self-empowerment with a willingness to risk her life for her clan.

About Colleen

Colleen holds a master’s degree in Mythological Studies with Emphasis in Depth Psychology and is current pursing her PhD in the same field. After studying art history and studio arts at Purdue University, including studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, Colleen continued her academic work at the University of Hamburg, Germany. During a decade of living in Europe, Colleen had the privilege of hearing many stories of the trauma of the twentieth century told by the people who had lived through the events. She witnessed the healing that emerged through the telling of the stories. In this way, she learned about the fundamental necessity of myth to the individual. Having returned to the US and earned a master’s degree in psychology, Colleen was drawn to Pacifica to study mythology with a particular emphasis on the role of myth in the healing of trauma. Her dissertation focuses on the ancient knowledge of trauma contained within the old stories still told in Germany.

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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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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Dr. Karin Zirk

Karin’s talk is called “Starting a Conversation on Decolonizing Mythology”

Oftentimes as mythologists, a narrative or an image enchants us and we forget that mythic artifacts do not exist in isolation but are embedded in human culture with all the problematics that entails. This discussion starter aims to reveal issues, problems, and potential methods for decolonizing our field. As a field of inquiry, Mythology comes into existence during the cultural juxtapositions created by colonialism during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The colonized became objects of study for Europeans, who documented the cultural habits, sacred beliefs, arts, and other cultural artifacts of non-European cultures even as the Europeans strove to Westernize and destroy these cultures. In many instances, the mythic artifacts mythologists explore come from the ongoing exploration of native people, people from non-Western backgrounds, and other marginalized cultures. I intend to provide a brief background on the theoretical work by Faye V. Harrison on decolonizing anthropology, David Miller on mythoclasm, and Joel P. Christensen on decolonizing a myth class for what I hope will be a brainstorming session using the Kumeyaay Birds Songs as our mythic artifact and addressing the problematics inherent in my own mythic exploration of this tradition.

About Karin

Karin Zirk, Ph.D. is a mythologist, activist, and writer, whose first novel, Falling From The Moon, was released in early 2020. She earned her doctorate in Mythological Studies with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute where her dissertation focused on using mythic artifacts and journal writing to enhance well-being in family caregivers. She facilitates in-person and online workshops using mythic artifacts and creative expression to explore both individual and cultural challenges facing the world. Her collection of poetry, Notes from the Road, chronicled her years traveling the USA in a Volkswagen camper van. She is a longtime advocate for a Southern California creek and attends peace and healing gatherings. When not engaged in her passions, she works in Information Technology.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Dr. Leigh Melander

Leigh’s presentation topic is “A Networked Imagination: Myth-Making in Fan Fic’s Story and Soul”

While movies can feel deeply mythic, they are tightly authored and frozen, outside of the volk culture that underscores how myth moves through the collective unconscious. The story-making in fan fiction challenges the idea that any story should be frozen, that its ownership rests in individual authors, and that there is a hierarchy of how, what, why, and by whom the story is crafted. By creating story in this way, within the particular shapes of community co-creation and ongoing arcs, fan fiction creators of all mediums become mythmakers. In a dance between insider/outsider, individual/collective; this co-created world emerges and is always emerging as a never-ending story. Its connection between people and ideas that are simultaneously liminal, canonical, mnemonic and imaginal; all sitting in servers that may archive well or may not; brings a life force to story-telling that hums more deeply than simple fiction. Made up of so many exquisitely human, intimate, microcosmic moments and, at the same time pulsing with a broad archetypal energy – fan fiction is, in a word, mythic. 

About Leigh

Leigh Melander, Ph.D. has a doctorate in cultural mythology and psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, and has a background in writing and the performing arts, marketing and strategic planning, and strengthening communities nationally and internationally. She has served as a board member for the Joseph Campbell Foundation and on the academic advisory board for  Spring Journal for several years, was featured on the on the History Channel as an expert on myth and story, and hosted Myth America, a weekly radio program on myth and imagination on an NPR affiliate in New York for four years. She was the founding editor of the Joseph Campbell Foundation MythBlast essay series, and has been published in Spring Journal, the award-winning Routledge International Handbook of Jungian Film Studies,and just released her first book, Psyche’s Choice. Leigh works with individuals, communities, and organizations to imagine past what they think as possible, and she and her husband own Spillian: A Place to Revel, a regenerative center for imagination and creativity on the historic Fleischmanns Yeast family estate in the Catskills.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Quan Dieu (Dante) Luong

Dante’s talk is called “Interpreting the Norse God ‘Thor’ in Novels and Movies”

With the rapid growth of popular cultures, the Norse god Thor has become an endless inspiration among screenwriters, novelists, and game designers. However, most previous studies only evaluated this figure within the same sources, namely between books, instead of between different forms of media. Henceforth, this theoretical research applying Diffusion Theory aims to fill in these limitations by analyzing the interpretations of Thor’s mystical identity and appearance in the two most popular leisure resources: movies and novels. Previous studies described Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as the symbol of both ancient power forces and post-human ability as he expressed normal human emotions (e.g. arrogance and love) or performed humanistic activities (e.g. flying planes or using phones). On the contrary, novels like Neil Gaiman’s American Gods placed the mighty Thor as a supporter of the protagonist on a mystical quest. The results suggest film producers, game creators and novelists view Thor at different angles during content development. Mythologists are encouraged to view his story and companions critically to develop new scientific theories.

About Dante

Quan Dieu “Dante” Luong” holds a bachelor’s degree in English Studies, specializing in English Language Teaching (ELT) at Hoa Sen University, Vietnam. He will soon receive his master’s degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Dante is an educational researcher who has been conducting many projects on English teaching methodologies and innovations in students’ attitudes and beliefs towards this subject. His contributions to and efforts in such academic words have been recognized and inspired by his colleagues and students. Dante also has a keen interest in myths, cryptids, legends, and fairy tales around the world. Having seen several mythological-based televisions, reading topic-related books, and teaching mythology as a higher education’s practicum project, he realized that there are fantastic stories across the globe that have been forgotten by time and wait to be explored by compassionate mythologists or myth hunters. Despite his experience in doing research and presenting his works at many conferences, this is his first time presenting his works at the Fates and Graces Mythologium, where he can give his favorite research topics and work toward his future goal of pursuing the degree of mythological studies.

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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Rev. Pamela Dawn Hancock

Pamela’s presentation is called, “Birth Trauma, Medusa & Me: Soul-Healing and the Poetics of Mind”

My revolutionary presentation will dream the Medusa myth onward, by examining, “On the Medusa of Leonardo Da Vinci in the Florentine Gallery” by Percy B. Shelley, through the lens of depth psychology.  My story starts in the Spring of 2018 when Medusa charted her course for me.  Although I had planned every detail of the birth of my son, his cesarean delivery abolished an old way of being.  From that moment on I became a new alchemical being—born in the nigredo of one of the darkest moments of my life.  Albeit feeling emotionally and psychically beheaded by the process, it was looking towards the works of James Hillman, C. G. Jung, and James Hollis that brought me back to life once again.  This presentation will examine my imaginal “dismemberment” by way of the poem in which I found a mirror to my pain.  By reflecting on the tragedies and following the synchronicities presented to me I was led to a cure for my aching heart.  I will show how following the archetypal thread that led me into the center of a serpentine goddess’ puzzle, provided me with soul-healing and the opportunity to illuminate the dark recesses of birth trauma through myth and metaphor. 

About Pamela

I was born and raised in Southern California where I currently reside with my husband and children. As a child I found the Sacred at the lake near my parents’ cabin. The big pine trees surrounding it were my sacred space—my church. It was there that I began to understand that we are all part of the Divine Web of All Creation. At the age of twelve I sought comprehension of that Web by starting my study of the World’s Religions. While obtaining my B.A. from the University of Redlands, Johnston Center, I delved into Feminist Spirituality, Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism. I moved in and out of different spiritual practices after College, weaving together the energies of all of the Archetypal-Forces with whom I entwine. In 2011 in ritual with the group I led, I heard the call: Nourish others’ understanding of their connection to the Sacred in all things! So off I went to Starr King School for the Ministry (a Unitarian Universalist Seminary) where I received my Master of Divinity, and the Chaplaincy Institute for Ordination as an Interfaith Minister. Having battled a long-time kidney illness, I almost died of an infection after completing Seminary–but found solace in finding my true path of Alchemy and Depth Psychology during this difficult ordeal. After a full recovery I began the adventure to obtain my PhD. in Depth Psychology with a specialization in Jungian & Archetypal Studies, from Pacifica Graduate Institute—where I am now dedicating my dissertation work towards designing a program for Trauma Survivors to embark on an individuation quest. I am dedicated to building bridges between communities, bringing people together to honor the sacred in all things, supporting environmental advocacy, and helping women embody all parts of their true selves. 

Visit my website at www.revpameladawn.com.