Author: joanna

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🌀 The Mythologium Origin Story 🌀

In the beginning

Once upon a time, a few years ago, three mythology graduate school classmates walked together on the pier in Santa Barbara.

“I was thinking,” Rachel said, as the sun set over the water. “We should run a workshop together.”

“Yes!” Stephanie said.

“Yes!” Joanna said.

“What will we call ourselves?” Rachel said.

“Well, there are three of us,” Stephanie said. “Like the Graces. Like the Fates.”

“We’ll be the Fates and Graces,” Rachel said.

“But later, right?” Joanna said. “After we finish?”

“Oh yes,” Rachel said. “Later. After we finish.”

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Their coursework ended and they started writing dissertations. Stephanie set out in search of the Whore of Babylon. Rachel traced the threads that connect textile work and fairy tales. Joanna read creation myths for imagery about creativity. One day she attached a new whiteboard to the wall in her office, and on a whim, she wrote in magic marker ~~ “Welcome to the Mythologium” ~~ to put herself in a mythic mood. And the three friends video-conferenced every few weeks.

But they were lonely, too. They missed their cohort gatherings. They tried attending conferences, but at those other gatherings, myth often felt tangential. A little out of place. There wasn’t a conference that focused on mythology. There wasn’t a place just for mythologists.

Let there be a conference

And then, during the winter solstice of 2018, an impulse seized Joanna.

“We should start a conference,” she said on their New Year’s Day video call. “For mythologists. For our tribe.”

“Yes!” Stephanie said.

“Yes!” Rachel said.

“But later,” Stephanie said. 

“Yes, later,” Rachel said. “Definitely after we finish our dissertations.”

Joanna said, “We should do it now.”

“But we have jobs,” Rachel said.

“And families,” Stephanie said.

“And dissertations!” Rachel said.

“That’s ok,” Joanna said. “We can do it. Now is the time. I can feel it. This year.”

They all stared at each other on their computer screens.

“But what will we call it?” Rachel said.

Joanna remembered her whiteboard. “We’ll call it the Mythologium. The Fates and Graces Mythologium.”

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So the three of them found a nice hotel with a conference room, and they worked through a thousand and thirteen to-do lists. They reached out to all the mythologists they could.

And then it happened. The tribe gathered. Twenty mythologists presented their research. They all read poetry and did writing exercises, and they shared food and wine. Everyone reconnected with their own work and with their tribe.

Epilogue

The Fates and Graces Mythologium is a conference by, for, and about mythologists. The Mythologium is all about our tribe. 

We don’t necessarily recommend starting a conference while finishing dissertations, working full time, and managing households, but we’re glad we did. The Mythologium reminds us that sometimes crazy ideas are the right ideas. Sometimes “later” actually means “now.” And sometimes the name of an idea gives you the energy to make it real.

We knew that if we could get everyone into a room, the magic would happen, but the reality of it blew us away. Our tribe is full of incredibly smart, soulful, open-hearted people. We adore them all. And we’re so excited to hear everyone’s presentations at next year’s conference! 

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5 Solstice Gifts for the Mythologist on Your List

Aren’t you lucky to have a mythologist in your life! You never have to worry about the conversation lagging, and now you don’t have to worry about finding the perfect gift for them either.

The Fates and Graces Mythologium is not affiliated with these products or companies (except #5 – you’ll see). We just love their stuff.

#1 Literary Wrist Warmers

Watching the words of a favorite literary classic dance as you write is a sensorial dream for a mythologist. Storiarts writing gloves wrap your hands in masterpieces such as Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. These gloves offer warmth while leaving your fingers free for words to flow onto the page.

$26, storiarts.com

#2 Nectar of the Goddess

Tasty teas from the Loose Leaf Women Gourmet Tea Company are myth infused. The labels will bring a smile while the flavors and aroma summon your inner Aphrodite, Artemis, or Athena. Pair this tea with a Mythologium mug (see #5 below!) and a small jar of honey for a comforting gift.

$15, looseleafwomen.com

#3 Enchanted Pomegranate Pendant

The sweet taste of pomegranate seeds appointed Persephone Queen of the Underworld. This pomegranate pendant by Winged Lion evokes a multitude of associations for any mythologist.

$185, etsy.com

If a pendant isn’t their style, Winged Lion also has pomegranate tie bars, rings, bracelets, and earrings.

#4 Animal Accessories

Myths often blur the boundaries between human and animals. Covered in an array of colorful creatures, Sabina Savage scarves look like an illuminated storybook. With exquisite fabrics and a variety of sizes, these scarves make fantastic gifts.

Scarves start at $86, sabinasavage.com

#5 Mythologium Mug

Reminisce about myth-mingling at the Mythologium with a Fates and Graces Mythologium mug. These were a hit at the conference, so we got to work to make them available for the community.

$18, cafepress.com

Fill your mug with tea (see #2 above!), cocoa, coffee, or perhaps some pens.

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Save the date for the 2020 Mythologium

When is it too soon to start filling in your myth calendar? Never! So get your myth-markers out and flip ahead to next summer, because plans are underway for the 2020 Mythologium:

Date: July 31 – Aug 2, 2020
Location: Inn at Morro Bay

Stay tuned for details about registration and submitting your abstracts. And in the meantime, spread the word. Tell your myth-minded friends they can sign up for email updates at myth2020.com.

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The Mythologium welcomes Stephanie Zajchowski

Stephanie’s presentation is called, “The Whore of Babylon: Mythemes in Contemporary Reproductive Politics”

The Whore of Babylon is a diabolical female figure in the Book of Revelation, the final book of the canonical Bible. Throughout history this image has been used metaphorically to communicate a threat. The focus on the Whore as a woman and mother infuses the female body with apocalyptic significance and reinforces stereotypical gender roles. This presentation traces how a fundamentalist mythological interpretation of the Whore of Babylon enters into current reproductive politics that aim to bolster moral codes of female procreation. Focusing on religious imagery associated with the Whore of Babylon in conversation with contemporary socio-political discourses, the project identifies three mythemes: False Religion and Deception, Empire, and Monstrous Births. Attentive to the reciprocating relationship between story and culture, this study shows how these mythemes form a mythological narrative important to meaning-making in contemporary American reproductive dialogues. A feminist critique exposes how the appearance of these themes in anti-abortion discourse influences cultural ideas about gender, sexuality, and reproduction manifesting in public policies that police female reproduction.

About Stephanie:

Stephanie Zajchowski, PhD(c) holds a MA in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute (PGI) and a certification in Spiritual Direction from Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology. Her doctoral dissertation, The Mythology of the Whore of Babylon in Contemporary Reproductive Politics, examines how religious narrative moves beneath the surface of current reproductive politics and emphasizes the importance of reclaiming the female power in the myth of the Whore placing the authority over procreation back within the domain of the procreative body. Stephanie has presented papers at the Association for Women in Mythology (2016), the American Academy of Religion Western Regional Conference (2017), and the Popular Culture Association National Conference (2017, 2019). Her publications appear in PGI’s Mythological Studies Journal (2014) and Between: Literary Journal (2015, 2016). Stephanie lives in Texas. She has worked in corporate marketing at Southwest Airlines, as a docent for the Dallas Museum of Art, and in communications and ministry assistance for the United Methodist Church. Her academic interests focus on the reciprocating relationship between culture and story.

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The Mythologium welcomes Dr. Stacey Simmons

Stacey’s presentation is called, “Not a Heroine’s Journey”

For years we have been told about the Hero’s Journey. In 1988 when Bill Moyers interviewed Jospeh Campbell for The Power of Myth, Moyers asked him about a monomyth for women. Campbell replied that he was sure that there was one, but he had dedicated his life to the Hero’s Journey, so had not found it. The Hero’s Journey has been adapted for women, but it is not a woman’s story. There IS a monomyth for women, that has been discovered in every story with a female protagonist from the descent of Inanna to Wonder Woman. The core of this monomyth tells the story of a divided woman who traverses a path of difficulty, the way markers of this path depend on her separation. She is divided into one of two groups, and treated by family and culture dependent on this lane. As she faces the challenges ahead of her she is offered the end of the journey through symbolic death, either through a “Happily Ever After” life of marriage and children, or through the abjection and isolation of wielding power. If she doesn’t choose one of those terminal points, she has the option of becoming a “Queen” where she must overcome the divide, heal the disparate parts of herself rendered piecemeal in the divide, and then re-emerge, reunited with full self-sovereignty.  Put your ruby or glass slipper on the Path of the Queen.

View Stacey’s PresentationDownload

About Stacey:

Stacey Simmons, MA, PhD, LMFT is a writer, psychotherapist, and former entertainment executive. She studies social psychological phenomena through a mediated lens, and is particularly passionate about women’s stories and animation. Her current research focuses on the discovery of a monomyth for women that is an analog to the Hero’s Journey.  Stacey holds a PhD in Urban Studies with a focus in media psychology, from the University of New Orleans, and an MA in Counseling Psychology with a focus in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. 

You can connect with Stacey through Facebook or her website, www.writewomen.com.

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The Mythologium welcomes Dr. Amy Lawson

Amy’s presentation is called, “Embracing the Beauty of the Feminine: Lessons for Medicine and its Healers from the Myth of Psyche and Eros”

According to James Hillman, “Myths do not ground, they open . . . We may thereby see our ordinary lives embedded in and ennobled by the dramatic and world-creative life of mythical figures.” The myth of Psyche and Eros, a story about development of the feminine, has given new perspective to my journey as a burned-out physician, a wounded healer. Modern medicine has long repressed its more feminine attributes. But Psyche’s journey back to Eros, and especially her fourth labor—retrieving the beauty ointment from Persephone in the underworld—speaks to a healer’s maturation in the masculine field of medicine, regardless of that healer’s gender. This presentation examines the relationship of Psyche and Eros to the relationship between physician and medicine. We will also closely analyze Psyche’s fourth task, looking for lessons that can help medicine’s healers heal themselves. Perhaps the myth of Psyche and Eros can serve to re-ennoble the ordinary lives of today’s doctors by reinvigorating the hidden feminine in medicine, helping it to escape from the underworld and reclaim the healing balm for itself.

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About Amy:

Amy Lawson, M.D., is a practicing pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay area. She is also a third-year graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in Jungian and Archetypal Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California. She is interested in ways depth psychology can be used to reconnect modern medicine with its roots, improve patient experiences, and decrease physician burnout through creation of meaning.

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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.

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The Mythologium welcomes Dr. Elizabeth Wolterink

Elizabeth’s presentation is called, “Beyond the Binary: Trans-sacrality in Vedic and Indigenous American Cultures”


We in the West often think of religion and transgender issues as being at odds. However, there are many religions in which trans-imagery and being is not only accepted, but seen as a sacred aspect of the Divine. This paper examines two examples of this phenomenon: Native American and Vedic traditions. The act of seeing oneself and of being seen, of perceiving one’s own being in the images of myth and belief, connects us to history and culture and is one way in which we construct identity. Reclamation of religious transgender imagery and history not only furthers dialogue between religious and transgender communities, but helps affirm trans modes of being. These mythological images and roles also illuminate ancient wisdom in modern day trans people’s questioning of gender assumptions and of the concretization of binary modes of being.

About Elizabeth:

Elizabeth Wolterink earned her Ph.D. in Mythological Studies with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2017. Her dissertation, Cloaked in Darkness: Feminine Katabasis in Myth and Culture, explored the differences between male and female mythological descents to the underworld and found that female katabatic figures not only have far more agency than is traditionally granted to them, but that they hold important psychological and cultural insights into female identity. Elizabeth has presented at the Western and Midwestern American Academy of Religion as well as at the Parliament of World Religions. She has also worked with youth for over twelve years using myth, depth psychology, philosophy, martial arts, and wilderness skills as means to psychological and spiritual development. Elizabeth guest lectures on mythology and gender for high schools and community organizations and on gender identity and welcoming in churches.

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The Mythologium welcomes Bob Scott

Bob’s talk is called, “San Diego as Archetypal Geography: The Box Canyon as Alchemical Vessel”

City planning can benefit from archetypal psychology by offering a perspective that is absent in the process of planning cities: one that re-visions the city by activating the figural, the metaphorical, and the imaginal as crucial and essential forms of a city’s soul. My talk, and the dissertation from which is it developed, offers a multi-disciplinary, mytho-poetic perspective toward San Diego as city. Through the lens of archetypal psychology, city is approached as subjective being to inform one’s ability to understand, and to relate to, presences that are palpable but invisible in the natural and physical landscapes.

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About Bob:

Bob holds a BA in Geography and an MA in Mythology with an emphasis in Depth Psychology. He is a PhD candidate working on his dissertation, entitled “Poiesis in the Polis: Re-imagining San Diego as Archetypal City.” In a 25-year career in city planning, Bob has observed a broken and outdated mythos toward a city planning process where economics control and where issues of aesthetics and beauty, the subjective elements that stir the soul, have no real part in the city-making process. Bob has always been intrigued by the layout of cities, the magic of natural open spaces, and understanding the psychological underpinnings of what makes a great sense of place. His academic and professional areas of interest are steering him toward a more humanistic and collaborative relationship toward the environment and city.

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The Mythologium welcomes Dr. Edward M. Smink

Edward’s presentation is called, “Who Hugs the Hugger: A Mythology of Self Care”

Once upon a time, or maybe it was many times ago, when you experienced that the sky was falling, that moment of being overwhelmed,  similar to the story of Chicken Little, instead you found the courage to pause and take a deep breath, and somehow a calm came over you and insight emerged. At this moment you entered that liminal space, the land we may call OZ, where imagination took flight birthing  a new call to adventure. Where would we be without the myths to guide and comfort us? Like a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter’s night, or to snuggle up to one we love, or to be captivated by a poem, a novel, a sonata, or a work of art, new insight and wisdom emerged. We become lost in the certitude of that moment, that we are not alone, and are comforted. 

To care for one’s self is such an adventure. While most of us love to be pampered, few of us take the time for self care. The mythology of self care invites the inductee to explore the archetypes of the hero, the caregiver, the lover, the wounded healer, and the practice of hospitality. Travel any way you like. You can walk, hike, sit on the back of a camel, ride in a rickshaw, or sit on an imaginary magic carpet as you become a participant in a pilgrimage that is being assembled. Who are the caregivers among us? We all are, for at the heart of being human is the capacity to care, to reach out to others and to build relationships.

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About Ed:

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 nurse, crisis and pastoral counselor, executive leader, facilitator of mission, ethics, value and leadership formation and community health. He served on local, regional and international committees of value formation in the United  States, Australia, Korea,  England, Spain and Italy.  Edward likes to claim that along with his academic credentials, he has learned most from his experience with colleagues who care for others and from those who needed his services. Edward’s focus includes an emphasis on the development of strengths and the integration of values in personal and professional practice. He is passionate about the universal values and archetypes that unite humankind and with his background in mythological studies, enjoys discovering the unique personal stories of each client that contribute to successful outcomes.

“Who Hugs the Hugger: A Mythology of Self-Care” is gleaned from Edward’s book, The Soul of Caregiving: A Caregiver’s Guide to Healing and Transformation. Learn more at www.soulofcaregiving.com.