This poetry workshop flows from ideas of ecopsychology, developing a theme of nature as alchemical container for the silvering of human artistic, emotional, psychic transformation.
In “Silver and the White Earth,” James Hillman writes about the albedo phase of the work. After the dissolving and fermenting of the nigredo, when we may explore our deepest shadows and pain, a phase of drying and cooling comes along, which Hillman says fosters reflection, like silvering on a mirror. During the albedo we take stock, observe, without judgment or passion. A rest from the rigors of diving into our darkness and bringing up materials to cook and render, the albedo distills, giving us time to separate the fluid of emotions from the sparkling powdery substance left behind. These are not hardened insights or spiritual truths, but different kinds of reflections which have dimensions and shadows of their own, like shadows on snow. Hillman sees them “as blues, as creams, as the wan and pale feelings of grey.”
This workshop offers participants a chance to explore their own silvering through writing about nature, poetry, fantasy, whatever mystic realm calls. We will use prompts, images, poems as starting points for our own silver word-dance.
About Beth Anne
Beth Anne Boardman, RN, MA, PhD lives in California and New Hampshire. She travels and lectures on the Mythology of Sport, Women and Myth, and the Alchemy of Adolescence (her dissertation topic), in addition to consulting as a writer to websites. Recently, Beth has served on the board of the Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association and as Regional Coordinator for local alumni. Her career spans work as a registered nurse, the study of world dance and music, and the profound joy of raising two children. Beth’s writings may be found at http://otherworldpoetry.blogspot.com and https://mythmuse.wordpress.com.
Our first dimension begins with either/or, and our second expands to both/and. I suggest there is a third dimension, the more/than.
Imagine either/or as one black circle and one white circle. Both/and connects these separate two into a mandorla whose eye sees into both, and thus begins one’s awareness of the other. When we evolve to the more/than 3D, the yin/yang tajitu, our consciousness shifts again to a mystical statement of unity, an entanglement that promises to better understand our connections to each other, our environment, and our cosmos.
Mythologists compare a shift of consciousness to walking a labyrinth instead of a maze. Whereas a maze is a bunch of spots that are not connected, seeming like a random play for survival, a labyrinth lays out a path of organized dots to invite contemplation. The drama of twenty-first century life challenges us to survive and to contemplate. But we require more than that to thrive and evolve. When we mythologists remember Plato’s nous and Heraclitus’ flow, Teilhard de Chardin’s omega point and Thich Naht Hanh’s interbeing, we begin a conversation that entangles them all and invites. Let’s also conjure Iain McGilchrist.
About Kathryn
Kathryn has lived for over 30 years in San Luis Obispo, home of the Slo Transit Company, the Slo Real Estate Development Company, and the Slomotion Film Festival, and she likes it more each day. She is finishing a novel (slo-style) about reincarnation through history.
Jonathan’s talk is called “Seeking the Seven: The Lenape myth of Ansisktayèsàk (Pleiades) and Wisdom for a Changing Age”
This paper explores the Lenape myth of Ansisktayèsàk, the constellation known as Pleiades in English and Greek, and looks at four specific symbols that pervade the ancient record and ancestral lands of the Lenape—namely Awèn, Ahsën, Hìtëkw, and Alànkw—or Human, Stone, Tree, and Star (Lenape Language Preservation Project, 2021a; Speck, 1931, pp. 170-173; Hìtakonanu’laxk, 2012, pp. 86-87, 128).
The myth of Ansisktayèsàk reflects the Lenape creation myth, wherein the Great Turtle rose above the waters and on whose back emerged a Great Tree that sprouted both a man and woman, from whom “all humanity descended” (Miller, 2017, p. 1). Furthermore, the myth of Ansisktayèsàk illuminates a belief that humans should be in relationship with Stones, Trees, and Stars. These powerful beings are ancestors whose wisdom and mediation should be sought. Looking at and reflecting on this myth offers both a potent meditation on the importance of human relationships with other forms of life and a model for how to thrive in an age of ecological crisis.
About Jonathan
Jonathan Vaughn, MA, MPA, is doctoral candidate in Depth Psychology—Jungian and Archetypal Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is an experienced nonprofit and university fundraiser, as well as an actor, writer, and photographer. His current research focuses on the psychology of place, particularly in the age of climate crisis.
Amy’s talk is called “Octopus as Other: Lessons We Can Learn from an Underworld Consciousness”
The past decade has brought a resurgence of the octopus. Documentaries, books, and scientific exploration seem to have rediscovered these intelligent-yet-otherworldly beings. What can we learn from them? Turning to myth gives us diverse answers. Norse myth sees the Kraken as a fearsome monster, Native Americans of the Northwest tell stories of the octopus making mortal man her husband, and ancient Hawaiian and Tahitian myths depict Octopus as god of the underworld or as a remnant from an ancient universe. So what is behind this long-held fascination?
This presentation makes the case that Octopus is a symbol for Other and for the unconscious, an alien consciousness that we can experience but never fully understand. We will examine some of the evidence for Octopus intelligence and consciousness, drawing parallels between our conceptions and prejudices about Octopus and the Jungian concept of the Unconscious. When we view Octopus through the lens of ecological consciousness, shining a light on relationships and connections, we can learn more about our relationships with poorly understood parts of nature and of ourselves.
About Amy
I’m a practicing pediatrician with a Master’s in Jungian and Archetypal Studies. I live in San Francisco, and I love interpreting dreams, attending local theater, and experiencing life through a mythological lens.
Kristina’s talk is called “Redeeming the Wasteland”
We are in a wasteland ecology. Both externally and internally. The spiritual emptiness, as T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land” suggests. The land is ravaged, there’s increasing desertification, ocean acidification, the forests are being decimated, and wildlife are dying. We can no longer separate the individual from the collective. All life breathes together. It’s a symbiotic journey.
The wasteland is not just the metaphor of an inner desert, but a world in which barren desolateness is visible all around us. So how do we redeem the inner wasteland? And reawaken a sense of awe, wonder, and reverence for the natural world?
First, we must question why and how the mechanical view of the world came into dominance. When did we eradicate the perception of earth, nature, or matter as sentient? Second, it requires sensing the earth and nature as enspirited, and enquiring how we each individually engage with the world’s aliveness. How do we perceive life in a sacred, animated, ensouled world? Which are the myths that exemplify nature’s self-revealing aliveness? And how can we embody mythic wisdom to experience the soul consciousness of nature?
About Kristina
Kristina is recognized as one of the world’s top female futurists and is also an archetypal consultant and author. Her work focuses on archetypal and mythic patterns and the patterning of nature’s rhythms and their influence on creativity, innovation, and leadership.
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.
In this panel, Maile Kaku, Orpheus Black, and Marcene Gandolfo address the question, how does myth comment on the possibility of an ecological society where diverse voices and traditions all have space to flourish?
Maile Kaku will present on “Hawaiian Akua: Laka as Living Myth, Science and Ecological Awareness”
The Hawaiian word akua is usually translated by the English word “god.” This is misleading. It compels us to see the Hawaiian akua through Western eyes—that is, as supernatural or divine beings. However, in the Hawaiian cosmovision, the akua are not so much “beings” as “doings,” less nouns than verbs. They are the energies of the earth and sky, the active, ongoing processes of nature. Becoming aware of these akua and their (inter)actions is ecological consciousness par excellence.
Maile’s talk will focus on the akua Laka, known in modern terms as the “goddess of the forest.” Laka’s realm expresses the interconnective energies that sustain us all as living beings. Her divine powers are indeed the very stuff of science. Through the prism of this akua, we will see how the sacred, the mythological, the scientific and the ecological are all interwoven.
Indigenous ways of interbeing-with-the-world have always been deeply rooted in ecological knowledge and practice. Seeing the environment as an ecosphere of living myth and nature through non-Western eyes incites us to self-reflexively question our own ways of viewing and engaging with not only the world but mythology itself.
About Maile
Maile Kaku is on a twisting-turning never-ending learning journey and is grateful to all of the teachers who have nurtured and continue to nurture this wondrous journey. She has lived abroad most of her life, worked as a documentary translator and traveled the world. She holds a French postgraduate degree in Histoire et Sémiologie du Texte et de l'Image from the Université de Paris-Diderot and is currently a doctoral candidate in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Maile is also an ongoing learner in the Ulu Ka ‘Ōhiʻa Hula-Consciousness Seminar as well as a dancer and teacher of hula with Hālau Hula O Mānoa, the only traditional school of Hawaiian dance in France. She divides her time between Honolulu, Hawai’i, and Paris, France.
Orpheus Black will present on “The Missing Myth: The Abduction of the Afro Cultural Unconscious”
Myths and stories are soul-making and speak to cultures about origins and creation. Without mythology, a given group of people may be devoid of archetypes that model survival, familial narratives, and a cultural understanding of self and community, along with the roles that one may play in the wider global lens and the cosmos.
The culture of the African-American has been deprived of inclusion in the collective unconscious, namely with regards to the development and cultivation of culture-specific archetypes. Sustained exposure to the forces of colonization included an intentional archetypal erasure, and this played a major role in the disappearance of these narratives among the African-American population. The mythological and archetypal narratives most cultures adopt as their foundation were deleted from the indigenous African population enslaved into the Americas.
We may consider a multitude of other cultures, such as the Greeks, who have created identifiable archetypes and mythologies that give them reference to who they are as a people. The Greek archetypes are synonymous with who they believe themselves to be. These ancient narratives continue to inform a population and culture to the present day. This cultural isolation would become a type of imprisonment for groups such as African-Amerians who, through colonization, had their stories of who they were as a people ripped from their consciousness.
Joseph Campbell’s “Hero with a Thousand Faces” addresses the idea that many cultures share the same hero archetype. Juxtapose these cultures that share a mytho-poetic narrative with one devoid of the hero archetype. It is difficult for the average individual living in the U.S. to name a single hero from African-American history. Consequently, it is difficult for the communities in possession of a hero archetype representation to empathize with the community lacking this connection.
Without mythology, a group of people may be devoid of the cultural unconscious that seeks to produce archetypes. I will discuss the consequences of the African-American population deprived of its mythological inheritance. I aim to guide an exploration of a relevant contemporary phenomenon and propose practices to move forward into a cultural mythos unique to our time, our place, and our people.
About Orpheus
Orpheus Black is a Los Angeles-based public speaker, teacher, thought leader, and somatic visionary who specializes in the application of ancient wisdom in modern day settings. With a helpful practice steeped in spirituality and intimacy, Orpheus is a living bridge between healthy sex and enlightenment. Through a balanced integration of Afro-Buddhism, psycho-sensuality, and Taoist teachings inherent in his martial arts practice, his light-hearted lessons have become sought after internationally, even as counsel to the experts in his field.
Orpheus aims to propel the intellectual and sensual evolution of masculinity both by challenging men to reconnect with its roots and by inviting them to embrace manhood in its fullness, the way strong modern men wish it to be. In this role, he shares insights, offers tools, and speaks against societal norms of shame and repression. He does it all with the earnestness of a therapist, the knowledge of a guru, and the charisma of a stage performer.
Marcene Gandolfo will present on “Ecofeminism and Contemporary Native American Poetry: Linda Hogan’s Mythopoetic Vision”
Native American poet Linda Hogan asserts that mythical narratives depict “the deepest, innermost cultural stories of our human journeys toward spiritual and psychological growth.” Hogan’s poems manifest as contemporary myths, which derive images, themes, and narratives from traditional Native American mythologies and unite the quest for ecological sustainability to the desire for physical and emotional healing and balance. Inspired by ecofeminist theory, Hogan’s work recognizes the connection between the exploitation and degradation of the natural world and the subordination and oppression of women. Hence, Hogan’s poems seek to restore harmonies between the archetypal feminine and the earth.
This presentation explores ecofeminist themes in Hogan’s poetry and includes a close reading of Hogan’s poem “Hunger,” which maps the journey of European fishermen, as they hunt dolphins and sail toward a Native American settlement. Throughout the poem, Hogan creates a juxtaposition between the dolphins and the Native American women that the fishermen violate and subjugate. The poem explores the hunger that compels colonialism, misogyny, and brutality toward the natural world; however, it also explores mythic themes of forgiveness, restoration, and healing.
About Marcene
Marcene Gandolfo’s poems have been published widely in literary journals, including Poet Lore, Bellingham Review, december, and RHINO. In 2014, her debut book, Angles of Departure, won Foreword Reviews’ Silver Award for Poetry. She has taught writing and literature at several northern California colleges and universities. Marcene is currently a PhD candidate in Comparative Mythology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her dissertation explores mythological resonances in the poems of Brigit Pegeen Kelly.
This panel’s title is “Myths to Live (and Die) By: Hands-On Work at the Intersection of Myth and Ecology”
Mythic work often lives at the intersection of the individual and the collective. There is perhaps no place where this is more profound than in work that involves ecological consciousness. Joseph Campbell once said, “When you are in accord with nature, nature will yield its bounty. This is something that is coming up in our consciousness now, with the ecology movement, recognizing that by violating the environment in which we are living, we are really cutting off the energy and source of our own living.“
In what ways do we see the energies of our own living being cut off? What is the mythic relationship between the earth and human beings? What narratives have held warnings about violations of that relationship? What challenges exist when attempting to live from a place of both mythical and ecological health?
In this panel, Maria Souza, Dr. Lori Pye, and Robert Walter discuss their personal work with myth and ecological consciousness. Dr. John Bucher from the Joseph Campbell Foundation moderates.
About Maria
Maria Souza is a Brazilian mythologist, educator and writer. She holds a postgraduate degree in Ecology and Spirituality, and she worked for seven years in the Amazon with indigenous people. Maria fell in love with mythology during her studies in the UK in 2015, and since then she has begun a personal and academic exploration of the topic. Her book, Wild Daughters, draws from mythology and time-worn tales while illuminating the challenges, dangers, beauty, and reality of the first initiations of a woman’s life. Blending ancient wisdom with contemporary culture, Souza’s writings reflect a woman in search of depth in times of superficial ornaments. She runs a mentoring program based on Clarissa Pinkola-Estés' Women Who Run With The Wolves and is the creator and host of the Women and Mythology podcast, hosted as part of the Joseph Campbell Foundation's MythMaker℠ Podcast Network.
About Lori
Dr. Pye is the Founder and President of Viridis Graduate Institute and is a leading voice in the field of ecological psychology (ecopsychology) as an approach to the interconnected challenges of our times. As executive director for international marine organizations, Dr. Pye worked with numerous NGOs to co-develop the Eastern Tropical Pacific Biological Seascape Corridor with the Ministers of the Environment from Costa Rica, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador. As an educator, Dr. Pye teaches internationally and at leading international conferences on diverse cultural issues such as Nature and Human Nature, The Mythology of Violence, and The Aesthetic Nature of Change. Dr. Pye has multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals and continues to contribute to the growing field of ecopsychology. She is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Commission on Education and Communication (CEC), European Ecopsychology Society (EES), International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE) and serves on the Editorial Board for Ecopsychology Journal. Dr. Pye serves on Harrison Middleton University's Humanities Advisory Council and is a board member of From the Heart Film Productions, and Project Satori that aims to provide mental health treatment services to sex trafficking survivors and their families. Dr. Pye serves as faculty at Viridis Graduate Institute and the University of Santa Barbara (UCSB). She formerly taught ecopsychology at Kaweah Delta Mental Health Hospital Psychiatric Residency Program. Her textbook Fundamentals of Ecopsychology is forthcoming from Routledge in 2022.
About Bob
In 1979, Robert Walter began work with Joseph Campbell on several projects, including Campbell's multivolume Historical Atlas of World Mythology, for which Bob became editorial director. As Campbell’s literary executor, following the famed mythologist’s death in 1987, Bob completed and supervised the posthumous publication of the Historical Atlas. In 1990, when Bob and Joseph Campbell’s widow, Jean Erdman, together with his family and close friends, founded the Joseph Campbell Foundation (JCF), Bob was named vice president and executive director. He was appointed JCF president in 1998. He has spoken internationally about the connections between myth and healing.
John Bucher, PhD, moderator
John Bucher is a mythologist and storyteller based out of Hollywood, California. He serves as Creative Director for the Joseph Campbell Foundation and is also an author, podcaster, and speaker. He has worked with companies including Atlas Obscura, 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 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. John teaches writing and story courses in the Los Angeles area and around the world. He holds a PhD in Mythology and Depth Psychology and has spoken on six continents about using the power of story and myth to reframe how individuals, organizations, cultures, and nations are viewed. For more about John’s work, visit tellingabetterstory.com.
10. Ecological consciousness champions individuality
Rather than forcing conformity and control, ecosystems enable and even require every member to thrive as their authentic self.
9. Ecological consciousness makes room for possibility
There’s always room for something new and amazing to emerge in the niches betwixt and between members of an ecosystem.
8. Ecological consciousness fosters community
For an ecosystem to thrive, each member of it must balance individual thriving with support for the collective – and vice versa.
7. Eco-consciousness is fun!
Ecological consciousness enables the liminal space of play and games and laughter, from where we play only for the sake of playing.
6. Eco-consciousness is alive
Ecological consciousness is more about being than it is about thinking – it’s the being of a forest, the being of a city, a self, a living planet.
5. Eco-consciousness values beauty
The perfect fit between members of an ecosystem takes our breath away with its elegance and grace.
4. Eco-consciousness is diverse
The same way that a mythological pantheon gracefully holds many diverse inflections of divinity, ecological thinking gracefully holds diverse voices, cultures, and viewpoints.
3. Eco-consciousness is creative
Non-linear, multi-layered and generative, ecological thinking primes us for breakthrough insights and ideas.
2. Eco-consciousness taps into eco-intelligence
Imagine the individual intelligence of every member of the ecosystem, and the greater intelligence of the ecosystem as a whole. It’s much greater than the sum of its parts.
1. Eco-consciousness is our birthright
As members of the Earth ecosystem, ecological thinking is our first form of thinking. We’re born into it, and we can return to it anytime we want.
Bonus: Eco-consciousness is dynamic!
Ecological consciousness flows with the whole cycle of being, from potential to germination, birth, life, death, and then new life again.
In keeping with the 2022 theme of Myth and Ecological Consciousness, we are thrilled to announce that this year’s keynote speaker will be Dr. Craig Chalquist. Craig is a professor, author, storyteller, and consultant who writes and teaches at the intersection of psyche, story, ecology, and imagination. His Mythologium keynote is called “Terragnosis: Yesterday’s Folklore, Today’s Earthly Wisdom.” Welcome, Craig!
What do the old stories tell us about how to relate to nature, place, element, animals, and planet—and how not to? What are the warnings and wisdoms we discover in the ancient tales when retold for our time? Drawing on the framework of Hermeticism, an Earth-honoring wisdom path originating in Egypt and infusing alchemy, Islamic gnosticism, European Romanticism, depth psychology, spiritual ecology, and now terrapsychology, we will learn how the Way of the Mage can guide our understanding as tales once told around the world return to life in an ecologically troubled time.
Craig Chalquist, PhD is a depth psychologist and ecopsychologist whose teachings and books focus on the intersection of folklore, story, place, nature, and psyche. The former Associate Provost of Pacifica Graduate Institute, he is core faculty in the Department of East-West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. His most recent book is Terrapsychological Inquiry: Restorying Our Relations with Nature, Place, and Planet (Routledge, 2020). He is also author of Myths Among Us: When Timeless Tales Return to Life (World Soul Books, 2018). Visit his website chalquist.com.
