Author: Stephanie Zajchowski

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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Dr. Jody Bower

Dr. Bower’s presentation is called “The Heart of the Hero: How Superhero Movies are Re-Imagining the Hero’s Quest Story”

Joseph Campbell tells us in The Hero With a Thousand Faces that once a hero has faced all his trials and succeeded in completing his quest, he can earn the boon of being loved by the feminine, as represented by the Princess—a vague figure who represents “the goddess who is incarnate in every woman . . . mother, sister, mistress, bride.” She is all women, not an individual in her own right.

Marie-Louise von Franz warns us that feminine figures in folk and fairy tales and myths are usually “not a woman’s idea of femininity but rather what Jung called the anima,” and so represent the psychology of men. When Campbell’s hero wakes the sleeping woman, he is awakening his own feminine side that he has suppressed. But awakened or not, he still projects it onto someone else. The feminine remains Other while the hero perceives love as coming from outside him, a gift bestowed on him. He is passive, receiving; love is not something he does.

And yet the archetype of the hero is all about doing!

Our modern myth-making modalities of comic books, film, and television are redressing this issue in origin stories about superheroes. In the new version, love is no longer a reward given to the hero—or the heroine, for modern female superheroes follow a similar story arc—after the quest is finished. Instead, the climactic moment often hinges on the heroic person’s ability to draw upon their innate capacity for love.

In her presentation, cultural mythologist Jody Gentian Bower looks at the origin stories of superheroes, including Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Starlord, Diana the Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Jake Sully, and Harry Potter, as examples of this new version of the hero whose greatest power comes from the heart.

About Dr. Bower

Jody Gentian Bower is a cultural mythologist who earned her PhD in Mythological Studies with a Depth Psychology Emphasis from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2013. She is the author of Jane Eyre’s Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine Story (Quest 2015), based on her dissertation about how women (and some men) have been telling a similar story about female protagonists in novels since the 15th century. She also wrote The Princess Powers Up: Watching the Sleeping Beauties Become Warrior Goddesses (Mandorla 2020), which traces the evolution of fantasy heroines over the last century. She lectures and leads workshops on hero/heroine journeys and blogs about popular culture on jodybower.com.

2023 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Marialuisa Diaz de Leon Zuloaga

Marialuisa’s presentation is called “Embodying the Mythic Wisdom of the Heart by Reimagining and Amplifying Inanna’s Descent”

“Why has your heart led you on the road from which no traveler returns?” Neti, the gatekeeper of the Sumerian Underworld, asks Queen Inanna. From a physiological perspective, the human heart is an organ central to the circulatory system. From an archetypal perspective, the human heart is an organ central to our imagination, intellect, and aesthetic sensitivity. From a mythological perspective, the heart is at the core of an initiatory journey toward wholeness, central to the individuation process.

This presentation amplifies and reimagines Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld as a contemporary embodiment of the wisdom of the heart; that is, following the heart’s calling requires courage, demands an intention, and involves a descent. The mythical motif of the ‘descent’ is a metaphor that acts as the connective tissue between the realm of the body and the realm of imagination. An experiential practice drawing from somatic movement and expressive arts practices will support participants’ own quest into their heart and journey of becoming whole.

About Marialuisa

Marialuisa Diaz de Leon Zuloaga, MA, REAT, MSME, MSMT is a Mexican-American therapist, movement specialist, mythologist, educator, researcher, and performer. Marialuisa’s professional experience in psychology, somatics, and the arts spans twenty-five years and includes work in education, private practice, and community intervention. Marialuisa is the creator of Mythic Life: Embodying Wisdom, Beauty and Courage where she brings her expertise on facilitating meaningful and transformational experiences to women from all over the globe through a forward thinking integration of myth, arts, somatic movement and archetypal psychology (mythiclife.net). She is on faculty at Tamalpa Institute and at Southwestern College and holds the office of President for the ISMETA Board of Directors.

2023 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Dr. Margaret Mendenhall

Dr. Mendenhall’s presentation is called “Mr. Spock from Star Trek: A Popular Culture Icon as Symbol for the Importance of Accepting the Eros Within”

Sometimes wisdom from the heart can come from aliens. Specifically, I believe that the character Mr. Spock from Star Trek can be seen as a symbol of the importance of the integration of material from the Eros-driven unconscious, the heart if you will, into the Logos-driven conscious rational ego. When we first meet him in Star Trek: The Original Series, Spock is introduced as the half-Vulcan science officer. Vulcans are a race that long ago decided to forgo emotions entirely in order to save their species, and Spock tries to suppress all emotions from his troubling half-human self. Yet, in his last appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation, we see an older and wiser Spock who has learned the importance of integrating emotions into his persona, and not only on a personal basis. This paper will argue that the appeal of Mr. Spock and the Star Trek television series and films is one way to spread the idea that emotions of the heart are as important as logic.

About Dr. Mendenhall

Margaret Mendenhall, PhD resides in Long Beach, California and is a graduate of Pacifica Graduate Institute’s Mythological Studies Program. Her blog, My Daily Soul Trek, analyzes Star Trek episodes and films chronologically from a depth psychological perspective (https://mydailysoultrek.com/). Additionally, she has written, performed, and produced two myth-based one-woman shows, and produced and hosted the public access television series Myth Is All Around Us. Margaret is currently at work on her second dissertation which explores how the individuation process is illustrated by Star Trek.

2023 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Helen Slater

Helen’s presentation is called “Images of Refuge and the Awakened Heart in the Demeter Myth”

There are four archetypal images of refuge laced throughout the Demeter narrative from the Demeter and Persephone myth. The path to Eleusis, the olive tree, the well, and the temple highlight how Demeter awakens to her calling as a custodian of the Mysteries.

Using a depth psychological lens, specifically James Hillman’s writings, to understand how refuge is linked with contemplative heart practice, this presentation seeks to bring insight into refuge as a necessary collective experience. The images of refuge that are discussed are then amplified in other sacred texts and myths.

About Helen

Helen Slater is currently a doctoral student in the Myth program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her dissertation, Taking a Seat in the Awakened Heart: The Archetypal Nature of Refuge, examines the collective need for refuge, which is found in myth, fairytales, and sacred texts. She is an actress who has worked in film, television, and stage for the last four decades. As a songwriter, she has composed six original albums, three of which are based on myths and fairytales. For more information, please visit www.helenslater.com.

2023 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Allison Stieger

Allison’s presentation is called “The Archetype of Dionysus and the Heart in Balance: Following Ariadne’s Red Thread”

Ariadne’s path through her own story provides a wonderful archetypal resonance of the loving and growing heart. Her myth begins in the court of her father, where she is treated as an object to be owned and traded for wealth and power. Her partnership with Theseus allows her to escape, and he captures the heart of her youth, then leaves her behind on the beach in Naxos, allowing her to meet and marry Dionysus.

This paper will examine the labyrinthine turns of her journey, and the heart guidance that allowed her to move from a place of stasis governed by the toxic masculine into a place of balance and wholeness in her marriage with Dionysus. The archetype of Dionysus holds a beautiful balance between masculine and feminine energies, and between love and ecstasy. Ariadne’s journey provides wonderful guidance for modern women on how to achieve such a balance in our own lives, whether partnered or not.

About Allison

Allison Stieger, M.A., is a writer, speaker, coach, and workshop leader, focusing on the movement of archetypal energies in modern life and working with women on how to understand and change their narratives. She lives in Seattle with her husband of 20 years and two teenage sons.

2023 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Jennie Wiley

Jennie’s presentation is called “The Heart in Exile: The Religious Function and the QAnon Conspiracy Theory”

The religious function is the heart of the psyche, pumping the life-blood of archetypal themes into psychological experience through symbols and images. This flow brings with it meaning and self-understanding through personal, numinous experience. When this image flow is obstructed by fundamentalism and/or conspiratorial thinking, the individual is disconnected from personal numinosity but not from the ceaseless injection of mythic images. The substitution of lesser experiences can occur in search of the ecstatic fear and fascination to be found in immediate contact with the heart of the psyche. This can create a condition analogous to exile for the symbolic function, a wandering repression projected onto people, political parties, and other “god” substitutions. The QAnon conspiracy is an example. The mythic images streaming through the Q-anon phenomenon function as a compensation to the fundamentalist attitudes which can create a sense of disconnection from intrinsic meaning. The graphic mythic themes are attempts to return the heart from its exiled condition and to its proper place at the center of the psyche. I will explore the mythic themes of QAnon and how, out of exile, they might be able to play a role in re-connecting the psychic heart to the symbolic function and thus the person to their own numinous experiences.

About Jennie

Jennie Wiley has an MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh and an MA in Depth Psychology, Jungian and Archetypal studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is a psychology professor for the SUNY system at Herkimer College and teaches both on campus and in the College in Prison program. She is the author of Hosting Radical Otherness, published in the journal Quadrant and Metaphor, Metaphysics, and Sphota published in the International Journal of Humanities, Art and Social Studies. Wiley is a dissertation candidate at Pacifica Graduate Institute studying the QAnon conspiracy theory.

2023 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Johanna Fisher

Johanna’s presentation is called “Three Faces of Love”

The heart is a biological organ and metaphorical receptacle of love. It has inspired great art, great music, great poetry, stories, great passion, and at times, responses to suffering. The heart is a great mystery, however, it is the center of what it means to be human, to be alive, or to be a god. There are many myths of creation, marriage, and revenge that suggest how we might understand this organ, this
receptacle of love. Myths that tell us that goddesses and gods “so loved the world” they created the earth and all that sustains us. These are acts of love. Yet, the heart that is violated or hurt could be motivation to destroy the world, humankind. The myths tell us this as well. In reading myths, we come to see the complex and universal expressions of love, heart-center expressions that point to rapture, agape, eros, and sometimes redemption.

This paper will trace these expressions of love in three powerful myths, the myth of Isis, the great Mother Goddess of the Universe, Aphrodite, the queen of heaven and earth, and Freyja, the Germanic goddess of love and war.

About Johanna

Johanna Fisher is professor of English at Canisius University. She also serves as co-director of Women and Gender Studies. Johanna lives in both U.S. and Germany. She writes extensively for Europeana, an online repository for digital images from leading museums in Europe. Currently, she is writing a series of articles about the place of public memorials and art with a focus on the work of German public artist, Gunter Demnig. Johanna is also a poet and dancer who has taught ballet to young adults for many years.

2023 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Corinne Bourdeau

Corinne’s presentation is called “The Enchanted Storyteller: Weaving Heart and Myth into Films”

Storytelling is the language of the heart. Powerful environmental storytelling anchors the heart’s connection to nature and the environmental world. For centuries, storytellers from J.R.R. Tolkien to Beatrix Potter have woven the natural world into their storytelling. Today, modern day filmmakers such as James Cameron and Louis Schwartzberg are crafting cinematic masterpieces that celebrate the heart’s connection to the eco world.

In this presentation, Corinne Bourdeau will show the power of storytelling to touch the heart and embrace environmental hope. Focusing on modern day filmmakers and storytellers who are bringing these stories to the big screen, she will showcase current real-life examples of storytelling that touch and engage the heart.

Examples will include:

*An Academy award nominated filmmaker that uses mythical elements and metaphor to craft a compelling story of climate change.

*A leading blockbuster filmmaker taps into indigenous myth to tell a powerful story for the environment that is one of the most successful films of all time.

*A world-renowned filmmaker uses imagery and symbols to celebrate the natural world and the mycelial network and, in the process, encourages us to protect what we love.

This presentation will conclude with suggested films and reading to enhance the environmental heart.

About Corinne

Corinne Bourdeau is the founder and president of 360 Degree Communications, a leading boutique entertainment marketing company that has worked on films with strong environmental and social justice themes, including Free Solo, Biggest Little Farm, The Cove, and Fantastic Fungi.

2023 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Dr. Katherine Bailes

Dr. Bailes’s presentation is called “Death, She Sings a Heart Red”

The title is a quote from Toni Morrison’s book, Beloved.  In the story, one of the characters, Paul D., describes his heart as a “rusted shut tobacco tin lodged in the place where his heart should be.”  This description resonated with me after reading the book in 1998.  I first read the book in Dr. Dennis Slattery’s Epic Imagination course and revisited it after the recent death of my father. 

In this presentation, I will explore the concept of storing, hiding and/or preserving one’s metaphorical heart, as expressed by Morrison’s characters in Beloved, Hesiod’s Pandora, Greek myths of Zagreus Dionysus, and my own experiences.  After summarizing the examples from literature, I will explore the ritual performed by Baby Suggs in Beloved, and the background for such trauma-inspired rituals found in the worship of Dionysus.  I will offer up sample rituals and/or a simple guide for creating a personal ritual for those who want to open the “box” where their own heart might be stored.  

About Dr. Bailes

Katherine J. Bailes, JD, PhD is a practicing attorney and an adjunct professor of mythological studies at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas. Dr. Bailes holds a BFA in painting from the University of North Texas and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Kansas, School of Law. She obtained a master’s degree and PhD from Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, California. Her dissertation entitled “The Themis Principle: Mystery and Irrationality in the U.S. Legal System” focuses on the mythological aspects of the law as expressed in ancient cultures through goddesses such as Athena, Themis, Inanna, and Maat. She serves in a variety of leadership positions in art, law, and teaching, successfully combining these fields through her understanding of story and the human capacity for myth making.

To hear Dr. Bailes’s talk and many others, join us at the Mythologium!

The Mythologium is a conference for mythologists and friends of myth. This year’s Mythologium will be held July 28-30 in-person and online in the Pacific time zone.

Learn more and register
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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Dr. Roxanne Bodsworth

Dr. Bodsworth’s presentation is called “In Pursuit of Love: the Female Hero’s Journey in Irish Mythology”

In Irish mythological tales such as Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada Agus Ghráinne: (The Pursuit of Diarmaid and Gráinne) and Longes mac nUislenn (The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu), when the woman is led by her heart and, in turn, leads a man away from his social roles and responsibilities, the social fabric is undone and tragedy follows in her wake.

In this paper, I examine how the trajectory of the female protagonist in these tales deviates from the traditional pattern of the male hero’s journey as elucidated firstly by Joseph Campbell and which was later developed as a framing tool for creating contemporary myths. Feminist scholars such as Maureen Murdock and Susan Lichtman responded to Campbell by developing gynocentric models that aligned with storytelling for women but were ideological rather than reflective of established mythological patterns. I propose a very different model that considers the female hero’s journey in the context of the social-cultural function of mythology as antagonistic to a female hero. The female hero is one who persists in following her heart to arrive at a place which, ultimately, results in positive change for the community, whether it is welcomed or not.

About Dr. Bodsworth

Roxanne Bodsworth is a poet, celebrant and farmer living in Bpangerang country, Australia. She is an adjunct researcher with Charles Sturt University and achieved her PhD at Victoria University in 2020 with a feminist reconstruction of Irish mythology in prosimetric form. Her poetry has been published in several journals under the pen-name of ‘Therese,’ including The Incompleteness Book II and Lockdown Poetry. She is widely published in a range of genres, including articles in the peer-reviewed Mythlore and the conference proceedings of Sydney University’s Prophecy, Fate and Memory in the Early Medieval Celtic World (2020).

2023 Mythologium program