Author: Stephanie Zajchowski

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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Fatima-Zahra Farahate

Fatima-Zahra’s presentation is called “The Mythic Heart: Exploring the Intersection of Mythology, Astrology, Gender, and the Emotional Center”

The heart has been a powerful symbol throughout history. In astrology, the heart is associated with several celestial bodies, signs, and houses, each with its unique symbolic significance. In this presentation, we will explore the intersection of mythology, astrology, gender, and emotions through an examination of the different heart centers in astrology.

Our journey will start by exploring the ancient astrological myths and archetypes surrounding the heart. We will examine its association with the Moon, Venus, the Fourth House, and the sign of Cancer, all of which have traditionally been linked with the divine feminine archetype. We will also delve into the connection between the spiritual/physical heart and the Sun, a core astrological celestial body traditionally linked with the divine masculine archetype.

However, in our modern world, it’s crucial to have a more inclusive perspective that encompasses a broader range of archetypes and experiences. We will adopt a non-dual stance to examine the similarities between these heart symbols and how they can be reinterpreted in contemporary astrology to reflect a more nuanced understanding of the heart. By doing so, we can redefine what the heart means to us today and explore new insights to reconnect with the inner rhythm of our soul.

Ultimately, our presentation aims to contribute to the conversation around the mythical heart by offering fresh perspectives that will inspire a deeper understanding of this powerful symbol.

About Fatima-Zahra

Fatima-Zahra Farahate, the founder of Living Simplyy, is a Moroccan modern mystic, and a holistic archetypal astrologer with a mission to guide people to the sacred remembrance of their divine nature. Fatima-Zahra offers the seekers the opportunity to dive deep within their psyche and soul journey through the lens of the Zodiac.

2023 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Rebecca M. Farrar, M.A.

Rebecca’s presentation is called “Archetypes of Ecstasy from Witches to the Muse: Negative and Positive Transformational Figures of the Feminine in Myth”

German psychologist and philosopher Erich Neumann believed the evolution of individual consciousness mirrored the same archetypal stages as collective consciousness through mythology. His mythological progression represents a movement from creation, to hero, to transformation myth—with each collective unfolding corresponding to a personal process called “centroversion,” related to Jung’s individuation. Drawing on myths from around the world, Neumann theorized that cultural archetypes evolved over time to reflect more and more individual self-awareness. In his book, The Great Mother, Neumann introduces the concepts of “Negative Transformation Characters” and “Positive Transformation Characters” as archetypal entry points into the projection of ecstasy and transformation in the psyche. While these character complexes may be revered or feared, their goal remains the same—initiators of change and individuation both collectively and personally.

This lecture will delve into examples of these mythological figures ranging from the witch to the muse, particularly as they relate to assisting in their unique gifts of ecstasy upon those who unconsciously seek them.

About Rebecca

Rebecca M. Farrar, M.A. is a writer and archetypal astrologer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She completed her M.A. at the California Institute of Integral Studies in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness (PCC) program. While there, she studied with philosopher and astrologer Richard Tarnas, psychotherapist pioneer Stan Grof, and Earth activist Joanna Macy. Her thesis titled “Stargazing: Re-Enchantment Through Language” combined linguistics, the evolution of consciousness, and the human relationship to the cosmos. She has been a selected speaker at Pacifica Graduate Institute and the American Academy of Religion and her work has appeared in Elle, Reader’s Digest, and SF Gate. When not burying her nose in a book she can be found watching silly Tik Tok videos or wandering in the woods.

2023 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2022 welcomes Randy Eady

Randy’s talk is called “Odin’s Eye: How Ancient Mytho-Poetics Inform Today’s Eco-Conscious Biofield Awareness”

Wondrous and mystical, nature has much to offer. Of particular interest and fascination are natural patterns and shapes that afford intrigue and provide the imaginal taproot for mythmaking and poetics.  In delving into the fascinations of sensoria and the patterning of beings in a patterned universe (via the lens of the “mytho-poetics of ancient wisdom”), more of the empirical presence of nature’s manifest rhythms can become apparent.

This presentation will explore several “biofield” interactions — like the migrating robin’s “Odin eye” and the narwhal’s precisely straight, counterclockwise tusk organ spiral — as these relate to organs of perceptual awareness and, arguably, may have informed the mytho-poetic traditions of ancient long-distance water-bearing travelers. Participants will also be introduced to the nascent field of Transductive Anthropology, an anthropology that listens through and across the ear-centrism of many sound studies, positing vibration as only one vector of inter-sensory connection.

Underscored in this talk is how myth, subsumed in cultural models, still possesses a compass bearing and a calibrated sense of volume, as well as a “revelatory range” of variation that can only go so far in exploring a culture’s boundaries of deviance. Some of these mythic facets can help us balance thinking and perceiving and lead to a mythically eco-sustainable flow of being.

About Randy

Raised as a dual-citizen in Southern Ontario, Canada, and Western New York, Randy Eady spent his formative years on the legacy land of the Pikwàkanagàn and the Tuscarora of the Six Nations near Niagara Falls. Eady left Canada to go to school in New York at SUNY Oswego, where he double-majored in anthropology and sociology with a minor in linguistics. With Dr. Richard Loder, currently Director of Native American Studies Program at Syracuse University, Eady co-presented a thesis on Indian Land Claims and Congressional Backlash at the New York State Sociological Association Conference and went on to obtain a graduate degree at Montana University in Human Development and Therapeutic Counseling. He has served as Assistant Professor and Course Chair of Cultural Anthropology at the USAF Academy in Colorado and as Federal Special Observance Committee Chair for American Indian Heritage cultural programs.

At the USAF Academy he was awarded Outstanding Behavioral Science Instructor for his innovative behavioral approaches to trauma recovery. He created Ko~Sha~Rey Rhythms (KR) Terrapeutics and held positions in the U.S. Defense Department as a trauma therapist and counselor for combat veterans with PTSD and mobility conditions, such as amputee phantom pain phenomena and Parkinson’s disease. He has practiced in residential assisted living treatment facilities and speaks on inter-generational mind/body/spirit issues, animal-assisted therapy practices, and attachment/trauma. In addition, he has fashioned numerous therapy gardens for balance and movement disorder conditions which are advancing research on symptom relief and recovery from a myriad of conditions.

2022 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2022 welcomes Dr. Lynlee Lyckberg

Lynlee’s talk is called “Earth as Self-Adjusting Organism: Anima Mundi as Healing Force in the Physical World”

Plato viewed the cosmos as a single organism that was vitalized by a force greater than its inhabitants. Known as the anima mundi, this force was the mothering soul of the world, responsible for the order and purposiveness of nature, and was believed to be the mediating influence of the stars at a distance. In the 1960s, James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis initiated a contemporary renewal of interest in the environment as a living organism and asserted that all species in the planetary biomass act symbiotically to enhance the life-giving potential of the planet, where the goal of life was global homeostasis with the earth as a self-regulating organism. The Gaia hypothesis helped restore the anima mundi as divine intelligence who heals through self-regulation.

This presentation seeks to elucidate theories like Lovelock’s that contribute to planetary psychology, and explores contemporary healing modalities emerging from Earth as living organism theories. Of particular interest is the work of mycologist Paul Stamets, who explores using mushrooms to heal toxic environmental sites as well as trauma in individuals.

About Lynlee

Lynlee Lyckberg is a California-based artist/educator who maintains a studio and teaching practice in the Nevada City foothills of northern California. She earned her B.A. in Studio Art/Art History from Cal State East Bay, and her M.F.A. in Painting (Consciousness Studies) from John F. Kennedy University. In 2016 she completed her doctorate in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology. She also studied Traditional Chinese Arts and Healing at the University of Hangzhou, China, in 2001. She is currently completing a PsyD, and will begin an art therapy licensing program in the fall.

Her teaching philosophy is that a creative practice is one of the best ways to enhance problem solving skills, and often connects one to deeper ways of knowing and being in the world. Core elements of her teaching practice include the use of dreamwork, myth, and the symbolic image to enhance thinking skills and open the doors to personal creativity.

2022 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2022 welcomes Dr. Robert Scott

Bob’s talk is called “The Story of Lucy, the White Deer of San Diego: A Terrapsychological Inquiry”

In 1975, a white doe, who had taken up a 10-year residence in a park situated just above San Diego’s Old Town, was shot with a tranquilizer dart by animal control officers and later died from an adverse reaction to that dart. Using techniques adapted from terrapsychology, my presentation tells the story of Lucy, the white deer of Presidio Park, coalescing geography (place), history (time), and the mythic imagination to re-imagine a since-forgotten news story into a symbolic image of how Lucy’s death mirrors the death of the once-verdant, now overdeveloped San Diego river valley, the area where she once roamed free. Lucy’s story also offers hope for renewal of the San Diego river valley as a ribbon-like regional open space park stretching from the mountains to the ocean.

About Bob

Robert (Bob) Scott, PhD, holds a BA in Geography and a PhD in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology. In a 30-year professional career in city planning, Bob has observed a broken and outdated mythos around city planning, where economics control and where aesthetics and beauty, the subjective elements that stir the soul, have no real part to play. Bob has always been intrigued by the layout of cities, the magic of natural open spaces, and 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. His dissertation, Encountering San Diego: A City Planner’s Search for a City’s Soul, examines how geography, history, and the mythic imagination inform a city’s genius loci, or spirit of place.

2022 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2022 welcomes Dr. Sunil R. Parab

Sunil’s talk is called “Myth and Ecological Consciousness with Reference to Indian Mythology and Rituals”

Ecological consciousness has always been a core topic in Indian mythology. Indian mythology can be broadly classified into Vedic and Puranic myth. Vedic myth worships various elements of nature as the deities, so the ancient seers of the Vedic era recognize ecological consciousness through mythical symbols, characters, and stories.

In Puranic mythology, we do not see ecological consciousness worshipped directly, but we do see ecological continuity from Vedic myth in the form of symbols and rituals. As proposed by Frazer, the myths serve as charters for the rituals. As proposed by Joseph Campbell, participating in a ritual enables us to participate in the myth. Thus, Indian mythology as whole serves as a foundation for rituals that help us maintain relationships between humans and the environment. This presentation surveys the theme through symbolism and rituals and questions its continuity for the current Indian population’s struggles with urbanization, migration, globalization, and changes in political leadership.

About Sunil

Dr. Sunil R. Parab is Associate Professor at the Doon Institute of Medical Sciences in Dehradun, and a consultant at the Sindhu Veda Research Institute in Sindhudurga. He is a post-graduate practitioner of Ayurveda with an executive degree in healthcare management. He has studied manuscriptology and comparative mythology at the University of Mumbai and is currently studying for a Masters in Indology from Tilak Maharashtra University in Pune. He is a member of the International Association of Comparative Mythology and has been presenting his research in Indian mythology over the past seven years through national and international platforms. He also teaches Ayurveda, Indian philosophy, and Indian mythology through online courses.

2022 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2022 welcomes Johanna Fisher

Johanna’s talk is called “Saving Mother Earth: Gaia’s Return”

One might consider the presence of Gaia and what she can teach us as a way into developing the ecological empathy that will ultimately save us and our beloved planet.

Tracing the Ur-Goddess and what her story can teach us, this talk examines her many aspects in Greek and other mythologies as her stories give us a window into the universe and a meditation on our relationship and treatment of her gift-earth itself. She has been present as Pachamapa in Andean culture, Prithui in Hindu culture, Kokyangwuti in the Hopi tradition and the Spider Grandmother who is with the Sun god, Tawa as creator of the Earth. I argue as well that she is present in the person of Hildegard von Bingen, a twelfth-century mystic who speaks of our need to care for the earth. Hildegard’s appeal is for us to be prophets and warriors in the defense and preservation of Mother Earth. We shall discover that it is in developing a sensitivity to this gift Gaia gives us, that we can find ways into a more reasoned and life sustaining practice of living in the world. Story and myths are powerful tools in which we can make this discovery.

About Johanna

Johanna Fisher is a professor at Canisius College, a Jesuit college in Buffalo, NY. She teaches medieval literature and German Language and Literature and is Co-Director of Women and Gender Studies. Her scholarly interests include twentieth century German literature and poetry as well as representations of gender in medieval literature. Johanna was born in Breitengussbach, Germany, and studied at the University of Erlangen- Nürnberg. When she is not teaching, she resides in Lübeck, Germany.

2022 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2022 welcomes Dr. Mary Lounsbury

Mary’s talk is called “Invisible Weaving at the Liminal Loom”

Birds build nests. Bees make honey. What do humans do? We give form to the imaginal impulse. Yet, facing the challenges of the Anthropocene era, we must question the virtue of “human nature.” Ought we to align with it, or defy it?

A mythological awareness is helpful. Imagine mythology as an invisible weaving, and we are the weavers. The work proceeds, with or without our awareness, but awareness helps us find our way to the rhythms and patterns that shape our lives. Awareness elucidates our continuity with location, elements, and the influences of anima mundi. Awareness helps us better understand each other and ourselves.

This experiential session offers a simple method for group imaginal exploration. Coming together around the liminal loom, we become more aware of our invisible threads. What are others thinking, feeling, and noticing? Where do our threads cross, align, or diverge? We weave a sense of group mythology, to which each relates in their own way.

About Mary

Mary Lounsbury is a mythologist and creative arts facilitator, with a PhD in Mythological Studies with Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, and a BS in Education from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research supports the use of the creative process as means to integrate and enhance intuitive, intellectual, and experiential knowing; addresses the social importance of the mythic imagination, which emerges out of shared experience; and bridges the relationship between Self and Other.

Mary founded Mythos-Sphere in 2016 as a social context for exploring the space between real and pretend. To learn more about her work, please visit her website: https://www.mythos-sphere.com/

2022 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2022 welcomes Dr. Olivia Happel-Block

Olivia’s talk is called “Climb Every Mountain:  Rethinking Ecological Expeditions in Project Possible”

In 2019, Nepalese and Gurkha soldier Nirmal (Nims) Purja decided to climb fourteen of the highest mountains in the world in seven months in order to demonstrate the power of possibility, to bring light to the indigenous Sherpa people, and to highlight the devastating effects of climate change in the highest places in the world. This presentation examines Purja’s journey as told through the documentary 14 Peaks and his book Beyond Possible through a mythological and psychological lens to assess how his perspective allowed him to achieve these record-setting climbs and work for social ecological change.

Climbing tall mountains is a motif found throughout mythology and history, but what happens when the symbolic world of myth meets the real world? Why is it that humanity finds the need to “conquer their mountain”? How does the natural world impact human psychology? This presentation aims to answer these questions and consider how our own mindset can shift towards possibility and how social movements such as Project Possible are able to shift perspectives towards indigenous peoples and the environment.

About Olivia

Olivia Happel-Block, PhD, is a Mythology, IB Theory of Knowledge, AP English, and Film Studies teacher at Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta, CA. There she serves as the Extended Essay Coordinator, Site Council Chairperson, and union representative. She has created her own curriculum for both the Mythology and Film Studies courses 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 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.

2022 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2022 welcomes Arthur George

Art’s talk is called “The Social and Psychological Origins of Myths Denying Climate Change”

Myths have always had social and psychological origins and functions. These narratives help a community interpret the world, achieve identity and unity, and give it and its members meaning and purpose. Myths inevitably stray from the objective verifiable facts needed to make public policy and enact laws. An example is myths denying climate change, e.g., that climate change is not real or not caused by humans; that temperature increases are due to a natural climactic cycle; and that climate scientists cannot be believed, being in league with liberals. My presentation will analyze the rise, function, and circulation of climate change myths in certain communities from the standpoint of depth psychology and sociological dynamics.

About Art

Arthur George is a mythologist, cultural historian, blogger, and winemaker; formerly he was an international lawyer. He has written three mythology books: The Mythology of Eden, The Mythology of America’s Seasonal Holidays, and The Mythology of Wine. His more recent work has focused on myth in contemporary society and politics. 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. You can find his blog and connect with him at www.mythologymatters.wordpress.com.

2022 Mythologium program