Maria’s talk is called “Eco-Psychologically Transform The Climate Crisis by Accessing the Force”
Story making, storytelling, and story listening are human superpowers. Seemingly, humankind’s ability to imagine the impossible and make it a reality changed evolutionary history. Yet today, humanity has crossed over the bridge of mystery and into a glacial river of truth–meaning we need to be honest about our rapidly warming Earth.
Yet, the same mythologies from our early beginnings that knitted us into nature’s awe and abundance are what we could be turning into modern narratives.
A new mythology for living into the future will come forward through the tales we imagine today. And needed are the heroes or heroines who are the story makers and story carriers—those who can gallop full speed into the mouth of danger and change where humanity is heading.
A hidden path has appeared that negates living as we always have, and today’s younger generations are creating actionable plans for slowing climate change and re-arranging their futures. From another perspective, we don’t have much time to act, so I suggest preparing for adventures.
All our collective stories are needed to conjure the one perfect solution. A Force so powerful a thousand other ideas get birthed.
As humanity stands at the mythical Crossroads of Fate, our tribal collective seeks kind, generous, and courageously compassionate eco-psychological responses that could bind us into collective action.
About Maria
Maria Felice Cunningham is a story writer, storyteller, and re-seeder of curiosity. She believes hope lives in our ears and courage in our hearts, while wisdom requires listening to the natural world. She is a connector who passes on whispers heard in seashells and she uses stories as her currency.
Maria Felice spent decades in corporate America creating stories and advertising campaigns for capital growth while partnering with targeted non-profits. She is an eco-psychologist, board-certified culture and leadership coach, author, journalist, and doctoral candidate at Viridis Graduate School. Her primary focus is promoting stories, myths and fairy tales to face the challenges of a warming Earth.
This panel is sponsored by iRewild. Thank you, iRewild!
In this panel, Dr. Renda Dionne Madrigal, Dr. Catherine Svehla, and Dr. Annalisa Derr address the question, how do myths and mythic images depict empathy as a critical ingredient for restoring a deeper relationship with the soul of the world?
Dr. Renda Dionne Madrigal will present on “Heart Story Medicine: Indigenous Wisdom for the Modern World”
Are you connected to the stories of the lands you live upon? Young and Saver note that once we lose our ability to construct narrative, we lose ourselves. According to the World Health Organization, loneliness and depression are epidemics today. People do not feel connected to themselves, others, or the natural world. We have to care about something to feel empathy, and to care we have to connect. Our ancestors were deeply connected to place and people. The foundation for this connection is in the old stories, the land-connected stories of the places we live. Stories enchant the world, and an enchanted world is a world in which we are connected to everything around us. Indigenous people have long known that stories carry medicine. Stories contain wisdom, resources, and archetypal energies. This workshop will focus on the Chippewa story of Skywoman, the manitou who created the North American continent. This is the story I worked with as part of my Capstone project at the Applied Compassion Training program at Stanford. This journey began with asking, Who are the ancient female peace keepers? My capstone was aimed at highlighting and revitalizing indigenous female heart medicine contained in traditional stories from around the world. My premise was that when indigenous women’s voices are seen as fiercely and gently compassionate, strength is reclaimed and useful archetypes are made visible once more. Come learn what an ancient manitou from this continent has to teach us about how to live well.
About Renda
Renda Dionne Madrigal, Ph.D., Registered Drama Therapist, Narradrama Trainer, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, was featured on the cover of the February 2018 edition of Mindful Magazine and will be featured as a 2022 Powerful Woman of Mindfulness (August edition). She is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, TA/Advisor for the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Mindfulness Awareness Research Center Teacher Training Program, UCLA Certified Mindfulness Facilitator, certified with the International Mindfulness Teachers Association and Stanford Certified Applied Compassion Educator/Consultant. She is also faculty at the Drama Therapy Institute of Los Angeles and California Indian Nations College, President of Mindful Practice Inc. and works with story medicine (embodied mindfulness, narrative and drama/creative arts).
Dr. Dionne Madrigal specializes in embodied mindfulness-based practices and has been a Licensed Clinical Psychologist for over twenty years. She combines mindfulness, somatic (body-based) therapies, and story in much of the work she does. She is Turtle Mountain Chippewa. Her heritage informs her work. She is involved in healing theater and has appeared in Indigenous plays written by her daughters. In her spare time, she enjoys writing fiction featuring Indigenous female protagonists who save the world. Her book The Mindful Family Guidebook is available through Parallax Press and Penguin Random House and was listed as a Best Book of Mindfulness 2021 by Mindful Magazine. She is currently working on her next book, Story Medicine.
Dr. Catherine Svehla will present on “More Than a Metaphor: ‘The Queen Bee'”
The importance of empathy for members of the more-than-human world is a common theme in fairy tales. In the fairy tale of "The Queen Bee," for example, the youngest brother is ridiculed for a sensitivity that is later rewarded. Stories like this one affirm the value of kindness and reciprocity that extend beyond human society. This is a valuable message and yet there is more to be found in such stories. Curiosity about the lives of our fellow beings in the material world can lead to insights that challenge cultural constructs and deepen awareness of the link between self and Other. This type of investigation makes a broader understanding of relationship and empathy possible.
About Catherine
Catherine Svehla is an independent scholar, storyteller, and teacher with a PhD in Mythological Studies and Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She creates thought-provoking story circles, workshops, and other tools to help people use a mythic and archetypal lens to transform their lives. Catherine is the host of the Myth Matters podcast, an exploration of myth in contemporary life and a member of Joseph Campbell Foundation’s MythMaker℠ Podcast Network. A recognized innovator in the field of mythological studies, Catherine received a New Mythos grant from OPUS Archives and is a member of the Joseph Campbell Foundation Editorial Advisory Group. Learn more at http://www.mythicmojo.com.
Dr. Annalisa Derr will present on “Ecological Empathy: Grief in the Age of the Anthropocene”
Grief is a universal human experience. In many myths, even the gods and goddesses grieve. Not only do they teach us how to grieve, but some of these myths teach that celestial grief can itself cause catastrophic consequences in response to both human and divine folly and ignorance. In the age of the Anthropocene where human impact on climate change is ever more apparent, what can these myths teach us about grief that extends beyond our human-to-human bonds?
In this presentation, I will describe my personal experience with inter-species grief after a tragic encounter with a deceased bald eagle. Examining myths from the Ancient Greek, Hindu, and Mesopotamian traditions, I will also include how I believe mythic expressions of grief can model an ecological empathy for non-human animal life and death.
About Annalisa
Annalisa Derr, PhD completed her doctorate in Mythological Studies with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. The title of her dissertation is Resacralizing Female Blood: Overcoming 'the Myth of Menstrual Danger.' Seeking an embodied approach to her research inquiry, Annalisa developed a site-specific, menstrual art performance series, “She Bleeds the World into Existence.” She also founded Journey to the Goddess TV—an online platform featuring interviews with scholars, artists, activists, and religious practitioners that explores the significance of goddess archetypes for modern women. Annalisa has been a professional actress for over 30 years with a BA in Theater Arts and specialized training in masked and physical theater from internationally renowned teachers in Italy, India, and New York. She is also a Mary Magdalene devotee, an Italophile, and an aspiring Flamenco dancer. You can visit her website at www.journeytothegoddess.voyage.
Dante’s presentation is called, “Japanese Folklore’s ‘The Eight-Hundred Years Buddhist Priestess’: Exploring the ‘Gift of Immortality’ in Japanese-Style Animations and Games”
Japanese folklore’s “The Eight-Hundred Years Buddhist Priestess,” featuring the accidental consumption of a ningyo (Japanese mermaid), has been less well-known than equivalent tales in other ancient mythologies (Nicolae, 2020). Despite bringing this tale to life via Japanese-style modern entertainment, it is still less globally recognized due to the cultural and geographical distance (Sever, 2016). This theoretical and qualitative research fills previous studies’ gaps by investigating how this tale depicted the two most significant Japanese media: Japanese anime (animations) and video games. A Qualitative Meta-analysis Review (QMR) was applied to comprehensively investigate the origins of how movie and game directors developed their contents inspired by this mystical tale (Levitt, 2018). The results indicated that anime reflected the positive side of this myth, specifically the potentials of immortality, while video games portrayed its dark truth. Anime such as ‘Lu over the wall’ reflected human’s curiosity about the Earth’s uncharted corners or a caring relationship between the distinct species as described in the anime ‘Ponyo'(Okuyama, 2015). Meanwhile, video games demonstrated the punishments brought by obsessing with ‘eternal life’ (Dumas, 2018), particularly the Corrupted Monk in ‘Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice’or the eternal curse of famine at the Hanuda village in ‘Forbidden Siren.’ These research outcomes contributed significantly to world mythology and encouraged entertainment creators to consider implementing Japanese mythology into their exclusive content.
Quan Dieu ‘Dante’ Luong holds a bachelor’s degree in English Studies at Hoa Sen University (Vietnam). He has participated in numerous research activities that enriched teaching methodologies and learning materials for English Language Teaching. As a result, Dante’s achievements and contributions are widely recognized by his supervisors, professors, and colleagues.
In 2018, he arrived at Concordia University Chicago to pursue his Master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). After graduating, he performed his internship at the Vietnamese Association of Illinois (VAI), where he developed lesson plans and scheduled English and citizenship courses for Vietnamese immigrants. His interest in mythology originated from his childhood dream of becoming a myth hunter, bringing forgotten tales and myths into the modern world, and motivating people to explore and preserve them. After spending his time reading books, watching films, and doing independent research on myths and legends, he realized their essence and influence on human psychology and inspiration. Implementing old tales to develop new ones is the aspect that fascinates him.
In 2020, he experienced the pain of losing his loved ones due to illness and the COVID pandemic. Attending this year’s Mythologium, Dante looks forward to sharing these unforgettable moments, along with his future ambitions in the field of mythology, with fellow professors and conference audiences here.
Thanks to this year’s Mythologium theme of Myth and Cinema, many presentations will muse upon the mythology of specific films, including:
Babette’s Feast
Being There
Breaking Through the Clouds: The First Women’s National Air Derby
Chocolat
Cold Comfort Farm
El Topo
Enchanted April
Finding the Gold Within
The Goldfinch
Groundhog Day
Indian Horse
Joker
King of Hearts
Lars and the Real Girl
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Mary Magdalene
Minority Report
Neither Wolf Nor Dog
The Night of the Living Dead
Oklahoma
Pink Flamingos
Some Nudity Required
Star Trek: The Next Generation, “The Perfect Mate”
The Wizard of Oz
The Wiz
So pop some popcorn, watch (or re-watch) these amazing movies, and escape into the mythic realm of the silver screen along with the Mythologium community.
