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.