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.
Dr. Raffa’s presentation is called “Remyth Your Story: Integrate Your Feminine and Masculine Archetypes with Heart”
Our family and social groups condition us from childhood to hold certain beliefs and attitudes about gender differences. Unawareness of the influence of archetypes traditionally associated with the feminine and masculine principles impedes our ability to live authentic, meaningful lives based on the truths of our hearts.
We can recognize the difference between archetypes and stereotypes, and between inherent archetypes and personal archetypal images, by reflecting on our dreams, emotions, instincts, attitudes, and numinous experiences. Evolving self-awareness leads us away from dependence on the collective and into our personal authority. Fortified by self-acceptance, self-love, and personal meaning, we are empowered to change our life story and follow our hearts to fulfilling work and loving relationships.
After a lengthy and life-transforming spiritual descent, educator, Jungian scholar, and author Jean Benedict Raffa, Ed.D., began an in-depth study of Jungian psychology, mythology, and her dreams. Her books, The Bridge to Wholeness, Dream Theatres of the Soul, the Wilbur Award-winning Healing the Sacred Divide, and the Nautilus Award-winning The Soul’s Twins, are outgrowths of this ongoing inner work. A former teacher, television producer and college professor, Dr. Raffa continues to make presentations about her books. For more information, subscribe to Dr. Raffa’s blog, Matrignosis, and find her on Facebook.
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.
Chanti’s talk is called “Honoring Her Tongues: Art as the Language of the Liminal”
Women, marginalized populations, and “othered” cultures live hypnotized under Apollo’s overpowering spell of rigid rules and toxic masculinity. Unable to survive infinite amounts of persecution, oppression, and isolation, we might pack the little we have left and migrate away from the wisdom and sovereignty of the body. We can instead enter the psychodynamic portal of imagination and creativity, partnering with the mythic images of Dionysus and Olokun to express our wounds and explore the process of healing and integration through dismemberment, dance, and collaboration. Healing, a layered continuum central to soul-making, benefits from acknowledging those graven images—both numinous and grotesque.
This presentation invites you on a journey where the images—the art—share the psychic wound and the healing salve. It provides a space for art as a way of knowing, in and of itself. Perhaps we need new ways of presenting and sharing these images—which, too, is healing.
About Chanti
Chanti Tacoronte-Perez is a Cuban-American creatrix, ritualist, and author. She believes that images speak a profound language; her life’s work is as a translator of the unseen and advocate for the imaginal. She holds a Masters in Engaged Humanities and a Masters in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is currently working on her dissertation on the image of woundedness in relation to the imagination and the creative process as a portal to recovering the marginalized, forgotten, and silenced. Her work and teaching centers imagination, creativity, and deep rest. She teaches workshops and collaborative training focused on creativity, dreaming, intuitive movement, restorative yoga, and yoga nidra. Her passion and aim are to inspire all to rediscover their creative nature by weaving the blessings with the wounds while honoring the land and ancestors.
Sara’s talk is called “Archetypal Voices Within the Body—Pre & Post Quarantine”
As a somatic practitioner during this unprecedented time of Covid, I have witnessed how the health of even my most extroverted clients has slowly shifted archetypally. In this time of imposed quarantine, psyche has taken the collective withdrawal and inhaled it into the bone and marrow of a quarantine that is self-imposed on a much deeper level. There has been a shift in the archetypes we were living pre-quarantine and those that have risen to the surface in an effort to save us within quarantine. We have been left unprepared for the forthcoming conditions of walking side by side and inhaling the breath and touch of another. This presentation explores how the archetypal lived experience has shifted and impacted the artist’s health during quarantine. Through the guidance of these archetypes I explore how we embrace them through open dialogue and consciously wash them through the body. In order to cross the threshold into a world post-quarantine the invitation is to greet who we were in order to understand who we are now. With our new boundaries consciously recognized we are better prepared to step into this new ecology of body/mind/spirit and earth.
About Sara
A somatic oriented educator, Sara Lovett is a writer, performer, and teacher whose work sits at the interface of depth psychology, somatics, and ritual. She holds a BFA in acting from The University of Texas at Austin, and an MA in Somatic Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute where she is pursuing her doctorate. Her research question explores the effects of embodied practices in the self-care of the actor.
Using the self-landscaping process (an art based body-mapping modality), authentic movement and embodied writing, Sara works with artists on deepening their mind/body connection towards healthier physical and mental well-being. In preparation to cross over the threshold from Covid-19 seclusion into eventual emergence, her current classes explore the body in quarantine and its impact on our well-being and shifting perspectives. Sara’s lectures and workshops focus on the connection between mind, body, psyche, the relevance of dreams, the imagination, the power of image and the archetypal. She is the author of the memoir, The Invisible Bones, and the upcoming book, The Friendship Index.
Sara’s talk is called, “The Actor at Risk: Personal Myth as Self-Care”
A four-year study conducted by The British Office for National Statistics showed that artists “are up to four times more likely to commit suicide” (Grae-Hauck, 2018). The actor’s central work tool is their psyche and soma, both of which are most certainly at risk. Actors and the role they play are joined by one common thread: they grow inside of the same body. With every character, actors are asked to live out another’s story, embodying each emotion through the vehicle of their own flesh. Neuroscience tells us that we store emotion and memory in the body, unless it is moved onwards, through and out.
Through a somatic, depth psychological lens this presentation considers how the actor might withstand this mind/body onslaught through a process called self-landscaping (a titrated version of body mapping). Using ritual and an open dialogue with the archetypes who have taken up residence in the body, the actor has the option to stand in the doorway of the myth they are living with an open heart of recognition. As the actor tells their own story, it enables them to embrace another’s from a healthier, more embodied place. Holding onto a stronger sense of self-awareness, the actor waits at the gate for Hermes to deliver the invitation, a sacred contract from the ‘other.’ “Your body is my body, walk me through all that I am.” And the actor will not be afraid, because of the unyielding felt sense of their own story.
About Sara
Sara Lovett M.A. is a writer, performer, and dialect coach who works with actors on self-care and embodied performing. She has a BFA in acting from The University of Texas at Austin, and an M.A in Somatic Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in Somatic Studies in the Depth Psychology program at Pacifica as well. Her research centers on the effects that embodiment practices have on self-care for the actor. She is the author of the memoir, The Invisible Bones, and speaks publicly on abortion healing, releasing shame, and recovering voice.
