Tag: Depth Psychology

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Mythologium 2021 welcomes Arthur George

Arthur’s talk is called “The Many Levels of Jesus as a Healer”

Jesus was the greatest healer in the Judeo-Christian tradition, whose healings were performed in a mythical setting and described in a mythical text. The stories yield meanings at several levels, which are often as important today as when the stories were first told.

At one level, they are about compassion and love, where the “healer” acting out of such motivations is both developing his/her own spirituality, as well as contributing to social harmony within the community.

At a second level, the healings fit within early Christian theology and thus further the Christian myth. In particular, the stories of healings fit into Jewish and Christian apocalyptic/eschatological mythology whereby the healings, exorcisms, feedings of the multitudes, etc., by Jesus exhibit characteristics of the promised Kingdom of God (e.g., no hunger or disease), meaning that the Kingdom is beginning to appear (called “realized eschatology”).

A third level is that of spiritual healing where the figure of Jesus and his teachings and acts involve concepts of depth psychology that can stimulate individuation and lead to wholeness. In Jesus’s healings, the sick do much of the healing themselves, through faith in what the figure of Jesus represents.

About Arthur

Arthur George is a mythologist, cultural historian, blogger, and winemaker; formerly he was an international lawyer. He has written the award-winning The Mythology of Eden (2014) about the mythology of the biblical Eden story, and before that the leading and award-winning history of St. Petersburg, Russia, entitled St. Petersburg: the First Three Centuries. More recently he has written the peer-reviewed The Mythology of America’s Seasonal Holidays (2021) and The Mythology of Wine. (2021) 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.

2021 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2020 welcomes J. Emile Moss

J. Emile’s talk is called, “Psychic Reality Lost & Found: Evocations in Language and Vision”

The term “psychic” is as fraught as it is interesting: connoting both the neon-lit side street phenomenon of the tarot card reader as well as the complex conceptions of the human psyche found in the psychological tradition, that which is psychic draws a huge range of associations and intellectual responses. C.G. Jung famously asserted that “only psychic existence is immediately verifiable. To the extent that the world does not assume the form of a psychic image, it is virtually non-existent.” In essence, all that we perceive is psychic reality. Through the diverse lenses of divinatory poetics, new comparative mysticism, and depth psychological thought, this presentation begins to explore the primacy of psychic reality and calls for the necessary reinstantiation of the psychic as a broad mode of conception.

About J. Emile

J. Emile Moss is an interdisciplinary poet, musician, mythologist, educator and psychospiritual intuitive based in Portland, Oregon. The J. is for Jesse (they/them, he/him). Jesse received an MA in the study of Mythology with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, as well as a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They are currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Pacifica exploring the jazz musician Sun Ra’s personal mythology. At the core of Jesse’s work is the belief in the deep power of the psyche, the guidance of dreams, the living force of language and poesis, and the revelatory capabilities of narrative – both personal and collective. 

2020 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Dr. Bradley Olson

Bradley’s talk is called, “Thinking Myth: Seeing the Nothing That is not There and the Nothing That Is”

Using poetry, mythic images and stories, I will demonstrate that the compelling power of myth rests upon nothing. There is a nothing at the heart of myth that is not nothing, but is rather a no-thing. A no-thing is a something that should not be confused with a nothing, but developing this discernment is, as Wallace Stevens’ poem, The Snow Man, illustrates is more than a difficult grammatical task, it is an often arduous intellectual and emotional undertaking. But the no-thingness of myth is often overlooked in favor of understanding gods as things in themselves, or even energies, with which one may have some sort of personal connection. Mythic stories and figures are then amalgamated into a kind of catch all, an ersatz deployment of different traditions, times, and locations against the existential dread which results from living an irreducible and fundamentally subjective human life.

One reason this can be so is that so few contemporary people know these stories. If they are familiar with elements of the story or the culture out of which it arises, they may still be unfamiliar with the details. They will still delight in the story because the no-thingness of myth is so present and so powerful.

About Bradley

Bradley Olson, Ph.D., a former police officer, is a writer and a depth psychologist in private practice in Flagstaff, AZ for the past 25 years, and is also a mythologist with a Ph.D. in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Dr. Olson is the editor (and frequent contributor) to the MythBlast series on the Joseph Campbell Foundation website (jcf.org). 

2020 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Sara Lovett

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.

2020 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Linda Marshall

Linda’s talk is called, “Seeking Insight through Athena”

We are currently living with the air of transition hanging heavily all around us. In the tradition of depth psychology, I turn to mythology for insight; and more specifically to the myth of Athena. It was Athena’s mother Metis, already pregnant with Athena, who was swallowed by Zeus when it was foretold that she would give birth to a son who would overthrow his father. What does this swallowing of the feminine and the voice of “other” in order to preserve patriarchal power, have to tell us about the wounding inherent in this country today? I believe that Athena offers a path towards healing when her importance as a mother’s daughter is fully recognized. Understanding Athena as both a mother’s daughter and a father’s daughter, presents the creative possibilities inherent in the interpenetration of the swallowed “other” with the wounded patriarchal culture presently causing such destruction in its determination to maintain control. I would offer that Athena offers a symbolic path towards re-energized possibility when the hidden power and wisdom of the marginalized feminine and the voice of “other” re-emerges in equal voice with the wounded masculine, leading towards a more inclusive image of what it means to be human.

About Linda

Linda holds a Masters in Engaged Humanities and the Creative Life from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is interested in the power of story and the creative impulse in understanding both our personal and our collective lives. She is presently pursuing her PhD in Jungian and Archetypal Studies at Pacifica. She is working on a dissertation focused on the re-telling of Athena’s story and how a fuller understanding of those myths might lead us to a new perspective of the world as we find it today, as well as our individual lives within it.

2020 Mythologium program
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The Mythologium welcomes Arthur George

Art’s presentation is entitled, “Depth Psychology Aspects of the Christian Myth”

Art’s talk will think outside the box of traditional methods of biblical criticism to examine pivotal biblical stories as myth, particularly from the perspective of depth psychology. He will emphasize the Garden of Eden story, the accounts of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the Gnostic Christian myth. Understanding these stories from such a perspective gives us a deeper appreciation of them, which we can then use to enhance our spiritual lives – regardless of whether we are Christians – because that’s what myths can do.

Download Art’s presentation Download

About Art:

Arthur George is a mythologist, cultural historian, blogger, and winemaker; formerly he was an international lawyer. He has written the award-winning The Mythology of Eden (2014) about the mythology of the biblical Eden story, and before that the leading and award-winning history of St. Petersburg, Russia, entitled St. Petersburg: the First Three Centuries. 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. He is currently finishing a book about the mythology underlying our seasonal holidays, and has commenced another about the mythology of wine.

You can find Art’s blog and connect with him at www.mythologymatters.wordpress.com.