Mythologium 2022 welcomes special guests from the Joseph Campbell Foundation

This panel’s title is “Myths to Live (and Die) By: Hands-On Work at the Intersection of Myth and Ecology”

Mythic work often lives at the intersection of the individual and the collective. There is perhaps no place where this is more profound than in work that involves ecological consciousness. Joseph Campbell once said, “When you are in accord with nature, nature will yield its bounty. This is something that is coming up in our consciousness now, with the ecology movement, recognizing that by violating the environment in which we are living, we are really cutting off the energy and source of our own living.

In what ways do we see the energies of our own living being cut off? What is the mythic relationship between the earth and human beings? What narratives have held warnings about violations of that relationship? What challenges exist when attempting to live from a place of both mythical and ecological health?

In this panel, Maria Souza, Dr. Lori Pye, and Robert Walter discuss their personal work with myth and ecological consciousness. Dr. John Bucher from the Joseph Campbell Foundation moderates.

About Maria

Maria Souza is a Brazilian mythologist, educator and writer. She holds a postgraduate degree in Ecology and Spirituality, and she worked for seven years in the Amazon with indigenous people. Maria fell in love with mythology during her studies in the UK in 2015, and since then she has begun a personal and academic exploration of the topic. Her book, Wild Daughters, draws from mythology and time-worn tales while illuminating the challenges, dangers, beauty, and reality of the first initiations of a woman’s life. Blending ancient wisdom with contemporary culture, Souza’s writings reflect a woman in search of depth in times of superficial ornaments. She runs a mentoring program based on Clarissa Pinkola-Estés' Women Who Run With The Wolves and is the creator and host of the Women and Mythology podcast, hosted as part of the Joseph Campbell Foundation's MythMaker℠ Podcast Network.
About Lori

Dr. Pye is the Founder and President of Viridis Graduate Institute and is a leading voice in  the field of ecological psychology (ecopsychology) as an approach to the interconnected challenges of our times. As executive director for international marine organizations, Dr. Pye worked with numerous NGOs to co-develop the Eastern Tropical Pacific Biological Seascape Corridor with the Ministers of the Environment from Costa Rica, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador. As an educator, Dr. Pye teaches internationally and at leading international conferences on diverse cultural issues such as Nature and Human Nature, The Mythology of Violence, and The Aesthetic Nature of Change. Dr. Pye has multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals and continues to contribute to the growing field of ecopsychology. She is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Commission on Education and Communication (CEC), European Ecopsychology Society (EES), International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE) and serves on the Editorial Board for Ecopsychology Journal. Dr. Pye serves on Harrison Middleton University's Humanities Advisory Council and is a board member of From the Heart Film Productions, and Project Satori that aims to provide mental health treatment services to sex trafficking survivors and their families. Dr. Pye serves as faculty at Viridis Graduate Institute and the University of Santa Barbara (UCSB). She formerly taught ecopsychology at Kaweah Delta Mental Health Hospital Psychiatric Residency Program. Her textbook Fundamentals of Ecopsychology is forthcoming from Routledge in 2022.
About Bob

In 1979, Robert Walter began work with Joseph Campbell on several projects, including Campbell's  multivolume Historical Atlas of World Mythology, for which Bob became editorial director. As Campbell’s literary executor, following the famed mythologist’s death in 1987, Bob completed  and supervised the posthumous publication of the Historical Atlas. In 1990, when Bob and  Joseph Campbell’s widow, Jean Erdman, together with his family and close friends, founded the Joseph Campbell Foundation (JCF), Bob was named vice president and executive director.  He was appointed JCF president in 1998. He has spoken internationally about the connections between myth and healing.

John Bucher, PhD, moderator

John Bucher is a mythologist and storyteller based out of Hollywood, California. He serves as Creative Director for the Joseph Campbell Foundation and is also an author, podcaster, and speaker. He has worked with companies including Atlas Obscura, HBO, DC Comics, The History Channel, A24 Films, The John Maxwell Leadership Foundation and served as a consultant and writer for numerous film, television, and Virtual Reality projects. He is the author of six books including the best-selling Storytelling for Virtual Reality, named by BookAuthority as one of the best storytelling books of all time.  Disruptor named him one of the top 25 influencers in Virtual Reality. John teaches writing and story courses in the Los Angeles area and around the world.  He holds a PhD in Mythology and Depth Psychology and has spoken on six continents about using the power of story and myth to reframe how individuals, organizations, cultures, and nations are viewed. For more about John’s work, visit tellingabetterstory.com

Top 10 Reasons We Love Ecological Consciousness

The theme for the 2022 Mythologium is Myth and Ecological Consciousness. and registration closes on July 25.

But why myth and eco-consciousness? Let us count the reasons!

10. Ecological consciousness champions individuality

Rather than forcing conformity and control, ecosystems enable and even require every member to thrive as their authentic self.

9. Ecological consciousness makes room for possibility

There’s always room for something new and amazing to emerge in the niches betwixt and between members of an ecosystem.

8. Ecological consciousness fosters community

For an ecosystem to thrive, each member of it must balance individual thriving with support for the collective – and vice versa.

7. Eco-consciousness is fun!

Ecological consciousness enables the liminal space of play and games and laughter, from where we play only for the sake of playing.

6. Eco-consciousness is alive

Ecological consciousness is more about being than it is about thinking – it’s the being of a forest, the being of a city, a self, a living planet.

5. Eco-consciousness values beauty

The perfect fit between members of an ecosystem takes our breath away with its elegance and grace.

4. Eco-consciousness is diverse

The same way that a mythological pantheon gracefully holds many diverse inflections of divinity, ecological thinking gracefully holds diverse voices, cultures, and viewpoints.

3. Eco-consciousness is creative

Non-linear, multi-layered and generative, ecological thinking primes us for breakthrough insights and ideas.

2. Eco-consciousness taps into eco-intelligence

Imagine the individual intelligence of every member of the ecosystem, and the greater intelligence of the ecosystem as a whole. It’s much greater than the sum of its parts.

1. Eco-consciousness is our birthright

As members of the Earth ecosystem, ecological thinking is our first form of thinking. We’re born into it, and we can return to it anytime we want. 

Bonus: Eco-consciousness is dynamic!

Ecological consciousness flows with the whole cycle of being, from potential to germination, birth, life, death, and then new life again.

Close up view of green eyes looking out from green leafy skin

Mythologium 2022 welcomes our keynote speaker, Dr. Craig Chalquist

In keeping with the 2022 theme of Myth and Ecological Consciousness, we are thrilled to announce that this year’s keynote speaker will be Dr. Craig Chalquist. Craig is a professor, author, storyteller, and consultant who writes and teaches at the intersection of psyche, story, ecology, and imagination. His Mythologium keynote is called “Terragnosis: Yesterday’s Folklore, Today’s Earthly Wisdom.” Welcome, Craig!

Terragnosis: Yesterday’s Folklore, Today’s Earthly Wisdom

What do the old stories tell us about how to relate to nature, place, element, animals, and planet—and how not to? What are the warnings and wisdoms we discover in the ancient tales when retold for our time? Drawing on the framework of Hermeticism, an Earth-honoring wisdom path originating in Egypt and infusing alchemy, Islamic gnosticism, European Romanticism, depth psychology, spiritual ecology, and now terrapsychology, we will learn how the Way of the Mage can guide our understanding as tales once told around the world return to life in an ecologically troubled time.

Craig Chalquist, PhD is a depth psychologist and ecopsychologist whose teachings and books focus on the intersection of folklore, story, place, nature, and psyche. The former Associate Provost of Pacifica Graduate Institute, he is core faculty in the Department of East-West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. His most recent book is Terrapsychological Inquiry: Restorying Our Relations with Nature, Place, and Planet (Routledge, 2020). He is also author of Myths Among Us: When Timeless Tales Return to Life (World Soul Books, 2018). Visit his website chalquist.com

Mythologium 2022 Theme

The 2022 Mythologium will be held July 29-31, 2022, and the theme will be Myth and Ecological Consciousness.

Myth and Ecological Consciousness

Ecological consciousness involves an awareness of the intricate relationships among beings in an ecosystem: animals (including people), plants, places, and things. These connections allow ecosystems to flourish. Becoming aware of those connections brings us closer to awareness of what the Buddhist leader Thich Nhat Hanh calls our “interbeing.” But all too often, we experience what seems like the opposite: an over-focus on individualism and separation, an instinct to harm or be harmed, a fevered hunger for more-more-more. 

How does mythology comment on ecological consciousness? What myths, images, and archetypes foster or subvert eco-consciousness? As mythologists, how can we think and work more ecologically? How can mythic eco-consciousness help us strengthen connections between each other and between groups? What does myth suggest about the balance between eco-consciousness and individual needs, desires, and agency?

Areas of focus

We are especially interested in presentations that center the following areas of focus:

- Colonialism and decolonization
- LGBTQIA voices and issues
- BIPOC voices and issues
- Climate change
- Social justice
- Technology
- Feminism
- Gender
- Politics
- Media

Mythologium 2021 welcomes the sponsored panel, Myth and Restoring Ecological Consciousness

Kayden Baker-McInnis will present on Rewilding the Cultural Imagination to an Ecological Consciousness.

Craig Chalquist, PhD will present on Storied Nature: When Myths Heal the Split Between Us and Everything Else.

Jennifer Degnan Smith will present on The Shape of Water: Restoring Ecological Consciousness.

This panel is sponsored by iRewild. Thank you, iRewild!

iRewild is a global institute for thought leaders who are working to bring the human soul back into conscious relationship with nature.

Mythologium 2021 welcomes Dr. Jennifer Degnan Smith

Jen’s presentation is called “The Shape of Water: Restoring Ecological Consciousness”

Despite the scientific evidence that we are in an environmental crisis, many people have not significantly changed their behavior. This suggests that the crisis cannot be addressed simply through rational arguments and logical means. There is something deeper at play, something powerful in the unconscious level of the collective. Jeffrey Kiehl argued that the “fundamental psychological roots” of the crisis need to be uncovered to solve the problem.

Myth and fairy tales provide a direct route to the unconscious aspects of the collective and can help to identify a path of transformation. One recent fairy-tale film provides insights into the environmental challenges that we are facing. Guillermo del Toro’s, The Shape of Water, brings to life Richard Tarnas’s two “suitors” who demonstrate different ways that we can relate to the world around us. One will keep us on our path of destruction. The other, exemplified through the main character, princess Elisa, provides a new way of relating to the world and transforming our current ecological crisis. Through Elisa’s relationship with the mysterious sea creature, we find an image for a new ecological myth.

This presentation builds on my paper published in the journal of Ecopsychology, March 2019.

This presentation is part of a special panel on Myth and Restoring Ecological Consciousness, sponsored by iRewild. Thank you, iRewild!

About Jen

Jen Degnan Smith, Ph.D. in Archetypal and Jungian Psychology, explores sociocultural issues, particularly those where psychology and economics merge. Her 20-year career in organizational consulting and university teaching spans the US and Europe, and her Ph.D. dissertation examined the modern Greek Economic Crisis through a mythological lens. She is focused on healing and empowering the feminine within individuals and the collective.

Mythologium 2021 welcomes Kayden Baker-McInnis

Kayden’s presentation is called “Rewilding the Cultural Imagination to an Ecological Consciousness”

In The Great Derangement, writer Amitav Ghosh suggests our current climate crisis stems from a crisis of culture and cultural imagination. This lack of imagination furthers our disconnection from the natural world and justifies exploiting ecosystems. As depth psychologists and mythologists have discovered, consciousness deepens and heals by engaging the mythic imagination. Our refusal to embrace myths, what James Hillman calls our soul stories, keeps us in a state of denial with our archetypal reality which our current environmental situations reflect. The mythologies of Dionysus and Artemis in particular can contribute to a healing of this disconnection by way of rewilding and cultivating an ecological consciousness. Both Greek mythic figures offer an entry into the universal archetypes of wilderness, the communal cultivation of the vine and the wild feminine essential to reclaiming our relationship with nature and the wild. A Dionysian and Artemisian consciousness are explored as one way into the ecological consciousness and ecological thinking that is resisted in our current cultural expression. “Seeing through” the ensouled world in this way changes our relationship with the nonhuman and expands our own human ecology to include the world we live in.

This presentation is part of a special panel on Myth and Restoring Ecological Consciousness, sponsored by iRewild. Thank you, iRewild!

About Kayden

Kayden Baker-McInnis is a PhD candidate in Mythological Studies with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology working on an ecological dissertation focusing on the Greek figure Dionysus in relation to nature, body, and gender. She teaches language arts to school-aged students and offers adult myth classes. Her workshops include a humanities-based writing process engaging comparative mythology, cultural studies, and depth psychology in Salt Lake City.

Mythologium 2021 welcomes Dr. Craig Chalquist

Craig’s presentation is called “Storied Nature: When Myths Heal the Split Between Us and Everything Else”

Stories tell us who and where we are. Myths are, among other things, stories that tell us how to relate wisely to the natural world. When we ignore the myths, we tend to relive them darkly, as when oil spills igniting rivers inadvertently but powerfully recall Phlegethon, the fiery river from Greek mythology. Myths from many lands contain warnings and wisdoms for how to live as one species among many.

My presentation will address the following questions:

– How do fossil fuels bring with them the mythology of the Underworld gone crazy?

– What myths do psychologies detached from nature tend to reenact?

– What do the old tales tell us about the consequences of losing alignment with the rules of nature?

– What do they tell us about healing the split in consciousness that opens when we consider ourselves masters of the natural world?

– What does the research methodology Terrapsychological Inquiry offer for healing our relations with Earth as a living animate presence?

This presentation is part of a special panel on Myth and Restoring Ecological Consciousness, sponsored by iRewild. Thank you, iRewild!

About Craig

Craig Chalquist, Ph.D. is core faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies and former Associate Provost of Pacifica Graduate Institute. His books include Myths Among Us (World Soul Books, 2018) and Terrapsychological Inquiry: Restorying Our Relationships with Nature, Place, and Planet (Routledge, 2020). Visit his website Worldrede.com.