Dr. Surrey’s presentation is called “The Heart of Myth”
We may think of the heart of things as their center and fundamental essence. Myth, as a reflection of reality as it truly is, may touch upon the center and fundamental essence in the most profound way. In order to understand myth and the heart in this way, we must understand the heart of myth. Having an understanding of the heart of myth may help us improve our relationship with it and make its mysterious nature less daunting. This improved relationship with myth may in turn make the prospect of understanding the mystery of self less daunting as well. As mythologists, what we must all strive to do is understand what the heart of myth is so that we may uncover the foundational nature of Being itself.
About Dr. Surrey
Shane Surrey has a PhD and Master of Arts Degree in mythological studies with an emphasis in depth psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in literature, communications, and media from American Jewish University. His main academic interests include examining the relationship between mythology and popular culture as well as exploring various theories pertaining to mythology. Apart from his interests in academia, Shane is also attentive to storytelling in the mediums of video games, comic books, and television. Shane lives in Pasadena, California.
Kristina’s presentation is called “How the Myth of Sisyphus Can Unlock Our Heart Forces“
What can the myth of Sisyphus teach us about the heart? Is it possible to love the drudgery of fruitless labor? Can we develop a heart relationship with the boulder so that it’s no longer a futile task, but rather a process of deep connection and thankfulness? And if we open ourselves up to the presence, beauty, and power of the boulder, might it potentially reveal an even more enriching message and purpose? Can it even become an object of wonder?
About Kristina
Kristina is an author, TEDx speaker, ex-futurist and archetypal consultant.
Art’s talk is called “The Social and Psychological Origins of Myths Denying Climate Change”
Myths have always had social and psychological origins and functions. These narratives help a community interpret the world, achieve identity and unity, and give it and its members meaning and purpose. Myths inevitably stray from the objective verifiable facts needed to make public policy and enact laws. An example is myths denying climate change, e.g., that climate change is not real or not caused by humans; that temperature increases are due to a natural climactic cycle; and that climate scientists cannot be believed, being in league with liberals. My presentation will analyze the rise, function, and circulation of climate change myths in certain communities from the standpoint of depth psychology and sociological dynamics.
About Art
Arthur George is a mythologist, cultural historian, blogger, and winemaker; formerly he was an international lawyer. He has written three mythology books: The Mythology of Eden, The Mythology of America’s Seasonal Holidays, and The Mythology of Wine. His more recent work has focused on myth in contemporary society and politics. 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.
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.
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!
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.
This panel will address “The Myth of the Body and the Body of Myth”
The ancient connection between the body and the stories that humankind has crafted around the body’s functions, purpose, and capabilities has been a key theme in mythological narratives for thousands of years. Healing, both physical and psychological, has been approached through forms ranging from rituals to mindful practices. In this panel, leaders from the Joseph Campbell Foundation will be in conversation with each other and with Renda Dionne Madrigal, PhD, a Turtle Mountain Chippewa clinical psychologist, around Campbell’s ideas concerning myth and healing, as well as practices from the cultures and traditions he studied, including those of First Nations people.
Renda is a Turtle Mountain Chippewa clinical psychologist and UCLA certified mindfulness facilitator. Featured on the cover of Mindful magazine in 2018, her workshops on Mindful Families, Storytelling as Healing, and Theatre of the Oppressed are popular nationally in the United States. She has over 20 years of experience creating and directing evidence-based family and child programs for better health. She regularly incorporates storytelling, writing, and mindfulness into her work. Her new book, The Mindful Family Guidebook, is available from Penguin/Random House.
Bradley Olson, Phd, MythBlast Series Editor at the Joseph Campbell Foundation
Brad is currently a psychotherapist in private practice at Mountain Waves Healing Arts in Flagstaff, Arizona. His work with clients is heavily influenced by his interest in Jungian analytical psychology and mythological studies. Brad is also the author of the acclaimed Falstaff Was My Tutor blog, which earned him a nomination for the 2012 Pushcart Prize in nonfiction.
Robert Walter, President of the Joseph Campbell Foundation
In 1979, Bob 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.
This panel will be moderated by Joanna Gardner, PhD, Senior Editor on the Editorial Advisory Group at the Joseph Campbell Foundation.
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.
Stacey’s presentation is called, “Not a Heroine’s Journey”
For years we have been told about the Hero’s Journey. In 1988 when Bill Moyers interviewed Jospeh Campbell for The Power of Myth, Moyers asked him about a monomyth for women. Campbell replied that he was sure that there was one, but he had dedicated his life to the Hero’s Journey, so had not found it. The Hero’s Journey has been adapted for women, but it is not a woman’s story. There IS a monomyth for women, that has been discovered in every story with a female protagonist from the descent of Inanna to Wonder Woman. The core of this monomyth tells the story of a divided woman who traverses a path of difficulty, the way markers of this path depend on her separation. She is divided into one of two groups, and treated by family and culture dependent on this lane. As she faces the challenges ahead of her she is offered the end of the journey through symbolic death, either through a “Happily Ever After” life of marriage and children, or through the abjection and isolation of wielding power. If she doesn’t choose one of those terminal points, she has the option of becoming a “Queen” where she must overcome the divide, heal the disparate parts of herself rendered piecemeal in the divide, and then re-emerge, reunited with full self-sovereignty. Put your ruby or glass slipper on the Path of the Queen.
Stacey Simmons, MA, PhD, LMFT is a writer, psychotherapist, and former entertainment executive. She studies social psychological phenomena through a mediated lens, and is particularly passionate about women’s stories and animation. Her current research focuses on the discovery of a monomyth for women that is an analog to the Hero’s Journey. Stacey holds a PhD in Urban Studies with a focus in media psychology, from the University of New Orleans, and an MA in Counseling Psychology with a focus in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute.
Edward’s presentation is called, “Who Hugs the Hugger: A Mythology of Self Care”
Once upon a time, or maybe it was many times ago, when you experienced that the sky was falling, that moment of being overwhelmed, similar to the story of Chicken Little, instead you found the courage to pause and take a deep breath, and somehow a calm came over you and insight emerged. At this moment you entered that liminal space, the land we may call OZ, where imagination took flight birthing a new call to adventure. Where would we be without the myths to guide and comfort us? Like a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter’s night, or to snuggle up to one we love, or to be captivated by a poem, a novel, a sonata, or a work of art, new insight and wisdom emerged. We become lost in the certitude of that moment, that we are not alone, and are comforted.
To care for one’s self is such an adventure. While most of us love to be pampered, few of us take the time for self care. The mythology of self care invites the inductee to explore the archetypes of the hero, the caregiver, the lover, the wounded healer, and the practice of hospitality. Travel any way you like. You can walk, hike, sit on the back of a camel, ride in a rickshaw, or sit on an imaginary magic carpet as you become a participant in a pilgrimage that is being assembled. Who are the caregivers among us? We all are, for at the heart of being human is the capacity to care, to reach out to others and to build relationships.
Edward M. Smink, PhD defended his doctoral thesis, “Thresholds of Afflictions: The Heroic Journey of Healing,” at Pacifica in May of 2010 and graduated with a PhD in Depth Psychology. He has over forty years of experience in healthcare as nurse, crisis and pastoral counselor, executive leader, facilitator of mission, ethics, value and leadership formation and community health. He served on local, regional and international committees of value formation in the United States, Australia, Korea, England, Spain and Italy. Edward likes to claim that along with his academic credentials, he has learned most from his experience with colleagues who care for others and from those who needed his services. Edward’s focus includes an emphasis on the development of strengths and the integration of values in personal and professional practice. He is passionate about the universal values and archetypes that unite humankind and with his background in mythological studies, enjoys discovering the unique personal stories of each client that contribute to successful outcomes.
“Who Hugs the Hugger: A Mythology of Self-Care” is gleaned from Edward’s book, The Soul of Caregiving: A Caregiver’s Guide to Healing and Transformation. Learn more atwww.soulofcaregiving.com.
Olivia’s presentation is called, “Teaching Homer’s Odyssey: Where is your Ithaca?”
For several thousand years, students have eagerly devoured the tale of the wandering Odysseus making his way home from the war at Troy. In the world of smartphones, paperless classrooms, and Project Based Learning, does this ancient myth fit today? Absolutely. This presentation seeks to explore how one may teach myth through Homer’s epic poem, the relevance of this text for students seeking a path through all their wanderings, and how to engage students with an ancient text. With two paths, students advocate for their desired level of involvement either through examining “what is your Ithaca” or “how does myth inspire art.” While this project is constructed for secondary education, it may easily be scaffolded for junior high or college level courses.
Olivia Happel, PhD is a Latin, Mythology, Theory of Knowledge, English, and Film Studies teacher at Dos Pueblos High School where she has worked since 2014. There she serves as the Extended Essay Coordinator (a four thousand word research essay comprised by IB students over the junior and senior year). She has created her own curriculum for both the Mythology and Film Studies course at DPHS. Her doctoral dissertation is titled, “That Which Is Not Yet Known: An Alchemical Analysis of Michael Maier’s Arcana Arcanissima.” She has presented at the American Academy of Religion Regional Conference as well as the Pop Culture Association Regional and National Conference. Her academic interests include myth, religious studies, alchemy, and classics. She seeks to pursue the #immutablediamondbody throughout her life, scholarship, and career.
