Tag: somatic

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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Marialuisa Diaz de Leon Zuloaga

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.

2023 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2021 welcomes Dr. Nicola Tannion

Nicola’s talk is called “To Heal a Selkie: Immerse in Ancestral Waters”

Irish mythology is often rooted in the ancestral realm either by name or form. The ancestors play a key role in identifying the protagonist’s lineage and the momentum of the journey. In the Celtic Selkie mythology, when her soul was drier than an old discarded bone, the Selkie seized a fortuitous moment and fled. She ran and did not stop until she was back with her clan. Healing began with her return to the ancestral waters. Mythologies provide the reader with a symbolic map, which can be used as a guide throughout different stages of our personal quest. The symbols and geographical textures provide the reader with clues to the type of balm or action that facilitate the healing process. This presentation will utilize depth psychology, somatic studies, and science to access the healing wisdom in this enduring Irish myth. Ever present, the ancestors offer guidance for personal and collective healing. Can we heed their call?

About Nicola

Nicola Tannion, Ph.D. is an academic and spiritual teacher, writer, and bridge-builder with national and international experience. She has an innate ability to draw upon wisdom from the deep wells of the ancient ancestral mysteries, world mythologies, and the collective unconscious. She has taught Individual and Collective Grief at the undergraduate level (Antioch Seattle), presented at national and international conferences, and is a popular corporate speaker. Nicola is currently working with Cluster Arts, Australia’s leading Performing Arts Management Company.

2021 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2021 welcomes Sara Lovett

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.

2021 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