Strands of Prayer: The Archetypal Artist

Posted by Angela Borda on Apr 5, 2022 12:41:14 PM

Mary Antonia Wood is the Chair of the M.A. in Depth Psychology and Creativity with Emphasis in the Arts and Humanities at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and has published The Archetypal Artist: Reimagining Creativity and the Call to Create, a book that addresses the confluence of Jungian and archetypal psychologies, the artist, the shaman, and creativity itself. I’m delighted to speak with her about her new book.

Angela: The Archetypal Artist does not shy away from the big questions, Mary! You begin the first chapter asking “What is the soul?” And more specifically, the type of soul work facilitated by the shaman, including the cave painters of Lascaux and Les Trois-Frères, the archetypal ancestors of the artist. In your estimation, what is the relationship between creativity and the soul?

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Posted in: creativity, humanities, storytelling, Engaged Humanities

The Sacred Well Murders: An Interview with Susan Rowland, Ph.D.

Posted by Angela Borda on Mar 2, 2022 4:09:00 PM

Susan Rowland, core faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and author of The Sleuth and the Goddess in Women’s Detective Fiction, among other works of academic writing and fiction, has just had a new book published by Chiron Publications, The Sacred Well Murders. “A simple job turns deadly when Mary Wandwalker, novice detective, is hired to chaperone a young American, Rhiannon, to the Oxford University Summer School on the ancient Celts. Worried by a rhetoric of blood sacrifice, Mary and her operatives, Caroline, and Anna, attend a sacrifice at a sacred well. They discover that those who fail to individuate their gods become possessed by them.” I was delighted to speak with Susan about her new novel, which is available on amazon here.

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Posted in: humanities, collective trauma, storytelling

Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Depth Psychologist?

Posted by Melissa Ruisz Nazario on Jan 9, 2019 10:45:00 AM

A guest blog post by Craig Chalquist, Ph.D., Associate Provost of Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Today is January 9th, which fans of the Great Detective have decided is his birthday. For those into astrology, this would make his natal sun sign studious, hard-working Capricorn. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels give no indication of the time of day Holmes was born, but I have a feeling, given his interests and how he pursued them, that his natal chart is nocturnal. No doubt Virgo, Mercury, Pluto, and Saturn had a lot to say to each other in it, especially in Houses 12 (secrets, mysteries) and 8 (death, rebirth, other people’s money).

I encountered Holmes as a result of committing a crime. When I was in high school, a bully made the mistake of picking on my friends and me. The school authorities did nothing, so I knocked him out at lunchtime and set his locker on fire for good measure.

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Posted in: C.G. Jung, Psychology, alchemy, depth psychology, narrative, storytelling, alchemist, jungian, relationship, relationships

Phoenix Force and Feminine Jouissance: Reading Myth in Comic Books and Pop Culture

Posted by Krystyna Knight on Apr 13, 2018 3:12:29 PM

Phoenix Force and Feminine Jouissance: Reading Myth in Comic Books and Pop Culture. Interview with David M. Odorisio, Ph.D. A Guest Blog Post by Devon Deimler, Ph.D.c.

You began forming your Joseph Campbell Round Table presentation last Fall (2017). We had to postpone the event due to the Thomas Fire and subsequent mudslides. Of course, the mythical phoenix cyclically burns and rises from ashes. What first drew you to the phoenix myth/X-Men character and how has your relationship with it/her transformed after experiencing a wildfire?

 

My plan was to spend the month of December preparing for the January presentation. This was after spending the past year immersed in the Phoenix material and almost obsessively researching every X-Men storyline that involved, referenced, or developed her or her daughter’s character (another Phoenix). I live in a small house in the Toro Canyon area of Santa Barbara County, which became one of the heaviest and prolonged fire-fighting areas during the Thomas Fire. The fire was progressing closer and closer to the County line, and spreading to my surrounding area as I was literally putting together the presentation. At one point it was raining ash on my neighborhood. My yard was a blanket of snowy white ash. The visibility was maybe 10-15 ft. and the air quality outdoors was terrible – pure smoke. Here I am, spending hours indoors each day at work on this research, immersed in images of a fiery female figure and here She is right at my front door.  I reached a point where I had to pause and ask, “Am I invoking this?” Of course it wasn’t personal, but it was personal at the same time, because I’m internalizing and making my own meaning from the experience as we all have for those of us who have lived through it. 

 

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Posted in: symbol, mythological, collective trauma, narrative, storytelling, symbolism, complex

A Glastonbury Romance

Posted by Nikole Hollenitsch on Nov 10, 2017 2:05:19 PM

After Dr. Evans Lansing Smith (Lans) gave a series of lectures on the Grail Romances at the C.G.Jung Institute in Kusnacht, Switzerland, one of his attendees, Dr. Michael Best, introduced himself and proposed planning a trip that would appeal to the analysts and candidates at the institute, and to students and alumni at Pacifica Graduate Institute. This idea has since materialized, and in July 2018, Lans will lead a group of scholars, adventurers, and historical and myth enthusiasts through an intellectual and stimulating tour of Southwestern England.

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Posted in: Mythology, literature, mythological, storytelling

The World Is Made of Stories: The Power of Myth and the Study of Mythology

Posted by Nikole Hollenitsch on Oct 11, 2017 1:20:44 PM

A guest post by Dr. Patrick Mahaffey, Associate Chair and Research Coordinator in the Mythological Studies Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute

We live in a world that is awash in diverse and contentious worldviews. How can we better understand these differences and co-exist in ways that engender peace and harmony rather than strife and conflict? One approach is to appreciate the power of myth. I offer for your consideration five reflections on why the study of myth is one of most enlightening fields of study we can pursue in the contemporary world.

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Posted in: Mythology, narrative, storytelling