• New Guest Speakers
• Mythic Journeys Programs and Events
• What is the Difference Between the Main Conference and the Pre-Conference?

In this issue, we're proud to announce two new additions to the Mythic Journeys roster of guest speakers and performers.

In addition, we'll explain the structure of the programs, workshops, conversations, and performances at Mythic Journeys 2004. If you're one of the people who've written asking about specific programs or wondering just what you can expect at Mythic Journeys, this is the information for you... at least until we publish the complete schedule late in the first quarter of 2004.

New Guest Speakers

Matthew Fox is a spiritual theologian who has been an ordained priest since 1967. He holds Masters degrees in philosophy and theology from Aquinas Institute and a Doctorate in spirituality, summa cum laude, from the Institutede Paris. A liberation theologian and progressive visionary, he was silenced by the Vatican and later dismissed from the Dominican order. After dismissal he was received as an Episcopal priest by Bishop William Swing of the Diocese of California. Matthew is the founder and president of the University Creation Spirituality (UCS) located in downtown Oakland, California. UCS is unique in its commitment to bring spirit to education and our professions. Much of the inspiration behind UCS stems from the strong responses to Fox's book, The Reinvention of Work, printed in 1996. Matthew is author of 24 books, including the best selling Original Blessing; A Spirituality Named Compassion; Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart's Creation Spirituality in New Translation; Natural Grace (with scientist Rupert Sheldrake), and One River, Many Wells. His most recent book is called Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.

Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D. is the founding president of Pacifica Graduate Institute, a private graduate school offering masters and doctoral programs in psychology and mythological studies. He is a licensed Clinical Psychologist, a Marriage and Family Therapist, and a credentialed public school teacher. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Fielding Institute in 1982, and his Master of Education from the University of California in 1975. His areas of emphasis include depth psychology, dream research, and imaginal and archetypal psychology. His original research centers on a psychodynamic process of “tending the living image,” particularly in the context of dream work. He has conducted dream work seminars for more than 25 years throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Stephen has recorded “DreamTending,” a six-cassette series of audiotapes released by Sounds True. His other publications include: “Dreams are Alive” in Depth Psychology: Meditations in the Field, edited by D. Slattery and L. Corbett, and “Nature Dreaming: Jungian Psychology and the World Unconscious” in T. Roszak, M.Gomes, and A. Kanner (Eds.) Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind.

Be sure to take a look at the Web site for a complete list of participants. We'll update it regularly!

Program and Event Structure

With a conference and performance festival as complex as Mythic Journeys, which features more than 100 speakers, performers, and workshop leaders, it's no surprise that it's taking several months to finalize the schedule of events and workshops. We plan to publish a complete (or close!) schedule toward the end of the first quarter of next year. In the meantime, here is a "sneak preview" of what you can look forward to next June at Mythic Journeys 2004.

DAILY OPENINGS

Each day begins with movement opportunities, including dance, stretching, or tai chi, followed by plenary sessions. The plenary sessions involve some sort of ritual performance (such as Native American Pow Wow dancers, Buddhist chanters, a gospel choir, etc.) followed by a story and a keynote address by one of of keynote speakers. To the maximum extent possible, these will be interactive. The plenary sessions are followed by our main content programs, including conversations, papers, performances, workshops, and more. The main content sessions are divided into two broad categories, the Calls and the Responses. 

THE CALLS

The Calls are the "big idea" events, designed to set our minds and imaginations on fire, the way the Joseph Campbell Power of Myth series did for so many. The Calls include music, theatre, storytelling, author readings, art shows, popular panels, presentations , and academic papers (which should introduce us to new ideas). The Calls are opportunities for speculative discourse.

All Calls will fit into one of four theme categories: Discovering Myth, Experiencing/Expressing Myth, Teaching/Learning Myth, and Living Myth.

In addition to presentations by our headliners and conversations, the Calls include concerts and theatrical performances.

THE RESPONSES

After people have been exposed to the excitement of a program like "The Power of Myth," one fires the mind and the heart, they want to DO something with the new knowledge insight. They want to respond to the call. They want to integrate it into their lives, art, and work. If they can't, the excitement fades.

The Response tracks will help us do just that. Responses are designed to integrate what we’ve experienced in the Calls into specific, practical areas of our lives, such as art, education, business and work, psychology, politics, and more.

The Responses are tracks of themed programs which may or may not follow a specific Call. Some Calls, like the Lady Godiva or An Evening with C.S. Lewis plays, for example, or Ellen Kushner's live performance of her Sound and Spirit radio show, may have responses in different tracks for people with different interests.

These tracks are your choice to learn songwriting or shamanic drumming, mask making, fiction writing, activism, poetry, and more from our guests, some of the very best minds in their fields. Here are your "toolkits" for keeping myth vibrant and relevant in your own life. Response tracks will have specific themes, including:

• Myth in business and work (chaired by Scott Livengood)
• Myth in life and personal development
• Myth in psychology (Hosted by the Atlanta Jung Society and Journey into Wholeness)
• Myth in fiction -- for writers, although readers and critics should also be interested. (Chaired by Cathleen Rountree)
• Myth in visual art
• Myth in politics (Chaired by Sam Keen)
• Myth and the Anima Mundi
• Myth in education
• Myth in poetry
• Myth as a tool for reconnecting with faith traditions/Religion (Chaired by Georgia State University Department of Religion)
• Myth in music
• Myth in performance and media -- theatre, film, acting, puppetry, etc.

Each of these Response Tracks may include panels, talks, and workshops. However, the emphasis should be on making these as practical and experiential as possible. For that reason, we think of them as workshop tracks. Some tracks may last all four days (or both sets of two days) while some may only last one day or part of a day.

At the end of the day, the rooms where each themed response track took place will be set aside for casual “living room” discussions, lead by a speaker. These will happen at the same time as the bardic circles, our evening party/performance/storytelling jam sessions) to give an alternative to those who prefer quiet conversation and reflection to the more crowded jams. These will also serve to sum or or tie together the response tracks.

Mythic Journeys will include other amenities as well, including a market place with an autograph area and performance stage, gathering areas for conversation, a graffiti wall where you can share your story and experiences, and quiet spaces for conversation and reflection. The conference will end with another session similar to the morning plenaries, with ritual performance and an ending keynote.

CHOSING A PATH

Mythic Journeys is a festival, a Spiritual Spoleto to coin James Hillman’s description. A combination of performance festival and conference, it WILL be overwhelming for some, and, with more than a dozen program tracks running, people will have to make hard decisions.

The four themes for the Calls and the focused tracks for the Reponses should make it easier for people to chose their path and find a story. We will provide careful instructions on the Web site, in the plenaries, and the conference brochure offering advice on how to make the most of the conference (to create a story), urging attendees to try a variety from each of the four call themes and from different response categories. We will encourage them to create a “healthy diet” integrating movement, performance, response tracks, and, of course, quiet time for conversation and meditation. We will remind them NOT to try to chose and event in every time block.

However, understanding that some people will still have trouble making decisions and may feel frustrated or overwhelmed. For that reason, we will create a few “guided tours,” recommending some “prepackaged” paths through the content. These are like the Disney World tours for people who know they have limited time, but want to hit the rides that they like best. They have tours for singles, couples, families, adventurous spirits, gardeners, etc. We’ll do the same, creating recommended guided tours for different types of people.

AFTERWARDS

We will invite attendees to tell us their stories from the conference (how it affects them, and what they take away) both during and after the event. To do this, we'll provide a graffiti wall and other forums at the conference, as well as special forums on the new Web site.

Our "end result" is community, and we hope you'll be a part of it, at Mythic Journeys and afterwards. We encourage all of you to stay in touch with one another, and to continue your own mythic journeys. Please share and pass on what you've learned and experienced. Perhaps most importantly, we will remind people what Joseph Campbell really meant when he said "follow your bliss." The hero's journey isn't for the individual alone. It's for society. It's time to make a difference.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MAIN CONFERENCE AND THE IN-DEPTH PRE-CONFERENCE

The major difference between the main conference and the pre-conference is the size of the sessions. In the pre-conference, a workshop on, say, art, psychology, or writing with people like Brian Froud, Marion Woodman, Robert Bly, Joyce Carol Oates, or Charles de Lint, might have only 3 to 10 participants. In other words, the sessions will be intimate. During the main conference, talks, panels, and workshops might contain 50 to 300 people, so they won’t be as intimate or interactive.

In short, the pre-conference is designed to allow 250 of our attendees to interact with our speakers, performers, and workshop leaders on a very personal level, either one-on-one or in small groups.

We expect the pre-conference to sell out very quickly, but don't worry. There is still plenty of exciting and in-depth programming to look forward to at the main event, including talks, performances, and workshops. Remember, both memberships to the main conference only and to all four days include a special Friday evening performance featuring poets Robert Bly and Coleman Barks, accompanied by musicians.

Whichever path you chose, Mythic Journeys is sure to be an experience of a lifetime.

Amaze your friends, demoralize your foes, and be the envy of all the other kids on your block and all the surrounding blocks in your new Mythic Journeys or Mythic Imagination t-shirts.

That's right, you can make a powerful fashion statement and support the Mythic Imagination Institute at the same time. These high-quality garments, featuring our logos printed on 100% heavy cotton T-shirts, are available in small, medium, large, XL, and XXL, and feature our logos printed on The Mythic Journeys shirts feature the logo (above) in hunter green on a beige parchment colored shirt. The Mythic Imagination shirt is available in white with a blue logo (below) or denim blue with a white logo.

The white Mythic Imagination shirt is also available in XXXL.

$15.00 (Includes shipping within the United States. For international shipping, please add $5.00).

Click here to order online using PayPal.

To order by check, please send your payment to:

Mythic Imagination
P. O. Box 669817
Marietta, Georgia 30066-0114

Be sure to let us know which shirt or shirts you want, the sizes, and the shipping information!

If you'd like to volunteer to join the Mythic Imagination team, click here.

Over and above our normal request for volunteers to help before and during the conference, we have an immediate need for people with a firm skill set in the fields to work on our Public Relations Team. People working in this position will handle specific pr beats, should be self-starters capable of working in an autonomous manner. We really need folks who have worked on media campaigns, have experience doing print/TV/radio pitches, writing press releases and press kits, and developing media relations strategies. We are also looking for people with a background in professional journalism, PR interns, or public relation and journalism students.

Additionally, we are seeking volunteers willing to work on the Education Team helping us acquire Continuing Education Units (CEU) for the conference.
 
If you have these talents, the time, and desire to become a “boon companion”, please contact us at volunteer@mythicjourneys.org. We have a committee position for you!

Stay In Touch with Mythic Journeys
 

If you'd like to continue to receive updates (especially if you've received this newsletter as a forward from a friend) please be sure you've registered on the Web site at www.mythicjourneys.org

Celebrate a Celtic Christmas

December 12-13, 2003
Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts
Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Over the past few years, an underground movement in roots music has occurred which, until very recently, escaped the radar screen of mainstream culture. All of this comes as no surprise to those who have flocked for the past ten years to attend the annual Atlanta Celtic Christmas Concert at Emory University. Produced by Emory's W. B. Yeats Foundation under the direction of James W. Flannery, Winship Professor of the Arts and Humanities, the Concert has a double focus. First, it portrays in music, dance, poetry, song and story the extraordinary Christmas traditions of the Celtic lands, many of them dating back to medieval times. Second, it shows how those traditions have had a direct influence on the ways in which many Southerners, particularly in the Appalachian region, continue to celebrate Christmas.

The Concert draws in part upon the talents of some of the top traditional and classical performers in the Atlanta region, several with national and international reputations. These include folk singers Barbara Panter and Maura Nelligan, the four-part close harmony of Nonesuch, The Gateway Irish Mummers, Celtic harper Kelly Stewart, The Buddy O'Reilly Band and Irish tenor James Flannery.

Entertainment can be phenomenally influential. Unfortunately, much of the influence these days is cynical. That may help to explain the remarkable appeal of the Celtic Christmas Concert.   The Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls the Concert “a rollicking yet reverend experience” and regularly chooses it as a “Best Bet” for the Holiday season.   Members of our audience return year after year because, as they often say, the Concert is one of those rare experiences that bridges the gap between so-called “high” and popular entertainment. A special feature of the Concert is that, without at all being “churchy,” it encompasses a wide variety of different religious traditions. Another feature of the Concert is its evocation of the wondrously mystical nature of Celtic spirituality – a tradition that, in its poetic expressiveness and child-like acceptance of the blessedness of ordinary life, is as timeless as the Holiday season itself.

This year for the first time the Atlanta Celtic Christmas Concert will take place at Emory's handsome new Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.   The wonderful acoustics of the Concert hall will enable the production to put a greater emphasis on the magnificent prayer-poems and stories of the early Celtic Christian tradition.   Noted for the layering of imagery drawn from druidic nature worship, Celtic mythology and the Gospels, the artistry of these early Christian liturgical and secular works is among the most beautiful in the Western tradition.  

To the ancient Celts, the world was holy – all the world, not just parts. Thus, with the haunting beauty of traditional Celtic songs, poetry and stories are more lively forms of popular entertainment. A family atmosphere is encouraged by audience interaction, especially in the comic skits of the mummers who enter and exit through the auditorium. Audiences also are captivated by the combination of colorful dancers ranging from winsome six-year-olds to dazzling professionals. Scottish pipes, old time fiddlers, the shimmering strings of a Welsh harp, solo performers and ensembles of all sorts add to the Holiday brew. As Ricky Skaggs said on a recent PBS “News Hour” feature concerning the huge national interest in roots music: “A lot of music today is a boring noise. This music says something. And it says it from the heart.”

Purchase tickets at Emory's Box Office (404-727-5050). General Admission $20; Group discount, Faculty and Staff $16; Emory Students and Children $8.

For further information contact Carol Moser at 404-727-6180.

Call for Submissions: The Artist as Shaman

2004 International Juried Online Symbolist Art Show
March 1, 2004 Entry Deadline

Artists are invited to enter the 2004 International Juried Online Symbolist Art Show, "The Artist As Shaman". Like Shamans, artists have the ability to explore alternative realms. Artists can retrieve healing energy, knowledge, larger truths and ancestral wisdom, to give form to the forces which shape our world. "The Artist As Shaman" invites artists to interpret and share their connection to nature, mystical energies, dreams and visions. The power of the artwork to communicate, heal and shift awareness is the foundation of this year's show. The 2003 event, "The Mythic Quest", attracted almost 400 entries, with $2,000 in cash prizes awarded. The 2002 show, "The Dreamer and the Dreamed" remains archived.

The competition is open to artists and art students. Original two- and three-dimensional art is acceptable including, but not limited to: painting, drawing, printmaking, etching, collage, fibre, digital art, sculpture and photography. Jury TBA. The entry fee is 15.00 dollars/euro/sterling for artists or 5.00 dollars/euro/sterling for art students. Complete details and entry form are available. The show will be unveiled May 1, 2004. Finalists will be showcased one full year through to May 1, 2005. Questions may be directed to the Curators.