The deadline for the 2012 Christine Downing Dissertation Fellowship is quickly approaching!!!

Deadline:  June 30th! Apply for this  annual scholarship which will be awarded to one  dissertation student of any accredited graduate level institution in the fields of depth psychology and mythology.

Once awarded, the winning student must use the collections at OPUS for a significant amount of her or his dissertation research.

The archival collections available for research at OPUS include Joseph Campbell, Marija Gimbutas, James Hillman, Jane and Joseph Wheelwright, Christine Downing, Marion Woodman, Adolf Guggenbühl-Craig, and Katie Sanford.

GUIDELINES

Applicants must demonstrate the necessity of substantial on-site use of OPUS’ collections.

Eligible Candidates. Students in doctoral programs writing within the fields of depth psychology and mythology whose proposal and /or first two chapters of the dissertation has been accepted by their dissertation committee.  Further, the student must plan to use the collections at OPUS for a significant amount of their research.  The fellowship will be awarded September 15, 2012.

Amount and Duration of Fellowship. The fellowship award is $5000.

These funds are for one (1) year of research to be conducted between October 1, 2012 and October 1, 2013.

Dates and Deadlines:

Deadline for Submission: June 30, 2012

Notification of Awarded Grants: September 15, 2012

Selection Committees. Proposals will initially be screened by OPUS staff. Final selection will be made by the Fellowship committee which includes Christine Downing, David Miller, Richard Tarnas and Lyn Cowan.

If You’re Interested.  Please visit our website and review the application and instructions – www.opusarchives.org.

If after reviewing these pages you have further questions, please email cddf@opusarchives.org

Visit our website for more information on guidelines and procedures.

Our April 2012 eNewsletter is now available. Click here to read!

“I have wanted, also, to keep in our minds the common language about the ‘good’ earth’s shadows: soil and dirt; fears of being buried alive; quicksand, sinkholes, and dust bowls; earthquakes and avalanches; dust to dust… the unfathomable autonomous depths. Of these shadows, the figure of Mother Earth herself is the deepest. As Sam Gill contends, the collapsing of many female goddess figures into a single goddess named Earth Mother ‘at least for North America would seem to be historically and ethnographically an error….’  My main aim is to draw us away from imagining the earth as a good mother, passive, nurturing, and supportive, and to recognize the idea of earth to be a complex phenomenon requiring efforts of thoughts and imagination.” (James Hillman, Mythic Figures, pp. 308-319)

Opus Archives and Research Center:  2012 Peace and Reconciliation Travel Grants

Opus is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2012 Peace and Reconciliation Travel Grants. These three doctoral students are in the Depth Psychology with Emphasis in Community Psychology, Liberation Psychology, and Ecopsychology Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Lizzie Rodrigues who will be traveling to Rwanda to study an approach to peace and reconciliation called Healing and Re-Building Our Communities. It is offered through the African Great Lakes Initiative.  She will then be bringing this work home to Santa Barbara and sharing it with mediators.

Linda Ravenswood will be traveling throughout California with Social and Environmental Justice Advocate and Community Theatre Leader, Kristina Wong. With others they will  create a theatre action piece reflecting on aspects of social and environmental justice work with The Environmental Justice League’s 2012 Summer Program for Reconciliation Through Arts project.

Liz MacLeod will be an intern at the Kerulos Center’s Aves Sagradas (Sacred Birds) Sanctuary in Costa Rica. The sanctuary rescues parrots suffering as a result of the pet trade while partnering with indigenous peoples in the region.

Please consider making a donation to this travel fund so that students working in the field of peace and reconciliation at any accredited graduate school can apply next year for the same opportunity. Contact Dr. Safron Rossi, Executive Director – sr@opusarchives.org or (805) 969-5750.

“Māyā is the world of that rippling pond we spoke of, the fractured, sparkling image of reality that is no reality but only its broken surface…. It is when the inner light—the ultimate light that is no light, that is—Brahman-ātman—comes into manifestation that this māyā veil is passed. I once saw a kitten that found itself reflected in a mirror… and thought it was another…. It went at it and at it—and then, suddenly, it got past the mirror and there was no other animal there…. It had lost its object; it didn’t even think of itself really as a subject. And I thought, Well, good gosh, this is an image of māyā exactly.” (Campbell, Myths of Light, pp. 48-49).

“Mythology is the crop which the Old World bore before its soil was exhausted, before the fancy and imagination were affected with blight; and which it still bears, wherever its pristine vigor is unabated. All other literatures endure only as the elms which overshadow our houses; but this is like the great dragon-tree of the Western Isles, as old as mankind, and, whether that does or not, will endure as long; for the decay of other literatures makes the soil in which it thrives.”

From Henry David Thoreau, (1862) “Walking”.

In celebration of James Hillman’s birthday, here are a few of his own words:

“The great men of the past were living realities…because they personified soul’s needs for spiritual ancestors, ideal types, internal guides and mentors who can share our lives with us and inspire them beyond our personal narrowness”  (Re-Visioning Psychology 198).

Read about James’ life  and his archival collection at Opus Archives.

Also check out our latest eNewsletter to see photographs of the exhibit we curated for the Hillman Tribute weekend co-hosted with Pacifica Graduate Institute in March.

Our April 2012 eNewsletter is now available. Click here to read.

Last week Bonnie Bright, founder of Depth Psychology Alliance, and I spoke about Opus, the brilliant scholars whose archives we care for, and the treasures and unexpected finds that await the researcher. You can listen to the 3o minute interview here – The Living Archives: Stories from Opus Archives & Research Center.

Enjoy!