The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
Date: Sunday, October 14, 2018
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Free and Open to the Public
OPUS Archives and Research Center is proud to announce our fall RoundTable featuring Christine Downing, PhD, whose collection is housed at and available for research at OPUS.
In this presentation, Dr. Downing will interweave her own family history, her engagement with Freud and Jung, and their engagement with each other. She has selected this as a perfect choice for her OPUS Mythological RoundTable, as it will touch on connections between the personal and professional materials included in her collection.
Dr. Christine Downing helped to develop and is a core faculty member in Pacifica Graduate Institute’s Mythological Studies program. Over her career, Dr. Downing has made significant scholarly contributions to the fields of Religious Studies, Mythology, and Gender Studies through a unique blending of rigorous scholarly work with the personal voice of biographical writing and self-reflection. She earned her undergraduate degree in literature from Swarthmore College and her PhD in Religion and Culture from Drew University, where she was the first female to receive a doctorate. She was appointed the first woman president of the American Academy of Religion in 1974 and is Professor Emeritus in Religious Studies from San Diego State University, where she taught for almost twenty years. She has also taught at the San Diego campus of the California School of Professional Psychology and at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. Dr. Downing has published and edited many books, including The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine.
Dr. Downing’s collection at OPUS Archives and Research Center includes a rich array of research materials, lecture notes, manuscripts, and personal memorabilia, letters, and photographs. Each year, OPUS awards The Christine Downing Dissertation Fellowship (CDDF) award to students in the fields of depth psychology and mythology from any accredited graduate-level institution to utilize OPUS’ collections in their dissertation research.
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featuring winners of the 2018 New Mythos Artists Grant
Date: Saturday, October 6, 2018
Time: 7:30pm
Location: The Lobero Theatre, 33 East Canon Perdido Street, Santa Barbara, CA
Tickets: $40, $30, $15, plus $4 facility fee. Other fees may apply.
Ticket Sales and Information
In the wake of the devastating Thomas Fire and resulting mudflows, we are in search of new ways to understand the patterns underlying the profound transformation we are experiencing among ourselves and our surroundings. For this year, New Mythos grants were offered by OPUS Archives and Research Center to bring together the creative voices from Santa Barbara and Ventura counties for an evening of reflection, healing, and entertainment. Featured artists include awardees Gwendolyn Alley, Robin Bisio, Deanne California, Dane Edmondson, Luther Gerlach, Amy Katz, Christine Penko-Kravetz, RT Livingston, Marco Pinter, Ray Powers, Ethan Turpin, Emily Vizzo, and Rob Write. Out of the Mud and Ashes at the historic Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara promises to evoke and inspire a new mythos to embrace our community.
Due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter, this event may not be suitable for all audiences.
For more information please contact OPUS Administration 805.969.5750 | Email
The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
with Craig Chalquist, PhD
Date: Sunday, August 12, 2018
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Free and Open to the Public
In this Mythological RoundTable presentation, Craig Chalquist, PhD will guide us in exploring connections between mythology and ecology to learn about why storytelling can be a more powerful form of advocacy and education than debates or data by themselves.
Craig Chalquist, PhD is Associate Provost of Pacifica Graduate Institute; Founding Editor of Immanence: The Journal of Applied Mythology, Folktale, and Legend; and author of the recent book Myths Among Us: When Timeless Tales Return to Life. Learn more at Dr. Chalquist’s website.
The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
with Greg Salyer, PhD
Date: Sunday, June 24, 2018
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Free and Open to the Public
The story of Kochininako, or Yellow Woman, comes from the oral tradition of the Laguna Pueblo and it is as old as any myth you know. It is also a very different kind of story. Pueblo novelist Leslie Marmon Silko depicts Yellow Woman as a provocative heroine with profound significance to the contemporary world, and it is through her work that Yellow Woman’s myth will be experienced. Maybe it is a story we need for America now if only because it was born here in the soil and water of the high desert. Join us as we hear the adventures of Kochininako, see the power of her heart, and celebrate the beauty of her spirit.
Greg Salyer, PhD is the President and CEO of the University of Philosophical Research and the Philosophical Research Society. The Society was founded in 1934 by Manly P. Hall, and the University, founded by Obadiah Harris, Ph.D., began in 2001 as an online wisdom school. Dr. Salyer has been a teacher and administrator in higher education for 25 years and has written on mythology, Native American literature, the Bible, and postmodernism.
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Image Credit: Marla Allison
A Special Three-Part Series Exploring Cinema and the Arts
Dates: Three Sundays: March 25, April 8, and May 6, 2018
Time: 5:00pm to 9:00pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Registration is Required
Pacifica Students $65 
Alumni, Seniors, Full-Time Students $75
General Rate $99
A series of three Sunday evening sessions focusing on the mythologies of the nekyia—a Greek word for the journey to the underworld—in film, art history, literature, music, psychology, and graphic media. The nekyia was C.G. Jung’s “Myth of Analysis” throughout the course of his career, and it is an inexhaustible source of images, songs, and stories. The series explores those stories and the archetypal imagery associated with the myth in a broad range of ancient and contemporary manifestations. It will be of special interest to creative professionals—such as filmmakers, writers, artists, photographers, dancers, and musicians—as well as anyone interested in the role of myth and dream in the individuation process. Each session will be from 5:00 to 9:00 on Sunday evening, and will include a presentation followed by a film.
Session 1: The Descent to the Underworld, Past and Present
Presentation: “Mythologies of the Underworld”
Film: Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries
A review of the archetypal imagery and foundational mythologies of the nekyia in stories about couples in quest: Inanna and Dumuzi, Isis and Osiris, Hades and Persephone, Odysseus and Circe, Eros and Psyche, and Dionysus and Ariadne (as depicted in the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii). It then follows the development of the myth in the paintings of the Medieval, Romantic, and Modernist periods, and concludes with its psychological significance in C.G. Jung’s Red Book and the treatment of mental illness and PTSD among military veterans.
Session 2: The Domain of the Faerie Queene
Presentation: “The Nekyia in Folktales and Ballads”
Film: Jean Cocteau’s Belle et Béte
A journey to the otherworld in folktales, such as the Grimms Brothers’ “The Devil and the Three Golden Hairs,” the Russian stories of “Ivan the Cow’s Son” and “Vasilisa the Beautiful,” and folksongs, such “The Erl King,” “Thomas the Rhymer,” and “Tam Lin,” and contemporary versions of songs by Pentangle, Anais Mitchell, and the Grateful Dead.
Session 3: The Romance of the Grail
Presentation: “Journeys to the Otherworld in the Romances of the Grail”
Film: “Monty Python’s Holy Grail”
The presentation begins with a memoir of a trip to France with Joseph Campbell. It then explores the marvelous stories of such Arthurian Knights as Yvain, Lancelot, Gawain, and Parzival in poetry, illuminated manuscripts, Pre-Raphaelite painting, and selected sequences from such films as John Boorman’s Excalibur, Hans Jürgen Syberberg’s Parsifal, and Eric Rohmer’s Perceval. We will also consider Postmodernism’s radical re-figurations of the Quests in paintings of Anselm Kiefer; the novels of Leonora Carrington, Umberto Eco, and Thomas Pynchon; in the songs of The Grateful Dead; and in the Graphic Novel Series, Camelot 2000.
Evans Lansing Smith, PhD, is Chair and Core Faculty of the Mythological Studies Program at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, in Santa Barbara, CA. In the 1970s, he traveled with Joseph Campbell on tours of Northern France, Egypt, and Kenya. He has taught at colleges and institutes in Switzerland, Italy, France, Maryland, Texas, and California, and is the recipient of awards for distinguished teaching from Midwestern State University in Texas, and the Pacifica Graduate Institute in California. His Ph.D. is from The Claremont Graduate School, and he has an M.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch International (London and Dublin), and a B.A. from Williams College. He is the author of ten books (including a recent volume of poems) and numerous articles on comparative literature and mythology. He has given presentations for the C.G. Jung Institutes in Küsnacht and New York City, the Seattle Friends of Jung, the Modern Language Association, the American Association for the Study of Popular Culture, the Study of Myth Conference at Pacifica Graduate Institute, the Ojai Writer’s Conference, and the Casa dei Pesci at Circeo San Felice, in Italy. His edited volume of Joseph Campbell’s writings and lectures on the Grail Romances was published in 2015, and his edition of the Selected Correspondence of Joseph Campbell is forthcoming. For more information see Dr. Smith’s website and blog.
The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica GraduateInstitute, Santa Barbara presents
Date: Sunday, April 22, 2018
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Free and Open to the Public
Mythological material is exploding in popular culture through the medium of comic books, graphic novels, and contemporary superhero cinema. This presentation will examine the “continuing incarnation” of the archetypal “Phoenix Force” over a 35-year span of X-Men history, including her many retellings, resuscitations, and reincarnations. Reading Phoenix, and her sinister emergence as “Dark Phoenix,” alongside a combined historical-critical and feminist depth psychological lens, reveals the enduring cultural legacy – and specificity – of a character that has evolved over decades, largely through the imagination of male authorship. Viewing Phoenix through the category of sexual difference raises questions regarding comic books, male fantasy, and the ability of female characters to carry, withstand, and even subvert the male gaze through the erotic subjectivity of what Lacan referred to as “feminine jouissance.” The presentation will include reflections on the forthcoming film, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and invite the cultural interrogation of “Why Phoenix? Why Now?”
David M. Odorisio, PhD, is the founding Director of The Retreat at Pacifica, a depth psychologically-oriented retreat center on the campus of Pacifica Graduate Institute, as well as Adjunct Faculty in Pacifica’s Mythological Studies MA/PhD program. David’s academic interests focus on the hermeneutic intersections of Depth Psychology and Religious Studies, particularly in the areas of psychoanalysis, Jungian psychology and comparative mysticism. David has published in the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, Quadrant, Philosophy East and West, and the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, among others. He is co-editor of the forthcoming volume, Depth Psychology and Mysticism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). Visit him at A Home For Soul.
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The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
Date: Sunday, October 22, 2017
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Free and Open to the Public
Joseph Campbell was intensely proud of his Irish cultural heritage. Many of Ireland’s deeply rooted traditions, mythic motifs, symbols, and rituals have survived across centuries to compose its unique imaginal inheritance. Join Dr. Colette Kavanagh to explore the Irish mythic imagination and learn how, at a time when we are increasingly disconnected from ancestral thought, soul, nature, and the richness of community life, the Irish, despite modernity, have managed to keep their ancient traditions alive.
Dr. Colette Kavanagh was born and reared in Ireland. She worked for several years with Irish television and traveled the world making film documentary programs about people and their cultures. In 2003, she completed her doctorate in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She now works in Europe as a Cultural Psychologist and lectures internationally.
The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
Date: Sunday, July 16, 2017
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Free and Open to the Public
Both Ugaritic and Tibetan visionary texts offer a rich field of exploration in archetypal studies, specifically for those interested in the alchemical practice of conjuring Deities — living presences who carry the catalytic power to engender profound transformations.
We will explore two ritual passages: the Cosmic Revelation Formula from the Semitic ‘Baal and Anat’ cycle, and the Mountain Smoke Offering Ritual from the Tibetan tantric ‘Life-Force of the Wisdom Holders’ cycle.
Steven D. Goodman, PhD, is Program Director and Core Faculty in Asian Philosophies and Cultures at the California Institute of Integral Studies (San Francisco). He co-edited Tibetan Buddhism: Reason and Revelation (SUNY Press, 1992), and authored The Buddhist Psychology of Awakening (Shambhala, forthcoming).
Heidi Gustafson is an independent artist and translator who lives and works Bellingham, WA. Currently she collaborates with research scientists to study symbolic, alchemical and ritual use of mineral pigments. More about her work can be found online at earlyfutures.com.
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The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
Date: Sunday, April 2, 2017
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Free and Open to the Public
James Hillman’s volume 5 of The Uniform Edition of the Works of James Hillman offers a brilliant reassessment of the alchemical tradition. Of particular interest to Dr. Slattery is the image of the vessel, an object of containment in alchemy. It both contains and disperses. It can be a garden bed or a poem; of particular interest is the vessel as a container whose heat can emanate affection. What contains each of us vessels us and may, under the right temperature application, melt and dissolve those hardened aspects of ourselves in need of dissolution and coagulation. This presentation will entertain the rich image of the vessel in the alchemical process.
Dennis Patrick Slattery, PhD, currently core faculty in the Mythological Studies program, has been teaching for 45 years, from elementary through secondary school, to undergraduate and graduate programs. He is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 24 volumes, including 6 volumes of poetry and one novel. He has also authored over 200 articles in magazines, newspapers, journals and on-line publications. He has for the past 15 years offered riting personal myth retreats in the United States, Canada, Europe and Ireland.
The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
Date: Sunday, March 12, 2017
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Free and Open to the Public
Kore, from the Greek word for Virgin or Maiden, is a most mysterious figure. Youthful, elusive and paradoxical, the Kore is unto-herself, sovereign, yet deeply related. In Jung’s essay “The Psychological Aspects of the Kore” (1951), he makes the astonishing statement that the Kore is a self-figure for women, and has a power that is equivalent to that of the archetypal Mother. These two rarely discussed ideas have significance for women’s psychology, and have direct bearing upon the development of feminine consciousness in both women and men. Who is this figure that is accorded such psychological power and significance? In Greek mythology the Moirai (Fates), Erinyes (Furies) and Horai (Hours), among other triad goddesses, exemplify the Kore archetype. This lecture will explore what this archetype is, the mythology of Korai triad goddesses, and their importance to both the study of the archetypal feminine and women’s psychology.
Safron Rossi, PhD, has spent her life steeped in literature, religion and mythology, fields in which she holds her degrees. She is Associate Core Faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute in the Jungian and Archetypal Studies MA/PhD program, teaching courses on mythology, archetypal symbolism, and scholarly praxis. For many years she was Curator at Opus Archives, home of the Joseph Campbell, James Hillman and Marja Gimbutas collections. Her work focuses on Greek mythology, archetypal psychology, astrology, goddess traditions, and feminist studies. Safron is editor of Joseph Campbell’s Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine (2013). She is also co-editor with Keiron LeGrice of the forthcoming Jung on Astrology (2017). She is currently writing a book on the Kore archetype and triad goddesses from which the lecture material is drawn. You can read more about her work on her website, www.thearchetypaleye.com.
The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
Date: Sunday, January 8, 2017
Time: 5:00pm to 7:00pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA, Classroom G
Free and Open to the Public
In traditional cultures, people come together to listen to the old stories and consider their wisdom and meaning for the present moment. This practice is one of our oldest medicines and teaching forms, one that we still need and can use today to gain insight into cultural and personal concerns. Join Catherine Svehla, Ph.D. for the telling and exploration of the story that we need right now. We’ll use a simple divination method to guide us to the story that needs to be told to the group that gathers.
Dr. Catherine Svehla is an independent scholar, educator, and artist with a PhD in Mythological Studies and Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She creates story-based classes and programs geared toward a popular adult audience that demonstrate the relevance of mythology to contemporary life. Dr. Svehla is the founder of Mythic Mojo and the host of Myth in the Mojave, a bi-weekly podcast with an international audience. She founded and led the High Desert Mythological Roundtable from 2009-2015. In 2010, Dr. Svehla received a New Mythos grant from OPUS Archives for “Blisters On the Way to Bliss: Toward a New Understanding of Heroism,” a project in the Joseph Campbell archives.
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The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
Date: Thursday, September 8, 2016
Time: 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA, Classroom G
Free and Open to the Public
The first event of this revived RoundTable will feature Dr. Evans Lansing Smith with a presentation on the famous Red Chamber at the Villa of Mysteries in Pompeii. Pacifica Graduate Institute Mythological Studies doctoral candidate and RoundTable leader Devon Deimler, will be giving an introduction on the importance of the Villa as the most notorious visual source of the Dionysian.
Dr. Smith has degrees from Williams College, Antioch International, and The Claremont Graduate School. He is the author of ten books and numerous articles on comparative literature and mythology, and has taught at colleges in Switzerland, Maryland, Texas, and California, and at the C.G. Jung Institute in Kusnacht. In the late 1970s, he traveled with Joseph Campbell on study tours of Northern France, Egypt, and Kenya, with a focus on the Arthurian Romances of the Middle Ages and the Mythologies of the Ancient World.
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For more information please contact OPUS Administration 805.969.5750 | Email.
