Pantheacon (18) – Bringing Myth Alive

My final participation for 2013 Pantheacon was a workshop on Bringing Myth Alive (Techniques to Engage Myth).  I was looking forward to this.  My approach to ritual tends to be psychological, mythic; and I have some attachment to the work of Carl Jung.

 

I was not disappointed.  Jeffrey Albaugh spoke from his background in “depth psychology,” structuring this workshop around storytelling and dreams—specifically the image of the selkie-woman.  He referenced both Jung and James Hillman.

Dreams speak in images, call up personal associations, and then can provoke archetypal amplification.  Reverie allows characters to come forward and speak to you.  I am naturally attracted to this state of mind.

Archetypes are universal, ultimately unknowable patterns.  Paradoxically, all we can know is the archetypal.

In this workshop, we re-imagined the selkie story from alternate viewpoints.  Suppose the man in the story didn’t steal the selkie’s skin; suppose he asks her to stay.  

We discussed archetypes, polarities, and mythic landscapes.  The landscape of a story is usually very important.

I left with a heightened sensitivity to the interactions between autonomous creatures, to the importance of encouraging free choices.

Leaving the workshop, wandering the halls of the hotel, I encountered several people I knew, one of whom I hadn’t seen for years.  I met a woman I knew who read my palms—bringing us immediately closer.  I thought of another woman I’d known online, wondering whether she was somehow a selkie.

And leaving Pantheacon 2013, my head swam with Wagnerian images:  Kings, Wizards, Knights, Flower Maidens, Swans—Lance, Grail, Forbidden Questions.  Tannhauser.  Dreams.

I had a year now to absorb this all, waiting for Pantheacon 2014.