Creative Mythologies: Images of Change and Transformation
Abiquiu Workshops at Ghost Ranch presents a 5 day workshop
with instructors Evan Lansing Smith and Cheryle Van Scoy
March 28 – April 1, 2011
Tuition: $1,200
www.abiquiuworkshops.com

Ancient Stories, Personal Process and Creative Expressions. Joseph Campbell wrote that myth has the power to touch and exhilarate the deepest and most creative energies of the soul. This workshop will explore the imagery and stories of a variety of archetypal themes—such as of Alchemy, Creation, Apocalypse, the Great Goddess, the Labyrinth, and the Descent to the Underworld—with a focus on change and transformation. These offer a rich reservoir of mythologies that can help guide us to new forms of creative expression in times of radical change and breakdown of the old structures.

The workshop will include slide-illustrated presentations, imaginal experiences, explorations of the landscape (inner and outer), and creative expression in the medium of the participant’s choice (such as writing, painting, photography, dance, music, and sculpture utilizing natural materials within the Abiquiu landscape or brought from home).

To register, please contact Walter W. Nelson by phone at 505.865.0921 or by e-mail at info@abiquiuworkshops.com

“Eternity is not a long time; rather, it is another dimension. It is that dimension to which time-thinking shuts us. And so there never was a creation. Rather, there is a continuous creating going on. This energy is pouring into every cell of our being right now, every  board and brick of the buildings we sit in, every grain of sand and wisp of wind” (Joseph Campbell, Myths of Light).

New year, new Campbell book to dive into at our Mythological RoundTable® Group at OPUS! The book is The Mythic Dimension and contains a selection of essays that Campbell wrote between 1959 and 1987. The two main topics in this volume are mythology and history and mythology and the arts – this is going to be fun!

Thursday, February 10th 2011 – The Mythic Dimension, chapter titled “Renewal Myths and Rites”

Event Info:

OPUS Archives & Research Center on the Ladera campus of Pacifica Graduate Institute
801 Ladera Lane
6:30-8:30PM
For more information or questions, contact OPUS at info@opusarchives.org or 805-969-5750.

This event is free and open to the public.
2011 Group Dates will be emailed out when confirmed.

Padma is the sacred lotus in Hinduism. The lotus emerges out of Vishnu’s belly button while he is in Yoga-Nidra, yoga sleep, the sleep that leads to the dream of the universe. As the lotus emerges from his belly, so that which is within becomes manifest and the universe comes into being.

Here in this painting the four faced Brahma is sitting in the lotus.

Vishnu and Lakshmi on Shesha Naga, ca 1870

In the few short months that I have worked at OPUS Archives and managed the volunteer program I have had the great opportunity to meet and interact with our wonderful group of volunteer staff members on a daily basis. Each day that I am in the archives I am reminded what a great service these volunteers do for our organization and how important these peoples efforts are not only to OPUS, but to the community at large. In the upcoming months I look forward to keeping the readers of our blog updated on some of the projects that our volunteers are working on as well as their experiences with these projects. Below is an excerpt from from an e-mail I received from a volunteer working in the archives last week.

“I have just left OPUS Archives where I spent the past four hours working on the Marija Gimbutas collection. In cataloguing the various items sometimes I encounter original site maps, while other times I may encounter ancient drawings of designs unearthed by Gimbutas and her team. I feel as if I have had the opportunity to explore an ancient land and when I leave the archives stepping into my world, I feel enriched for all that I have encountered.”

If you live in the Santa Barbara area and are interested in learning more about the volunteer opportunities we have available at OPUS, please contact me at bb@opusarchives.org or visit our website at www.opusarchives.org

“The fourfold compositions [the cross, the quartered circle], archetypal of perpetual renewal or wholeness and the moon in the symbolism of Old Europe, are associated with the Great Goddess of Life and Death, and the Goddess of Vegetation, moon goddesses par excellence.” Marija Gimbutas, Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, p. 91

New year, new Campbell book to dive into at our Mythological RoundTable® Group at OPUS! The book is The Mythic Dimension and contains a selection of essays that Campbell wrote between 1959 and 1987. The two main topics in this volume are mythology and history and mythology and the arts – this is going to be fun!

Thursday, January 13^th 2011 – The Mythic Dimension, chapter titled “The Historical Development of Mythology”

Event Info:

OPUS Archives & Research Center on the Ladera campus of Pacifica Graduate Institute
801 Ladera Lane
6:30-8:30PM
For more information or questions, contact OPUS at info@opusarchives.org or 805-969-5750.

This event is free and open to the public.
2011 Group Dates will be emailed out when confirmed.

Sophia, (Σοφíα, Greek for “wisdom“). Sophia is the archetypal image of the feminine principle and thus partner to the masculine god. She is present in all traditions, mythologies, and religions – in Hinduism she is Shakti, in Egyptian myth she is called Isis. Traditionally it is in the gnostic, mystical, and alchemical traditions that the feminine face of the divine is central and present.

See the painting of Sophia by Hildegard of Bingen in the post below. Here is a painting by the artist Nicholas Roerich that has a passionate quality of movement and intention that echoes in image form what Marion Woodman is speaking towards –  the rising of feminine consciousness.

'Sophia - the Wisdom of the Almighty (Santa Protectrix)', 1932. Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York.

“I would say the goddess energy is trying to save us. If we go on with our power tactics, we’re going to destroy the earth. That’s why we haven’t got a long time to evolve. We’re either going to make a leap in consciousness or we aren’t going to be here. Sophia, Shakti, by whatever name we call her, is that wisdom deep down in all matter, pushing her way into consciousness, one way or another. We have to be aware of earthquakes and hurricanes. What are their rumblings trying to tell us?” Marion Woodman, Conscious Femininity p. 97.

Sophia or Wisdom. Manuscript illumination from Scivias (Know the Ways) by Hildegard of Bingen (Disibodenberg: 1151)

Celtic bear-goddess Artio. Bronze artifact c. A.D. 200 from Musée de St. Germaine en Laye, published in Campbell’s, Historical Atlas of World Mythology, v 1 part 2, p. 155

This amazing sculpture comes from Campbell’s Historical Atlas of World Mythology: Mythologies of the Great Hunt of the Celtic bear-goddess Artio. This statue shows the goddess feeding a she-bear and interestingly enough there is a slit in the box pedestal wherein coin offerings could be dropped.

We have been digitizing the original photos and negatives used for the creation of this series for almost 2 years and it was a volunteer who brought this particular image to our attention.

Campbell writes that Artio is the Celtic sister to Artemis, the Greek virginal goddess of the wild, the untamed. Young girls called “bears” would perform dances in worship of Artemis at her temple in Brauron, outside of Athens.

Returning to this statue of Artio and the she-bear, Campbell used this image to illustrate the mythological and ritual significance of the bear and sacrifice which he shows as recurring through many cultures. Thus the bear holds an important stance in the ancient collective imagination in relationship to the natural world – see pages 147-155 of this volume (Historical Atlas of World Mythology, v 1 part 2: Mythologies of the Great Hunt).

From Artio and Artemis to King Arthur and Beowulf, both of whose names come from the roots for the word bear, Campbell traces a line of the bear cult significance in its continuity and transformation through Europe. Along the image captions he leads the thread to

the constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Great Bear and Little Bear, who he writes are “revolving forever as constellations around the Pole Star, axis mundi of the heavenly vault” (155) thus inviting us to behold the majesty of the bear alongside our ancestors.