ARCHAEOMYTHOLOGY OF A GODDESS: A Virtual Gallery Talk with OPUS Archives
Office of Admissions at Pacifica Graduate Institute
Date: Tuesday August 17, 2021
Time: 3:00pm to 4:00pm
Free and open to the public
Register for the Webinar
In this webinar, join OPUS Archives and Research Center for an in-depth look at the exhibit, Marija Gimbutas: Archaeomythology of a Goddess, celebrating the centennial birth year of the pioneering Lithuanian-American archaeologist, author, and UCLA Professor Emeritus. Curator Devon Deimler, Ph.D., will discuss the making of the exhibit and explore the Gimbutas collection, featuring items both personal and professional from Lithuanian folklore, Old European civilization, and the sovereign worship of the Mother Goddess in pre-patriarchal times.
Access the virtual exhibit Marija Gimbutas: Archaeomythology of a Goddess
The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group
The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS at Pacifica Graduate Institute is host to regular gatherings that foster a deep and abiding interest in all things mythological. In the spirit of inclusivity, events are free and open to the public and feature a wide range of in-depth topics for presentation and discussion. RoundTables are led by Devon Deimler, PhD, OPUS curatorial assistant and graduate of Pacifica Graduate Institute Mythological Studies doctoral program. Please join us on our journeys!
Some past RoundTable events are available on YouTube
The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
The April 2020 RoundTable event has been postponed and campus is temporarily closed as a Covid-19 precaution. This event will be rescheduled at a later time.
STRANGE FASCINATIONS: JAMES HILLMAN, THE ART OF CONTEMPORARY MYTH, AND MYTH OF CONTEMPORARY ART with Devon Deimler, PhD
Date: Sunday, April 19, 2020 POSTPONED – please check back
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Free and Open to the Public
One of the most eminent collections housed in OPUS Archives and Research Center is that of James Hillman, the founder of archetypal psychology. It was Hillman’s ambition to “push psychology over into art,” for if psyche were studied through those things that do not dismiss the strange and pathological—like art and mythology—then our psychological notions of “normal and abnormal might have to switch houses” (Re-Visioning Psychology 107). In this presentation, Devon Deimler, PhD, will explore elements of Hillman’s oeuvre related to art, aesthetics, myths of creative inspiration, and the poetic, imagistic basis of mind and how these ideas influenced her own work regarding Dionysos as an archetype of aesthetic experience. In the spirit of OPUS’ mission as a living archive, we will carry Hillman’s contributions into the present day, to seek out the vitality of myth and archetypal psychology within contemporary art. Special selections from Hillman’s collection will also be on display throughout the event.
Devon Deimler, PhD is an artist, writer, and scholar. She is Curatorial Assistant at OPUS Archives and Research Center, located at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and Scholar in Residence at The Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, where she is also founder and curator of the Cinemyth Film Series. Devon earned her doctorate in Mythological Studies with an Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her dissertation, Ultraviolet Concrete: Dionysos and the Ecstatic Play of Aesthetic Experience, received the honor of Pacifica’s Dissertation of Excellence award. Devon earned her BA in Interdisciplinary Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, where she focused primarily on event-based work and modern through contemporary art and film history. Her experience in art and music includes founding an independent record label and collaborative event project, Wildfire Wildfire Productions, working as Assistant to the Director at the Dennis Hopper Art Trust, and teaching modern art history and studio practices at American University Preparatory School. She is the North American Mythological RoundTable® Coordinator for the Joseph Campbell Foundation.
The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
Date: Sunday, January 19, 2020
Time: 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Free and Open to the Public
Archetypal psychologist James Hillman urges us to “restore the disease its God and give the God its due.” But what does it mean to be a human woman in embodied relationship with the archetypal divine, especially when facing illness, pain, loss, or death? In this presentation, Jaffa Frank, PhD transmutes her decades of suffering from endometriosis by engaging the mythic imagination, experiencing body, and narrating mind to craft a restorative tale of sovereignty. Confronting embodied misogyny and the demonization of menstruation, woman’s most indigenous process, Dr. Frank mythopoetically weaves together threads of endometriosis, Medusa, and Athene and reclaims humility, joy, and the life-affirming reciprocity of death and regeneration as gifts of the Gorgon. By personifying endometriosis as Medusan, pathology is rendered sacred and healing becomes a form of grace—a mystery that transforms the experience of hardship without denying the truth of suffering.
Dr. Jaffa Vernon Frank is an archetypal mythologist, licensed mental health counselor, writer, and a woman with over 40 years of experience living with endometriosis. She holds a Ph.D. in Mythological Studies and Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and an M.A. in Counseling with an emphasis in Grief, Loss, and Trauma Therapy from Southwestern College. Dr. Frank teaches courses in the psychology of altruism, archetypes, and the evolution of consciousness at Southwestern College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her book Eyes of the Gorgon: Endometriosis, Mythic Embodiment, and Freedom is available on Amazon. Learn more about Dr. Frank at jaffavfrankphd.weebly.com
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The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
with David Orr
Date: Sunday, October 6, 2019
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Free and Open to the Public
“A mandala is the psychological expression of the totality of the self.” — C.G. Jung
For the ILLUMINED series, artist David Orr photographs a mystical, sacred, or philosophical text—often a one-of-a-kind hand-printed and illuminated manuscript—then digitally recombines the results into an abstract form which alludes to each worldview and beyond. The end images take on a mandala (sanskrit, ‘circle’) form: circular, with elements configured around a center point. Carl Jung noted that the mandala appears in virtually every culture; indeed, in his introduction to The Red Book, Sonu Shamdasani noted that Jung “held that the mandala represented one of the best examples of the universality of an archetype.” This method of displaying information—for purposes both sacred and secular—has been used in metaphysical representations of the universe (Buddhist thangkas, Alchemical diagrams, the pythagorean monad) and contemporary data rendering (orbital patterns, CERN particle diagrams; web infographics) seemingly as long as humans have been depicting it. Join David as he discusses the mandala form’s visual impact across cultures, across beliefs, and throughout time.
David Orr is a visual artist based in California. He exhibits his work internationally and has spoken about his work at a wide range of venues including Cal State LA, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Death Salon, Dublintellectual Ireland, The Director’s Guild of America, The Mütter Museum, The New School, Parsons School of Design, Reed College, UCLA, and The Philosophical Research Society (PRS). David served as curator at PRS and established the PRS arts program and Hansell Gallery. He is a member of The Long Now Foundation.
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Image Credit: Daihannya-kyō (Mahāprajñāpāramitā sūtra) © 2017 David Orr
Source edition photographed: Japanese manuscript page; gold ink on indigo-dyed
The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
with Odette Springer, PhD
Date: Sunday, August 18, 2019
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Free and Open to the Public
Who is the Navajo Deity Changing Woman and why is her mythology obscured? In this presentation, Odette Springer, PhD, will explore the many mysteries of Changing Woman and Na’ach’aanhi, the Navajo term for an artist, or “maker of things.” By engaging Changing Woman through the therapeutic technique of active imagination, Springer re-imagined her own disembodied creative spirit that had been severed by trauma and found that, as a symbol of continual regeneration, Changing Woman offered a balanced system to the fragmenting nature of the creative process. It is Springer’s hope that sharing her own rediscovery of voice and body will encourage today’s women and men to draw from Changing Woman’s invaluable gifts and inspire their own myths in the making. Join us as we explore this quintessential feminine Goddess through myth, music, and metaphor.
Odette Springer, PhD is a writer, independent film producer, and classically trained musician. She has been a singer/songwriter and composer for over 25 films for such companies as HBO, Showtime, Paramount Studios, and the Disney Channel, as well as numerous international television networks. Her first feature documentary Some Nudity Required premiered at Sundance and immediately secured worldwide distribution. In addition to publishing her poetry, she has published academic essays in several anthologies. Her dissertation for Pacifica Graduate Institute focuses on trauma and the creative process and is entitled Changing Woman: Calling The Feminine Home.
The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
Date: Sunday, May 5, 2019
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Free and Open to the Public
The deepest purpose of human existence has been described by many seekers as Self-realization. This phrase has different meanings and this lecture explores two of them in depth. One of these is prominent in C. G. Jung’s depth psychology and the other in Eastern contemplative traditions, particularly Hindu contemplative traditions sourced by the Upanishads, the Yoga Sutras, and the more recent iterations expressed in the teachings of the great sages of Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism. The aims of these respective approaches may also be described in psychological terms as individuation and in spiritual discourse as awakening. While the aims and methods of each differ, this presentation investigates how they may be integrated in a way that conjoins soul and spirit, wholeness and freedom, and Western and Eastern modes of inner work.
Dr. Patrick Mahaffey is a professor and associate chair of the Mythological Studies Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute where he teaches courses on Hinduism, Buddhism, and depth psychology and the sacred. He is the author of Integrative Spirituality: Religious Pluralism, Individuation, and Awakening, the editor of Evolving God-Images, as well as essays on Hindu mythos, Buddhist mythos, and self-inquiry in Jung’s depth psychology and contemplative Hindu yoga. As a scholar-practitioner, he has practiced contemplative yoga for 45 years, participated in retreats at ashrams in India and Australia, and lectured at the Parliament of World Religions conferences held in Melbourne and Toronto.
The Joseph Campbell Foundation Mythological RoundTable® Group of OPUS
at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara presents
Date: Sunday, March 24, 2019
Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA
Free and Open to the Public
In this presentation Dr. Kemp re-imagines the dehumanizing trends of modern history through four contemporary film narratives: There Will Be Blood, Apocalypse Now, American Psycho, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Through this mythological history he explores the psychopathologies behind our current social, political and economic crisis in an attempt to answer the central philosophical question of our time, “Who killed reality?”
Aaron Kemp, PhD is a philosopher, scholar, and filmmaker living in Los Angeles, California. He began his film career by directing and editing short documentaries while working on a forest service Hotshot crew in rural Northern California. Aaron has an undergraduate degree in film and video production and received his Doctorate in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute in December of 2018. His recently published dissertation focuses on the relationship between depth psychology, film, politics, and philosophy.
