mythic_journeys

Diana's Grove Land fundraiser Chicago July 19th

2008-06-30T08:05:52Z

Hi all,
FYI....some devastating stuff is going on near Diana's Grove. Please consider attending the below event, or, if you aren't local, donating directly to the Grove.

Blessings!
-shauna

Chicago Mysteries presents:
In Service to the Sacred:
A Fundraiser to Save the Land at Diana's Grove
Presented as an Earth Spiritualists of Chicago Main Event

July 19th, 2008, 6pm-midnight
2032 W. Fulton, Chicago, IL 60612

Do you value the environment?
What if the choices you made could save sacred land?
You can make a difference.

Right now, in the foothills of the ancient Ozark Mountains, a forest being razed to the ground. Half of a total of 880 acres is already a wasteland of dust after the devastation of clear-cutting. This unsustainable logging practice threatens this beautiful land, the habitat of hundreds of species of plants and animals, and the local watershed. This land borders Diana's Grove, a nature sanctuary and retreat center dedicated to personal and spiritual growth that has touched many lives here in Chicago, and in earth-based communities around the country.

You can help save this land

Please join us for a festive evening of fundraising to generate abundance, both financial and energetic, to help protect this sacred land. You can make an ecological difference in the world with your actions and choices.

For over 15 years, the land of Diana's Grove has stood to support the sacred work of hundreds of people, as well as rescued hundreds of dogs. Diana's Grove offers Mystery School and other retreats that foster personal growth, community building, and leadership development using earth-based spiritual values, practices, and processes.

Make a change in the world that you can see

Right now you can directly save the land; every donation helps to save a tree, and benefit this endangered environment. Your smallest donation matters. All profits generated from this fundraiser will go towards the Diana's Grove land fund.

Schedule of Events:

6:00 Doors open
Enjoy the potluck offerings, as well as musical entertainment; sacred play to help save sacred land.
7:00 Land Rescue
An optional informational session on effort to save this land.
7:15 Ritual information session
Find out more about the evening's ritual and prepare for the work of the night.
7:30 Ritual
Together, we lift our voices and connect from our deepest selves to the sacred land beneath our feet, sending healing energy to protect sacred lands near and far.
9:00 Auction
Bid on gorgeous donations from local businesses and community members.
9:30 Gaia's Groove
Dance for the dream of a healthy planet with a drum circle as well as an eclectic mix of worldbeat and other danceable tunes. Will you groove for the Grove?

Admission:
$5 and up, sliding scale. Please donate what you are able toward the land fund.
Please also bring a potluck dish to share, and any items you would like to donate for the auction.

This is a family friendly event, and children are welcome until the Gaia's Groove dance party begins. This event is drug and alcohol free. Please also join us in recycling during this event, and consider using ecologically sustainable choices in food containers.

Contact information:

ShaunaAura@ringinganvil.org, river.roberts@gmail.com, 773-506-1099

More information:

For more information about the programs at Diana's Grove, please visit http://www.dianasgrove.com

The Chicago Mysteries are a local group devoted to the work of the year-long Diana's Grove Mystery School program.

This fundraiser is our effort to support the Diana's Grove staff in preserving this land. Other ways to support the effort include a plan that will enable you to help with the preservation of this land through buying into a landholder agreement, or through tax-deductible donations in any amount. Visit http://www.dianasgrove.com/landproposal.html for more details.

Directions:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=2032+W.+Fulton,+Chicago,+IL+&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=77.383149,102.480469&ie=UTF8&ll=41.887327,-87.672873&spn=0.017476,0.02502&z=15

Public Transportation: Nearest stops are the Green Line at Ashland and Lake, and the Blue Line at Damen and Grand. Contact Shauna for carpooling connections.

May your sacred lands be held in the hands of the Goddess.

Mythology & the Winter Solstice

2007-12-22T15:30:59Z

This Saturday is the Winter Solstice. In Ireland, on this morning, the sun will come over the horizon, its light will penetrate the 60’ long, narrow underground shaft of New Grange, and, for 17 minutes, illuminate the famous triple-spiral triskel carved on the farthest wall of the chamber. In Gaelic, New Grange has been known as uaimh na gre’ine, the “cave of the sun.” Over 5,000 years old, it is the largest earth-chamber in Europe, although there are numerous similar chambers from the Neolithic period once used for ritual purposes, all oriented on an East-West line to match the movement of the sun. Going back long before the Neolithic, Neanderthal man used to burry his dead facing East (the oldest sign of religious or mythological thinking)… just as Medieval churches were all constructed on the same East-West axis… and even Native American burial mounds and kivas were also built to mimic the sun’s movement. New Grange itself is a tomb. According to Irish mythology, New Grange was one of the sidhe, or fairy-mounds, where the Tuatha Dé Danann lived. It was an entrance into the Otherworld (known as Tir na Sorcha, the Land of Light)… the place where the dead went. The association with the passage of death into the Afterlife w/ the passage of the sun, suggests a belief in a rebirth or resurrection – that the dead will return, just as the sun returns from its “death.”

This year the sun dies on Saturday night. The winter solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year. The sun god is now only a weak, old invalid on his deathbed, powerless against the forces of night and darkness. But on Sunday, he is born a new. The days begin to grow longer. The solar child-god fights back against the night.

One of Joseph Campbell’s four functions of mythology, he called the cosmological function: to put man in accord w/ the cycles of nature, the rhythms of the seasons and the features (physical & ecological) of his local landscape. Those leading a mythologically inspired (or I could say “spiritually inspired”) life participate in nature through rituals guided by the logic of analogy and the language of poetry.

Evergreens, holly, ivy & mistletoe hung inside could share some of their power to stay alive and fresh through the winter ice. Yule fires called out to the waning sun god. Sacrifices (once human… later of scapegoat proxy… then finally completely symbolic like in the Mummer’s plays) were made to help the sun in its fight or to bribe the powers of darkness to go easy on us. The winter darkness was crowded w/ creatures of evil and mischief – fairies, trolls, frost giants, goblins… and especially ghosts. The walls between worlds were thin this time of year. Ghosts walked the earth, and, just like in Dickens’s Christmas Carol, sometimes they spoke to the living, revealed the past, present or future.

Christmas isn’t the only holiday derived from old solstice rites. Hanukkah, the festival of lights, also caries some remnants of sun worship. The renewal of light = the renewal of life. Myths abound of solar-associated demigods and wunderkinds born (or reborn – reincarnated) at the time of the winter solstice: Mabon, Emrys, Cuchulainn, Tammuz, Attis, Baal, Osiris, Apollo, Dionysus and Mithras. It is b/c the solstice was given as December 25th on the Roman calendar (although it usually actually falls on the 22nd), that Christmas is celebrated on that day. It is the birthday of the unconquerable sun… and his earthly embodiment. Even in Native America: Deganawidah, the semi-mythical founder of the great Iroquois Confederacy was born on the night of the winter solstice to a virgin mother.

Often, like Mythras, these solar incarnations and demigods are born in a cave… the way the sun penetrating the shaft at New Grange and striking the carving of the triskel suggests a fertility metaphor – the masculine sun laying its seed in the womb of the feminine earth. No one can say exactly what the Neolithic triple-spiral meant 5,000 years ago… but (like it’s related symbols the labyrinth & the mandala) it seems to be associated w/ the cycles of time – past, present & future; the passage of the sun; cycles of the heavens; the cycles of the seasons; the menstrual-lunar cycle; the life cycle of birth, youth, age and death -- and is thus associated mythologically w/ the female power – the Mother Goddess. In many myths, the female power appears in triplicate form. The 3 fates, the 3 witches, the 3 graces, the 3 furies, the 3 gorgons… or the Celtic goddess of war and death, the Morrigon, who often appeared as 3 crows. She is the counterpart of the Hindu goddess Kali – Black Time. In most myths, the mother goddess is also the goddess of death. The goddess of war is also the goddess of fertility. She is not one, fixed thing… but embodies the ever-turning wheels of nature’s cycles.

The final element of this primary mythology revealed at New Grange every 22nd of December is the beam of light itself. Scientifically we know that all life on earth depends upon the sunlight heating our planet and “powering” our biosphere. The metaphor seems apt: the heavenly Sky Father coming upon the earth mother in the form of a been of light – the ray of light at New Grange this Sunday, and the ray of light that fell upon the Virgin Mary.

Moving from the cosmological to the mystical function of myth, we ask, what is the light? Light is perhaps the oldest metaphor for the Divine power in the universe. According to Jewish myth, God didn’t create the sun & moon until the 4th day of creation… but he started w/ “Let there be Light,” on day one. Rabbis concluded that the light of Day One was a mystical, primordial light, and supposedly a piece of this Divine light was hidden in a stone called the Tzohar, the Philosopher’s Stone.

Other sages have interpreted the mystical light as representing consciousness. In the Gospel of John, the “Word,” or logos, is also referred to as “the light.” As light reveals things, so consciousness reveals and creates experiences. Consciousness creates the universe – things exist only by being “known.” Just as physical light is invisible and known only by striking things, so consciousness itself is unknowable and known only by thinking or seeing things. I can know X or think of Y, but I can’t think or know w/o some object of my consciousness to think or know of. Yet mystics across time teach that the ground of all being (God or Nirvana or Buddha-Mind) is pure consciousness. So another way to mystically read this Saturday’s event at New Grange is to think of the light and stone as knowing subject and known object creating experience… creating Being. The cave of New Grange becomes Plato's Cave.

Or we can reflect on what we know today, scientifically, about the properties of light. As one scientist put it, the findings of modern physics, “suggest very directly that light does not travel in normal space-time” (C. Wertenbaker). To quote another scientist, “What bears the figure we call light? One thing has become certain, whatever it is, it is not material” (A. Zajonc). What better analogy could there be for the mystical Transcendent power entering the field of time & space. If there is any physical phenomenon in the universe worthy of embodying the Divine it must be light.

The light is at its weakest this Saturday. The darkness at its strongest. But the wheel turns and the new, reinvigorated sun-child is about to be born. Go tell it on the mountain.

Mythic Journeys movie trailer

2007-12-06T14:08:20Z

http://www.imaginalcellsinc.com/video/Mythicjourneystrailer.htm

Tim Curry, Mark Hamill, Lance Henriksen and Mythic Journeys

2007-11-20T04:01:11Z

A team has been working on a documentary about Mythic Journeys. A number of excellent artists, including Charles Vess, Wendy and Brian Froud and others have volunteered to do stop-action animation for it. Well, now we've added some great voice actors to it:

http://www.imaginalcellsinc.com/Pages/MythicJourneysPhotos.htm

Yep, Tim Curry, Lance Henriksen and Mark Hamill are only three of them ...

The July Mythic Passages is Up

2007-07-24T13:15:50Z

http://www.mythicjourneys.org/newsletter_current.html

June 07 Passages up!

2007-06-20T14:43:09Z

http://www.mythicjourneys.org/newsletter_current.html

Mythic Journeys videos

2007-04-30T16:35:55Z

Here's some fun stuff to enjoy

http://www.mythicjourneys.org/video.html

EDIT: You can find more here

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=realitypro

The latest issue of Mythic Passages is on-line

2007-04-23T21:42:30Z

http://www.mythicjourneys.org/

And if you want to see some incredible piano playing from MJ06:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDCbbvIbadA

Mythic Passages on line

2007-03-20T03:58:26Z

Our Mythic Journies newsletter is on line now. Some good stuff, including a description of the Mythic Foundations of the Maltese Falcon

http://www.mythicjourneys.org/newsletter_current.html

Primordial Bliss with Goa Gil

2007-02-22T02:34:25Z

"Since the beginning of time mankind has used music and dance to commune with the Spirit of Nature and the Spirit of the Universe" - Goa Gil

Atlanta Psytrance and Those People Productions welcome Goa Gil back to the Southeastern US, on his second rite of passage as your shamanic guide, for an extended journey into the heart of Primordial Bliss.

Join us in a regional gathering of the tribes as we celebrate as one primal force Goa Gil's sonic transmission of cutting-edge psychedelic trance across Deerfields, a 940-acre private retreat in the sacred Appalachian Mountains. Beneath the skies, on earthen soil where nature abounds, we will dance by ritual fire as the ancients once did - guided by Goa Gil in Redefining the Ancient Tribal Ritual for the 21st Century through the Trance Dance Experience!

Primordial Bliss with Goa Gil (The Nommos / Avatar Records)
Friday, May 18th – Sunday, May 20th, 2007
Deerfields – Asheville, N.C.

Deerfields is located 20 minutes south of Asheville, North Carolina in the Mills River Community. The private retreat is a 940-acre family-owned tract of unspoiled wilderness offering camping, swimming, and hiking. Cascading through the Queens Creek Mountains of the Appalachia, the land is surrounded by ponds, apple orchards, and rhododendrons.

Pre-registered tickets $40 until May 1st at:
http://www.thosepeople-asheville.com or http://www.atlantapsytrance.net
*Full names of attendees required for pre-registration

$45 at The Gate
Gate opens at 3pm, Friday - May 18th, 2007
*Gate hours posted online

All ages (under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian)

NO RE-ENTRY - Bring everything you will need for survival
Primitive campsites are encouraged in designated areas
Meal tickets available for purchase by Ambrosia's Delight
*Detailed vendor list online

LEAVE NO TRACE - Please respect Deerfields by collecting / disposing of your trash and removing all personal belongings from the site

NO RENEGADE SOUND SYSTEMS

ABSOLUTELY NO DOGS ALLOWED

Deco by Pyite and The Community
Sound by Project7

*Visit us online for additional details and updates
http://www.thosepeople-asheville.com (coming soon!)
http://www.atlantapsytrance.net

"[We] are coming to these rituals in the same spirit that the ancients came to these rituals to use music and dance to commune with the Cosmic Spirit, the Spirit of Nature, the Spirit which is behind Nature and the Cosmic Mind, and the Cosmic Being which exists within everything... This is getting down with Mother Earth and becoming one with the Spirit through the music and dance, which is as old as mankind itself" - Goa Gil

Quotes by Goa Gil
More on Goa Gil at: http://www.goagil.com

Jan. 07 Mythic Passages now online

2007-01-26T04:03:34Z

http://www.mythicjourneys.org/newsletter_jan07.html

News from hazelrah1

2007-01-09T20:16:01Z

"The Last Unicorn" is being re-released on DVD celebrating its 25th Anniversary. If you plan on purchasing it, please go to Conlan Press Website to order your copy. This way Peter gets a share of the sale to help support him and his upcoming projects. Also, when you purchase a copy it will be personalized by Peter!

Mythic Journeys Documentary underway

2006-11-14T03:11:20Z

Check out the trailer at:

http://www.imaginalcellsinc.com/mythicjourneystrailer.htm

Passages Online and Party

2006-11-14T03:09:59Z

Passages is up at:
http://www.mythicimagination.org/

Also, this Friday we have a party!
Host: Mythic Imagination Institute
Location: Oak Spring Covenstead
4536 Highland Road, Decatur, GA
When: Friday, November 17, 7:30pm
Phone: 770.313.8346
Join us for the first of the quarterly "Mythic Imagination presents" series!

The theme this month: Fall Harvest. It's all about giving thanks and appreciating the gifts we possess, as well as the gifts that others bring into our lives. One very special gift that we can all enjoy will be the music of the Three Weird Sisters- an amazing music group and good friends of the Mythic Imagination Institute. Come celebrate with us as we are treated to the Sisters' unique acoustical sound and mythical lyrics for a night that is sure to be memorable.

But the Three Weird Sisters won't be the only ones with an opportunity to share their gifts...we need you as well!

The first chance for you to share with the MII friends and family will be a pot-luck dress rehearsal for Thanksgiving. Bring in a main dish, side dish, snack, drinks, or dessert for our Fall Harvest table. Test out that new recipe or make a special batch of Grandma's famous . Our beautiful facility boasts a full kitchen, complete with microwave, refrigeration, and any other culinary needs.

To accompany the evening's musical harmony and bountiful feast, we are also suggesting that everyone bring something entertaining to share with the group. Throughout the evening, the stage will be open for the sharing of poems, stories, spoken word, anecdotes, laughter, and toasts. Anything that you'd like to share with the group is welcome at the Fall Harvest!

Charlotte, NC RoundTable

2006-10-16T23:00:48Z

The Charlotte, NC Mythology RoundTable will be meeting this weekend on Saturday, the 21st. We will finish-up Joseph Campbell's Myths to Live By and discuss essays 10 & 11, “The Moon Walk” & “No More Horizons” (but, as always, you don't have to have read the chapters to join the discussion).

Next Month we’re again moving our meeting time up a week and meeting on Saturday, November 18th. Our topic will be ‘Stories for a 1000 Years.’ Why do some myths endure while others fade away? Which stories/myths from the last century will still be remembered 1000 years from now? Harry Potter? Superman? Toni Morrison’s Beloved?

For December 16th (also moved up to the 3rd Saturday) we’ll discuss The Jesus Mysteries: Was the "Original Jesus" a Pagan God? by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandyby.

January 27th (back on the 4th Saturday) we’ll talk about Kabala. Recommended reading: God is a Verb; Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism by David Cooper.

We'll meet, as usual, at the Barnes & Noble on Sharon Rd in South Charlotte from 1 to 3-something PM on this Saturday 10/21.

The October Issue of Mythic Passages is online

2006-10-12T22:34:51Z

Celebrate courage, transgression, the Trickster and the harvest in this month's issue of Mythic Passages. Articles include:

Courage in the Face of Uncertainty: Revealing our Shadows by Michael Karlin, Co-president, Mythic Imagination Institute

The Leap by Honora Foah, Co-President and Creative Director

Transgression, a Mythic Journeys '06 conversation with William Doty, Terri Windling, Heinz Insu Fenkl, and Kristen McDermott on Shakespearean male actors playing women, Native American Heyoka clown dancers, carneval and Trickster's many masks.

Merry Robin: The Native British Trickster by John Matthews

"The Shapeshifter," an excerpt from The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

Follow Your Own Path: An Interview with Artist and Philosopher Jerry Wennstrom by Brenda Sutton

Themes in World Mythologies by William Doty

The Sunrise Land a sample chapter from national best-selling author S.M. Stirling next addition to the Dies The Fire series.

Waters of Life a new introduction from Michael Meade

Response to an Unwritten Poem of Yours Called 'Sorrow for Breathing' by Elise Matthesen for her love John M. Ford

Mists... by William Todd Jones

The Thousandth Man by Rudyard Kipling

Halloween by Conrad Aiken

Sukkot: A Time to Discover the Holy Within Everything by Michael Karlin

Noor Inyat Khan: Light in the Darkness, the Song Series of Geoffrey Armes

How Rainbow Crow Saved the World, a Lenape myth

How the Leopard Got His Spots by Rudyard Kipling

Trickster by Brenda Sutton

Yung: Courage Along the Warrior Way by Allen Pittman

Liminality the first of a new column on Mythic Definitions

...and more info on our Events Calendar and the Recommended Reading/Listening/Watching List

Terri Windling on our Mythic Passages

2006-09-11T16:27:53Z

The latest Mythic Passages is available at www.mythicimagination.org, and Terri had some very nice things to say about it:

http://endicottstudio.typepad.com/endicott_redux/

Good interview with Richard Smoley

2006-09-09T15:22:44Z

http://zodiaclounge.bravehost.com/Nostradamus.htm

Nestor Torres in Atlanta this weekend

2006-09-06T20:59:04Z

The Power of One
Nestor Torres
An up-close and intimate evening with Latin Grammy
winner flautist Nestor Torres. Torres shares his feelings
and experiences about the impact one person can
make in service to community. In the aftermath of
9/11, Torres traveled to New York City in September 2001 to meditate
and perform in various houses of worship near Ground Zero. "It was
my intention to be a conduit for whatever energy was present in the
city at the time, and channel it into music that could transform
grief to acceptance, anger to courage, and despair to hope," he
recalls. "From those improvisational performances
emerged the songs included in his latest album, Prayers and
Meditations for Peace." Torres continues to perform for peace and
relief events. A former guest at the local Mythic Journeys event, he
will be speaking and performing at Phoenix & Dragon and performing a
full concert at Kennesaw State University Campus.

Intimate Performance & Talk, Saturday, September 9 at 7:00 pm
Phoenix & Dragon Bookstore, Free
Co-sponsored by Mythic Imagination Institute

Concert, Sunday, September 10 at 7:30 pm
Legacy Gazebo Amphitheatre, Kennesaw State University, $5
Call 770-423-6650 for more info

Stardust news from Vess/Gaiman

2006-09-06T18:05:02Z

Charles Vess has created a new blog on his website at greenmanpress.com where you can follow his exciting adventures in British Movieland during the creation of Neil Gaiman's latest film "Stardust." Loads of photos from the sets, too. Who knew our boy would someday be rubbin' shoulders with the likes of Michelle Pheiffer, Clare Danes and Robert DiNiro? I'm just mightily impressed by Gaiman's strength of character. He's made sure that Charles Vess receives the credit that he deserves for the visual impressions that the book is making on the film. Kudos to them both.

It's just wonderful to watch good things happen to good people.

Tell us your favorite myths...

2006-08-30T19:23:45Z

September's theme for Mythic Passages is EQUINOX: Mabon; balance; equilibrium; equality; equivalence; equipoise; Virgo; dance; being in and out of balance; cranes.

dance pioneer Isadora Duncan,

John and Caitlin Matthews' readers theater translation of "The Life of Merlin" by Geoffrey of Monmouth,

the mythopoetic perspective of a modern-day Merlin by William Todd Jones,

Stu Jenks account of an Equinox photo-shoot one year after a wildfire,

Crane Dance, the music and lyrics of Julia Ecklar inspired by the 1984 film "The Karate Kid",

recommended reading for Dr. William Doty's class "Building Your Mythological Toolbox",

and new contributing artist and lecturer Jerry Wennstrom's advice on "Courting the Muse"

You'll find all of these articles and more in Mythic Passages during the month of September.

We'd really love to know your favorite myths connected to the autumnal equinox. What are the symbols, foods, gods and goddesses, legends and celebrations that resonate with you at this pivotal point on the Wheel of the Year?

Email us your impressions of the e-magazine.

The places you can find God ...

2006-08-08T13:22:31Z

Always good to see Huston Smith mentioned. From tatugirl:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2006/08/04/notes080406.DTL&nl=fix

The Mythic Experience

2006-08-07T15:04:51Z

A lot of people have asked for more info about the Mythic Journeys conference. Our latest edition of Passages is a pretty good look at it:

http://www.mythicimagination.org/

You can also read some reviews at:

http://www.mythicimagination.org/2006_experiences.html

He who cast the first stone probably didn't

2006-07-24T21:36:55Z

Nice summation of the thinking behind many of the problems in the Middle East and around the world

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/24/opinion/24gilbert.html?ex=1154404800&en=42faac5a85fd1a00&ei=5070&emc=eta1