coming
JAN

15

Change your story to change your life

What is your myth? Do you live it?

Your creativity is grounded in your myth & creation story. This kit explores the roots of myth individually and collectively to help you create and live your myth as a blueprint for growing your life and healing the world. 
“They do not realize that a myth is dead if it no longer lives and grows.” C G Jung from The Red Book
I believe that legends and myths are largely made of 'truth,' and indeed present aspects of it that can only be received in this mode, and long ago certain truths and modes of this kind were discovered and must reappear. 
J r r tolkien
mythIC IMAGES ARE THE STEPPINGSTONES we follow as we navigate & create our lives

to live our myth is to live OUR life 

Myths can create or destroy us as individuals & a world, 

depending upon whether we make them conscious or not.

We live in our myths.
robert anton wilson

What's included in the living your myth kit?

  • 24 Videos & Text Lessons
  • 2 Live Sessions w Q & A 
  • 24 prompts to explore
  • Partner & Group Support & Social Media Hub

Outcome. create your myth

Self-paced and guided, prompts and activities lead you to explore the mythic content in your life and way as a living myth to guide your creativity.

Value. live your life

Examine inherited myths & stories that unconsciously guide your life and values to consciously create and live your life as your unique story.
"When we lose our myths we lose our place in the universe." Madleine L'Engle

Why we all need to live OUR myth

Past Prejudice

Our myths hold the seeds of old biases which grow like weeds into our lives 

Shadow Work

Making your myth conscious requires our confrontation with unconscious darkness

Visionary Guidance

Modern myths are needed to match the pace of our evolution & lead us forward

Destiny vs Fate

What is not made conscious directs our fate unconsciously, sabotaging our lives

Path & Purpose

Our myths center & align us to our purpose, passion & power to live our life

Kinship with All Life

We need a myth of sustainability to lead us into a future of equality & justice for all
Everybody acts out a myth, but very few people know what their myth is. And you should know what your myth is because it might be a tragedy and maybe you don't want it to be. . . the collective unconscious appears to consist of mythological motifs or primordial images.
C G Jung
Explore myths from the personal to the cultural, ecological, political & cosmological to guide you in creating your own holistic myth. 
  • Mythic structure & purpose
  • Archetypal images & motifs
  • Mythic language & narrative
  • Shadow work & mythic wounds 
  • Healing complexes & relationships 

    Myth is the cultural framework to create, educate and evolve humanity. Co-creating a new mythology heals us.

Objectives & Outcomes

Self-paced to take as much time as you choose to give it, weaving in practices:
  • Dream & myth journaling
  • Reading, reflection & Journeys
  • Live sessions & assignments
  • Partner & group support
  • Private social media sharing
Outcomes vary but include:
  • Understanding & co-creating your myth
  • Illustrating & amplifying it creatively
  • Mapping your myth (s) to synthesize
  • Goal setting for your mythic journey
  • Guideposts to living your myth
  • Viewing through a mythic lens
  • Co-creating a myth of our time
    "You can no longer see or identify yourself solely as a member of a tribe, but as a citizen of a nation of one people working toward a common purpose." Idowu Koyenikan 

LIVE your myth

Myth is a story of your life and all life . . . of soul who communicates through the language of mythic images. This kit explores modern myths & how they direct our lives unconsciously to make them conscious & really live.
Jung said, "The one thing I have learned is that one must live this life." This is another way to imagine living myth.
  • combining journaling and creative writing
  • with creative activities, prompts and practices
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Myths must be kept alive. The people who can keep it alive are the artists of one kind or another. . . For it is the artist who brings the images of mythology to manifestation, and without images (whether mental or visual) there is no mythology.
Joseph Campbell
I think of a myth as a story that helps you explain all the different pieces of your life. In that broad sense, there is no way to live without mythology.
Lewis hyde

A living myth grows

Before Jung entered an intensive period of soul exploration and  creation (TRB), his soul asked him what myth he lived or "does man live nowdays," and he reflected "we no longer have any myth." Yet, Jung said: "Myth is the natural & indispensable intermediate stage between unconscious and conscious." We need myth and mythologizing (creating myth) to evolve consciousness & live. 
The question of what myth we live individually and collectively guides us to discover and create a living myth to live by.. So like Jung, we integrate dreams, play, synchronicity, fantasy, yoga, journaling, active imagination and intuition as we travel on this mythic journey. As we travel, we return to a past where we were "still linked by myth with the world of the ancestors, and thus with nature truly experienced and not merely from the outside." Our return resurrects myths from the unconscious to confront our shadows and choose our fate, as Jung said:

"Myths which day has forgotten continue to be told by night.''" 

As we confront a dark night of the soul, torn asunder, we remember that it was in perceiving the archetypal wholeness of unity consciousness (in a mandala) that Jung transcended the false boundaries of material separation by identifying with a larger global and cosmic whole.

"The need for mythic statements is satisfied when we frame a view of the world which adequately explains the meaning of human existence in the cosmos, a view which springs from our psychic wholeness, from the co-operation between the conscious and unconscious." C G  Jung
Set within the seed of the soul is not just a fleeting image or a vague pattern but a lifelong story enfolded within, waiting to be cracked open and lived all the way.
Michael Meade

Heather 

& her experience of myth as a way to follow soul

Myths have always fascinated Heather, testifying to the archetypal patterns that emerge throughout time to bridge between the transcendent Sky Father above & immanent Earth Mother below. Integrating myths from around the world, she focuses on the intersection of creativity & myth in the creation story & ourselves as mythic creators. It is this emergent power of mythic creation or mythopoesis that is our true instructor as we follow upon mythic images like steppingstones of an unfolding story. In her classes, Heather has seen myths emerge naturally in a way that is fun.

Your Myth

Which will probably surprise you 

When she began exploring her myth, Heather hoped to be the virgin huntress Diana (virgin meaning her power was her own) or Inanna who descended into the underworld. Essentially, kick ass. But what came to her was the Slavic myth of Baba Yaga from childhood nightmares. Yet, the more she sat & played with the myth, the more it made sense, & Heather came to realize that this was not only her myth but favorite myth: a story of the Dark Mother who initiates through the mysteries of death & rebirth, claiming the power of light birthed from the darkness. To bring it to the world.

Mythic Illumination

We are in a dark time, a dark night of the soul when the need for hope is acute, calling for a mythic version of the light barer or illuminator. Discover yours with:
  • Dream incubation, tending & lucid dreaming
  • Ancestral & cultural heritage & myth
  • Mythic remembering practice
  • Natural metaphor for living growth
  • Archetypal mythic images & active imagination
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Personal 

Your story
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Family

Family history
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Community

Deep community
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Ecology

Earth connection
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Cosmology

Cosmic relationship
We need myths that will help us to identify with all our fellow-beings, not simply with those who belong to our ethnic, national or ideological tribe. We need myths that help us to realize the importance of compassion, which is not always regarded 
Karen Armstrong

Conscious or not, we live our myths (if not, they live us). We must live our myth to claim the power of:

  • collective unconscious
  • soul & Self-creation
  • cultural renaissance
  • intergenerational healing

Myths are essential

They order our lives and create meaning, while limiting our roles, behaviors & opportunities 

Effecting & creating all life

Myths are powerful narratives whose values influence all aspects of our lives and all life, including:
It is a sure sign that a culture has reached a dead end when it is no longer intrigued by its myths.
Greil Marcus

Myth is personal & cultural

Personal myth is a story you tell yourself (and that you were told) to make sense and meaning of your life & world to guide you as you navigate your life experience. It is created unconsciously as you grow, incorporating words and beliefs from your family & community. In this way, personal myths are informed by the broader cultural, ecological & cosmological myths. While we live in the larger myths, we have the ability to reach beyond past myths and molds to see new emergent ways of being in and of the world.

Gender

roles, power & relationship 

Race

equality, shame & mythic history

Class

opportunity & privilege 

Identity

 possibility, hope &  diversity

Magic

transcendence & imagination  

Healing

Union & transformation

Content

New Knowledge 

Video, audio & text lessons to guide your mythic exploration

Writing

Creative Writing

Writing prompts,  automatic writing, mythmaking & more.

Reading

Examples

Excerpts are included to help you deepen your understanding

Dreams

Prompts

Journal practice with prompts, dreams & amplification

Synchronicity

Symbolic Sight

Embody & envision your myth in symbol, sign & synchronicity

Creative Expression

New knowledge 

Video, audio & text lessons to guide your exploration

Active Imagination

Creative action

Creative exercises designed to deepen your experience

Mythic Journal

Journal it all

Excerpts are included to help you deepen your understanding

Depth Psychology

Skills & Concepts

Personify, amplify, archetypes, symbols,  mandalas & more

Live Your Myth

Lived experience

Embody and live your insights in your life & world. Live it.

Coursework and play . . .

Each week your content drops down for you as a steppingstone that guide us on our life path--the path of our soul.


Introduction

Step 1

Introduction & orientation to myth. Create a list of your 
favorite myths & characters.

Soul Myth

Step 2

Explore the myth of Psyche & Eros as the myth of soul & love. Create a picture of it.

Personal Myth

Step 3

What is your creation myth? Tell your birth story as fact & myth. Illustrate & Animate

Family Myth

Step 4

What are your family myths, the one they believe & the one they live? Write them.

Cultural Myth

Step 5

Cultural myths influence our perception & identity. Mind map your cultural myth.

Ecological Myth

Step 6

What is your connection to the earth? Find or create a creation story that reflects it.

Political Myth

Step 7

Myths underlie politics. What myths do you see? Make up a political spoof or cartoon.

Cosmology

Step 8

Explore your relationship to the cosmos as a story. Is it astrological or astronomical? 

Creation Myth

Step 9

How do you create & what is the underlying myth of creation that guides you? 

Creator Myth

Step 10

What is your image of the creator/creatrix? There may be 2: one dark & one light.

Mythic Fall

Step 11

What is the story of your fall? Is their a pattern or arc that recurs? Write & illustrate it.

Mythic Archetype

Step 12

What is your archetype? Is there a mythic figure you identify with? Collage them.
A culture without mythology is not really a civilization.
Vilayanur S Ramachandran

Mythic Characters

Step 13

What characters or patterns emerge? Which attract or repel you? Create a pantheon.

Myth you Love

Step 14

What is your favorite myth. . . the one you want to be yours? Write it just as you hope for.

Myth you Fear

Step 15

Ok. You knew it was coming. What do you hope isn't your myth? Draw/paint a picture.

Mythic Claiming

Step 16

What myth claims you? Invite it to come & write it with automatic writing & art.

Astrological Myth

Step 17

Look up the myth of your astrological sign. How does it live in your myth? Map it.

Living Myth

Step 18

Look to your life as you live  your myth. How does your myth show up. Journal it.

Growth

Step 19

Observe how your myths converge, merge & grow. Refine & amplify your story.

Larger Life

Step 20

Imagine into the implications of your living myth? What is it showing you? Imagine into.

New Name & ID

Step 21

Receive a new name & ID in active imagination. Amplify its etymology & meaning. 

Mythic Map

Step 22

Create a circular image to hold the vision of your myth with 12 stages & illustrate it.

Live the Myth On

Step 23

How can you incorporate your myth more in your life consciously? List & commit.

Full Circle

Step 24

Return home again after your mythic journey. Create a mythic lens to look through.
Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.
Joseph Campbell

Your past creates your future

Myths bridge the past, present and future, connecting us to each other and the world, evolving us through the ages. Returning to prehistory, they extend back beyond words to the oral traditions that rooted us to each other and the earth, generation after generation evolving from the genetic or primordial Eve (whatever your belief). Myths incorporate science and spirituality, blending creation and evolution in the individuation of the earth. Connecting us to past ways of relating, we remember we are a part of not apart from the world. In this connection, myths are essential to the continuation of our species and other species . . . to the creation of a sustainable world of co-creation.

Storytelling 

We are storytellers . . . and have been for a very long time. It is in your ancestral memory & blood. Relax and drop deep into yourself & your lineage to let your voice emerge & guide you.
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Myth

supernatural characters

Legends

heroes from history

Fairytales

magic & lessons

Folktales

realistic & unwritten
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.
robert jordan

Myth is inclusive

Blending elements of legends, fairytales and folktales (which are already blended), we create a myth as our story, combining all of the elements in one myth:
  • magic and realistic, secular and religious
  • dualistic and unifying, destructive and creative 
  • historic and imagined, past and future 
  • multicultural and transdisciplinary (include anything)
  • The keep is to follow your soul's intuition
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Myths create a culture & civilization

Eros & Logos = feminine & masculine knowing

2 primary myths of Eros & Psyche & Genesis help us explore the role of love as a heart-based way of knowing
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.
marcus garvey

Myths of love versus fear

They connect us to each other and the world, evolving us through the ages . . . but they can also hold us back in the past. As we have become more aware of our interconnection through quantum physics, genetics, neurology and technology, we are also more aware of the cosmos around us and the likelihood of other life. The world is accelerating its change, and we can't deny our creative connection. Our mythic perspective is holistic & symbolic.
We are grounded & held by a center

Our whole earth

We are grounded in the earth as a center and point of origin that is integral to our evolving mythology.
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cultivate a mythic perspective on life

Mythic vision

See through the everyday world to view your life and underlying mythic imagery as archetypal, symbolic & meaningful based on interconnection and synchrony.

A structure to CONTAIN the process

This process is contained by your soul but also by 3 circles of support made by you and your group. Each circle expands with you as you create your opus or soul journal, designed to offer different levels of containment as you transform. These circles protect and support you as you explore and create your myth. Embrace and create them in your own way. 

Alone

You travel alone.

This is your myth after all

Partner

A partner helps to mirror you.

Partners help to see and ID myth

Group

A circle to discuss and reflect.

Groups brings myths together

Create your support

Watch a video introduction and orientation and sign up for more support

Create & dedicate your space.

You will create an art studio, creativity altar, and art as your "church" and "cathedral," a place to commune with your soul. This is a place for renewal and retreat whether creating art, lighting a candle, meditating, or doing gentle yoga. These spaces cocoon you as an alchemical container of transformation through your process, nurturing your body and a body of art. 

Create your space

Watch a video introduction or read a list of suggestions to create your space.
Myths do not happen all at once. They do not spring forth whole into the world. They form slowly, rolled between the hands of time until their edges smooth, until the saying of the story given enough weight to the words--to the memories. [We create myths together]
V E Schwab
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge... myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death. 
robert fulghum

We need a healing mythology

Myth inspires us and gives us direction. It tells us who we are and what we can do. If we believe that we are separate from nature or sinful by nature, how does that create in the world? If healing is based on wholeness and god (goodness, creation . . . ) is all (omnipresent, omniscient . . . ) we must find a way to accept and embrace all of ourselves and all of life. How can we love and forgive? What in our beliefs holds us back from healing?
The Value of myth is that it takes all the things you know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by the veil of familiarity. 
c s lewis

A home for all

With modern media and technology, we have a sense of our interconnected whole that our ancestors couldn't imagine. We are no longer the warring tribes of the past, yet we face unprecedented resource conflict as the climate becomes more severe and erratic. How can a new mythology help us to create an economy of sharing and caring in which need not greed is the driving force? Look to the world around you to imagine it as a home for all. 
mythic Revolution

Create your myth to overcome  oppression

myths evolve

Example: Jesus

First depicted as a child in nature surrounded by animals and holding a shepherds staff like Hermes, Jesus became the image of a bearded Zeus on his throne.
Myths politicize

Example: nations

All national myths create a sense of superiority and manifest destiny through symbolic narratives to reinforce the belief that they are chosen and justified.
Myths demonize

Example: women

Myths evolve over thousands of years, bridging cultures and marking social evolution. So past women of power are often changed into baby eating demons in myth. 
The myths underlying our culture and underlying our common sense have not taught us to feel identical with the universe, but only parts of it, only in it, only confronting it--aliens. [It is time to become one with it]
Alan watts