About Me

Welcome to Cultural Mythology! A lot of people don’t think that we have myths anymore, but we do. Our myths are the background of our belief systems and ideologies. They appear in the everyday, unquestioned assumptions that we make about what is “true.” In our modern, “mythless” world, mythology is psychology, and as Joseph Campbell demonstrated, myths and stories, old and new, are still valuable and relevant for us because they provide guideposts along the journey of life that we still need. This is one reason that I tell stories---we need them, and we need to relearn how to engage with them and the “truth” that they contain. Telling stories is also fun!

Scholar Wendy Doniger says that myths are often thought to be inoperative truths but really, they’re operative fictions. The blurry line between “true” and “false” is a problem for many of us---black and white thinking is so popular--- but the world contains many shades of gray and mythology helps us see them and get comfortable with ambiguity. My personal goal is to explore fundamentalism in all of its forms, and be part of the quest for tolerant, creative, soulful, and sustainable ways of living and thinking about human being and the world.

To make real change happen, we have to examine our ideas. We have to understand and edit our personal life stories and our collective mythology. My starting point is not "What should we do?," but "How can we think about it?"

We also need to get conscious about, and connect with, what we truly value. Our myths carry our values and that’s why we are powerfully drawn to them. But if we are unconscious about myths and myth-making, if we think we live in a world of rational “facts,” we can kid ourselves. The United States (and I’ll stick with that since it’s my home turf) is a schizophrenic society. War is peace. We long for “home sweet home” but the banks own the houses and families are on the streets. We want the world to look to us for leadership, we even insist upon it, but we don’t take responsibility for our actions, we point fingers at “evil doers” like kids in the schoolyard at recess. We never have enough of anything. You know what I mean. We need to start looking closely at our dogmas and beliefs and facts because even some of the popular notions that sound good and positive have a hidden darkness.

In 2008, I completed my dissertation: "You Are What You Think: American Self Help and the Myth of Unlimited Human Potential." I discuss the shadow side of the American Dream, reflected in the popular self-help belief that every individual can have everything and achieve every kind of success, if he or she vibrates with positive thoughts and emotions. I am currently working on a book titled "New World on the Horizon: Re-Inventing the American Myth of Unlimited Potential," to share my ideas and conclusions with you and other thoughtful people.

Our myths and stories carry the secret of what it means to be human. They connect the past, present, and future; they are the voice of community and they shout the hero’s victory cry. Our myths and stories help us understand what we value and therefore why we should endure, what we are living for, serving with our hands and our hearts. I do this work out of love for my niece and nephew and hope for their future. I do it for my many colleagues, and for what have been called the cultural creatives. I do it for the people who know somehow that a move forward and a return are simultaneous, for people who have questioned, out of love for each other and the earth, the dominant values of their society. I do it for the free spirits and free thinkers who don’t want personal happiness in isolation from their communities. For the mystics in a time of reason, for the scientists in a time of religious dogma, for everyone who has searched for the mystery of his or her being in the world and not just in the solipsistic mill wheel of the mind. For the suffering idealist, for everyone who has glimpsed the divine in the world and in the human without needing to say "this is it," or "this is where, we now know, once and for all, it is located." For everyone who can keep the ball in play, and especially for those who enjoy juggling.

I am a writer, artist, and storyteller with a Ph.D. in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute. I lead the monthly High Desert Mythological RoundTable in Joshua Tree, CA and facilitate workshops on what it means to adopt a mythic perspective in one's life and work.

I hope you find this blog useful and provocative.

Walk in beauty,

Catherine