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The Study of Myth

Cultural Mythology (Dr. Catherine Svehla)

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Good Books About Myth and Culture

  • Ginette Paris: Wisdom of the Psyche: Depth Psychology after Neuroscience

    Ginette Paris: Wisdom of the Psyche: Depth Psychology after Neuroscience
    Paris provides a wonderful explanation of the intersection between personal life story and collective myths and the way myth shapes perspective.

  • James Hillman: We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy--And the World's Getting Worse

    James Hillman: We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy--And the World's Getting Worse
    Hillman is a central figure in the field of archetypal psychology, which provides a theoretical base for work on cultural mythologies that I find very useful. This collaboration with Michael Ventura is an accessible and stimulating introduction to some of Hillman's ideas.

  • Michael Meade: The World Behind the World

    Michael Meade: The World Behind the World
    "The world," Meade writes, "despite it's disasters, tragedies and villainies, can't end unless it runs out of stories." Useful reflections on these changing and frightening times--I especially like the story of the Old Woman, the black dog, and the loose thread.

  • Carl G. Jung: The Undiscovered Self (Mentor)

    Carl G. Jung: The Undiscovered Self (Mentor)
    C.G. Jung and Sigmund Freud first articulated the existence of the unconscious (which became depth psychology) and understood the ongoing relationship between human meaning and myth. In this book, Jung discusses the moral obligation to become self aware.

  • Joseph Campbell: The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Bollingen Series)

    Joseph Campbell: The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Bollingen Series)
    Campbell writes, "It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation." An important and influential book that links the mythic narrative of "the hero's journey," found across cultures, to contemporary life.

  • Barry Mills, editor: Kali's Kites: Essays From The Mythological Imagination

    Barry Mills, editor: Kali's Kites: Essays From The Mythological Imagination
    This book is both a beautiful and provocative collection of essays about myth, soul and the depths of the imagination. Each author is a graduate of Pacifica Graduate Institute, a unique institution dedicated to animae mundi colendae gratia (for the sake of tending soul in and of the world). Two of my essays are included: "Euripides' Women: The Role of the Feminine Other," and "The Myth of Actaion: Archetypal Image of Buddhist Enlightenment."

  • Theodore Roszak, editor: Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind

    Theodore Roszak, editor: Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind
    This anthology is a good introduction to some of the themes and thinkers in the field of ecopsychology, which involves the intersection of human ideas about self and world, and the natural, biological, and ecological. Given the current environmental crisis and modern alienation from the natural world, including our own bodies, it is crucial that we deepen our understanding of the cultural myths that govern these relations.

  • Dennis Patrick Slattery: A Limbo of Shards: Essays on Memory Myth and Metaphor

    Dennis Patrick Slattery: A Limbo of Shards: Essays on Memory Myth and Metaphor
    In this collection of essays, Slattery explores the related themes of memory, myth, and metaphor, drawing material from literature, poetry, and current events. In "The True Terror of Terrorism," he suggests that the loss of Trust, necessary to maintain "civilized space," may be the greatest loss. "Trust is a virtue," he writes, "security its pale shadow."

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June 18, 2009

Prickly Pear

I've been working on a "photo" album of artwork to post for a couple of weeks now. Don't ask me why this notion is so compelling, but the idea wouldn't let me rest until I agreed and now it refuses to be finished.

This may be the same muse who inspired me to paint this image on the unfinished east wall of our cabin last week. Here's to crazy enthusiasms and the freedom to follow where they lead, even though they make you a bit nuts.

Prickly PearCoyote heart 6-09

A heart can be a prickly pear
in a shroud of grief,
And it is easily broken if
you wear it on your sleeve.
But try too hard
to keep it safe
and it will lose its beat,
And all you'll have,
for life and love
is just a piece
of meat.


---Catherine Svehla

Posted on June 18, 2009 at 12:21 PM in Land of Little Rain, Poetry |

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