Talk of the Town - The mything link August 12 2000

In last week’s column, I wrote about the way viewing our lives from a mythological perspective can help deepen insight. Atlanta residents will have some practical help in that effort with three upcoming workshops. Allan Chinen, a San Francisco psychiatrist and author of several books about myth and story, will address the Jung Society of Atlanta Friday, Sept. 15 from 7:30-10 p.m. The title of the lecture is “The Tao of Story: From Dracula to Bodhisattva.” A workshop will follow Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

“Stories inspire and shape our lives, from the archetypal dramas we unconsciously enact, to the jokes we make about the boss at work,” Chinen says. “Yet stories also plague us, and this lecture and workshop will focus on four such problematic situations.”

The Friday lecture will focus on the first problem, “being stuck in a story, endlessly repeating the same script.” Chinen cites Sisyphus as a well-known example, “but the most horrifying illustration of a stuck story is that of Count Dracula, compelled by the vampire curse to feed on the living.”

“Fortunately,” expresses Chinen, “Scheherazade from ‘The Thousand and One Arabian Nights’ shows a way out with her profound grasp of the psychology of story: We liberate ourselves from stuck scripts by journeying through five fundamental genres of story.” Chinen will elaborate these in his lecture.

The Saturday workshop opens with the second narrative problem — being lost among conflicting stories. “After we escape a stuck plot, we must find another tale to live by. Yet with so many competing choices in today’s postmodern, post-patriarchal era, we often feel lost — a plight especially common in life transitions, like midlife,” says Chinen.

The third problem with life narratives is failing, a painful situation dramatized by King Arthur. The fourth and perhaps most difficult narrative dilemma is being betrayed by a story, exemplified by the Greek myth of Medea.

Chinen will demonstrate how other stories provide solutions to these problems — some of them overlooked in ordinary life now. Chinen says his objective is to provide exercises that “will help participants identify and explore their own stuck, conflicting, failed and wounding life tales. The challenge — and aim — of the workshop will be to use the psychology, logic, spirit and soul of story to resolve those narrative quandaries.”

Cost of the lecture and workshops is, respectively, $10 and $55 for Jung Society members, and $15 and $65 for nonmembers. Call 404-634-6350 for more information.

And more ...

Gay Spirit Visions will host its 11th annual conference Sept. 20-24 in Highlands, N.C. Theme of this year’s conference is “Living in Radiance.” Although not specifically tied to a mythological theme, the conference does have a long history of helping gay men find their spiritual roles in the larger world through participation of mythologically inclined authors like Will Roscoe, Andrew Ramer and Mark Thompson.

This year’s keynote speaker will be Atlanta psychotherapist John Mungo who blends Taoist spirituality with psychology. His interests include “intimacy in the gay male relationship, the role of compassion and acceptance in healing and the power of emotion and the human heart,” according to the GSV program.

Also participating will be Bernie Morin, a Reiki master and shaman who was interviewed several times in this column in the past. Morin co-founded the Spiritual Healing Foundation for AIDS in Canada in 1990.

Although I have never attended the conference, I have heard nothing but positive reports about it. Gay Spirit Visions was created out of a desire to help men whose rejection by their childhood churches caused them to lose spiritual connection. Originally a rather pagan, unstructured experience, the conference has grown more organized over the years, with workshops and speakers inviting gay men into a deep inquiry into their roles, not just as victims of mainstream churches, but as leaders in the general culture’s spiritual life.

The conference is limited to 120 people, so early registration is essential. Costs range from $215-$350 depending on rooming options and length of stay. To register, call The Mountain, 828-526-5838. For more information on Gay Spirit Visions, see gayspirit.home.mindspring.com.

“Muse 101” is the title of a weekend experiential workshop Rose D’Agostino and I conduct for people feeling creatively blocked — either as artists or in the fulfillment of life purpose. Inspired by the myth-based work of James Hillman and his archetypal psychology, the workshop evokes the mythological muse as an autonomous figure of inspiration.

Participants in the workshop learn to discern, through the imagination, the story — the myth — they are living as it is reflected in the body. Participants are taught how the heart used to be regarded as an organ of perception and how to recover, through it, a sense of purpose.

Muse 101 will be held the evening of Friday, Aug. 25, and all day the following Saturday. It is the required introduction to an 11-week workshop, “Greeting the Muse.” Cost is $150 but discounts are available. Call 404-929-9030 for more information.