Fortitude by Boticelli

October 2006
The Harvest: Courage, Transgression, Trickster, Samhain

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me,
Fluttering from the autumn tree.

— Emily Bronte (1818-1848)

Faces of Courage!
Alliance for a New Humanity's
Human Forum
December 7 to 9, 2006
Westin Rio Mar
Rio Grande, Puerto Rico

Courage in the Face of Uncertainty:
Revealing our Shadows
— Michael Karlin — Co-president, M.I.I. [more]

• Transgression
  
  At Mythic Journeys '06, William Doty, Terri Windling, Heinz Insu Fenkl, and Kristen McDermott came together to discuss Shakespearean male actors playing women, Native American Heyoka clown dancers, carneval and Trickster's many masks.
  — [more]
  
  

• Merry Robin:
  The Native British Trickster
  
  "Robin Goodfellow is the archetypal prankster and trickster of Britain. Almost everything we know about him comes from a curious 17th century pamphlet which rejoices in the title Robin Goodfellow, alias Puck, alias Hob: his mad pranks, and merry jests, full of honest mirth, and is a fit medicine for melancholy. It was printed in 1628 but almost certainly drew on a whole range of earlier faery lore, as well as lore concerning Robin Hood and the Green Man."
  — John Matthews [more]
  
  

• Follow Your Own Path:
  An Interview with artist
  and philosopher
  Jerry Wennstrom
  
  "The paradox of letting everything go and the mystery of its return express the deeper meaning of the word 'sacrifice,' a word that literally means 'to make sacred.' When we can trust the quiet calling of our hearts and lay our hopes, dreams and precious attachments on the altar with a willingness to let them go forever, then the whole of our beloved creation will be sanctified and returned to us in ways we never would have imagined!"
  — Brenda Sutton [more]

• "The Shapeshifter"
  from The Hero With a Thousand Faces
  — Joseph Campbell [more]

• Themes in World Mythologies
  
  "To comprehend world mythologies, one needs to study many of them. One can only parse a single tale adequately when it is set into the vibrating web of stories that comprises human culture. "
  — William Doty, Ph. D. [more]
  
  
• The Leap
  "Maybe, people who have an atrocious history together can bring their stories and dreams as an offering for the creation of common ground. Maybe those of us who come here from other parts of the world can put in our stories, too, and enrich the pot. Maybe the only way out of suffering is into creation."
  — Honora Foah — Co-president & Creative Director, M.I.I. [more]

Poetry & Music


• "Response to an Unwritten Poem of Yours Called 'Sorrow for Breathing'"
  — Elise Matthesen for her love
  John M. Ford [more]
  
  
• "Mists..."
  — William Todd Jones [more]
  
  
• "The Thousandth Man"
  — Rudyard Kipling [more]
  
  
• "Halloween"
  — Conrad Aiken [more]

• "The Sunrise Land"
  A Sample Chapter
  
  Author S.M. Stirling is an adept of alternate history and post-apocalyptic storytelling, escorting his readers through imaginative landscapes where other writers haven't ventured. Enjoy a sneek preview of the next book in his "Dies The Fire" series.
  — S.M. Stirling [more]
  
  

• Sukkot: A Time to Discover the Holy Within Everything
  
  Sukkot is filled with seemingly bizarre customs and rituals that seem foreign to our modern sensibilities. Scratch the surface just a bit, however, and you will find a holiday filled with joy, meaning and spirituality.
  — Michael Karlin [more]
  
  
• How Rainbow Crow Saved the World
  A Lenape Myth
  
  In the ancient of days, ice covered the world and threatened its end. Someone must go to Creator and seek help.
  — [more]
  
  
• Waters of Life
  Michael Meade's new introduction
  
  Some of the oldest myths of the origins of life describe this earthly world as a dream floating on the eternal waters of time. Many traditional cultures consider each person to be the incarnation of a unique dream, each soul a living microcosm of the cosmic dream of life.— [more]

• Liminality
  Mythic Glossary
  
  The subject of myth has created a vocabulary of words with resonant meanings. Each month, we mean to add to our glossary of mythic vocabulary. — [more]

• Noor Inyat Khan:
  Light in the Darkness
  Song Series by Geoffrey Armes
  
  Sufi Princess, children's book author, musician, Allied radio operator and spy.
  — Brenda Sutton [more]
  
  
• How the Leopard Got His Spots
  
  A giraffe, a baboon, a zebra, a leopard, and an Ethiopian walk in to the High Veldt...
  — Rudyard Kipling [more]
  
  
• Trickster
  
  Trickster walks between the worlds of man and the realms of the gods. We're fascinated with Coyote's lessons: the importance of staying alert around him, thinking before speaking, approaching him with respect and some kind of desirable gift (even if it's only your last cigarette.)
  — Brenda Sutton [more]
  
  
• Yung: Courage Along the Warrior Way
  
  "Because of the strict and refined social behaviour in Japan of the last few centuries prior to World War II, the passions of the warrior class found expression in incredibly refined poetry, painting, as well as combat art —craftsmanship squeezed like nectar from the flower—repression heating the alchemical athenor.
  — Allen Pittman [more]