GUEST EXPERIENCES
FROM MYTHIC JOURNEYS 2004

Congratulations for not only a heroic effort but probably the most fascinating and well-organized conference I've been to (and I've seen a few...). What a marvelous and inspiring collection of individuals and an excellent forum in which to celebrate life and myth! Here's to next year's conference.
Fiona Passantino
June 7, 2004

The Mythic Journeys Conference was an extraordinary, even historic event. By bringing together experts and sages from so many mythic fields it seemed that we were continually finding new edges, new connections, new interfaces that led to newly emergent ideas, insights and visions. The accessibility of the speakers was wonderful. The weaving of keynotes, panels and workshops was masterful, with amazing chemistries of people brought together, yielding flashes of light, brilliance and insight that was a joy to be a part of.
Robert Kall
June 9, 2004

The Mythic Journeys conference was a wonderful example of Mythic Imagination's creative vision, dedication to making myth and the experience of mythic realities available to people from all walks of life, and of its organizational abilities. I was pleased to be a presenter at the conference and to have the opportunity to bring my work as a shamanic storyteller who works directly with the archetypes of myth to a larger audience. Throughout the conference, their enormous responsibilities notwithstanding, Mythic Imagination's leadership team and volunteers made my experience a very positive and well-supported one.
Scarlett Kinney
June 9, 2004

[Roughly] 5% of the US population are categorized economically as 'cultural creatives.' This means that about 20,000,000 people in the USA are looking outside traditional religious institutions for their spiritual sustenance. It is well known that these 20,000,000 people have hardly any media to connect them or reflect back to them the path they are on. Most of these 20,000,000 feel very alone and are seeking like minded people. Mythic Imagination and Mythic Journeys is a focus point for this type of person.
Shelley Mitchell
June 9, 2004

[Mythic Journeys] did a superb job of weaving a complex web of presenters, storytellers, performers and artists to build a mythic community. Thank you for inviting me to present. I very much enjoyed being one of the elder Mothers in the midst of a multiplicity of Fathers.
Maureen Murdock
June 9, 2004

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright has said that a failure to understand other religions "poses one of the great challenges to our public diplomacy." The Mythic Imagination Institute provides a much-needed forum in which scholars, artists, the business world, and the public can come together to explore issues essential to public meaning and survival.
Timothy M. Renick
June 9, 2004

Thank you so much for inviting me to take part in such a amazing event. I found the conference affirming and inspiring in a myriad of ways. It invigorated my own journey toward mythically-grounded art. The collective conscious and unconscious experience/conversation of that group of people in that time and place will be be a flashpoint for creating more interest in myth in our society. Bravo to you all!
Cosy Sheridan
June 9, 2004

Who knew so many folks in so many disciplines might come together and find so much common ground? And now we have found it, we will stand firm-footed on it, make no myth-stake about that.
Jane Yolen
June 9, 2004

Let me say that [Mythic Journeys] hung a rainbow. The conference arched across our lives, informing inspiring and promising more to come. I kept thinking of Indra's jewelled web, where a jewel at each intersection reflected those around it.
Gail Haley
June 10, 2004

The success of the Mythic Journeys conference came in the interchanges between the people, both in the official presentations and the countless informal discussions. This certainly played over into my presentation of music and poetry where I felt compelled to bring the audience into a more active exchange. It was a natural overflow of the inner-connectedness that was present throughout. This not only gave me added inspiration for my presentation but offered a more specific direction and meaning to the functions of music and poetry in the lives of the people attending and in society as a whole. In this way, I felt there was more of an emphasis than is usually the case at such gatherings for taking it home with you and finding ways to keep it going.
R. B. Morris
June 10, 2004

Without a doubt, this was one of the most remarkable conferences mixing academics and practitioners, artists and students, that I have had the honour of attending and participating in. I was surprised to meet old friends, and pleased to meet new friends as well. The multi-directional format of the programming was nearly overwhelming in its depth and quality. Each day was a new adventure in networking, sparking ideas and dialogues, and investigating the diversity of "mythology" and "imagination". All this in a lovely and spacious venue which allowed for all sorts of diverse presentations, to boot.
Dr. Shelley Rabinovitch
June 10, 2004

Mythic Journeys is not only extremely enjoyable, but a wonderful way of meeting like-minded souls and finding connections to the common life within.
Richard Smoley
June 10, 2004

The Mythic Journeys Conference is a rare and valuable synthesis of scholarship and art, combining the analytic and the experiential, the methodical and the magical, and enlivening critical evaluation with passionate performance. It not only reminds scholars of humanistic studies of what it is they are writing and talking about the great stories of the world's cultures; it also enhances the insights of those who bring those stories to life in art and song and drama by affording them the larger perspectives of history and contemporary culture.
Verlyn Flieger
June 11, 2004

Here is a precious invitation to enter the eternal circle where myth and story still sing their song.
Caitlin Matthews
June 11, 2004

Mythic Journeys was a rare opportunity in which the elite of what some call "The Myth and Symbol set" came together for some profound synergy. The arrangements, though often spontaneous and unexpected, led to very interesting dialogue. Groups who have a common grounding in mythology, but never get to talk to each other ordinarily, such as academic mythologists, Jungians, fantasy writers, movie and screenplay people, gaming and enactment folk had a marvellous and exciting exchange, and were able to develop interesting ways to help and inspire each other.
Stephen Larsen
June 12, 2004

The Mythic Journey conference offered a place to begin a fuller understanding of this exploration — and at the end of a week of intensive thought and conversation we arrived where we started, but with a fuller appreciation of the rich depth our world contains.
Midori Snyder
June 12, 2004