Educating the Imgination
[Image: "The Magic of Books"
© 2007 Martin Springett and used with permission]

"When we look back at culture, we're generally looking at art
as the measure of the high points of our culture.
We're not looking at war, or the major, benign political events.
We're generally looking at cultural highpoints, such as a story."
— Alan Moore

• Cold Beer
  
  "To apply mythology means to be aware of what nature and the gods are saying about their own natures. It is a way of acknowledging that other beings exist. It is a way of allowing an independence of voice to the maple and the rose, to the bee and the roach, to the being of war and to the other human beings. It is a way to find your own voice through the encouragement and the exploration of the many voices that can speak through us."
  — Honora Foah [read on]
  
  

• Nothing to Teach!
  No Way to Teach It!
  Together with the
  Obligation to Teach!:
  Dilemmas in the Rhetoric
  of Assessment and Accountability
  
  "There is too much talk about teaching these days. It all leads to self-consciousness. No one knows what teaching is. It always must be thought in terms of something else. Metaphor and metonymy are needed. Imagination and vision. Not counting and assessment."
  — David L. Miller [read on]
  
  

• The Mythic Teacher
  
  "Whether you are a teacher, a parent, a mentor, or simply someone who has the opportunity to interact with students, you have been placed in a position of considerable influence and power. Your words can wound ... and heal. Your actions can crush a dream ... or give it wings. Are you starting to sweat? Feeling the pressure? Don't worry. If you are, it is only because you care. Let's delve into the ancient myths to breathe in the wisdom and insight they offer to those who work with today's youth."
  — Jay D'Ambrosio [read on]
  
  

• Hephaestus:
  Sacred Fire in the Wound
  
  

  "With the help of Thetis and the Sintians, Hephaestus transcends his physical disabilities of lameness and ugliness, beyond which he expresses his authentic power through the alchemical craft of the divine blacksmith. Through the art of the blacksmith, he sheds light on that which lies concealed under his superficial ugliness and physical deformity — the beauty and power of his divinity."
  — Wilhelm Oosthuizen [read on]

• Science Treads the Boards
  
  "Stage works with scientific elements date back to ancient Greek drama. Some are well known, such as Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Physicists and Bertolt Brecht's Life of Galileo. However, the success of Copenhagen, coupled with today's growing scientific awareness, has encouraged a recent spate of science plays."
  — Sidney Perkowitz
  [read on]
  
  Mythic Passages editor Mary Davis interviews Sidney Perkowitz about his combination of science and playwriting.
  — Mary Davis [read on]

• The On-going Quest
  "The Grail carries an aura of a need for purity by those who handle, quest, or see it. Such is also true of the Lakota's Sacred Pipe, as one is encouraged to have a pure mind and a good heart. According to the Myth, White Buffalo Calf Woman who gave the Sacred Pipe to the Lakota was sexually sought after by one of the warriors. He was turned into a heap of bones. Is she the Repanse de Schoye of the Lakota? Whether handled by White Buffalo Calf Woman or Repanse de Schoye, the Grail holds a great sense of wonder that leads to an awakening during difficult times."
  — Gary German [read on]

• A Worldchanging Imagination
  
  "As far as I am concerned, 'to learn' is 'to imagine.' Such imaginings provide viewpoints according to which certain events and perspectives appear meaningful and are sufficiently muscular and intelligent to project future-possibles. Through such perspectives we decide how to culture politically those that, on the basis of our evaluation of past experiences, seem most likely to grow eu- rather than dys-trophies; positive/healthy communities rather than disasters.
  — William Doty [read on]

• Reverent Generosity
  
  "Sometimes literal "giving" can be a way to avoid the weight of another's burden. The spirit of the moment can ask something different of us, something different from our ideas of what it means to give. Reverently holding the suffering of others can be a moment's greatest offering, and it is a moment many of us often avoid by trying to buy our way out with literal acts of goodness."
  — by Jerry Wennstrom [read on]

• Satori:
  a Film about
  Burning Man 2007
  
  Satori, in a rough translation, means 'instant enlightenment.' In this sense — the reason I named this short documentary from my experiences at Burning Man 2007 after this idea — satori is one of those life-defining moments that, while the parts were present, completed the puzzle.
  — Derek Beres [read on]

• Hearty Recommendations
  
  "Taking a lesson from author and reviewer Charles de Lint, I feel much better giving "thumbs up" recommendations to worthy mythic work rather than taking pot-shots at entertainment that might not be to my personal liking. This month I bring to your attention some high points which others may find difficult meeting let alone scaling."
  — Brenda Sutton
  
  Stardust [read on]
  
  Brian Froud's
  World of Faerie [read on]

• The May Queen
  Chapter 2
  
  Here is the second installment in our experiment serializing the novel The May Queen over the course of the next several months. (If you haven't yet read Chapter 1, you may catch up here.)
  
  "If you have fairy blood, you have a special gift. A charm. It's a curse, too. Like your beauty. Like mine. You know the myth of Narcissus, right? Surely, my darling, you know your own story."
  — Michelle Tocher [read on]

POETRY

• "Nine Orphic Elegies"
  from A Dream of Adonis
  — David Brendan Hopes
  [read on]
  
  
• "Poetry:
  Wordes That Sound Fyne"
  — Ari Berk
  [read on]
  
  
• "Words End"
  — Dennis Patrick Slattery
  [read on]
  
  
• "Angel Surrounded
  by Paysans"
  — Wallace Stevens
  [read on]
  
  

• Mythic Glossary:
  Allegory

Mythic Journeys Returns in 2009!
Watch YouTube excerpts
from Mythic Journeys '06!

Filmmaker George Quasha will soon be releasing the Part II of the Myth Is DVD.

If you attended Mythic Journeys '06, you'll remember the documentary that played continuously outside the main programming room with marvelous thinkers like Michael Vannoy Adams, Rebecca Armstrong, Coleman Barks, Phil Cousineau, Meinrad Craighead, William Doty, Kristen Eckmann, James Flannery, Honora Foah, Matthew Fox, Ellen Hemphill, James Hillman, Sam Keen, Robin & Stephen Larsen, Margot McLean, Micheal Meade, Joyce Carol Oates, Ginette Paris, Laurie Patton, Huston Smith, Ulla Suokko and Robert Walter all speaking to the importance and understanding of myth in our modern world.

Part II includes interviews with 431 more amazing minds!

For the opportunity to view and order either one or both of these powerful documentaries, visit www.quasha.com.

If you haven't seen the
film trailer for the upcoming
documentary film project
on Mythic Journeys '06
by Imaginal Cells Inc...


...you should!

The Mythic Imagination Institute creates experiences that explore
— through art, hands-on activity
and inter-disciplinary conversation —
the mystery and metaphor inherent in myth and story.