One of the biggest challenges in my life is consolidating all my various passions in a way that enhances them all, gives them each their fullest expression, and does not shuffle any of them off to linger on the back burner somewhere. One of these passions which has not been explicitly voiced often, other than little bleeps now and then here in my blog, is Mythology -- in particular Personal Mythology.
It is such a passion of mine that, one day at my day job I was thinking about the mythology of my own life and path, and how it has helped my life and blessed my life with a depth that is hard to explain in words. Then a thought occurred to me, and it just began to snow-ball. I need to teach a class to help others discover their own mythologies. Not the mythology of long-dead, ancient cultures, but the unique mythology that forms the context within which each individual lives and breathes. And the perfect tool to do so is one of my other passions -- Shamanism. Suddenly I was on fire with inspiration and ideas and glimpses of this class, and I'm not really sure how I completed the rest of the day at my warehouse day-job without making tons of mistakes and errors, or walking in front of the forklift.
By using the Shamanic Journey to access information, we can go inward to meet our inner bard -- our own personal historian/story-keeper -- from whom we can learn our own stories and discover different perspectives by which to view our lives.
I was just commenting to a dear friend the other day that we live in such a wondrous time. We have infinite stories and myths of innumerable cultures, ancient and modern, laid out before us which we can borrow, adopt, adapt, rewrite, combine, or whatever, in ways that are meaningful for and resonate with us. I love the Star Trek concept of "IDIC" -- Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. We also have our modern mythologies (such as the aforementioned Star Trek) which are shaped by, and shape, our world and thoughts through the various 'entertainment' medias of television, movies, video games, books, comics, etc. It is a smorgasbord of stories and, by paying attention to the ones that speak to us and that we identify with, we can learn so much about ourselves -- who we are and, perhaps more importantly, who we wish to become. More than anything, I feel that is what any mythology is for -- giving us a model and template of where we are headed, what we want to achieve, and examples of how to (and maybe how not to -- ie Coyote/Trickster tales) achieve it. Above all else, to me Mythology is about Hope. It is a sign post pointing us toward the truth of our being when the duality and shadows of this life cloud our vision and perspective.
So I am very excited, and very nervous, about teaching this upcoming class (Shamanic Journey into Personal Reality) because it is one of my passions. It is something I've done my entire life, though I didn't always realize it, so, though I do have resources and references to draw on, it is almost entirely made of my own experiences, which means I have no other authority to fall back on for support, leaving me in a potentially very vulnerable state. But being of my own experiences it is at the same time invulnerable to judgement because who can refute what I experienced or what lessons I've learned from it? Most of all it is something I am passionate about and could, with no trouble whatsoever, talk about for hours on end, and because it is experiential the focus is on helping others aquire their own experiences rather than feeding them information -- teaching to fish rather than giving fish.
There is just too much information with too many contradictions inundating us from every possible direction from outside of us for us to handle. It is really time to clue ourselves in to the information that rises from inside us. This increasingly seems to me to be the only way to navigate such a world. And mythology, being the language of the soul as well as the interface between us and the divine, is the road map on each of our own personal Hero's Journeys.
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I have used personal mythology in the Re Storying of my life. It was one of the power medicines that shifted me out of a lupus diagnoses. The doctors were scratching their heads and said perhaps they misdiagnosed. I did not use traditional medicines to heal during that time in my life.
ReplyDeleteI love your unique personal mythology style you have birthed for this class. I am thrilled that you have taught me through out this year in bits and pieces. I would like to disagree with your sentence that you have no resources and references to draw upon. You have and are a WEALTH of resources and references from experience and reading and researching and networking and journeys and taking it all into doing the work. You have worked long and hard to birth this awesome teaching. I am laughing at you Mr Patrick, there has never been a time in our relationship you have not given me a luscious pearl along my journeys.
The last pearl has me riding as Daughter of the Valkyrie and placing woman at the table of Odin. Norse woman are as much heroes of the Land of Mountain and Sea, as Norse men! Claiming this not only has me stepping as a woman of power in my daily life, but has reconnected me to my childhood Land... Norway! I will be going there in November and really would enjoy sponsoring a gathering in two years at my Stryn retreat with you. I can say because of you and the love and teaching you have poured into me, I am a recovered divorced woman. And that ain't no peanuts after 23 years!
The Time is Now as one of my teachers would say. Will you be doing theater as part of the journey with them. I love taking personal stories into skits in a group, powerful fun learning!!