Big Conversation:

Mythic Journeys Program Participants John Matthews, Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen and Peter S. Beagle discuss why you shouldn’t miss it!

An Interview by Anya Martin

The first Mythic Journeys celebrated the Joseph Campbell Centennial in 2004, and attendees wax poetic about how they never have experienced anything like it. Each day starts with a story and ends with live performances. A highlight is the Big Conversations afternoon discussions mixing scholars and artists from diverse disciplines. To get the essence of this amazing experience, we invited three of the more than 100 participating scholars, artists and performers to join in an impromptu conversation about Mythic Journeys. Here’s what renowned Celtic scholar John Matthews (“Taliesin, The Last Celtic Shaman”), internationally known psychiatrist Jean Shinoda Bolen (“Goddess in Everywoman: A New Psychology of Women”) and bestselling fantasy author Peter S. Beagle (“The Last Unicorn”) said about why they’re coming back and why you should be there, too, June 7-11 at the Hyatt Regency-Atlanta.

How did you get involved with Mythic Journeys 2004?

Bolen: I knew something about the inspiration and the inspired men who envisioned this conference because the two had come to Mill Valley [California] to talk to me a couple of years before. I felt that in-depth exposure to Joseph Campbell had deepened their lives, and that their personal experience would be the foundation of the conference. I liked them and their vision. [Mythic Journeys’ Co-President] Michael Karlin would also bring his business successes to this dream to be manifested. There was a genealogy here. They were younger men who were following and honoring Joseph Campbell, James Hillman and their knowledge of the connection between myth and psyche.

Beagle: My business manager, Connor Cochran, got me involved. He heard about the conference and thought I'd be interested in participating. He knew that I’d met Joseph Campbell a few times in San Francisco -- even spent an evening singing for him at the home of Steve and [playwright/novelist] Lynne Kaufman, who will be at Mythic Journeys 2006. He knew that I knew a lot of the scheduled attendees like Brian [“Fairies”] and Wendy Froud [“Dark Crystal”], whom I hadn't seen for at least 20 years.

What drew you to participating?

Matthews: It feels as though I have been following a very long path that led to the moment when I found myself standing in the middle of all those people, who were there because they had one interest in common: their fascination with mythology. Mythology has been a first love, an obsession, a passion of mine for so long that it was wonderful to be there with several hundred people who shared that passion, that love of myth. Understanding and exploration of myth can have a profound effect on our lives. Just to read or study these things can be immensely empowering; to share that experience with several hundred other people increases the experience a hundredfold. Whatever one's interest in myth, whatever part of the world one comes from, whatever one’s belief system -- even if you have none at all -- there is a myth that will speak to you directly. And if you follow where it leads, I believe it will change you. When I came to Mythic Journeys 2004, I saw this happen again and again.

Are there any interesting ideas, thoughts or lessons you took away from Mythic Journeys 2004?

Matthews: So many ideas! So many thoughts! So many magical encounters with writers, directors, scholars and above all ordinary people passionate about myth. Some of my best memories are sitting on panels with extraordinary people like Brian Froud, Peter Beagle, Charles de Lint [“Moonheart”], Verlyn Flieger [“Question of Time: J. R. R. Tolkien's Road to Faerie”] -- people whose work I had respected for years – people I consider friends.

Beagle: Conventions, whether academic or popular in their nature, are a matter of human contact to me. I'm a storyteller, plain and simple. I do what I do, and everything else is after the fact. So everything I saw and heard, and everyone I met and spoke with, are now part of the great rumbling subconscious swamp that enables me to do what I do. Because the mix of impressions and input at Mythic Journeys was so rich and varied, I'm all the more grateful for it.

What were your favorite moments at Mythic Journeys 2004?

Matthews: Two or three things stand out in my memory. One was seeing [artist] William Todd- Jones [“Labyrinth”] on stilts, dressed as the Greek god Pan, walking through the halls followed by crowds of people, like a Pied Piper. Another was a wonderful performance in which some extraordinary actors, musicians and singers took part, dramatizing my wife, Caitlin’s, remarkable reworking of the Christian creation myth.

Bolen: My favorite moments had to do with the art and artists who were present. Mythic Journeys opened with an art show. I met and had conversations during the conference with Meinrad Craighead and Lydia Ruyle whose subjects are goddesses and the Divine Feminine. We speakers usually cross paths with each other at conferences over the years and share a world of expression in words. My inner painter is nourished by seeing art and talking with artists whose medium is canvas and paint.

Beagle: My great moment came when James Flannery [founder, Yeats International Theatre Festival in Dublin] and I, who had never met, were literally thrown together in front of an audience to talk about anything we felt like. Both of us being storytellers, singers and lovers of poetry -- especially Irish poetry -- we had a grand time together, more or less forgetting about the audience, all of whom seemed to enjoy us enjoying each other.

Why did you decide to participate in Mythic Journeys 2006?

Bolen: Curiosity as to how it will be this time — knowing that it will be well run and well done and very rich, and having something to share.

Matthews: To tell the truth I hardly needed to be asked! Caitlin [Matthews] and I had such good memories that both of us could hardly wait to get back.
Beagle: They asked me, that's why! It's always nice when you get asked to do something you want to do anyway. As for benefits, well, it was a heady brew before, and I expect to drink deeply again.

What will you be doing at Mythic Journeys 2006?

Matthews: One of the programs I hope to be presenting in this year is a workshop about the delights and perils of working with the Faery people of the Celtic world. These people, known by the Irish word Sidhe, are the subject of a recent book of mine and have been a focus for my work over the past three years. So I’m really looking forward to sharing some of my own experiences and to have the opportunity of guiding others to experience something of the same for themselves. [Caitlin and I] are also going to be presenting the “Life of Merlin” in a very different form to the well-known Arthurian tale, as part of the Big Story program that sets out to tell the great myths.

Bolen: I’m not sure what I will be doing. I’ll be part of the mix. Wherever I am on the program, the energy and vision that inspired me to write Urgent Message From Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World as “my assignment” will come into it. “Mother” is Mother Earth, maternal instinct, mother goddess, mother archetype, the Sacred Feminine. It has to do with critical mass and tipping point—the metaphoric “millionth circle.” On a mythic level—it is about returning the Grail to the world. In the legend, the Fisher King has a wound that will not heal, and his kingdom is a wasteland. Only the Grail can make him whole and only then, will the wasteland become green again.

Beagle: In all honesty I have absolutely no idea, beyond another happy free-for-all with Jim Flannery. It doesn't matter: whatever they want me to do, I'm happy to dive in and do. Besides, I'll get to jam with [Celtic rock band] Emerald Rose, as I always do whenever we run into each other.

What do you think attendees will get out of Mythic Journeys 2006?

Matthews: A sense of what it’s like to live with myth. The name of the conference, Mythic Journeys, for me has all the emphasis in the word Journeys. To come to this conference is to make a journey and also to begin a journey into a wonderfully rich and extraordinary realm where literally anything is possible. I believe that those who come with open minds and hearts can be really changed by the experience of sharing the deep and extraordinary path that myth opens before us.

Bolen: It will be well done and very rich -- a smorgasbord to chose from, with the potential for synchronistic meetings with others, and the opportunity to become turned on and inspired by someone or something.

Beagle: Mythic Journeys is -- as in the song from the animated film Charlotte's Web—“a veritable smorgasbord” of scholarship, stimulation, provocation, and general intellectual fellowship. I can't imagine attendees not getting as much out of it as I'm sure I will.

To purchase tickets, find a full list of 2006 program participants, and get more information, email info@mythicjourneys.org, call (404) 832-4127, or see the display ad in this issue of Aquarius.