A fascinating conversation about the new movie The Green Knight with Dennis Slattery, Author & Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Pacifica Graduate Institute. In our conversation Dennis connects to dots between The Green Knight, Moby Dick, Chaco Canyon, archetypal astrology, and the events affecting our lives today.
Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph.D., is Distinguished Emeritus Professor in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria, California. He has taught there for the last 26 of his 52 years in the classroom. He offers riting retreats and workshops in the United States and Europe on exploring one’s personal myth through the works of Joseph Campbell and C.G. Jung’s Red Book.
In his 30th published volume, The Way of Myth: Stories’ Subtle Wisdom, Dennis Patrick Slattery reaches back in “Part I: Mining the Myths Anew,” to some earlier essays on classic films and works of literature. He also includes extended meditations on the thought of mythologist Joseph Campbell; on creativity’s hungers; on beliefs as mythic constructs; and on the joys of painting. Many of the essays explore the act of reading and the importance of stories as they relate to one’s personal myth.
Coiled like a snake at the base of the spine, kundalini is the spiritual force that lies dormant in every human being. Once awakened, often through meditation and yoga practices, it rises up the spine and finds expression in the form of spiritual knowledge, mystical vision, psychic powers, and ultimately, enlightenment.
Chuck Robison, Executive Director of the Kundalini Research Foundation, talks about Gene Kiefer and Gopi Krishna. – Gene Kiefer has devoted 42 years of his life to help the world learn about Kundalini as the trigger of evolution in man. He began this journey after a very dramatic dream in 1969 that led him to Pandit Gopi Krishna in India. In time Gene became the editor and publisher of Gopi Krishna’s eighteen books and a confident of the Great Man.Gopi Krishna is widely recognized as having done more to advance our understanding of Kundalini than anyone else in modern times. He has put this amazing aspect of our nature in a logical, consistent and scientific light, and presented us with a new understanding of the goal of evolution, both as individuals and as a species.
Gard Jameson received his PhD from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2005 and his BA from Stanford University in Religious Studies. He teaches Asian Philosophy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is the author of five books, Footprints on the Sands of Time, Phaethon, Monkey, and Ramayana, Our Mythic Moment, the last three books reflecting upon three grand epics from the West, China and India. He and his wife cofounded Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada, vmsn.org, a charitable clinic that provides free medical, dental, and mental healthcare to those without access. He serves as the Vice Chair of The Charter for Compassion, Co-Founder of the Children’s Advocacy Alliance, caanv.org, Co-Founder of the Southern Nevada Interfaith Council, interfaithsn.org, and Compassionate Las Vegas, compassionatelv.org. He also serves as the outreach coordinator of Contemplative Outreach, founded by Thomas Keating, in Southern Nevada. His latest book is titled The Peace Pilgrim Pictures, using the images of the magnificent artwork of Nicholas Roerich, to illustrate the spiritual journey.
Mandalas take on countless sizes, shapes and forms and are a tool for gaining perspective, expanding thought and relaxing the mind. This excerpt from The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell provides an excellent description of how a mandala works.
Excerpt from the Power of Myth:
CAMPBELL: “Mandala” is the Sanskrit word for “circle,” but a circle that is coordinated or symbolically designed so that it has the meaning of a cosmic order. When composing mandalas, you are trying to coordinate your personal circle with the universal circle. In a very elaborate Buddhist mandala, for example, you have the deity in the center as the power source, the illumination source. The peripheral images would be manifestations or aspects of the deity’s radiance.
In working out a mandala for yourself, you draw a circle and then think of the different impulse systems and value systems in your life. Then you compose them and try to find out where your center is. Making a mandala is a discipline for pulling all those scattered aspects of your life together, for finding a center and ordering yourself to it. You try to coordinate your circle with the universal circle.
MOYERS: To be at the center?
CAMPBELL: At the center, yes….
https://youtu.be/19C0noWn3T8
My personal mandala has been evolving over the past few years. It is the place I can go at any time to pause and reflect, to pray, to meditate, or just sit in quiet contemplation in an empty space between the lines for a while. – Clay Boykin
Manly Palmer Hall (March 18, 1901 – August 29, 1990) was a Canadian-born author and mystic. He is perhaps most famous for his work The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy, which is widely regarded as his magnum opus, and which he published at the age of 25 (or 27, 1928)a
He has been widely recognized as a leading scholar in the fields of religion, mythology, mysticism, and the occult.
Carl Jung, when writing Psychology and Alchemy, borrowed material from Hall’s private collection.
In 1934, Hall founded the Philosophical Research Society (PRS) in Los Angeles, California, dedicating it to an idealistic approach to the solution of human problems. The PRS claims to be non-sectarian and entirely free from educational, political, or ecclesiastical control, and the Society’s programs stress the need for the integration of philosophy, religion, and science into one system of instruction. The PRS Library, a public facility devoted to source materials in obscure fields, has many rare and scarce items now impossible to obtain elsewhere.
In 1973 (47 years after writing The Secret Teachings of All Ages), Hall was recognized as a 33º Mason (the highest honor conferred by the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite), at a ceremony held at PRS on December 8th, despite never being initiated into the physical craft.
In his over 70-year career, Hall delivered approximately 8,000 lectures in the United States and abroad, authored over 150 books and essays, and wrote countless magazine articles.
Finding My Purpose:
The Search for the Essential Meaning of Life
Viktor Frankl – The Will-to-Meaning – “Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.”
Authentic Happiness
This website has more than 2 million users from around the world, and you are welcome to use all of the resources available here for free. (all kinds of extensive tests)
Authentic Happiness is the homepage of Dr. Martin Seligman, Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania and founder of positive psychology, a branch of psychology which focuses on the empirical study of such things as positive emotions, strengths-based character, and healthy institutions.
Telling a man that he “needs to go into his feminine side” is just about as effective as telling a woman that she “needs to go into her masculine side.” Talking about “integrating head and heart” gets closer to the essence of the general intent, but still falls short for many to grasp the nuance of the meaning.
In our search for the New Compassionate Male, Dennis Tardan, my producer, and I talk with many fascinating people. Bringing them together for small group conversations adds depth, breadth and richness to our search.
Jerry Tello has appeared in Time, Newsweek, Latina and Lowrider magazines and has received many major awards including: the Maria Shriver’s Annual Advocate for Change award; the White House Champions of Change award; the Presidential Crime Victims Service award, presented by President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno; two California Governor’s Awards and the Ambassador of Peace Award presented by Rotary international.
Jerry is considered an international expert in the areas of trauma, healing, men and boys of color, fatherhood, family strengthening, racial justice, racial healing, community peace and mobilization and culturally based violence prevention and intervention issues.
16-03-30-CSUSB– Jerry Tello –Latino Education & Advocacy Days (LEAD) in the Santos Manuel Student Union (SU) at California State University, San Bernardino on Wednesday, March 30, 2016. Photo by Robert A. Whitehead/CSUSB
He is co-founder of the National Compadres Network. He has authored numerous articles, videos and curricula addressing the issues of Fatherhood, Male “Rites of Passage,” relationship and gang violence prevention, racial justice, teen fatherhood, pregnancy prevention, family strengthening, fatherhood literacy and community peace
Jerry is the author of “A Fathers Love”, a series of children’s books, co-editor of Family Violence and Men of Color, a series of motivational health and healing CD’s and author of the recently released award winning book “Recovering Your Sacredness.”
Jerry is from a family of Mexican, Texan and (Koa-wilt-con) roots and raised in… the… south central, Compton areas of Los Angeles.
David Huff is a corporate storyteller and national champion speaker with over two decades of experience helping leaders think creatively, overcome obstacles, and achieve their goals.
He has served as a community development director for a network of inner city agencies in Washington, DC, led an in-house communications and marketing team for one of the largest public sector employee benefits companies in the southeast, and developed fundraising strategies for a regional nonprofit healthcare system.
He puts his own leadership skills into practice as a board of trustees member for the Asheville Art Museum, where he serves on the diversity, equity, and inclusion and communications committees, and on the board of AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Asheville as business outreach co-chair.
David received his training in interpersonal dynamics from Mid-Atlantic Training Consultants and his outdoor leadership training from the North Carolina Outward Bound School. He holds a master’s degree in education and human development from The George Washington University and a master’s in psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute.
When not traveling, he makes his home in Asheville, NC, where he soaks up the region’s rich natural beauty and vibrant culinary and arts scenes.
If you're looking for clarity or just need a fresh perspective, I'm here to help. Click here for a complimentary 20-minute 1:1 chat. No pressure, just a conversation to see how I can support you on your journey.
In his 30th published volume, The Way of Myth: Stories’ Subtle Wisdom, Dennis Patrick Slattery reaches back in “Part I: Mining the Myths Anew,” to some earlier essays on classic films and works of literature. He also includes extended meditations on the thought of mythologist Joseph Campbell; on creativity’s hungers; on beliefs as mythic constructs; and on the joys of painting. Many of the essays explore the act of reading and the importance of stories as they relate to one’s personal myth.
