Introduction to Mythic Journeys

The project, its author, and its purpose.

The Journeys of Our Lives

Whether we are aware of it or not, each of our lives reenact symbolic, reoccurring patterns found in mythology, spiritual texts, and other sources of ancient wisdom. Mythic Journeys is an ongoing project tracing these patterns by exploring powerful, symbolic works in depth.

Meet the Author

For the past three years, I have hosted the podcast Mythos & Logos: World Mythology & Religions, available in video format on YouTube and audio format on major podcast platforms. That series takes a single-episode, single-story format, sharing traditional understandings and applying them to modern life with interpretation interwoven with story.

How This is Different

Mythic Journeys will explore similar themes in a deeper format, dedicating multiple blog posts to following a work. We will explore a diverse selection of material going beyond single stories, ranging from Jungian psychology to spiritual poetry and beyond. Each selected work will be the subject of a series, which may range from weeks to months in length. We will look into the works and their authors, exploring how they and we enact the patterns which have been recognized since ancient times.

The First Journey

The first subject of Mythic Journeys will be The Tree: Tales in Psycho-Mythology by Dr. Marvin Spiegelman. Spiegelman was a Jungian psychologist and graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. The Tree documents a series of his journeys in Active Imagination, a Jungian meditation technique which will be explored in-depth by this blog in the immediate future.

What to Expect

Each of these journeys will follow the author’s reading of each work (in the case of The Tree, for the first time.) This blog will share notes, summarize key ideas, and explore connections between the journeys we each undertake.

Welcome!

I am very excited to have you join on these Mythic Journeys! Your reading, sharing your thoughts and comments, and support makes this possible! I am confident that we will each have much to learn from following the journeys that our fellow humans have taken, and exploring the symbols and patterns that are at play in our lives each day.

So, are you ready to take the first step?