In every tradition, saints, mystics, and poets speak of the soul’s search for the beloved, the seeker’s yearning for the divine, for the Self beyond ego. This holy longing is a secret feeling with many disguises, leading us to pursue a higher union in spiritual practice, religious discipleship, even romantic embrace. It guides us to timeless wisdom and transcendent experiences. Often, people are drawn to charismatic religious and spiritual teachers. What do we unconsciously give away to them? How can we reclaim it for our own treasury? Dr. Connie Zweig has created a career around the study of the archetypal shadow. Her books – Meeting the Shadow and Romancing the Shadow have led her down the path to her latest book, Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path - The Dance of Darkness and Light In Our Search for Awakening. Just published, it has followed her hugely successful The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul.
The search and the longing also can go awry when we project the divine onto a therapist, teacher, priest, guru, rabbi, or roshi, who are all too human – who may have unhealed wounds, undeveloped empathy, or authoritarian tendencies. In effect, Dr. Zweig tell us, a woman or man who has a shadow, if he or she abuses power-- sexual, financial, or emotional coercion -- we may likely feel the shock of betrayal, our innocence lost, our faith destroyed.
Today we have witnessed many contemporary teachers of Buddhist, Hindu Hasidic, Muslim, Catholic, and Protestant groups act out their shadows in destructive ways, leaving their followers traumatized and lost. But the tools of depth psychology and spiritual shadow-work can help us recover and rekindle the flame of longing in our souls. Based on her new book Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path, which extends #MeToo into the spiritual arena, she will explore the mystery of archetypal projection and offer spiritual shadow-work for both inspired and discouraged spiritual seekers.
The Myth Salon is proud to feature Dr. Connie Zweig in Meeting the Shadow on the Spiritual Path: The Dance of Darkness and Light In Our Search for Awakening. Our Myth Salon panel will include Drs. Aaron Kipnis, Dennis Slattery, David Chernikoff, and Carter Phipps.
Connie Zweig, Ph.D., is a retired therapist, writer and shadow expert—a topic on which she has written several volumes, including her most recent best seller, The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul, which won both the 2021 American Book Fest Award and the 2021 Best Indie Book Award for best inspirational non-fiction. Connie is also the leader of Pacifica’s Conference Retreat on The Inner Work of Age Continues: Becoming a Good Ancestor, at which I’m so honored to present this year! With you, and Dennis and Ken Wilber!
PANELISTS
David Chernikoff is a meditator, teacher, spiritual counselor and life coach who taught meditation and psychology at Naropa University in Boulder Colorado, where he has a private practice. Author of Life, Part Two: Seven Keys to Awakening with Purpose and Joy as You Age, David teaches workshops and retreats throughout the United States. He holds a masters in divinity and LCSW.
Carter Phipps is co-founder of the Institute for Cultural Evolution, which addresses political polarization by focusing on the cultural roots of America’s challenges. He hosts the Thinking Ahead podcast, and is a former award-winning journalist and executive editor of What Is Enlightenment? Magazine. Carter is also the author of Evolutionaries and coauthor of Conscious Leadership.
Dr. Aaron Kipnis is Professor Emeritus at Pacifica Graduate Institute and was core faculty (1997-2016). Aaron published a number of books and articles. He lectured widely including UCB, Harvard Med, and mythopoetic gatherings with Robert Bly. Aaron has been a teacher of Transcendental Meditation and has worked with spiritual/religious and institutional trauma survivors as a depth-oriented psychotherapist.
Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor in the Mythological Studies Program At Pacifica Graduate Institute. He has authored, coauthored, edited or coedited 33 volumes of poetry, non fiction and fiction. His most recent titles include The Way of Myth: Stories' Subtle Wisdom and The Fiction in Our Convictions. His web site, dennispatrickslattery.com contains a series of blogs, paintings, adventure invitations and online courses.
HOST
Dana White, Ph.D. a contributing faculty member to Pacifica's myth degrees and author of numerous volumes on mythology. Over the course of his career, Dana has worked in radio and industrial television, as a vice president of marketing for Merrill Lynch, and as an academic department chair at an art college. He edits and designs books, produces films and motion media for universities, corporations and non-profits, and is a professional photographer with more than 40 books to his credit.He currently produces and hosts the Myth Salon, a venture he co-founded in 2016 with Dr. Will Linn,
MODERATOR
Will Linn, PhD, Will is a Creative Mythologist. For three seasons and thirty episodes, he anchored the Sky, ZDF and History Channel TV show, Myths: The Greatest Mysteries of Humanity as one of the two recurring “meta experts.” He is the founder of mythouse.org and Head Mythologist for Fascinated by Everything—a visionary experience company that creates narrative art in next-generation mediums. Will served as a leader for the Joseph Campbell Foundation over an eight year period and was the founding chair of an innovative film and performing arts college called Relativity School in Los Angeles Center Studios. From 2015-2023, he taught myth, anthropology, writing, story and philosophy at the college while leading high school, graduate and professional coursework in the United States and Europe. His media and conference appearances, publications and roundtables have been focused on the poesis of nature and technology, meta-narratives of transformation, historical arcs in the mythic imagination and the archetypal revolution of meteor-steel.
MYTH SALON
The Myth Salon is all about cultivating community – bringing people and ideas into a delicious convergence every month to explore ideas of substance. Dr. Will Linn and Dr. Dana C White, the indefatigable moderators of our Myth Salon, congregate the mythological community to explore upon this rich and fertile path, and increase the amperage of myth and substance wherever we are. When we nurture and sustain our community relations and involvement, we all benefit! The full playlist of Myth Salons since the Spring of 2020 can be found Here.
MYTHOUSE INVITATIONS
Mythouse.org - Mythic Calendar: The Mythic Calendar integrates the world’s major holidays into a single calendar of media and information rich portals that explore the mythic dimensions of each holiday, sign of the zodiac, flower of the month, birth stone and celestial event. Check in with the mythic calendar each month and with every holiday to stay engaged with mythic time.
Mythology Channel: Explore ten years of mythic radio series, round tables, myth salons and special events in the Mythology Channel’s content library.