EVENT DESCRIPTION: After our very successful Myth Salon on Labyrinths in January, much to my surprise and delight, we have continued to field the momentum of people sharing how the persuasive pull of the labyrinth quiets the soul’s restless nature. People want more labyrinth programming! Last week, standing at a threshold space between Santa Monica and the Venice boardwalk, I envisioned how a labyrinth at this crossroads could become a symbol for nonviolence, slowing down the pace of urban life. So, in addition to announcing a new series of panel discussions devoted to labyrinths today, I am now in the process of launching two campaigns to fund the construction of labyrinths – one in Santa Cruz, the others at the campuses of Pacifica Graduate Institute. I have imagined how the simple construction of a labyrinth in a city park could effectively – and with surprisingly little effort – transform the character of a township. More on these soon enough, but for right now, let’s talk about what’s immediately ahead for us.
Partly as a response to the Myth Salon on Labyrinths in January, on Tuesday, March 19 at 5PM Pacific, The Myth Salon is deeply honored to host a special panel discussion among leaders in the world labyrinth institutions to advance the awareness of the 16th Annual World Labyrinth Day on Saturday, May 4, a day acknowledged throughout the world to honor the unique contributions that labyrinths make to peace, nonviolence and global unity. Every year on the first Saturday in May, thousands of people around the world participate in World Labyrinth Day as a moving meditation for world peace and shared appreciation of the labyrinth experience.
This special event will be our first in a series of panel discussions on labyrinths that for now we are calling Love and the Labyrinth. As we all know, love is the archetype that connects. Love creates, bonds, heals and sustains everything in the cosmos. Love is as relevant to physics as it is to psychology. It is the glue reality needs to cohere. Without love as the guiding principle, existence simply could not be. Between the poles of love and strife, beauty in every form possible expresses and shapes the worlds we inhabit. Accordingly, the labyrinth is the ideal symbol to evoke the poetry, potential, and subtle power of love.
Love and the Labyrinth – Announcing the 16th Annual World Labyrinth Day
Rounding out the announcements about labyrinths, once again here is the YouTube link to first Labyrinths Myth Salon – The History and Phenomenology of Labyrinths with Drs. Dennis Hall, Lauren Artress, and others.
MYTH SALON PANELISTS
In this panel discussion, we feature all four of the global organizations in labyrinth education and scholarship: The Labyrinth Society, Veriditas, The Legacy Labyrinth Project, and the Australian Labyrinth Network. We invite you to join in celebrating World Labyrinth Day on Saturday, May 4, that will begin on March 19th with this important labyrinth panel discussion.
Ellen Bintz Meuch – Ellen, who resides in Wheaton, Illinois, has been dedicated to using the labyrinth to help individuals, communities, and the world since 2001 when she became a Veriditas certified facilitator. Originally, she focused her labyrinth energy on helping the incarcerated. In 2005 she created the Global Healing Response, a plan that helps the labyrinth community respond to disasters and emergencies in a unified way (globalhealingresponse.com). Since 2020, Ellen has served as the coordinator for World Labyrinth Day, created by The Labyrinth Society (worldlabyrinthday.org). Most recently, Ellen has collaborated with The Legacy Labyrinth Project as Director of the Labyrinth Activist Network. Using the power of collective healing, the labyrinth, and the philosophy of sacred and contemplative activism, she is bringing together labyrinth enthusiasts who want to make powerful change peacefully. Ellen feels passionately that we must work collectively to make the changes we need to create peace in the world.
Ellen Bintz Meuch
Founder, Global Healing Response
Coordinator, World Labyrinth Day, The Labyrinth Society
Director, Labyrinth Activism, The Legacy Labyrinth Project
Certified Labyrinth Facilitator, Veriditas
Susie Leiper - Susie serves as TLS Membership Chairperson and also as Regional Rep Liaison for the Northeast USA and Eastern Canada regions. She has a winter home and labyrinth outreach in Honduras."
Susie Leiper
Membership Chairperson
Regional Rep Liaison
The Labyrinth Society ~ Serving the worldwide labyrinth community!
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, Ph.D. Is the Founder of Mythouse.org. He Produces Psychedelic MixTapes for Fascinated by Everything and co-hosts a European TV series called Myths: The Greatest Mysteries of Humanity. From 2011-2021, Will led projects for the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and from 2015-2023, he served as a professor and founding department chair for Hussian College—a film and performing arts school in Los Angeles. He has moderated these monthly Myth Salons with Dana White since 2015. 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.
Special Thanks to the continued support of the Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association.