The Poetics of Myth

Dennis P. Slattery
Scheduled course
Online

Overview

Exploring the reality of myth, metaphor and the realm of the transcendent, Dennis P. Slattery guides listeners on a journey to developing a mythic way of knowing in themselves. These audio lectures delve into the dynamic energy that poetics and depth psychology share, as well as the underlying unities found among depth and archetypal psychology, and the making or shaping of a mythos (both personal and collective).

The pioneering work of mythologist, Joseph Campbell, is also brought into focus. Myths, writes Campbell, are powerful ways of positioning us – or better said, dispositioning us – to be accessible to the realm where language often fails. The realm of transcendent realities that myths point us toward but leave us to choose to yield to. Both myth and metaphor allow us to enter domains not readily accessible to the rational mind.

The lectures further consider the crucial role that our dreams, our creative lives – and our ability to be still long enough to hear the coherent voice of creativity – play within each of our souls.

The course was developed with a listener in mind who is curious about their own creative and imaginal images that help to define their everyday reality. Subsequently, curiosity, wonder, and quest(ioning) will be part of your listening journey toward reconnection and wholeness.

  • Understanding the intimate interconnection between psyche, poetry and dream.
  • Joseph Campbell’s understanding of myth’s importance in our lives and its fostering of community.
  • Exploring the nature of the Greek discovery of Mimesis and its consequences for our own personal narrative.
  • Delving into and developing the form of knowledge that poetry can open us up to.
  • Experiencing how our dreams are related to poetry’s way of understanding the world.
  • How psyche is poetic and how poetry is psychological.
  • The nature of the knowledge that both poetry and depth psychology offer us to contemplate.
  • The mythopoetic quality of Carl Jung’s imagination.
  • Our own myth-making impulse, in which we create ourselves and are created by others.
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