Your Mythic Journey – Second Sunday Seminar
Your Mythic Journey
A Second Sunday Seminar, With Nancy Linnon, MA, MFA
Sunday, March 14th from 2:00 to 3:45
$25 by March 7th and $30 thereafter – Via Zooom
Sam Keen, author of The Mythic Journey, defines myth as “an intricate set of interlocking stories, rituals, rites, and customs that inform and give the pivotal sense of meaning and direction to a person, family, community or culture.” This is much different than the more common usage of myth as a synonym for “lie” or “illusion.”. In his definition, each person and culture has a mythology. They differ in content—sometimes wildly—but at their root and across all boundaries, they share a set of fundamental questions, including Where did I come from? Who are my guides? What is the purpose of my life?
In this session, we will explore how writing can be used as a contemplative practice to help us not only “record” our unique spiritual (or in Keen’s word, mythic) journeys, but deepen and enliven them. For inspiration, we’ll explore contemporary writings that use personal experience as their starting point and discuss what qualities define them as “spiritual” and/or “mythic,” especially when they may not reference an established set of beliefs to explain or illuminate personal experience.
The session will include an opening reflective writing practice, a presentation, and time for small and large group discussion.
For those participating in the fuller Contemplative Study Program, we will further writing and sharing our spiritual and mythic journeys in our Study Group, Sunday, March 28.
Nancy Linnon started her career as a journalist for U.S. News & World Report and then followed her heart into teaching, via a master’s in teaching at Brown University. She has taught for 25 years in high schools, colleges, universities, and community venues and worked as a writer and editor inside organizations and as a freelancer. She furthered her love of writing and teaching by earning an MFA in creative nonfiction from Antioch University. Her work has appeared in magazines and literary journals, including Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, Los Angeles Review, Yoga International, Mothering, as well as several anthologies.
Nancy’s passion is using writing as a powerful practice to deepen our lives and bring us closer to ourselves and each other. She teaches writing as a process: you write to figure out what you have to say—as opposed to knowing what you have to say and writing it down. This approach puts the emphasis on discovery and keeps our stories fresh, surprising, and authentic to the bone.
