Mythmaking and the Timeless Art of Memoir: A Writing Workshop for Men and Women
Saturday, May 5th, 2024
2 PM-4 PM Central Time via Zoom
MYTHS AND FOLKTALES are the oldest stories we have. They have been
handed down to us to show us how people have lived their lives for thousands of
years—how they developed their mores and beliefs and created the rituals to celebrate
life and death. Our ancestors sat around the fire at night and told each other stories
about Helios, the sun god who drove his chariot each day from east to west to light
up the sky. They told of Selene, the moon goddess, who drove her white chariot
across the sky each night and created each phase of the moon as it waxed and waned.
Tales of gods and goddesses, heroes and demons have been the time-honored way of
examining psychological characteristics and patterns of human behavior. Our distant
ancestors looked to the sun, moon, and stars for guidance and direction. Our
contemporaries pin their hopes and dreams on meditation, organized religion, or
psychotherapy. For Jung, myth serves to inspire “normal adults to recognize their
unconscious and to integrate it with ego consciousness” (The Essential Jung 27).
Like myth, memoir presupposes that there is a certain unity to human experience, that
we all share similar hopes, dreams, and desires. When we tell the story of how and
where we grew up, who our parents were, how the significant people in our lives
influenced us, what challenges and obstacles we faced, we are locating ourselves
within an ancient human tradition of storytelling and meaning making. Memoirs help
us find meaning in our lives by showing us how our lives fit into a larger mythic
pattern. Although not every memoir reflects a mythic theme, most memoir writers
unconsciously reveal mythic themes in their desire to find meaning in their lives.
Memoirs address the domains of myth: Who am I? Who are my people? What is my
journey? What is my purpose? Where is home?
In an atmosphere of friendship, support, and safety we will read excerpts from
contemporary memoirs that reflect mythic themes and respond to short writing
prompts.
Maureen Murdock, Ph.D. is the author of her new book Mythmaking: Self-Discovery
and the Timeless Art of Memoir and the author of the best-selling book, The Heroine’s
Journey, which explores the rich territory of the feminine psyche and has been
translated into twenty languages. Maureen is also author of Unreliable Truth: On Memoir
and Memory; Fathers’ Daughters: Breaking the Ties that Bind; Spinning Inward: Using Guided
Imagery with Children; and The Heroine’s Journey Workbook. She is the editor of an
anthology entitled Monday Morning Memoirs: Women in the Second Half of Life and teaches
memoir for the International Women’s Writing Guild and in Pacifica Graduate
Institute’s program, Writing Down the Soul. Maureen was Chair and Core Faculty of the
M.A. Counseling Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She has written pieces for
the Huffington Post on criminal justice and volunteers for the Alternatives to Violence
Project (AVP) with inmates at Lompoc Federal Prison. www.maureenmurdock.com
