Myths are not artifacts of another time. They are living wisdom, as relevant today as they were in ancient times. In this hands-on session, we draw on Greek mythology to explore the idea that we co-create our lives in partnership with forces greater than ourselves.

Even the gods need reminding about the importance of boundaries. Through the lens of an Indigenous Sámi myth from the Russian side of the border, we'll explore what happens when boundaries are crossed, autonomy is denied, and ego gets the better of us. Together, we'll reflect on the consequences of holding on too tightly to love and trying to mold others into who we want them to be. Grounded in mythic language, celestial symbolism, and themes of love and longing, this session invites you to consider how acceptance of ourselves and others might help us avoid hurt and heartbreak. BIO: Freia Serafina Titland is an award-winning filmmaker and artist with a passion for rituals, storytelling, and spiritual reclamation. She is a PhD candidate in Women's Spirituality, an adjunct professor of philosophy, and the director of both Lumina: a women's spirituality institute and the Divine Feminine Film Festival in NYC. Freia leads workshops on myth, women's HERstories, and more.

What is the mythic experience? How does myth become a lived reality? Can we still enter the mythic dimension today? These are the questions at the heart of this talk—and perhaps the key to rediscovering a forgotten way of experiencing reality.

A Mythic Exploration of Longing, Grief, and Creative Rebirth. Through the lens of an Indigenous Brazilian myth, we will explore the fine line between sacred devotion and self-abandonment, and the ways in which yearning for what is distant or idealized can pull us away from life.

Seamus Heaney entitled his translation of Sophocles Philoctetes, "The Cure at Troy." The Greek myth of the war hero Philoctetes, abandoned on a deserted island because of a war wound, resolved with the healing of his physical wound as he returned to the war and gave his necessary military skills to the Greek war effort. In this presentation we read Sophocles Philoctetes to explore the number of "cures" Sophocles re-imagined as preconditions for military talent to rejoin the community that betrayed him. Bio: Roberta Stewart is Professor of Classical Studies at Dartmouth College, where she teaches Roman History, Comparative Slavery, Latin, Greek, and “War Stories” (with the Comparative Literature Program). Stewart regularly co-directs the Classics Department’s Roman Foreign Study program. She has also, since 2008, led book groups for combat veterans, in the Upper Valley of Vermont/NH and elsewhere. She publishes on Roman government, Numismatics, Roman religion, Roman slavery,and Latin Lexicography. Her monographs include 1998’s Public Office in Early Rome and 2012’s Plautus and Roman Slavery. She recently was awarded the Barbara McManus Award for Outstanding Scholarship by the Women’s Classical Caucus for her work on the representation of slavery in the Roman novel of Apuleius (“Seeing Fotis: Gender and Slavery in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses”) and was named the William E. Metcalf Lecturer in Numismatics for 2024-2025. Current projects include work on Roman allotment and assignment of military commands in the second century BCE in “Coping with the Lot”; and research on witness literatures of war (Witnessing and Poetic Receptions of the Experience of War: Homer, Doug Anderson, and Jehanne Dubrow”).

Menopause is Having a Moment: What is the Zeitgeist Missing? The Return and Rise of the Sacred Feminine. Join Dr. Andrea M. Slominski, PhD for an exploration of what current menopause culture is missing, the soul-making potential within women’s midlife.

Soul and the Machine: Depth Psychology, Myth, and Artificial Intelligence A three-panel webinar exploring our relationship with artificial intelligence through the lenses of depth psychology and mythology. Presented by the International Society of Mythology on November 8, 2025, as a launch event for the Springer book "Soul and the Machine" (co-edited by Jason D. Batt, Ph.D. and Jonathan Erickson, Ph.D.). Panel 1: Soul in the Stone Ancient myths and archetypal patterns that prefigure our contemporary encounter with AI—from Pygmalion and Prometheus to doppelgängers and the myth of Narcissus. What do these stories reveal about humanity's longstanding fascination with creating life from lifeless matter? Panel 2: Machine & Psyche What distinguishes human consciousness from technological simulation? This panel examines embodiment, soul, mimesis, and the recursive feedback loops between human and machine intelligence. Where do we draw the line between the authentic and the manufactured? Panel 3: The Road Ahead Current challenges and future directions as we navigate an increasingly AI-saturated world. From practical considerations to philosophical implications, what does the path forward look like? Panelists: Dr. Glen Slater, Alires Almon, Dr. Emily Lord-Kambitsch, B. Earl, Dr. Fujio Mandeville, Dr. Christopher Zieske, Bill Wiltur, Dr. Jacob Glazier, Dr. Elizabeth Eowyn Nelson, and Taha Harris. Hosted by: Jason D. Batt, Ph.D. (MC) and Jonathan Erickson, Ph.D. (Moderator, Panels 1 & 2)

This presentation will be a kaleidoscope of goddess imagery from around the globe, featuring Lydia Ruyle’s colorful collection of over 300 banners of the Divine Feminine. Each piece references a known archeological artifact of the divine feminine.