A Call for "Meaningful Modern Myth-Making" will follow this Plenary  -  Prizes: First £300, Second £200, Third £100      Flier to be sent out after the "Mytholoogy and Modern Life" Plenary.  Judges: Dr Jamieson & panel of CJC members

“Mythology & Modern Life - Archetype of Change” Friday 18 March 2022 - 7.30pm

Depth Psychologist, Ayana Jamieson will be speaking about the work of the visionary novelist, the late Octavia Butler (1948-2006); who envisiond future possible realities and realistic possiblilties for change, embodying Jungian perspectives in her writing.

In her Plenary, Dr Jamieson will  introduce us to how Octavia Butler, explored the fears and issues of contemporary culture, and imagined our worst fears realised, to help us to tangibly see them, rather than obsessively dread, the invisible. Butler observed the history, time, upheaval and circumstances that she lived in, and extrapolated from them, to dream visionary and alternate realities that offer new world possibilities to the global crisis facing all of us today.

In her book Parable of the Sower, society has experienced the much feared breakdown of all systems, and leaves communities fending for themselves in a lawless world of terror and strife. Published in 1993, this book became during Covid lockdown, the New York Times Best Seller, when it resonated with millions who were experiencing these fears, and found solace in it being named in writing, in Butler's novel. The breakdown of public services like education, healthcare, fire, police, affordable gasoline, and the availability of water are all seen in the Parables novels. In Parable of the Talents, written in 1998, Butler wrote about a future US tyrant president whose slogan would be “Make America Great Again”

Butler explored through active imagination and speculative fiction, ways of confronting and changing, society's ills and demons, like: cancer, corruption, climate change, colour and culture inequalities, and so much more. In her writing, Octavia Butler holds keys to understanding many of the cultural ills of contemporary society; and envisions creatively, ways through the challenges of creating new and more inclusive societies, embracing: planet, plants, animals, peoples’ colours and cultures. Both a visionary and woman of colour, Butler has the advantage of offering refreshingly broadened perspectives and horizons.

Biography:

Ayana Jamieson, PhD is an educator, mythologist, and depth psychologist. She is the founder of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network, a global community founded in 2011, committed to highlighting Octavia Butler’s life and work while creating new works inspired by Butler’s legacy. Her work centres around the intersections of critical depth psychology, race, culture, and mythology. As an interdisciplinary scholar, Ayana’s dissertation “Certainty of the Flesh”: A Biomythograchical Reading of Octavia E. Butler’s Fictions, explores Butler’s biographical origins and the mythic aspects of her literary work. Dr. Jamieson’s essay, “Far Beyond the Stars” contains methods for curating your own archive and appears in the Black Futures anthology edited by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham (One World). Her writing also appears in 51 Feminist Thinkers (Routledge), Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction (MIT Press), and elsewhere. She teaches ethnic studies courses at California State University Polytechnic, Pomona and is a faculty member at the Salomé Institute of Jungian Studies.