Conference

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Re-Uniting with Our Roots: Mary Magdalene and the Tree of Life

The Second Annual Mythica Mary Magdalene Online International Conference
February 18- February 21, 2023, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm PST daily

Available on a sliding scale and recorded for later streaming

Mary Magdalene by Nicole Hague Andrews

This is why the Good has come into your midst:
To Re-unite you with your roots.
-The Gospel of Mary Magdalene

A four day global online conference designed to reclaim Mary Magdalene and the "lost stories" and forgotten women of Early Christianity.
A gathering of renowned scholars of divergent orientations (Eastern Orthodox, Gnostic, Catholic, Jewish, Sufi, Quaker, Episcopalian and Interfaith) will offer fresh insights through their exciting contemporary research on the texts of the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Thomas and the urgent relevance Mary Magdalene has for restoring a harmonious connection with nature-- with the natural world around us and with our truest nature of goodness within.

Workshop leaders will offer tools for deepening your spiritual life through ancient monastic practices that awaken your imagination and creativity as we explore the contemplative traditions of chanting, Lectio Divina and Visio Divina. Artists, poets and musicians will open the doors of your heart through their illuminating and inspiring creations and there will be time for sharing what is stirring in your own heart on our final day with small breakout groups and an "open mike" hour of poetry and images from our participants.

This is a perfect prelude to Lent and an excellent resource for creating a more meaningful spiritual life, whether for just yourself, for a small circle of friends or as way to re-invigorate and deepen a church community.

20This unique four day online conference is available on a sliding scale. All presentations will be recorded, with a link sent out within 48 hours for you to be able to (re)watch the recording through later viewing as well.

Two Bonuses: an invitation to Sunday Compline with Robin O'Brien and a videotaped interview between festival director Kayleen Asbo and author Sophie Strand on Rewilding: Mary Magdalene and Nature.

This program is available on a sliding scale , with a basic rate of $200
Depending on your financial circumstances, you might also choose one of these three levels instead:

$20 : for scholarship students who submit a letter of application to [email protected] and write a note of gratitude to their donor
$100 Reduced Tuition for those who are currently experiencing financially challenges
$300 for a sustaining patron underwriting a scholarship
$450 for a circle of friends or a church group of 3 or more people who will be watching the broadcast together

For those who cannot attend live, a link to the recording will be sent out within 24 hours of each session.

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Saturday, February 18: Mary Magdalene and the Forgotten Roots of the Gospel of Mark and Gospel of John

10:00 am PST: Opening Circle and Welcome by Kayleen Asbo

!0:30am -12:00 pm PST: Presentations of Scholarship, Music and Art
The Aramaic Prayer of Jesus
Lizzie Berne De Gear: Miryam and the Marys: A Healing Branch of the Tree of Life
Beth Mackza: Seeking the Anointer and Finding the Proclaimer : A Pilgrimage Through Image

Rita Houlihan: Commissioning Images to Restore and Replace False Images
Laura James: Restoring the Women of the Gospels to Their Rightful Place in Art

Songs and Chants by Robin O'Brien

12:30-1:30 Experiential Workshop: Writing with the Women of Mark with Fay Barrett

1:30- 2:00: Optional Break Out Groups for Sharing

Sunday, February 19: Mary Magdalene and the Call to Return to Our Roots

10:00 am PST: Opening Circle with Poetry by Lyna Tevenez and Music of Catherine Braslavksy

10:15 am -12:00 pm PST: Presentations of Scholarship, Music and Art
Kayleen Asbo: Mother Tree: Mary Magdalene, John Cassian and the Contemplative Christian Tradition
Dr. Apela Colorado: Indigenous Mind, Nature and Mary Magdalene
Polly Paton Brown: The Trees of Wisdom
Sue Ellen Parkinson: Visio Divina

12:30-2:00 pm Experiential: David Curtis: Friendly Quaker-Style Study Group Method with the Gospel of Mary

Monday, February 20: The Garden of New Possibilities
Music by Catherine Braslavksy
Poet Fred La Motte: Out Beyond Christianity
Kayleen Asbo: A Brief introduction to the Nag Hammadi texts and The Gospel of the Beloved Companion
Veronique Flayol: Walking in Mary Magdalene's Footsteps: Video of Mary Magdalene's Sanctuary: La Sainte Baume Forest and Grotto
David Lorimer, Non-Dualism in The Gospel of the Beloved Companion
David Cadman, Silence, Love and the Divine Feminine
Emily Grieves, Thunder Perfect Mind

12:30 -1:30 pm Experiential Workshop:
Shiloh Sophia McCloud- Intentional Creativity, Trees of Life

1:30-2:00 Break Out Discussion Groups

Tuesday, February 21: Artist Showcase, Open Mike Poetry and Small Group Sharing

Marie Aguilera, Karla Bravo, Thomas Dodd, Nicole Hague-Andrews, Anasuya Isaacs, Katie Ketchum, Amina McMakin, Bill Tonnis,
Tatiana NIkolova- Houston, Rose Wognum Frances and community members

Kayleen Asbo, Ph.D, Director of Mythica, holds four advanced degrees in mythology, psychology and music. A professor, lecturer, pianist and composer, Kayleen's greatest passion is inspiring people to find their own inner creativity and the "spark of goodness" within. Kayleen has been the cultural historian for the Santa Rosa Symphony, a Master Teacher for Veriditas, a lecturer for the San Francisco Opera and the Mendocino Music Festival, and a faculty member of the Osher Lifelong Learning Programs at UC Berkeley, Dominican University and Sonoma State University. She taught music and psychology at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for 19 years and has lectured on courses ranging from the HIstory of Christianity at Pacifica Graduate Institute to Expressive Arts Therapy at Sonoma State University before integrating all of these subjects in her work for Mythica. She dedicates herself to creating communities dedicated to beauty and wisdom through Mythica and to bringing people on pilgrimage-- in person and virtually-- to the sacred sites of the world.

Singer-songwriter Catherine Braslavksy divides her time between Paris and the San Francisco Bay Area. Trained by the world renowned David Hykes, she travelled around the globe performing in his Harmonic Choir. Deeply steeped in the music of the Middle Ages from Christianity, Islam and Jewish sources, she has recorded eight albums of sacred music ranging from Hildegard von Bingen to Arabic chants and the Cantigas de Santa Maria. Catherine has produced seven theatrical pieces in collaboration with Joseph Rowe that have ben performed in sacred sites around the world including Thoronet Abbey and the Basilica of Mary Magdalene in Vezelay and has recorded several soundtracks for documentary films and French television. With her late husband Joseph Rowe (the English translator ofJean Yves Leloup's work on the Gnostic Gospels, she created several renowned productions of spoken word and music that celebrated the Divine Feminine including From Jerusalem to Cordoba and Ave Eva Read more and listen to her hypnotic music at http://www.naturalchant.com.

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David Cadman is a Harmony Professor of Practice at the University of Wales, Trinity St. David, an innovative program exploring principles of Harmony in Education, Food and Farming, in Wellbeing, and in Business and the Economy. Formerly Chairman of The Prince’s Foundation and a Trustee of the Prince’s School of traditional Arts, he is Harmony Adviser to The Prince’s Foundation based at Dumfries House in Scotland. A lifelong Quaker, "Gathered Silence"is a foundational part of his spiritual life, both in private practice and as a founding member of the Spirit Humanity Forum which meets yearly for conference in Reykjavic, Iceland. David is the author of several books including Love and the Divine Feminine and The Recovery of Love, as well as four historical novel about love, loss and loneliness published under the pen name William Blyghton. Here is David's website where you can learn more about his offerings.

Robin O’Brien is a singer, composer and sung prayer leader offering a wide array of musical styles from Hildegard of Bingen to Taize and Celtic folksongs, as well as an enormous body of original songs and chants inspired by the sacred.

You can hear her solo music at https://sungprayer.bandcamp.com/ or with her duo, Notan: https://notan.bandcamp.com/

Robin has cultivated prayer-space in the San Francisco Bay Area and abroad: at Chartres Cathedral in France, the Abbey of Iona in Scotland, and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Robin is core staff at Mythica; co-facilitating workshops at Bishop’s Ranch and the Ratna Ling Retreat Center. Her beautiful call and response meditations with the music of Hildegard of Bingen have been called " a portal to mystical union.”

David Lorimer, MA is a writer, lecturer and editor who is a Founder of Character Education in Scotland, the Programme Director of the Scientific and Medical Network in England and the former President of the Swedenborg Society. A former teacher of philosophy and modern languages at Winchester College, he is the author and editor of over a dozen books, including The Quest for Wisdom, The Spirit of Science, Prophet for Our Times ( a biography on the founder of the Dances for Universal Peace Peter Deunov) and A New Renaissance (edited with Oliver Robinson). He now lives in the Pyrenees and leads retreats on the Cathars and Gospel of the Beloved Companion which you can discover on his website here.

Veronique Flayol is the pre-eminent pilgrimage guide in Provence for sites associated with Mary Magdalene and thee early christian saints. Dedicated to Mary Magdalene since she was a child, Veronique grew up in the village of Saint Maximin La Saint Baume where the relics of Mary Magdalene are housed in the Basilica. Veronique was the president of the Mary Magdalene Association and has had the honor of presiding over the Feast Day Celebration of Mary Magdalene for many years- the first woman in history to do so.

Veronique is the director of Mary Magdalene Sacred Journeys, and offers pilgrimages and retreats throughout the year in France on topics including from The First Evangelization of Provence, The Prayer of the Heart, Black Madonnas and the Cathars. You can discover more about here offerings here.

ALFRED K. LAMOTTE has authored three volumes of poetry with Saint Julian Press and co-authored three books of artwork and poetry with Hawaiian artist and spiritual teacher, Rashani Réa. An interfaith college chaplain, meditation teacher, and instructor in World Religions, with degrees from Yale University and Princeton Theological Seminary, the first part of his spiritual life was in the Vedanta tradition, and he studied in India with Ravi Shankar. A spiritual awakening at the Basilica of Mary Magdalene in Vezelay led him to a monastery in France where for several years he studied Gregorian chant and contemplative practice. You can read his essay about his spiritual awakening with Mary Magdalene here and find readings of his poetry here.

New Testament and Hebrew scholar Lizzie Berne-DeGear who weaves together her education in Depth Psychology and Biblical Scholarship with a feminist perspective in an innovative, engaging and dynamic manner . Lizzie is an interfaith chaplain in New York City who teaches courses on the The Spiritual Awakening of Jesus for the People's Catholic Seminary and her book on the Gospel of Mark is forthcoming.

Dr. Apela Colorado is Oneida-Gaul and a traditional cultural practitioner and indigenous scientist. She is dedicated to bridging dialogue between Western thought and indigenous worldview, in 1997, Dr. Colorado was one of twelve women chosen from 52 countries by the State of the World Forum to be honored for her role as a woman leader.

Dr. Colorado created the first doctoral program in traditional knowledge at the California Institute of Integral Studies and currently directs the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network in Costa Rica. For twenty yeas, she has been teaching Shamanic Dreamwork at Ubiquity University's summer Mystery School at Chartres Cathedral, and she leads pilgrimages to the sacred caves of the Dordogne.

Dr. Colorado describes her own intense mystical connection to Mary Magdalene in her autobiography, Woman Between the Worlds, published this past year.

Laura James is an award-winning artist and self-taught painter of Antiguan heritage. Working as a professional artist and illustrator for many years, she is best known for her illustrations for the Book of the Gospels: A Lectionary, published by LTP Press. She was born in New York City, where she now lives in the Bronx.

A visual storyteller who explores biblical subjects, cultural issues and secular themes through her unique contemporary use of the traditional art of Ethiopian iconography, her goal is to have her art in churches and public places where black people can actively see themselves included within the stories of the Bible. Her work has been featured on magazine covers, on book jackets andin the one woman show Black is Blessed,
featured at the Sheen Center of New York City.

Interfaith minister and artist Fay Barrett is the founded of the Mary Magdalene School of Wisdom at Manchester Monastery in Manchester, England. For over 30 years, Fay has led pilgrimages and workshops in the sacred feminine through England and France. For Lent 2023, she will be offering an online painting and journaling class walking in the footsteps of Mary Magdalene and the Myrrhbearing Women.

Iconographer, Poet and Expressive Arts Workshop leader Sue Ellen Parkinson grew up completely outside of Christianity. In her adulthood, she pursued a spiritual pathway weaving together Buddhism, the ritual teachings of Martin Prechtel, Malidome Some and Francis Weller and Depth Psychology. A series of synchronicities and dreams led her to attend a retreat on Mary Magdalene in 2010 and she has been mystically connected to Magdalene and painting her ever since, with many of the images inspired by Sue Ellen's pilgrimage to Provence with Kayleen Asbo and Veronique Flayol . You can see the gallery of her paintings of Mary Magdalene, Matha, Sara le Kali, Black Madonnas and other images of the Sacred Feminine here.

Artist and ritual specialist Emily Grieves lives in Central Mexico where she runs an expressive art retreat center and leads pilgrimages to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Her pathway has encompassed a Fullbright Grant in Art History, an immersion into Shamanic studies and immersion into the Folk Art and ritual traditions of pre-Christian Meso-America. One of Emily 's latest projects is the Dia de Muertos Series: 44 Paintings to Honor the Day of the Dead Celebration. You can see her vibrant work here.

Shiloh Sophia McCloud is an internationally recognized artist renowned for both her spiritually saturated images of the Divine Feminine and her pioneering methods of empowering women to discover their own creativity and artmaking as a pathway of healing and joy.For the past 25 years, she has dedicated her life to the belief that self-expression is a basic human right and shares her message with tens of thousands around the world through her revolutionary education, focused on art as a pathway to healing and transformation called Intentional Creativity®. She is the Curator and Co-founder of MUSEA: Center for Intentional Creativity®, with locations in Sonoma and around the world. Shiloh Sophia says “I believe making art with intention combines the best of healing and recovery through science, embodiment and mindfulness". Most mornings she can be found having tea with her Muse, pouring over quantum physics and sacred texts in the Red Thread Cafe with her husband Jonathan. www.shilohsophia.com www.musea.org

British Eco-Psychologist and Art Therapist Polly Paton Brown has a double lineage in Celtic Spirituality and Christianity. A member of the Iona Community fo many years, Polly is on the advisory board for the Abbey of the Arts, a council member of the Way of the Rose, and a core faculty member of Mythica Community where she teaches a year-long series of The Wisdom of the Forest which integrates scienc, spirituality, creative writing and art making. Polly is a trauma specialist dedicated to the healing of the world , and has specialized in the pioneering field of using equine therapy for children suffering from PTDS and trauma.

Beth Maczka enjoyed a 30-year career in nonprofit leadership focused on racial justice and empowering women, until n 2018, her interest in the Divine Feminine led her on a personal pilgrimage of Black Madonnas in Europe. A year later, she left her career and soon enrolled in Vanderbilt Divinity School in 2020. Pursuing a Masters of Theological studies, Beth’s research focuses on the anointing in Mark 14:3-9. These studies led her on a second two-month pilgrimage in the fall of 2022 with a particular focus on images of women in the early church. She will be sharing a photo journal of what she discovered about omissions and revisions as she traveled through France, England, Spain, Italy, Egypt, and Turkey searching for images that accurately portray the account of anointing found in The Gospel of Mark

Singer, songwriter, playwright and artist Katie Ketchum has written and produced several musicals, including one on Mary Magdalene. The music director for Her Church in San Francisco, Katie is passionately committed to creating inclusive language liturgies.

David Curtis was a long time practicing Buddhist and Quaker when a profound mystical encounter with Mary Magdalene changed the course of his life, setting him on a pilgrim path which has led from the Holy Land to St Catherine of Sinai to the cave of La Saint Baume. For the past two years, David has been leading workshops on his new translation of The Gospel of Mary. He lives in Somerset, England where he leads prayer groups at the Magdalene Chapel of Glastonbury and offers cross quarter retreats, integrating his learnings from ritual theater, icon painting and labyrinth making.

Lyna Tevenez- Jones is the author of Prayers of Light and Strength, written when she lived as a single mother with two daughters in Southern France, going every week to the cave of Mary Magdalene at La Sainte Baume. Lyna is completing her Master's degree at Pacifica Graduate Institute where she is focusing on the healing of intergenerational trauma.

Thomas Dodd is a Celtic harpist, visual artist and photographer based out of Atlanta, Georgia who crafts elaborately textured photography has mythic and quasi-religious themes that pay homage to Old Master art traditions while at the same time drawing from psychological archetypes that evoke a strong emotional response from the viewer. Thomas has had numerous exhibitions of his works in many cities in the USA and around the world. He has had multiple shows in Paris, New York City, New Orleans, Mexico City, Tokyo, Seattle, San Antonio, Orlando, Poland, Italy, Sicily, Germany, Romania and many other galleries and museums around the globe. Dodd's photographs have been featured in many magazines, on book and album covers and he frequently teaches workshops and webinars on photo-editing and marketing for artists.

He is deeply dedicated to Mary Magdalene, seeing in her the archetype of wholeness and "Every Woman".

Globetrotting Anasuya Isaacs is a Speaker, Entrepreneur, Writer, Actress and Painter dedicated to offering Let Love Lead workshops, programs that ignite the sacred alchemy between theater, poetry, song and art as a path of healing for women and children survivors of rape, sex trafficking, sexual and physical abuse. Trained in the Stanislavsky Method of acting in Paris, France, Anasuya co-founded a theater company in Paris with friends to perform classical French theater in the Commedia dell’Arte style. Returning to the States, she continued as an actress in her own plays and as a spoken word artist. As a lover of words, she has edited and been included in several anthologies of poetry and essays. A student of International Relations and Communication at Oberlin College, she continued her studies of French at the Sorbonne, Universite de Paris, in Paris, France. It was in France that she began a deep. relationship with the Sacred Feminine and discovered the Black Madonnas of Europe, a subject which she has pursued with passion ever since.