Mythica Community
Inside the images, songs and stories of the past are seeds that can ignite our own imaginations, connecting us to both the ancient wisdom of the past and illuminating the latent wisdom that lies within each human heart. Mythica is dedicated to preserving the rich culture which is our human heritage and to passing on a legacy of creativity, contemplation and compassion through our online classes, workshops, pilgrimages and community gatherings.
Our extended family consists of musicians, mythologists, poets, storytellers, art therapists and ritual leaders and are some of the most inspiring people you'll ever meet. Read about them below and follow their links to discover what they have to offer.r.
Our extended family consists of musicians, mythologists, poets, storytellers, art therapists and ritual leaders and are some of the most inspiring people you'll ever meet. Read about them below and follow their links to discover what they have to offer.r.
Kayleen Asbo, Ph.D, Artistic/Executive Director 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 greatness through connecting to the masterpieces of music, art and literature. Before the pandemic, Kayleen was 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. Kayleen 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 has delivered keynote presentation for Humanities West in San Francisco, at the Assisi Institute for Depth Psychology in Italy, at the Oxford University Conference on History, Women and Power, for Jung Centers, seminaries, churches and retreat centers across the world. Since the pandemic, she has devoted herself to the creation and development of Mythica, offering online salons of music and poetry and "virtual pilgrimages' to the sacred sites of the world.
Kayleen 's first passion was music, and she made her debut at age 12 as a soloist with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra performing Mozart's Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 414. As a high school student, she studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts and was planning on a life in music when a crippling injury cut short her piano career, leading her to pursue degrees in psychology and literature while at Smith College and Mills College. After recovering the use of her hands, she returned to music, receiving a Master's degree in both piano and Baroque performance Practice from the San Francisco Conservatory, where her principle teachers were Paul Hersh, Mack McCray and Laurette Goldberg and where she was the Music History assistant to Robert Greenberg. The fruits of her work in composition are most abundantly represented in Odes to Vincent, a cycle of 16 solo piano pieces inspired by the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh and The Passion of Mary Magdalene, a liturgical musical drama she created for the Pacifica Graduate Institute as part of her Ph.D dissertation in the field of Mythological Studies.. Here is an interview with Kayleen:
Kayleen 's first passion was music, and she made her debut at age 12 as a soloist with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra performing Mozart's Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 414. As a high school student, she studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts and was planning on a life in music when a crippling injury cut short her piano career, leading her to pursue degrees in psychology and literature while at Smith College and Mills College. After recovering the use of her hands, she returned to music, receiving a Master's degree in both piano and Baroque performance Practice from the San Francisco Conservatory, where her principle teachers were Paul Hersh, Mack McCray and Laurette Goldberg and where she was the Music History assistant to Robert Greenberg. The fruits of her work in composition are most abundantly represented in Odes to Vincent, a cycle of 16 solo piano pieces inspired by the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh and The Passion of Mary Magdalene, a liturgical musical drama she created for the Pacifica Graduate Institute as part of her Ph.D dissertation in the field of Mythological Studies.. Here is an interview with Kayleen:
Catherine Braslavksy (voice dulcimer and tambour ) 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. Catherine has collaborated and performed with artists such as Alain Kremski, Steve Shehan, Marie Christine Barrault, and Yuval Ron, and has composed, produced and recorded several soundtracks for documentary films and French television. Read more and listen to her hypnotic music at http://www.naturalchant.com.
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.”
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.”
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 her offerings here.
Stephen Carpenter, Mythica's tour manager in Scotland and England, enjoyed a 35-year career in orchestral management before retiring to pursue his passion of developing cultural journeys. In the early 1980s, he worked with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra before moving on to be Chief Executive firstly of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, then the City of London Sinfonia in the 1990s , the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. and most recently, Chineke Orchestra, an All Black and minority orchestra based in London. Stephen's great passion for Felix Mendelssohn and his journey through Scotland in 1829 inspired the development of The Spirit of Sctland,tracing the composer's coming-of-age pilgrimage from Edinburgh to Iona, which also were the seeds two of his best-loved works, the Hebrides Overture and Scottish Symphony. Stephen’s research into Mendelssohn’s Scottish journey can be seen at mendelssohninscotland.com.
Sue Ellen Parkinson, Iconographer, Expressive Arts and Ritualist
Sue Ellen uses painting as a medium for healing, self discovery and community connectedness. Sue Ellen is a frequent guest teacher for visio divina for Mythica's offerings at retreat, pilgrimages and online workshops.
You can read more about Sue Ellen and see her icons inspired by the themes of the sacred feminine and mysticism at www.miracleofyourlife.com.
Writer and teacher Rosemerry Wahtola Traumer is the spiritual heir to Mary Oliver. Her poems are unflinchingly courageous, unfailingly compassionate, piercingly beautiful . Many of us begin every day with her daily post, which you can sign up for here.
Rosemerry and Kayleen frequently collaborate on offering "Ekphastic Practice", a type of workshop that invites us into an experience of synesthesia where music, art and poetry co-mingle and inspire one another. Their collaborative project, "Love Letters for Vincent", a performance piece of Rosemerry's poetry st to Kayleen's original piano composition and paired with Van Gogh's paintings, has been hailed as " One of the most healing and beautiful experiences of my life. I don't know what to call it because I have never seen anything like it. Not a concert. Not a lecture. Was it a ritual? A doorway to the beyond? I can't name i; I only know I will be forever grateful"
Rosemerry and Kayleen frequently collaborate on offering "Ekphastic Practice", a type of workshop that invites us into an experience of synesthesia where music, art and poetry co-mingle and inspire one another. Their collaborative project, "Love Letters for Vincent", a performance piece of Rosemerry's poetry st to Kayleen's original piano composition and paired with Van Gogh's paintings, has been hailed as " One of the most healing and beautiful experiences of my life. I don't know what to call it because I have never seen anything like it. Not a concert. Not a lecture. Was it a ritual? A doorway to the beyond? I can't name i; I only know I will be forever grateful"
Nigel Armstrong, violin
As soloist Nigel has performed with orchestras such as the Dusseldorf Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, YOA Orchestra of the Americas, and the Boston Pops, and with conductors including Sir Neville Marriner and Carlos Miguel Prieto. He received the 2nd Prize, the Ole Bull Prize, and the Nordheim Award at the 2010 Menuhin Competition Senior Division in Oslo, Norway, and got the 4th Prize plus the Prize for the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work (STOMP, by John Corigliano) at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition. As a chamber musician his concerts have taken him across the US and abroad--highlights have included opportunities to share the stage with the Tokyo String Quartet and pianist Jonathan Biss.
Nigel feels fortunate to have had the chance to explore great orchestral literature throughout his career. Since 2009 he's appeared as concertmaster with the Colburn Orchestra, LA's American Youth Symphony, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, YOA Orchestra of the Americas, and the New York String Orchestra in their annual Carnegie hall performances. Beginning in the 2016/17 season he serves as concertmaster of the Santa Cruz Symphony.
He also recently had the opportunity to live with and learn from the Plum Village community founded by Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, where he spent a year working on their organic farm and taking part in their daily life, an experience for which he continues to be grateful. You can learn more about Nigel and listen to some of his stirring performances here
Brighid Fitzgibbon is an Advanced Labyrinth Facilitator for Veriditas, assisting with pilgrimage at Chartres Cathedral in Franceand for the annual Women's Dreamquest at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and she is the coordinator for the Community Labyrinth Walks at St. John's. Episcopal . Brighid was a Waldorf kindergarten teacher for over fifteen years and is now directs the humanities program at Credo Charter Waldorf School in rohnert Park. Bridget earned her BA in history from U.C. Santa Cruz, her teaching credential from San Jose State University and completed a Master's degree in Humanities at Dominican University , where her thesis was on coming of age rituals and the labyrinth.
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Carl Schiedenhelm leads our community art projects in nature. After a 30 year career as an architect specializing in green design and sustainability, Carl's passions for nature, meditation and community joined together in studying with Mark Coleman of Spirit Rock Meditation Center to become a certified "Awake in the Wild" guide and teacher. Through Mythica, Carl offers workshops creating Earth Mandalas and ephemeral labyrinths from beaches of Northern California to the woods of Scotland.
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Affiliate Faculty
Nancy Castille studied comparative religion as an undergraduate at Oberlin College and in graduate study at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Upon retirement from the banking industry in 2012, she began pursuing her latent passions with renewed zeal as she plunged into Mythica's offerings on Dante, Pythagoreanism and Neopythagoreanism, Platonism and Neoplatonism, Greek Mythology, Orphism, Gnosticism, Religion in the Ancient World, Archetypes in Biblical Literature, Carl Jung’s Red Book, the Parsifal Legend, Faust, and Sacred Geometry. Nancy weaves together her many talents as artist, poet, storyteller and scholar. Her first productions with Mythica were in pre-pandemic days when she served as the co-curator for the Women and Wisdom exhibit for Women's History Month at the Petaluma HIstorical Library and Museum where she enthralled audiences with her engaging and earthy presentation of the Ancient Sumerian myth of Inanna and then later was a frequent guest performer for Musical Mondays, with repertoire ranging from Schubert Lieder to American folksongs. . She has become obsessed with the field of Sacred Geometry and has travelled to Chartres to study the patterns and practices of their great Cathedral wisdom school. Nancy posts some of her artwork, occasional blog essays, and book reports on her website: www.nancycastille.com.
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Hari Meyers
Hari holds master's degrees in English Literature, (University of California, Berkeley) and Counseling, (Sonoma State University, 1985 MFCC, 1987) but has found his life's true calling in presenting mythological stories for almost thirty years at conferences and classes around the globe classrooms, including as a founding member of the Redwood Men's Conference. His repertoire ranges from Parzifal and the Holy Grail to Odin and Norse myth to his special favorites: the Ramayana and the Mahabarata. Hari was a our featured presenter in a birthday salon for Walt Whitman in 2020 and will be featured next spring in his one man show on Walt Whitman. |
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Shiloh Sophia McCloud is one of the most inspiring teachers we know to lead you into your own creativity. She offers regular online painting courses that are designed to excavate your inner worlds and lead to healing and transformation. You can find out about her Intentional Creativity Foundation here and join a worldwide community of over 7, 000+ in her Red Thread Cafe on Facebook. |