Mythogenesis

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I want to tell about an event coming up in March (22nd and 23rd) that is important to me (I am helping to organize it). The Atlanta Jung Society will host Robert Walter and Bradley Olson in a conversation (Friday night) and a “playshop” (Saturday) on the topic of Mythogenesis. Please check out this link for full information and registration.

The Friday conversation (Mar 22, 7:30pm) will be available online and in-person (at The Link Counseling Center near Atlanta), so anyone anywhere can attend. It will be recorded for later viewing, in case you can’t make it that night (but you do need to register before 7:30pm that night).

Saturday is game day! We’ll play Bob’s game, D-PiCT™: The Game of Mythogenesis. This is in-person only — participatory. So if you’re in the Atlanta area, please join us! (Or book your flight now!)

I always love talking with Bob. You can see me blathering on this keynote panel with him at the SIEGE game conference a while back. (Also includes Andrew and Dan Greenberg.) Who is Bob? He was Joseph Campbell’s friend, editor, and literary executor, and the co-founder of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. I had the pleasure of working with him in 2004 and 2006 on the Mythic Journeys Conferences.

Blessed Lux Splendor!

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[Each year, I post a short piece of Fading Suns fiction to celebrate the holidays. For more info on Fading Suns, see the links in the menu.]

From the journals of Guiseppe Alustro, December 24th, 5023, Holy Terra:

As the glowing embers in the nearby grate warm my study and I prepare to record recent events, I am reminded of that pilgrim I encountered those many years ago on Nowhere. We had joined a caravan to journey to the Gargoyle and encountered, late in the evening, a similar caravan returning from that goliath’s site. Among them was an old hesychast named Martina. I could see in her eyes a certain light, which I deduced to be a fervor evoked by an encounter with Urzenkai. I asked to join her by the fire. Young and impertinent, I intruded upon her hospitality by asking what I later learned was considered to be a terribly rude question on Nowhere. I asked her what the Gargoyle had shown her.

She stared at me for a while, judging me. Perhaps my sincerity shone through, as she eventually gave a curt nod and gazed into the fire. “Gifts. So many gifts. We are told that the Pancreator’s grace is tiring, like the light in the dying embers of this fire. We are fools, like children on Lux Splendor who have opened all our presents and complain that there are no more to unwrap. The Pancreator’s creation is endless. Are there not always more presents when Lux Splendor comes around again? So it is with the universe.”

I nodded. It was a heartwarming message, but not the thunderous prophecy I expected from the Gargoyle. As I rose to rejoin my companions, she spoke again. “Worry not, young Alustro. Urzenkai has a message for you.” This halted me. I had not given her my family name, only my first name. I opened my mouth to speak but she had pulled the hood over her head, signaling that she was done speaking.

She spoke truly, of course. The Gargoyle did give my lady and I a vision of great import. Yet, only now, as I think back upon it, do I believe that her message of grace and gifts was the more important one.