Essays & Poems

Trust’s presence or absence will make the difference by Dennis Patrick Slattery Many will remember Ronald Reagan’s famous and oft-repeated mantra, “Trust But Verify.” He was taught this Russian [...]

Through the Thicket: Distance Learning by Shannon McCabe   At the start of the 2019-2020, I was an ordinary English Language Arts teacher having the best year since early in my teaching [...]

Let’s Meet at the Crossroads Commencement Keynote Address to Pacifica Graduate Institute, Class of 2021 by Dr. Bayo Akomolafe May 29, 2021 (Featured painting: “Los Ayala: Ayala family dance troup [...]

Who Gets Left Out of the ‘Great Outdoors’ Story? You’ve heard of Davy Crockett. Now meet Lancelot Jones, Sylvia Stark and other Black outdoors pioneers who can redefine our notion of the natural [...]

Reflections on ‘Portals to the Imaginal’ Dear Pacifica Friends, I was able to attend the in-person reopening of Pacifica’s Ladera campus. The conference, Portals to the [...]

Attempted scam is a lesson on fraud My goal was simple: to cancel a rental car in another city because I no longer needed it. When I called the number that I assumed would connect me with those [...]

Reframing the Pandemic  by Charlyne Gelt, Ph.D.  You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. —Abraham Lincoln    Communities around the world are still reeling from [...]

Showing Up for Life: The Artist-Intellectual by Peter M. Rojcewicz, PhD Pacifica Graduate Institute Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs The core requirement for private and [...]

The perils of being black in public: we are all Christian Cooper and George Floyd Too often, by default, black people are perceived as threats to white people’s physical safety. We need [...]

The Abode of Awakening Our Physical Body Consciously Connecting with Our Luminous Presence “When we are attached to our thoughts, our “beliefs” our sensations, and we are not consciously [...]

The Wisdom of the Source Reaching out to the guidance of the Collective Unconscious   April 29, 2020   Ashok Bedi, M.D., Jungian Psychoanalyst www.pathtotheosoul.com [...]

Commentary: Where there is democracy, dignity is nourished Dennis Patrick Slattery, For the Express-News Jan. 5, 2023 A single word can spawn a host of thoughts, images and associations. As 2023 [...]

Breath and Identity:   What White Institutions Fail to Understand, Including Our Own  Dr. Leslie Shore Mythological Studies    Remember My Name in Africa, was Kossola. For George Floyd Whose [...]

I’m checking my white privilege, and here’s why you should too By Emily Volz (an excerpt from the full article on the GMA website here) Emily Volz is a psychology graduate student at [...]

Dark Times by Beth Anne Boardman Well, it’s been quite a five years. Quite a six years. Quite a year. Two years. However long you trace your suffering back, I hope you have found some rays of [...]

Midnight – A Poem by Beth Anne Boardman (2012 PhD Mythological Studies)   ________________   midnight   has become my favorite time of night –   poised (like we are) [...]

Our Historic Moment by Fanny Brewster, Ph.D., MFA, LP, Jungian Analyst (From the Philadelphia Association of Jungian Analysts Blog) We are beginning a historic new time in our American [...]

The Dream: A Forgotten Call to Action? By Marvin Richards Growing up like many children in my generation, I was taught about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his “Dream.” I wanted to follow in Dr. [...]

Racism and the Unconscious: Why Higher Education Needs Freud by Adam Schneider and Dan Skinner Sigmund Freud visited the United States in 1909 to detail a basic but provocative idea: people’s [...]

Existential Intimacy of Learning: A Noetic Turn from STEM by Peter M. Rojcewicz, PhD Pacifica Graduate Institute Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs STEM Education Science, technology, [...]

Preserving our innocence: At what cost? [The Op-Ed was published in The New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung on January 8, 2022.] Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph.D. Democracies thrive on the presence of [...]

Spectacle Over Substance in the New Myth The Op-Ed was published in the San Antonio Express-News on July 14, 2021. Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph.D. When we take a well-earned break from the [...]

With Sorrow We Dissent “With sorrow […] we dissent,” closes the final paragraph of the official response to the decision handed down yesterday by the Supreme Court of the United States. These [...]

The Space Conundrum: Sacred or Profane? How has the narrative around space changed, and what political relevance does this have? By Cerena Ceaser It’s been twenty years since I lied. My [...]

Lying and Violence: A Nobel Lecture by Alexander Solzhenitsyn by Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph.D. (Published in New Braunfels, Texas newspaper, the Herald-Zeitung’s Opinion page, June 12-13, 2021.) [...]

George Floyd George Floyd. George Floyd. George Floyd. I have been saying his name aloud since the terrible news of his death. I want him to be witnessed, I want to witness him. Through times [...]

The Decent Society: A Way Forward Published in New Braunfels’ Herald-Zeitung’s Opinion Page, 23 Januray 2021, p. 4-A Dennis Patrick Slattery In the wake of the moving and heart-stirring [...]

    I Am Grateful By Diane P. Coffey To say the words I am grateful Is an opening into my heart Gratitude reveals acceptance Like lotus petals Slowly One at a time Unfolding Gratitude [...]

Dark Times – A Response Using Tarot Cards By Chris Miller I read the essay “Dark Times” (posted in these pages on September 10, 2021) and immediately saw in it my own experience of “powerlessness [...]

Words define, or destroy, our country’s democracy Dennis Patrick Slattery, For the Express-News, Jan. 15, 2022 Some 30 years ago I developed a habit of rising early to write in my journal. I sit [...]

Replacing the Myth of Growth Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph.D. is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in The Mythological Studies Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria, California. [...]

A Poem and Q&A with Diane Coffey   Heart to Heart   I believe in people People with dreams and without dreams People offering everything and offering nothing   I believe in [...]

Letter from the President of Pacifica Dear Pacifica Alumni, Let me begin with warm wishes for 2021; may it bring peace and prosperity to all of you. We have just come through a year like none [...]

Pornography Does Not Stop With Sexploitation. Sometimes a word gets stuck in a groove of familiarity and is then limited to just one definition or description. But we learn from the [...]

The Pain I’m exhausted from the pain. The pain of injustice, the pain of racism, the pain of America’s history toward men and women of color, the pain of violence. I’m exhausted from the pain of [...]

What Does a Virus Love? Another Virus. The Curative in a Cultural Civil War:  Unity is Our National Immunity By Leslie Shore Ph.D, Mythological Studies (2013) Note: This essay uses extended [...]

The Fallacy of a Post-Racial America by Bennie Harris It is Wednesday, June 3rd, 1:15am, the third night of the countywide curfew in Los Angeles. I am up looking out the windows for the third [...]

Hold On . . . The Veils are thinning between the realms of Psyche By Andrea Slominski, Ph.D. I’m hearing from my clients, friends, and colleagues that the baseline energy running under our [...]