Negative synchronicity

What else can you call it?

Shana and I prepared for a Mapping Mythaca workshop last Friday over a period of months, making materials, painted paper and cut out images for collages, paper soaked in tea for maps, I practiced the stories I planned to tell, chose the parts of Journey to Mythaca that I wanted to read, I called the person organizing it, emailed back and forth, drove five hours to get there...and the charter school sponsoring the workshop had a board meeting the night before that lasted till the middle of the night (no doubt till the exact moment that I woke up with a cramp in my foot and had to walk around the living room until it went away), the director left with half the families, and not one kid from the school showed up for the workshop the next day. Actually one kid did show up, but he wasn't from the school. What are the odds of that?

We did the workshop with the boy and his mother, which was fun, and then we went to see a friend who lives in the area. It was an adventure - an unexpected little vacation.

As if to drive home the lesson (be ready for abrupt changes in plans?) as thoroughly as possible, this was the third big negative synchronicity in my life over the past few weeks: three events that could be considered losses because of exceptionally unlikely circumstances that were so out of my control that I can only shake my head and laugh about it.

I wondered whether it would go on, and if perhaps I should stop trying to do workshops, but I had a classroom visit scheduled for Tuesday this week, and you know what? It went really well. I had lots of materials left from the non-workshop on Friday, and the kids loved the book and and the artwork.

And when I came home, I found two good emails. One said that a local magazine would be running a review of the book in July. Local publicity! Hurray! I'd been working on a new set of questions for book groups, so I put those together in a brochure and took them down to the local independent bookstore. Jim was there and was pleased to get the brochures, setting them right up at the cash register. And now we have a signing set up for the first week in July, right when the review comes out.


The second was from the fellow I began working with months ago to make a recording of Journey to Mythaca. We'd been ready to go when his studio flooded in the heavy rain we had in March. Now he is ready to begin again.

I think of synchronicity as an opening to Kairos, the world of once-upon-a-time. Kairos, by its nature isn't reliable. I guess that's the point.

Workshop offerings

When my oldest kids went to school in the late 1970's, I started work as an itinerent teacher of gifted kids. The most popular workshops I did were about mythical beasts. There is something in the air now that makes me feel that the time has come to do that again. Here's the description of the workshop or workshop series I'm offering now.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

Contact: Eve Neuhaus
Location: San Luis Obispo, CA
Email: eveneuhaus@journeytomythaca.com
Website: journeytomythaca.com

"Journey to Mythaca” An Exploration of the Creative Potential of Myth

Story is the portal to the imagination. In a process that alternates gentle guidance with open-hearted receptivity, students are introduced to the living archetypal figures and processes that both create and are created by our world. Characters, concepts, sacred form and ancient truths will emerge from deep work with mythology, folktale, and fantasy, and co-create new forms in an accepting and aesthetically rich setting.

In this workshop series, the world of mythical beasts is explored. An engaging story is followed by a period of meditation or other incubation. Beautiful materials and several project options wait for inspiration to strike. The results are often remarkable.


Successful Technique:
The story of the Phoenix is told. It is a circular story, with no beginning and no end, a series of potent images that repeat again and again. I tell it round and round until the children recognize the images and tell me to stop.

Then I tell them we will meditate on the story and then create a collage or other piece of art of one single image from the story. We describe some of the images. I explain that they will sit with their backs straight and breathe slowly and evenly as I retell the story, concentrating on each image as it arises, and becoming the phoenix. I talk to them briefly about reverie, and introduce the materials and projects available in different parts of the room. The central table is the collage table, covered with scraps of brightly colored and shiny paper collected over the dozens of times I've done this particular workshop.

Then we sit and breath awhile and then I begin the story. When the phoenix goes to sleep, I leave a long gap. At the end I leave another space for reverie.

Slowly and silently we get up and begin the artwork, though the silence rarely lasts. I do a project too and circulate only as necessary. Extraordinary engagement and stunning art results.


Future Goals:
I began this work in 1981 and it has been evolving ever since. The recent publication of my children's novel, Journey to Mythaca, opens exciting new possibilities, including using the children's artwork in the hardcover edition of the book. I hope to establish an itinerant teaching circuit, taking my work to many groups of new children who can use it to access the infinite troves of ancient and eternal imagery of myth.