Category: 2025 Conference

Saturday, March 29, 2025, Westward Look Inn, Tucson AZ

Artistic Creation and the Natural World: Deepening and Healing Relationships through Art, Dance, and Literature

with Cristina Biaggi, Laura Shannon, Adhi TwoOwls, and Ying Xu

• Rescue and Myth, Cristina Biaggi
• The Tree of Life in Balkan Women’s Circle Dance: from Mother’s Placenta to the Mothering Principle, Laura Shannon
• Healing Through Spirit and Expression: The Intersection of Shamanism and Art, Adhi TwoOwls
• Carrying Pebbles in [Their] Grief: Qiu Jin (1875-1907) and the Jingwei Bird/Nüwa, Ying Xu

Cristina Biaggi, Ph.D. has achieved significant recognition for her contributions in the art and in the literary worlds, in the field of feminist art and Goddess Studies. She is the author of five books: Habitations of the Great Goddess, Footsteps of the Goddess, The Rule of Mars, Activism into Art and Four Legs and Two. She has also created large installations, abstract collages, figurative works, portraits of people and their animals.

Laura Shannon has been researching traditional Greek and Balkan women’s dances since 1985. Founding Director of the Athena Institute for Women’s Dance and Culture, Carol P. Christ’s successor as Director of the Ariadne Institute for the Study of Myth and Ritual, and an Honorary Lifetime Member of the Sacred Dance Guild, she is currently writing a PhD on women’s circle dance at the University of Gloucester (UK).

Adhi TwoOwls is an artist, educator, and alternative healing therapist specializing in  the intersection of shamanism, art, and wellness. With expertise in art history, drawing, and holistic practices, Adhi leads workshops and retreats exploring creativity, spirituality, and healing. Passionate about fostering connections between ancient traditions and modern approaches, Adhi empowers individuals to find resilience and transformation through guided meditation, ceremonial art-making, and integrative therapies.

Dr. Ying Xu earned a BA and MA in English in China and a Ph.D. in English from UNM, specializing in nineteenth-century American literature and Asian American literature. A contributor to OUPblog and Oxford Bibliographies, her latest work was featured in MLA’s special collection on Teaching. She translated Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, published in 2023, and is currently translating Joy Harjo’s Crazy Brave, set for release in 2025.

Read all about the ASWM Conference and register  here.

Saturday, March 29, 2025, Westward Look Inn, Tucson AZ

Reclaiming Animal-Human Relationships Drawing on Land Wisdom and Myth

with Claire Princess Ayelotan, Heather Taylor, Barbara Mann, and Kaarina Kailo

• Foundational Myths, Witchcraft Accusations, and the Symbolism of Cats in Yoruba Cosmology, Claire Princess Avelotan
• Bear wisdom and original Instructions for healthy living, Kaarina Kailo
• Original Instructions: Boundary Crossing with Bears, Barbara Mann
• Mythical Horses Connecting Us to the Primal Energy of Life, Land, and Imagination, Heather Taylor

Dr Claire Princess Ayelotan is a researcher in Theology, Religious Studies, and Law, specialising in African spirituality, witchcraft accusations, and Yoruba cosmology. Her interdisciplinary research explores connections between myth, social justice, and legal frameworks within Nigerian and diaspora populations. Utilising African Womanist viewpoints and symbolic interactionism, Dr Ayelotan examines the significance of human and animal symbolism in mythologies and traditions, focusing on their intersections with human rights and legal systems.

Dr. Kaarina Kailo is a cosmopolitan activist, politician, self-made artist and researcher. She has worked as professor of Women’s Studies at Oulu University, Finland, at the Finnish Academy, and has held women’s studies positions at Concordia University, Simone de Beauvoir Institute and University of Quebec, Chicoutimi, Canada. She has published hundreds of articles on the gift economy/imaginary, Bear and Great Mother Worship/mythology, the woman who married the bear, sauna and sweat lodge healing, Finno-Ugric ecomythology, and modern matriarchal studies.

Barbara Alice Mann, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Humanities, Jesup Scott Honors College, of the University of Toledo, in Toledo, Ohio, USA. Including encyclopedias and bibliographies, she  has produced seventeen books and over 500 articles. Her latest work is The Woman Who Married the Bear (Oxford University Press, August, 2023) co-authored with Finnish scholar Dr. Kaarina Kailo. Mann’s most recent monographs include President by Massacre: Indian-Killing for Political Gain; Spirits of Blood, Spirits of Breath: The Twinned Cosmos of Indigenous America; The Tainted Gift: The Disease Method of Settler Advance; Daughters of Mother Earth; and Iroquoian Women: The Gantowisas (Lang, 2000, 2004, 2006).

Heather A. Taylor is the Co-Founder of the International Society of Mythology. She is also producer/director of the award-winning documentary Breaking Through the Clouds: The First Women’s National Air Derby. Heather has a PhD in Mythology and a Masters in Producing Film. Heather has a special interest in helping people find their passion (genius) which is often done with the aid of an animal, real and mythic.

Read all about the ASWM Conference and register  here.

Friday, March 28, 2025, Westward Look Inn, Tucson AZ

Invisible Nature: Visions, Ancestors and Animal Spirits

with Vicki Noble, Megan Rose, and Ouassima Touahria

 We are surrounded by the elements of nature that we can perceive, and also to those that are invisible to the eye. Ancestral mothers, even in times of unsettling migratins, carried and transmitted principles to their descendants that can be recaptured. We can find deep spiritual connections with other-than-human beings. We may come to appreciate that shamanic or “paranormal” experiences are among the most normal of occurrences, opening our minds to living more comfortably in liminal space.

• Visionary Experiences: A Life Path, Vicki Noble
• From Psyche to Saint Teresa: Exploring spirit marriage between women and other-than-human beings, Megan Rose,
• Amazons of North Africa: Daughters of water and queens of the Desert, Awaken, Ouassima Touahria 

Vicki Noble (MA) is a healer, teacher, artist, author, mother, and mystic. She co-created the Motherpeace Tarot cards with Karen Vogel and has written numerous books, including Motherpeace, Shakti Woman, and The Double Goddess. She has taught internationally for decades; at home she works as a professional astrologer, Tarot reader, and mentor to women (and some rare men) seeking guidance and grounded spiritual practice.

Dr. Megan Rose is a Ceremonial Magician, Witch, Druid, and a Shakta Tantric practitioner. She holds a Ph.D. in East-West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and an M.A. in Religion and Ethics from the Graduate Theological Union. Dr. Rose’s work focuses on the integration of Pagan and animistic spiritualities within a transpersonal psychological framework. She is the author of, “Spirit Marriage: Intimate Relationships with Otherworldly Beings.”

Ouassima Touahria is a Publisher, author, herbalist, naturopath, holistic healer & cosmic ambassador. She is a Goddess researcher and eternal student. Holder of a master’s degree in management and technology, studied journalism, project management, herbalism, naturopathy, shamanism, and plant medicine. She is also a dancer, and artist, interested in the mysteries, archetypes, and the use of imagery and therapeutic art including the Tarot.

Read all about the ASWM Conference and register  here.

Friday, March 28, 2025, Westward Look Inn, Tucson AZ

New Storytelling: Rethinking Film, Social Media, and Exploitive Technologies

How do mythic women arise in the storytelling of popular culture? Can stories in modern media capture ancient or indigenous knowledge accurately? Can we restructure our relationships with social media and make use of technologies in the service of a sentient earth? These are questions posed by our panelists.

• Who You Callin’ Wicked?: Tending Elphaba, Champion of the Sentient Earth, April Heaslip
• Resurrecting Stories of Care, Reciprocity, and Interconnection: Decolonial and Indigenous Dialogues on Technology, Monica Mody
• Restorying Richness: Transforming Scarcity and Creating Abundance Through Narrative Storytelling,  Aven Whitehorne
• The Bear in the Machine, Susan Wright

April Heaslip, PhD, earned her doctorate in Mythological Studies with emphasis in Depth Psychology (Pacifica Graduate Institute), an MA in Social Ecology (Goddard College), and a BA in Psychology & Women’s Studies (West Chester University) after studying at the Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Brazil. Her forthcoming book is Regenerating the Feminine: Psyche, Culture & Nature. She teaches Interdisciplinary Studies & Popular Culture with Southern New Hampshire University.

Monica Mody, PhD, teaches and writes at the intersections of liminal knowing/language, earth-based wisdom, and decolonial frameworks of wholeness. She is an Assistant Professor in Pacifica Graduate Institute’s M.A./Ph.D. Mythological Studies Program and is also affiliated with the CIIS Women’s Spirituality Department and Southwestern College’s Visionary Practice and Regenerative Practice PhD Program. She is the author of Wild Fin (Weavers Press), Bright Parallel (Copper Coin), and Kala Pani (1913 Press).

Aven Lumi Whitehorne (they/them) is a writer and a doctoral student at the California Institute of Integral Studies and at Viridis Graduate Institute. Their graduate work focuses on using narrative storytelling to create and sustain cultural change in this time of climate chaos.

Susan Wright has an MA in Theology from Bexley Hall Episcopal Seminary. She is currently in her third year of doctoral studies in the DJA program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She serves on the board of the Colloquium of Violence & Religion, the academic association deviated to the work of René Girard. Her research focuses on the depth psychological sources of systemic misogyny.

Read all about the ASWM Conference and register  here.