A focus on the fire: Reawakening the imaginal through mytho-ceramic experiences

Hendrickson, J. (2002). A focus on the fire: Reawakening the imaginal through mytho-ceramic experiences (Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2002). UMI No. 3074954

This production dissertation is quasi-experimental, with the aim of developing pedagogical methods for high school art teachers. Incorporating mythic themes with the creative process, it establishes a basis on which to build a curriculum for the arts that employs the depth psychology process of active imagination. The goal is the students' personal growth through explorations in clay and myth.

The dissertation study included a workshop (A Focus on the Fire) with ten participants (including the author as participant and guide) engaged in mytho-ceramic activities as a self-discovery process over a ten-month period. The activities included research, writing, dance movement, art installations, and ritual, as well as the process of constructing and firing artworks molded in clay. The use of the kiln was an instrumental part of the process, establishing a link to beliefs and practices in Ancient Greece. Finished masks and body cast forms were exhibited at a concluding ritual that celebrated the transformation and rebirth of participants in identity with the first potter, the goddess Aruru.

Fundamental to this work are C. G. Jung's Active Imagination uniting Psyche (soul, mind) and Soma (body); the feminine principle of The Great Mother archetype (vessel = body = world); and the idea of psychological wounding. Inner and outer wounding, comprising the mythic landscape of the body, were represented in the body casts. Individual identification with mythical personae introduced through Active Imagination was represented in the masks.

The workshop provided a better understanding of the mytho-ceramics process and its meanings, e.g., body wrapping as “mummification” leading to transformation and new life. The validity of applying mythological sources to personal experience is confirmed in the writings of the women themselves as well as in the beauty of their artworks.

The concluding chapter discusses mytho-ceramics in the broader framework of secondary education. It suggests that educators redefine the arts as a means to students' acquisition of intra- and interpersonal skills. It calls for those of us who are teachers (with the full support of school authorities) to become participants in the whole life of the child by sharing their own lives and growth across our woundedness.