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Goddess-Makers 2026 Oracles of the Creative in an Age of Collapse

By August 28, 2025March 20th, 2026No Comments

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Goddess-Makers 2026

Oracles of the Creative

in an Age of Collapse

An Arts-based Research Conference

August 28th – 30th, 2026

Hosted at Pacifica’s Beautiful Ladera Lane Campus
801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA 93108

There are moments in history when the ground trembles.

Old certainties loosen. Institutions strain. Stories that once organized collective life begin to fragment. In such times, many experience an almost existential fear — the sense that something foundational is giving way.
From a depth psychological perspective, collapse is not simply catastrophe. It is threshold. It is the dissolution of symbolic structures that no longer carry psychic life. Alchemy called this stage nigredo — the darkening that precedes transformation. What appears as breakdown may in fact be initiation.
In myth, it is precisely at such moments that the oracle appears.
She stands between worlds — between what is dying and what is struggling toward birth. She does not restore nostalgia or deny crisis. She listens within disintegration. She names what others feel but cannot yet articulate. Historically, many oracles were women — figures whose authority arose through descent. Inanna stripped at the gates of the underworld. Persephone returning as queen. These myths remind us: collapse is not the end. It is the passage through which persona gives way to authentic authority.
Today, this threshold is palpable. Artificial intelligence accelerates change at unprecedented speed. Political polarization intensifies. Long-held assumptions about identity, creativity, and human uniqueness tremble. In the consulting room, therapists witness rising existential anxiety, ecological grief, identity destabilization, and a diffuse dread that seems larger than personal biography. Depth psychology recognizes these not only as symptoms, but as signals of archetypal activation. When collective myths weaken, the unconscious intensifies its symbolic language — in dreams, images, fantasies, and creative impulses that point toward renewal.
To name collapse symbolically is not to surrender to despair; it is to metabolize fear. What remains unconscious drives regression. What enters imagination becomes the ground of transformation.
Goddess-Makers 2026 gathers scholars, artists, clinicians, and leaders to stand consciously in this moment. Together, we will explore creative practice as oracular force — sacred listening to the creative unconscious in a time when old myths falter and new images press toward form.
At the threshold, we do not retreat.
We descend.
We listen.
We midwife what seeks to be born.

Call for Papers

Hosted by Pacifica Graduate Institute

In times of cultural instability, the oracle stands at the threshold — interpreting what appears as disintegration and discerning what is struggling toward birth. Goddess-Makers 2026 invites scholars, clinicians, artists, theologians, activists, and cultural leaders to explore the role of the creative unconscious in an era marked by technological acceleration, political polarization, ecological grief, and collective anxiety.

From a depth psychological perspective, collapse is not merely social or institutional; it is psychic. When cultural myths weaken, anxiety intensifies. Identity structures tremble. In the consulting room, therapists are witnessing rising existential dread, fragmentation, intergenerational tension, technological destabilization, and dreams saturated with images of descent, fire, ruins, and transformation. Depth psychology understands these not only as symptoms, but as archetypal signals.

What emerges when we listen symbolically to collapse?

We invite proposals that engage the creative unconscious as an oracular force — not predicting outcomes, but interpreting archetypal movement beneath surface events.
How might artists, clinicians, and leaders participate consciously in this threshold moment?

We welcome proposals that explore:

Clinical & Counseling Perspectives

  • Collective anxiety and archetypal activation in the consulting room
  • Dreams of collapse, descent, and transformation
  • Nigredo, depression, and initiation
  • Differentiating regression from archetypal descent
  • Ecological grief and cultural mourning
  • AI, technology, and the destabilization of identity
  • The therapist as symbolic container in times of instability
  • Imagination as a clinical tool for metabolizing fear
  • Feminine authority and relational leadership in therapeutic practice

Jungian & Depth Psychological Theory

  • The creative unconscious in times of cultural fragmentation
  • The Red Book and oracular imagination
  • Archetypes emerging in contemporary culture
  • Collective shadow and political polarization
  • Mythic analysis of regression and nostalgia movements
  • Individuation at collective scale

 Feminine Initiation & Leadership

  • Oracular traditions and feminine authority in myth and religion
  • Inanna, Persephone, and descent as empowerment
  • Women’s leadership in times of instability
  • Relational, embodied, and imaginal governance

Creativity, Culture & AI

  • Artificial intelligence and the future of human creativity
  • Technology as archetypal disruption
  • The artist as cultural oracle
  • Human–AI partnership and symbolic reorganization
  • The future of authorship and meaning

 Interdisciplinary & Experiential Formats

  • Clinical case studies
  • Theoretical and research-based papers
  • Creative and performative presentations
  • Workshops integrating imaginal or expressive modalities
  • Panel dialogues on cultural transformation

Submission Guidelines

We welcome proposals from Pacifica alumni established scholars and emerging voices. Submissions may be theoretical, clinical, interdisciplinary, artistic, or experiential.

Presentation Format Options

We encourage a diversity of formats to engage attendees in intellectual, creative, and experiential ways:

  • Academic Papers & Lectures – 20-minute individual presentations or 60-minute panel discussions on relevant themes.
  • Workshops – Interactive sessions integrating creative, somatic, or ritual-based approaches (120 minutes).
  • Experiential Sessions – Guided movement, dreamwork, active imagination, storytelling, or artistic practices exploring the conference themes (60 minutes).
  • Roundtable Discussions – Informal, facilitated conversations that encourage deep dialogue and exchange among participants (60 minutes).
  • Film Screenings & Media Presentations – Short films, digital storytelling, or multimedia works that engage the creative feminine. (60 minutes or 120 minutes)
  • Performances & Creative Readings – Poetry, music, theater, or spoken-word performances that embody the power of feminine creativity. (60 Minutes or shorter for inclusion as part of a main session)

Submission Guidelines

Please submit a 300-word proposal outlining your presentation, including:

  • Title of your presentation
  • Presentation format (from the list above)
  • Abstract detailing the focus and relevance to the conference theme
  • A brief biography (100 words) including your professional background and affiliations
  • A headshot (PNG or JPEG)

While portions of this conference will be livestreamed, allowing for a global gathering of voices, all presentations must be offered on-campus.

Submit proposals by April  19, 2026 to Extension@pacifica.edu. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by May 15, 2026.

Goddess-Makers 2026 convenes those willing to stand in the tension of this historical moment
not to restore the old myth, but to midwife the new.