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

By August 28, 2025June 16th, 2026No Comments

Early Bird Pricing

Goddess-Makers 2026

Oracles of the Creative

in an Age of Collapse

An Arts-based Research Conference

August 28th – 30th, 2026

REGISTER NOW

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.

Keynotes:

Emily Lord-Kambitsch

Oracles of the Creative From Holy Rage to Fierce Compassion: Lessons from the Furies

The Furies, also known as the Erinyes, are the goddesses of the ancient Mediterranean underworld that take their name from strife, and from the rage that emboldens us during times that witness the grossest violations of the laws of gods and men, the times when the most noble prophets are mistrusted and those who hold power jealously guard it and senselessly wield it, to the detriment of those they are oath-bound to protect. Greek tragedy and epic are the genres these goddesses fill with their immanent presences. Their stories were told on stage in Athens in the Theater of Dionysus during times of war, plague, and societal collapse in the 5th century BCE. Revisionings of these stories filled the pages of Roman epics during the drive toward authoritarianism in the early imperial period in the first centuries BCE and CE. While the Furies often represent our deepest fears and unavenged rage, these goddesses also abide with us during our most brutal circumstances and reveal our own nobility, especially in their guise as the Kindly Ones when they for instance lead the hero Oedipus, infamous for his parricide and incest, to a place of self-compassion, exoneration, and freedom at the site of his exile and death. This talk will borrow from epic and dramatic narratives including Aeschylus’ Oresteia, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus, Vergil’s Aeneid, and Lucan’s Civil War to present these goddesses in their multiplicity of elements in dialogue with the sociohistorical contexts they are informing, as defenders of murdered victims, as warmongers, and as stewards of the land that holds space for psycho-spiritual reckoning, ritual purification, and spiritual absolution. This talk aims to inform the current historical moment, a modern nation that has long derived its own glorious imaginary from a stylized Greco-Roman imperial precedent, from which the goddesses who do not forget wrongs are often conveniently excised.

Elizabeth Nelson

Creativity, Commitment, and the Lasting Life: Insights from Hestia

For some of us, writing is necessary to our individuation. As we age, the call to write may take on greater urgency. Not only do we have more to say, but we also have less time to say it. Heartfelt commitment to the page, as distinct from more superficial or fleeting promises, signal a profound relationship between writers and their craft. It may be the longest relationship of the writer’s life. Particularly at the beginning, when a creative idea is fresh, tender, and vulnerable, commitment to it must be resolute. That commitment easily brings authors into conflict with others we are obligated to attend to, care for, and love.

How do we grant the craft of writing and any individual writing project a fitting place in our life? This presentation invokes a quiet and easily overlooked goddess, Hestia, to offer archetypal insights into creativity and the lasting life.

Kim Krans

Weeping in the War Room: A Study of Picasso’s Guernica and The Dominatrix of Tears 

 Visionary artist Kim Krans presents an alchemical and mythopoetic study of the symbol of “The Weeping Woman” and its potential as a compensatory image that arises in times of personal and collective violence. This work touches on themes of eroticism, the body, grief, dreams, fertility, and art as a path to regeneration of Soul.

Mary Antonia Wood

Panel Discussion with Kim Krans. Facilitated by Mary Wood and Cheri Steinkellner

Mary Antonia Wood, Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Chair of the Depth Psychology & Creativity program at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, CA. Wood is also a visual artist, who has drawn inspiration from her Mexican American heritage along with multicultural mythologies, philosophies, and spiritual traditions for the past thirty years. Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions and collected by individuals, institutions, and public arts programs in the US. She is the founder of Talisman Creative Mentoring, an international practice that supports artists and creators of all types in developing stronger and more authentic connections to the deepest archetypal sources of creativity. Wood’s book, The Archetypal Artist: Reimagining Creativity and the Call to Create (Routledge 2022) foregrounds a “shamanic sensibility” shared by artists, alchemists, healers, and mystics–both historical and contemporary. For more: https://www.instagram.com/talisman_creative/ and http://www.talismanmentoring.com/

Cheri Steinkellner

RAISE YOUR VOICE: Losing, Listening, and Reclaiming Voice in a Time of Collapse

We’ve all heard the words “Unmute yourself.” But unmuting is not the same as speaking—and speaking is not the same as being heard.

This session begins in that gap.

Together, we will explore:

  • where voice has been lost, submerged, or given away
  • what becomes audible in the absence of noise
  • what it means to speak from a place that is less practiced, but more true

Registration Details

Conference Pricing:
$225 Early Bird – Only Valid through June 30!
$275 Early Bird – Valid July 1 – 31st.
$325 General Rate – After July 31st.

If you are looking to stay on-campus for this exciting event, please select your lodging in the Lodging section. If you live locally or are staying off-campus, please select the “No Lodging” option.

We are offering a meal plan for the weekend that consists of a boxed dinner Friday evening, Saturday breakfast, Saturday lunch, Saturday dinner, Sunday breakfast and Sunday lunch. Please select this option if you would like to dine on-campus. Please note that no partial meal plans will be offered, and the option to purchase a meal plan will end 2 weeks before the start of the conference.

For those looking to obtain Continuing Education Credits (CECs) for this event, attendance to the entire conference is required. You must sign in and out of the provided sign-in sheets at the back of the Barret Center. No partial certificates will be issued.

Lifelong Learner Members are eligible for 20% off of the Conference Registration Rate for this event and current Pacifica Graduate Students enrolled in a full-time degree program are eligible for 40% off of the Conference Registration Rate for this event! (Lodging, Meals, CEC fee excluded from these discounts)

To Learn more about our membership programs, please visit our Membership webpage: https://extension.pacifica.edu/become-a-member/

For Current Members, please enter your Certificate Program Discount Code in the Discount Code box to get your special member pricing.

REGISTER NOW

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.

Conference Schedule

Friday, August 28, 2026

3:00 – 6:00 PM Registration Opens – Lobby

4:00 – 6:00 PM PGI Authors Reception –Breezeway between the lobby and Barrett Center

 6:00 – 8:30 PM Dinner & Concert on the Lawn– Next to Barrett Center

Introduction – Loralee M. Scott
Goddess Fire Ceremony Blessing – Art Cisneros
Music as Medicine: – Priya Deepika

Saturday, August 29, 2026

 7: 00 – 7:45 AM Mindful Meditation with Helen Slater – Yurt

7:00 – 8:15 AM Breakfast – *Food Served from 7:00AM – 8:00AM*

8:15 – 10:15 AM Morning Keynote: Emily Lord-Kambitsch & Elizabeth Nelson Livestreamed at the Barrett Center

10:20 – 12:20 PM Learning Sessions I – Classrooms & Barrett Center (120-minutes)

  1. Jen Degnan Smith – Encountering Demeter: Guardian of Rebirth (60 minutes)
    Maureen Murdock – Evolution of the Image of the Sacred Feminine (60 minutes)
  2. Jean Palmer Daley : Embracing the Body: Embracing Life Honoring the Work of Marion Woodman and BodySoul Rhythms (120 minutes)
  3.  Joanna Dovalis– Baptized in Fire and Water: An Initiation into the Mysteries (60 minutes)
    Panel discussion: Raina Manuel Paris – Liminality and the Feminine Oracle, Lauren Costine – Descent as Oracle: Inanna, the Sacred Feminine, and the Psychic Wisdom of Collapse, Adrianna Attento – The Artist as Healer of the World. (60 minutes)
  4. Catherine Ann Jones – The Callings: Listening to the Inner Voice, (120 minutes)
  5. Kathryn Bickle – Dream Circle Workshop Introducing Body Dreaming: Transformer of High Voltage Dream Material, (120 minutes)

12:20 – 1:30 PM Lunch – *Food Served from 12:20 – 1:20 PM*

1:30 – 2:30 PM Learning Sessions II – Classrooms & Barrett Center (60-minutes)

  1. Panel discussion: Olivia Happel-Block – The Devil, the Temptress, and the Trickster: Examining the Role of AI in Education through Archetypes, Jon Valenzuela – The Collapse of Memory in the Age of the Algorithm, Lois Wilkins – Staying with the Image: Consciousness, AI, and the Creative Unconscious in a time of collapse (60 minutes)
  2. Panel discussion: Carolyn H Bray – Rage into Creation: Pele and the Egalitarian Feminine Psyche, David Huff – We Are the Oracle: Participation as Archetypal Response in Times of Collapse, Joanna Gardner – Imagining Inspiration: The Muses Would Like a Word (60 minutes)
  3. Barbara Joy Laffey- The Feminine as Oracle: Deep Inner Work for Cultural Transformation (60 minutes)
  4. Darcy Cavanaugh- Body Grail: Anchor Amidst Collapse (60 minutes)

2:40 – 4:15 PM Afternoon Keynote: Kim Krans followed by panel discussion w/ Kim led by Mary Wood, including Cheri Steinkellner (Livestreamed at the Barrett Center)

4:15 – 6:15 PM Learning Sessions III – Classrooms & Barrett Center (120-minutes)

  1. Dara Marks – The Transformational Arc: A Framework for Strategic Action in a Time of Collapse (120 minutes)
  2. Pamela Hancock – Becoming Your Own Oracular Taliswoman (120 minutes)
  3. Panel Discussion: Stacey Simmons-Everybody is a Witch Now, Cherylynn Hoff – Descent as Initiatory Empowerment: Inanna and the Feminine Psyche in an Age of Collapse, Aranka Israni– Self as Living Process (60 minutes)
    Panel discussion: Mary Diggin – Carved in Silicon: Pygmalion, Aphrodite, and Technological Desire in an age of Collapse, Arianne MacBean – Ariadne & Me – Re-scripting our Goddess Guides (w/slide presentation) (60 min).
  4. Michelle East – Oracle of the Voice (120 minutes)
  5. Andrea Marie Stark – Sacred Listening as Initiation for the Heroine’s Journey: Awakening Intuition (120 min)

6:15 – 7:30 PM Dinner – *Food Served from 6:15 – 7:15 PM*

7:30 – 9:00 PM- Stacy Hatsuye-Richardson – Comedy (Livestreamed @ Barrett)

Sunday, August 30, 2026

7:00 – 7:45 AM Morning Labyrinth Meditation with Helen Slater – (Labyrinth)

7:00 – 8:30 AM Breakfast – *Food Served from 7:00AM – 8:00AM*

8:45 – 10:15 AM Morning Keynote: Cheri Steinkellner Livestreamed at the Barrett Center

10:30 – 11:30 Learning Sessions IV – Classrooms & Barrett Center (60-minutes)

  1. Panel discussion: Annalisa Derr – Oracular Wisdom from the Great Below: Restoring Sacred Feminine Sovereignty through the Parallel Descents of Inanna and the Menstrual Cycle, Natasha Filippides – Becoming Mother: A Heroine’s Journey of Longing, Love, and Transformation, Angela Gia Bennett – At the Threshold of Internment: Miss Emma Buckmaster and the Oracular Call to Activism(slide presentation) (60 min)
  2. Juliet Rohde-Brown, Tara Gilmaher, LeAnn Lacy – Ways of Goddess, Symbols of Emergence (60 minutes )
  3. Reda Rackley – Bones, Stones,& The Crone – Honoring the Wise Woman Archetype (60 minutes)
  4. Daev Finn – Psyche-Therapy: Tuning into Fields of Awareness in Dreams & Meditation (60 min)
  5. Stephanie Zajchowski – Drinking from the Chalice: Mythic images of Rebirth in the Alchemy of Apocalypse (60 minutes)
  6. Pamela Fuhrmann – Listening at the Threshold: The Labyrinth as Oracular Practice (60 minutes), Labyrinth

12:00 – 1:30 PM Lunch, Red Tent Time, and Admissions Advisors Q&A *Food Served from 12:00 Noon – 1:00PM*

1:30 – 3:00 PM Afternoon Keynote: Thyonne Gordon + Dr. Ann Marie Klotz – Livestreamed at the Barrett Center

3:15 – 3:45 PM Closing Ritual & Farewells

Juliet Rohde-Brown

Featured Keynote Speakers

Emily Lord-Kambitsch, Ph.D, is a scholar and poet-storyteller, serving as Assistant Professor and Research Coordinator of the Mythological Studies Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her lifelong exploration of classical mythology is rooted in the study of Greek and Latin language and literature at UC Santa Barbara, University of Oxford, and University College London. At Pacifica she teaches courses in Greco-Roman myth, memoir and self-writing, and dissertation formulation. Her research has recently been published in the Journal of Cognitive Historiography, the Classical Journal, and the edited volume, Depth Psychology, Myth, and Artificial Intelligence: Soul and the Machine. She is currently working on a volume co-edited with Devon Deimler on Carl Jung’s approaches to ancient Mediterranean myth and philosophy.

Kim Krans is a visionary artist, author, and creator of The New York Times bestseller THE WILD UNKNOWN TAROT.

A prolific creative influenced by a range of mystical traditions, Kim’s published works include several oracle decks and children’s books, The Wild Unknown Journal, the graphic memoir Blossoms and Bones, and the board game Renunciation.

Kim received her BFA in drawing at Cooper Union in NYC, MFA in mixed media at Hunter College, and an MA in Jungian depth psychology and creativity at Pacifica Graduate Institute in California.

Her seeker’s heart has brought her to study in-depth practices of Classical Hatha and classical shamanism in India, Africa, Europe, and the UK. Kim teaches workshops and courses that activate the forces of creativity and radical transformation through art, meditation, mysticism, dreamwork, and movement.

Though revered for her drawings and publications, Krans is also a multi-media artist, filmmaker, and musician.

“… the creative powerhouse behind some of the most influential spiritual art of her generation.” 

– LA Times

 

Cheri Steinkellner is a four-time Emmy, Golden Globe, Writers Guild, People’s Choice, and BAFTA Award–winning writer/producer for Cheers and creator/writer/producer of Disney’s Teacher’s Pet. She received a Tony nomination for Sister Act, an Indy Award for Hello! My Baby, and the Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Best Musical for Get Happy(formerly Summer Stock). She is also the recipient of UCSB’s Inspiration Award for teaching. Additional TV includes: The Jeffersons, Who’s the Boss?, and Bob (Newhart). Stage includes: Princesses, Prima Materia, Instaplay—L.A.’s original and longest-running improvised musical, and her newest comedy with music, Fanboy/Diva. Cheri holds an M.A. in Engaged Humanities from Pacifica Graduate Institute and an M.Ed. in Leadership and Social Transformation from Meridien University. She lives in Santa Barbara with husband, Bill, where they raised their three favorite writers and artists—Kit, Teddy, and Emma Steinkellner.

Elizabeth Éowyn Nelson, Ph.D. has served on the faculty of Pacifica Graduate Institute since 2003. She teaches scholarly writing, research methodology, and dissertation development, as well as courses in archetypal psychology, technology, literature, and cultural studies.

Dr. Nelson, an international speaker, has published several papers in scholarly journals as well as book chapters on subjects including feminism, film, dream, somatics, technology, and research. Elizabeth is on the board of the Jungian Society for Scholarly Studies, served as General Editor of its peer-reviewed Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies for five years, and is now the general editor of the journal’s Somatics-themed volume.

Dr. Nelson’s books include Psyche’s Knife (Chiron, 2012), the third expanded edition of The Art of Inquiry (Spring Publications, 2017), coauthored with Joseph Coppin, and The Art of Jungian Couple Therapy, coauthored with Anthony Delmedico (Routledge, 2025). She has been a professional writer and editor for more than 40 years, coaching aspiring authors across a variety of genres and styles. www.elizabethnelson-phd.com

 

Mary Antonia Wood, Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Chair of the Depth Psychology & Creativity program at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, CA. Wood is also a visual artist, who has drawn inspiration from her Mexican American heritage along with multicultural mythologies, philosophies, and spiritual traditions for the past thirty years. Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions and collected by individuals, institutions, and public arts programs in the US. She is the founder of Talisman Creative Mentoring, an international practice that supports artists and creators of all types in developing stronger and more authentic connections to the deepest archetypal sources of creativity. Wood’s book, The Archetypal Artist: Reimagining Creativity and the Call to Create (Routledge 2022) foregrounds a “shamanic sensibility” shared by artists, alchemists, healers, and mystics–both historical and contemporary. For more: https://www.instagram.com/talisman_creative/ and http://www.talismanmentoring.com/