"Romancing the Underworld: Why Worshiping Goddesses of Death is the Only Way to Save Modern Culture"

Paper Abstract

This paper presents a portion of my doctoral research on the cycles of waste land and borderlands spaces in Mesoamerican myth. I will share an example of how an unusual reading of key Mesoamerican myths helps us move through collective shadow spaces (waste lands) and into periods of reorientation (borderlands) to the whole in order to regenerate culturally and environmentally.

This exploration focuses on the critical role of feminine figures in Mesoamerican myth, which are often direly misunderstood by the Western mind. These strange, beautiful/hideous, death-adorned maternal figures shapeshift throughout myths and over time but they always serve a similar purpose: To guide us through our necessary death/life cycles and into regeneration of our collective psyche and landscape. Cultivating a deep understanding of the waste land/borderlands motif and the "dark" feminine figures at the heart of the Mesoamerican worldview is more than just an exciting mythological adventure, it is part of a radical approach to "decolonizing" the American mind.

In this presentation, I share how my decades of relationship and research into Mesoamerican femininity has evolved into a social philosophy and a lifestyle. I will share an overview of my philosophy as well as example of how I use these concepts practically in community and organizations as a guide to consciously stepping out of a hyper-masculinized mentality and into a feral feminine alignment to explore, wade through, and emerge reoriented to our collective spaces.