Up Coming Events
At the Threshold: Curating soul-sustaining stories in turbulent times
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March 20th, 2026
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Utah Museum of Contemporary Art
20 S W Temple St,
Salt Lake City UT 84101
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Join us on the Vernal Equinox, at the threshold where darkness tips back toward light and, hopefully, we too begin to emerge from a world fraught with turmoil.
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In this engaging dialogue with Robert Walter, we will explore a deeper understanding of myth as a soul-sustaining archetypal narrative and the interwoven nature of personal myth in the unfolding evolution of our role and impact in the world.
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Every myth seeks to illuminate the ineffable, defined by the distinctive landscape in which it is rooted and shaped by the culture that gives it form. From this perspective, we will consider how myths guide our lives and relationships to one another and the more-than-human world, uncovering the meanings we are weaving as we engage with, to quote Joseph Campbell, “the rapturous experience of being alive.”
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Recognizing that each of us is, potentially, a myth-maker, we’ll imagine together the tremendous opportunities and awesome responsibilities that this knowledge affords us.
Mythogenesis: Where the inner world meets the outer world
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March 21st, 2026
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The Rose House at Red Butte Garden & Arboretum
300 Wakara Way
Salt Lake City UT 84101
“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” – Joseph Campbell
Community grows within the container of myth. Shared beliefs, dreams, and visions are the roots that sustain our collective endeavors. Our sense of belonging is born from an underlying narrative, stories which will determine whether we endure and thrive within the interdependent human and more-than-human universe.
Join us for a full-day experience of mythogenesis, the formation of personal and communal myth, with Robert Walter, Joseph Campbell’s former editor and friend and long-time director of the Joseph Campbell Foundation.
Joseph Campbell famously remarked: “What you do, you do with play. The Universe is God’s play.” Together, we will move through Bob’s signature “playshop,” an interpersonal exploration of mythmaking through storytelling, deep listening, and the melding of shared understanding, all while embraced in
the beauty of nature at the threshold of spring.
“The inner world is the world of your requirements and your energies and your structure and your possibilities that meets the outer world. And the outer world is the field of your incarnation. That’s where you are. You’ve got to keep both going. As Novalis said, ‘The seat of the soul is there where the inner and outer worlds meet.” ― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth.
Mapping Your Hero’s Adventure: A Mythogenesis PlayShop
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March 23-27, 2026
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Esalen Institute
55000 Highway 1
Big Sur, CA 93920
Joseph Campbell used to celebrate his birthday at Esalen. When asked why, he’d recount how Carl Jung — wondering, “What myth am I living by?” and realizing he didn’t know — wrote, “I took it upon myself to get to know ‘my’ myth, and I regarded this as the task of tasks.”
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“That’s what a birthday is for,” Campbell concluded, “and what Esalen is about.” In 1988, the year after Campbell died, his friends recalled his dictum — “What you do, you do with play” — and gathered at Esalen to inaugurate “Campbell Week,” a tradition that has continued annually ever since and morphed into this annual PlayShop.
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Who were you? What has inspired your biographical saga? What treasures hide in your basement or attic? Who are you? What’s displayed on your refrigerator? What dangles from your rearview mirror? Who do you aspire to be? What’s on your bucket list? Dare to re-vision yourself and join our springtime rebirth rituals.
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You needn’t be familiar with Campbell to relive dreams, rekindle visions, and experience mythogenesis. In this immersive experience, we will use myth-making tools — drums and dance, music and song, medicine bags, and masks. We will play D-PiCT™: The Game of Mythogenesis, and we will engage in small- and large-group activities that provide reflective and expressive opportunities for revisioning the myths that have shaped your life.
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Please bring a meaningful but expendable totem.