"More Than Stories: Actionizing the New Spirit with Permaculture + New Mythology" - A Benefit Workshop by Willi Paul / Planetshifter.com @ PLACE, Oakland. 11/14 - 7 pm.

Join Bay Area Mythologist Willi Paul in a workshop that explores new community values and resiliencies at the intersection of permaculture and the new mythology. 100% of the proceeds will go to PLACE, as they fundraise to finish construction on their event and living space and install radiant heat wood floors!

TO PRE-REGISTER: Make a payment through PAYPAL and include a note: "STORIES" along with your full name and email if different from your PayPal account.

Drop-ins are more than welcome, but please pre-register if you can to give us an idea of who will be coming!

- WORKSHOP TOPICAL OUTLINE -

I. Introduction

II. Building New Values

III. Key Community Lenses

IV. Actionizing the New Spirit with Permaculture + New Mythology

V. Scaffolding:

{+} This is why (today) feels so significant: because the story – the story that keeps the system in place, and vice versa – is finally starting to crack. In the 1960s, the French semiotician Roland Barthes wrote an essay titled "Myth Today," in which he showed how popular culture generates myths, and how mythology has always worked: Its function is turning culture into nature. What the Harvey Weinstein scandal shows is that the culture is broken, and that it's time for new myths. It's time for new stories that don't function in the service of power, but shed some light on what's really going on.

{+} Our time is a mythic time, and we are all monstrous hybrids; chimeras of animal, machine and information. Our existence is both corporeal and incorporeal. We move seamlessly between worlds, each with its own rewards, dangers, and entrenched in its own systems of power and control. I use the fantastic as a way to understand, and to capture our evolving mythic landscape in this complex and turbulent environment.

{+} Mythological stories are not about Gods, they are about human nature and the human psyche."

"Greed has been around there since time immemorial. We may be advanced technologically and socially, and yet humans still covet things that do not belong to them, that has not vanished; that is what the stories tell you. And it's in all cultures, not just Indian. I don't think the storytellers of old were trying to be moralistic, they were just telling you how things were; it is up to you to take what you want from it."

{+} Willi: Do any new stories, songs and mythologies support (Transition US)?

Don Hall: Absolutely. Authors like Rob Hopkins, David Holmgren, Joanna Macy, Richard Heinberg, Margaret Wheatley, David Fleming, Brian Swimme, Thomas Berry, Wendell Berry, Harrison Owen, Christopher Alexander, Charles Eisenstein, Bill McKibben, and countless others are pointing a new way forward for humanity through their stories and mythologies. And many of my favorite artists, such as Andrew Bird, Arcade Fire, Bob Dylan, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Gillian Welch, Gregory Alan Isakov, Iron & Wine, Jose Gonzalez, Josh Ritter, Leonard Cohen, Modest Mouse, Mos Def, Neil Young, Patti Smith, and Radiohead, are singing or rapping about what needs to change in our society, as well as spreading positive visions for the future through song.

So much compelling art and philosophy is focused right now on how to create a better world in the face of rapid change and disintegration, which is just as it should be. The issues that Transition is addressing are the foremost issues of our time. - Interview with Don Hall, Transition US

VII. Willi's Bio:

As Principal of willi paul studio / planetshifter.com, Willi partners with companies and individuals to provide custom contract media services including articles, interviews, edu-videos, roundtables and eWorkshops. He co-develops and expands each clients' creative vision and excels in delivering content in a captivating and authentic way. His target clients are Start-Ups, B-Corps, Incubators and Non-Profit Organizations.

Planetshifter.com is an online community resource, diverse database and outreach network that launched on Earth Day 2009. Planetshifter.com provides a deep database and wealth of information that includes 225 thought leader interviews with leading mythologists, permaculturists and artists, 1700 articles, 20 workshops, 107 New Myths, 39 eBooks and 176 edu-videos. As a globally-connected writer and activist in the Sustainability, Permaculture, Transition, SpiritNature, and New Mythology sectors, Mr. Paul is a visionary for the new global mythologist. Please find him on YouTube, academia.edu, Facebook, LinkedIn and DepthPsychologyAlliance.com [willipaul1 at gmail.com].

Contact: willipaul1 at gmail.com