Dennis Patrick Slattery
Dennis Patrick Slattery Ph.D., has been teaching for more than 54 years, the last 27 of which have been in the Mythological Studies Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California, where he is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus. He is also a Core Faculty Member at Jung Platform since 2017. He is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor
of 30 volumes, including 7 volumes of poetry and one novel co-authored with Charles Asher.
His most recent titles include the award winning Deep Creativity: Seven Ways to Spark Your Creative Spirit, co-authored with Deborah Ann Quibell and Jennifer Leigh Selig, and The Way of Myth: Stories’ Subtle Wisdom. In addition, he has written over 200 articles, book reviews and Op-Ed pieces. He offers Writing Retreats on C.G. Jung’s The Red Book as well as on “Writing One’s Personal Myth” through the works of Joseph Campbell and other writers. For three years he taught student inmates using Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces. He has been taking painting classes in water color and acrylics for the past 8 years as well as enjoying riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle with his sons Matt and Steve in the Texas Hill Country.
For more information, visit www.dennispatrickslattery.com
Courses and Lecturesby Dennis Patrick Slattery
12 Teachers 
12 Teachers 
Articlesby Dennis Patrick Slattery
From the Wounds of War to the Wonder of Words in Homer’s Odyssey
“Tell me Muse, about the man of many turns, who many/Ways wandered when he had Sacked Troy’s holy citadel. He saw the cities of many men and he knew their…
Dante’s Divine Comedy
Imagine the poem as a vessel containing the prima materia of soul life. Dante’s poem is an opportunity to allow a deepening into our own story, our own narrative, by the imaginal power of analogy. One writer I read years ago spoke of poetry allowing us to enter our own “spiritual unconscious,” with whatever poem we are reading as our guide.
The Yearning to Create: A Universal Impulse
One of the most interesting recognitions we discovered is that, at its most basic level, creativity is an attitude.
Four Roads to the Creative Self: Musings in Process
Our soul’s creative impulse originates in a desire to imitate/participate in the original act of creation—that of a God or Gods creating the cosmos. Creativity is as well an attitude of seeking wholeness, not completeness. Our creative life is risky business; but it is also immensely rewarding.
The Myth of Development
The myth of development sits atop a larger myth—the myth of growth. Now because the word “myth” is so maligned today as meaning “untrue” or “false,” an unfortunate hangover from an older myth, the myth of facts and quantification, I hesitate to use it. But I must.
Spaced Out in West Texas
Astronomy is an area of study that pulls just about everyone’s interest into its orbit; here the hope is to increase all of our understandings of the greater complexity of the created universe than was ever imagined before.
The Poetics of Myth and Its Embodied Expression
In the last few years a resurgence in the nature of narrative, of story and personal and collective identity has gained widespread attention. My interest in one’s personal narrative is tied to the nature and structure of myths, both personal, national and global. So what is it to make a myth and to live by a myth?
Not All Aphorisms are Equal
Aphorisms are not to be accepted or rejected; they go deeper than that. The good ones push me off my comfort chair to consider another point of view.
History May Repeal Itself
Together, Liberty, Immigration and The Truth have over the decades shared a rich and compatible heritage that today is being negotiated, if not challenged, anew.
A Ritual of Forgiveness
As we carry wounds of resentment, bad feelings and thoughts of revenge within us, over time they can corrode our thinking and our general feeling of well-being.
Immigrant Debacle
There are so many conflicting opinions, thoughts, diatribes and, yes, even support for what is taking place at our borders that as of this writing, seems an insurmountable problem of humanitarian aid and treatment of so many seeking a better world.
Conversation in a Digital Age: The Core of Civilization
True conversation is one of those rare win-win human delights. Not winners and losers.
The Beneficent Gift of Blessing
As we all continue to adjust to a growing atmosphere of uncertainty, anxieties and worries about what’s next in the political and economic spheres, I came across a book in my library that I had forgotten having purchased…
What is Mything in Your Life?
It is unfortunate that in our current world the word “myth” is still maligned as something that is a lie, untrue, and opposed to “fact.”
Introduction to the series on Myth and Culture
The series of blogs that I am writing has as their major focus of interest both myth and culture.