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Join date: Dec 21, 2023
About
Joanna Gardner, PhD, is a writer, mythologist, and magical realist who serves as the managing director of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. She is the author of The Practice of Enchantment: MythBlast Essays, 2020-2024 and the lead author of Goddesses: A Skeleton Key Study Guide. Joanna co-founded and co-led the Fates and Graces, hosting webinars and workshops for mythic readers and writers, and she teaches in Pacifica Graduate Institute’s Mythological Studies program. For Joanna's updates and additional publications, you are most cordially invited to visit her website at joannagardner.com.
Posts (19)
Feb 9, 2026 ∙ 5 min
Listening for Aphrodite
Like the ancient Greeks and Romans, we still sing to the goddess of love. The hit song “Venus” (1969) by Shocking Blue—delightfully covered by Bananarama in 1986—opens with: “Goddess on the mountain top / burning like a silver flame / the summit of beauty and love / and Venus was her name.” Natalie Merchant’s “Come On, Aphrodite” (2023) echoes this call: “Come on, Aphrodite, you goddess of love / Come on, Aphrodite from that mountain above, / Come on, Aphrodite, I’m begging you, begging you,
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Jul 20, 2025 ∙ 5 min
The Inner Sovereign, Lost and Found
The film The Lost King (2022) tells the fictionalized story of a real woman who, inspired by Shakespeare’s fictionalized play Richard III, successfully led the discovery of the real remains of King Richard III of England. Although the movie includes no literal, living kings or queens, it revolves around the archetype of the Sovereign in the form of the historical Richard (Harry Lloyd) and an utterly charming, modern-day apparition of him visible only to the protagonist, Philippa (Sally Hawkins).
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May 19, 2025 ∙ 5 min
Wisdom and Wonder in Bless Me, Ultima
Guided by Ultima’s wisdom and inspiration, Antonio’s story arises from the center of those “conflicts of the soul.” Antonio and Ultima, however, have no conflict. An unshakeable bond unites them, even though they are young and old, male and female, innocent and wise. This love enables Antonio to occupy a place of witnessing the conflicts around him rather than reacting to them, allowing them to become available for Anaya’s creative work of storytelling.
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Joanna Gardner, PhD
Writer
Joseph Campbell Foundation Director of Marketing and Communications
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