Joanna Gardner, PhD

Profile

Join date: Dec 21, 2023

About

Joanna Gardner, PhD, is a writer, mythologist, and magical realist whose work focuses on creativity, goddesses, and wonder tales. 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 serves as director of marketing and communications for the Joseph Campbell Foundation and as adjunct professor in Pacifica Graduate Institute’s Mythological Studies program. She also co-founded and co-leads the Fates and Graces, hosting webinars and workshops for mythic readers and writers. 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,

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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