“Goddess-Makers in an Age of Autocrats” will explore the depth psychological dimensions of the archetypal feminine, in an arts-based research conference from Pacifica Extension and International Studies on August 29-31, 2025. Join us!
“In an era marked by the resurgence of authoritarianism, the creative feminine emerges as a force of transformation, resistance, and renewal.”
The Goddess-Makers conference will bring together scholars, artists, activists, and visionaries to engage in a rich dialogue on how the feminine, in its many mythic and embodied forms, catalyzes personal and collective transformation. Multi-Panel Presentations, workshops, film screenings and keynote speakers featuring Pacifica Faculty and Alumni as well as best-selling author Sharon Blackie, PhD, will create a holistic experience.
Goddess-Makers will weave together the academic and the artistic to create a space to engage the archetypal feminine—not as a concept, but as a felt presence that shapes our inner lives and collective mythologies. Through storytelling, scholarship, ritual, art and conversation, we open a dialogue with the archetypal energies who live not only in myth, but in psyche and culture.
This is not a conference of presentations alone—it is a psychoactive event, designed to stir the soul and awaken embodied wisdom. Set amidst the lush beauty of Pacifica’s Ladera Lane campus, the artistry and arts-based scholarship will invite attendees to listen more deeply, feel more fully, and remember the ancestral voices that still speak through image, intuition, and symbol.
Priya Deepika will be singing for us as part of our opening evening, in an experience titled, “Music as Medicine: Timeless Frequencies to Unify Humanity, Amplify Empathy and Remember our Divine Nature.” Priya serves as a Vocal Embodiment Coach, Yoga Teacher and Mediator. Priya blends the ancient with modern as found in her debut album “Hear in My Heart” of which “I Am Divine” has defined her sound of devotional healing music.
Sia Alexander will be creating a live art installation for us during lunch on Saturday, August 30th. Sia is the founder/curator of Pure Lagos Gallery, Heal Love Now Farm, and the author of several spiritual psychology books. Her newest, an automythography, written as a novel portrayal of her many lives, embodiments, and DNA memories, has garnered rave reviews. Sia and her team recently shared in an Emmy win for her art curation in a Disney+ series.
Teagan Rose, Lisa Citore, and their Anima Theater of the Feminine Underground collaborative will present “When Sleeping Seeds Awaken.” Anima’s ritual performances are “where women share their secrets, dreams, revelations, yearnings, veracity, and life’s meaningful moments. Anima is an opportunity for artists to dive deep into their creative process, and for both the artists and audiences to be transported and transformed. With pieces that span artistic mediums such as dance, spoken-word poetry, comedy, and ceremonial rituals, and that share stories about topics such as vocal empowerment, death and rebirth, motherhood, divorce, and sexual awakenings, this is an evening of theatre that will leave your heart wide open.”
At the close of Goddess-Makers, on Sunday, August 31st, Raïna Manuel-Paris, PhD, will read to us her poem “God is a Black Woman Writer.” Raïna is the author of The Mother-to-Be’s Dream Book, as well as a poet and scholar, and a documentary filmmaker, whose The Bridges of My Father showed in the Cannes Film Festival 2009. She recently completed her second novel, a mythical retelling of a folk tale, The Woman Who Was a Beast.
These are just a few of the moments that will make Goddess-Makers a powerful gathering to reclaim the radical, world-making power of the feminine and cultivate pathways for deep, lasting change.
*Photo of Anima Theater of the Feminine Underground at top of page by Jasha Stanberry.
Angela Wood is a writer for Pacifica Graduate Institute, as well as the editor of the Santa Barbara Literary Journal. Her work has been published in Food & Home, Peregrine, Hurricanes & Swan Songs, Delirium Corridor, Still Arts Quarterly, Danse Macabre, and is forthcoming in The Tertiary Lodger and Running Wild Anthology of Stories, Vol. 5.
