Healing Pandora: The Restoration of Hope and Abundance

(Paperback)

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The story of Pandora is one of the most resonant in Greek mythology. As Healing Pandora shows, it's also one of the most relevant. Psychologist Gail Thomas has used Pandora in her practice for two decades, often with profound results. Cast in popular accounts as the evil bringer of doom to humanity in divine retaliation for Prometheus stealing fire, Pandora, in Thomas' view, is a much more complex character, with enormous healing powers as well as her better-known destructive capacity. In this revelatory book, Thomas shows Pandora's true nature as the dark but all-giving feminine, the archetypal vessel of culture and city with the power to heal our culture. Pandora's task is to help us transform our overwhelmingly material civilization into a culture of undivided participation and engagement. Part one discusses Pandora's multifaceted persona as both beautiful evil and divine benefactress. Here Thomas contextualizes Pandora in the cycle of myth and archetype. In part two, the author proposes a series of healing rituals-"Healing Our Fear of Sacrifice," "Healing Our Dis-Ease," "Healing the Control of Patriarchy," and others-inspired by Pandora. Both practical guide and inspiring study, Healing Pandora argues persuasively for manifesting our inner work concretely on the cultural, not just personal, level.

Author Bio

Gail Thomas, PhD, archetypal psychologist and cultural activist, is cofounder of the Dallas Institute and director of its Center for the City. As a committed conference organizer, she teaches and lectures internationally on urban design, quality of life, and the soul of the city. She is the coeditor of several books, including Images of the Untouched- Virginity in Psyche, Myth, and Community; Imagining Dallas; The Angels; and The Olympians. Gail Thomas' life work has been in the workings of an emerging culture and the transformation of cities. Her field of activity encompasses literature, mythology, psychology, urban design, and city planning. She refers to her work as psychotherapy of the city. Through her teaching and lecturing, she has been a catalyst for change in the inner city, inspiring planners and developers to allow the inner spirit within a given place to guide development. She has received numerous awards- Distinguished Alumni awards from Southern Methodist University and the University of Dallas; the Award of Excellence in Humanities from the Dallas Historical Society; Dallas Urban Design Awards from American Institute of Architects Dallas; and the Kessler Award for promoting quality of life in Dallas.