Rebecca offered her first workshop in the role of arts in education back in the 1970’s. Working with Urban Gateways, she designed programs for students, teachers and principals in techniques for integrating arts into the curriculum. Following her deep interest in the sacred, she entered seminary and received degrees from the University of Chicago Divinity School and Meadville-Lombard, the Unitarian-Universalist seminary. She served as the Director of Religious Education for two Chicago area churches and  developed community outreach programs in myth, music and theater. She created numerous workshops and sermons for the Unitarians, especially Women’s groups from 1993-99.  In 1997 she earned the Certificate of Humanist Studies from the Humanist Institute in New York and served on their faculty, offering programs in Humanism and its relation to feminism and mythology.  

 

In 1994 Rebecca was asked to develop the international membership program for the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and over the next decade offered dozens of workshops to the Mythological RoundTables around the world, traveling as far afield as Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Ecuador and Brazil. In Europe, she has done workshops for the Unitarian-Universalist fellowships in Holland, Germany and Belgium. In Chicago, she offers workshops in marriage and the creating of weddings and a new seminar called “The Archetypes of Relationship.”



SAMPLE WORKSHOP TITLES AND TOPICS:


Seven Poems to Save the Soul

Rebecca’s work with the Campbell Foundation has taken her around the world and introduced her to scores of remarkable individuals doing deep work to feed the soul hungers of their communities. One such individual is Pedro Servin Fernandes in Mexico City, with whom Rebecca has collaborated each year on some new mythopoetic project. In 2005 Rebecca brought a three-day workshop to Mexico entitled, Seven Poems to Save the Soul, which was judged to be of the most satisfying ever experienced by the participants. Rebecca identified seven archetypal stages that the Soul passes through on its journey and brought astonishing poems to illustrate each of the seven stages. Then, through guided meditation, participants were sent into their own deep treasuries of image and experience to bring forth their own poetic utterances. Each individual made a handsome portfolio for the poems that were birthed in this way and the result was a harvest of often brilliant and always poignant glimpses of the soul along its journey.

1. Innocence - The Root of Being               

2. First Love - Wild Joys & Heartbreak     

3. Facing the Ancestors: Power Within and Without                                                     

4. Winning One’s True Name: The Destiny of the Heart & of the Self

5. Marriage of Sun and Moon: Eating the Shadow and Finding Balance

6. The Valley of Death and Rebirth: Little Self and Big Self

7. Wise Old Crones & Dark Old Magi: Sovereignty in the World

 
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Pilgrimage to the Soul of the City

 
Of all that was done in the past, you eat the fruit either rotten or ripe.

And the Church must be forever building, and always decaying and always being restored. For where there is no Temple there shall be no home….

When the Stranger says, “What is the meaning of this city?” What will you answer?
O My soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger, Be prepared for the one Who knows how to ask the questions.   (T.S. Eliot)

All great poets call to us for soul examination and the time is ripe for us to turn to our own city and ask the deep questions that need to be asked about the building of the kingdom of heaven and our role in nurturing this kingdom on earth. The image of the Body of Christ is a powerful reminder that no matter how far into suburbia we may live, we are community in our essence. The City as an icon of that shared life is a representation of that body and its health or dis-ease. We can be no closer to heaven than the least of those who dwell within its gates. But the city itself has a body and a spirit and this is the focus of our quest; to align ourselves within our own imaginal soul body and then explore the body of the city in its metaphoric resonance to our own; to place SOLE TO SOUL and walk the talk of our spiritual life.
 
Rev. Rebecca Armstrong has been guiding seekers from all over the world on these Pilgrimages to the Soul of the City in a profound conviction that a deeper, embodied understanding of our roles as citizens inside the collective body of the community will have repercussions in our private as well as public lives. This Pilgrimage is a bridging between the accepted practice of outward social action and inward spiritual contemplation, using poetry, dreams, art, music, movement, and guided meditation.  Using the 4-fold method of the Benedictine LECTIO DIVINA, we engage with the Word as it appears in the texts of the poets and playwrights and sages. Moving through the stages of Lectio, Meditatio, Oratio and Contemplatio within the setting of the group as well as within the city itself, the weekend culminates in a powerful Sunday morning liturgy of naming the sins of the city as well as calling in blessings upon it for healing.

 [visit Rebecca's website:  citysoul.net   for further info on this]
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The Four Epochs of World Mythology

Think of “myth” as a verb instead of a noun and you are closer to understanding Joseph Campbell's insight into this fascinating field. Human Beings in every place and every time have spontaneously mythologized their world with stories, rituals, symbols and cultural mores. Through his comprehensive study of world mythology, Joseph Campbell, building on the insights of Leo Frobenius, saw that there have been four great epochs of mythology:

The Way of the Animal Powers

The Way of the Seeded Earth

The Way of the Celestial Lights

The Way of the Human

While these emerged in a chronological order, none of them has vanished from the planet or from the dreambody of humankind. All four modalities still live on in the human psyche, giving color, drama and psychic depth to our private and public lives. Come and discover how the spirit of the animals, plants and heavenly bodies are still vital companions on the inner journey as we enter the epoch of the Way of the Human. Through examining our dreams, the arts, social mores and ritual we will connect with our deep mythic resources and understand how they permeate our lives and cultures for good and for ill. As a guide, we will be following the dream imagery of an extraordinary woman who was a patient of C.G. Jung and whose series of painted "visions" inspired a 2-year seminar led by the eminent psychologist. We will trace the 4 epochs of myth in this individual life as a focused example of how these energies vitalize and inform our own lives.

 
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The Book of Life


[This work can be done in as few as four sessions or as many as twelve, depending on the time allotted for each meeting. It can be done one-on-one or in small groups. It culminates in a BOOK OF LIFE for each participant, which follows the hero journey of the individual through the archetypal stages of the soul’s growth.]


Session One ~ The Call to Adventure & Refusal of the Call

When in your life did you first feel the great longing to go, to do, to have, to become? Did you seize the first opportunity or did you hesitate and turn back? What did you need to learn before setting forth? What were the voices that held you back? How did you handle fear, doubt, distrust – yours and others? 


Session Two ~ The Secret Friend & Crossing the Threshold

Most of us had a friend, relative, mentor or other ally who came to our aid, knowingly or unknowingly, during our early years and gave us just the right image or word that helped us overcome our fear of setting forth. When did you realize that you had crossed the point of no return; had really left home and the safety of childhood to set out on your journey?


Session Three ~ Road of Trials, Betrayals & Unexpected Help

Now we are in the thick of life with all its ups and downs and we are gathering much of the experience and information that will later prove invaluable for meeting our greatest challenge, but it is all jumbled. Can you look back and begin to name the trials and triumphs that comprised your adventure and see the people and places that played an unexpectedly large role in bringing you your life lessons – even the ones you didn’t want!


Session Four ~ Facing the Ancestors

Before we can go forward we must go back. The great streams of ancestral energy carry us along in life and much of what happens to us is not of our choosing but is our working through of the legacies – for good and evil – that we inherited from our parents, grandparents, and many generations back. Where did these ancient patterns show up in your life? How were you able to identify them? How did you deal with them? How are you still wrestling with them? 


Session Five ~ The Great Ordeal

For each one of us there is usually some central tragedy, or series of unfortunate events, that is a pivotal moment in our life drama. It may have happened early or late in life – we may now be in it – but it is a defining moment in terms of who we are and what we bring to the great ordeal. Now is the time to sort through the bag of debris from our adventure and find the treasures that are still waiting to be discovered, covered in grime, down there at the bottom of the bag.


Session Six ~ Death & Transformation

This is the critical task and the crux (cross) of the journey. It need not be a physical death, but is a death of the old self in order that the new, true Self be born. We must cease to identify solely with the mortal mask of our personality and take on the mantel of our spiritual nature. Our Soul is waiting for this moment to enter and become the dominant force in our life, carrying on to ever greater adventures.


Session Seven ~ Renaissance, Reconciliation & Reward

Now we have overcome the great torments and are, as it were, on the mountain top. Now we can see the adventure as a whole and recognize the patterns of the labyrinth where we struggled blindly to find a way. We are now able to make peace with everyone and everything, and accept – just as it is – the life that we made. In this space of reconciliation we are given the great boon that is salve, not just for our own soul, but a blessing for the world.


Session Eight ~ Returning with the Treasure & Living Legacy

For some of us, the spiral dance now takes us back to the beginning and we arrive back where we started and “know it for the first time.” We begin again, but this time with greater awareness and love for self and others. Sometimes we begin a huge new project which is the bringing of the boon into manifestation. Other times, it is enough that we name the boon and pass it on to the next generation of heroes to carry it forth. What is essential is that we name it and celebrate its achievement. We must leave our legacy here on the path so that others will see it and be encouraged as they travel through life.

To learn more about the history and theory of The Book of Life, please click on this link.
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Workshops for Women


 “The Soul in Love: The Many Faces of the Feminine as Lover”

 “Saging: Embracing the Archetype of the Wise Crone”

 “The Mystery of the Middle Way: Justice & the Feminine Spirit”

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These are a few of the workshops I have done recently. Please contact me with ideas for themes for your own group or congregation.

by toll free phone:   888.80.RITES   or by email:  ceremonies@aol.com