Thursday, June 20, 2013

Book Review: A Mythic Life by Jean Houston

Author: Jean Houston
Genre: Autobiography
Copyright Date: 1996
Publisher: HarperCollins

A Mythic Life is the memoir of Jean Houston. Houston is a world leader in personal and social transformation. She anachronistically weaves the reader through her dreams, her conversations, her childhood, and her adulthood. With each thread of her weaving, she describes events in her life and how each event or fractal led to her path as a spiritual teacher. Her memoir draws parallels to how people have important past events that help them blossom and fulfill their present lives.

Houston’s childhood involved moving often, some years several times in one school year. The moving taught her to observe, adapt, and join groups. Perhaps it was this constant out-siderness that allowed her to pause, even as a child, to see how people interact with each other and to learn how to employ optimal ways for people to work together. She shares her revelations that directed her to help people and communities deepen their creativity and their potential.

It’s been Houston’s pursuit to engage people and communities to exercise their full potential by spiritually reaching inwardly and outwardly. The text is full of wisdom nuggets like:

“Wounding often involves a painful excursion into pathos, we experience massive anguish, and the suffering cracks the boundaries of what we thought we could stand. And yet, time and again, I discover that the wounding pathos of our local stories contains the seeds of healing and even of transformation.”

and

“On her deathbed, Margaret [Mead] suggested to me that the answers lie not with economic or political initiatives but with a deepened citizenry. We can transform the world only by transforming ourselves, for what threatens our survival is not weaponry or technology but the people who use them.”

Her memoir requires an acceptance that life is experienced through many types of lenses and a bit of faith in the un-seeable. It’s helpful to remember that Houston is a mystic. She believes in the energies and the essence that lie within people and that tie people to their ancestors.
I could have done without the second to the last chapter. She uses that chapter to break from the style of writing she used in the majority of the book to meld her love of cooking with her philosophy on improving the human condition. The chapter lacked the pace and fluidity of the previous chapters. It’s my only complaint in an otherwise interesting read.

Her writing led me to further books, including her friend Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. His book was on my shortlist to read because it’s a must-read text for writers; yet from Houston’s point of view and the conversations she shares that she had with Campbell, his famous text has a spiritual edge. In Houston’s opinion, Campbell’s book reveals the archetypes of spirits present in a multitude of myths and stories. JosephCampbell was one of many of Houston’s more famous friends. Her social circle also included anthropologist Margaret Mead and politician Hilary Clinton.

For a leader that I was unaware existed until crafting my 2013reading project, I’m grateful that I stumbled upon her memoir. Houston is now in her mid-seventies and continues to be an active influence. I’ve tracked down several interviews with her and, in each, her fiery passion spews forth when she speaks as it does when she writes.

A Mythic Life is not a summer vacation read. Choose a time to read it when you have time to contemplate her message and her life. For an immensely creative woman, her memoir’s cover is dull (dark tan with white writing); luckily the content is not.

And as for fitting into my goal to learn about American History through the views of leading American women, A Mythic Life was not the best choice. I learned a lot about unlocking human potential, but hardly anything about America’s past. A faux pas worth repeating. I’m currently reading her book The Possible Human and have a copy of a Manual for the Peacemaker on the nightstand.


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