Patricia 'Iolana
MA,D.M.St.J.A.
Professor, Department of Neopagan Studies & Traditional Religious Studies 
Contact: piolana@oceanseminarycollege.org
 

Education:

Patricia is a doctoral (PhD) candidate at the University of Glasgow’s Centre for the Study of Literature, Theology and the Arts, School of Critical Studies. She is fascinated by the use of literature as a tool for psychological, social and theological change -- specifically how literature effects personal beliefs and can even create theology. For her PhD dissertation, ‘The Immanent Divine in Literature: Deepening Our Understanding of Women’s Experience of the Goddess through Thealogy and Analytical Psychology’, she is examining five contemporary women's spiritual autobiographies (written by Jean Shinoda Bolen, Sue Monk Kidd, Phyllis Curott, Christine Downing, and Margaret Starbird). Her case study analyzes the theological and psychological significance of this literary genre and the potential for these works in creating a paradigmatic shift, thealogical balance and inter-religious dialogue. Her aim is an attempt at some sort of relational cohesion between the disciplines of literature, thealogy, and analytical psychology.

She holds a Master’s Degree with Honours in Humanities from California State University-Dominguez Hills (2008) where she wrote her dissertation 'Sacred Feminine Literature: Reemergence of the Goddess.' This work was later published by VDM Verlag, Germany in November 2009 under the title Literature of the Sacred Feminine: Great Mother Archetypes and the Reemergence of the Goddess in Western Traditions.

Research Interests:

Her research is highly interdisciplinary and includes: thealogy; literature; a number of the psychic concepts first posed by Carl Gustav Jung including his models of the Archetypes, the Collective Unconscious, Dreams, the Anima/Animus relationship and the path of Individuation; post-feminist theory; women's studies; philosophy of religion; pagan theology; psychology of religion; religious syncretism; inter-faith relations and religious pluralism. While she has an aversion to titles as she feels they limit our view of ourselves and of others, she understands the need for them and considers herself a Jungian Thealogian who specialises in women’s experience of the Feminine Divine.

Publications:

 

  • (2010).Co-Editor Testing the Boundaries: Self, Faith, Interpretation and Changing Trends in Religious Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press).
  • (2010). Co-Editor Communicating Change: Representing Self and Community in a Technological World (Glasgow: eSharp)
  • (2010). “Radical Images of the Feminine Divine: Women’s Spiritual Autobiographies Disclose a Thealogical Shift” in Testing the Boundaries: Self, Faith, Interpretation and Changing Trends in Religious Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press).
  • (2009). Literature of the Sacred Feminine: Great Mother Archetypes and the Re-emergence of the Goddess in Western Traditions (VDM Verlag).
  • (2006). Tutu Pele: The Living Goddess of Hawai=i=s Volcanoes’. Sacred History Magazine, 2(2). March/April.

 

Associations and Additional Activities:

Her work has been recognized by for several years running by Marquis Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, and Who’s Who of American Women. In 1994 she was inducted into the Order of Merit of St. Joseph of Arimathea and granted the Decree of Merit by The Religious and Military Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem in recognition of Contributions in the Field of Education and carries the post nominal citation, D.M.St.J.A. She is honoured to be a member of the International Society of Religion, Literature and Culture; Sacred History Society; Sigma Tau Delta, Zeta Psi Chapter, International English Honour Society; Golden Key Honour Society; Pinnacle Honour Society and a member of the National Dean’s List. She currently makes her home in Glasgow Scotland with her partner and two children and is actively involved in the Beltane Fire Society of Edinburgh. She is a practicing Pagan of the Old Religion in which she proudly serves as Priestess and Messenger of the Goddess. She is the co-founder of the Institute for Thealogy and Deasophy.