The mythopoetic movement began in the early 1980s, led by Robert Bly and a group of poets, psychologists, storytellers and musicians including James Hillman, Michael Meade, Marion Woodman and Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Influenced by thinkers such as Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, they turned to myth, story and poetry to explore the deeper layers of life.

Bly sparked the movement after writing his 1973 book of poetry, Sleepers Joining Hands, which came during the Vietnam War, a time he believed called for a return to the divine feminine. In 1975, he started The Great Mother Conference, which later became The Great Mother and New Father Conference. Then in 1984, he founded the Minnesota Men’s Conference, both of which continue today.

Bly taught that men’s emotional healing didn’t come from rising above, but by going ‘inward and down’ into the depths of the soul. Grief, he said, was the doorway to feeling and connection. His 1990 book Iron John became the most famous mythopoetic text, using a Brothers Grimm tale to speak about lost masculinity. He introduced the idea of the ‘wild man’ as a symbol of deep, primal energy that modern men had lost through war, absent fathers and industrial life.

In workshops, Bly used myths like Iron John to help men reconnect to their emotional lives and with one another. He taught that masculinity wasn’t about aggression, but about what he called “joyful decisiveness”—a kind of strong, loving clarity.

At around the same time, Clarissa Pinkola Estés offered a powerful vision of the feminine in Women Who Run with the Wolves, describing the ‘wild woman’ archetype—a deep, creative force within every woman.

Together with Marion Woodman, Bly then later explored the healing and reunion of masculine and feminine energies in The Maiden King.

At its heart, mythopoetics uses ancient stories to speak to modern wounds. It honours both spirit and soul, emotion and embodiment. It values grief, dreams, and the guidance of true elders. Mythopoetics reminds us that we are more than our roles or wounds—we are part of a deeper story longing to be remembered.

Learn more about The Fifth Direction and our commitment to the re-emergence of mythopoetic understanding.