Kwame Scruggs
Kwame Scruggs was formally initiated into the Akan System of Life Cycle Development (African-based rites of passage) in 1993. This process led him to change his worldview and introduced him to the works of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth to transform lives. Kwame has over 25 years of experience using mythology to assist in human development. He holds a PhD and MA in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California.
Kwame is the founder and director of Alchemy, Inc., a non-profit located in Akron, Ohio. In 2012, Alchemy was one of 12 programs to receive the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities—the nation’s highest honor for after-school and out-of-school programs. Kwame accepted this award from First Lady, Michelle Obama, at the White House. In 2020, he received another national honor from the Association of Teaching Artists (with Lincoln Center Education) when presented with their Innovation in Teaching Artistry award.Kwame is also a board member of the Joseph Campbell Foundation and a graduate of the National Guild Community Art Education’s CAELI (Community Arts Education Leadership Institute) Class of 2015.
Kwame spends his time working primarily with youth and adults in Akron and New York City.
Course Description – Alchemy, Inc.
Myths and fairy tales are more than timeless stories—they are living maps of the collective unconscious, revealing the deep architecture of the human soul. These age-old narratives carry the scaffolding of psychological growth: patterns that once guided entire cultures. Today, much of that scaffolding has been lost, leaving many of us wandering as our spirit longs for a positive and supportive environment, clarity, and purpose.
In this course, you will explore myth through both heart and mind. We will dive into mythic tales from a deeply psychological perspective, bringing to the fore not just what you feel—but how you think about what you feel. Through emotional thinking, you will connect with your inner responses—your longings, fears, and hopes. Through critical thinking, you will examine assumptions, patterns, and beliefs. You will hear myths, pause at turning points, tune in to what resonates, and ask probing questions: What touched you? What surprised you? What beliefs are beneath your reaction?
This method lets myths work through you, and you work through them. You will explore community, decision-making, priorities, listening, wounds, healing—and see how myth acts like a mirror: illuminating your life’s hidden currents. In engaging myth with emotional honesty and intellectual rigor, you deepen reflection, sharpen compassion, build discernment, and open pathways to meaningful action.
Course Goal
- To help students deepen their understanding of Self through the integration of emotional sensitivity and critical awareness
Course Objectives
By the end of this course, students will be able to: - Learn to listen with openness—not just hearing others’ viewpoints, but feeling into them and examining their own responses.
- Use mythic themes to mirror life’s common patterns, creating a common language for seeing situations with clarity.
- Apply critical thinking to question assumptions, recognize cognitive/emotional patterns, biases, or limiting beliefs.
- Learn emotional thinking skills—identifying, tolerating, exploring, and expressing emotions in healthy ways.
- Identify personal wounds and explore paths of healing.
- Identify areas needing self-care, especially where emotional or cognitive overwhelm may be present.
- Strengthen social and emotional learning (SEL): empathy, emotional regulation, self‐awareness, reflection.
Facebook – Alchemy, Inc.
Linkedln – Kwame Scruggs
Websites: Alchemy, Inc. & kwamescruggs.com
You must log in and have started this course to submit a review.
