The Power of Myth

The Myth of Politics

2008-09-29T20:13:57Z

A couple of years ago, at a Mythology conference I was invited to speak at, I got to hear Stephen Wilkerson of the Pacifica Graduate Institute deliver a wonderful paper called "The Myth of Politics; the 2004 Partisan Divide." Prof. Wilkerson's ideas seem to pretty topical once again... particularly if you watched the Obama-McCain debate... and contrasted the two men in terms of temperament, personality types... and racial/ethnic backgrounds.

"The Myth of Politics" was a rather fun paper, full of puns, which played off the distinction between red and blue states. Does blue state = blue blood? Does red state = red neck? In the ancient Indian Kunadalini Yoga, there are 7 chakras (power centers) assigned to the body, and each chakra is assigned a color. The lower 3 are purely animal; the top 4 are human/spiritual. Chakra 1, the lowest chakra, Campbell described as the Dragon chakra – dragons hoard and guard things. The color of charka 1 is red. Chakra 5, located at the throat, is that of speech/language… communication. Its color is blue.

But the real interesting part of the paper came w/ a comparison of the Paleolithic mythology Campbell labeled “the way of the animal powers” w/ the Neolithic mythos called “the way of the seeded earth.” The Neolithic mythos comes w/ the emergence of planting culture. When you farm land, you have to protect that plot of land. You build fences… then walls, and soon you have city-states w/ standing armies and such. (Dragons guard things.) Contrasting w/ this is the nomadic hunter-gatherer. Campbell called Chief Seattle “the last spokesman of the Paleolithic moral order.” In 1852 we wrote, “The President in Washington sends word that he wants to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? The land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water how can we sell them to you? … The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth… Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. … One thing we know: Our god is your god also.”

It is no coincidence that, almost w/o exception, agrarian states are all red (where dragons guard). There is more red by area than blue. But almost w/o exception large cities, w/ their communal spaces, go blue. The denser the population, the more likely to go blue. In these communal spaces a kind of neo-Paleolithic moral order is growing w/ trends towards openness, sharing, multiculturalism, socialism and community.

Hello and a request for help

2008-09-21T00:26:15Z

Hello, everyone- I'm a Linguistics student who saw the light and switched to Anthropology a couple years back. I'm so glad I found this community! I have a question for you knowledgeable people- does anyone recognize this symbol: ?

My books are all boxed up, otherwise I would have looked it up, and google has been letting me down so far. I'm positive I've seen it before and it's driving me insane.

Thanks for any advice!

Harvest of Life Force: Crafting a Bindrune

2008-09-18T19:27:55Z

I have written a post here regarding the science of Esoteric Runology. I give an introduction to Runic mysticism and talisman construction, as well as showing how I designed a Bindrune for a nice lady in England, starting with Rune-meanings, going to a Rune-row, and the final construction of the Bindrune itself, in two different forms. I talk at length about Runic mythology and numerology, and show how it relates to the process. I hope you all get some use out of it.

http://cauldronborn.blogspot.com/2008/09/harvest-of-life-force-crafting-bindrune.html

RA

Contingency, Tragedy, and Faith

2008-09-11T18:52:02Z

It’s the anniversary of 9/11 – the most significant U.S. national tragedy to happen in my lifetime -- and I’m thinking about why tragic things happen. Perhaps the one thing that is most destructive to the human psyche is the experience of sheer contingency. “Contingency” in the ontological sense – as in, the opposite of necessity -- what’s chancy, random, meaningless, w/o rhyme or reason… For thousands of years we’ve had myth, religion, philosophy and science largely for the purpose of putting a face on contingency.

When bad things happen we ask why. When our lives aren’t going well we ask, “What did I do to deserve this?” Or, “Why is everything going well for him and not for me? Why is he more deserving of happiness than I am?”

Recently my wife and I watched an excellent movie, Thirteen Conversations about One Thing, which is all about fate vs. chance vs. personal responsibility vs. blind luck. There is a golden moment in that movie where a character says, “Faith is the antithesis of proof,” and the most bitter, cynical character in the film replies, “Yeah… but still… you got’ta have faith in something!”

In a sense, I guess faith and proof are the two ways we put a face on contingency.

Whatever is the particular “something” you have faith in, the various myths of the world all essentially teach the same answer to the age-old question, “Why does bad shit happen?” In The Fifth Mountain, Paulo Coelho explains it well:
• There are things that are brought into our lives to lead us back to the true path of our Personal Legend.
• Some things come along to teach us.
• Other things arise so we can apply all that we have learned. (i.e. to test us)

In the structure of Joe Campbell’s Hero Quest, Coelho’s first form of tragedy corresponds to the “Call to Adventure.” The second type is what we encounter while on the “Road of Trials.” The third form is what Campbell called “the Ordeal.”

The second type (the Road of Trials) are often some of the hardest to take. In The Fifth Mountain the Prophet Elijah asks, “Why does He who made the world prefer to use tragedy to write the book of fate?”

An angel answers, “There is no tragedy, only the unavoidable. Everything hath a reason for being; thou neediest only distinguish what is temporary from what is lasting.”

“What is temporary?” asked Elijah.

“The unavoidable.”

“What is lasting?”

“The lessons of the unavoidable.”

Later in that book, w/ regards to “the unavoidable,” a wise shepherd tells Elijah, “There are certain things that the gods oblige us to live though. There reason for this does not matter, and there is no action we can take to make them pass us by.”

When Elijah has his epiphany need the end of the novel, he realizes that: “Sometimes it was necessary to struggle w/ God. Every human being at some time had tragedy enter his life…. At that moment, God challenged one to confront Him and to answer His question: “Why dost thou cling to an existence so short and so filled w/ suffering? What is the meaning of thy struggle?”

(i.e. What do you have worth living for?)

“One who sought a meaning to existence, feeling God had been unjust, would challenge his own destiny…. It was this that He desired, that each person take into his hands the responsibility for his own life…. Tragedy was not punishment but challenge.”

On the anniversary of 9/11, there is a final passage in The Fifth Mountain which seems very appropriate to me. Elijah says, “I don’t want to argue whether my God is stronger or more powerful; I would speak not of our differences but our similarities. Tragedy has united us.”

A Wyrd Way of Seeing

2008-09-05T03:19:58Z

A Wyrd Way of Seeing: The Worldview of Wyrd as Primordial Cybernetics

The Spinning of the Nornir and the Ancient Worldview of Wyrd
As Expressed in Terms of Modern Systems Theory

http://cauldronborn.blogspot.com/2008/09/wyrd-way-of-seeing-worldview-of-wyrd-as.html

Greetings

2008-09-04T19:17:28Z

I just wanted to introduce myself. I am Kristen; art-rep for CJ Bloomer, fine artist and illustrator focusing on mythos from around the world. He has written articles and taught workshops about the mythic image in fantasy art and has worked with Mythic Journeys and other scholarly groups to promote the need for myth in today's society. I will be hanging around and am not afraid to comment, so I can't wait to hear everyone's ideas. Please, feel free to check our website ( www.nydwyngreendragon.com ) and see what we're up to.

What is 'worship'?

2008-09-03T08:06:57Z

Now, afaic, I don't 'worship' any one, or any thing, however I've just been told that because of my love for Loki, "by giving him the worth you do, you absolutely worship him."

So now I'm wondering, what IS worship? Is it simply loving something/someone (in which case, do I 'worship' my friends and family because I love them), or is there more to it than that?

Xposted from my own journal to several places

Apocalypse Now & 2001: A Space Odyssey.

2008-09-02T19:06:27Z

The Asheville, NC Mythology RoundTable is meeting this Friday, and we are going to discuss two mythic films: Apocalypse Now & 2001: A Space Odyssey. I thought I would share some of our discussion questions here w/ you lovely folks.

If Apocalypse Now represents a series of initiations, what does Willard learn on his journey up-river? What final revelation does he have in the end?

What does the title “Apocalypse Now” mean?

Both Apocalypse Now and 2001 use a classical myth structure in which a “sea” voyage creates a series of loosely connected episodes. How does this different kind of storytelling create different effects from the modern novel-like structure?

One way of reading Apocalypse Now is: Kurtz is associated w/ a ritually-killed priest-king, a lunar hero, the bull, and a killed-and-resurrected agrarian god. Kilgore is associated w/ the patriarchal, dragon-slaying, warrior gods associated w/ nomadic herding tribes like the Semites and Aryans. Where does Willard fit into this dichotomy?

Another suggested reading of Apocalypse Now is to see Kurtz and Kilgore as the twin heroes of mind and matter – the shaman-magician-priest and the warrior-king. What evidence is there for this interpretation… and once again, where does Willard fit – is he the new shaman-priest or the emissary of the warrior-king.

If 2001 depicts the two great leaps in human evolution, what exactly is the nature of those transitions? Are they biological or spiritual or cognitive or moral… or all of the above? How would you characterize the transitions – from animal to man to… what? (The music “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” suggests Nietszche and the text in which Nietzsche first talked of the Overman (or “Superman”).)

What does the alien Monolith of 2001 symbolize?

John David Ebert (in Celluloid Heroes) says “it is precisely the Age of Reason Kubrik is bidding farewell to in this film.” What does Ebert mean by this “Age of Reason?”

What does HAL 9000 symbolize? What is his problem/limitation? Why does he go nuts?

The Giants in the Water

2008-08-31T23:18:45Z

Of all the great natural bodies of power that our Ancestors dealt with on a daily basis, the seas and oceans inspired more awe than most. When we stare at the great waters, we see not just an endless reservoir of power, but the origins of our very lives- the primordial genetic material that was the foundation of all life on land was once in the ocean. There is a great awe and fear of the oceans and seas, because they are containers of immense and mysterious powers, not all of them friendly to mankind.

The elements in their primordial form (which includes the ground under your feet, the water in rivers and oceans, lightning flashing through the sky, forest fires, and winds, among others) are by nature "giantish"- untamed and occasionally dangerous to man. It's impossible to avoid the feeling of awe when you see these hurricanes on satellite imaging, swirling with their massive spiraling arms, moving relentlessly towards land.

There is no evil in them; they are simply expressions of the might of nature itself, so massive and powerful that they move along on their Fated courses, heedless of the tiny specks of life that they blast by. I always compared them to the most massive whales in the deep ocean: massive creatures plowing along through the water, steadily, consuming thousands of pounds of tiny life-forms in the ocean as they go- they don't viciously seek to destroy life; they are simply doing as they do, never thinking twice about it.

We humans are tiny compared to these rightly-called "Giantish" forces. The sheer difference in scale is one of the reasons why we fear them- we know that they are blind and heedless of our lives, in the same way you or I may be blind or heedless of the tiny insects we crush in the grass as we walk by, hiking in the forest or just spending a day in a park.

The Ancestors firmly believed that the Gods- aided spectacularly by the Thunder-God, the greatest enemy of Giants- kept this world, this Middle-Earth, safe from Giantish powers. In light of what is going on right now, the implications of this belief are profound. The Ancestors dealt with disastrous weather-patterns and natural disasters just like we do, and one could say that they suffered worse from them (in a way) because they didn't have the networks of preparedness and response that we have.

So why were they so happy to point out how "safe" the Gods made the world? Because without the Gods, the elements and the other Giantish forces- deeper and more destructive than we could imagine- would overwhelm this world. Old Redbeard is a skilled killer of Giants, but even he can't destroy them all- there has to be a 1% that make it through, and have time to wreak havoc before their Fated course ends.

I think the Ancestors were aware of the fact that it could always be worse. And one of the reasons why it wasn't as bad as it could be is because powerful sentient forces, who care for mankind as their kin, were faithfully performing a Fated task of preservation.

There is one more element to this equation: the fact that we are literally in what the Ancestors described as "A wind age, a wolf age"- the final age of the world in which the decline of things was higher than it ever had been, and even the elements were possibly more destructive. "The wind age" refers to the destructive force of the winds, and in a way, the elements, but the "wolf age" refers to the destructive force of greed in human beings.

As I have said countless times, and as I believe the prophecy in Voluspa makes clear, the world is not destined to get better, in these last millenia. This makes our current age a time when the greatest heroes can (ironically) be produced. We need not just the support of the Hammer-God and his family; we need human heroes who are ready to perform what seems to be a lost cause: the cause of preserving as much as they can in the face of blind, naked natural fury.

The Gods and the Heroes go to the final battle of this world in full knowledge that they will be meeting their doom. Who does that? Beings that know that the ends are not the important part. The important part is that they will make a stand, come what may.

Help the soon-to-be victims of this storm in whatever way you can; even tiny help, help that seems pointless in the face of so much misery, is heroic. You can join me in sacrificing to the Gods for final aid and rescue for as many people as can be helped, but in this case, in this age, what we need are strong people, not just strong Gods.

I work in the Therapy field, and I face a lot of misery in my clients every day. I see cases that anyone would describe as hopeless and unthinkably depressing. When I first started, I (like most people) had the odd "savior" complex that led me to get overly concerned for my clients- but in the end, you have to realize that we don't write the story of other people's lives.

I talked to a friend and colleague of mine about my concerns regarding getting too attached to clients, and he told me one of the most amazing things anyone has ever told me. What he told me was a quote (horridly enough) drawn from a recent movie starring Kevin Costner, called "The Guardian" or something like that. But the quote was very relevant. What do you do when you see so much trauma, and you know you can't help everyone?

My friend said that in one scene of this movie, a young Coast Guard member asked Kevin Costner's character (who apparently plays a more experienced Coast Guard life saver) what he does when he faces a situation where many people are drowning, and in need of help. How do you know who to help or save?

Kevin Costner's character said this:

"I swim as hard as I can, I swim as fast as I can, I save as many people as I can, and the sea takes the rest."

At first I hadn't realized the full impact of what my young colleague had told me. Then it hit me: Fate had spoken here. Fate was the final answer. In the disguise of a pop-culture movie reference, I believe that an ancient and important wisdom was transmitted, then and there.

In our lives, however we help people, we do the best we can, and Fate takes the rest. The nobility in us- that nobility that does not die, and will survive to be reborn in the regenerated universe- does the best it can, regardless of the darkness of the situation.

Endtime prophecy

2008-08-08T21:58:14Z

http://www.countdown.org/armageddon/

Questions and answers!?

Why Life Sucks

2008-07-18T14:00:57Z

Recently I was re-reading bits of Paulo Coelho’s “The Fifth Mountain,” a novelization of the story of the Biblical Elijah. The purpose of the novel is to address the age-old question of why there’s tragedy and suffering in the world. Why do things go wrong? Coelho (a self-consciously mythic writer) says that tragedy comes to us for one of three reasons:
• There are things that are brought into our lives to lead us back to the true path of our Personal Legend.
• Some things come along to teach us.
• Other things arise so we can apply all that we have learned. (i.e. to test us)

The first type is what Joe Campbell indicated when he said, “You have to be willing to give up the life you’ve planed in order to have the life which is waiting for you.” Campbell and many others have pointed to this idea that some tragic things that befall us, later-on, put us on the path we need to be on, often for the greater good of ourselves or others. Naturally, this doesn’t necessarily balance the tragedy or take the sting away. In one song by the rock band U2, Bono sings, “Mother, you left and made me into someone.” If you know U2, you know that the early death of his mother is really the primary motive force of Bono’s lyrics, his poetry, his emotion, his spirit… Naturally Bono, like any of us I expect, would not have chosen to lose his mother in order to become a great artist… but that’s the price the Universe decided he had to pay. Campbell also was fond of saying, “The Fates guide those who will; those who won’t, they drag.”

Some things teach us. This is the primary idea of Nietzsche who famously said, “That which does not kill me makes me stronger.” And Toni Morrison who wrote, “The purpose of evil is to overcome it.” Fate hurts us to make us tougher. Fate puts obstacles in our way to make us more relentless, stronger, or cleverer. (This reminds me of another of my favorite quotes, this one by Thoreau: “If you are weak in the knees, don’t complain that the hill is too steep.”)

Finally, the Hero Quest shows us how, inevitably, the hero must be tested to see if he has learned what he is supposed to have learned along the “Road of Trials.” In most quest-stories, if the hero succeeds, it is often because of something he has learned along the way (perhaps a skill, some secret knowledge or insight, or, most often, a moral lesson). If the hero fails it is normally because he has resolutely failed to learn the lessons Fate was trying to teach him. So some tragedies which befall us are “exams” to see if we’re doing our homework.

In the structure of the Hero Quest, Coelho’s first form of tragedy corresponds to the “Call to Adventure.” The second type is what we encounter while on the “Road of Trials.” The third form is what Campbell called “the Ordeal.”

Stories for 1000 Years

2008-06-26T12:21:35Z

This month the topic at our Mythology RoundTable was "Stories for 1000 years." This was a fun one -- it was a two-part discussion. In the first part, we considered the question: Why have some myths (like the Trojan War) stuck around and remained relatively well-known for thousands of years... where other myths vanish in the mist of time, either forgotten entirely, or known only to a collection of academic specialists. What makes a myth a "story for 1000 years?"

Some of our suggestions included:
• Timeless/archetypal (characters & themes transcend the local & historical setting)
• Crosses-boarders (story is known globally)
• Adaptable to new media (books, movies, video games, pop-merchandising…)
• Lends itself to transformations & re-interpretations (Why is “Hamlet” still around?)
• Rituals and a “Cult” following -- the story is "transformative"

Second, we discussed what are the myths of our day, and which stories from the last (say) 100-150 years will still be remembered in the year 3000.

Here are some of our suggestions:

Late 19th century:
• Dracula and Frankenstein
• Sherlock Holmes
• Alice in Wonderland
• R.L. Stevenson’s "Treasure Island" and "Jekyll & Hyde"
• Dickens’s "A Christmas Carol" and "Oliver Twist"
20th century:
• Superman (and maybe Spider-man & Batman)
• Mickey Mouse and maybe Bugs Bunny
• The Wizard of Oz (sort of a variation of Alice in Wonderland)
• The hard-boiled, noir detective (ie. Sam Spade & Philip Marlow)
• The John Ford/John Wayne western (ie. Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine and The Searchers)
• The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings
• Star Trek and Star Wars
21st century:
Too early to say...
(I was surprised no one thought Harry Potter would stick around.)

And I added a third question: What story would you like to see popularly remembered in the year 3000… but think probably won’t be?

For me, it would be "Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." My wife nominated the Jim Henson movie, "Labyrinth."

Tour of the Tarot

2008-06-12T20:05:16Z

Last weekend, at a housewarming party, a group of us fell into an interesting conversation about tarot cards. Most people in England & America associate the cards w/ fortune-telling… but tarot cards are actually the early version of the modern playing card deck, and, outside the English-speaking world, are still frequently used to play a trick-taking card-game called “tarock” or “tarot.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarock) The first tarot playing cards began to appear in the late-14th century (in Northern Italy & Southern France)… but they were never used for fortune-telling prior to the 18th century. However, even putting divination aside, there may still have been a secret, spiritual meaning behind the cards from the very beginning. Joseph Campbell believed the cards depicted a path of spiritual growth & initiation and interpreted them to a medieval expression of the “pedagogical function” of myth – the function which guides us through the course of a human life development from immaturity to youth to maturity to old-age.

I think the oldest surviving tarot deck is one from Marseilles, France. It depicts four suites: swords, cups, coins & staves. The four suites represent the four medieval castes (or “estates”): the nobility, the clergy (the cup = the chalice of the mass), the merchants/artisans, and the peasant serfs. (Our modern spades, hearts, diamonds & clubs are a Protestant re-vision of this.) Each suit runs from 1 to 10, and then is followed by 4 face-cards: knave, knight, queen & king. Campbell interpreted these as representing the ascending levels of power one could move through in one’s cast: gaining rank in the first two, wealth in the third or status among the peasants gained primarily through age/experience (becoming a village elder). To Campbell, these represented (to the medieval artist) levels of social/earthly power. But there was a second path potentially open to anyone – the mythic-spiritual path.

This second way is depicted by 22 picture cards (atouts) – numbered 1-21, plus 1 unnumbered card. They look like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot_of_Marseilles#The_Major_Arcana_.28Trumps_and_The_Fool.29_of_the_Tarot_de_Marseille

Campbell deduced (or intuited) that the atouts depicted a 4-stage development common to medival philosophy, repeated/echoed on 5 levels. This is easiest seen if you first pull out card 1 (the Magician) and the unnumbered card (the Fool – the modern Joker)… then stack the remaining 20 cards in five rows of four… so that 2-5 represents the movement, echoed by 6-9, 10-13, 14-17 and 18-21. The Magician (card 1) is outside the progression b/s he is the initiator. He is depicted w/ a coin, cup, staff & sword to indicate that he is the jumping-off point from any social caste to the second path of the atrouts.

The 4-stage development was, Campbell suspected, part of a medieval mythology that reached its highest expression in the works of Dante. Dante’s 4 great works: The New Life, Inferno, Purgatory & Paradise coincided to these 4 parts (atrouts 6-9 and 14-17 seem to have an obvious connection here).

The first two rows of 4 (cards 2-5 and 6-9) represent life stages and their attending virtues.
• 2-the Priestess is directly below 6-the lovers and represents the inspiration to love that comes to the young heart (as the vision of Beatrice awakened the poet Dante). Dante called this stage of life “adolescence” (birth-25).
• 3-the Empress is right under 7-the Chariot and represents adult love – the chariot driver is the Lancelot to her Guinevere. This stage is “maturity” (age 26-45).
• 4-the Emperor is matched-up w/ 8-Justice. He represents the stage of life Dante called “age” (46-70), and justice is the chief virtue of this stage.
• 5-the Pope & 9-the hermit represent what Dante called “decrepitude” – where the wise person turns away from any earthly, social, political concerns (the Emperor/Justice) toward a purely spiritual focus.

Cards 10-13 represent the chief trial, obstacle or lesson of each stage:
• Adolescence = the wheel of fortune (the three animals are from Dante: the wolf = fear/loathing, the leopard = desire/lust and the lion = pride/egotism)
• Maturity = Force (the correct application of physical/social/economic power)
• Age = the Hanged Man (representing social/political disgrace)
• Decrepitude = Death

Following death, we move into a supernatural series w/ 14-17. The seem to coincide quite closely w/ Dante’s four great works:
• Temperance = The New Life
• The Devil = Inferno (where one is bound by one’s ego)
• Tower = Purgatory (the 7-story mountain which breaks down the ego)
• The Star = Paradise (Heaven)

The topmost range (cards 18-21) can be seen as the highest spiritual revelation of each series.
• Adolescence = The Priestess: the Lovers: the Wheel of Fate: Temperance (the New Life): the Moon. The Moon is a symbol of the divine feminine, the cycles of life & time, death & rebirth…
• Maturity = Empress: Chariot: Force: Devil (Inferno): Sun (the masculine god)
• Age = Emperor: Justice: Hanged Man: Tower (Purgatory): Judgment
• Decrepitude = Pope: Hermit: Death: Star (Heaven): The World (here, the Platonic world of Ideal Forms)

The last card, the Fool, stands outside the series b/c he is both the beginning and the end of the sequence. The naïve child (in-itself) is transformed by being knocked-about and toughened-up by the world (made for-itself) until finally he achieves wisdom and bliss… and once-again is left care-free and whimsical as a child (in-and-for-itself). Countless myths reveal the sage as a clown or child… from Merlin to Yoda to Dumbledore… to the Chinese Daoist depiction of Louzi as a kind of wise man meets Winnie the Poo.

The Angel of Death

2008-05-27T14:26:25Z

Angel of Death: (Malakh ha-Mavet, Mar Mavet, Malach Ahzari). God’s agent of death in the world and the most dreaded of all numinous beings.

First mentioned in Biblical literature simply as Mavet (personified Death), ha-Mashchit (the Destroyer), Malach-Adonai (Angel of the Lord),

And the Angel of the Lord went out and attacked the Assyrian camp; One hundred eighty-five thousand. And when they arose in the morning, they were all dead bodies. (Isaiah 37:36)

in later literature the title “Angel of Death” becomes conventional. God created the Angel on the first day, along with light. The various legends about the Angel are so diverse it is hard to reconcile them all….for the complete article, go to www.ejmmm2007.blogspot.com

A question

2008-05-17T19:16:51Z

I once read in an anthology of world mythology an account of the fall of Lucifer that went like this:
Lucifer loved God more than any of the angels. Then God created humans and commanded the angels to bow down to them. Lucifer refused to do this and for his unwavering love of God was cast into hell.
I think this was a myth in one of the Islamic sects. I read a lot of comparative mythologies and can't remember where I heard this one. If anyone has heard this myth I'd appreciate sources or elaboration.

What should I read next?

2008-05-12T20:55:24Z

I have read "Hero With a Thousand Faces" and the "Power of Myth" book with Bill Moyers. I have seen several other works by Campbell in my Amazon Recommendations. Which books do you recommend I tackle next? Some of the titles I remember seeing are "Masks of God" and "Myths to Live By". Thanks in advance.

From a Heathen World to a Christian World: Can Universal Morality Work?

2008-04-23T18:20:15Z

http://cauldronborn.blogspot.com/2008/04/from-heathen-world-to-christian-world.html

RA

The Dragon and the Dragonslayer

2008-03-30T00:08:18Z

Here is an essay about the eternal struggle that we are all a part of, whether we would be or not:

http://www.robinartisson.com/dragon.html

RA

Mythology of the Winter Solstice

2007-12-21T12:43:23Z

This Saturday is the Winter Solstice. In Ireland, on this morning, the sun will come over the horizon, its light will penetrate the 60’ long, narrow underground shaft of New Grange, and, for 17 minutes, illuminate the famous triple-spiral triskel carved on the farthest wall of the chamber. In Gaelic, New Grange has been known as uaimh na gre’ine, the “cave of the sun.” Over 5,000 years old, it is the largest earth-chamber in Europe, although there are numerous similar chambers from the Neolithic period once used for ritual purposes, all oriented on an East-West line to match the movement of the sun. Going back long before the Neolithic, Neanderthal man used to burry his dead facing East (the oldest sign of religious or mythological thinking)… just as Medieval churches were all constructed on the same East-West axis… and even Native American burial mounds and kivas were also built to mimic the sun’s movement. New Grange itself is a tomb. According to Irish mythology, New Grange was one of the sidhe, or fairy-mounds, where the Tuatha Dé Danann lived. It was an entrance into the Otherworld (known as Tir na Sorcha, the Land of Light)… the place where the dead went. The association with the passage of death into the Afterlife w/ the passage of the sun, suggests a belief in a rebirth or resurrection – that the dead will return, just as the sun returns from its “death.”

This year the sun dies on Saturday night. The winter solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year. The sun god is now only a weak, old invalid on his deathbed, powerless against the forces of night and darkness. But on Sunday, he is born a new. The days begin to grow longer. The solar child-god fights back against the night.

One of Joseph Campbell’s four functions of mythology, he called the cosmological function: to put man in accord w/ the cycles of nature, the rhythms of the seasons and the features (physical & ecological) of his local landscape. Those leading a mythologically inspired (or I could say “spiritually inspired”) life participate in nature through rituals guided by the logic of analogy and the language of poetry.

Evergreens, holly, ivy & mistletoe hung inside could share some of their power to stay alive and fresh through the winter ice. Yule fires called out to the waning sun god. Sacrifices (once human… later of scapegoat proxy… then finally completely symbolic like in the Mummer’s plays) were made to help the sun in its fight or to bribe the powers of darkness to go easy on us. The winter darkness was crowded w/ creatures of evil and mischief – fairies, trolls, frost giants, goblins… and especially ghosts. The walls between worlds were thin this time of year. Ghosts walked the earth, and, just like in Dickens’s Christmas Carol, sometimes they spoke to the living, revealed the past, present or future.

Christmas isn’t the only holiday derived from old solstice rites. Hanukkah, the festival of lights, also caries some remnants of sun worship. The renewal of light = the renewal of life. Myths abound of solar-associated demigods and wunderkinds born (or reborn – reincarnated) at the time of the winter solstice: Mabon, Emrys, Cuchulainn, Tammuz, Attis, Baal, Osiris, Apollo, Dionysus and Mithras. It is b/c the solstice was given as December 25th on the Roman calendar (although it usually actually falls on the 22nd), that Christmas is celebrated on that day. It is the birthday of the unconquerable sun… and his earthly embodiment. Even in Native America: Deganawidah, the semi-mythical founder of the great Iroquois Confederacy was born on the night of the winter solstice to a virgin mother.

Often, like Mythras, these solar incarnations and demigods are born in a cave… the way the sun penetrating the shaft at New Grange and striking the carving of the triskel suggests a fertility metaphor – the masculine sun laying its seed in the womb of the feminine earth. No one can say exactly what the Neolithic triple-spiral meant 5,000 years ago… but (like it’s related symbols the labyrinth & the mandala) it seems to be associated w/ the cycles of time – past, present & future; the passage of the sun; cycles of the heavens; the cycles of the seasons; the menstrual-lunar cycle; the life cycle of birth, youth, age and death -- and is thus associated mythologically w/ the female power – the Mother Goddess. In many myths, the female power appears in triplicate form. The 3 fates, the 3 witches, the 3 graces, the 3 furies, the 3 gorgons… or the Celtic goddess of war and death, the Morrigon, who often appeared as 3 crows. She is the counterpart of the Hindu goddess Kali – Black Time. In most myths, the mother goddess is also the goddess of death. The goddess of war is also the goddess of fertility. She is not one, fixed thing… but embodies the ever-turning wheels of nature’s cycles.

The final element of this primary mythology revealed at New Grange every 22nd of December is the beam of light itself. Scientifically we know that all life on earth depends upon the sunlight heating our planet and “powering” our biosphere. The metaphor seems apt: the heavenly Sky Father coming upon the earth mother in the form of a been of light – the ray of light at New Grange this Sunday, and the ray of light that fell upon the Virgin Mary.

Moving from the cosmological to the mystical function of myth, we ask, what is the light? Light is perhaps the oldest metaphor for the Divine power in the universe. According to Jewish myth, God didn’t create the sun & moon until the 4th day of creation… but he started w/ “Let there be Light,” on day one. Rabbis concluded that the light of Day One was a mystical, primordial light, and supposedly a piece of this Divine light was hidden in a stone called the Tzohar, the Philosopher’s Stone.

Other sages have interpreted the mystical light as representing consciousness. In the Gospel of John, the “Word,” or logos, is also referred to as “the light.” As light reveals things, so consciousness reveals and creates experiences. Consciousness creates the universe – things exist only by being “known.” Just as physical light is invisible and known only by striking things, so consciousness itself is unknowable and known only by thinking or seeing things. I can know X or think of Y, but I can’t think or know w/o some object of my consciousness to think or know of. Yet mystics across time teach that the ground of all being (God or Nirvana or Buddha-Mind) is pure consciousness. So another way to mystically read this Saturday’s event at New Grange is to think of the light and stone as knowing subject and known object creating experience… creating Being. The cave of New Grange becomes Plato's Cave.

Or we can reflect on what we know today, scientifically, about the properties of light. As one scientist put it, the findings of modern physics, “suggest very directly that light does not travel in normal space-time” (C. Wertenbaker). To quote another scientist, “What bears the figure we call light? One thing has become certain, whatever it is, it is not material” (A. Zajonc). What better analogy could there be for the mystical Transcendent power entering the field of time & space. If there is any physical phenomenon in the universe worthy of embodying the Divine it must be light.

The light is at its weakest this Saturday. The darkness at its strongest. But the wheel turns and the new, reinvigorated sun-child is about to be born. Go tell it on the mountain.

The Joy of Yule

2007-12-19T03:50:02Z

Not thankfulness... Joyfulness!

http://cauldronborn.blogspot.com/2007/12/joy-of-yule.html

RA

powerofmyth @ 2007-12-10T12:17:00

2007-12-10T10:18:17Z

Love has no attitude to objects of love...
It is your Love...
It is only reflected in the objects...
In some it is reflected better, in others - is worse…
All the objects will start to reflect Love...
When you will start to taste Love directly, without any intermediaries…
This sensation of Unity and Integrity is yours from the beginning!..
The World becomes One object of Love!..
When the objects are no more necessary for the feeling of Love …

Mythical: The Hidden Way of the Witch

2007-12-07T21:12:38Z

I hope you enjoy this narrative about Traditional Land-Based Paganism and Witchcraft, and Glad Yule to you all.

http://www.robinartisson.com/scarespite/mythical.html

RA

Mythic Jourenys Documentry

2007-12-06T20:39:47Z

A 12 minute preview!
http://www.imaginalcellsinc.com/video/Mythicjourneystrailer.htm

Making Gold

2007-12-03T23:57:34Z

Good Day:

I've started another blog for my more neutral esoteric writings and social/political writings, opinions, personal philosophy quips, and other assorted miscellania:

http://aurifaber.blogspot.com/

I'm Aurifaber, the Goldsmith, attempting to use words to make the gold of understanding out of the lead of the monstrous cloud of bullcrap we all live under. Maybe I'll succeed, maybe I won't. I'm not wed to any expectations of outcome. Some of you might find the blog worth watching.

There are two entries in it currently; I am creating a "subject matter" index so that posts will be easy to find. I just wrote a post today about The Sacred Word and the great occult secret hidden in plain sound:

http://aurifaber.blogspot.com/2007/12/sacred-word-secret-hidden-in-plain.html

I hope you enjoy.

RA

powerofmyth @ 2007-11-22T09:13:00

2007-11-22T07:13:44Z

Why do people always try to draw the witnesses and to register their Love?
Why do they try to state in their passports the existence of this feeling…?
Maybe they are too scared to lose It?
Probably…
I am truly convinced that Love and fear are incompatible…
Love does not need any registration!
Is it a party of fear then?
That is in its honor people drink champagne and pronounce toasts…
Welcome clearness and reliability!
In addition, a FEAR – to lose it!