NEW_MYTH_READER_06.pdf

POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 1 I have said that the soul is not more than the body, And I have said that the body is not more than the soul, And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one?s ? self is, And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral, dressed in his shroud, And I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the earth, And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds the learning of al times, And there is not trade or employment but the young man folowing it ay become a hero, And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheled universe. And I cal to mankind, Be not curious about God, For I who am curious about each am not curious about God, No aray of terms can say how much I am at peace about God and about death. I hear and behold God in every object, yet I understand God not in the least, Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself. Why should I wish to see God beter than this day? I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then, In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass; I find leters from God droped in the stret, and every one is signed by God?s name, And I leave them where they are, for I know that others wil punctualy come forever and ever Walt Witman from Leaves of Grass POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 2 CHAPTER 01: IN THE BEGINNING POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 3 We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of al time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to folow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we wil be with al the world. Joseph Campbel (190) CHAPTER 01: IN THE BEGINNING The Tale of Isis & Osiris In the begining was the Void. The great god Atum, alone in the universe was filed with desire and decided to masturbate. The pyramid texts are quite clear about this: ?I had union with my clenched hand, I joined myself in an embrace with my shadow, I poured sed into my mouth.? It sometimes hapens. Anyway! Moments later he spat out his first children: Shu who is the god of air, and Tefnut, his sister who is the goddess of moisture. They mate and produce two offspring of their own: Geb, the god of the earth, and star-spangled Nut, the godess of the sky. (NOTE) This is a rare situation in Mytholgy for the earth deity to be male and the sky deity to be female. In most cosmologies it is the opposite. It didn?t take long and Nut was pregnant. She was a particular hottie when it comes to godeses and that?s saying a lot considering the amazing beauties among the Sisterhod of the Godes. But Ra the sun god refused to let her give birth on any 360 days of his year. Why? Rumor has it that he had wanted to be the father of Nut?s children and Nut had chosen her brother Geb (the Earth) instead. But a more likely story is that his great wisdom told him that a child of Nut?s would bring his reign over men on earth to an end. Either way, in many of Ra?s stories he comes across as having quite an Ego. He was a solar god after al, and solar deities generaly represent ego, rationality, order, and conquest. Thoth was Ra's son and the god of the mon, wisdom, magic, and the arts. He loved Nut and thought of a way to get around Ra?s proclamation. He chalenged Iabet, the Mon, to a card game. He gambled with Iabet and won a small portion of her light with each game he played. The exact portion of light was 1/72. After playing 360 games and losing every one Iabet ended the game and they tallied up what she owed Thoth. Aded together, those fractions of light equaled 5 days (intercalry days ? outside the solar cycle) which Thoth gave to Nut. (NOTE) This is the reason why the mon loses light each month. In the history of calendaring time for the Egyptians this is the moment they realize that with a calendar built solely on the solar cycle without a lunar cycle adjustment eventualy there would be slipage and set-holidays would eventualy be out of sync with the seasonal flux. We make this adjustment in our calendar every leap year, by adding a ful day to the calendar. With Thoth?s gift of five days, Nut promptly began to give birth to five children. First to: Horus who was to ethereal to manifest in human form and became a hawk that prowled the heaven waiting for another more fiting opportunity to be born. Then came Seth and Nephthys and Isis and Osiris. Isis and Osiris fel in love while they were in the womb and become Egypt's first rulers. They brought civilization to the Egyptian people. (NOTE) These nie deities Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Seth, Nephthys, Isis, and Osiris for the Egyptian Enead (from the Grek word for nine). They were al divine? but one was very important to POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 4 humans, Osiris: who was kiled, revived, and resurrected in the underworld, where he became Lord of the Dead. Osiris is one of the Dying and Rising Gods who are conected to agricultural peoples and the veneration of the soil, fertility, and planting crops. When Osiris was born many signs and wonders were sen and heard throughout the world. Most notable was the voice which cae from the holiest shrine in the temple proclaiming to al men that Osiris, the god and mighty king, was born to bring joy to al the land. When Osiris was grown up he maried his sister Isis, and Seth maried Nephthys: for he to being a god could mary only a godess. These relationships had ben confirmed even in the womb of Nut before their birth. After Isis by her craft had learned the secret name of Ra, Osiris and she became sole rulers and reigned on earth as Ra had done before. They found the people both savage and brutish, fighting among themselves and kiling and eating one another. But Isis discovered the grain of both wheat and barley, which grew wild over the land with the other plants and was stil unknown to man; and Osiris taught them how to plant the seeds when the Nile had risen in the yearly inundation and sunk again leaving fresh fertile mud over the fields; how to tend and water the crops; how to cut the corn when it was ripe, and how to thresh the grain on the threshing flors, dry it and grind it to flour and make it into bread. He showed them also how to plant vines and make the grapes into wine; and they knew already how to brew ber out of the barley. The great god and godes taught the people of the Nile to make bread and cut only the flesh of such animals that were suitable, Osiris, went on to teach them laws, and how to live peacefully and happily together, delighting themselves with music and poetry. As son as their land was filed with peace and plenty, Osiris set out over the world to bring his blesings upon other nations. While he was away he left his queen Isis to rule over the land, which she did both wisely and wel. But Seth the evil one, their brother, envied Osiris and hated Isis. (NOTE) Seth semed to have had problems even in the womb. When he discovered that it was his Uncle Ra that had trapped him and his siblings in the womb of Nut for so long he was overcome with anger. He tried to get his intrauterine siblings to join with him against Ra, but had litle success. As soon as he as born he fled into the desert and began to raise an army to overthrow Ra. He was asociated with the burning sands and violent storms of the desert and its relntless ability to bring death to those who enter its forbidding landscape. At any rate, the more the people loved and praised Osiris, the more Seth hated him; and the more god he did and the happier mankind became, the stronger grew Seth's desire to kil his brother and rule in his place. Isis, however, was so full of wisdom and so watchful that Seth made no atempt to seize the throne while she was watching over the kingdom. When Osiris returned from his travels Seth was among the first to welcome him back and knel in reverence before "the god god Pharaoh Osiris". But, Seth the evil one, had a plan to bring about his brother?s destruction. Aided by seventy-two of his wicked friends, he obtained the exact measurements of the body of Osiris and caused beautiful chest to be made that would fit only him. It was fashioned of the rarest and most costly wods: cedar brought from Karbala, and ebony from Punt at the north end of the Inland Sea for no wod grew in the kingdom of Osiris except the soft and useles palm. Then Seth gave a great feast in honor of Osiris; but the other guests were the two-and-seventy conspirators. It was a wonderful party and the fods were choicer, the wines stronger and the dancing girls and boys more beautiful than ever before. When King Osiris was deliriously happy with the celebration, feasting and song the chest was dramaticaly presented, and al were amazed at its beauty. Osiris marveled at the rare cedar inlaid with ebony and ivory, with les rare gold and silver, and painted inside with figures of gods and birds and animals. He desired it greatly. "I wil give this chest to whosoever fits it most exactly!" cried Seth. And at once the conspirators began in turn to see if they could win it. But one was too tal and another too short; one was too fat and another too thin - and al tried in vain. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 5 (NOTE) You might notice a conection betwen this moment and a certain prince loking for a woman?s fot to fit a particular glass sliper, or a litle golden-haired child trying out the porridge, chairs, and beds of a family of bears, or a tol-colector with a bed that guest were invited to slep on, only to have their legs choped of or stretch to fit. This theme has wonderful symbolic resonance with concepts of the fragility of life, the importance of self knowledge, and the al important cautionary of the dangers along life?s road. "Let me se if I wil fit into this marvelous piece of work," said Osiris, and he laid himself down in the chest while al gathered round breathlesly. "I fit exactly, and the chest is mine!" cried Osiris. "It is yours inded, and shal be so forever!" hised Seth as he banged down the lid. Then in desperate haste he and the conspirators nailed it shut and sealed every crack with molten lead, so that Osiris, the man, died in the chest and his spirit went west into the land of the seting sun, the underworld, Land of the Dead. Seth and his men tok the chest with the body of Osiris and cast it into the Nile River; and Hapi the River-god carried it out into the Great Sea where it was tossed for many days until it came to the shore near the city of Byblos. Here the waves cast it into a tamarisk tree that grew on the shore; and the tre shot out branches and grew leaves and flowers to make a fit resting place for the body of the god god Osiris and very soon that tree became famous throughout the land. Presently King of Byblos, Malcander, heard about the tre, and he and his wife, Quen Astarte, came to the seashore to gaze at the wondrous flora. By now the branches had grown together and hidden the chest, which held the body of Osiris in the trunk itself. The king gave orders that the tre should be cut down and fashioned into a great pilar for his palce. This was done, and al wondered at its beauty and fragrance: but none knew that it held the body of a god. Meanwhile in the kingdom of Osiris, Isis was in great fear. She had always known that Seth was filed with evil and jealousy, but kindly Osiris would never believe in his brother's wickednes. Isis knew however, as son as her husband was dead, though no one told her, and was determined to find him. Like a bird in the sky, back and forth over the land wandered Isis, but never a trace could she find of the chest in which lay the body of Osiris. She asked everyone she met, but no one had seen it. At last she questioned the children who were playing by the riverside, and at once they told her that just such a chest as she described had floated past them on the swift stream and out into the Great Sea. Then Isis wandered on the shore, and again and again it was the children who had sen the chest floating by and told her which way it had gone. (NOTE) Because of this, Isis blesed the children and decreed that ever afterwards children should speak words of wisdom and sometimes tel of things to come. Something of this blesing can be sen in the Christian scripture of Christ blessing the children. In fact, you shouldn?t be surprised to find lots of corelation betwen the story of Isis, Osiris and their son Horus and the later stories of Jesus and Mary. Finaly, Isis came to Byblos and sat down by the seashore. Presently the maidens who attended on Queen Astarte came down to bathe at that place; and when they returned out of the water Isis taught them how to plait their hair - which had never ben done before. When they went up to the palace a strange and wonderful perfume seemed to cling to them; and Queen Astarte marvelled at it, and at their plaited hair, and asked them how it was that they looked so beautiful and smelled so aluring. The maidens told her of the wonderful woman who sat by the seashore, and Queen Astarte sent for Isis, and asked her to serve in the palace and tend her child, the baby Dictys, who was ailing sorely. For she did not know that the strange woman who was wandering alone at Byblos was the greatest of al the godeses. Isis who had always longed for a child with Osiris was enthraled with the royal child and agreed to this. Very soon the baby Dictys was strong and well though she did no more than give him her finger to suck. But presently she became fond of the child, and thought to make him imortal, which she did by placing the baby in the fire to burn away his mortal parts while she flew round and round him in the form of a swalow. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 6 (NOTE) Please do not try this at home with your own young ones. Chuckle? Only an imortal godes has the power to transform the normally destructive fire into the Fire of Transformation. Fire was sacred to the ancients. Think about a world lit only by fire! It was originaly reserved only for the gods. Quen Astarte, however, had ben secretly watching her, and when she saw that her baby semed to be on fire she rushed into the room with a loud cry, and so broke the magic. Isis turn herself from a bird into her own divine form, and Astarte crouched down in terror when she saw the shining goddess and realized who she was. The king and quen imediately ofered her gifts of al the richest treasures in Byblos, but Isis asked only for the great tamarisk pilar that held up the roof, and for what it contained. When it was given to her, she caused it to open and tok out the chest of Seth. But the pilar she gave back to Malcander and Astarte. It has remained the most sacred object in Byblos, since it had once held the body of a god. When the chest that had become the cofin of Osiris was given to her, Isis flung herself down on it with a terible cry of sorow. But Isis at length caused the chest to be placed on a ship and set out for home. Along the way, she laid down upon the body of her dead husband and prayed to their mother, Nut the sky; asking the great godess to resurect Osiris. Nut agred but the process of resurection was long and arduous because Osiris had a dificult journey to fuly return to life. However, his penis ?resurrected? immediately and Isis was made pregnant. After arriving safely back home she hid the chest in the marshes of the delta while she hastened to the floating island where she gave birth to her son, Horus. But by chance, Seth came hunting wild boars with his dogs, hunting by night as was his habit since he loved the darkness in which evil things abound. He suddenly froze when he smeled the wondrous smel of his brother Osiris. Folowing the divine scent finally iluminated by the light of the moon he saw the chest of cedar wood inlaid with ebony and ivory, with gold and silver, and recognized it. At the sight of the cofin hatred and anger came upon him like a red cloud, and he raged uncontrollably. He tore open the chest, took the body of Osiris, and tore it into thirteen pieces. Then by his divine strength, he scattered up and down the whole length of the Nile River. "It?s imposible to destroy the body of a god!" cried Set. "But I have done it! I have destroyed my brother Osiris!" His evil laughter echoed through the land, and all who heard it trembled and hid. When Isis returned she was horified at the carnage and folowed the blody trail down to the river. She had to begin her search once more, for her love of Osiris was complete and she was determined to put his parts together again. This time she had helpers, for Nephthys left her wicked husband Set and came to join her sister. And Anubis, the son of Nephthys and Osiris, taking the form of a jackal, asisted in the search. (NOTE) How did Anubis hapen? One story says that Nephthys and Isis looked almost identical. The mariage of Nephthys and Seth was never satisfactory. He was always away doing his nefarious deds until finaly in frustration Nephthys moved in with Isis and Osiris to be close to family and to have a litle happiness in her life. One night she was weping in the monlight by the river when Osiris saw her and mistook her for his wife Isis. Nephthys chose not to tel him who she actualy was and of course became pregnant by him. When the secret was finaly revealed to Isis, she celebrated the new life that would be the son of Osiris, even if it wouldn?t be hers. She was fearful of Seth?s reaction, so she and Nephthys agred to pretend the baby was hers when Seth returned from his hunting trips. And so, Anubis, the son of Osiris (by the other woman), was born. Judaism and Islam have a similar story at their rot. Abraham, the father of both faiths had two sons, one by the wife, Sarah, and the other by the handmaiden, Hagar. When Isis traveled over the land she was acompanied and guarded by seven scorpions. But when she searched down the Nile and among the many streams of the delta she made her way in a boat made of POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 7 papyrus. The crocodiles, in their reverence for the goddess, touched neither the rent pieces of Osiris, nor Isis herself. (NOTE) It was believed that ever afterwards anyone who sailed the Nile in a boat made of papyrus was safe from them, for they thought that it was Isis stil questing after the pieces of her husband's body. Piece by piece, Isis recovered the fragments of Osiris. And wherever she did so, she formed by magic the likenes of his whole body and caused the priests to build a shrine and perform his funeral rites. And so it is that there were various temples along the Nile which claimed to be the burial place of Osiris. In this way also she made it harder for Seth to medle further with the body of her husband. The one piece she did not recover was his penis and this was because a certain impious fish had devoured it. Isis did not bury any of the pieces in the places where the tombs and shrines of Osiris stood. Instead, she gathered the pieces together, rejoined them by magic, and by magic made a likenes of the mising member so that Osiris was complete. Then she caused the body to be embalmed and hiden away in a place of which she alone knew. And after this the spirit of Osiris pased into the Kingdom of the Dead, to rule over the dead until the last great batle. In that great and final batle Horus wil slay the Evil One, Seth, and the god and righteous god Osiris, would return to earth once more. (NOTE) Anubis is the one who was given charge of the task of mummification and the Egyptian art of mummifying has ben presided over by Anubis and his priest ever since. Thoth gave Isis the magic words, incantations, and rites for his resurection. Osiris fro this point was able to traverse the boundaries of the lands of the living and dead. But as Horus grew in this world the spirit of Osiris visited him often and taught him al that a great warior should know - one who was to fight against Seth both in the body and in the spirit. Comparing Tales Of Creation The story of the begining of things is a primary story. It is the starting point of a cosmology, that series of stories that form a picture of the universe. They can take many forms, from dismemberment and the world forming out of the various body parts. An example of this type would be the Babylonian tale of the Earth Godes Tiamat who was slain and cut apart to become the earth, or the Icelandic version told below. There are creation stories that begin with sudden and violent explosions like the ?Big Bang? theory most prominent today in Science. Inherent in the structure and symbolism of the creation tales one can understand something of the people for whom such stories formed the crucial starting point. For instance, in Sumatra a blue chicken named Manuk Manuk laid thre egs. These thre egs produced thre gods who in turn create heaven, earth, and the underworld. This delightful tale tells us of a people for whom the chicken plays an obviously important role. An agricultural based society often uses domestic animals and plants to express symbolic relationships betwen their identities and the world - which they have carved from the wildnes and chaos that is Nature. The mythic cosmologies of hunting and gathering peoples tend to difer radicaly from the setled agrarian societies that form vilages, towns and eventually cities. The social hierarchies are diferent in these cultures and these differences wil be expressed in the myths and legends of their cosmologies. Compare the two creation stories below with the Egyptian creation story above and se the similarities and diferences. Icelandic Creation Story In the begining there was only the Void caled Ginungagap. At the time of the begining of time two worlds formed. One of cold and the other of heat. Niflheim was the land of the cold and Muspel was the land of heat. These two lands were separated by the yawning abys caled Ginungagap. Eventualy, though, the cold and heat mingled and the ice of Niflheim began to melt forming 2 creatures: Ymir the evil giant and big and beautiful Audhumbla, a primeval cow, whose milk nourished the Gods. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 8 One night when the air was unbelievably warm, Ymir sweated so much that a large family of frost giants climbed out of his leg, his feet mated with each other producing one of his sons, and the first man and woman were born from beneath his left arm. (NOTE) In Australia a similar thing hapened, when Karora gave birth through his armpits to both Bandicots and sons. Meanwhile, back in Iceland, there were stil no stars and the sky and earth did not exist as we know it. Audhumbla was thirsty one day, began to lick the ice and slowly uncovered another Giant this one named: Buri. He was also known as Buri the Strong and Good. Buri had a son (no one knows exactly how) whose name was Bur who married Bestla (a daughter of one of the Frost Giants). Bestla gave birth to thre sons: Vili, Ve, and Odin (the god of magic, inteligence, war, and the dead). One day these thre brother gods atacked Ymir so viciously that his blod spurted out of his body in crashing waves. It flooded the Abys, formed puddles and pools that became the lakes and seas, and drowned all the frost giants ? but one: Bergelmir, who escaped with his wife in a boat carved from a tre trunk. (NOTE) This is the Flod Story of the Icelandic people. Afterwards Odin and his brothers draged Ymir?s body parts into the midle of Ginungagap, and created the world. His flesh became the earth. His teeth became the stones. His hair became the forest. His brains became storm clouds. Al his remainig blod became an ocean that surounded the world. To create the heavens they lifted his scul into the sky and assigned four dwarves (which they created form the crawling magots on his body) to hold up the four corners. Finaly they grabed a few sparks from fiery Muspel and tosed them into the sky. These sparks became the stars, the mon and the sun. After it was completed the three brothers looked at their creation and found it pleasing. They decided to settle along the shores of the great ocean. The middle region which they called Midgard, or Midle Earth, they alocated to mankind and to protect Midgard they constructed a high wal made from the eyebrows of Ymir. Within that wal grew thre tres. The first two were transformed into a man and woman. The third was a gren ash named Ygdrasil (the World Tre). (NOTE) Ygdrasil is an axis mundi. Axis mundi are central concepts around which a cosmology is constructed. It is a form that symbolically conects the thre worlds of existence. The axis is often symbolized in the form of a tre. As for Ygdrasil, its rots reach down into Helheim (the land of the dead), its trunk runs right through Midgard (the land of the humans), and its branches reach up to Asgard (the abode of the Gods). The axis mundi of the Christian cosmology is a tre as wel. It began as the Tre of the Knowledge of God and Evil, in the Garden of Eden. It is by eating the fruit of that tree that the Fall of Man and his separation from God hapened. When Adam and Eve were boted out of the Garden, Adam tok a piece of that tre with him and planted it when they setled. Many many years later the Romans were loking for a tre to cut down, to turn into a cros for a crucifixion. The tre they found was of course, Adam?s Tre. So the cros of Christ is also the axis mundi. Now, according to Christian cosmology, when one eats of the ?fruit of the cross? (Jesus, in other words ? in the form of a comunion ritual) the curse of the First Adam is reversed by the sacrifice of the Second Adam. It is a lovely, mysterious, and beautifuly symetrical equation. Curiously, Odin (of the Icelandic and Nordic myths) was also nailed to the axis mundi (Ygdrasil) and his sacrifice saved mankind and gave them the magic of the Runes. And Osiris nailed in his coffin imbeded in POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 9 the Tamarind tre is strangely reminiscent of this axis mundi theme as wel. Anyway, acording to the Icelandic cosmolgy, thus the world in al its complexity was made. (NOTE) Two sources: The Poetic or Elder Eda ? written in 850 and discovered in 1643 ? a colection of myths, legends and tales ? includes the story of Odin. And the second is the Prose or Younger Eda ? composed around 122 by Snori Sturluson. The Judeo-Christian Creation Story Genesis Chapter One: The Begining 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the dep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darknes he caled "night." And there was evenig, and there was mornig-the first day. 6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning-the second day. 9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was god. 11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with sed in it, acording to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with sed in it acording to their kinds. And God saw that it was god. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning-the third day. 14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights-the greater light to govern the day and the leser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darknes. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning-the fourth day. 20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water tems, acording to their kinds, and every winged bird acording to its kind. And God saw that it was god. 2 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fil the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning-the fifth day. 24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each acording to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was god. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 10 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over al the creatures that move along the ground." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fil the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." 29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tre that has fruit with sed in it. They wil be yours for fod. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every gren plant for fod." And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the sixth day. Some Conclusions regarding Creation Stories In these Creation Myths we can se the differences betwen each of the cultures represented. The cultural analysis focuses on these diferences. The worlds of ice and heat of the Icelandic peoples is an expression of the extreme weather conditions that were natural part of their existence. The hardy, frost giants, the great cow Audhumbla, all point to the physical requirements of the dificult life of the tribal peoples of Iceland. The sensuality of the Egyptian story evokes the steamy Egyptian nights and aromatic and emotional life along the Nile River. While the primacy and power of the Word and Mind is paramount in the Hebraic story of Creation. In fact I chose these thre because there is a clear delineation betwen the importance of the body and physicality in the Icelandic story, the sexuality and emotional in the Egyptian story, and the mind and mental abstraction of the word and language in the Hebraic. These perspectives help us understand something of the ontology of these various cultures. That is, they tell us something about what is meant to be Icelandic, Egyptian, or Hebraic and what was fundamentaly important to their picture of themselves and the universe around them. The same of course, can be said of the predominant story of creation for First World modern (Scientific) mankind: The Big Bang. A masive nuclear explosion in the void of space and the then the swirling masses of stelar gasses and energy eventualy coalescing into stars and planets and star clusters and planetary systems. And then one a tiny insignificant planet, circling a star of litle import in one of milions of galaxies, the mixture of elements necessary for carbon based life came together and the spark of life in the primordial oceanic soup caused by a suden bolt of lightning (or something) and then the extremely slow evolutionary proces through minute mutations leading eventualy to the sentient being: Man. It is as good a story as the others. It is as corect as the other tales and it is as constructed and framed by its tellers as the others. It is a story that tells us much about the people who constructed it and those that believe it to be the Truth. It is also interesting to note that our creation story has a major root in the Hebraic story of Creation with its emphasis on Mind and mental abstraction. All of the tales have universal themes as wel. The Universal analysis seks those themes that bind all humans together through our comunal and shared experience of existence. Al the stories begin with darknes, nothingnes and the void and then the gods, the world, and humans emerge from that nothingness into light and consciousness. This patern echoes the archetypal patterns of day dawning from the darknes of night, of the light of consciousnes surfacing from the darknes of the unconscious, of labor of order being established out of the chaos of random Nature. These are universal experiences for al human beings. The psychological analysis would be the personal mesage that each of the stories might hold for the individual. Creation stories hold a tremendous power to anchor individuals to their own cultures. To believe in and relive the creation story of your culture through retelling and/or acting it out in ritual form creates comunity and links the individual to their place in a cosmological system. When these rituals are forgotten or denigrated the individual has no way of knowing their place within the social sphere, or within the larger space of the cosmological sphere. One example of an exploration of a psychological experience with the myths would be to think about the violence of the Icelandic creation story. Violence is a part of everyone's experience. How one responds to and deals with the violence has a strong POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 11 psychological resonance. The questions of do I perpetuate violence or am I a victim of violence are too simplistic in their aproach since the discourse of violence is extremely complex and have much to do with power and agency in a human life. Many myths deal with violence and often something quite beautiful arises from the violent act: for example, the World from the hewn body of Ymir, or the beautiful goddess of love and beauty from the severed genitals of Ouranos the sky god. It give me hope when I study these tales that something constructive and positive can hapen after the violent act. In fact, the great transformative work of life is often the changing of mess and chaos (whether psychological, emotional, cultural) into a work of beauty, a individual life ful of power, agency, and creativity. BREAK The Alpha and the Omega (the beginning and the end) We have entered the Century of the Environment, in which a new mythology is surfacing in order that our children wil have an inheritance in the next. The mythological perspective, at least as far as this class is concerned, should be seen as the colection of stories shared by a culture through which information is gained regarding the individual's role and place in the universe, in society, and in relation to h/er own life's journey. The old mythologies have led us to this ecological, sociological and psychological bottleneck we now face. The picture of a bottleneck is a useful metaphor and it wil return at times throughout this course. Science and technology, the major story makers and telers of the curent mythos, in adition to a colosal lack of self-understanding on the part of individuals, tied to what has been described as a Paleolithic stubornes, has lead us to this point in our history. As this new milenium dawns we are slowly awakening from a kind of delirium. The twentieth century was filed with scientific and technological advancement at levels heretofore uniagined. And in the head-long rush to embrace all forms of technological development we overlooked the cost of such advancement. As Derrick Jensen points out in his book, A Culture of Make Believe, continual war or mock-war is the only way to suport this form of technological advancement and the enslavement of the Third World the only way to maintain the First World's apetite for the things that technological advancement provides. The Earth itself is under extreme duress, as this one species demands more and more of her bounty. The mythology of the 'cornucopian earth' belongs to much earlier generations of mankind. For the early agrarian cultures the bounties of the earth semed limitles and many of their stories reflect this viewpoint. We have inherited this older perspective, but our relationship to the planet has shifted radically. For modern man lives in a technological, media based culture not an agrarian culture. After two centuries of technological advancement, Earth's bounties are extremely limited and we are reaching those limits in this millenium. Will we be able to make the necesary paradigmatic shift in cultural consciousness to change our relationship to one another and the Earth? In many ways this is the ultimate question? the ridle of the Sphinx, for modern man. If we answer corectly the Sphinx's ridle we continue our journey. If we answer incorectly? the Sphinx devours us. The apocalyptic vision that haunts our curent mythology is an important theme. The "End of the World" is an excelent motivator for positive action. It resonates with enormous 'symbolic' power. The power of the symbol is transformative. That is, the transformative symbol exists within a working ritual, which rest inside a living mythology. This form and these notions of sybol, ritual and mythology wil be explored in depth over the next few eeks. There are many mythic themes that resonate in the contemporary world. Al that is neded to recognize these thees is a ytholgical perspective. Hopefuly this perspective wil become clear as we proceed. Obviously, there are tremendous forces at play in contemporary culture around us. Some of these forces are extremely destructive in nature, it is true. But there are amazing forces for construction, balance and harmony present on the planet and within human culture as wel. There is hope? Pandora's box always ofers hope. The wonderful thing about our species is that it can change and adapt. We are in the end Homo Aestheticus: Art Man. The Linguistic roots of Mythology All of history begins from oral traditions. That is, the roots of our stories can be traced back to a time before written language; our tribal past. Once upon a time, in illo tempore, in the time of the gods, these phrases cary with them the core notion of that earlier time, when storyteling was truth-saying and the storyteler a shaman; a magic man, healer, and shape-shifting transformer of human nature. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 12 Let's begin at the linguistic beginning. The word 'mythology' comes from two Greek words; mythos and logos. The Grek word mythos means simply word, saying, or story. It comes from the earlier oral tradition in Greece and refers to the stories told by the ancients to explain or describe their relationship to the world they lived in. These tribal peoples explained their experiences and remembered the stories of their forefathers through oral repetition. The colection of these tales of gods, godeses, kings and heroes formed a whole system of belief through which these people made sense of their world. This colection of stories, songs, poems and rituals gives us a picture of ancient, tribal consciousnes. A shift in the developing consciousnes of western man ocured with the advent and development of writing in the Greek world. It is with the writings of Herodotus (his account of the war between Greece and Persia) that we can see the development of the concept of "historical fact" come into being. The Greek word logos, refers to this shift in the development of consciousnes. Logos is truth, verifiable truth, as in Herodotus and his eyewitnes acount of the war. With the rise of Logos there is a gradual re-designation of the word mythos to mean "fiction" even "falsehod." From this point on there are two oposing perspectives - one is logos meaning "word of truth" and connected to an identifiable author and a witness to actual events - as in Herodotus. The ?word of Truth? as Logos becomes synonymous with "God" in many of the Judaic, Christian, and Islamic traditions. (NOTE) In many of the Greek translations of the New Testament the Christ is often described as the Logos. It is easy to understand why the early Christians wanted to equate Jesus, their hero, with the pre-existing Grek concept of Logos. The four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are suposed eye-witness accounts of the events of the life of Jesus. Eventualy, the concept of Mythos is relegated to the anonymous tales that come to us from some remote source and time beyond calculation: in illo tempore. The stories of the ancients come to us thus enshrined and over time their power diminished along with the passing of the shaman storyteller. But mythos is tenacious. These stories continue to grip the imagination of people in spite of the contemptuous dismissal of them by men of 'Logos'. Today, logos is enshrined in institutions of reason and science and can be trace in a continum from Herodotus to the latest discoveries in technolgy. But there has been a steady increase in understanding the importance of the 'stories of myth'. As people of learning turn their reason and knowledge to bear on these ancient stories there is a strange pairing of opposites. (NOTE) A coniunctio opositorum: an alchemical term refering to the joining of elemental oposites which in the end produces the philosopher's stone, a mystical element posesing great power. This is sometimes refered to as gold in the recipes of the alchemists. In this case, Mythos and logos join to become Mythology? the rational study of the mysterious and powerful tales of the mythic world. A Few Great Names in the History of Mythology There are many great minds in history who have turned their focus toward the study of Mythology. What folows should be sen as an extremely partial introduction to some of these thinkers. Each one aproached Mythology from a diferent aspect. For example, some of these thinkers looked outward for the meaning of myth. Giambatista Vico (Renaisance philosopher and historian: 168-1744) Vico was an Italian philosopher who is considered to be the founder of the modern philosophy of history. In his writings he argued that we can understand history more adequately than nature, since it is we who have made it. He believed that the study of language, ritual, and myth was a way of understanding earlier societies. His cyclical theory of history (the birth, development, and decline of human societies) was put forward in his book entitled, New Science, in 1725. Vico postulated that society pases through a cycle of four phases. The first of these phases was caled, the divine, or theocratic, when people are governed by their awe of the supernatural. This is the POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 13 time when the gods walked among us. The second phase was caled, the aristocratic, or 'heroic'. One might think of Homer, the chronicler of heroes, or the great hero tale of Beowolf. This was a time when heroes walked among us. These extraordinary men were often the 'sons of god'. The third phase was the democratic and individualistic. This is the phase when the gods die and the heroes cease to be, and man dominates the field. Then finally, after a period of decadence and decline, the last phase of chaos, a fal into confusion that startles people back into supernatural reverence. Thus the cycle returns and phase one begins once more. This is expressed in his dictum verum et factum convertuntur (that is: 'the true and the made are convertible'). His belief that the study of language and the rituals was a better way of understanding early societies was a departure from the traditional ways of writing history either as biographies or as preordained God's wil. He was born in Naples and was professor of rhetoric there in 1698. He became historiographer to the king of Naples in 1735. Vico?s view that myths were primitive atempts to make sense of the world and cosmos around them and should be thought of a precursor to Science was strikingly oposed to the comon attitude of his day. Most seekers of knowledge during the Renaisance considered the serious study of ancient myths to be a wasted endeavor. Vico?s serious consideration of the mythology of the Greks and Romans centered upon his belief in the great historical cycles of mankind. Friedrich Max Müller (German folklorist: 1823-190) Max Müler regarded myths as representing false etiologies (explanations of origins), expecialy as cultures sentimentalized and personalized natural forces. Acordingly, the sun's progress, made analogous to the human life cycle, was personalized as the course of a sun deity across the sky. In each case, mythologies were thought by Müler to have ben inventions intended to explain underlying causes for natural phenomena. He also proposed, with respect to the evolution of language, the original mythological terms first had ben understood metaphoricaly, but later were understood to refer to real persons or deities. So Kephalos ('head' of light) and Prokis ('fading dew," bride of Kephalos) were personalized and worked into a mytholgical story about a mortal youth and his bride. Consequently, Müler saw mythology as a problem: humankind ought to be able, by means of philolgy (tracing the derivations of the terms), to push through such confusion to a clearheaded thinking that could overcome this mythological "disease of language." This can be interestingly compared to Freud's use of mythology as synonymous with diseases of the psyche. That Müler explored the notion that myths have their basis in the natural world - as in the myth of Demeter and Persephone and the seasonal alternation of Winter and Sumer is important to note within the history of Mytholgy. Sir James George Frazer (English Anthropologist and Mythologist: 1854-1941) British anthropologist, mythologist, and writer. Frazer's major work The Golden Bough (first edition 1890) was a description of 'the long evolution by which the thoughts and efforts of man have passed thought the successive stages of magic, religion, and science. Although his interpretation of his observations was sometimes unsound, the results of his work were far reaching, influencing people outside the anthropological field, including T. S. Eliot. Frazer was a product of the Victorian proclivity toward colecting. In his bok The Golden Bough, he brought together various mythical stories from around the world. In this book Frazer compares these stories, analyzing them in terms of their social relevance. For example, the repeated motif of the Dying God or Leader which incases the concept of the sacrificed king who voluntarily dies to make way for a more vigorous sucesor. His influence is stil felt today and The Golden Bough continues to remain in publication. Others have loked inward to explain the continuing apeal of particular myths. Sigmund Freud (Vienese Psychoanalyst: 1856-1939) Sigmund Freud was born into a Jewish family in 1856 in Freiburg. When he was 4 his family moved to Viena where Freud lived and worked until 1939, when he was forced to fle to England after the Anschlus. Although he always complained about the opresivenes of Viena, Freud not only lived there nearly al his life, but he lived with his family at the same adress for nearly fifty years: the famous Bergase 19. Freud was a briliant student, toping every year at the Gymnasium, and graduating with distinction in 1873. In 1881, he took out his medical degree from the University of Viena, and in 185 won a scholarship to go to Paris to study under the great Jean Martin Charcot, at Salpetrière. To Freud, POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 14 Charcot not only opened the way to taking mental ilnes seriously, with his diagnosis of hysteria and the use of hypnosis: he was also a charismatic yet encouraging teacher for whom Freud had a lasting admiration. Upon his return to Vienna in 1886, Freud set up practice as a physician. He later died in London in 1939. Freud's studying with the famous neurologist Charcot in Paris, and his interest in Breuer's "cathartic method," eventual came together in the bok Studies in Hysteria (1895), which outlined a ?talking cure? which is generaly regarded as the begining of psychoanalysis. Freud, devoting himself to the new science, discarded authoritarian and cumbersome hypnosis by enlisting his patients' cooperation in "fre asociation." This enabled him to notice the unconsciously motivated resistance of a patient to revealing represed thoughts and memories, especialy sexual ideas. Freud?s love of the myths of the ancient Greeks found ful expression as he searched his own dreams and fantasies for clues to his childhod sexual passions--his Oedipus complex is the result of his psychological interpretation of Greek stories. The Oedipus myth in which the hero kils the father and maries the mother becomes the model for unconscious feelings of al young men. The Electra myth in which similar unconscious feelings are explained is a similar phenomenon in young women. Carl Gustav Jung (Swis psychiatrist and mythologist: 1875-1861) Carl Jung was a Swis psychiatrist who colaborated with Sigmund Freud 1907-1913. Their disagreement turned on the importance of sexuality in causing psychological problems, Jung seeing it as only one among several primary human drives. Jung then founded his own school of Analytical Psychology. Jung developed an analytical conception of personality viewed from a philosophical, religious, and mystical perspective and based on the interaction between conscious, personal unconscious, and colective unconscious systems. He studied religion and dream symbolism, and introduced the terms 'introversion' and extroversion'. He saw the mind as a self-regulating system, and he stresed the importance of the individual's search for meaning in life. The central theme of his work is the idea (taken from Plato's Republic) that mental health is characterized by the unity of the personality, while por mental health is manifested by disunity of the personality. His boks include Modern Man in Search of a Soul (193). The isues he dealt with arose in part from his personal background, which is vividly described in his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1961). Throughout his life Jung experienced periodic dreams and visions with striking mythological and religious features, and these experiences shaped his interest in myths, dreams, and the psychology of religion. For many years Jung felt he posesed two separate personalities: an outer public self that was involved with the world of his family and pers and a secret iner self that felt a special closeness to God. The interplay betwen these selves formed a central theme of Jung's personal life and contributed to his later emphasis on the individual's striving for integration and wholeness. His discovery of the Archetypes as the continualy reocuring themes of myths, legends, symbols, sign systems and religious systems form the basic structure of how we define ourselves and the world around us. We are severely limited by not knowing these themes and symbols and the exploration of these underlying forms can generate vital creativity. (NOTE) A brief example of an archetype would be? The Journey - The journey is the great archetypal symbol for LIFE, that journey we al take from birth to death. What makes this an archetype is that it is deply felt pattern on a personal level and universaly experienced pattern on a cultural level. The important thing to think about here is the goal of this journey of life. What do you want to se or experience when at the end you look back over your life? Jung believed that the natural proces of life was a journey toward "individuation," or "self-actualization." What does this mean? Well, Jung's exploration of human psychology led him to se man's psycholgical self as injured, fractured into separate parts and the goal of life is the task of bringing al those parts back together again in a whole and healthy interactive union. Jung believed that only in the "whole" individual could the universal energies act in a creative and fertile way. There are many kinds of journeys (as many as there are diferent people in the world) but the POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 15 pattern underlying al these disparate journeys is the archetypal journey. One example which we explore in depth in a later module is the Quest Journey which is personified in the hero's journey, such as that of Orpheus, Jesus, Budha, and Parcifal's search for the Holy Grail). Another kind of journey is the Night Sea Pasage of which Jonah and the Whale is a great example. The rise of the human science of Anthropology meant that scientist coming in contact with primitive peoples began to seriously consider myths as they witness for the first time "living" myths and myth making. The oral traditions and storytelling among the tribal peoples of the world becomes a major focus of anthropological research. Claude Lévi-Straus (French Social Theorist and Anthropologist:1908-1990) Lévi-Straus is asociated with the development of Structuralism as a method in both the social sciences and humanities. Aside from a period spent teaching in Brazil before World War I and a few years as an acadeic and diplomat in the United States during and after the war, Lévi-Straus has lived and taught in France. His researches have focused on the masive amount of ethnolgical materials colected by field-workers worldwide. By developing a sophisticated means of analyzing the cultural artifacts of pre-industrial, non-literate peoples, he has sought to discover underlying structures of thought that characterize not only so-caled primitive societies--the anthropologist's specialty--but also the formal structures of human mentality generaly. Lévi-Straus puts forth the concept of "resolution of contradictions" as the basis of mythology. These contradictions may be imediate and sensory (such as the conflict betwen life and death, hunger and satiation) or extremely abstract (such as the philosophical problem of the One and the Many). Lévi-Straus argues that myth-makers sek to resolve al maner of contradictions by relating, or trying to relate, one aspect of life to its oposite in a chain of "binary oppositions" -- for example, youth and age, wet season and dry season, male and female, human and animal, culture and nature, life and death. Thre Ways To Analyze Myths Like the dreams of an individual, the myths of a given group are created unconsciously, as it were. As Claude Lévi-Straus has writen, Myths are anonymous? they exist only as elements embodied in a tradition," they develop on their own, they come from "nowhere" (The Raw and the Cooked). Yet few anthropologists would deny that to read a culture's myths is to gleam information about that culture -- about its inner identity, hidden beneath the mask of its everyday concerns. To go one step further, when we study the world's mytholgies and discover the archetypal paterns (also comon to our individual dreams) that essentially unite those mythologies, we study what we might reasonably call the dreams of humankind, in which we find information about the nature of humanity itself. In a real sense, the world reveals its iner self through its comon mytholgy. When we study a dream or a myth, or a series of dreams or myths, we are simultaneous studying diference and commonality. On the surface of a dream we find aterial reflecting the dreamer's immediate circumstances and environment. The seting and the characters of the dream will contain mysteries, to be sure, but they wil also reflect people and places known to the dreamer. By the same token, the external surface of a myth is likely to reflect the experience of the culture in question. American Indian myths are populated by ravens, buffalo, and other North American animals, while in East Indian myths we find elephants and cobras. But at a deeper level, the dreams of an African, the myths of a Native American, and those of an East Indian are unified by a comon symbolic and archetypal "language" or "dep structure." The psychological analogy can be taken one step further. Just as dreams help us to determine our identity as individuals and tribal myths help to establish a tribe's identity, so world mythology, considered as a whole, is the eternal story of humanity's quest for self-fulfilment in the face of entropy, the universal tendency toward disorder. Whether the hero of a myth is Indian, Norse, African, or Polynesian, whether he or she is on a quest for nirvana, self, the Kingdom of God, or the Golden Flece, this figure is on a universal human quest for identity and individuation, as Joseph Campbel and Mircea Eliade, two of our greatest modern mythologists, have so eloquently taught us. This is a quest that we al understand, for only humans are endowed with the ability to be conscious, at any given time, of the POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 16 universal scheme of things, of mythos, of the begining, midle, and end of a given proces. In that sense we are al ultimately questers, voyagers on the mythical "road of life," the "path," the "Tao." This determines the thre major forms of analysis? The Universal Method: This perspective requires the comparison of myths, legends, and tales from various cultures to find similarities and differences betwen them. One loks at symbols that are shared by the compared myths and ofers posible reasons for these shared traits. The proces behind the 'universal analytic' application is to understand the anthropologic root of the human condition and ofers possible answers to the question of our universaly shared heritage. Lok for the deper meaning - a journey into the labyrinth of Jung?s 'colective unconscious'. The brotherhood and sisterhood of mankind is the resonant theme of this method. How we are alike: the Australian Aboriginal and the Wal Stret Financier. The stories we tel ourselves to make meaning of the world around share forms and themes which link our diverse species together as one. The Cultural Method: This perspective loks to the particular beliefs, practices, and history of the culture that produced the specific cultural myth, legend, and/or tale. This means that the story may refer to a major historical occurrence for a specific people, for instance a war, famine, new king/queen, or new religious movement. Using this analytical position leads to deper understanding of the particular culture in question. The creation stories of the Yoruban culture of Africa hold striking diferences from those of the Mayan Culture of Pre-Columbian America. The 'cultural method' of analysis compares these stories to explore those diferences in order to discover the amazing diversity of the human species. The Psychological or Personal Method: The practice of the psychological analysis or interpretation of myths involves the aplication of Jung's process of personal individuation. When myths are aproached in this way they ofer the key to understanding something of the development and maintenance of the human psyche. The journey of an individual through life requires some cartographical techniques and methods; maping strategies. The stories of a culture's mythology ofer the individual a source for identification, spacio-temporal location, and hierarchical placement within society. The Distinctions of Mythology The folowing are the basic forms of the stories of Mythology as we wil be exploring them during the semester. There are other types of stories and other variations on the forms listed below. These four types should be sen a basic. Myth: Myths are epic naratives that tel of a particular culture?s version of the creation and/or the activities of its gods and godeses. Normaly traditional and anonymous, these are stories through which a given culture ratifies its social customs or accounts for the origins of human and natural phenomena, usually in supernatural or boldly imaginative terms. The term has a wide range of meanigs, which can be divided roughly into 'rationalist' and 'romantic' versions: in the first, a myth is a false or unreliable story or belief (adjective: mythical), while in the second, 'myth' is a superior intuitive mode of cosmic understanding (adjective: Mythic). In most literary context, the second kind of usage prevails, and myths are regarded as fictional stories containing deeper truths, expressing existence (sometimes deemed as universal). Myths are usually distinguished from legends in that they have les of an historical basis, although they seem to have a similar mode of existence in oral transmision, re-teling, literary adaptation, and alusion. A mythology is usualy a body of related myths shared by members of a given people or religion. Sometimes it is a system of myths evolved by an individual writer, as in the personal mythologies of Wiliam Blake and W. B. Yeats; the term has sometimes also ben used to denote the study of myths. Legend: POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 17 A story or group of stories handed down through popular oral tradition, usualy consisting of an exaggerated or unreliable account of some actual, or possibly historical, person - often a saint, monarch, or popular hero. Legends are sometimes distinguished from myths in that they concern human beings rather than gods, and sometimes because they have some sort of historical basis whereas myths do not; but these distinctions are dificult to maintain consistently. The term was originaly applied to accounts of saints' lives (hagiography), but is now applied chiefly to fanciful tales of warriors (e.g. King Arthur and his knights), criminals (e.g. Faust, Robin Hod), and other siners. More recently it is aplied to those bodies of biographical rumor and embroidered anecdote surrounding dead film stars and rock musicians (Judy Garland, John Lenon, etc.) Adjective: legendary. Folklore: The oral traditions and culture of a people, expresed in stories, ridles, songs, tales, and proverbs. The term was coined in 1846 by W. J. Thoms (1803-1885), but the founder of the systematic study of the subject was Jacob Grim. The aproach to folklore has varied greatly: the German scholar Max Müler (1823-1900) interpreted it as evidence of nature myths; James Frazer was the exponent of the comparative study of early and popular folklore as mutually explanatory; Laurence Gome (1853-1916) adopted a historical analysis; and Bronislaw Malinowski and Alfred Radclife-Brown examined the material as an integral element of a given living culture. Folklore overlaps with cultural anthropology but their toots and theoretical concerns are not the same. One way of loking at the folklore form of the folktale would be, a story pased on by word of mouth rather than by writing, and thus partly modified by sucesive re-teling before being written down or recorded. The category includes songs, legends, fables, jokes, tall tales. Many folktales involve mythical creatures and magical transformations. Fairytales: In order to comprehend the historical origins of the literary fairy tale for children and adults in France toward the end of the sevententh century, we must shift the focus away from one author, such as Charles Perault and his seminal Contes du temps pasé (1697), and try to understand how many authors contributed to the formation of the literary fairy tale as institution. It was not Perrault but groups of writers, particularly aristocratic women, who gathered in salons during the sevententh century and created the conditions for the rise of the fairy tale. They set the groundwork for the institutionalization of the fairy tale as a "proper" genre intended first for educated adults audiences and only later for children who were to be educated acording to a code of civilité that was being elaborated in the sevententh and eighteenth centuries. Literary fairy tales are socially symbolical acts and narrative strategies formed to take part in civilized discourses about morality and behavior in particular societies and cultures. They are constantly rearanged and transformed to suit changes in tastes and values, and they asume mythic proportions when they are frozen in an ideological constellation that makes it seem that there are universal absolutes that are divine and should not be changed. We wil explore the literary tale and theories surounding its uses and abuses in a later module. When we think of the fairy tale today, we primarily think of the clasical fairy tale. We think of those fairy tales that are the most popular in the western world: Cinderela, Snow White, Litle Red Riding Hood, Sleping Beauty, Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast, Rumpelstiltskin, The Ugly Duckling, The Rinces and the Pea, Pus in Bots, The Frog King, Jack and the Beanstalk, Tom Thumb, The Litle Mermaid. Final Thoughts In this lecture we have explored the creation myths of various cultures to discover similarities and diferences. We have looked at the linguistic roots of the word Mythology. The Greek concepts of mythos and logos were separated by tradition the former becoming connected with Religion the later with Science. In the Twentieth century, primarily conected to the rise of the human sciences of Anthropology and Psychology, the study of the myths of ancient peoples as well as those of living tribal peoples becomes an important locus of learning. Therefore, through the efforts of those men and women who have always found the stories and symbols of myth to be a worthy ground of study, we have the merging of mythos and logos into mytholgy; the logical study of myths. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 18 We have briefly loked at some of the important people of the history of Mythological Studies, from Vico to Levi-Straus. Each of these people contributed greatly to the field of ytholgy. We also were introduced to thre analytical methods for aproaching the stories and symbols that emerge in cultures al over the world. Finaly, the types of stories that wil be read and explored in this class were defined briefly. The fifteen-week journey we wil take through this amazingly diverse and useful field of study wil hopefuly be just the begining of a lifetime of pleasure and learning. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 19 VOCABULARY Niflheim (Icelandic) The primordial land of the Cold Muspel (Icelandic) The primordial land of Heat Ginungagap (Icelandic) The yawning abys that separated Niflheim from Muspel Ymir (Icelandic) The evil giant from whose dismembered body the earth is created Audhumla (Icelandic) The primordial Great Cow hose milk nourished the Gods Buri the Strong (Icelandic) The god giant Bur (Icelandic) Son of Buri Bestla (Icelandic) Frost giantes. Wife of Bur. Mother of Vini, Ve, and Odin Vili, Ve, Odin (Icelandic) Sons of Bur and Bestla who kiled Ymir and created the earth from his body parts Helheim (Icelandic) The Underworld. Land of the dead Midgard (Icelandic) Midle earth. The land where man lives Asgard (Icelandic) The Uper world. Land of the Gods Yggdrasil (Icelandic) The World Ash tree whose roots reach into Helheim, whose trunk climbs through Midgard, and whose leaves reach into Asgard The Axis Mundi The central pillar or axis which unites the thre worlds constituting the cosmos The Edas The source texts of the Icelandic myths - The Elder Eda (850) and the Younger Edda (122 - by Snori Sturluson) Atum (Egyptian) Sun God. Creator God also known as Ra or Atum Ra Shu (Egyptian) The god of Air Tefnut (Egyptian) The godes of Moisture Geb (Egyptian) The god of Earth Nut (Egyptian) The godes of the Sky Ra (Egyptian) The god of the Sun - an aspect of Atun the Creator Thoth (Egyptian) The god of the Mon - the patron deity of scribes and of knowledge Seth (Egyptian) The god of Chaos and Adversity - kiler of his brother Osiris Nephthys (Egyptian) Funerary godes - Mother of Anubis by Osiris, her brother Isis (Egyptian) Mother godes - Sister and Wife/consort of Osiris - Mother of Horus Osiris (Egyptian) Chthonic god of the underworld, also a grain or vegetation god ? A dying and rising god Heliopolis Enead The Nine (9) primary gods of the Egyptian pantheon: Atum-Ra, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Seth, Nephthys, Isis, Osiris Mythos (Greek) Word, Saying, Story - With the rise of Rationalism and Scientific thinking it is denigrated to something false or untrue Logos (Greek) The Word of Truth - It is the basis for scientific reasoning and rationality - In Christianity it is associated with the Christ Herodotus (Greek) Historian of the War betwen Greece and Persia Giambatsisto Vico Italian Renaisance Philosopher who thought myths were a precurser to Science Max Müler German Mythologist who said that myths have their basis in the natural world - explain events in Nature J. G. Frazer British Victorian Mythologist who conected myths to Social and Cultural hierarchies Sigmund Freud Austrian Psychoanalist who said myths were primitive versions of explaining Human Psychology Carl Jung Swis Mythologist who said myths and dreams were outward expressions of unconscious archetypes Archetypes Primal energy templates through which the life force speaks or manifests POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 20 Claude Levi-Straus French Anthropologist who said that myths were a way of resolving basic contradictions in life - Structuralist The Journey (Archetypal) Every journey resonates with the archetype of the Journey of Life - Birth/Life and its Chalenges/Death Universal Analysis Studying mythology from various cultures to lok for comon themes or similar paterns - what makes us the same Cultural Analysis Studying mythology from one specific culture to understand the workings of that Culture - what makes us the different Psychological Analysis Studying mythology for clues to the makeup of our individual Human Psychologies - what makes us human Myths Epic naratives of which tels a particular culture's version of the creation and/or the activities of its gods and goddesses Legends Stories handed down through popular oral tradition consisting of an exaggerated account of some actualy or possibly historical person Folktales Stories pased on by word of mouth rather than by writing, and usualy strongly pedagogical in nature Fables Smal pedagogical story often using anthropomorphized animals to teach moral lesons Fairytales Stories from the woman dominated salons of the French Aristocratic period. The tales were used to teach civilities and etiquette POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 21 SUPPORTING MATERIAL Egyptian Mythology From Wikipedia, Egyptian mythology or Egyptian religion is the sucesion of tentative beliefs held by the people of Egypt for over thre thousand years, prior to the existence of and major exposure to Christianity and Islam. Gods Early beliefs can be split into 5 distinct localized groups, * the Enead of Heliopolis, whose chief god was Atum * the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, where the chief god was Ra * the Chnum-Satet-Anuket triad of Elephantine, where the chief god was Chnum * the Amun-Mut-Chons triad of Thebes, where the chief god was Amun * the Ptah-Sekhmet-Nefertem triad of Memphis, unusual in that the gods were unconected before the triad was formalized, where the chief god was Ptah Throughout the vast and complex history of Egypt, the dominant beliefs of the ancient Egyptians merged and mutated as leaders of diferent groups gained power. This proces continued even after the end of the ancient Egyptian civilization as we know it today. As an example, during the New Kingdom Ra and Amun became Amun-Ra. This "merging" into a single god is typicaly refered to as syncretis. Syncretism should be distinguished from ere groupings, also refered to as "families" such as Amun, Mut and Khonsu, where no "merging" takes place. Over time, deities tok part in multiple syncretic relationships, for instance, the combination of Ra and Horus into Ra-Herakty. However, even when taking part in such a syncretic relationship, the original deities did not become completely "absorbed" into the combined deity, although the individuality of the one was often greatly weakened. Also, these syncretic relationships sometimes involved more than just two deities, for instance, Ptah, Seker and Osiris, becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris. The godeses folowed a similar pattern. Also important to kep in mind is that sometimes the attributes of one deity got closely asociated with another, without any "formal" syncretism taking place. For instance, the lose association of Hathor with Isis. An interesting aspect of ancient Egyptian religion is that deities sometimes played different conflicting roles. As an example, the liones Sekhmet being sent out by Ra to devour the humans for having rebeled against him, but later on becoming a fierce protectres of the kingdom, life in general and the sick. Even more coplex is the roles of Set. Judging the mythology of Set from a modern perspective, especially the mythology surrounding Set's relationship with Osiris, it is easy to cast Set as the arch vilain and source of evil. This is wrong, however, as Set was earlier playing the role of destroyer of Apep, in the service of Ra on his barge, and thus serving to uphold Ma't (Truth, Justice and Harmony). Given the diverse tapestry of religious history in ancient Egypt, it comes as no surprise that many diferent forms of theism evolved. Although mainly henotheistic in nature, at some point even monotheism, as introduced by Akhenaton thrived. What is important to realize is that it is very dangerous to try and cast the religion of the ancient Egyptians in any particular theistic form. Even more dangerous to claim is that, towards the end of the Egyptian civilization, a drive toward monotheism was taking place. The evidence of the time (Greaco-Roman period) sems counter to this belief: although syncretism was stil taking place (sometimes and ore frequently between Egyptian and non-Egyptian deities), many deities were stil revered and served. As an example the folowing which Thoth enjoyed during these later periods. This is quite evident when one simply loks at the vast number of mumified Ibis birds ofered to him. Also, the belief in Egyptian deities were spreading to countries other than Egypt. For instance the Roman belief in, and following of Isis. The Egyptians believed that in the begining, the universe was filed with the dark waters of chaos. The first god, Re-Atum, apeared from the water as the land of Egypt apears every year out of the flod waters of the Nile. Re-Atum spat and out of the spitle came out the gods Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture). The world was created when Shu and Tefnut gave birth to two children: Nut (sky) & Geb (the Earth). POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 22 Humans were created when Shu and Tefnut went wandering in the dark wastes and got lost. Re-Atum sent his eye to find them. On reuniting, his tears of joy turned into people. Geb and Nut copulated, and upon Shu's learning of his children's fornication, he separated the two, effectively becoming the air between the sky and ground. He also decreed that the pregnant Nut should not give birth any day of the year. Nut pleaded with Thoth, who on her behalf gambled with the moon-god Yah and won five more days to be aded onto the then 360-day year. Nut had one child on each of these days: Osiris, Isis, Seth, Nephthys, and Horus-the-Elder. Osiris, by diferent acounts, was either the son of Re-Atum or Geb, and king of Egypt. His brother Seth represented evil in the universe. He murdered Osiris and himself became the king. After kiling Osiris Seth tore his body into pieces, but Isis rescued most of the pieces for burial beneath the temple. Seth made himself king but was challenged by Osiris's son - Horus. Seth lost and was sent to the desert. He became the God of terible storms. Osiris was mumified by Anubis and became God of the dead. Horus became the King and from him descended the pharaohs. Another version is when Seth made a chest which only Osiris could fit into. He then invited Osiris to a feast. Seth made a bet that no one could fit into the chest. Osiris was the last one to step into the chest, but before he did Seth asked if he could hold Osiris's crown. Osiris agreed and stepped into the chest. As he lay down, Seth slamed the lid shut and put the crown on his head. He then set the chest afloat on the Nile. Isis did not know of her husband's death until the wind told her. She then placed her son in a safe place and cast a spel so no one could find him. When she searched for a husband, a child told her a chest had washed up on the bank and a tre had grown up. The tre was so straight the king had used it for the central pilar. Isis went and asked for her husband's body and it was given to her. The god of the underworld told her that Osiris would be a king, but only in the underworld. Death Egypt had a highly developed view of the afterlife with elaborate rituals for preparing the body and soul for a peaceful life after death. Beliefs about the soul and afterlife focused heavily on preservation of the body, or ba (The soul was known as the ka). This meant that embalming and mumification were practiced, in order to preserve the individual's identity in the afterlife. Originally the dead were buried in reed caskets in the searing hot sand, which caused the remains to dry quickly, preventing decomposition, and were subsequently buried. Later, they started constructing woden tombs, and the extensive proces of mummification was developed by the Egyptians around the 4th Dynasty. Al soft tisues were removed, and the cavities washed and packed with natron, then the exterior body was buried in natron as well. Since it was a stoneable ofence to harm the body of the Pharaoh, even after death, the person who made the cut in the abdomen with a rock knife was ceremonialy chased away and had rocks thrown at him. After coming out of the natron, the bodies were coated inside and out with resin to preserve them, then wraped with linen bandages, embeded with religious amulets and talismans. In the case of royalty, this was usualy then placed inside a series of nested cofins the outermost of which was a stone sarcophagus. The intestines, lungs, liver and the stomach were preserved separately and stored in canopic jars protected by the Four sons of Horus. Other creatures were also mumified, sometimes thought to be pets of Egyptian families, but more frequently or more likely they were the representations of the Gods. The ibis, crocodile, cats, Nile perch and baboon can be found in perfect mummified forms. The Bok of the Dead was a series of almost two hundred spels represented as sectional texts, songs and pictures writen on papyrus, individually customized for the deceased, which were buried along with the dead in order to ease their pasage into the underworld. In some tombs, the Bok of the Dead has also been found painted on the walls, although the practice of painting on the tomb walls appears to predate the formalization of the Book of the Dead as a bound text. One of the best examples of the Book of the Dead is The Papyrus of Ani, created around 1240 BC, which, in adition to the texts themselves, also contains many pictures of Ani and his wife on their journey through the land of the dead. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 23 In later belief, the soul of the deceased is led into a hal of judgment in Duat by Anubis (god of mummification) and the deceased's heart, which was the record of the morality of the owner, is weighed against a single feather representing Maàt's (the concept of truth, and order). If the outcome is favorable, the deceased is taken to Osiris, god of the afterlife, in Aaru, but the demon Amit (Eater of Hearts) ? part crocodile, part lion, and part hipopotamus ? destroys those hearts whom the verdict is against, leaving the owner to remain in Duat. The monotheistic period A short interval of monotheism (Atenism) ocured under the reign of Akhenaten, focused on the Egyptian sun deity Aten. Akhenaten outlawed the worship of any other god and built a new capital (Amarna) with temples for Aten. The religious change survived only until the death of Akhenaten, and the old religion was quickly restored during the reign of Tutankhamun, most likely Akhenaten's son by a minor wife. Interestingly, Tutankhamun and several other post-restoration pharaohs were excluded from future king lists, as well as the heretics Akhenaten and Smenkhare. While most historians regard this period as monotheistic, some researchers do not regard Atenism as such. They state that people did not worship Aten, but worshiped the royal family as a pantheon of gods who received their divine power from the Aten. That point of view is largely disised by the historical comunity. Some researchers go as far as to sugest that Akhenaten or some of his viziers were the Biblical Moses or Joseph; the Egyptological comunity dismises these claims as unscholarly, since none of the theories are based on proper research, and the wel-documented worship of Aten has nothing in comon with the religion of Moses. According to John Tuthil, a profesor at the University of Guam, Akhenaten's reasons for his religious reform were political. By the time of Akhenaten's reign, the god Amen had risen to such a high status that the priests of Amen had become even more wealthy and powerful than the pharaohs. However, it may be that Akhenaten was influenced by his family members, particularly his wife or mother (Dunham, 1963, p. 4; Mertz, 1966, p. 269). There was a certain trend in Akhenaten's family towards sun-worship. Towards the end of the reign of Akhenaten's father, Amenhotep III, the Aten was depicted increasingly often. Some historians have suggested that the same religious revolution would have happened even if Akhenaten had never become pharaoh at all. However, considering the violent reaction that followed shortly after Akhenaten's untimely death, this sems improbable. The reasons for Akhenaten's revolution stil remain a mystery. Until further evidence can be uncovered, it wil be impossible to know just what motivated his unusual behavior. After the fal of the Amarna dynasty, the original Egyptian pantheon survived more or les as the dominant faith, until the establishment of Coptic Christianity and later Islam, even though the Egyptians continued to have relations with the other monotheistic cultures (e.g. Hebrews). Egyptian mytholgy put up surprisingly litle resistance to the spread of Christianity, sometimes explained by claiming that Jesus was originally a syncretism based predominantly on Horus, with Isis and her worship becoming Mary and veneration. Temples Many temples are stil standing today. Others are in ruins from wear and tear, while others have ben lost entirely. Pharaoh Ramses I was a particularly prolific builder of temples. Some known temples include: * Abu Simbel ? Complex of two masive rock temples in southern Egypt on the western bank of the Nile. * Abydos (Great Temple of Abydos) ? Adoration of the early kings, whose cemetery, to which it forms a great funerary chapel, lies behind it. * Ain el-Muftela (Bahariya Oasis) [2] ? Could have served as the city center of El Qasr. It was probably built around the 26th Dynasty. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 24 * Karnak ? Once part of the ancient capital of Egypt, Thebes. * Bani Hasan al Shuruq [3] ? Located in Midle Egypt near to Al-Minya and survived the reconstruction of the New Kingdom. * Edfu ? Ptolemaic temple that is located betwen Aswan and Luxor. * Temple of Kom Ombo ? Controled the trade routes from Nubia to the Nile Valey. * Luxor ? Built largely by Amenhotep III and Rameses II, it was the centre of the Opet Festival. * Medinet Habu [4] (Memorial Temple of Rameses II)? Temple and a complex of temples dating from the New Kingdom. * Temple of Hatshepsut ? Mortuary temple complex at Deir el-Bahri with a colonaded structure of perfect harmony, built nearly one thousand years before the Parthenon. * Philae ? Island of Philae with Temple of Aset which was constructed in the 30th Dynasty. * Rameseum (Memorial Temple of Rameses I) ? The main building, dedicated to the funerary cult, comprised two stone pylons (gateways, some 60 wide), one after the other, each leading into a courtyard. Beyond the second courtyard, at the centre of the complex, was a covered 48- column hypostyle hal, surounding the iner sanctuary. * Dendera Temple complex ? Several temples but the al overshadowing building in the complex is the main temple, the Hathor temple. External influences Egypt exchanged ideas with Libya during its early unsettled period. Egypt was also influenced by the Grek Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt for 30 years. Cleopatra was the only Ptolemaic quen to rule on her own. Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire, and was ruled first from Rome and then from Constantinople (until the Arab conquest). Libyan period 22nd - 25th Dynasty Egypt has long had ties with Libya. After the death of Rameses XI, the priesthod in the person of Herihor wrest control of Egypt away from the Pharaohs until they were superseded (without any aparent strugle) by the Libyan kings of the 2nd Dynasty. The first king of the new Dynasty, Shoshenq I, served as a general under the last ruler of the 21st Dynasty. It is known that he appointed his own son to be the High Priest of Amun, a post that was previously a hereditary apointment. The scant and patchy nature of the written records from this period sugest that it was unsettled. There apear to have ben many subversive groups which eventualy led to the creation of the 23rd dynasty which ran concurrent with the 22nd. Ptolemaic period 304 BC - 30 BC Started with Ptolemy I of Egypt and ended with Cleopatra VI. As Ptolemy I Soter ("Saviour"), he founded the Ptolemaic dynasty, which was to rule Egypt for 30 years. Al the male rulers of the dynasty tok the name "Ptolemy". Because the Ptolemaic kings adopted the Egyptian custom of marrying their sisters, many of the kings ruled jointly with their spouses, who were also of the royal house. This custom made Ptolemaic politics confusingly incestuous, and the later Ptolemies were increasingly feble. The last of the Ptolemies, the famous Cleopatra, was the only Ptolemaic quen to rule on her own, after the death of her brother/husband, Ptolemy XII. Roman period 30 BC - 639 AD Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire and was ruled first from Rome and then from Constantinople (until the Arab conquest). The most revolutionary event in the history of Roan Egypt was the introduction of Christianity in the 2nd century. It was at first vigorously persecuted by the Roman authorities, who feared religious discord more than anything else in a country where religion had always been paramount. But it soon gained adherents among the Jews of Alexandria. From them it rapidly POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 25 passed to the Greeks, and then to the native Egyptians, who found its promise of personal salvation and its teachings of social equality apealing. Notes on pronunciation A "received pronunciation" of the names of ancient Egyptian deities has formed. By and large, this pronunciation is acceptable for most consonants and uterly wrong for the vowels. Egyptologists developed a set of conventions to make it easier to talk about the terms they used. Two distinct diferent glottal consonants were both replaced with "a". A consonant similar to the "y" in the English word "yet" was replaced with "i". A consonant similar to the "w" in the English word "wel" was replaced with "u". Then, "e" was inserted betwen other consonants. Thus, for example, the Egyptian king whose name is most acurately transcribed as R?-ms-sw is known as "Rameses", meaning "Ra has Fashioned (lit. "Borne") Him". Further reading * Schulz, R. and M. Seidel, "Egypt: The World of the Pharaohs". Köneman, Cologne 198. ISBN 3895089133 * Budge, E. A. Walis, "Egyptian Religion: Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life (Library of the Mystic Arts)". Citadel Pres. August 1, 191. ISBN 080651296 * Haris, Geraldine, John Sibick, and David O'Conor, "Gods and Pharaohs from Egyptian Mythology". Bedrick, 192. ISBN 0872269078 * Hart, George, "Egyptian Myths (Legendary Past Series)". University of Texas Pres (1st edition), 1997. ISBN 0292720769 * Osman, Ahmed, Moses and Akhenaten. The Secret History of Egypt at the Time of the Exodus, (December 202, Iner Traditions International, Limited) ISBN 159143046 * Bilolo, Mubabinge, Les cosmo-théologies philosophiques d'Héliopolis et d'Hermopolis. Esai de thématisation et de systématisation, (Academy of African Thought, Sect. I, vol. 2), Kinshasa- Munich 1987; new ed., Munich-Paris, 204. * Bilolo, Mubabinge, "Les cosmo-théologies philosophiques de l?Égypte Antique. Problématique, prémises herméneutiques et problèmes majeurs, (Academy of African Thought, Sect. I, vol. 1)", Kinshasa-Munich 1986; new ed., Munich-Paris, 203. * Bilolo, Mubabinge, "Métaphysique Pharaonique IIème milénaire av. J.-C. (Academy of African Thought & C.A. Diop-Center for Egyptological Studies-INADEP, Sect. I, vol. 4)", Kinshasa-Munich 1995 ; new ed., Munich-Paris, 203. * Bilolo, Mubabinge, "Le Créateur et la Création dans la pensée memphite et amarniene. Approche synoptique du Document Philosophique de Memphis et du Grand Hymne Théologique d'Echnaton, (Academy of African Thought, Sect. I, vol. 2)", Kinshasa-Munich 198; new ed., Munich-Paris, 204. * Pinch, Geraldine, "Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Godeses, and Traditions of ancient Egypt". Oxford University Pres, 204. ISBN 0195170245 POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 26 ATUM From Wikipedia Atum (alternatively spelt Tem, Temu, Tum, and Atem) is an early deity in Egyptian mythology, whose cult centred on the Enead of Heliopolis. Originaly associated with the earth, Atum gradualy became considered to be the sun, as it passes the horizon. The separateness of the two instances per day that this ocurs, led to the aspect of Atum that was young, namely the rising sun, becoming considered a separate god, named Nefertum (literaly meanig young Atum), and consequently Atum became mainly understood as the seting sun. In the Enead cosmogeny, he was considered to be the first god, having arisen by his own force himself, siting on a mound (benben), from the primordial waters (Nu). Early myths state that Atum created the god Shu and goddess Tefnut from his semen by masturbation in the city of Annu (the Egyptian name for Heliopolis), a belief strongly asociated with Atu's nature as an hermaphrodite (his name meaning completeness). Strictly, the myth states that Atum ejaculated his Seen into his mouth, ipregnating himself, possibly indicating autofellatio, which has lead many to misinterpret (euphemisticaly) the myth as indicating creation from ucus. Later belief held that Shu and Tefnut were created by Atum having sex with his shadow, which was referred to as Iusaset (also spelt Juesaes, Ausas, Iusas, and Jusas, and in Greek as Saosis), meaning (the) great (one who) comes forth. Consequently, Iusaset was sen as the mother and grandmother of the gods. The strength, hardines, medical properties, and edibility, lead the acacia tre to be considered the tre of life, and thus the oldest, which was situated close to, and north of, Heliopolis, was said to be the birthplace of the gods. Thus, as the mother, and grandmother, of the gods, Iusaset was said to own this tre. In art, Atum was always considered as a man, enthroned, or sometimes standing, and depicted wearing both the crown of Upper Egypt, and that of Lower Egypt. In his later form as the seting sun, as opposed to Nefertum, Atum was depicted in the same maner but as an aged man. However, it was sometimes said that Atum was originaly a serpent, a form to which he was said to be destined to return when the world ends, only changing into a human during its existence. In later years, the Enead mythos, and an alternative mythos, that of the Ogdoad, merged, and since Ra, from the Ogdoad, was also the creator (in that system), and a solar deity, their two identities merged, into Atum-Ra. But as Ra was the whole sun, and Atum just the sun when it sets, it was Atum who was thought of as an aspect of Ra, and eventually subsumed into him. When this happened, his shadow, Iusaset, was described as Rat, which is simply the feminine for of Ra. As both the cosmogeny asociated with Ra and that of Atum said that the origin of each was the primordial waters, when, in later years, Neith came to embody these waters, Iusaaset became considered an aspect of Neith rather than Atum-Ra. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 27 RA From Wikipedia, Ra (sometimes speled Rê) is the sun-god of Heliopolis in ancient Egypt. It seems likely that the Egyptians pronounced this "ray", but the comon pronunciation today is "rah". Ra originaly meant "mouth" in the Egyptian language, and was a reference to his creation of the deities of the Ogdoad system, excluding the 8 concepts which created him, by the power of spech (compare how YHWH (or Jehovah) was said to have created the world). In later Egyptian dynastic times, Ra was subsumed into the god Horus, as Re-Horakhty (and many variant spelings). The sun is either the symbolic interpretation of Ra, his entire body, or just his eye. The symbols of Ra are the solar symbols of a golden disk or the symbol (circle with a point at its centre). He was also asociated with the Phoenix, as he rose again each morning in flames. Acording to E. A. Walis Budge he was the One god of Egyptian Monotheism, of which all other gods and goddesses were aspects, manifestations, phases, or forms of the god. Deity status From the eighth dynasty (ca. 240 BC) onward he was elevated to the status of a national deity, and much later was combined with the Theban god Amun to become Amun-Ra, the foremost deity of the Egyptian pantheon. Amun-Ra was the most powerful god and as he grew and grew he made Egypt something of a theocracy. In later times, when the earth god Atum evolved into a god of the seting sun, Atum became considered an aspect of Ra. Khepri, the les important god who pushed the sun acros the sky each day, eventualy was also absorbed into Ra, as the centuries wore on, becoming the aspect of Ra that is the rising sun. Also in later times, Ra was asociated with Heryshaf. Eventually, as another sun-god, Horus, gained more importance, Ra himself was subsumed into just being an aspect of Horus, as Re-Harakhty, which eans Ra, Horus of the two horizons. Amon-Ra's identity with Pluto or Jupiter was acknowledged by the Greks and Romans. The Greks even gave the name Diospolis, City of Zeus, to Thebes. He remained paramount for centuries except for a brief suspension during the time of Akhenaten (1350-1334 BC) when a monotheistic worship of Aten, the sun disk itself, was imposed on the kingdom of Egypt. Ra itself, however, was also a monotheistic God. A Hymn to Ra (aprox. 1370 BCE) was written to stres the pantheistic nature of Ra to combat encroaching polytheism. In it, several gods and godeses are described, not as beings in their own right, but certain forms of Ra. For example: "Praise be unto the, O Ra, thou exalted Power, who dost enter into the habitations of Ament, behold [thy] body is Temu. "Praise be unto the, O Ra, thou exalted Power, who dost enter into the hidden palace of Anubis, behold [thy] body is Khepera." Solar barge In order to pas through Duat (the underworld) each night, so that he might rise in the morning, the fiery Ra was compeled to use a boat (Atet in the morning, Sektet in the afternon) to avoid being extinguished by the waters. It was Maàt, i.e. order, the antithesis of chaos, that guided the course of the boat. At the helm of the boat stood Thoth, representative of the moon, who symbolically stood next to Horus, who, in early egyptian myth, represented the sky, and whose dark eye was the moon. It was Horus who steered. Many of the other gods traveled in the boat with them, and one of them, posibly with the asistant Mehen (who may instead simply be nothing more than a boardgame), defended the boat from atack by the monster of darknes, who wished to devour Ra. In early mythology, it was Set who was the hero defending the boat, and Apep who was the attacker, but in later myth, after Set became regarded as evil, it was Thoth who defended and Set who was the demon. Temporary failure to protect Ra was said to be the cause of solar eclipses, and mere difficulty in doing so was said to cause bad weather. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 28 Those who take Ra's Sun afiliation metaphoricaly however, note that in Egypt, God was the life and light. The best way to represent this is with the Sun, which provides life through heating the Earth and providing energy for photosynthesis, as well as provides light for all to see. The Sun is then, not Ra, but an object which can be used metaphorically to help people understand Ra. Hathor and Ra A weird story, Hathor and Ra once argued, and she left Egypt. Ra (or Shu) quickly decided he mised her, but she changed into a cat that destroyed any man or god that approached. Thoth, disguised, eventualy succeeds in convincing her to return. Ra in pop culture * Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian explorer and anthropologist, built the boats Ra and Ra I in order to demonstrate that Ancient Egyptians could have comunicated with the Americas or transfered pyramid-building technology. On May 17, 1970 Heyerdahl set sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail acros the Atlantic Ocean to Central America. * Avant-garde jazz artist, Sun Ra, has got his name from Ra. * Rock band Utopia lead by Tod Rundgren had a 197 album caled RA that includes the song "Comunion with the Sun". * The television show Angel featured Ra in one of the episodes of season four, "Long Day's Journey". In the episode, an apocalyptic demon ritualy murders five members, or totems of a mystical order caled the Ra-Tet. These mebers are al linked to an ebodiment of the god Ra. * In the 194 movie Stargate, Ra is the alien ruler of Abydos and serves as the main antagonist. * Apophis (Apep) apears in the TV show "Stargate SG-1" which was a tv series based on the movie. Ra himself is mentioned numerous times througout the series, but only apears in the 8th season finale Moebius. * Ra serves as the most powerful of the thre Egyptian God Cards in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. "The Winged Dragon of Ra", as he is known in the American version, is a masive golden dragon that can transform into a giant phoenix as one of its any atacks. The other two God Cards are Osiris (Slifer the Sky Dragon) and the God of Obelisk (Obelisk the Tormentor). * Ra apears in the game Age of Mytholgy. With Isis and Set, he is one of the Major Gods for the Egyptian civilization. Chosing Ra as the Major God gives the player's buildings a falcon motif, the Rain God Power, benefits to Priest Hero Units, and increased hitpoints for certain units and buildings. * Ra is also a rock band lead by Sahaj (vocals, etc.), guitarist Ben Carol, basist P.J. Farley, and drummer Andy Ryan. Their latest album Duality is an exploration of the two sides of human nature, fear and love. * The Dager of Amon Ra was the second title in the Laura Bow adventure game series. The events are set in the 1920s and mostly take place in a museum with an Egyptian exhibition. * Ra is also in Ragnarok Online as the MvP Amon Ra * NBA player Rashed Walace, also known as 'Shed' or 'Ra', has a large tato on his right deltoid depicting Egyptian worship to Ra. * RA is the name of the night club located inside of the Luxor hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The hotel has an Ancient Egyptian motif. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 29 THOTH From Wikipedia Thoth (his Grek name derived from the Egyptian Djehuty) was considered one of the more important gods of the Egyptian pantheon. His feminine counterpart was Maàt. His chief shrine was at Khemennu, where he was the head of the local company of gods, later renamed Hermopolis by the Greks (in reference to him through the Greeks' interpretation that he was the same as Hermes) and Eshmûnên by the Arabs. He also had shrines in Abydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-Ab, Rekhui, Ta-ur, Sep, Hat, Pselket, Talmsis, Antcha-Mutet, Bah, Amen-heri-ab, and Ta-kens. He was considered the heart and tongue of Ra as wel as the means by which Ra's wil was translated into spech. He has also ben likened to the Logos of Plato and the mind of God. In the Egyptian mythology, he has played many vital and prominent roles, including being one of the two gods, the other being his feminine counterpart Maàt, who stood on either side of Ra's boat. He has further been involved in arbitration, agic, writing, science, and the judging of the dead. Name Djehuty Thoth's Egpytian name Djehuty is believed to have come from Djehu, the oldest known name for the ibis. The adition of -ty (alternatively -ti to Tehu) denotes that he posesed the attributes of the ibis. The Egyptian pronunciation is not fuly known, but one modern gues would be (Je-hu-teh-y) with a strong 'j' as in joke and the 'y' making a consonantal sound. However, the insertion of the letter 'e' between consonants, and writing 'w' as 'u' is a convention of convenience for English speakers, not the transliteration employed by Egyptologists. Alternate names for Thoth ? Sheps, lord of Khemenu ? Asten ? Khenti ? Mehi ? Hab ? Aan ? A'ah-Djehuty Djehuty is sometimes alternatively rendered as Tahuti, Tehuti, Zehuti, Techu, or Tetu. Thoth (also Thot or Thout) is the Grek version derived from the leters DHWTY. Not counting diferences in speling, Thoth had more than one name, like other gods and godeses. Similarly, each Pharoah, considered a god himself, had five diferent names used in public. Among his alternate names are A, Sheps, Lord of Khemennu, Asten, Khenti, Mehi, Hab, and A'an. In addition, Thoth was also known by specific aspects of himself, for instance the mon god A'ah-Djehuty, representing the moon for the entire month. Further, the Greks related Thoth to their god Hermes due to his similar attributes and functions. One of Thoth 's titles, "Three times great, great" was translated to the Grek(Trismegistos) making Hermes Trismegistus. Depictions Thoth has ben depicted in many ways depending on the era and aspect the artist wished to convey. Usualy, he is depected in human form with the head of an ibis. In this form, he can be represented as the reckoner of times and seasons by a lunar disk sitting in a crescent mon being placed atop his head. When depicted as a form of Shu or Ankher, he wil wear the respective god's headres. He also is sometimes seen wearing the atef crown and the United Crowns of Uper and Lower Egypt. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 30 When not depicted in this comon form, he sometimes takes the form of the ibis directly. He also appears as an ape when he is A'an, the god of equilibrium. In the form of A'ah-Djehuty he tok a more human looking form. These forms are al symbolic and are metaphors for Thoth's atributes. The Egyptians did not believe these gods actualy loked like humans with animal heads. For example, Thoth's counterpart Maàt is often depicted with an ostrich feather for a head. Attributes Egyptologists disagre on Thoth's nature depending upon their view of the Egyptian pantheon. Most egyptologists today side with Sir Flinders Petrie that Egyptian religion was strictly polytheistic, in which Thoth would be a separate god. His contemporary adversary, E. A. Walis Budge, however, thought Egyptian religion to be primarily monotheistic where al the gods and godeses were aspects of the God Ra, similar to the Trinity in Christianity and devas in Hinduism. In this view, Thoth would be the aspect of Ra which the Egyptian mind would relate to the heart and tongue. His roles in Egyptian mytholgy were many. Thoth served as a mediating power, especialy between good and evil, making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other. He also served as scribe of the gods, credited with the invention of writing and alphabets (ie. heiroglyphs) themselves. In the underworld, Duat, he apeared as an ape, A'an, the god of equilibrium, who reported when the scales weighing the deceased's heart against the feather, representing the principle of Maàt, was exactly even. The ancient Egyptians regarded Thoth as One, self-begotten, and self-produced. He was the master of both physical and moral (ie. Divine) law, making proper use of Maàt. He is credited with making the calculations for the establishment of the heavens, stars, Earth, and everything in them. Compare this to how his feminine counterpart, Maàt was the force which maintained the Universe. He is said to direct the motions of the heavenly bodies. Without his words, the Egyptians believed, the gods would not exist. His power was almost unlimited in the Underworld and rivalled that of Ra and Osiris. The Egyptians credited him as the author of al works of science, religion, philosophy, and magic. The Greks further declared him the inventor of astronomy, astrolgy, the science of numbers, athematics, geometry, land surveying, medicine, botany, theology, civilized government, the alphabet, reading, writing, and oratory. They further claimed he was the true author of every work of every branch of knowledge, human and divine. Mythology Thoth has played a prominent role in many of the Egyptian myths. Displaying his role as arbitrator, he had overseen the three epic batles between good and evil. Al three battles are fundamentally the same and belong to diferent periods. The first batle took place between Ra and Apep, the second between Heru- Bekhutet and Set, and the third betwen Horus, the son of Osiris, and Set. In each instance, the former god represented good while the latter represented evil. If one god was seriously injured, Thoth would heal them to prevent either from overtaking the other. Thoth was also prominent in the Osiris myth, being of great aid to Isis. After Isis gathered together the pieces of Osiris' dismembered body, he gave her the words to resurect him so she could be impregnated and bring forth Horus, named for his uncle. When Horus was slain, he gave the formulae to resurrect him as well. Similar to God speaking the words to create the heavens and Earth in Judeo-Christian mythology, Thoth, being the god who always speaks the words that fulfil the wishes of Ra, spoke the words that created the heavens and Earth in Egyptian mythology. Mythology also acredits him with the creation of the 365 day calendar. Originaly, acording to the myth, the year was only 360 days long and Nut with sterility during these days, unable to bear children. Thoth POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 31 gambled with Iabet, the moon, for 1/72nd of its light (360/72 = 5), or 5 days, and won. During these 5 days, she gave birth to Kheru-ur (Horus the Elder, Face of Heaven), Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nepthys. In the Ogdoad cosmogony myth, Thoth gave birth to Ra, Atum, Nefertum, and Khepri by laying an eg while in the form of an ibis, or later as a gose laying a golden eg. History He was originaly the deification of the mon in the Ogdoad belief system. Initialy, in that system, the moon had ben sen to be the eye of Horus, the sky god, which had ben semi-blinded (thus darker) in a fight against Set, the other eye being the sun. However, over time it began to be considered separately, becoming a lunar deity in its own right, and was said to have been another son of Ra. As the crescent moon strongly resembles the curved beak of the ibis, this separate deity was named Djehuty (i.e. Thoth), meaning ibis. Thoth became asociated with the Mon, due to the Ancient Egyptians observation that Babons (sacred to Thoth) 'sang' to the mon at night. The Mon not only provides light at night, alowing the time to stil be measured without the sun, but its phases and prominence gave it a significant importance in early astrology/astronomy. The cycles of the moon also organized much of Egyptian society's civil, and religious, rituals, and events. Consequently, Thoth gradualy became sen as a god of wisdom, magic, and the measurement, and regulation, of events, and of time. He was thus said to be the secretary and counsellor of Ra, and with Maàt (truth/order) stod next to Ra on the nightly voyage acros the sky, Ra being a sun god. Thoth became credited by the ancient Egyptians as the inventor of writing, and was also considered to have been the scribe of the underworld, and the moon became occasionaly considered a separate entity, now that Thoth had less association with it, and more with wisdom. For this reason Thoth was universaly worshiped by ancient Egyptian Scribes. In art, Thoth was usualy depicted with the head of an ibis, deriving from his name, and the curve of the ibis' beak, which resembles the crescent mon. Sometimes, he was depicted as a babon holding up a crescent mon, as the babon was seen as a nocturnal, and inteligent, creature. The association with baboons led to him occasionally being said to have as a consort Astennu, one of the (male) baboons at the place of judgement in the underworld, and on other occasions, Astennu was said to be Thoth himself. During the late period of Egyptian history a cult of Thoth gained prominence, due to its main centre, Khnum (Hermopolis Magna), also becoming the capital, and milions of dead ibis were mumified and buried in his honour. The rise of his cult also led to his cult seeking to adjust mythology to give Thoth a greater role. Thoth was inserted in many tales as the wise counsel and persuader, and his asociation with learning, and measurement, led him to be connected with Seshat, the earlier deification of wisdom, who was said to be his daughter, or variably his wife. Thoth's qualities also led to him being identified by the Greks with their closest matching god - Hermes, with whom Thoth was eventualy combined, as Hermes Trismegistus, also leading to the Greks naming Thoth's cult centre as Hermopolis, meaning city of Hermes. It is also viewed that Thoth was the God of Scribe and not a mesenger. Anubis was viewed as the messenger of the gods, as he traveled in and out of the Underworld, to the presence of the gods, and to humans, as well. Some cal this fusion Hermanubis. It is in more favor that Thoth was a record keeper, and not the messenger. There is also an Egyptian pharaoh of the Sixteenth dynasty of Egypt named Djehuty (Thoth) after him, and who reigned for three years. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 32 Titles Titles belonging to Thoth ? Scribe of Maàt in the Company of the Gods ? Lord of Maàt ? Lord of Divine Words ? Judge of the Two Combatant Gods ? Judge of the Rekhekhui, the Pacifier of the Gods, who Dweleth in Unu, the Great God in the Temple of Abtiti ? Twice Great ? Thrice Great ? Thre Times Great, Great Thoth in more recent times One of the most popular and cited works on the Tarot was conected to this deity. Written by the infamous ocultist Aleister Crowley, The Bok of Thoth is a philosophical text on the usage of Tarot and, most notably, Crowley's own created Tarot Deck, the Thoth Tarot which he also refered to as The Bok of Thoth, where the name is taken from a "non-existent" (translations from papyrus of an actual book of thoth DO exist, titled 'The Ancient Egyptian Bok of Thoth' by Jasnow and Zauzich) bok in Egyptian mythology, believed to contain ancient knowledge originaly brought to man by this deity. Crowley comissioned Lady Frieda Haris to assist him in painting the Thoth Deck. Thoth, as Tahuti, is recognized as a saint in The Gnostic Mas of Eclesia Gnostica Catholica. He is listed amongst the magi of the A.'.A.'. for his declaration of "the true Word of Tahuti, AMOUN, whereby He made Men to understand their secret Nature, that is, their Unity with their True Selves, or, as they then phrased it, with God." (Liber 11). Tahuti is considered a perfect representation of the 9°=2?, the Magus, due to his role as the Scribe who taught the occult sciences to man. A text entitled The Emerald Tablets of Thoth-The-Atlantean has ben claimed to have ben translated by a man named Doreal. The introduction claims them to be writen by an Atlantean Priest-King named Thoth, who setled a colony in Egypt after Atlantis sunk. Doreal further claims the texts are 36,00 years old. Regardless of the authenticity of the text, it contains much Hermetic and Egyptian symbolism that Doreal mises. Thoth/Djehuty in pop culture * The Orbital Frame Jehuty, from the game, Zone of the Enders (published by Konami) is based on Thoth/Djehuty. * Using the name 'Mister Ibis', Thoth works as a mortician alongside Anubis (as 'Mister Jacquel') in Cairo, Ilinois, in Neil Gaiman's American Gods. * The Ring of Thoth (aka: The Muy) was writen by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for The Cornhil Magazine published Jan 1890. * Thoth was a minor Goa'uld scientist serving Anubis in the Kul Warior R&D on the planet Tartarus. Thoth was kiled by Samantha Carter. (Season 7 Stargate SG-1 episode "Evolution part II") * Thoth is also a Carnival Krewe in New Orleans, Louisiana, which parades on the Sunday before Mardi Gras. The Krewe features a float decorated with a large depiction of the ancient deity. * Djehuty is the name of a thre-dimensional radiative hydrodynamical code for modelling stars at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. * He is also the administrator of the Library where superhero/librarian Rex works, in the comic Rex Libris by James Turner * In Age of Mythology, Thoth can be worshiped. He grants his folowers Phoenixes, War Turtles and Meteors. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 33 LEGEND OF OSIRIS AND ISIS From Wikipedia The legend of Osiris, Isis, Horus and Set became one of the most important and powerful in Egyptian mythology during the New Kingdom. It arose originaly during the Midle Kingdom as a result of atempts to merge the Ogdoad and Enead systems. The legend concerns the death of Osiris and birth of Horus. Origin In the Enead, Osiris is the husband of Isis, and sibling of Set, al of whom are the great-grandchildren of the creator god Atum, and Horus is not present within the system. In the Ogdoad, Osiris is not present within the system, and Horus is the husband of Isis and son of Ra, the creator god. When the Enead and Ogdoad merged, Ra and Atum were identified as one-another, becoming Atum-Ra, and Horus was initially considered the fifth sibling of Osiris, Isis, Nephthys and Set. However, Horus' mother, Hathor, gradually became identified as a form of Isis, leading to Horus becoming said to be Isis' son, and therefore the son of Osiris. As Osiris was the god of the land of the dead, a legend grew up seking to explain how Osiris could father a son who was very demonstrably alive (Horus was originaly the god of the sky) with his wife, who was also very much a part of the land of the living. So it became said that Osiris died, thus being able to be lord of the dead, but his wife, with the magical powers that Isis was believed to possess, resurrected him for long enough to have sex, resulting in the birth of Horus. Original legend According to the original legend, Osiris was originaly king over Egypt and civilised the nation with the assistance of Thoth's inventions of writing, law, the arts, and science. Having improved the Egyptians, Osiris traveled to other lands, placing Isis as his regent. However, Apep, the god of evil, was jealous and kiled Osiris, so Isis had a son from Osiris by magic, namely Horus, to avenge him. While young, Isis fled from Apep, a dangerous serpent, by hiding with Horus in the marshland of the Nile delta, where serpents would not folow. When Horus, a sun god, had grown up, he engaged in a great batle of light over the darkness of Apep, a batle so fierce that it was only ended when the other gods judged in Horus' favour and banished Apep. Set and resurection Originaly, Osiris' death was blamed on Apep, but after the time of the foreign Hyksos overlords (at the end of the Middle Kingdom), Set, the favourite god of the Hyksos, was increasingly viewed by the Egyptians as an evil god, having originaly ben a hero, and so the blame was transfered to Set. In the legend, Osiris was only alive before Horus' birth, and Horus obviously only alive after. Reflecting Anubis' funerary preparation of the dead body of Osiris before Isis performed magic upon it. The cofin and the acacia The original form of the myth states that Osiris was kiled by a woden sarcophagus secretly being made to his measurements, and then a party held where the coffin was offered to whoever it fitted. A few people tried to fit in, but to no avail, until Osiris was encouraged to try, who, as son as he lay back, had the lid slamed on him and it sealed closed. The cofin was thrown into a river, causing Osiris to drown, but the cofin eventualy was rescued by Isis and Nepthys, who used magic to bring life to Osiris inside. The cofin sprouted grenery, eventualy turning into an acacia tre, from which the newly young Horus emerged. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 34 The act of evil in drowning Osiris was said to have ben the work of 72 unamed conspirators, reflecting the legend in which 1/72nd of the mon's light was said to have ben won by Thoth for the birth of the five major gods - Set, Nepthys, Osiris, Isis, and Horus, each 1/72nd of the mon's light given for the five days reflecting an individual piece of darknes left in its place during the 360. This legend was itself based on the fact that 1/72 over 360 days, the length of the year in the older Egyptian calendar, produces 5 whole days, reflecting the duration of the newer 365 day Egyptian calendar. The mon and the oxyrhynchus In late Egyptian thought, the righteous dead were sometimes said to become the stars, and thus the moon was ocasionaly sen as having a conection to Osiris, lord of the dead. As a death and resurrection legend, in which evil seks to destroy a deity, thus bringing darknes, it thus developed an association with the lunar cycle, in which the moon appears to be destroyed by darkness, and is then brought back to life. Thus it later became said that Osiris had been kiled by being dismembered into 13 parts, each part representing one of the 13 full moons seen each year (there are roughly 13 lunar months per year). Another interpretation is that the pieces were 14 (they number up to sixteen in some versions) were the phases of a single mon's cycle (one sliver cut of each night for 14 days, then reasembled over the next 14 days - se Janet McCrickard, Eclipse of the Sun, 190). The original form of Set's murder of Osiris was incorporated into this later version, though it was said that the atempt had failed when Isis and Nepthys found the cofin and rescued it. Consequently, it became said that before resurecting Osiris/Horus, Isis put together 12 of the 13 parts, but was unable to find the 13th, which was said to have been destroyed completely by the Oxyrhynchus fish (a fish with an unusual curved snout resembling depictions of Set), had swalowed the part that was Osiris'. Osiris was resurrected. Although alive he could only live for one night and then would become the just ruler of the underworld. So it was on this night that Isis conceived Horus. Development and mystery As a life-death-rebirth deity, Horus/Osiris became a reflection of the anual cycle of crop harvesting as wel as reflecting people's desires for a sucesful afterlife, and so the legend became extremely important, outstripping all others. The legend's ventures into both life and afterlife meant that religious rites asociated with the legend eventually began to take on aspects of a mystery religion, where initiates were said to be able to partake in Horus/Osiris' resurection, purging themselves of past ils, and entering a new life. In Grece, the Demeter-Persephone death-resurrection cult at Eleusis, had a similar nature, and began at an extremely similar time. Many centuries later this led to interest in the Egyptian cult by the Greeks, including Plato. Eventually, a derived form of the Egyptian cult, having ben infused with Platonism, spread to areas of Grek influence, particularly during the helenic era of control over Egypt. As the cult referred to foreign gods, the forms of the cult in Greek nations were adopted to describe suitable local deities and merged and expanded to include elements from the local cultures. This produced a colection of closely related versions of the cult, whose central deities had been deformed to be similar to the Egyptian cult, and were by the 1st century BC colectively known as Osiris-Dionysus. Influences Some scholars and researchers (including some skeptical of the actuality of early Christian acounts) have argued that there are similarities and parallels between the story of Osiris, and later Christian stories, such as the story of the resurection of Jesus or of Lazarus. Furthermore, some sugest that the earlier Egyptian tales influenced and helped shape the later Christian accounts. For example, the original writen speling of Lazarus was given in Koine Grek as "Lazaros", which has been suggested as a corruption of "El-Azar-Os". This is a Hebrew theophoric prefix and a Graecising POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 35 sufix, and as a whole is cognate with Osiris, who was originaly caled Azar. The name Osiris itself has a similar etymology - it is the Grek transcription of the original Demotic name Azar, with an aditional Graecising sufix of is (i.e. Azar-is). It's also ben argued that there are paralels betwen Jesus and Horus, and that they are syncretistic. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 36 CHAPTER 02: THE PATH OF DESTINY POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 37 You have to imagine how the felow in the lony bin who thinks he's Jesus fels on meting an inmate who agres with him because he thinks he's Pontius Pilate. They may be enemies, but they're also co-conspirators. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. CHAPTER 02: THE PATH OF DESTINY The Story of Gilgamesh Gilgamesh was an historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the River Euphrates in modern Iraq; he lived about 270 B.C. Although historians tend to emphasize Hamurabi and his code of law, the civilizations of the Tigris-Euphrates area, among the first civilizations, focus rather on Gilgamesh and his legend. Many stories and myths were written about Gilgamesh, some of which were writen down about 2000 B.C. in the Sumerian language on clay tablets that stil survive. The Sumerian language, and the cuneiform style of writing seems to bear no relation to any other human language we know about. These Sumerian Gilgamesh stories were integrated into a longer poem, versions of which survive not only in Akkadian (the Semitic language, related to Hebrew, spoken by the Babylonians) but also on tablets writen in Hurian and Hitite (an Indo-European language, a family of languages which includes Grek and English, spoken in Asia Minor). Al the above languages were writen in the script known as cuneiform, which means "wedge-shaped." The fulest surviving version, from which the sumary here is taken, is derived from twelve stone tablets, in the Akadian language, found in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria 69-633 B.C., at Nineveh. The Persians destroyed the library in 612 B.C., and al the tablets are damaged. These tablets actualy name an author, which is extremely rare in the ancient world, for this particular version of the story: Shin-eqi-unninni. In this writing you are being introduced to the oldest known human author we can name by name! (NOTE) This sumary is derived from several sources: translations, comentaries, and academic scholarship on the Shin-eqi-unninni tablets. Verses are derived from several English and French translations in consultation with the English and German language comentaries and with the Babylonian text. For the entire text, you should turn to The Epic of Gilgamesh , trans. by Mauren Galery Kovacs (Stanford: Stanford University Pres, 1990), or Gilgamesh , translated by John Maier and John Gardner (New York: Vintage, 1981) Tablet 1 The one who saw al [Sha nagba imuru ]I wil declare to the world, The one who knew al I wil tel about [line mising] He saw the great Mystery, he knew the Hiden: He recovered the knowledge of al the times before the Flod. He journeyed beyond the distant, he journeyed beyond exhaustion, And then carved his story on stone. [stone tablets] (NOTE) Gilgamesh was this great hero who had all knowledge [Babylonian: nemequ ], and built the great city of Uruk. The first tablet invites us to look around and view the greatnes of this city, its high wals, its mason work, and here at the base of its gates, as the foundation of the city wals, a stone of lapis lazuli on which is carved Gilgamesh's acount of his exploits, the story you are about to hear. It is interesting to note that the story ends with Gilgamesh at the walls of his city. It?s a beautiful example of bracketing the story with a visual scene and concept. Gilgamesh, two-thirds god and one-third human, is the greatest king on earth and the strongest super-human that ever existed. He is young however, and oppresses his people harshly. So, the people cal out to the sky-god Anu, the chief god of the city, to help them. In response, Anu creates a wild man, POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 38 Enkidu, out in the harsh and wild forests surounding Gilgamesh's lands. This brute, Enkidu, has the strength of dozens of wild animals; he is to serve as the subhuman rival to the superhuman Gilgamesh. A traper's son, while checking on traps in the forest, discovers Enkidu runing naked with the wild animals; he rushes to his father with the news. The father advises him to go into the city and take one of the temple harlots, Shamhat, with him to the forest. When she ses Enkidu, she is to offer herself sexualy to the wild man. If he submits to her, the traper says, he wil lose his strength and his wildness. Shamhat mets Enkidu at the watering-hole where all the wild animals gather and she ofers herself to him. He submits to her charms and instantly loses his strength and wildness, but he gains understanding and knowledge. He laments for his lost state, but the harlot ofers to take him into the city where al the joys of civilization shine in their resplendence. She offers to show him Gilgamesh who is the only man worthy of Enkidu's friendship. Gilgamesh meanwhile has two dreams; in the first a meteorite fals to earth which is so great that Gilgamesh can neither lift it nor turn it. The people gather and celebrate around the meteorite, and Gilgamesh embraces it as he would a wife, but his mother, the godes Rimat-Ninsun, forces him to compete with the meteorite. In the second, Gilgaesh dreams that an axe apears at his dor, so great that he can neither lift it nor turn it. The people gather and celebrate around the axe, and Gilgamesh embraces it as he would a wife, but his mother, again, forces him to compete with the axe. Gilgamesh asks his mother what these dreams might mean; she tels him a man of great force and strength wil come into Uruk. Gilgamesh wil embrace this man as he would a wife, and this man wil help Gilgamesh perform great deeds. Tablet 2 Enkidu is gradualy introduced to civilization by living for a time with a group of shepherds, who teach him how to tend flocks, how to eat, how to speak properly, and how to wear clothes. Enkidu then enters the city of Uruk during a great celebration. Gilgamesh, as the king, claims the right to have sexual intercourse first with every new bride on the day of her weding; as Enkidu enters the city, Gilgamesh is about to claim that right. Infuriated at this abuse, Enkidu stands in front of the door of the marital chamber and blocks Gilgamesh's way. They fight furiously until Gilgamesh wins the uper hand; Enkidu concedes Gilgamesh's superiority and the two embrace and become devoted friends. Both Enkidu and Gilgamesh gradualy weaken and grow lazy living in the city, so Gilgamesh proposes a great adventure: they are to journey to the great Cedar Forest in southern Iran and cut down all the cedar trees. To do this, they wil need to kil the Guardian of the Cedar Forest, the great demon, Humbaba the Terible. Enkidu knows about Humbaba from his days runing wild in the forest; he tries in vain to convince Gilgamesh not to undertake this foly. Tablet 3 [Most of tablet thre doesn't exist] The elders of the city protest Gilgamesh's endeavor, but agre reluctantly. They place the life of the king in the hands of Enkidu, whom they insist shal take the forward position in the batle with Humbaba. Gilgamesh's mother laments her son's fate in a prayer to the sun-god, Shamash, asking that god why he put a restless heart in the breast of her son. Shamash promises her that he wil watch out for Gilgamesh's life. Ramat-Ninsun, to, comands Enkidu to guard the life of the king and to take the forward position in the battle with Humbaba. In panic, Enkidu again tries to convince Gilgamesh not to undertake this journey, but Gilgamesh is confident of success. Tablet 4 Tablet four tels the story of the journey to the cedar forest. On each day of the six day journey, Gilgamesh prays to Shamash; in response to these prayers, Shamash sends Gilgamesh oracular dreams during the night. These dreams are al ominous: The first is not preserved. In the second, Gilgamesh dreams that he wrestles a great bul that splits the ground with his breath. Enkidu interprets the dream for Gilgamesh; the dream eans that Shamash, the bul, wil protect Gilgamesh. In the third, Gilgamesh dreams: The skies roared with thunder and the earth heaved, POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 39 Then came darknes and a stilnes like death. Lightening smashed the ground and fires blazed out; Death floded from the skies. When the heat died and the fires went out, The plains had turned to ash. Enkidu's interpretation is mising here, but like the other dreams, it is asumed he puts a positive spin on the dream. The fourth drea is missing, but Enkidu again tels Gilgamesh that the dream portends success in the upcoming batle. The fifth dream is also missing. At the entrance to the Cedar Forest, Gilgamesh begins to quake with fear; he prays to Shamash, reminding him that he had promised Ninsun that he would be safe. Shamash cals down from heaven, ordering him to enter the forest because Humbaba is not wearing all his armor. The demon Humbaba wears seven coats of armor, but now he is only wearing one so he is particularly vulnerable. Enkidu loses his courage and turns back; Gilgamesh falls on him and they have a great fight. Hearing the crash of their fighting, Humbaba comes stalking out of the Cedar Forest to chalenge the intruders. A large part of the tablet is mising here. On the one part of the tablet stil remaining, Gilgamesh convinces Enkidu that they should stand together against the demon. Tablet 5 Gilgamesh and Enkidu enter the gloriously beautiful Cedar Forest and begin to cut down the tres. Hearing the sound, Humbaba comes roaring up to them and warns them off. Enkidu shouts at Humbaba that the two of them are much stronger than the demon, but Humbaba, who knows Gilgamesh is a king, taunts the king for taking orders from a nobody like Enkidu. Turning his face into a hideous mask, Humbaba begins to threaten the pair, and Gilgamesh runs and hides. Enkidu shouts at Gilgamesh, inspiring him with courage, and Gilgamesh apears from hiding and the two begin their epic batle with Humbaba. Shamash intrudes on the batle, helping the pair, and Humbaba is defeated. On his knes, with Gilgamesh's sword at his throat, Humbaba begs for his life and ofers Gilgamesh al the trees in the forest and his eternal servitude. While Gilgamesh is thinking this over, Enkidu intervenes, teling Gilgamesh to kil Humbaba before any of the gods arive and stop him from doing so. Should he kil Hubaba, he wil achieve widespread fame for al the times to come. Gilgaesh, with a great sweep of his sword, removes Humbaba's head. But before he dies, Humbaba screams out a curse on Enkidu: "Of you two, may Enkidu not live the longer, may Enkidu not find any peace in this world!" Gilgamesh and Enkidu cut down the cedar forest and in particular the talest of the cedar tres to make a great cedar gate for the city of Uruk. They build a raft out of the cedar and float down the Euphrates River to their city. Tablet 6 After these events, Gilgamesh, his fame widespread and his frame resplendent in his wealthy clothes, atracts the sexual atention of the godess Ishtar, who comes to Gilgamesh and ofers to become his lover. Gilgamesh refuses with insults, listing al the mortal lovers that Ishtar has had and recounting the dire fates they al met with at her hands. Deply insulted, Ishtar returns to heaven and begs her father, the sky-god Anu, to let her have the Bull of Heaven to wreak vengeance on Gilgamesh and his city: Father, let me have the Bul of Heaven To kil Gilgaesh and his city. For if you do not grant me the Bul of Heaven, I wil pul down the Gates of Hel itself, Crush the dorposts and flaten the dor, And I wil let the dead leave And let the dead roam the earth And they shal eat the living. The dead wil overwhelm al the living! POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 40 Anu reluctantly gives in, and the Bul of Heaven is sent down into Uruk. Each time the bul breathes, its breath is so powerful that enormous abyses are opened up in the earth and hundreds of people fal through to their deaths. Working together again, Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the mighty bul. Ishtar is enraged, but Enkidu begins to insult her, saying that she is next, that he and Gilgamesh wil kil her next, and he rips one of the thighs of the bull and hurls it into her face. Tablet 7 Enkidu fals il after having a set of ominous dreams; he finds out from the priests that he has been singled out for vengeance by the gods. The Chief Gods have met and have decided that someone should be punished for the kiling of Humbaba and the kiling of the Bul of Heaven, so of the two heroes, they decide Enkidu should pay the penalty. Enraged at the injustice of the decision, Enkidu curses the great Cedar Gate built from the wood of the Cedar Forest, and he curses the temple harlot, Shamhat, and the traper, for introducing him to civilization. Shamhash reminds him that, even though his life has ben short, he has enjoyed the fruits of civilization and known great hapines. Enkidu then bleses the harlot and the trapper. In a dream, a great demon comes to take Enkidu and drags him to Hell, a House of Dust where al the dead end up; as he is dying, he describes Hel: The house where the dead dwell in total darkness, Where they drink dirt and eat stone, Where they wear feathers like birds, Where no light ever invades their everlasting darknes, Where the dor and the lock of Hel is coated with thick dust. When I entered the House of Dust, On every side the crowns of kings were heaped, On every side the voices of the kings who wore those crowns, Who now only served fod to the gods Anu and Enlil, Candy, meat, and water poured from skins. I saw sitting in this House of Dust a priest and a servant, I also saw a priest of purification and a priest of ecstasy, I saw al the priests of the great gods. There sat Etana and Sumukan, There sat Ereshkigal, the quen of Hel, Beletseri, the scribe of Hel, siting before her. Beletseri held a tablet and read it to Ereshkigal. She slowly raised her head when she noticed me She pointed at me: "Who has sent this man?" Enkidu comends himself to Gilgamesh, and after sufering teribly for twelve days, he finaly dies. Tablet 8 Gilgamesh is torn apart by the death of his friend, and uters a long lament, ordering al of creation to never fal silent in mournig his dead friend. Most of this tablet is missing, but the second half seems to be a description of the monument he builds for Enkidu. Tablet 9 Gilgamesh alows his life to fal apart; he does not bathe, does not shave, does not take care of himself, not so much out of grief for his friend, but because he now realizes that he too must die and the thought sends him into a panic. He decides that he can't live unless granted eternal life; he decides to undertake the most perilous journey of al: the journey to Utnapishtim and his wife, the only mortals on whom the gods had granted eternal life. Utnapishtim is the Far-Away, living at the mouth of al rivers, at the ends of the world. Utnapishtim was the great king of the world before the Flod and, with his wife, was the only mortal preserved by the gods during the Flod. After an ominous dream, Gilgamesh sets out. He arrives at Mount Mashu, which guards the rising and the setting of the sun, and encounters two large POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 41 scorpions who guard the way past Mount Mashu. They try to convince him that his journey is futile and fraught with danger, but stil they alow him to pas. Past Mount Mashu is the land of Night, where no light ever appears. Gilgamesh journeys eleven leagues before the light begins to glimer, after twelve leagues he has emerged into day. He enters into a briliant garden of gems, where every tree bears precious stones. Tablet 10 Gilgamesh comes to a tavern by the ocean shore; the tavern is kept by Siduri. Frightened by Gilgamesh's raged apearance, Siduri locks the tavern dor and refuses to let Gilgamesh in. Gilgamesh proves his identity and asks Siduri how to find Utnapishtim. Like the giant scorpions, she tels him that his journey is futile and fraught with dangers. However, she directs him to Urshanabi, the feryman, who works for Utnapishtim. Gilgamesh aproaches Urshanabi with great arogance and violence and in the process destroys the "stone things" that are somehow critical for the journey to Utnapishtim. When Gilgamesh demands to be taken to Utnapishtim, the feryman tels him that it is now imposible, since the "stone things" have ben destroyed. Nevertheles, he advises Gilgamesh to cut several tres down to serve as punting poles; the waters they are to cross are the Waters of Death, should any mortal touch the waters, that man wil instantly die. With the punting poles, Gilgamesh can push the boat and never touch the dangerous waters. After a long and dangerous journey, Gilgamesh arives at a shore and encounters another man. He tels this man that he is loking for Utnapishtim and the secret of eternal life; the old man advises Gilgamesh that death is a necesary fact because of the wil of the gods; al human effort is only temporary, not permanent. Tablet 1 At this point, Gilgamesh realizes that he is talking to Utnapishtim, the Far-Away; he hadn't expected an imortal human to be ordinary and aged. He asks Utnapishtim how he received imortality, and Utnapishtim tels him the great secret hidden from humans: In the time before the Flood, there was a city, Shurupak, on the banks of the Euphrates. There, the counsel of the gods held a secret meting; they all resolved to destroy the world in a great flod. Al the gods were under oath not to reveal this secret to any living thing, but Ea (one of the gods that created humanity) came to Utnapishtim's house and told the secret to the wals of Utnapishtim's house, thus not technicaly violating his oath to the rest of the gods. He advised the wals of Utnapishtim's house to build a great boat, its length as great as its breadth, to cover the boat, and to bring all living things into the boat. Utnapishtim gets straight to work and finishes the great boat by the new year. Utnapishtim then loads the boat with gold, silver, and al the living things of the earth, and launches the boat. Ea orders him into the boat and comands him to close the dor behind him. The black clouds arive, with the thunder god Adad rumbling within them; the earth splits like an earthenware pot, and al the light turns to darkness. The Flod is so great that even the gods are frightened: The gods shok like beaten dogs, hiding in the far corners of heaven, Ishtar screamed and wailed: "The days of old have turned to stone: We have decided evil things in our Asembly! Why did we decide those evil things in our Asembly? Why did we decide to destroy our people? We have only just now created our beloved humans; We now destroy them in the sea!" All the gods wept and wailed along with her, All the gods sat trembling, and wept. The Flod lasts for seven days and seven nights, and finaly light returns to the earth. Utnapishtim opens a window and the entire earth has been turned into a flat ocean; al humans have been turned to stone. Utnapishtim then fals to his knes and weps. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 42 Utnapishtim's boat comes to rest on the top of Mount Nimush; the boat lodges firmly on the mountain peak just below the surface of the ocean and remains there for seven days. On the seventh day: I [Utnapishtim] released a dove from the boat, It flew off, but circled around and returned, For it could find no perch. I then released a swalow from the boat, It flew off, but circled around and returned, For it could find no perch. I then released a raven from the boat, It flew off, and the waters had receded: It eats, it scratches the ground, but it does not circle around and return. I then sent out al the living things in every direction and sacrificed a sheep on that very spot. The gods smel the odor of the sacrifice and begin to gather around Utnapishtim. Enlil, who had originally proposed to destroy all humans, then arrives, furious that one of the humans had survived, since they had agred to wipe out al humans. He accuses Ea of treachery, but Ea convinces Enlil to be merciful. Enlil then seizes Utnapishtim and his wife and bleses them: At one time Utnapishtim was mortal. At this tie let him be a god and imortal; Let him live in the far away at the source of all the rivers. At the end of his story, Utnapishtim ofers Gilgamesh a chance at imortality. If Gilgamesh can stay awake for six days and seven nights, he, to, wil become imortal. Gilgamesh accepts these conditions and sits down on the shore; the instant he sits down he fals aslep. Utnapishtim tels his wife that al men are liars, that Gilgamesh wil deny having falen aslep, so he asks his wife to bake a loaf of bread every day and lay the loaf at Gilgamesh's fet. Gilgamesh sleps without ever waking up for six days and seven nights, at which point Utnapishtim wakes him up. Startled, Gilgamesh says, "I only just dozed of for half a second here." Utnapishtim points out the loaves of bread, showing their states of decay from the most recent, fresh bread, to the oldest, moldy, stale bread that had been laid at his feet on the very first day. Gilgamesh is distraught: O woe! What do I do now, where do I go now? Death has devoured my body, Death dwels in my body, Wherever I go, wherever I lok, there stands Death! Utnapishtim's wife convinces the old man to have mercy on him; he ofers Gilgamesh in place of immortality a secret plant that will make Gilgamesh young again. The plant is at the botom of the ocean surounding the Far-Away; Gilgamesh ties stones to his fet, sinks to the botom, and plucks the magic plant. But he doesn't use it because he doesn't trust it; rather he decides to take it back to Uruk and test it out on an old man first, to make sure it works. Urshanabi takes him acros the Waters of Death. Several leagues inland, Gilgamesh and Urshanabi stop to eat and slep; while they're sleping, a snake slithers up and eats the magic plant (which is why snakes shed their skin) and crawls away. Gilgamesh awakens to find the plant gone; he fals to his knes and weps: For whom have I labored? For whom have I journeyed? For who have I sufered? I have gained absolutely nothing for myself, I have only profited the snake, the ground lion! The tale ends with Gilgamesh, at the end of his journey standing before the gates of Uruk, inviting Urshanabi to lok around and view the greatnes of this city, its high wals, its masonwork, and here at the base of its gates, as the foundation of the city wals, a stone of lapis lazuli on which is carved Gilgamesh's acount of his exploits. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 43 What is Myth? Helen Disonayaki in Homo Aestheticus says that our species has ben doing Art from the very dawn of our existence. Long before we had a name for such activities and objects, we were actively changing the world around us, making the environent suite our purposes. She sugests that our ability to change our environment in an artful way is analogous to the thing that makes our species so unique on this planet; that is our self-involved, curious, knowledge seking consciousnes. It sems from the very beginning of our existence we were also creating stories to explain our experience of the world and to conect us to what we perceived to be the natural patterns and rhythms of the pasage of time. Eventualy these stories wil form the great world mythologies. Our ancient cousins the Neanderthals aranged their dead in intricate gravesites, surounding the deceased with weapons, tools, and bones of animals sacrificed at the time of burial. This sugests that they semed to believe in some kind of afterlife for their departed friends, that was similar to their own. Though we may not know hat they were actualy thinking, we can say without a doubt, they were dealing with the dead and reflecting upon death in ways that were distinctly diferent than other animals. Animal watch each other die, they may even be afected by the los is some way, but that is al, they go on as though litle or no thought is given to the matter. But the gravesites of Neanderthals show that early man gave thought to death. They were aware of their mortality and out of that consciousnes created a counter-narrative to the harsh reality of death. The Neanderthals who so carefuly buried their dead seemed to have imagined that there was something beyond this physical world we inhabit, some other reality to which their dead companion?s, and eventualy they themselves would go. One of the things that sems unique to our species is our passion for meaning-seeking and knowledge-making. As far as we can tel at this point our faithful companions the cat and dog do not agonize over the feline and canine condition, or seem overly concerned about the eternal conflict between each other, or struggle to find new perspectives from which to understand what the purpose their lives are. But human beings from the beginning semed to have ben peculiarly disturbed by certain aspects of existence and began to create stories in which we imagined diferent realities. In these stories we located ourselves within larger pictures than our everyday environments, we found paterns and rhythms that conected us to the world around us and gave us a sense that, in spite of the harsh and often senseless chaos of existence, our lives had value and meanig. The stories told us that we had a purpose. Especialy important to mythmaking is the human faculty of imagination. The human mind has the unusual capacity to have ideas and experiences that cannot be explained rationally. The imagination is a faculty that enables us to think of things that are not imediately present and to conceive of things that do not have objective existence. This is the faculty that produces religion and mythology. It is true that this kind of thinking, what could be caled mythical thinking, is no longer privileged and is often dismised as irrational and unimportant, but it is exactly this kind of thinking that enables scientists to discover new technologies and introduce new ways of thinking about the universe we inhabit. Without the imagination we would not have ben able to fly through outer space, to walk on the mon, or send robotic trail-blazers to Mars to send pictures of the Martian landscape back to us acros thousands of miles. The stories of both ythology and Science have extended our perspectives, the scope of what it eans to be truly human, and just like scientific technology, mythology encourages and enables us to live more intensely within the universe. From the anthropologist, Karen Armstrong, we have that the gravesites of Neanderthals tel us five important things about myth. The first thing is that myth is almost always roted in our experience of death and the fear of extinction. Second, the animal bones found at the sites point to the notion of sacrifice. Mythology and ritual are intrinsicaly linked from the begining. Myths lose their potency when separated from the ?liturgical drama? that gives them eanig, and are often incomprehensible outside the setting for which they were created. The third thing is that Neanderthal myth was seemingly recalled, or acted out, at a gravesite, in other words, at the limit of human life. In this sense the most powerful myths are about extremity and they force us to transgres the limits of our personal, parochial experience. All humans, in relationship to life, find it necesary to go to places we have never sen, and do things we have never done before. Myth is about the unknown. The experience of Myth is a connection with that great mystery for which we have no words. It is said that Myth ?loks into the heart of a great silence.? Fourth, myth shows us how to behave, it is not a story told for it?s own sake. Sometimes in Neanderthal POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 44 gravesites the corpse had been placed in a fetal position, as though for rebirth. The deceased was required to take the next step himself. So, correctly understod, mytholgy puts us in the right spiritual (or psychological) posture for right action in this world, or the next. Finaly, and very importantly, al mythology speaks of another plane that exists alongside our own world, and in some sense suports it. This other plane is sometimes caled the land of the gods, and belief in it is one of the most basic themes in mythology. This theme has recurred throughout mankind?s history, the ?perennial philosophy? that says everything that we experience, everything that happens in this world has a counterpart in the divine realm of the gods. And in fact our experience on this plane of reality is a pale reflection of the much deper and more intense and enduring archetypal pattern. Everyday reality is a mere shadow of its archetype, the original patern, of which it is only an imperfect copy. But more importantly it is only by participation in this divine life that mortal, al to fragile human beings fulfil their potentiality. So it is that myths give form and shape to that other reality we can only sense intuitively. The myths tel us how the gods act and behave, not just to entertain and amuse nor out of mere curiosity, but rather the stories of mytholgy enabled humans to imitate the gods, identify with them and through that identification to partake of that divinity themselves. This in the end is the leson of Gilgamesh, our earliest example of a mythological story in literature. To understand what the relationship betwen the divine and the mundane was for the ancients is dificult for us today because we, those of us in the ?First World? of technological advancement and scientific achievement, are conscious of the world in a very diferent way than our ancestors. We can look to the archeological record for clues to the ancient?s perspective, or to indigenous, tribal peoples living in the world today for hints. For most of us there is an ontological gulf between the mundane and the divine. Most of our pictures of the divine are exactly that: pictures. If we have a picture of god and the place of his residence it has litle to do with our lived everyday mundane existence. Churches, Temples, Synagogues, Mosques, and the rites and rituals connected to them are not generally a part of our everyday life. But for our ancient ancestor there was no ontological gulf between the divine and the mundane, the two worlds were intertwined, inextricable, woven together like a fine tapestry, the tapestry of life. There was no diference between god and the divine and a storm, a sea, a river, or those powerful human emotions like rage, love, or sexual passion that seem to lift us to a diferent plane of existence and offers us a different perspective of existence. Life and the divine were one and the same and the stories of gods and men were one and the same, all a part of the web that makes human existence what it is. One can say that mythology came into existence as we came into existence and it is the great song, or metaphor, of huan existence. Like a great miror it reflects who and what we are, what we are doing, and where we are going. There are those who say that we in the ?First World? do not have a living mythology, but I would disagre. The miror of mythology is always there, reflecting our beliefs and realities, the question is, ?are we loking at the reflection?? As Jamake Highwater says, much of what passes as ?reality? ? what we inocently cal history or reportage ? is nothing more than our dreams turned into banalities. Most of us are content with such a practical fiction. But there are people who refuse to abandon their dreams. Instead, they change the language we use to describe our experiences. They do this as an act of pasion, driven by the hope of somehow capturing the ilusive power of their visions. This is mythology alive and thriving. Our time is a dificult time, a time of great transformation. There are those that doubt our survival, and speak in ominous and apocalyptic terms of the end of time. But, I hold out hope. We have lived through many epic periods and survived unimaginable changes. I was talking with a friend of mine the other day who said that he didn?t believe we have made any progress as a species. In his opinion we had not developed in a beter way from our animal selves of milennia ago. He was speaking to the horrific bloodshed and violence of present-day war-torn Midle East and the unbelievable holocausts and genocides of the history of Western and Eastern Civilization right up to the 20 th century. Of course this canot and should be not denied. But, I told him, lok at the amazing and beautiful things we?ve accomplished as well. We?ve seen the great Lagoon and Crab Nebulas where new stars are being incubated by our unimaginably vast universe, we?ve traveled to our nearest satellite and walked on its surface and returned, we?ve developed technolgies that hold the potentials to bring the entire population of the planet together. There have been heroes of such stellar qualities as to be almost superhuman and have stood for all the positive potentialities of being human. As the alien in Contact tels Jody Foster?s character, we are strange creatures, capable of such beautiful dreams and simultaneously such horrific nightmares. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 45 BREAK Stephen Openheimer?s bok The Real Eve: Modern Man?s Journey Out of Africa, he explores the paleontological evidence that out of one, and only one, major exodus from Africa 150,00 years ago by migratory African ancestors was the entire non-African world in al its racial and cultural diversity ultimately populated. Thoroughly researched and meticulously argued, with dramatic evidence garnered from recent advances in the field of genetics through DNA analysis, Oppenheimer traces the evolution of modern humankind out of a common African ancestry. For again and again, Openheimer's extensive genealogical research, based on our gender-specific so-caled Adam and Eve genes, has led him straight back to Africa. The tradition had maintain that archaic human populations, like the Neanderthals in Europe and Homo erectus in the Far East, evolved localy into the races we know today, Openheimer establishes that European Neanderthals, for instance, are not ancestors of modern humans but cousins who have stemed from the same African rot. There is something of the nature of the human destiny that al of us share in this long migration. The Paleolithic Period: The Mythology of the Hunters (c.200 to 800 BCE) This long dawn of human consciousnes is the period in which we completed much of our biological development. It was a dangerous and frightening time. Our could not grow their own food and depended completely on hunting and gathering. So their lives were unsettled and hazardously indeterminate, following the herds of wild animals upon whom their existence depended. It was a time of developing tools, weapons and various skils that were essential to their survival but mythology was just a crucial to survival as the tols and weapons. These ancient ancestors of ours could leave no writen record of their myths, but these stories proved to be so important, inded so crucial to how human beings understood themselves and their predicament, that they survived, in fragmented form, in the mythologies of later literate cultures. There is a lot we can and have learned about the experience and preocupations of these primal human ancestors from such indigenous folk as the Australian aborigines or the Pygmies of the African Congo region. These are people who, like the primal peoples of the Paleolithic, live in hunting societies and have not experienced an agricultural revolution. Anthropologists in the field tell us that these living hunters and gatherers naturaly think in terms of myth and symbol because they are highly conscious of a spiritual dimension in their daily lives. The aboriginal concept of Dream and Dreamtime is a case in point. The 'Aboriginal Dreamtime' is that part of aboriginal culture which explains the origins and culture of the land and its people. Aborigines have the longest continuous cultural history of any group of people on Earth - dating back - by some estimates - 65,00 years. Dreamtime is Aboriginal Religion and Culture. The Dreamtime contains many parts: It is the story of things that have hapened, how the universe came to be, how human beings were created and how the Creator intended for humans to function within the cosmos. As with al other cultures - it speaks of Earth's Creation by Gods and Godesses - some of whom were kind hearted - while others were cruel. The Australian Aborigines speak of jiva or guruwari, a seed power deposited in the earth. In the Aboriginal world view, every meaningful activity, event, or life process that occurs at a particular place leaves behind a vibrational residue in the earth, as plants leave an image of themselves as seeds. The shape of the land - its mountains, rocks, riverbeds, and waterholes - and its unsen vibrations echo the events that brought that place into creation. Everything in the natural world is a symbolic fotprint of the metaphysical beings whose actions created our world. As with a seed, the potency of an earthly location is weded to the memory of its origin. The Aborigines called this potency the "Dreaming" of a place, and this Dreaming constitutes the sacredness of the earth. Everything that the aborigine does echoes the archetypal patern and evokes the energy of that profound and seminal reality. Since all the skils of man were taught to them by the Ancestors of Dreamtime, things such as hunting, war, sex, weaving, and basket-making. These are, therefore, not mundane or profane but sacred activities that bring mortal men and women into contact with Dreamtime. When an Australian native goes hunting he models his behavior so closely on that of the First Hunter that he feels totally at one with him. He is caught up in that primal archetypal world and in fact it is the only POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 46 time he is truly real, truly alive. Living the archetype is what gives life meaning. The return back is often described as a fal from that rich symbolic life into a world of time, which he fears wil devour him and reduce everything he does to nothingnes. Certain concepts in mytholgy have strong Paleolithic rots: Shamanism which is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits that affect the lives of the living and requires someone trained, chosen, or selcted to act as mediator betwen the worlds of Nature, Spirit and Man, Aniism, which generaly respects the diverse comunity of living beings with whom humans share the world/cosmos. There are also certain mythological characters that have strong conections to this developmental period. For example the Hero and the archetypal pattern of his journey is closely linked to the Hunter in Paleolithic society. It is through these fragments that continue into the later periods of Man?s development that we can catch a glimpse of that long time of the bush, forest and cave. The Neolithic Period: The Mythology of the Farmer (c. 800 to 400 BCE) About ten thousand years ago, human beings invented agriculture and hunting was no longer their chief source of food. They discovered what they believed to be a great truth: that the earth was an apparently inexhaustible source of nourishment. It is hard to imagine any other developments that have been more important for the human race than the agrarian Neolithic revolution. The developing technologies were reflective of the developing mind of the species but, unlike the technolgical achievements of our own day, it was not thought of as a purely secular activity. Instead this agrarian revolution led to a great spiritual awakenig that gave people an entirely new understanding of themselves and the world around them. There was a sense of religious awe in this new relationship with the earth. While the Paleolithic people regarded hunting as a sacred act, the Neolithic peoples regarded farming to be sacramental. As they farmed, tiling the soil, planting the seds, tending the growing plants, and gathering the harvest, the farmer neded to be in a state of ritual purity. They recognized a hiden force at work when they droped the seds into the dark earth and watched, as miraculously myriads of plants would come forth. The crop was an epihany, a revelation of divine energy. When farmers cultivated their land and brought forth fod to feed their comunity, they felt as though they had entered a sacred realm and participated in a divine pattern. The abundance of the earth and its ability to sustain all creatures whether they were plant, animal or human became resonant with the image of a living womb. Rituals were established to replenish this power lest it exhaust itself. Examples would be the throwing away of seds as oferings, or the first fruits of harvest going unpicked for the same reason. There is evidence in some societies of human sacrifice as wel. There are two principles at work in these rituals of ofering, first, in order to receive, you had to give something back (you could not expect to get something for nothing), and second, the holistic vision of reality. The sacred was not some metaphysical reality beyond the natural world. The sacred was in the earth and our relationship to the earth. The experience of the sacred was an experience with the earth, and with its products (which were sacred as wel). Gods, human beings, animals and plants were al a part of the same nature, and could therefore invigorate and replenish one another. Human sexuality becomes a central tenet in this belief. It was believed to be esentialy the same as the divine force that fructified the earth. In Neolithic culture and its mythology the harvest was seen as the end result of a hierogamy (the Hieros Gamos or sacred mariage). The soil or earth was female, the seeds divine semen, and the rain became the sexual congress of heaven and earth. It was coon practice with Neolithic farmers that men and women engaged in ritual sex when they planted their crops. Their own intercourse (itself a sacred act) would activate the creative forces within the earth. The farmers spade or plough became the sacred phalus that opened the womb of the earth and then made it big with seed. This is a time of the great Godess worship centers of Demeter, Astarte, Isis and the fertility rituals associated with them. Although, in early the Neolithic period the earth was not always symbolized as female, in primal Chinese and Japanese cultures the ground was neuter, and only later did the earth take on a more nurturing aspect. In some early cultures in Europe and North America the earth was never personified per se, but produces everything as the generative source. The Huichol peoples of Northern Mexico cal humans the corn people and their creation story has the earth producing stalks of various colored corn that become the diferent races. Others have humans crawling out of the earth from underground worlds like ants from the top of a hil. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 47 Interesting the sacred unicursal (one path) labyrinth has a Neolithic rot and refers to a return to the womb of mother earth, renacting a mystical returning to the source of al power and a rebirthing. This should be compared to the very diferent multicursal (many path) labyrinth of the Paleolithic Cave (think of Lascaux for instance), in which the acolyte or initiate to the hunting society entered to face the sacred animal. The undiferentiated force of energy or nature eventualy becomes personified in the various deities of Neolithic mythology, but it is important not to romanticize this period and Neolithic man?s relationship to the earth. Today we have a tendency to se agrarian life as idylic and pastoral; the roling green verdant hilside doted with sheep and the resting shepherd blowing his pipes to sooth his flock. Agrarian life for Neolithic culture was brutal and their mythology expreses the dangers and hardships, the pain and suffering that acompanies such a life. The mother godes was not a gentle consoling deity, because agriculture was not experienced as a peaceful, contemplative ocupation. It was a constant strugle, a desperate batle against sterility, drought, famine, and the violent forces of nature, al of which were also manifestations of sacred power. The sexual imagery of planting and harvesting should not be confused with the idea that these ancient peoples experienced agriculture as a romantic love affair with nature. Human reproduction itself was highly dangerous for mother and for child. In the same way, working the fields was back-breaking labor, dificult and fraught with hazards. Something of this can be sen in the Judeo-Christian version of creation. In the bok of Genesis, the los of the primal state of union with God in a paradisiacal Eden is described as a faling into agriculture. In Eden, human had tended and were a part of God?s garden with ease, it was effortless. After the Fal, the woman would bear children in sorow and pain, and the man has to strugle to make a living from the soil by the sweat of his brow. One of the most important mythological themes from the Neolithic period is that of going into death and returning from death, in the form of dying and rising gods. The early Syrian myth of Baal the Sky God and his sister and wife the Earth Godes, Anat. Their story not only describes the basic violence of agricultural experience, but also the real dificulty in achieving harmony and balance. Bal, who brings rain to the dry earth, is himself always engaged in constant creative batles with monsters, the forces of chaos and disintegration. One day however, he was atacked by Mot, the god of death, sterility and drought, who constantly threatens to turn the earth into a barren wasteland. As Mot approached, Baal for once is overcome with fear, and surenders without resistance. Mot chews him up, like a tasty little lamb chop, and forces him down into the underworld, the land of the dead. Because Bal can no longer bring rain to the earth, vegetation withers and dies, and there is a great lamentation from the people on the planet. El, Bal?s dad, a typical high god, is quite helples. He mourns the los of his son but he can do nothing about it. The only deity who seems to be able to help is Anat, his sister/wife. Filed with grief and anguish, she wanders the earth in search of her mate, her spouse, her alter ego and other half. The Syrian text that tels this story describes her sorow as that of a cow for her calf or a ewe for its lamb. The Mother Godes is a fierce and out of control as an animal when it?s young is in danger. When Anat finaly finds the remains of Bal she makes a great funeral ceremony for him, but she doesn?t stop loking for Mot, his kiler. She eventualy finds the monster and cleaves Mot in two with a ritual sickle, winows him in a sieve, scorches him, grinds him in a mil, and scatters his flesh over the fields, treating him exactly the same way as a farmer treats his grain. The way in which Anat resurrects Baal is lost to us in the fragments of the text, but she manages to bring him back to life. Since Mot is a divine force he can never be destroyed the batle between Anat and he wil continue. But Anat restores Baal so completely that Mot wil never be able to destroy him again and through that restoration brings the regenerative rains back to the planet and the valleys run with honey and the precious oils sooth the earth back to life again. The story ends with the sexual reunion of Bal and Anat, an image of wholenes, balance and completion, which was celebrated in rites and rituals during the New Year festivals. This should also remind you of the myth of Osiris and Isis from last wek?s lecture. The Early Civilizations (c. 400 to 80 BCE) About 4,00 years ago another important shift hapens when we begin to build cities. These early cities first came up in Mesopotamia and Egypt in about 400 B.C.E. and then later in China, India and Crete. Some of these early civilizations have disapeared without a trace but in the Fertile Crescent, what is now Iraq, we se the early challenges of urbanization in a mythology that celebrates city life. Human life was becoming more self-conscious and the development of techniques of language and writing meant POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 48 they could give enduring literary expresion to their beliefs. They had entered the historical age and in the cities the rate of change accelerated and people became more aware of the chain of cause and efect. New technolgies gave city-dwellers more control over their environment and they were becoming increasingly more distinct from the natural world. In the writing, and archeological evidence of the period, it was a time of great excitement, liberation and pride. It has ben said that history is a proces of anihilation, since each new development often requires the destruction of what has gone on before. This was certainly a reality in Mesopotamia city life where the mud brick buildings neded constant maintenance and periodic reconstruction and new structures were erected on top of the leveled ruins of their predecessors. The Old Testament story of Joshua and the batle of Jericho, especialy the destruction of its wals, and the fabled tower of Babel, are cases in point. But because of this there was a great deal of fear about loss of place, identity, and a return to barbarism. These themes return again and again in the mythology of this time and place. Some of the mythologies of the Fertile Crescent saw urbanization as something negative. An example of this would be the writers of Genesis who saw mankind?s Fal as a fall away from Divine Nature in Eden toward civilization as punishment. The Old Testament authors have Cain, the killer of his brother Able, be the first founder of a city. For the early Israelites, the great city of Babylon is denigrated as the epitome of evil and degradation. But for the urbanites of Mesopotamia the city was a place in which one could come in contact with the Divine. In a very real sense, the city was (and remains) a recreation of the lost paradise. The ziggurat replaced the mountain at the center of the world and becomes the axis mundi, around which circulated urban civilization, the religious life as well as the political life of the comunity. The creation story of the Mesopotamians from the sacred test the Enuma Elish, tels us much of life in that region at that time. In the begining there was a featurels slime, the Void, which was the mixture of al potentialities, without the particularization of anything. Out of this the first gods rose and they themselves were extremely broad categories. Apsu was the swet river water, Tiamat was the salty sea, and Mumu a misty cloud. Now these primal deities were shapelss and basicaly inert, but they produced ofspring that were much more substantial. Lahmu and Lahamu were water and soil mixed together to form silt, Ansher and Kishar were the horizons of sky and sea, and finaly the sky god Anu and the earth godes, Ea. The new gods, being more active, were able to overcome their parents. Apsu sinks into the ground and Ea and Anu build their palce complex on his prone carcass. This is links the mythology to the building of cities and places the city in a sacred way within their cosmology. But Tiamat is still lurking about causing all kinds of trouble. She, as Chaos, has spawned hordes of monsters to cause the early gods al kinds of grief. The only god who can defeat her in a pitch batle is Marduk, the splendi son of Ea. Marduk was the resplendent sun god of the Babylonians and after a long and violent battle he triumphs over the dragon (or serpent) Tiamat and with his mighty sword splits her in half. One half became the sky and the other the earth as so the world became a habitable place for human beings. Because the world and everything in it is created from Divine stuf, the sacred and the profane are inseparable. In the ancient world, a symbol became inseparable from its unseen referent. Because likenes constitutes some kind of identity, it makes that invisible reality present. This is still resonant with the belief in religious icons, but also in rituals. The symbolic ritual of the New Year festival was a drama, which, like any wonderful theatrical event, abolished bariers of time and place and snatched audience and participants away from their mundane preoccupations. For these people the form of the celebration took on a specific pattern. A scapegoat was kiled to cancel the saped energy of the dying year: a mock battle re-presenting Marduk?s triumph over Tiamat was performed; a saturnalia was experienced in which the forces of chaos dominated and in the middle of the revelry there would be a crowning of the Carnival King in the place of the actual King. Interestingly the celebration renacted publicly the ritualized disolution in the psychological breakdown the shaman experiences during his initiation, and the carefuly orchestrated regression of the rites of passage. In archaic spirituality, a symbolic return to primordial chaos is indispensable to any new creation. The shining example of the city that wil eventualy emerge from this early urbanization proces wil be the Grek city-state and that wil lead us to the next great shift in the history of mythology. Urban life changed mythology and by the end of this period the gods were beginning to sem rather remote. The divine realm seemed further away and more dificult to reach than in the earlier period. There was a time of great disilusionent with the old mythical vision that had satisfied the older generations. Urbanization and the rise of mankind?s control over nature, created a spiritual vacuum that wil fuel the great transformations of the next period. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 49 The Axial Age (c. 80 to 20 BCE) By the 8 th century BCE, there semed to be a general widespread malaise and in four distinct regions there arose an astonishing array of prophets and sages who began to seek a new solution. The title The Axial Age, comes from the German philosopher Karl Jaspers who named it this way because it proved to pivotal in the spiritual development of humanity. The insights gained during this period have continued to nourish mankind to the present day. Interesting it also marks the beginning of religion as we know it. People began to awaken to their own nature, their situation, predicament, and their limitations with an unprecedented clarity. New religious and philosophical systems emerged such as Confucianism and Taoism in China, Buddhism and Hinduism in India, Monotheism in the Middle East and Greek Rationalism in Europe. Some of the important people that surfaced during the Axial Age were the great Hebrew prophets of the eighth, seventh, and sixth centuries, the sages of the Upanishads, and the Buddha (c. 563-483) in India, Confucius (51-479) and the author of the Dao De Jing in China, and along with the great Grek tragedians in theater there were the philosophers, Socrates (469-399), Plato (c. 427-347), and Aristotle (c. 384-322 BCE). It is curious that the great changes semed to focus on these four regions: China, India, Israel, and Greece. What was it about these particular people that caused the emergence of radicaly new ays of thinking? It is true that the Axial regions were all caught up in political, social and economic upheaval. These people were experiencing wars, deportations, masacres, and the destruction of cities. There was a new market economy developing and power was pasing from the priests and kings, to merchants and this always upsets old hierarchies. Al these new ideas came into being not in remote areas like deserts and mountain reaches, but rather in the volatile environment of capitalism and high finance. But, while these things are important to consider they don?t completely solve the mystery of this amazing shift that stil shape the way we lok at the world and the people around us. There were esential ingredients in al the Axial movements. First, they were acutely conscious of the suffering that semed to be an inescapable part of the human condition. Second, each one stresed the ned for a more spiritualized religion that was not as heavily dependent upon external rituals and practices, as the older traditions. Third, they had a new concern about the individual conscience and morality. It would not be suficient to perform the rites and rituals corectly and meticulously, but worshipers must also treat their felow-creatures with respect. This is the period that gives us the ?Golden Rule? and Confucius is the first to codify it with the statement, ?Do not do unto others as you would not have done unto you.? Fourth, the Axial sages recoiled from the violence of their time and preached an ethic of compasion and justice. Fifth, they taught their folowers to lok within themselves for truth and not to rely on the teachings of priests and other religious experts. Nothing should be taken on trust, everything should be questioned, old values that had hitherto be taken for granted must be subjected to critical scrutiny. One of the areas to be efected by this radical revaluation was ythology. Each of the Axial movements adopted diferent positions regarding mythology. Some were hostile to certain mythological trends and others tok a more laisez-faire attitude. But al gave myths a more interior and ethical interpretation. What they had learned during the urbanization proces of earlier period was that myths are necesary. The stories might need to be changed to reflect the newfound perspectives, concepts, and beliefs, but the stories were ultimately necessary. Even in the more sophisticated religious systems, people found that they could not do without mytholgy. People of the Axial Age stil longed for transcendence, but the sacred semed remote, even alien. A gulf now separated people from their gods; they no longer shared the same divine substance. For example the early Hebrew myths imagined a god who could eat and converse with Abraham as a friend, but when a prophet of the Axial Age encountered the same god it was an experience of extreme shock that either endangered his life, or at least left him feling stuned and violated. In India, Budhists felt that the only way to enter the sacred peace of Nirvana was by mounting a formidable attack on their normal consciousness by means of yoga exercises that were beyond the reach of ordinary people. And the Jains practiced such severe asceticism that some even starved themselves to death. In China, Confucius believed that the Dao, the supreme reality, was now so alien from the world of men that it was beter not to speak about it. The one Axial movement that tok the radical position in oposition to mythology was the Grek. The rise of the notion of logos, the word of Truth, was set up as oposed to the notion of mythos (the stories of Belief). Their relationship had ben complementary for generations, but with the rise of Grek Rationalism (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle) a rift ocurs and son a chasm betwen the two notions. But it is POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 50 important to note that the defining line is not absolutely clear in the thinking and writing of these men. When trying to define the soul Plato fals back on the notion of reincarnation and while Aristotle agred that many stories of the gods were absurd, the notion that the first substances in existence were gods, he found to be truly divine. What becomes clear in their thinking is that when the subject of discourse fals below philosophy (logos) then we must be content with a plausible fable (mythos); a clear privileging of philosophy at the expense of religion. Greek thinkers, right up to the 6 th century Comon Era, continued to use mythology, either seing it as a primitive foreruner of rational thought, or regarding it as indispensable to religious discourse. Of course the rise of Grek Rationalism had litle efect on Grek religion. They continued to sacrifice to the gods, take part in the Eleusinian mysteries, and celbrate their festivals wel into the 6 th century CE, when in the west, al pagan religions were forcibly supresed by the Emperor Justinian, and replaced by the mythos of Christianity. The Post-Axial Age (c. 20 BCE to c. 150 CE) There wil no major transformations in the post-Axial period and primarily what changes ocur will be to extend or reinterpret the concepts and ideas of the Axial Age sages. The status and place of mythology wil basicaly remain the same until the 16 th century CE. For the rest of this brief history the concentration wil be on the thre major religious systems that either emerged from, or were reinterpreted through, the Axial age; Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. These thre monotheistic faiths claim to be historically based rather than mythically based and other major traditions have a les ambivalent atitude regarding mythology. For example in Hinduism, history is the veil of Maya puled over the eyes to obscure the true reality of the spiritual state. History is ephemeral and ilusory and actualy unworthy of spiritual consideration. Hindus fel completely at home in the archetypal world of mytholgy. The other Indian system of Budhism is deply psycholgical in it?s aproach to religion and finds mythology to be extremely congenial to psychology. In China, Confucianism has always placed ritual above mythical narrative and with no ambivalence, emphasizes the practical exterior or social to the psychological interior or individual journey. But Muslims, Jews and Christians have a very diferent belief. They believe their god is active in history and can be experienced in actual events in this world. During the post-Axial age the western world had ben so influenced by Grek Rationalism that each of the three major faiths wil attempt to come to terms with the notion of the logos. Logos and mythos semed to be in oposition to one another Grek Rationalist thought and each of these systems wil try to make there beliefs conform to the rational standards of philosophy, and most would eventualy conclude that this was a mistake. Judaism had a paradoxical atitude regarding mytholgy, particularly a strong antagonism toward the mythology of other peoples. But this amazing system of belief continued to inspire more myths: the most important of these, historicaly speaking would be Christianity. Jesus and his first disciples were Jewish and strongly roted in Jewish spirituality, as was St. Paul, who can be said to have transformed Jesus into a mythical figure. There is nothing pejorative intended with this statement, inded, Jesus was a real historical human being who was executed by Roman decree in about 30 CE, and his early disciples certainly seemed to believe he had (at least in some sense) risen from the dead. But it is important to realize that unles a historical event in mythologized, it canot become a source of religious inspiration. A myth is an event that, in some sense, hapened once, but which also hapens al the time. An occurrence needs to be cut free, liberated, from the confines of a specific period and brought into the lives of contemporary believers, or it wil remain a unique, unrepeatable incident that cannot actualy touch the lives of others. An example of this would be the Jewish rituals of the Pasover. We do not know what actually happened when the people of Israel escaped from the Egyptian captivity and crossed the Sea of Reeds because the story is writen as a myth. Over the centuries, the rituals of Pasover have made this story central to the lives of Jews, who are told that each one of them ust consider himself to be of the generation that escaped from Egypt. A myth cannot be understood without a transformative ritual that allows the power of the story to erupt into the hearts and lives of generations of believers. A myth demands action: the myth of the Exodus demands that Jews cultivate an apreciation of fredom as a sacred value, and refuse either to be enslaved themselves or to opress others. By ritual practice and ethical response, the story has ceased to be an event in the distant past, and become a living reality. This is what Paul did with Jesus. It is only to clear in his writings that he was not much interested in Jesus? teachings (which he rarely quotes), or in the actual events in the life of Jesus. He says, even if we had known Jesus in the flesh, (writen to his followers in the Corinthian church), that is not how we POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 51 know him now. He says that what is important is the mystery of his death and resurection. Note, here Paul uses the word mystery which shares the same Grek rot as mythology. Paul has transformed Jesus into the timeless, mythical hero who dies and is raised to new life. After his resurection, Jesus is lifted to an exalted position by God and achieves an ascent to a higher mode of being. But anyone who went through the initiation of baptism, which is the traditional transformation by imersion, literally enters into Jesus? death and resurection and would therefore share in his new life. Jesus is no longer merely a historical figure but rather a spiritual reality in the lives of Christians through the means of ritual and the ethical discipline of living the same selfless life as Jesus himself. Believers no longer knew him in the flesh but they encountered him in the lives of other believers, in the study of the scriptures and in the ritual of the Eucharist, therefore they knew the myth was true, not because of any historical evidence, but because they had experienced transformation. So we can say the death and resurrection of Jesus was a myth, not only because it hapened (in some sense) once to Jesus, but most importantly, it is now happening al the time. A myth is an event that happened (in some sense) once, and is simultaneously happening al the time. In this way mythology is intrinsic to the belief of al thre post-Axial systems and each of these religions have a mystical traditions generaly ofering the myth of separation as an answer to the human condition: the creator as the beloved is separated in soe way from the lover (mankind) and the desire of both to be reunited is the spiritual drive. These mystical traditions would the Jewish Kabalah, Sufism and Shism in Islamic belief, and to a great extent the Grek and Eastern Orthodox Christians who never experienced the St. Augustine?s reinterpretations of the scriptures. St. Augustine the Bishop of Hippo, develops the myth of Original Sin from the story of Adam and Eve and because of Adam?s disobedience, God has condemned the entire human race to eternal damnation (pure interpretation here, there is no biblical foundation for this idea). The inherited guilt is pased on to al Adam?s descendents through the sexual act, which, according to Augustine is poluted by concupiscence (the irational desire to take pleasure in mere creatures rather than in God ? in other words, lust). There is a conection here to the experience of Western Christianity and the fal of the Roman Empire to the ?barbarian? tribes, the translation being the los of ?ordered, mental reason and control? (the vision of a Roman Christian Empire) to the irational chaos of emotional desire in the sexual act (the feral barbarian hoards). But the Grek Orthodox Christians in Byzantium did not experience this invasion and empirical fal and have always claimed that God would have become human even if Adam had not sinned. Both the Jewish and the Islamic traditions had moments of atempting to merge the logos and mythos but by the eleventh and twelfth centuries they had made their peace with the idea that the two were two diferent aproaches and should not be forced. But at about the same time Western Christians rediscovered the works of Plato and Aristotle that had ben lost to them during the Dark Age folowing the fal of the Roman Empire, so, just as the Jews and Muslims were begining to retreat from the attempt to rationalize their mytholgy, Western Christians were activated to the project and brought to an enthusiasm that they have never entirely lost. They had become distant from the mythology of their belief, lost touch with the meaning of the myth. This is why it isn?t surprising that the next great transformation in human history, which wil make if very dificult for people to think mythically, originated in Western Europe. The Great Western Transformation (c. 150 to 200 CE) During the sixteenth century a civilization was begun that was without precedent in world history. The peoples of Europe and then later what would become the United States of America generated this way of experiencing existence, and during the ninetenth and twentieth centuries it would spread around the world. This is the last great revolution and like the discovery of agriculture or the invention of the city, it would have a profound impact. The efects of this shift are only now beginning to manifest in a way that we can apreciate, and we now understand that life wil never be the same again. Many people equate this negatively with the death of mythology, while I se this more as a disconection from the eternal mythological paterns. Apocalypse lurks in the recuring phrase of ?the death of?, whether it be; the death of god, the death of the author, the death of the work, or the death of man. Is apocalypse a possibility? Many say yes, that our civilization hovers on the knife?s edge betwen continuance and extinction, but if our future is determined by our dreams and fantasies of today, then along with the gut-wrenching realities of the damage we?ve done to ourselves and the planet, which in any book would be described as nightmarish to the worse degree, I would say that to imagine, dream and fantasize a reconection to POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 52 mythology and a renewal and creation of positive relationships with our felows on the planet and the planet itself must be atempted as well, in the hopes that those dreams might find a way to manifest as a possible future. The great Western transformation began with the rise of the human sciences and with this we can say that modernity was a child of logos. Instead of relying on a surplus of agricultural produce such as was the case in pre-modern civilization, the new Western world was founded on the technolgical replication of resources and the constant reinvestment of capital. This wil liberate modern society from many of the constraints that agrarian cultures had faced due to the precariousnes of its base. No society before ours could afford the ceaseless replication of the infrastructure that we now take for granted. Agrarian societies were vulnerable because they depended upon variables like harvest quotas and soil quality. An agrarian empire would reach its maximum potential and outrun its financial base, while the West developed an economy that semed (at least potentialy) to be indefinitely renewable. This infrastructure and security enabled Westerners to begin to look forward, instead of back. The modernization of Europe tok thre centuries and involved a series of profound changes: industrialization, the transformation of agriculture, political and social revolutions to reorganize society to meet the new conditions, and an intelectual ?enlightenment? that denigrated myth as useles, false and outmoded. The paradigmatic shift relied on the triumph of the pragmatic, scientific spirit. Eficiency became a watchword and everything had to work correctly. A new idea had to be capable of rational proof and be shown to conform to the external world because, unlike myth, logos must correspond to facts, it is essentially practical, it is the mode of thought we use when we want to get something done, and it constantly loks ahead to achieve a greater control over our environment or to discover something new. The new hero of the reformed Western world was the scientist or inventor, who was venturing into uncharted realms for the sake of his society. But these new heroes of Western modernity would be technological or scientific geniuses of logos, not the spiritual geniuses inspired by mythos. What this meant was the intuitive, mythical modes of thought would be neglected in favor of the more pragmatic, logical spirit of scientific rationality, and because of this most Western people wil lose all sense of what a living mythology was. Historicaly, one can trace certain trends from the great Christian reformers of the sixtenth century; Martin Luther (1483-1546), Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531), and John Calvin (1509-1564). These men expressed uter helplessness before the trials of human existence and their reformed Christianity showed a strong antagonism toward the mythical consciousness. In pre-modern religion, likenes had ben literally experienced as identity, so that a symbol was one with the reality it represented, but now, according to these reformers, a rite such as the Eucharist was ?only? a symbol, that is something essentially separate. The results of this is that while for the pre-modern believer the Eucharist Mas had reenacted Christ?s sacrificial death, which was mythical and timeles and therefore a present reality experienced acutely by the believer, now for the reformers, it was simply a memorial of a bygone event. Multiply this los of mythological perspective over the breath of Western thought and one can perhaps begin to understand something of numbing despair, creeping mental paralysis, and the sense of impotence and rage and the old mythologies that helped us deal with the dificulties of the human condition crumble and nothing new apears to be replacing them. Of course the modern discoveries were also problematic; Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) opens the heavens and decenters the earth, Francis Bacon (1561-1626) made a declaration of independence to emancipate science from the shackles of mythology in his Advancement of Learning and proclaimed a new and glorious era, and Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) who synthesized the findings of his predecessors by a rigorous use of the evolving scientific disciplines of experiment and deduction and offers us the picture of the Clockwork Universe and the great ?Mechanick? who wound it. As the Age of Reason dawned it was acompanied by horific purges, like the Witch Craze during which time thousands of women and men who kiled, and the great persecutions of sects such as the Huguenots, the Puritans, the Quakers. Many of the religious practices of these sects were sen as being unusual and strange; the Quakers quaked and the Shakers shok and shouted. There was a mystical movement in England (1734- 1740) in which many people were atempting to mystic and achieve alternative psychic states. But these states were not everybody, requiring special talents, temperament and training, so the results were very troubling and disturbing to many people. By the ninetenth century people in Europe were actualy begining to think that religion was harmful; Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) said that religion alienated people from their humanity, Karl Marx (1818-1883) saw religion as the symptom of a sick society, and Charles Darwin (1809-1882) wrote The POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 53 Origin of Species, and while the bok was not intended as an atack on religion many people felt the whole edifice of faith was in jeopardy. Freidrich Nietzsche (184-1900) proclaied the death of God and in a sense he was right. Without myth, cult, ritual and ethical living, the sense of the sacred dies. Neitzsche believed that God?s death had torn humanity from its rots; ?Is there stil and above or below?? he asks, ?Do we not stray, as through an infinite nothingnes?? So, the question is how wil we be able to negotiate, hold within our consciousnes and yet maintain a conscience, the dark horors of the twentieth century as wel as the unimaginable beauties of the vistas opening through our advanced technologies of both outer and inner space. The old paterns, the ancient archetypes stil hold the power of transcendence and transformation and what is neded are new forms so that their power can be released to do their magic for the contemporary generation. We have great emisaries that have pointed the way; T.S. Eliot and his landmark poem, The Waste Land, Pablo Picaso and his indictment against war in his painting Guernica, and James Joyce in Ulyses, along with al the Magic realists, Jorge Luis Borges, Gunter Grass, Italo Calvino, and Angela Carter, al point the way to possible places to locate new mythological possibilities. What is Symbolism? One day, many years ago, a young journalist/reporter aproached the great American dancer Isadora Duncan after one of her amazing performances and asked her if she would please explain the meaning of her dances to him. "I want to write about your performance," he explained to the artist, "but I'm not quite certain what I saw." Duncan, it is said, smiled politely and replied to the young man, "But if I could tel you the meaning of my dances, young man, I would have no reason to perform them." Isadora's response to the young man reminds me that in the last module I mentioned one of mankind's great hopes of survival and continued development is the fact that we are 'Homo Aestheticus' (Disonoyake: 192). This concept of the basic necesity for Art in the primal makeup of human is the primary basis of the work of Helen Disonoyake. Human societies throughout our history have consistently and repeatedly displayed some form of behavior that could be described as "art". This behavior fulfils a fundamental biological and evolutionary need. In many societies, other than our own, this behavior plays an integral and important part in daily ritual and social life. For these people, this behavior (artful activity) functions as a comunal activity - bringing people together and making life within a community possible. Now, here in the West, and one might say in al technologically based cultures or in the First World, the most widely acepted and dominant idea about art (ever since the idea of 'Art' itself arose in the Eighteenth century) has been that it is superfluous; Art as ornament or enhancement even, and pleasant enough, but hardly necessary. By idealizing aesthetic experience and asigning it only to certain culturaly sanctioned objects (usual one finds the most important of these "aesthetic objects" on presentation and guarded jealously within the wals of museums) our modern view of art controverts its biological and evolutionary significance. It is only by discovering the basic biolgical origin of this intrinsic human imperative to make art that we wil truly come to understand what art means for human life and what its future might be. We might ask ourselves these questions regarding art's purpose in modern life. Do we want art that is harmonizing or disruptive? Should it build bridges or shake us up? Should it express a comunity or an individual vision? Does art sufer when it is instilled with an agenda? Does it lose something when it begins to approximate the models of social work and therapy? Art speaks to us in its own powerful language. The visual symbols found in the great works of Art throughout history speak more directly to our fundamental selves, our unconscious selves, because our unconscious and primitive selves comunicate primarily through visually symbolic systems. This is true because symbols operate as a visual shorthand for ideas and concepts. Their functions and meanings go far beyond such a simple definition. Artists in every discipline, for thousands of years, have used symbols to expres profound truths about the human condition and to provide guidance in how to negotiate the labyrinth of life. One of the many interesting things about symbols is that they initiate ideas about things without limiting the posibility of interpretation. A work of art is not a stoping place but rather it's the starting point for a multitude of amazing adventures in thought and practice. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 54 The Diference betwen Signs and Symbols There is a diference betwen Signs and Symbols. Signs have a straightforward, practical use value. For example, the sign on the lady?s, or men?s rom, traffic signs, and No Smoking signs offer a very direct and absolute meaning. One generaly understands without much thought or question when reading such signs. On the other hand symbols are much more complex, open to interpretation, and resonate with imagination. Symbols can be ambiguous. That is a sybolic object often points to various, and sometimes opposite, meanings simultaneously. This is sometimes described as being multivalent. All societies use symbol systems for many purposes. At times symbols have ben use to control a population, to bring and keep a people together, to inspire obedience or aggression. In tribal societies a system of living symbols made its members fel in tune with themselves, the other members of the tribe, and with the cosmos. A living symbol system can stil inspire collective action. Consider the power of national emblems like flags and standards under which people stil live, love and war. Over time, in the western technological culture, symbols lost much of their value due in large part to the los of the ability to decipher the language of symbols. The rise of Science and Technology, the advance of reason and the advent of individualism led to the lessening and loss of cultural interest in the uses of symbols and symbol systems. The older ultivalent systems gave way to more direct systems of signs beter suited for a world in which sped and convenience are of the utmost iportance. In spite of this, symbols have maintained a stronghold in the visual Arts, Literature, and Music. Like Art, myths are extended systems of symbols and hold the keys to understanding religious thoughts, philosophy, and psychological truths. The symbols in myth systems worldwide are often iconic, that is, they imitate the form to which they refer. For instance a lion can sybolize courage, or a rock can symbolize solidity. Symbols and signs are the interface betwen two separate, yet homologous, systems: you and the world around you. Your ability to conect with, to understand, and interact with, the world is primarily dependent on the symbol and sign systems that are available to you. Language being one of the most important, but by not means the only system available. When reading a symbol try to decipher its multiple levels of meaning. Its best to remeber that regarding the function of symbols, the symbol itself translates a human situation into cosmological terms; and reciprocaly, more precisely, it discloses the interdependence betwen the structures of human existence and cosmic structures. Those who attempt to understand symbols not only open themselves to the objective world, at the same time suced in leaving their unique perspective and begin to comprehension the universal/mythical perspective. Consequently, "to live" a symbol (that is to decipher, understand and activate the symbol's intended mesage) is equivalent to gaining aces to the universal. Another way of puting this is that in revealing the cosmic context of the symbol, humankind is placed in the presence of the mystery of Creation. While this language has rather a religious ring to it the reality of experiencing an active symbol and conecting to its power can be found in a monlight kis or shoting hops on the basketbal court. And of course in the traditionaly sacred such as in the openig of the Gospel of St. John? "In the begining was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 55 VOCABULARY: Cuneiform Wedge-shaped; as, a cuneiform bone; -- especialy aplied to the wedge-shaped or arow-headed characters of ancient Persian and Assyrian inscriptions. Hamurabi Babylonian king (1792-1750) who made Babylon the chief Mesopotamian kingdom and codified the laws of Mesopotamia and Sumeria. Ashurbanipal King of Assyria (69-626) who was a noted patron of literature and the arts. Shin-eqi-unninni Shin-eqi-unninni wrote the Epic of Gilgamesh, in Akadian cuneiform, on twelve tablets that were found damaged in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal of Asyria (669-633 B.C.). The tablets actualy name Shin-eqi-unninni as the author, which makes Shin-eqi-unninni the earliest named author. Uruk An ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates, on the line of the ancient Nil canal, in a region of marshes, about 140 miles SSE from Baghdad. The theory that the modern name of Iraq could be posibly derived from the name Uruk is not proven. At its height, Uruk probably had 80,000 residents living in 600 hectares of walled area, the largest city in the world at its time. It was one of the oldest and most important cities of Sumer. It was the capital city of Gilgamesh, hero of the famous Epic. Its wals were said to have been built by order of Gilgamesh, or rather, his predecesor Enmerkar, who also constructed, it was said, the famous temple caled Eana, dedicated to the worship of Inana (Ishtar). Its voluminous surviving temple archive of the Neo-Babylonian period documents the social function of the temple as a redistribution center. In times of famine, a family might dedicate children to the temple as oblates. Uruk played a very important part in the political history of the country from an early time, exercising hegemony in Babylonia at a period before the time of Sargon. Later it was prominent in the national struggles of the Babylonians against the Elamites up to 2004 BC, in which it suffered severely; recollections of some of these conflicts are embodied in the Gilgamesh epic, in the literary and courtly form that has come down to us. Openheim states, "In Uruk, in southern Mesopotamia, Sumerian civilization seems to have reached its creative peak. This is pointed out repeatedly in the references to this city in religious and, especially, in literary texts, including those of mythological content; the historical tradition as preserved in the Sumerian king-list confirms it. From Uruk the center of political gravity seems to have oved to Ur." According to the Sumerian king list, Uruk was founded by Enmerkar, who brought the oficial kingship with him from the city of Eanna. His father Mesh-ki-ag-gasher had "entered the sea and disappeared". Other historical kings of Uruk include Lugalzagesi of Uma (now Djokha) (who conquered Uruk), and Utuhegal. Acording to the Bible (Genesis 10:10), Erech, probably Uruk, was said to have been the second city founded by Nimrod. It also appears to have been the home of the Archavites, exiled by Asnaper to Samaria (Ezra 4:9-10). The sites mentioned in Ezra are al from Southern Mesopotamia, and POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 56 it apears that Asnaper may be the Asyrian king Ashurbanipal, who conducted a campaign against these Southern Babylonians. Uruk was first excavated by a German team led by Julius Jordan before World War I. This expedition returned in 1928 and made further excavations until 1939, then returned in 1954 under the direction of H. Lenzen and made systematic excavations over the folowing years. These excavations revealed some early Sumerian documents and a larger cache of legal and scholarly tablets of the Seleucid period, that have ben published by Adam Falkenstein and other German epigraphists. Gilgamesh The semi-divine king of Uruk, a city of southern Babylonia, and hero of an epic collection of mythic tales, one of which tells of a flod that covered the earth. Enkidu Legendary friend of Gilgamish Shamhat All reputable sources have interpreted Shamhat as a temple prostitute, priestess of the Goddess Ishtar in the Epic of Gilgamesh responsible for the civilizing of Enkidu by initiating him into the sexual rites of the goddess as she possesses much kuzbu, or sexual allure. In some translations, and possibly soe ancient writen versions of the epic, she is referred to as a harlot, carying a very diferent conotation than that of a priestess, perhaps suggesting that Enkidu's initiation is not wholly beneficial to him. Her name is closely related to Shamash, the Sumerian/Babylonian sun god, whose name means "sun" or "one that lights" in Semitic languages. Perhaps this is because, the same way as the sun gives man life, the priestes gives Enkidu life as a human, a hero recognized, defining a life worth living in the ancient culture. However, translation erors do ocur; words that apear on the surface to be alike (such as "hat" and "hate") are not remotely alike. Utnapishtim In the flod myths of the Ancient Near East, the flod hero is given various names in diferent versions: Ziusudra, Atrahasis, Utnapishtim, Xisuthros, and Noah. Although each version has distinctive story elements, there are numerous story elements that are comon to two, or thre, or four versions. These similar versions can therefore be treated as diferent editions of one story. The original version of the flod story was writen in the Sumerian language because when sylabic writing was developed about 2600 BC, the only language that could be writen in sylabic form was Sumerian. This original Sumerian version of the flod yth has not survived, but a damaged copy of an abridged version in Sumerian has survived as the Epic of Ziusudra, and in more complete form in redited Akadian translations. Homo Aestheticus Art Man ? acording to Helen Disonoyake Neanderthal An extinct human species (Homo neanderthalensis) or subspecies (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) living during the late Pleistocene Epoch throughout most of Europe and parts of Asia and northern Africa and asociated with Midle Paleolithic tools. First World Especialy during the Cold War, the industrialized capitalist nations of the world, and now more generally. Ontology The branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being Paleontology The study of the forms of life existing in prehistoric or geologic times, as represented by the fosils of plants, animals, and other organisms. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 57 The Paleolithic Period (c.200 to 800 BCE) The first period in the development of human technology of the Stone Age. It began with the introduction of the first stone tols by hominids such as Homo habilis (around 2,00,00 years ago) and lasted until the introduction of agriculture. It ended with the Mesolithic, or in areas with an early neolithisation, the Epipaleolithic. In general, late Paleolithic people were hunter/scavengers and fod gatherers. Important specifics of behavior to note are that they used etiological myths (causal myths) to explain things. They seem to have organized themselves around (more or les temporary) natural leaders (and folowers) rather than establishing a more permanent "government". There was approximate parity between the sexes and their societies were homogeneous. It appears that the men hunted, and women gathered and cared for the young, but beyond that tasks were pretty much shared. They had significant knowledge about plants and herbs. Hence, their diet was rich in "healthy" foods. This can be determined from coprolites. Their technological skils are demonstrated by artifacts made from chiped stone and flint, and the use of wod, clay, and animal parts. Their tool kit was extensive: knives, axes, scrapers, hammers, awls, needles, spears, harpoons, clubs, shields, armor, blowguns, and bows and arrows. They also made kayaks, snow-houses and outrigger canoes and knew poisons such as hydrocyanic acid, curare, snake venom, hemlock, and alkaloids. They also used al the means which we use to preserve fod: frezing, drying, sealing (in clay or bes wax). Religion was apotropaic; specifically, it involved sympathetic magic. In Europe, the first art sems to have apeared toward the end of the Paleolithic period (35,00 B.C.). Paleolithic peoples painted and sculpted. The level of skil in painting and sculpting animals was remarkably high. It is theorized that one of the functions of art within their societies was to ensure suces in hunting and to bring about fertility of crops and women. The Paleolithic is usualy divided into thre subdivisions: ? Lower Paleolithic (2,50,00 BCE - 120,00 BCE, approx.): This was the time of the hand axe-industries. Prevalent hominid species of the Lower Paleolithic were H. habilis and Homo erectus. ? Midle Paleolithic (30,00 BCE - 30,00 BCE, aprox.): Flake tols were made by the prepared-core technique. This is when the Neanderthals lived. ? Upper Paleolithic (30,00 BCE - 10,00 BCE, aprox.): The technological changes of the transition from Midle to Uper Paleolithic have led some to speculate that human language first fuly developed at this time. This culture seems to be primarily associated with the Cro- Magnon, or modern man. Australian Aborigines Indigenous Australians are the first human inhabitants of the Australian continent and its nearby islands, continuing their presence during European setlement. The term includes the various indigenous peoples coonly known as Aborigines, whose traditional lands extend throughout mainland Australia, Tasmania and numerous ofshore islands, and also the Tores Strait Islanders whose lands are centered on the Torres Strait POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 58 Islands which run betwen northernmost Australia and the island of New Guinea. Jiva or Guruwari (Australian Aboriginal) A seed power deposited in the earth. In the Aboriginal world view, every meaningful activity, event, or life process that occurs at a particular place leaves behind a vibrational residue in the earth, as plants leave an image of themselves as seds. The shape of the land - its mountains, rocks, riverbeds, and waterholes - and its unsen vibrations echo the events that brought that place into creation. Everything in the natural world is a symbolic footprint of the metaphysical beings whose actions created our world. As with a sed, the potency of an earthly location is wedded to the memory of its origin. The Aborigines caled this potency the "Dreaming" of a place, and this Dreaming constitutes the sacrednes of the earth. The 'Aboriginal Dreamtime' That part of aboriginal culture which explains the origins and culture of the land and its people. Aborigines have the longest continuous cultural history of any group of people on Earth - dating back - by some estimates - 65,00 years. Dreamtime is Aboriginal Religion and Culture. The Neolithic Period (c. 800 to 400 BCE) The Neolithic (or "New" Stone Age) was a period in the development of human technology that is traditionaly the last part of the Stone Age. The name was invented by Sir John Lubock in 1865 as a refinement of the thre-age system. The term is more comonly used in the Old World, as its aplication to cultures in the Americas and Oceania is problematic. The Neolithic era follows the terminal Pleistocene Epipalaeolithic and early Holocene Mesolithic periods, begining with the start of farming and ending when metal tols became widespread in the Copper Age (chalcolithic), Bronze Age or Iron Age, depending on geographical region. The term "Neolithic" thus does not refer to a specific chronological period, but rather to a suite of behavioral and cultural characteristics including the use of (both wild and domestic) crops and the use of domesticated animals. Some archaeologists have long advocated replacing "Neolithic" with a more descriptive term, such as Early Vilage Comunities, although this has not gained wide aceptance. Rituals The prescribed order of a religious ceremony or the body of ceremonies or rites used in a place of worship. Often rituals are performances that reenact a sacred event or moment in the cosmolgy of the believers. Agrarian Farming, Relating to or concernig the land and its ownership, cultivation, and tenure. Sacrament a formal religious act conferring a specific grace on those who receive it; the Protestant sacraments are baptism and the Lord's Super; in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church there are seven traditional rites acepted as instituted by Jesus: baptism and confirmation and Holy Eucharist and penance and holy orders and matrimony and extreme unction Hierogamy Hieros Gamos (Grek "holy weding") or Hierogamy (Grek "holy weding") means a coupling (sometimes ariage) of a god and a man or a woman, often having a symbolic meaning and generally conducted in the spring. It is an ancient ritual in which participants believed that they could gain profound religious experience through sexual intercourse. Participants POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 59 assumed characteristics of deities, often channeling the deities in question, and by their union provided symbolic and literal fertility for themselves, the land, and their people. This was often done by the monarch and hierodule of the dominant religion. In some cases, such as the "Sacred Mariage" of the king of a Sumerian city-state and the High Priestess of Inana, it served a more practical purpose: since commoners frequently tok this opportunity to have sex with their own spouses, it coordinated the births of children so that they would be born in the winter, when there was more time to take care of them. A posible modern example of hierogamy is in the religion of Wica, in which participants engage in what is caled the Great Rite. Most often done on Beltaine night (May 1), a man and a woman, asuming the identities of God and Godes, engage in sexual intercourse to celebrate the union of the deities as lovers and the conception of the new God who wil be born at Yule. It is essentialy a fertility rite, meant to symbolize the planting of seed into Mother Earth, which will come to fruition in the fall. The etymology is from Grek: "hieros" = holy and "gamos" = mariage, coupling. Personify Anthropomorphism is the atribution of human characteristics and qualities to non-human beings, objects, natural, or supernatural phenomena. A form of personification (aplying human or animal qualities to inanimate objects), anthropomorphism is similar to prosopopoeia (adopting the persona of another person). Animals, forces of nature, and unseen or unknown authors of chance are frequent subjects of anthropomorphosis. The term comes from two Grek words, (anthrÿpos), meanig "human", and (morphï), meanig "shape" or "form". The sufix '- ism' originates from the morpheme '-isma' in the Grek language. Unicursal (one path) labyrinth In Grek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure constructed for King Minos of Crete and designed by the legendary artificer Daedalus to hold the Minotaur, a creature that was half man and half bul and which was eventualy kiled by the Athenian hero Theseus. Theseus was aided by Ariadne, who provided him with a fateful thread to wind his way back again, a clue to the single path of the labyrinth. The term labyrinth is often used interchangeably with maze, but modern scholars of the subject use a stricter definition. For them, a maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage, with choices of path and direction, while a single-path ("unicursal") labyrinth has only a single, Eulerian path to the center. A labyrinth has an unambiguous through-route to the centre and back and is not designed to be dificult to navigate Initiate Initiated or admitted, as to membership or a position of authority. Instructed in esoteric knowledge or to be introduced to something new. Undiferentiated Having no special structure or function; primitive; embryonic. Genesis The first bok of the Bible, the holy scripture of Christians, and the first bok of the Torah, the sacred scripture of the Hebrews, in which the creation story of the Judeo-Christian cosmolgy is told. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 60 Eden (Bible) The garden of God and the first home of Adam and Eve. Also caled Garden of Eden. A delightful place; a paradise and also, a state of innocence, blis, or ultimate happiness. The Fal In Abrahamic religion, The Fal of Man, or simply The Fal, refers to humanity's fal from a state of inocent blis to a state of sinful understanding. The cause of this Fall was disobedience to God and the result of it was that humankind could no longer remain in God's beautiful Garden of Eden, or walk in the sight of God. As told in the first bok of the Bible, Genesis, Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, are created by God in his own image from the soil of the earth and are given the breath of life. God places them in his Garden of Eden and makes only one rule- that they do not eat fruit from the tre of knowledge (often symbolised in European art and literature as an aple tre). A serpent, often equated with Satan, comes to Eve, and convinces her through deception to eat fruit from the tree. Eve shares the fruit with Adam and imediately they come to a knowledge of shame for their own nakednes. God first questions them and then punishes them by expelling them from the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve's disobedience and subsequent "expulsion" has continuing consequences for their descendants, al humanity, who from that time forward must strive and sufer and die. Anat (Semetic) Ancient Mother Godes Mot (Semetic) God of death, sterility and drought El The word El was found at the top of a list of gods as the Ancient of Gods or the Father of all Gods, in the ruins of the Royal Library of the Ebla civilization, in the archaeological site of Tell Mardikh in Syria dated to 2300 BC. He may have been a desert god at some point, as the myths say that he had two wives and built a sanctuary with them and his new children in the desert. El had fathered many gods, but most important were Hadad, Yaw and Mot, each of whom has similar attributes to the Greco- Roman gods Zeus, Ophion and Thanatos respectively. Ancient Grek mythographers identified El with Cronus (not Chronos). The Early Civilizations (c. 400 to 80 BCE) A time of urbanization in the development of human beings Fertile Crescent A historical region in the Midle East incorporating Ancient Egypt, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The term "Fertile Crescent" was coined by University of Chicago archaeolgist James Henry Breasted. Watered by the Nile, Jordan, Euphrates and Tigris rivers and covering some 400-500,000 square kilometers, the region extends fro the eastern shore of the Mediteranean Sea around the north of the Syrian Desert and through the Jazirah and Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf. These areas correspond to the present-day Egypt, Israel, West Bank, Gaza strip, and Lebanon and parts of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, south- eastern Turkey and south-western Iran. The population the Nile River Basin is about 70 milion, the Jordan River Basin about 20 milion, and the Tigris and Euphrates Basins about 30 milion, giving the present-day Fertile Crescent a total population of approximately 120 milion, or at least a third of the population of the Midle East. The Fertile Crescent has an impresive record of past human activity. As well as possessing many sites with the skeletal and cultural remains of both pre-modern and early modern humans (e.g. at Kebara Cave in Israel), later Pleistocene hunter- POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 61 gatherers and Epipalaeolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers (the Natufians), this area is most famous for its sites related to the origins of agriculture. The western zone around the Jordan and upper Euphrates rivers gave rise to the first known Neolithic farming settlements (refered to as Pre-Potery Neolithic A (PPNA), which date to around 9,00 BC (and includes sites such as Jericho). This region, alongside Mesopotamia (which lies to the east of the Fertile Crescent, betwen the rivers Tigris and Euphrates), also saw the emergence of early complex societies during the suceding Bronze Age. There is also early evidence from this region for writing, and the formation of state- level societies. This has earned the region the nickname "The Cradle of Civilization." Since the Bronze Age, the region's natural fertility has been greatly extended by irigation works, upon which much of its agricultural production continues to depend. The last two milenia have sen repeated cycles of decline and recovery as past works have falen into disrepair through the replacement of states, to be replaced under their sucesors. Another ongoing problem has been salination -- the sepage of salt water into irrigated farmland. As crucial as rivers were to the rise of civilization in the Fertile Crescent, they were not the only factor in the area's precocity. The Fertile Crescent had a climate which encouraged the evolution of many annual plants, which produce more edible seeds than perenials, and the region's dramatic variety of elevation gave rise to many species of edible plants for early experiments in cultivation. Most importantly, the Fertile Crescent possessed the wild progenitors of the eight Neolithic founder crops important in early agriculture (i.e. wild progenitors to emmer wheat, einkorn, barley, flax, chick pea, pea, lentil, biter vetch), and four of the five most important species of domesticated animals - cows, goats, shep, and pigs - and the fifth species, the horse, lived nearby. In the contemporary era, river waters remain a potential source of friction in the region. The Jordan lies on the borders of Israel, the kingdom of Jordan and the area administered by the Palestinian Authority. Turkey and Syria each control about a quarter of the length of the Euphrates, on whose lower reaches Iraq is stil heavily dependent. Joshua A Biblical character, much of whose life is described in the Book of Joshua. The lack of a vav after the shin would normaly indicate a pronunciation of Yehoshïa`, and in thre places he is actually called Hoshïa. Joshua was the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim and the successor to Moses as the leader of Israel. Se also History of ancient Israel and Judah. He was born in Egypt, and was probably the same age as Caleb, with whom he is generally associated. He shared in al the events of the Exodus, and held the place of comander of the host of the Israelites at their great battle against the Amalekites in Rephidim (Ex. 17:8-16). He became Moses' minister, and accompanied him part of the way when he ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Comandments (Exd. 32:17). He was also one of the twelve spies who were sent on by Moses to explore the land of Canan POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 62 (Num. 13:16, 17), and only he and Caleb gave an encouraging report. Before Moses died, he apointed Joshua as his sucesor. The people were encamped at Shitim when he assumed the comand before crossing the Jordan River. Upon Joshua devolved a twofold duty: to conquer the land, and to apportion it among the tribes. Acording to the Book of Joshua, God encouraged him to be strong and to cling to the Law, which was never to "depart out of his mouth." After enlisting the cooperation of the kindred east Jordanic tribes, his first concern was to spy out Jericho. On receiving the report of his emisaries he gave the necesary instructions for the crosing by the Israelites of the Jordan. With the Ark of the Covenant caried by the priests in the van, on the tenth day of the first month of the forty-first year after the Exodus the Israelites set out to conquer the land. The river, miraculously divided as long as the priests with the Ark remained in its bed, was crosed north of Adam; and in memory of this occurrence Joshua erected over the place where the priests had been stationed a monument of twelve stones. Joshua ordered that one man from each tribe should take each another stone from that spot and deposit it on the western bank as a memorial. Here, at Gilgal, Joshua pitched his camp and remained for some time; and in order that al might be able to participate in the Pasover, he directed that every Hebrew that had ben born in the desert should be circumcised. The Tower of Babel According to the narative in Genesis Chapter 1 of the Bible, the Tower of Babel was a tower built by a united humanity to reach the heavens. Because the hearts of men are inherently evil and disobedient, they were striving to make a name for themselves, rather than worshiping the God who created them. Because of their open defiance, God stoped this project by confusing their languages so that each spoke a diferent language. As a result, they could no longer comunicate with one another and the work was halted. The builders were then scatered to diferent parts of Earth. This story is used to explain the existence of many different languages and races. Israelite An Israelite is a member of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve sons of the Biblical patriarch Jacob who was renamed Israel by God in the bok of Genesis, 32:28. The Israelites were a group of Hebrews, as described in the Hebrew sacred texts. Zigurat Ziggurats were a form of temple common to the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians of ancient Mesopotamia.The earliest examples of the ziggurat date from the end of the third milenium BCE and the latest date from the 6th century BCE. Built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform, the ziggurat was a pyramidal structure. Sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside. The facings were often glazed in diferent colors and may have had astrological significance. The number of tiers ranged from two to seven, with a shrine or temple at the sumit. Access to the shrine was provided by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to sumit. Notable examples of this structure include the Great Zigurat of Ur and Khorsabad in Mesopotamia. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 63 Axis mundi The axis mundi (world axis), in religion or mythology, is the world center and/or the conection betwen heaven and Earth. It exists in virtually all cultures on Earth, although it plays a much more explicit role in those cultures utilizing shamanic practices or those with animist belief systems. It is thought that the axis mundi idea spread throughout Eurasia as a part of the Proto- Indo-European religion, more specificaly as the world tre concept. It is familiar today as the Rod of Asclepius, the symbol of medicine, and the similar caduceus; the staf is the axis itself, and the serpent (or serpents) are the guardians or guides to the other realm. It is a comon shamanic concept, the healer traversing the axis mundi to bring back knowledge from the other world. The axis mundi conects heaven and earth as wel as providing a path between the two. The axis mundi is comonly represented as a rope, tree, vine, lader, pilar or staf, aong other things. In addition to the caduceus, the yin-yang descends from this idea. Sometimes, depending on representation and belief system, the axis mundi is considered explicitly male or even phalic. Enûma Elish The creation epic of Sumerian Babylonian mythology. It was first discovered by modern scholars (in fragmentary form) in the ruined library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (Mosul, Iraq). Enûma Elish has about a thousand lines and is recorded in Akadian on seven clay tablets. The majority of Tablet V has never ben recovered, but aside from this lacuna the text is almost complete. This epic is one of the most important sources for understanding the Babylonian worldview, centered on the supremacy of Marduk and the existence of mankind for the service of the gods. Its primary original purpose, however, is not an exposition of theology or theogony, but the elevation of Marduk, the chief god of Babylon, above other Mesopotamian gods. Enûma Elish has existed in various versions and copies, the oldest probably dating to at least 1700 B.C.E. Apsu (Babylonian) Godes of the swet river water Tiamat (Babylonian) Godes of the salty sea. She is often pictured as a great serpent or dragon. Mummu (Babylonian) Godes of the misty cloud Lahmu and Lahamu (Babylonian) God and godes who represented water and soil mixed together to form silt Ansher and Kishar (Babylonian) God and godes who represented the horizons of sky and sea Anu (Babylonian) The Sky god Ea (Babylonian) The earth goddess Marduk The splendid son of Ea. Marduk's original character is obscure, but whatever special traits Marduk may have had were overshadowed by the reflex of the political development through which the Euphrates valey pased and which led to imbuing him with traits belonging to gods who at an earlier period were recognized as the heads of the pantheon. There are more particularly two gods ? Ea and Enlil ? whose powers and attributes pass over to Marduk. In the case of Ea, the transfer proceeds pacifically and without involving the efacement of the older god. Marduk is viewed as the son of Ea. The father voluntarily recognizes the superiority of the son and hands over to him the control of humanity. This asociation of Marduk and Ea, while indicating primarily the pasing of the supremacy once POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 64 enjoyed by Eridu to Babylon as a religious and political centre, may also reflect an early dependence of Babylon upon Eridu, not necessarily of a political character but, in view of the spread of culture in the Euphrates valey from the south to the north, the recognition of Eridu as the older centre on the part of the younger one. Scapegoat A scapegoat was a goat that was driven of into the wilderness as part of the ceremonies of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, in Judaism during the times of the Temple in Jerusalem. The rite is described in Leviticus 16. The word is also used as a metaphor, refering to one who is blamed for misfortunes, often as a way of distracting atention from the real causes. The Axial Age (c. 80 to 20 BCE) German philosopher Karl Jaspers coined the term the Axial Age (Achsenzeit in the German language original) to describe the period from 800 BCE to 200 BCE, during which, acording to Jaspers, similarly revolutionary thinking appeared in China, India and the Ocident. The period is also sometimes refered to as the Axis Age.[1] Jaspers, in his Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte (The Origin and Goal of History), identified a number of key Axial Age thinkers as having had a profound influence on future philosophy and religion, and identified characteristics comon to each area from which those thinkers emerged. Jaspers saw in these developments in religion and philosophy a striking paralel without any obvious direct transmision of ideas from one region to the other, having found no recorded prof of any extensive inter-comunication betwen Ancient Grece, the Midle East, India and China. Jaspers held up this age as unique, and one which to compare the rest of the history of human thought to. Jaspers' aproach to the culture of the midle of the first milenium BCE has ben adopted by other scholars and academics, and has become a point of discussion in the history of religion. Hebrew Prophets A major prophet is a bok in the Major Prophets section of the Christian Old Testament in the Bible. The term "major prophet" is typicaly a Christian term as the Jewish Hebrew Bible does not group these books together and does not even include the deuterocanonical/apocryphal Book of Baruch. The closest analogous grouping in the Hebrew Bible is the "Prophets" or Nevi'im. The Christian major prophets in order of ocurence in the Christian Bible are: ? Isaiah ? Jeremiah ? Lamentations, also known as the Lamentations of Jeremiah ? Baruch (deuterocanonical; may be placed before Lamentations.) This work is not incorporated into the Jewish Bible nor the Protestant Bible. ? Ezekiel ? Daniel (listed with the Ketuvim in the Hebrew Bible). The term "major" refers to their length, not their importance. Se Minor Prophets for shorter prophecies in the Bible. Sages of the Upanishads The Upanishads are part of the Hindu Shruti scriptures which primarily discuss meditation and philosophy and are seen as religious instructions by most forms of Hinduism. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 65 The Upanishads are mystic or spiritual contemplations of the Vedas, their putative end and esence, and thus known as "the end of the Vedas". The Sanskrit term upanishad derives from upa- (near), ni- (down) and sad (to sit), i.e. refering to the "sitting down near" a spiritual teacher (guru) in order to receive instruction in the Guru-shishya tradition or parampara. The teachers and students apear in a variety of settings (husband answering questions about imortality, a teenage boy being taught by Yama, etc.). Sometimes the sages are women and at times the instructions (or rather inspiration) are sought by kings. Most disciples are men, but not always. A woman disciple, Gargi Vacaknavi, drove the eminent sage Yajnavalkya to fury with her persistent unanswerable questions. The Upanishads were composed over several centuries, the oldest such as the Brhadaranyaka and Chandogya upanisads have ben dated to around the tenth century BCE and the later ones to as late as the fifth century BCE. The rots of many Indian religions are built upon the foundation of the Upanishads. The Budha (c. 563-483) Gautama Budha was a spiritual teacher in the ancient Indian subcontinent and the historical founder of Budhism. He is universaly recognized by Budhists as the Supreme Budha of our age. He is regarded as the ninth incarnation (or avatar) of Supreme God Vishnu by Hindus. The time of his birth and death are unclear, but most modern scholars have him living betwen aproxiately 563 BCE and 483 BCE. By tradition, he was born with the name Siddhartha Gautama and, after a quest for the truth behind life and death, underwent a transformative spiritual change that led him to claim the name of Budha. He is also comonly known as Sakyamuni and as the Tathagata ("thus-come-one" or "thus-gone-one"). Gautama is the key figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules were sumarized after his death and memorized by disciples. Passed down by oral tradition, the colection of discourses atributed to Gautama, was comited to writing about 40 years later. Confucius (551-479) Confucius was a famous Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced East Asian life and thought. His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, corectness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. These values gained prominence in China over other doctrines, such as Legalism or Daoism during the Han Dynasty. Confucius' thoughts have ben developed into a system of philosophy known as Confucianism. It was introduced to Europe by the Jesuit Matteo Rici, who was the first to Latinize the name as "Confucius". His teachings are known primarily through the Analects of Confucius, a short colection of his discussions with his disciples, which was compiled posthumously. Dao De Jing Also known as The Tao Te Ching roughly translated as The Book of the Way and its Virtue is an ancient Chinese scripture. Tradition has it that the bok was writen around 60 BCE by a sage caled Laozi (WG: Lao Tzu, "Old Master"), a record-keeper in the Emperor's Court of the Zhou Dynasty. A careful reading of the text, however, sugests that it is a compilation of maxims sharing similar themes. The authenticity of the date of composition/compilation and the authorship are stil debated. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 66 This short work is one of the most important in Chinese philosophy and religion, especially in Taoism, but also in Budhism, because the later was interpreted by Chinese scholars upon its introduction to China largely through the use of many Taoist words and concepts before developing into Chinese Budhism. (Inded, upon first encountering it, Chinese scholars regarded Budhism as merely a foreign equivalent of Taoism.) Its varying interpretations also exerted a strong influence upon other schools of Chinese philosophy, such as Neo-Confucianism and the Legalism of Han Feizi. Many Chinese artists, including poets, painters, caligraphers and even gardeners have used the book as a source of inspiration. Its influence has also spread widely outside the Far East, aided by many different translations of the text into western languages. The ?Golden Rule? The ethic of reciprocity, or the "The Golden Rule," is a fundamental moral principle found in virtualy al major religions and cultures, which simply means "treat others as you want them to treat you." Its universality sugests an inate human altruis, and is arguably the most essential basis for the modern concept of human rights. Principal philosophers and religious figures have stated it in different ways: ? "Love your neighbor as yourself" - Moses (ca. 1525- 1405 BCE) in the Torah, Leviticus ? "What you do not want others to do to you, do not do to others." -Confucius (ca. 51?479 BCE) ? "What is hateful to you, do not to your felow man." - Hilel (ca. 50 BCE-10 CE) ? "Do to others as you would have them do to you." - Jesus (ca. 5 BCE?33 CE) in the Gospels,Luke 6:31;Luke 10:27 (afirming of Moses);Mathew 7:12; ? "Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you" ? Muhammad (c. 571 ? 632 CE) in The Farewel Sermon. Laisez-faire A French phrase meaning "let do, let go, let pas." from the French diction first used by the eightenth century Physiocrats as an injunction against government interference with trade, it became used as a synonym for strict free market economics during the early and mid-19th century. It is generaly understood to be a doctrine oposing economic interventionism and taxation by the state beyond that which is perceived to be necesary to maintain peace, security, and property rights. In the early stages of European and American economic theory, laisez-faire economic policy was usually contrasted to mercantilist economic policy, which had been the dominant system of the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, France and other European countries, during their rise to power. The term laisez-faire is often used interchangeably with the term "free market." Some may use the term laissez-faire to refer to "let do, let pas" attitude for concepts in areas outside of economics.1 Laiser- faire is associated with classical liberalism and libertarianism. It was originaly introduced in the English language world in 174, by George Whatley, in the book "Principles of Trade." Logos (The Word of Truth) The Grek word logos is a word with various meanings. It is often translated into English as "Word" but can also mean thought, speech, reason, proportion, principle, standard, or logic, among other things. It has varied use in the fields of philosophy, analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 67 Mythos (the stories of Belief) The term Grek mythos means "story, legend" (whence English myth). Se also mythology. In archaizing English sometimes used synonymously with "myth" or "mythology". Mythos is a ter used for a colection of myths (in the scholarly sense). Some authors of fiction influenced by mythology have used the term to cover a colection of similar background elements in their writing. For example, Cthulhu Mythos. Eleusinian Mysteries The Eleusinian Mysteries were anual initiation ceremonies for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Grece. Of al the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance. These myths and mysteries later spread to Rome. The rites, cultic worships, and beliefs were kept secret, for initiation rites united the worshiper with god, and included promises of divine power and rewards in life after death. Eleusis (modern-day Elefsina) was a smal town located about 30 km NW of Athens. It was an agricultural town, producing wheat and barley. The Post-Axial Age (c. 20 BCE to c. 150 CE) A period in human development in which the concepts and ideas discovered in the Axial period are expanded and explored. A Myth An event that, in some sense, hapened once, but which also happens all the time. An occurrence needs to be cut free, liberated, from the confines of a specific period and brought into the lives of contemporary believers, or it wil remain a unique, unrepeatable incident that cannot actually touch the lives of others. An example of this would be the Jewish rituals of the Pasover. We do not know what actualy hapened when the people of Israel escaped from the Egyptian captivity and crossed the Sea of Reds because the story is written as a myth. Over the centuries, the rituals of Pasover have made this story central to the lives of Jews, who are told that each one of them must consider himself to be of the generation that escaped from Egypt. A myth canot be understod without a transformative ritual that alows the power of the story to erupt into the hearts and lives of generations of believers. A myth demands action: the myth of the Exodus demands that Jews cultivate an appreciation of freedom as a sacred value, and refuse either to be enslaved themselves or to opress others. By ritual practice and ethical response, the story has ceased to be an event in the distant past, and become a living reality. The Eucharist The Eucharist or Comunion or The Lord's Super, is the rite that Christians perform in fulfilment of Jesus' instruction, recorded in the New Testament, to do in memory of him what he did at his Last Supper. Jesus gave his disciples bread, saying "This is my body," and wine, saying "This is my blod." Christians generaly recognize a special presence of Christ in this rite, though they differ about exactly how, where, and when Christ is present. The word "Eucharist" is also aplied to the bread and wine consecrated in the course of the rite. The word "Eucharist" comes from the Grek noun (transliterated, "eucharistia"), eaning thanksgiving. This noun or the coresponding verb (to give thanks) is found in 5 verses of the New Testament. Four of these verses recount that Jesus "gave thanks" before presenting to his folowers the bread and the wine that he declared to be his body and his blod. The Gospel of POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 68 John afirms this. Most Christians classify the Eucharist as a sacrament, but many Protestant traditions avoid the term sacraent, prefering ordinance. In these traditions, the ceremony is seen not as a specific chanel of divine grace but as an expression of faith and obedience of the Christian comunity. Concupiscence The irational desire to take pleasure in mere creatures rather than in God ? in other words, lust Great Western Transformation (c. 150 to 200 CE) The most contemporary moment in the development of mythology on the planet and expressed in a general loss of mythological perspective. Apocalypse Great or total devastation; dom The Clockwork Universe The Clockwork Universe Theory is a theory, established by Isaac Newton, as to the origins of the universe. A "clockwork universe" can be thought of as being a clock wound up by God and ticking along, as a perfect machine, with its gears governed by the laws of physics. What sets this theory apart from others is the idea that God's only contribution to the universe was to set everything in motion, and from there the laws of science tok hold and have governed every sequence of events since that time. This idea was very popular in the Enlightenment, when scientists realized that Newton's laws of motion, including the law of universal gravitation, could explain the behavior of the solar system. A notable exclusion from this theory though is free wil, since all things have already ben set in motion and are just parts of a predictable machine. Newton feared that this notion of "everything is predetermined" would lead to atheism. This theory was undermined by the second law of thermodynamics ( the total entropy of any isolated thermodynamic system tends to increase over time, approaching a aximu value) and quantum physics with its unpredictable random behavior. Signs Signs have a straightforward, practical use value. For example, the sign on the lady?s, or men?s rom, traffic signs, and No Smoking signs ofer a very direct and absolute meaning. One generally understands without much thought or question when reading such signs Symbol Symbols can be ambiguous. That is a symbolic object often points to various, and sometimes opposite, meanings simultaneously. This is someties described as being multivalent. Symbols are much more complex, open to interpretation, and resonate with imagination. Homology The quality of being similar or coresponding in position or value or structure or function Cosmolgy The study of the physical universe considered as a totality of phenomena in time and space. The astrophysical study of the history, structure, and constituent dynamics of the universe or a specific theory or model of this structure and these dynamics. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 69 SUPPORTING MATERIAL STORYTELLING, THE MEANING OF LIFE, AND THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH Arthur A. Brown Stories do not ned to inform us of anything. They do inform us of things. From The Epic of Gilgamesh, for example, we know something of the people who lived in the land betwen the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the second and third mileniums BCE. We know they celebrated a king named Gilgamesh; we know they believed in many gods; we know they were self-conscious of their own cultivation of the natural world; and we know they were literate. These things we can fix -- or establish definitely. But stories also remind us of things we canot fix -- of what it means to be human. They reflect our wil to understand what we canot understand, and reconcile us to mortality. We read The Epic of Gilgamesh, four thousand years after it was writen, in part because we are scholars, or pseudo-scholars, and wish to learn something about human history. We read it as wel because we want to know the meaning of life. The eaning of life, however, is not something we can wrap up and walk away with. Discusing the philosophy of the Tao, Alan Wats explains what he believes Lao-tzu means by the line, "The five colours wil blind a man's sight." "[T]he eye's sensitivity to color," Wats writes, "is impaired by the fixed idea that there are just five true colrs. There is an infinite continuity of shading, and breaking it down into divisions with names distracts the atention from its subtlety". Similarly, the mind's sensitivity to the meaning of life is i paired by fixed notions or perspectives on what it means to be human. There is an infinite continuity of meaning that can be comprehended only by seeing again, for ourselves. We read stories -- and reading is a kind of re-teling -- not to learn what is known but to know what canot be known, for it is ongoing and we are in the midle of it. To se for ourselves the meaning of a story, we ned, first of al, to lok carefuly at what hapens in the story; that is, we ned to lok at it as if the actions and people it describes actualy tok place or existed. We can articulate the questions raised by a character's actions and discus the implications of their consequences. But we ned to consider, to, how a story is put together -- how it uses the conventions of language, of events with beginnings and endings, of description, of character, and of storytelling itself to reawaken our sensitivity to the real world. The real world is the world without conventions, the unnameable, unrepresentable world -- in its continuity of action, its shadings and blurings of character, its indecipherable paterns of being. The stories that mean most to us bring us back to our own unintelligible and yet imeasurably meaningful lives. The Epic of Gilgamesh opens with the convention of a frame -- a prologue that sets off the story of Gilgamesh's life. An unamed narator states, "I wil proclaim to the world the deds of Gilgamesh". Thus the narator introduces himself before he introduces the hero, and by doing so, welcomes us, as the imaginary listeners and actual readers, into the endles present of the telling of the tale. The deds of Gilgamesh tok place in the past. Having returned from his journey and resting from his labor, Gilgamesh, the narator recounts, engraved the whole story on a clay tablet. What we are reading, then, is the transcription of an oral teling that repeats a written teling. On the one hand the frame helps verisimilitude. By refering to Gilgamesh's own act of writing, the narator atempts to convince us that Gilgamesh was an actual king and that the story that folows is a true story. On the other hand, by caling our atention to the act of telling, the narrator reminds us that the truth of a story might lie in the very fact of its being a story -- the undeniable fact of its naration. To deny its naration would be to deny our own existence. Either way, the frame blurs the distinction between Gilgamesh's world, or the world of the tale, and our own. And yet there is an irony in the prologue of which the narrator himself seems unaware -- an irony that highlights our position as readers and not listeners. Praising Gilgamesh's accomplishments, the narrator invites us to survey the city of Uruk: "Lok at it still today.. Touch the threshold, it is ancient.. Climb upon the wall of Uruk; walk along it, I say; regard the foundation terrace and examine the masonry: is it not burnt brick and good? The seven sages laid the foundations". It seems as if the narrator is counting on the walls themselves to verify his story, while from where we stand in tie and space, these walls are POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 70 nowhere to be seen -- they have ben buried for centuries. However, we could say that the writer of the clay tablets anticipates our distance from Uruk and asks only that we imagine the wals, the way al storytelers ask their audiences to imagine what they are about to hear. Our ability to imagine the wals -- our inability not to as we read the sentence that describes them -- once again makes the act of naration part of the story and forces us, as readers, into the world of the text. The story has been passed on from narrator to narrator to listener to reader -- from writer to reader to reader. Thus even before we begin to read this story about the death of a friend and the hero's failed attempt to find imortality, we are made aware of the passage of time that connects us even as it separates us. In the prologue we learn that Gilgamesh was two-thirds god and one-third man, and this knowledge is key to al that folows. Gilgamesh is a hero -- more beautiful, more courageous, more terifying than the rest of us; his desires, attributes, and accomplishments epitomize our own. Yet he is also mortal: he must experience the death of others and die himself. How uch more must a god rage against death than we who are merely mortal! And if he can reconcile himself with death then surely we can. In fact, without death his life would be meaningless, and the adventures that make up the epic would disappear. In celebrating Gilgamesh -- in reading The Epic of Gilgamesh -- we celebrate that which makes us human. The story begins with the coming of Enkidu. As a young man and a god, Gilgamesh has no compasion for the people of Uruk. He is their king but not their shepherd; he kils their sons and rapes the daughters. Hearing the people's lament, the gods create Enkidu as a match for Gilgamesh, a second self: "`Let them contend together and leave Uruk in quiet'". The plan works in several ways. First, Enkidu prevents Gilgamesh from entering the house of a bride and bridegrom; they fight and then they embrace as friends. Second, Enkidu and Gilgamesh undertake a journey into the forest to confront the terible Humbaba. There they encourage each other to face death triumphantly: All living creatures born of the flesh shal sit at last in the boat of the West, and when it sinks, when the boat of Magilum sinks, they are gone; but we shall go forward and fix our eyes on this monster. While everlasting life is not his destiny, Gilgamesh wil leave behind him a name that endures. "I wil go to the country where the cedar is feled," he tels Enkidu. "I wil set up my name in the place where the names of famous men are writen". Thus Gilgamesh turns his attention away from smal personal desires to loftier personal desires -- desires that benefit rather than harm Uruk. We reeber from the prolgue that the wals of the city, made from the cedar taken from the forest, stil stand in actuality or in imagination to proclaim Gilgamesh's fame, and the very first sentence of the epic atests to the immortality of his name. But the imortality of a name is les the ability to live forever than the inability to die. Third and most important, Enkidu teaches Gilgamesh what it means to be human; he teaches him the meaning of love and compasion, the meaning of los and of growing older, the meaning of mortality. From its beginings, Enkidu's story raises many questions on the nature of man. Created of clay and water and droped into the wildernes, Enkidu is "inocent of mankind," knowing "nothing of cultivated land". He lives in joy with the beasts until a traper ses that Enkidu is destroying the traps and helping the beasts escape. The traper neds to tame Enkidu just as the people of Uruk need to tame Gilgamesh, or to redirect his desires. As we read the story, we are not necesarily on the traper's or the people's sides; we may identify more with the heroes -- with Enkidu and Gilgamesh. Civilization is les a thing than a process, the transforation of the primitive. Without the primitive, civilization would cease to exist. The Epic of Gilgamesh helps us se past the conventional clasifications of "civilized" and "primitive" so that we ight recal what each of us gains and loses in developing from one state of being to another. Would civilized man, if he could, go back to being primitive? Or, to put it another way, what does primitive man lose in the process of becoming civilized -- and what does he gain? What Enkidu gains is wisdom. The harlot -- brought to the wildernes to trap Enkidu -- stands for this wisdom and speaks for civilization, even as she stands also as an outcast and an object of sexual desire. Enkidu is seduced by the harlot and then rejected by the beasts. This seems a dirty trick. Recognizing the coruption in himself, civilized man corupts primitive man to weaken him and make him one of his own. Yet for Enkidu as for human beings in general, sexual desire leads to domesticity, or love. "Enkidu was grown weak," the narrator tells us, "for wisdom was in him, and the thoughts of a man were in his heart." POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 71 The woman says to him, "You are wise, Enkidu, and now you have become like a god. Why do you want to run wild with the beasts in the hils?" She tels him about "strong-waled Uruk" and "the blesed temple of Ishtar and of Anu, of love and of heaven," and about Gilgamesh himself. Enkidu is pleased: "he longed for a comrade, for one who would understand his heart". Ultimately, Enkidu's journey out of the wilderness and his adventure with Gilgamesh lead to his death, and, looking back in his sickness, Enkidu curses the walls of the city: "O, if I had known the conclusion! If I had known that this was al the god that would come of it, I would have raised the axe and split you into little pieces and set up here a gate of watle instead". He curses the traper and the harlot, who had destroyed his innocence -- as if inocence were precisely inocence of death and without consciousnes, or knowledge, or wisdom, there would be no death. Yet Shamash, the Sun God, reminds him that the loss of innocence brings recompense: Enkidu, why are you cursing the woman, the mistres who taught you to eat bread fit for gods and drink wine of kings? She who put upon you a magnificent garment, did she not give you glorious Gilgamesh for your companion, and has not Gilgamesh, your own brother, made you rest on a royal bed and recline on a couch at his left hand? Above al, Shamash reminds Enkidu that he wil be mourned by the people of Uruk and that "When you are dead [Gilgaesh] wil let his hair grow long for your sake, he wil wear a lion's pelt and wander through the desert". Hearing Shamash, Enkidu changes his curse to a blesing. Bitter as his death is to him, and to Gilgamesh, it gives meaning to his life, for it makes companionship a thing of consequence. When Enkidu tels Gilgamesh his dream of the Underworld, Gilgamesh responds, "we must treasure the dream whatever the terror; for the dream has shown that misery comes at last to the healthy man, the end of life is sorrow". Enkidu is in the story to die. In his rage and despair, Gilgamesh must live with the death of his friend, and with the knowledge that "What my brother is now, that shall I be". Afraid of this knowledge, even hoping to deny it, Gilgamesh goes on a search for everlasting life. Two- thirds god, he is able to go farther than the rest of us could go except by participating in the act of storyteling. In the repetition of passages, the story gives us not only a description but the sense of Gilgamesh's journey into the twelve leagues of darknes: "At the end of five leagues, the darknes was thick and there was no light, he could se nothing ahead and nothing behind him. At the end of six leagues the darknes was thick and there was no light, he could se nothing ahead and nothing behind him". Gilgamesh speaks for us when he says, "Although I am no better than a dead man, stil let me see the light of the sun". And in the repetition of his own description of himself and recounting of what has happened to him, we feel his grief over the loss of his friend; we feel his aging, and the inevitability of our own grief and aging: "[W]hy should not my cheeks be starved and my face drawn? . . . Enkidu my brother, whom I loved, the end of mortality has overtaken him". Beside the sea, Gilgamesh mets Siduri, "the woman of the vine, the maker of wine," who reminds him of the meaningfulnes of being human. "Gilgamesh, where are you hurying to?" she asks. You wil never find that life for which you are loking. When the gods created man they alotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping. As for you, Gilgamesh, fil your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the litle child that holds your hand, and make your wife hapy in your embrace; for this too is the lot of man. If it is "life" the gods retain in their keping, it is not human life, for human life depends on the passage of time and the posibility of death. Yet Gilgamesh stil canot rest. He continues his journey to Utnapishtim the Faraway, the only mortal to whom the gods have given everlasting life. With Urshanabi, the feryman, Gilgamesh croses the waters of death. Like Siduri, Utnapishtim asks Gilgamesh, "Where are you hurrying to?", and in answer to Gilgamesh's question, "How shal I find the life for which I am searching?" he says, "There is no permanence". But he reveals the mystery of his own posesion of everlasting life. He tels Gilgamesh the story of the flod, of the time when the gods, unable to slep for the uproar raised by mankind, agred to destroy mankind, and would have succeeded had not Ea, one of man's creators, instructed Utnapishtim POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 72 to build a boat and "take up into [it] the sed of al living creatures". The story is familiar to us not only because it anticipates Noah's story in the book of Genesis, but because it is the story of life, the story of destruction and renewal. When Gilgamesh is ready to begin his long journey home, Utnapishtim, at the urging of his wife, reveals a second mystery of the gods. He tels Gilgamesh of a plant growing under water that can restore youth to a man. Gilgamesh finds the plant and picks it; he decides to take it to Uruk to give it to the old men. But as Gilgamesh bathes in the cool water of a well, a serpent rises up and snatches away the plant; immediately it sloughs its skin and returns to the well. Again this story is familiar to us, not only because we recognize this snake as a precursor of the more sinister one that apears in the Garden of Eden, but because we comprehend it as a symbol. In the Sumerian world, Ningizida, the god of the serpent, is "the lord of the Tre of Life". While Gilgaesh himself has lost the ability to live forever, or the oportunity to pass on this ability to the men of Uruk, it is enough that the snake recalls for us, in its sloughing of its skin, nature's pattern of regeneration. And with this dramatic statement of theme, Gilgamesh returns to the strong-waled city of Uruk, and the story itself returns to its begining. Gilgaesh says to the feryman, with whom he has made the journey home, "Urshanabi, climb up on to the wall of Uruk, inspect its foundation terrace, and examine well the brickwork; see if it is not of burnt bricks; and did not the seven wise men lay these foundations?" We have taken the feryman's place by pasing the story on -- even if only to ourselves. The narator tels us once again that Gilgamesh, worn out with his labor, "engraved on a stone the whole story". And finally, with the death of Gilgamesh -- the end of the story and the end of the teling of it -- the text returns us to our mortal lives. Works Cited Sandars, N. K., trans. The Epic of Gilgamesh. London: Penguin, 1972. Wats, Alan W. The Way of Zen. New York: Vintage, 1957. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 73 ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CHARACTERS IN THE STORY OF GILGAMESH Gilgamesh An unstable compound of two parts god and one part man, Gilgamesh sufers most from imoderation. He is the greatest of al men, and both his virtues and his flaws are outsized. He is the fiercest of wariors and the most ambitious of builders. Yet until Enkidu, his near equal, arrives to serve as a counterweight to Gilgamesh?s restles energies, he exhausts his subjects with ceaseles batle, forced labor, and arbitrary exercises of power. Beautiful to behold, Gilgamesh selfishly indulges his appetites, raping whatever woman he desires, whether she is the wife of a warior or the daughter of a noble?or a bride on her weding night. Enkidu?s friendship calms and focuses him. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh grieves deply and is horrified by the prospect of his own death. Abruptly abandoning glory, wealth, and power, all of which are worldly aspirations that he as king had once epitomized, he begins a quest to learn the secret of eternal life. What he finds instead is the wisdom to strike harmony with his divine and mortal atributes. Reconciled at last to his mortality, Gilgamesh resumes his proper place in the world and becomes a better king. Enkidu Hairy-chested and brawny, Enkidu begins his literary life as Gilgamesh?s faithful sidekick. In the most ancient of the stories that compose The Epic of Gilgamesh, he is a helper to Gilgamesh. As those legends evolved into chapters of a great epic poem, Enkidu?s role changed profoundly. Much more than a sidekick or a servant, he is Gilgamesh?s soul mate, brother, and equal, even his conscience. In the later stories the gods bring Enkidu into the world to provide a counterpoint to Gilgamesh. Unlike Gilgamesh, who is two-thirds god, Enkidu is fashioned entirely from clay. He begins his life as a wild man, raised by animals, and, crude and unrefined, he remains to a certain extent a sojourner in the civilized world. For example, when Gilgamesh spurns Ishtar, the goddess of love, with flowery, allusive insults, Enkidu merely hurls a piece of meat in her face. However, Enkidu is also instinctively chivalrous. He takes up arms to protect the shepherds who first give him food, and he travels to Uruk to champion its oppressed people and protect its virgin brides from their uncontrollable king. Ironicaly, that king is Gilgamesh. Enkidu overcomes him with friendship rather than force and transforms him into the perfect leader. Perhaps Enkidu fels Uruk?s injustices so kenly because he is such a latecomer to civilization. Though Enkidu is bolder than most men, he is also less pious than he should be. He pays dearly for the disrespect he shows to Enlil, the god of earth, wind, and air, when he urges Gilgamesh to slay Enlil?s servant Humbaba, and he incurs the wrath of Ishtar. Like al men, Enkidu biterly regrets having to die, and he clings fiercely to life. Utnapishtim Utnapishti?s name means ?He Who Saw Life,? though ?He Who Saw Death? would be just as appropriate, since he witnessed the destruction of the entire world. The former king and priest of Shurupak, Utnapishtim was the fortunate recipient of the god Ea?s favor. His disdain for Gilgamesh?s desperate quest for eternal life might sem ungenerous, since he himself is imortal, but Utnapishtim must cary a heavy load of survivor?s guilt. He doesn?t know why, of al the people in the world, Ea chose him to live, but he does know that he tricked hundreds of his doomed neighbors into laboring day and night to build the boat that would carry him and his family to safety while he abandoned them to their fates. What Utnapishtim gained by his trickery was a great bon for humankind, however. He received a promise from the gods that henceforth only individuals would be subject to death and that humankind as a whole would endure. When Utnapishtim tested Gilgamesh by asking him to stay awake for a week, he knew that he would fail, just as he knew that Gilgamesh wouldn?t profit from the magical plant that had the power to make him young again. Gilgamesh is one-third man, which is enough to seal his fate?all men are mortal and al mortals die. Yet since Utnapishtim ?sees life,? he knows that life extends beyond the individual?that families, cities, and cultures endure. Siduri Siduri is the tavern keper who at first bars her dor to Gilgamesh and then shares her sensuous, worldly wisdom with him, advising him to cherish the pleasures of this world. Though she tries to disuade him from his quest, she tels him how to find Urshanabi the boatman, without whose help he?d surely fail. The goddess of wine-making and brewing, Siduri is only one of several sexualy ripe, nurturing women who POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 74 appear in this most explicitly homoerotic tale. The male characters may take these females for granted, but they nevertheless play an essential role. The temple prostitute Shamhat domesticates Enkidu. Utnapishtim?s unamed wife softens her husband toward Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh?s mother Ninsun adopts Enkidu as her son, not only endorsing his friendship to Gilgamesh but also making him Gilgamesh?s brother. Ishtar herself, fickle and dangerously mercurial as she is as the goddess of war and love, nevertheless weeps biterly to see how the deluge that she had helped to bring about ravaged her human children. As loudly as it celebrates male bonding and the masculine virtues of physical prowess, The Epic of Gilgamesh doesn?t forget to pay its respects to feminine qualities. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 75 THE FLOOD MYTH The Genesis Flod The Genesis acount tels the story of a major flod sent by God to cleans the world because of the sinfulness of humankind. The motivation for the flod, human sinfulnes, was a distinctive contribution of Hebrew culture, but the motif itself was already an ancient one in the Near East when the Hebrew account was finaly writen down. The earliest version is from Sumer. In it, Anu tires of the constant tumult and noise of the human population and angrily decides to destroy al humans. Enki, the Sumerian god of wisdom, realizes that this is a grave error, since it is the toil of humans for the gods that permits the gods to live a life of liesure. He takes it upon himself to inform the king of the city of Shuripak, one Ziusudra, of the impending flod and to tell him to build an ark so that he and his family will survive. On the advise of Enki, Ziusudra tels his people that the gods are angry with him and that to save them he plans to build a ship and leave Erech so that the city wil be safe. Thus deceived, the people help Ziusudra build his ark and stock it with domestic animals. But when the flod comes, it is Ziusudra who survives. When the ark lands, he offers a sacrifice to the gods, and Anu, smeling the smoke of the burnt offering, realizes that some have survived. Enki admits that it is he who saved Ziusudra and his family, but by that time Anu had realized the rashness of his having tried to kil their human servants. In Anu's admision of his own error, we find an explanation for a Bible pasage that has long perplexed those of the Judeo-Christian tradition which views God as perfect and unchanging--his recognition the the flood has done nothing to change the sinful nature of his creatures and his apparant change of heart about having sent the flood: "And when Yahweh smeled the pleasing odor, Yahweh said in his heart, 'I wil never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from yourth; nor wil I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done" (Genesis 8:21). This verse is nothing more than a survival of the older version of the story, one told when the gods themselves were someties pety and impulsive and in which Anu did, inded, realize that he had behaved folishly. Earlier Versions of the Flod Myth The Flod myth has a very ancient history in the Near East. Versions from Mesopotamia predate those found in the Bible and undoubtedly influenced it. The folowing is the Babylonian Flod Myth. It is particularly dramatic since it is told in the first person by Utnapushtim, the Babylonian precurser of the biblical Noah. The version that folows is dated to about 2,00 BCE, although it is believed to be a copy of an even earlier version. Words in parentheses are for clarification; words in brackets are educated guesses about what damaged words were in the original text. "Utnapushtim said to him, to Gilgamesh: "I wil reveal to the, Gilgamesh, a hiden mater And a secred of the gods wil I tel the;shurppak--a city which thou knowest, [(And) which on Euphrates' [banks] is situated-- That city was ancient, (as were) the gods within it, When their heart led the great gods to produce the flod. [There] were Anu, their father, Valiant Enlil, their counslor, Ninurta, their asistant, Ennuge, their irigator. Ninigiku-Ea was also present with them; Their words he repeats to the red-hut: 'Red-hut, reed-hut! Wall, wall! Reed-hut, hearken! all, reflect! Man of Shurupak, son of Ubar-Tutut,Tear down (this) house, build a ship! Give up posesions, sek thou life. Forswear (worldly) gods and kep the sould alive! Aboard the ship take thou the sed of al living things. The ship that thou shalt build, Her dimensions shal be to measure.Equal shall be her width and her length. Like the Apsu thou shalt ceil her. 'I understod, and I said to Ea, my lord: '[Behold], my lord, what thou hast thus ordered, POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 76 I wil be honored to cary out. [But what] shal I answer the city, the people and elders? 'Ea oopened his mouth to speak, Saying to me, his servant" 'Thou shalt then thus speak unto them: "I have learned that Enlil is hostile to me, So that I canot reside in your city, Nor set my f[o]t in Enlil's teritory. To the Dep I wil therefore go down, To dwel with my lord Ea. [But upon] you he wil shower down abundance, [The choicest] birds, the rarest fishes. [The land shal have its fil] of harvest riches. [He who at dusk orders] the husk-greens, Wil shower down upon you a rain of wheat. "With the first glow of dawn, The land was gathered [about me]. (fragmentary line) The litle ones [car]ied bitumen, While the grown ones brought [al else] that was nedful. On the fifth day I laid her framework. One (whole) acre was her floor space, Ten dozen cubits the height of each of her wals, Ten dozen cubits each edge of the square deck.I laid out the contours (and) joined her together. I provided her with six decks, Dividing her (thus) into seven parts. Her flor plan I divided into nine parts. I hamered water-plugs into her. I saw to the punting-poles and laid in supplies. Six 'sar' (measures) of bitumen I poured into the furnace. Thre sar of asphalt [I also] poured inside. Thre sar of oil the basket-bearers carried, Aside from the one sar of oil which the calking consumed, And the two sar of oil [which] the boatman stowed away. Bulocks I slaughtered for the [people], And I kiled shep every day. Must, red wine, oil, and white wine [I gave the] workmen [to drink], as though river water, That they might feast as on New Year's Day. I op[ened...] ointment, aplying (it) to my hand. [On the sev]enth [day] the ship was completed. [The launching] was very difficult, So that they had to shift the flor planks above and below, [Until] two-thirds of [the structure] [had g]one [into the water]. [Whatever I had] I laded upon her: Whatever I had of silver I laded upon her; Whatever I [had] of gold I laded upon her; Whatever I had of al the living beings I [laded] upon her. All my family and kin I made go aboard the ship. The beasts of the field, the wild creatures of the field, Al the craftsmen I made go aboard.Shamash (the sun god) had set for me a stated time: 'When he who orders unease at night, Wil shower down a rain of blight, Board thou the ship and baten up the entrance! 'That stated time had arived: 'He who orders unease at night, showers down a rain of blight. 'I watched the apearance of the weather. The weather was awesome to behold.I boarded the ship and battened up the entrance. To baten down the (whole) ship, Puzur-Amuri, the boatman, I handed over the structure together with its contents. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 77 (End of Part 1) With the first glow of dawn, A black cloud rose up from the horizon. Inside it Adad (the storm god) thunders, While Shulat and Hanish (the heralds) go in front, Moving as heralds over hil and plain. Erragal (god of the underworld) tears out the posts (of the world dam); Forth comes Ninurta dn causes the dikes to follow. The Anunaki (gods of judgment) lift up the torches, Seting the land ablaze with their glare. Consternation over Adad reaches to the heavens, Who turned to blacknes al that had ben light. [That wide] land was shattered like [a pot]! For one day the south-storm blew, [submerging the mountains], Overtaking the [people] like a batle. No one can se his felow, Nor can the people be recognized from heaven. The gods were frightened by the deluge, And, shrinking back, they ascended to the heaven of Anu (the father of the other gods, who lived in the highest heaven). The gods cowered like dogs Crouched against the outer wal.Ishtar (godes of pasion) cried out like a woman in travail, The swet-voiced mistress of the [gods] moans aloud: 'The olden days are alas turned to clay, Because I bespoke evil in the Assembly of the gods. How could I bespeak evil in the Asebly of the gods, Ordering batle for the destruction of my people, When it is I myself who give birth to my people! Like the spawn of the fishes they fil the sea! 'The Anunaki gods wep with her, The gods, al humbled, sit and wep, Their lips drawn tight, [..] one and al. Six days and [six] nightsBlows the flod wind, as the south-storm sweps the land. When the seventh day arrived, The flod(-carying) south-storm subsided in the batle, Which it had fought like an army. The sea grew quiet, the tempest was stil, the flod ceased. I loked at the weather: stilnes had set in, And al of mankind had returned to clay. The landscape was as level as a flat rof. I opened a hatch, and light fel upon my face. Bowing low, I sat and wept, Tears runing down on my face. I loked about for coast lines in the expanse of the sea: In each of fourteen (regions) There emerged a region(-mountain). On Mount Nisir* the ship came to a halt. Mount Nisir held the ship fast, Alowing no motion. One day, a second day, Mount Nisir held the ship fast, Alowing no motion. A third day, a fourth day, Mount Nisir held the ship fast, Alowing no motion. A fifth, and a sixth (day), Mount Nisir held the ship fast, Alowing no motion. When the seventh day arived,I sent forth and set fre a dove, The dove went forth, but came back; Since no resting-place for it was visible, she turned round. Then I sent forth and set fre a swalow. The swalow ent forth, but came back; POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 78 Since no resting-place for it was visible, she turned round. Then I sent forth and set fre a raven. The raven went forth and, seing that the waters had diminished, He eats, circles, caws, and turns not round. Then I let out (al) to the four winds And offered a sacrifice.I poured out a libation on the top of the mountain. Seven and seven cult-vessels I set up, Upon their pot-stands I heaped cane, cedarwod, and myrtle. The gods smeled the savor, The gods seled the swet savor, The gods crowded like flies about the sacrificer. When at length as the great godes (Ishtar) arived, She lifted up the great jewels which Anu had fashioned to her liking: 'Ye gods here, as surely as this lapis Upon my neck I shal not forget, I shal be mindful of these days, forgetting (them) never. Let the gods come to the offering, For he, unreasonig, brought on the deluge And my people consigned to destruction. 'When at length as Enlil arived, And saw the ship, Enlil was wroth, He was filed with wrath over the Igigi (earth) gods: 'Has some living soul escaped? No man was to survive the destruction! 'Ninurta opened his mouth to speak, Saying to valiant Enlil (the king of the gods): 'Who, other than Ea (god of wisdom), can devise plans? It is Ea alone who knows every matter. 'Ea opened his mouth to speak, Saying to valiant Enlil 'Thou wisest of gods, thou hero, How couldst thou, unreasoning, bring on the deluge? On the siner impose his sin, On the transgresor impose his transgresion! (Yet) be lenient, lest he be cut of,Be patient, lest he be dis[lodged]! Instead of thy bringing on the deluge, Would that a lion had risen up to diminish mankind! Instead of thy bringing on the deluge, Would that a wolf had risen up to diminish mankind! Instead of thy bringing on the deluge, Would that a famine had risen up to l[ay low] mankind! Instead of thy bringing on the deluge, Would that pestilence had risen up to smi[te down] mankind! It was not I who disclosed the secret of the great gods.I let Atrahasis ("Exceding Wise" = Utnapishtim) se a dream, And he perceived the secret of the gods. Now then take counsel in regard to him! 'Thereupon Enlil went aboard the ship. Holding me by the hand, he tok me aboard. He tok y wife aboard and made (her) knel by my side. Standing betwen us, he touched our foreheads to bles us: 'Hitherto Utnapishtim has ben but human. Henceforth Utnapishtim and his wife shal be like unto us gods. Utnapishtim shal reside far away, at the mouth of the rivers! "Thus they tok me and made me reside far away, At the mouth of the rivers. The cause of the flod is not fuly explained by the Akadian myth, but it related to the gods (particularly Ishtar) being disturbed by mankind in some way. In older versions from Sumer, the disturbance was probably something like being too rowdy and making too much noise when Anu wanted to slep, and this fits wel with the reference to overpopulation being involved in this text. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 79 An even earlier version of the flod myth comes from Sumer. It is recorded on tablet 1 of a myth known as Atrahasis. The relevant section, which reveals the cause of Enlil's anger with humankind, reads as folows: 600 years, less than 600, passed, And the country was as noisy as a belowing bul. The god grew restles at their racket, Ellil had to listen to their noise. He adresed the great gods, The noise of mankind has become too much, I am losing slep over their racket. Give the order that surupu-disease shall break out, ... Now there was one Atrahasis Whose ear was open to his god Enki. He would speak with his god And his god would speak with him. Atrahasis made his voice heard And spoke to his lord, How long wil the gods make us suffer? Wil they make us suffer ilnes forever? Enki made his voice heard And spoke to his servant: Cal the elders, the senior men! Start an uprising in your own house, Let the heralds proclaim... Let them make a loud noise in the land: Do not revere your gods, Do not pray to your godeses, But search out the dor of Namtara. Bring as baked loaf into his presence. May the flour offerings reach him. May he be shamed by the presents And wipe away his hand. Atrahasis tok the order, Gathered the elders to his dor. Atrahasis made his voice heard And spoke to the elders: I have caled the elders, the senior men! Start an uprising in your own house, Let the heralds proclaim... Let them make a loud noise in the land: Do not revere your gods, Do not pray to your godeses, But search out the dor of Namtara. Bring as baked loaf into his presence. May the flour offerings reach him. May he be shamed by the presents And wipe away his hand. The elders listened to his spech; They built a temple for Namtara in the city. Heralds proclaied.. They made a loud noise in the land. They di not revere their god, they did not pray to their godes, But searched out the dor of Namtara, Brought a baked loaf into his presence The flour oferings reached him. And he was shamed by the presents. And wiped away his hand. The surupu-disease left them. The gods went back to their regular oferings. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 80 (translation by Stephanie Daley) * Mount Nisir, where Utnapishtim's Ark is said to have grounded was, in Sumerian, caled Mount Mashu ("Twin", for its twin peaks). It was a sacred mountain was located in Mesopotamia east of the Tigris river, about 350 miles south of the bilical "mountains of Ararat" in modern south-eastern Turkey. In some later Semitic records it was also called Mount Nimush. A Myth About the Flod Myth The valey of Mesopotamia is dominated by two major rivers, the Tigris and the Euphraties, and numerous smaller ones. It was a land in which catestrophic flods were not unusual in ancient times, and it is unsurprising that stories about a major flood arose within the mythology of this area. Such stories might simply reflect an understandable preocupation with floding in an area where flod disasters were an important reality. Although it is not necesary to supose that the Mesopotamian flod myths were based on a single, major flod event, Sir Leonard Woley created something of a controversy in 1929 when he anounced that he had discovered evidence of the Biblical flod in his excavations at the Sumerian city of Ur. What he had found was a 12 foot layer of silt that had been deposited by water al at one time about 3500 BCE. They layers below and above this flod deposit both showed signs of human ocupation, while the layer itself had no evidence of human materials other than a few burials that intruded into it from later times. Woley was convinced that this silt had ben deposited by the great Flod of the Bible. However, later evidence demonstrated that this particular flood was a local event--there was no equivalent deposit at other cities of the same time. And the material he had found at Ur was also earlier than the time assigned by Sumerian and Biblcial accounts to the flood that they report. The Sumerian King List clearly assign the great Flood to the more recent time of the last king who reigned in Shurippak about 2900 BCE. So Woley eventualy recanted his first claim. What he had found was evidence of a major flod at Ur, but not the flood that gave rise to the myth recounted in these documents. Actualy, the biblical flod story, like those of Mesopotamia, can be read as referring to entirely local events. Contrary to the comon literalist reading, Genesis 7:4 does not asert that the flod it describes was a world-wide event. Rather, it simply states that the flod covered the eretz, the Hebrew word that can refer to land, teritory, or the whole earth, and destroyed al living things on the 'adamah, the ground, the land, teritory, country, or the whole earth. Thus, the biblical flod story can be read as wel as a story about a local event as it can as a story about a world-wide one. There are a number of dificulties with a literalist interpretation of the Genesis flod myth. For instance, a conservative estiate by biolgists places the number of species in the Animal Kingdom at about 2 million species. (Some recent estimates go as high as 20 million, but I will follow the traditional textbok number to be conservative.) Clearly 2 milion pairs of animals would be a tight squeeze in an Ark that Genesis describes as 30 cubits long by 50 cubits wide by thirty cubits high, which (taking a cubit to be 18 inches) translates as 450 feet long by 75 feet by 45 feet). Deducting no space for interior decks, hallways, cages and bracing (or even the thickness of the exterior walls) this would amount to 1,508,750 cubic fet of space or just over 0.75 cubic fet per pair of animals (i.e., 0.375 cubic fet per animal!), not counting storage space for potable water or foder for the anials. If we conservatively alow 30 percent of the space to have been taken up by wood construction (the hull, decks, bracing, etc, then the available space fals to 1.063,125 cubic fet or 0.25 cubic fet per animal. Again, this asumes that no space is devoted to water or food for the animals for their year-long voyage. Also, Genesis 7:1-15 makes it clear that al the animals were boarded on the same day. The boarding would have ben an aazing feat, requiring a constant flow of 46.5 animals entering the ark each second for 24 hours! Imagine the logistics of sorting the cargo. And think of the por, slow moving tortoise dodging al those fast-moving fet. Perhaps the Bible left out a miracle or two in the story. Creationists who take the story seriously and have tried to deal with this problem acknowledge that an ark of the stated size could not have held 4 milion animals. Among other things, a woden vesel of that size would not have ben structuraly strong enough to have supported the weight of that many animals. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 81 To deal with the problem of fiting al kinds of animals into such a confined space, creationists have decided that the Biblical "kinds" were not the same as our modern "species" but were more likely categories such as a pair of generic "felines", "canids", "bovines", etc. This could reduce the number of passangers to a more reasonable figure between 15,000 and 30,000 animals (depending on the creationist one asks). This equation of "kinds" with "genus" or even "faily" rather than "species" neatly solves the problem of cargo size. It also raises an interesting isue that I have never sen adresed by creationists: How di we get the contemporary 2 milion species of today's world from the 15 to 30 thousand "kinds" of Noah's day. That's a tremendous amount of diversification in an amazingly short time (only about 4,500 years). So creationists who balk at the idea that modern species evolved from a single kind over a period of 4 bilion years, must be wiling to accept the idea (if they stop and think about it) that our current 2 milion species evolved from, say 30,00 "kinds", in les than 5,00 years--that's 66.7 species evolving out of each original kind in 4,50 years to be more specific. Even Darwin would not have been so bold as to suggest that evolution could proced that fast. The bottom line is that creationists aren't really anti-evolutionist. In fact they outdo the secular brand of evolutionism, since their view entails a super-rapid form of the same proces of diversification of many species out of single "kinds". Wil the real evolutionist please stand up! Literalists must resort to unrecorded miracles to account for the story. In adition to the miracle necessary to load 4 milion animals in 24 hours (or the miracle of evolving 2 milion species out of 30,000 "kinds" in only 4,50 years), another miraculous increase in the tensile strength of wod would also have been necessary. Prety soon we have to postulate so many unrecorded miracles to account for various "imposible" aspects of the story, that one wonders why God would not have simply used one miracle to save Noah and the animals from the Flod instead of going to al the trouble. Then there's the problem of the size of the ark. At 450 fet in length would stil qualify as the largest wooden vesel ever to have ben built? This must have made it the First Wonder of the World, and one that would only have ben rivaled by the Great Pyramid, to Noah's neighbors back then for several reasons. First, he built a woden ship like none that had ever ben sen before or since. When he di so, his building techniques were complete innovations, since no shipbuilding tradition existed in his society for him to draw upon. Red boats of about 20 foot lengths, useful only on local lakes and rivers were al that had ben developed so far. Why was his inovationary work never equaled? The only comparable sailing vessels were not built until the ninetenth century, and the longest of those maxed out at 350 fet in length. European shipbuilders were able to achieve this length only with the aid of stel straps, used to reinforce the structural strength of the ships, since wod is to flexible and not strong enough to suport a vessel of this length without breaking up when subjected to wave motion. The vessels of this length could be seen to bend and curve as they traveled and they had to hug the shores to avoid storms at sea, and shipbuilders believe that longer vessels canot be built out of wod because of the structural strength problem. A Non-literalist Reading Taken as a story that grew out of local flod experiences in ancient Mesopotamia, the various flood myths of this region and, later, of the Bible lend themselves much beter to our scientific understanding of the ancient Near East. The biblical story is merely one of many variations on the original Sumerian flod myth that developed over the milenia that civilization spread from Sumer through the ancient Semitic world. Although it is conceivable that the earliest stories grew up to attest a particularly catestrophic event, one dated around 2900 BCE in southern Mesopotamia, even this ned not have ben the case. The stories may simply have evolved out of concerns stimulated by the not infrequent ocurence of floding in general. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 82 HUMAN EXTINCTION From Wikipedia Human extinction would be the extinction of the human species, Homo sapiens, whether on Earth (often as the result of a doomsday event) or from the entire universe, provided the species colonizes on other planets. Attitudes to human extinction Attitudes to human extinction vary widely depending on beliefs concerning spiritual survival (souls, heaven, reincarnation, and so forth), the value of the human race, whether the human race evolves individually or collectively, and many other factors. Many religions prophesy an end time to the universe, so eventual human extinction is necessarily a part of the faith of many humans, to the extent that the end time means the absolute end of their physical humanity (although perhaps not an internal soul. Many people consider that the extinction of the entire species would be a much worse fate than the death of an individual. Although the mortality of the individual can be accepted as an inevitable part of the human condition, humans can nevertheless expect to atain some measurement of imortality through their progeny, or through contributions or advancement in culture or science. However, the extent to which this "imortality" can be achieved is subject to the continuation of the species as a whole, and human extinction would represent the termination of such expectations. Fear of human extinction is said to be one of the motivating factors of the environmentalist movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. The minority view, in favor of human extinction takes two forms: ? Deep ecologists like VHEMT say that humanity is inherently destructive to the global ecosystem, the neds of which should outweigh humanity's desire for "imortality". ? Some pesimistic observers (such as Schopenhauer) have writen that destroying the entire biosphere is a price worth paying to erase human evil. Perception of human extinction risk The general level of fear about human extinction (in the near term) is very low. It is not an outcome considered by many as a credible risk (excluding religious extinction). Sugested reasons for huan extinction's low public visibility: ? There have ben countles prophesies of extinction throughout history; in most cases the predicted date of doom has passed without much notice, making future warnings less frightening. However, a survivor bias would undercut the credibility of acurate extinction warnigs. John von Neuman was probably wrong in having ?a certainty? that nuclear war would ocur; but our survival is not prof that the chance of a fatal nuclear exchange was low. ? To prevent public panics, official reports containing high casualty estimates are sometimes supressed or changed (such as Admiral Rickover's critical report on nuclear industry safety). ? Extinction scenarios (se below) are speculative, and hard to quantify. A frequentist approach to probability cannot be used to assess the danger of an event that has never been observed by humans. ? Nick Bostrom sugests that extinction-analysis may be an overlooked field simply because it is too depresing a subject area to attract researchers. ? There are thousands of public safety jobs dedicated to analyzing and reducing the risks of individual death. There are no full-time existential safety commisioners partly because there is no way to tell if they are doing a good job, and no way to punish them for failure. The inability to judge performance might also explain the comparative governmental apathy on preventing human extinction (as compared to panda extinction, say). POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 83 ? Some anthropologists believe that risk perception is biased by social structure; in the "Cultural Theory of risk" typography "individualist" societies predispose members to the belief that nature operates as a self-corecting system, which wil return to its stable state after a disturbance. People in such cultures fel comfortable with a "trial-and-error" approach to risk, even to unsuitably rare dangers (such as extinction events). ? It is posible to do something about dietary or motor-vehicle health threats. Since it is much harder to know how existential threats should be minimized, they tend to be ignored. High technology societies tend to become "hierarchist" or "fatalist" in their attitudes to the ever- multiplying risks threatening them. In either case, the average member of society adopts a passive atitude to risk minimization, culturaly, and psycholgicaly. ? The bias in popular culture is to relate extinction scenario stories with non-extinction outcomes. (None of the 16 'most notable' W3 scenarios in film are resolved by human extinction, for example.) ? The threat of nuclear anihilation actualy was a daily concern in the lives of many people in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then the principal fear has been of localized terrorist attack, rather than a global war of extinction; contemplating human extinction may be out of fashion. ? Some people have philosophical reasons for doubting the posibility of human extinction, for instance the final anthropic principle, plenitude principle or intrinsic finality. ? Tversky and Kahneman have produced evidence that humans sufer cognitive biases which would tend to minimize the perception of this unprecented event: ? Denial is a negative "availability heuristic" shown to ocur when an outcome is so upsetting that the very act of thinking about it leads to an increased refusal to believe it might ocur. In this case, imaginig human extinction probably makes it sem les likely. ? In cultures where human extinction is not expected the proposition must overcome the "disconfirmation bias" against heterodox theories. ? Another reliable psychological effect relevant here is the "positive outcome bias". ? Behavioural finance has strong evidence that recent evidence is given undue significance in risk analysis. Roughly speaking, "100 year storms" tend to occur every twenty years in the stock market as traders become convinced that the current good times wil last forever. Doomsayers who hypothesize rare crisis-scenarios are dismissed even when they have statistical evidence behind them. An extreme form of this bias can diminish the subjective probability of the unprecedented. ? In general, humanity's sense of self preservation, and inteligence are considered to offer safe- guards against extinction. It is felt that people wil find creative ways to overcome potential threats, and wil take care of the precautionary principle in atempting dangerous inovations. The arguments against this are; firstly, that the management of destructive technology is becoming dificult, and secondly, that the precautionary principle is often abandoned whenever the reward appears to outweigh the risk. Two examples where the principle has ben overuled are: ? Some Anti-GM fod campaigners are very concerned by "Frankenstein genes", which cros the species barier and raise the spectre of a 'superbug' domsday. They invoke the precautionary principle against the use of this technology, but its benefits are considered to be so significant that trials and distribution are permitted in many parts of the world. ? Before the Trinity nuclear test, one of the project's scientists (Teler) speculated that the fission explosion might destroy New Mexico and possibly the world, by causing a reaction in the nitrogen of the atmosphere. A calculation from another scientist on the project proved such a possibility theoreticaly imposible, but the fear of the posibility remained among some until the test tok place. Observations in suport of eventual human extinction As about 9.9% of species that have ever existed on Earth have become extinct, it is often sugested that al species have a finite lifespan. If this were the case, human extinction would be inevitable. Humans are unique in their adaptive and technological capabilities, so it is not possible to draw reliable inferences about the probability of human extinction based on the past extinctions of other species (this fact is also used as an argument that extinctions in humans may ocur faster than in other successful species). It is POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 84 also widely believed that the human species is the only species with a conscious prior knowledge of their own demise, and well in advance. Another characteristic of the human animal believed to be unique is its religious belief . Some comentators (such as John F. Schuaker) claim that paranormal beliefs are the "excess evolutionary baggage" underlying the "seemingly suicidal qualities that are features of the human animal". Other socioecological observers maintain that hunter-gatherer evolution has simply produced a ind biased against considering the comon good of more than a hundred people; this was Albert Einstein's belief, and he concluded: "We shal require a substantialy new maner of thinking if mankind is to survive." Humans are very similar to other primates in their genetic propensity towards intra-species violence; Jared Diamond's The Rise and Fal of the Third Chimpanze estimates that 64% of hunter-gather societies engage in warfare every two years. Although it has ben argued (e.g. in the UNESCO Sevile Statement) that warfare is a cultural artifact, many anthropologists dispute this, noting that smal human tribes exhibit similar patterns of violence to chimpanze groups, the most murderous of the primates, and our nearest genetic relatives. The 'higher' functions of reason and speech may be more evolved in the brain of Homo sapiens than its cousins, but the relative size of the limbic system is a constant in apes, monkeys and humans; as human rational faculties have expanded, so has the wetware of emotion. The combination of inventiveness and urge to violence in the human animal has ben cited as evidence against its long term survival. History is replete with cases of over-exploitation of publicly available resources ("Tragedy of the comons"). If humanity's survival relies upon self-restraint, few examples are available. Another concern is extreme climate change, especially as a result of human activity. For example, pollution of the environment causes damage to ecosystems. If severely damaged the global ecosystem could colapse, leading to an extinction event which could include humanity. A phenomenon of this nature is already believed to be underway, with the widespread, ongoing extinction of species during the modern Holocene epoch, which may have some causal asociation with human activity. Some terorist cults, such as Chizuo Matsumoto's Aum Supreme Truth had a specific agenda of intentionally bringing about Armagedon, such as through bioterorism. The Domsday argument cites the relatively brief lifespan of the species as probabilistic evidence for its relatively iminent extinction. Human extinction scenarios Various scenarios for the extinction of the human species have originated from science, popular culture, science fiction, and religion. The expression existential risk has ben coined to refer to risks of total and irreversible destruction of human life, or of some leser, but universal and permanent detriment to it. The folowing are among the extinction scenarios that have ben envisaged by various authors: * Severe forms of known or recorded disasters * Warfare, whether nuclear or biolgical; se World War II. * Universal pandemic involving a genetic disease, virus, prion, or antibiotic-resistant bacterium. * Famine resulting from overpopulation * Nuclear terorism. * Environmental colapses * Catastrophic climate change as a result of global warming or the effects of extensive deforestation or polution. * Loss of a breathable atmosphere or destruction of the ozone layer. * Occurence of a supervolcano. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 85 * Extreme ice age leading to Icebal Earth * Magnetic pole change on earth would lead to the colapse of the earth's magnetic shielding against solar radiation, therefore giving an extreme dose of radiation to anyone who would venture outside unprotected. This change has ben observed in the consistency of ancient clay pots and stones, its a cyclic proces and the earth is due for a change. * Long term habitat threats * In 1.4 milion years Gliese 710 wil be only 1.1 Light years from Earth, and might catastrophicaly perturb the Oort cloud * In about 3 bilion years, our Milky Way galxy is expected to pass through the Andromeda galaxy, which may or may not result in a colision * In 5 bilion years the Sun's stelar evolution wil reach the red giant stage, in which it wil expand to engulf the Earth. Before this date, its radiated spectrum ay alter in ways Earth-bound humans could not survive. * In the very long term the ultimate threat to humanity may be entropy, with the postulated heat death of the universe predicted by the second law of thermodynamics, or other endings caused by physical constraints. This is inevitable unless humans somehow can access other universes (if they even exist) or create their own "baby universe". * Evolution of humanity into a posthuman life-form or existence by means of technology, leaving no trace of original humans * Comentators such as Hans Moravec argue that humanity wil eventualy be suplanted and replaced by artificial inteligence or other forms of artificial life; while others have argued that humanity wil inevitably experience a technological singularity, and furthermore that this outcome is desirable (se singularitarianism). * transhumanist genetic enginering could lead to a species unable to inter-procreate, accidentally resulting in actual (rather than pseudo) extinction[7]. * Humans wil continue to evolve via traditional natural selction over a period of milions of years, and homo sapiens wil gradually transition into one or more new species. * Extinction in a whimper * Preference for fewer children; if developed world demographics are extrapolated they mathematicaly lead to 'soft' extinction before 300 AD. (John Leslie estimates that if the reproduction rate drops to the German level the extinction date wil be 240[8]). * Political intervention in reproduction has failed to raise the birth rate above the replacement level in the rich world, but has dramatically suceded in lowering it below the replacement level in China (se One child policy). A World government with a eugenic or smal population policy could send humanity into 'voluntary' extinction. * Infertility: Caused by hormonal disruption from the chemical/pharmaceutical industries, or biological changes, such as the (controversial) findings of falling sperm cell count in human males. * A disruption, chemical, biological, or otherwise, in humans' ability to reproduce properly or at all * Voluntary extinction * Genetic or evolutionary regresion or deterioration such as proposed by the idea of dysgenics; or reduction in the diversity of human capabilities through eugenics (via fetal genetic testing mainly). * Scientific acidents * In his bok Our Final Hour, Sir Martin Res claims that without the apropriate regulation, scientific advancement increases the risk of huan extinction as a result of the efects or use of new technology. Some examples are provided below. * Uncontroled nanotechnology (grey go) incidents resulting in the destruction of the Earth's ecosystem (ecophagy). * Creation of a naked singularity (such as a "micro black hole") on Earth during the course of a scientific experiment, or other foreseeable scientific accidents in high-energy physics research, such as vacuu phase transition or stranglet incidents. * Biotech disaster (E.g. the warnings of Jeremy Rifkin) * Scenarios of extra-terestrial origin * Major impact events. * Gama-ray burst in our part of the Milky Way (Bursts observable in other galaxies are calculated to act as a "sterilizer", and have ben used by some astronomers to explain the Fermi paradox). POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 86 The lack of fosil record interruptions, and relative distance of the nearest Hypernova candidate make this a long term (rather than imminent) threat. * Invasion by militarily superior aliens (se alien invasion) ? often considered to be a scenario purely from the realms of science fiction, professional SETI researchers have given serious consideration to this possibility, but conclude that it is unlikely. [9] * Gerard O'Neil has cautioned that first contact with alien inteligence may folow the precedent set by historical examples of contact betwen human civilizations, where the les technolgicaly- advanced civilization has inevitably succumbed to the other civilization, regardless of its intentions. * Solar flares may sudenly heat the earth, or the light from the sun may be blocked by dust, slowly frezing it (eg. the dust and vapour may come from a Kuiper belt disturbance). * Scenarios of extra-universal origin * E.g., since it is entirely posible that the space of our universe, the Big Bang, and al its consequences are events taking place within a computing or other device on another cosmolgical plane, if this process were to end (e.g., "Junior, shut that thing of, and come and eat your lunch!") then everything within the universe would sumarily vanish. * Philosophical scenarios Human extinction scenario listings * Armagedon Online posts at least one domsday-related news item on its main page every day. * Forty-five extinction scenarios from exitmundi.nl with light-hearted pictures and pithy names. * Doomsday.org guide to extinction scenarios, acording to religious prophecy and resulting from scientific advances. * "Twenty ways the world could end sudenly". From Discover Magazine, Oct 200. * Existential risks analysed by Nick Bostrom. (Published in the Journal of Evolution and Technology, March 202.) His definition of Existential risk: "? One where an adverse outcome would either anihilate Earth-originating intelligent life or permanently and drasticaly curtail its potential." In his typography of existential risks only the first ("Bangs") represents true human extinction, but this is a rare serious atempt to make a risk assessment. On the probability of extinction through existential risk he says "My subjective opinion is that seting this probability lower than 25% would be misguided, and the best estimate may be considerably higher. But even if the probability were much smaller (say, ~1%) the subject mater would still merit very serious attention because of how much is at stake." POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 87 ENÛMA ELISH From Wikipedia Enûma Elish is the creation epic of Sumerian Babylonian mythology. It was first discovered by modern scholars (in fragmentary form) in the ruined library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (Mosul, Iraq). Enûma Elish has about a thousand lines and is recorded in Akkadian on seven clay tablets. The majority of Tablet V has never been recovered, but aside from this lacuna the text is almost complete. This epic is one of the most important sources for understanding the Babylonian worldview, centered on the supremacy of Marduk and the existence of mankind for the service of the gods. Its primary original purpose, however, is not an exposition of theology or theogony, but the elevation of Marduk, the chief god of Babylon, above other Mesopotamian gods. Enûma Elish has existed in various versions and copies, the oldest probably dating to at least 170 B.C.E. Sumary The title, an incipit, means "When on high." The epic names thre primeval gods: Apsu, the fresh water, Tiamat, the salt water, and their son Mumu, aparently the mist. Several other gods are created, and raise such a clamor of noise that Apsu is provoked (with Mumu's conivance) to destroy them. Ea (Nudimud), at the time the most powerful of the gods, intercepts the plan, puts Apsu to slep and kils him, and shuts Mumu out. Ea then begets a son, Marduk, greater stil than himself. Tiamat is then persuaded to take revenge for the death of her husband. Her power grows, and some of the gods join her. She elevates Kingu as her new husband and gives him "supreme dominion." A lengthy description of the other gods' inability to deal with the threat follows. Ultimately, Marduk is selected as their champion against Tiamat, and becomes very powerful. He defeats and kiled Tiamat, and forms the world from her corpse. The subsequent hundred lines or so constitute the lost section of Tablet V. The gods who sided with Tiamat are initialy forced to labor in the service of the other gods. They are fred from their servitude when Marduk decides to slay Kingu and create mankind from his blod. Babylon is established as the residence of the chief gods. Finaly, the gods confer kingship on Marduk, hailing him with fifty names. Most noteworthy is Marduk's symbolic elevation over Enlil, who was seen by earlier Mesopotamian civilizations as the king of the gods. Comparisons with Genesis Many scholars have noted striking similarities betwen the creation story in the Enûma Elish and the first creation story in the Biblical tale of Genesis. For example, Genesis describes six days of creation, folowed by a day of rest; the Enûma Elish describes six generations of gods, whose creations paralel the days in Genesis, folowed by a divine rest. In both Enuma Elish and Genesis 1, the creation proceds in the same order, begining with light, and ending with mankind. Also, the goddess Tiamat parallels the primordial ocean in Genesis; the Hebrew word used in Genesis for the primordial ocean is "tehôm" which has the same etymological root as "Tiamat". This has led many to conclude that the two accounts are related, perhaps sharing a comon origin or that posibly one of the acounts is a modified form of the other. Though, in the Enûma Elish, Tiamat controlled saltwater seeping into the water table, so some scholars think there is just a mutual rot in the concept of saltwater. The same paralel mythology can be found in the Bal cycle recovered in Cananite Ugarit. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 88 ÇATALHÖYÜK From Wikipedia Çatalhöyük was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic setlement in southern Anatolia, dating from around 7500 BCE for the lowest layers. It is perhaps the largest and most sophisticated Neolithic site yet uncovered. Çatalhöyük is located overloking wheat fields in the Konya Plain, southeast of the present-day city of Konya, Turkey, aproximately eighty-five miles from the twin-coned volcano of Hasan Dag?. The eastern setlement forms a mound which would have risen about 20 meters above the plain at the time of the latest Neolithic ocupation. There is also a smaller setlement mound to the west and a Byzantine setlement a few hundred meters to the east. The prehistoric ound setlements were abandoned before the Bronze Age. A chanel of the Çarsamba river once flowed betwen the two mounds, and the setlement was built on aluvial clay which ay have been favorable for early agriculture. Archaeological history First discovered in 1958, the Çatalhöyük site was brought to worldwide atention by James Melart's excavations between 1961 and 1965, which revealed this section of Anatolia as a centre of advanced culture in the Neolithic period. After Melart was baned from Turkey for involvement in the Dorak afair in which he published drawings of suposedly important Bronze Age artifacts that later went missing (se Pearson and Conor, below), the site lay idle until September 1, 193, when investigations began under the leadership of Ian Hoder from the University of Cambridge. These investigations are among the most ambitious excavation projects currently in progress according to, among others, Colin Renfrew. In addition to extensive use of archaeological science, psychologists' and artists' interpretations of the symbolism of the wal paintings have also ben employed. Cultural findings The complex setlement was described by Melart as the earliest city in the world. However, it is more properly described as a large vilage rather than a true town, city or civilization. The community seems to have consisted entirely of domestic housing with open areas for dumping rubbish. There are no obvious public buildings or signs of division of labor, although some dwellings are larger than the rest and bear more elaborate wal paintings. The purpose of larger roms remains unclear, though some sort of ritual purpose is suspected. The population of the eastern mound has ben estimated at up to 10,00 people, but population totals likely varied over the comunity?s history. An average population of betwen 5,00 to 8,00 is a reasonable estimate. The inhabitants lived in mud-brick houses which were cramed together in an agglutinative manner. No footpaths or streets were used between the dwellings, which were clustered in a honeycomb-like maze. Most were acesed by holes in the ceiling, which were reached by interior and exterior ladders. And this, makes their roftops, their strets. The ceiling openings also served as the only source of ventilation, leting in fresh air and alowing smoke from open hearths and ovens to escape. Houses were made of plasters interiors were characterized by squared of timber ladders or steep stairs, usually placed on the south wall of the room, as were cooking hearths and ovens. Each main room served as an area for cooking and daily activities. Raised platforms built along the wals of main roms were used for siting, working and sleeping. These platforms, and all interior wals, were carefuly plastered to a smooth finish. Ancilary rooms were used as storage, and were accessed through low entry openings from ain rooms. Al rooms were kept scrupulously clean. Archaeologists identified very litle trash or rubish within the buildings, but found that trash heaps outside the ruins contain sewage and food waste as wel as significant amounts of wod ash. In god weather, many daily activities may also have taken place on the rooftops, which conceivably formed an open air plaza. In later periods, large comunal ovens apear to have ben built on these roftops. Over time, houses were renewed by partial demolition and rebuilding on a foundation of rubble? which was how the mound became built up. Up to eighteen levels of settlement have been uncovered. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 89 On-site restoration of a typical Çatal Höyük interior The people of Çatalhöyük buried their dead within the vilage. Human remains have ben found in pits beneath the floors, and especialy beneath hearths, the platforms within the main rooms and under the beds. The bodies were tightly flexed before burial, and were often placed in baskets or wrapped in reed mats. Disarticulated bones in some graves sugest that bodies may have ben exposed in the open air for a time before the bones were gathered and buried. In some cases, graves were disturbed and the individual?s head removed from the skeleton. These heads may have ben used in ritual, as some were found in other areas of the comunity. Some skuls were plastered and painted with ochre to recreate human-like faces, a custom ore characteristic of Neolithic sites in Syria and at Neolithic Jericho than at sites closer by. Vivid murals and figurines are found throughout the setlement, on interior and exterior wals. A wal map of the vilage is currently credited as the world's oldest map. Predominant images include men with erect phalluses, groups of men in hunting scenes, and red images of the now extinct aurochs and stags, and vultures swoping down on headles figures. Heads of animals were mounted on wals. In adition, distinctive clay figurines of women have been found in the upper levels of the site. Although no identifiable temples have ben found, the graves, murals and figurines suggest that the people of Çatalhöyük had a religion that was rich in symbol. Roms with concentrations of these items may have been shrines or public meeting areas. The people appear to have lived relatively egalitarian lives with no apparent social clases, as no houses with distinctive features (belonging to kings or priests, for example) have been found so far. The most recent investigations also reveal litle social distinction based on gender, with both men and women receiving equivalent nutrition and aparently having relatively equal social status. In uper levels of the site, it becomes aparent that the people of Çatalhöyük were gaining skils in agriculture and the domestication of animals. Female figurines have been found within bins used for storage of cereals such as wheat and barley. Peas were also grown, and almonds, pistachios, and fruit were harvested from tres in the surounding hils. Shep were domesticated and evidence sugests the beginning of cattle domestication as well. However, hunting continued to be a major source of meat for the comunity. The making of pottery and the construction of obsidian tols were major industries. Obsidian tols were probably both used and traded for items as Mediteranean sea shels and flint from Syria. Religion A striking feature of Catalhoyuk are its female figurines. Melart, the original excavator, argued that these wel-formed, carefuly made figurines, carved and molded from marble, blue and brown limestone, schist, calcite, basalt, albaster and clay, represented female deity. Although a male deity existed as well, ??statues of a female deity far outnumber those of the male deity, who moreover, does not apear to be represented at al after Level VI?. These careful figurines were found priarily in areas Mellaart believed to be shrines. One, however ? a stately seated Godes flanked by two lions ? was found in a grain bin, which Melart sugests might have ben a means of ensuring the harvest or protecting the fod suply. Whereas Melart excavated nearly two hundred buildings in four seasons, the curent excavator, Ian Hoder, spent an entire season excavating one building alone. Neverthels, Hoder, in 204 and 205, began turning up the same corpulent, carefully made ?Mother Goddess? figurines that Melart found in abundance. The 2005 female figurine was striking; according to the oficial Catalhoyuk website, it ??may force us to change our views of the nature of Catalhoyuk society??: ?There are ful breasts on which the hands rest, and the stomach is extended in the central part?. As one turns the figurine around one notices that the arms are very thin, and then on the back of the figurine one sees a depiction of either a skeleton or the bones of a very thin and depleted human. The ribs and vertebrae are clear, as are the scapulae and the main pelvic bones?. [T]his is a unique piece that may force us to change our views of the nature of Catalhoyuk society and imagery?. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 90 Dreamtime Fro Wikipedia, The Dreamtime is the central, unifying theme in Australian Aboriginal mythology. The Dreamtime, also caled the Dreaming, consists of four aspects: The begining of al things; the life and influence of the ancestors; the way of life and death; and sources of power in life. Dreamtime consists of al four of these aspects at the same time because it is a condition beyond time and space where al things exist at once. Aboriginal people cal Dreaming the all-at-once time because they experience it as the past, present, and future co-existing. The anthropolgist and historian, Profesor W.H. Staner caled it the everywhen. This does not mean that they did not have a concept of linear time, but they considered the everywhen of the Dreaming to be objective, whilst linear time they considered a subjective creation of wakeful consciousness of one's own lifetime. This is in the reverse of the European concept which views dreams as subjective and linear time is considered objective. The condition that is Dreamtime is met when the tribal members live acording to tribal rules and traditions and are initiated through rituals and the hearing of tribal myths. The creation was believed to be the work of culture heroes (or heroines) that in the creative epoch traveled acros a formles land, creating sacred sites and significant places of interest in their travels. In this way songlines were established, some of which could travel right acros Australia, through as many as 6 - 10 different language groupings. The songs and dances of a particular songline were kept alive and frequently performed at large gatherings, organized in god seasons. They believe that every person has a part to them that exists eternaly. This eternal part existed before the life of the individual begins, and continues to exist when the life of the individual ends. Both before and after life, it is believed that this spirit-child exists in the Dreaming and is only initiated into life by being born through a mother. The spirit of the child was believed to enter the developing fetus at the 5th month of pregnancy. When the mother felt the child move in the womb for the first time, it was thought that this was the work of the spirit of the country in which the mother curently stod. Upon birth the child was considered to be a special custodian of that part of their country, and taught of the stories and songlines of that place. Thought to be the oldest continuously maintained cultural history on Earth (50,00 years or more), the Dreamtime explains the origins and culture of the land and of its people. It presents in a nuber of inter- related narratives (or myths) explainig Aboriginal Australian origins and culture, it thus has a complex relationship to the prehistory of Australia. Most Aboriginal people believe that al life as we know it today (human, animal, or plant) is part of a vast and complex single network of relationships which can be traced directly back to the great spirit ancestors of the Dreamtime. This structure of relations, including food taboos, was important to the maintenance of the biological diversity of the indigenous environment and prevented overhunting of particular species. In the Aboriginal world view, every event leaves a record in the land. Everything in the natural world is a result of the actions of the archetypal beings, beings whose actions created the world. Whilst Europeans consider these cultural ancestors to be metaphysical many Aboriginal people stil believe in their literal existence. The meaning and significance of particular places and creatures is weded to their origin in the Dreaming, and certain places have a particular potency, which the Aborigines cal its dreaming. In this dreaming lies the sacredness of the earth. For example in Perth, the Noongar believe that the Darling Scarp is said to represent the body of a Wagyl - a snakelike being that meandered over the land creating rivers, waterways and lakes. It is taught that the Wagyl created the Swan River. In one version (there are many Aboriginal cultures) Altjira was the god of the Dreamtime; he created the Earth and then retired as the Dreamtime vanished. Alternative names for Aktjira in other Aboriginal dialects and Western Desert languages include Alchera (Arernte), Alcheringa, Mura-mura (Dieri), and Tjukurpa (Pitjantjatjara). POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 91 ABORIGINAL DREAMTIME The Aboriginal Dreamtime is that part of aboriginal culture which explains the origins and culture of the land and its people. Aborigines have the longest continuous cultural history of any group of people on Earth, dating back 65,00 years. Dreamtime is Aboriginal Religion and Culture. The Dreamtime contains many parts. It is the story of things that have hapened, how the universe came to be, how human beings were created and how the Creator intended for humans to function within the cosmos. As with al other cultures it speaks of Earth's Creation by Gods and Godeses, some of whom were kind hearted while others were cruel. The Australian Aborigines speak of jiva or guruwari, a sed power deposited in the earth. In the Aboriginal worldview, every meaningful activity, event, or life process that occurs at a particular place leaves behind a vibrational residue in the earth, as plants leave an image of themselves as seds. The shape of the land, its mountains, rocks, riverbeds, and waterholes, and its unsen vibrations echo the events that brought that place into creation. Everything in the natural world is a symbolic footprint of the metaphysical beings whose actions created our world. As with a sed, the potency of an earthly location is weded to the memory of its origin. The Aborigines called this potency the "Dreaming" of a place, and this Dreaming constitutes the sacrednes of the Earth. Only in extraordinary states of consciousnes can one be aware of, or attuned to, the inner dreaming of the Earth. The Australian aboriginal shamans, "clever men" or "men of high degre", described "celestial ascents" to meet with the "sky gods" such as Baiame, Biral, Goin and Bundjil. Many of the acounts of ritualistic initiation bare striking parallels to modern day UFO contactee and abduction lore. The aboriginal shamanic "experience of death and rising again" in the initiation of tribal "men of high degre" finds some fascinating paralels with modern day UFO abduction lore. The "chosen one" (either voluntarily or spontaneously)is set upon by "spirits", ritualisticaly "kiled", and then experiences a wondrous journey (generaly an aerial ascent to a strange realm) to met the "sky god." He is restored to life, a new life as the tribal shaman. Ritual death and resurrection, abduction by powerful beings, ritual removal or rearrangement of body parts, symbolic disembowelment, implanting of artifacts, aerial ascents and journeys into strange realms, alien tutelage and enlightenment, personal empowerment, and transformation, these and many other phenomena are recurring elements of the extraordinary shamanic tradition. Aboriginal oral traditions which describe the origin of Australia from ancient times are frequently dramatic, involving great beings and amazing events. The legends when distiled create a story of the origins of man in Australia and of the Australian landscape as it is today of which much can be substantiated by scientific investigation. The ancient racial memory of a people whose traditions and culture remained largely unaltered for thousands of years can recount great geological changes, the rising of the seas, the change from lush vegetation to desert, and the eruption of volcanoes as wel as the very first arival of man on this continent. The expression 'Dreamtime' is most often used to refer to the 'time before time', or 'the time of the creation of al things', while 'Dreaming' is often used to refer to an individual's or group's set of beliefs or spirituality. For instance, an Indigenous Australian might say that they have Kangaroo Dreaming, or Shark Dreaming, or Honey Ant Dreaming, or any combination of Dreamings pertinent to their 'country'. However, many Indigenous Australians also refer to the creation time as 'The Dreaming'. What is certain is that 'Ancestor Spirits' came to Earth in human and other forms and the land, the plants and animals were given their form as we know them today. These Spirits also established relationships betwen groups and individuals, (whether people or animals) and where they traveled across the land, or came to a halt, they created rivers, hils, etc., and there are often stories attached to these places. Once their work was done, the Ancestor Spirits changed again, into animals or stars or hills or other objects. For Indigenous Australians, the past is stil alive and vital today and wil remain so into the future. The Ancestor Spirits and their powers have not gone, they are present in the forms into which they changed at the end of the 'Dreamtime' or 'Dreaming', as the stories tel. The stories have ben handed down through the ages and are an integral part of an Indigenous person's 'Dreaming'. Each tribe has its individual dreamtime although some of the legends overlap. Most 'Dreamtime' originates with the Giant Dog or the Giant Snake, and each is unique and colorful in its POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 92 explanation. Legends of the 'Dreamtime' are handed down by word of mouth and by totem from generation to generation. It involves some secret rituals and rites, and some classified as 'Men's Busines' and some as 'Women's Busines'. Colorful, symbolic and enthusiastic dancing and corobores are used to pass on the stories of the creation. Dreaming is an act of pure imagination, atesting in al men a creative power, which if it were available in waking, would make every an a Dante or Shakespeare. ~H.F. Hedge About Indigenous Australia Stories of the dreaming Creation Story told by Aunty Beryl Carmichael This is the creation story of Ngiyampa country, as wel as the land belonging to Eaglehawk and Crow. Now long, long time ago of course, in the begining, when there was no people, no tres, no plants whatever on this land, "Guthi-guthi", the spirit of our ancestral being, he lived up in the sky. So he came down and he wanted to create the special land for people and animals and birds to live in. So Guthi-guthi came down and he went on creating the land for the people-after he'd set the borders in place and the sacred sights, the birthing places of all the Dreamings, where all our Dreamings were to come out of. Guthi-guthi put one foot on Gunderbooka Mountain and another one at Mount Grenfell. And he loked out over the land and he could se that the land was bare. There was no water in sight, there was nothing growing. So Guthi-guthi knew that trapped in a mountain-Mount Minara-the water serpent, Weowie, he was traped in the mountain. So Guthi-guthi called out to him, "Weowie, Weowie", but because Weowie was traped right in the midle of the mountain, he couldn't hear him. Guthi-guthi went back up into the sky and he called out once more, "Weowie", but once again Weowie didn't respond. So Guthi-guthi came down with a roar like thunder and banged on the mountain and the mountain split open. Weowie the water serpent came out. And where the water serpent traveled he made waterholes and streams and depressions in the land. So once al that was finished, of course, Weowie went back into the mountain to live and that's where Weowie lives now, in Mount Minara. But then after that, they wanted another lot of water to come down from the north, throughout our country. Old Pundu, the Cod, it was his duty to drag and create the river known as the Darling River today. So Cod came out with Mudlark, his litle mate, and they set of from the north and they created the big river. Flows right down, water flows right throughout our country, right into the sea now. And of course, this country was also created, the first two tribes put in our country were Eaglehawk and Crow. And from these two tribes came many tribal people, many tribes, and we call them sub- groups today. So my people, the Ngiyaampaa people and the Barkandji further down are all sub- groups of Eaglehawk and Crow. So what I'm teling you-the stories that were handed down to me al come from within this country. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 93 CHAPTER 03: WHERE MYTHS ORIGINATE POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 94 "Some place where there isn't any trouble. Do you supose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. It's not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It's far, far away ? behind the mon ? beyond the rain ? " (Dorthy Gale from The Wizard of Oz - 1939) The dream is the smal hiden dor in the depest and most intimate sanctum of the soul, which opens to that primeval cosmic night that was soul long before there was conscious ego and wil be soul far beyond what a conscious ego could ever reach. (Carl Jung from The Meanig of Psycholgy for Modern Man - 1934) Where love rules, there is no wil to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other. (Carl Jung from The Psycholgy of the Unconscious - 1943) As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meanig in the darknes of mere being. (Carl Jung from Memories, Dreams, Reflections - 1962) CHAPTER 03: WHERE MYTHS ORIGINATE As we have said, a myth is an event that, in some sense, hapened once, but which also happens all the time. An occurrence needs to be cut free, liberated, from the confines of a specific period and brought into the lives of contemporary believers, or it wil remain a unique, unrepeatable incident that canot actualy touch the lives of others. Therefore a Mytholgy can be described as the set of such stories through which a culture identifies, re-presents, and enacts itself and its universe, and its place in that universe. There is a strong argument put forth that modern technological societies no longer operate within ?living mytholgies.? The group of stories through which we actualize ourselves no longer forms a viable syste of belief for living together, for loving one another, or for providing the oportunity to develop the fully into our personal and individual potentials. The disparity between a life lived within the embrace of a living mythology and one without became clear when the science of Anthropology began to develop in the 20 th century. The western scientific mind came in contact with tribal peoples who based their societies and lives around functioning mythologies and it is through these Tribal models that the idea of our non-functioning belief systems is based. The termination 'functioning' and 'non-functioning' have strong psycholgical conections, since functionality (within the social fabric of life) is the goal of most psychological therapy, and non-functionality in some area of life, the reason for entering into psychological therapy in the first place. Cultural non-functionality, as experienced within an established social group, might be dificult to determine by members of the group, as the problematic behavior is 'normalized' in the comon paterns of the group. Most mythologists refer to the front pages of our newspapers or to the 7:00 News, as an example of the pathology of contemporary First World Culture. But for those of us that live within modern culture the news is the same day in and day out and therefore reads as 'normal' not as 'pathological.' It is always god to remember that these systems are made up of a colection of stories. It is al about the story; the quality of the story and the skil of the storyteler. As the storyteler Druscila French says, ?stories have a life of their own.? The people who are busy creating these stories and constructing the conections betwen the stories, the storytelers of a culture, folow no particular recipe. There are various paterns that are at any given time in use, but these are changed and altered by truly creative storyteler. It became obvious to the wel-known anthropolgist, Claude Levi-Straus, these stories could be broken down into what he called ?mythemes,? that is, elementary constituent units. What storyteler and mythmakers were doing was to take the various mythemes and arrange them into meaningful wholes folowing structures deply imbeded within the cultural framework of meaning available at a particular time. This description helps us to understand the similarities betwen storyteling or mythmaking, and the wonderful art form of quilt making. Using the form of quilt making as a metaphor for the larger experience of mythmaking within the cultural colective wil help us understand how myths come into being and something of the value that a living mythology has for those who operate with its ebrace. The Metaphor of the Quilt Generaly and historicaly speaking, quilt making is a colaborative woman's art form. The materials from which the quilt is formed are smal bits and pieces, each of a particular patern or design. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 95 The fragments often came from previous forms (clothing, draperies, and linen, for example) and the useable remainder recycled by incorporating them into the new form of the quilt. These small pieces are then sewn together using larger patterns (often these overal patterns are handed down from mother to daughter in traditional social setings) to create a finished whole work, which then can be used in a practical manner. So it is with the storytellers of a living mythology. They pull together small fragments (mythemes) and arrange them into larger paterns to create a usable, practical whole. The question that this module wil be asking is, from where do these larger patterns come? Claude Levi-Straus believed that this question does not lead outward into the comunity, but rather inward into the mind of the storyteler. He asked the question, how do these yths operate in men?s minds without their being aware of them? The stories seem to follow templates, but they are certainly not stable or concrete. They seem to be able to folow these deep templates and stil explore endless varieties of forms, colors, shapes, and states. Just like quilts. The women of these older traditional comunities would gather together bringing their children with them. Potluck lunch; the sharing of fod binding the women together by sharing recipes and baking tips. While the children played around them the women gathered around a frame to begin the sewing. As the fragments are brought out and aranged the reason for the quilt is discused. Wil it be a quilt for a weding, an aniversary, a birth, in memory of lost member of the comunity? As the quilting begins the ladies setle into a comfortable conversation. This sharing of stories about families, friends, gosip about scandals and the laughter and tears of lives lived close to love and loss is a kind of sewing to. The conversation stitches the comunity together. Coming together constructs the relationships that are the foundation of comunity. The children grow together; their play is ritualized behavior that forms the basis for adult bonds. The shared stories are the very knots that bind together the fabric of mythology. If you asked yourself the question what is the function of a quilt, it would be much to simplistic to say a quilt exists to keep you from frezing on cold winter nights. Yes, that is one of its functions. But to use a word created by the mythologist, Wiliam Doty, quilts are ?polyfunctional.? That is, they have many functions. For the people for whom the quilt exists, the quilt?s funtionalities are operating from and including the moment the decision is made to create the quilt. For example the quilt functions as a place around which the ladies in the comunity gather together communally to share tidbits of information, sharing knowledge of lives and loves, forming, reforming, and aintainig comunal bonds. This one function alone would make the quilt an invaluable comunity form. Quilts are not always made for the same purpose, for instance, a quilt may be created to celbrate any number of comunity events, wedings, births, aniversaries, comemorations and its function would vary according to what event it was made for. Beyond the practical use-value function of the quilt there is the aesthetic value function. Quilts beautify the space they inhabit, bringing design, color, variety not to mention the emotional impact such a cultural art form caries with it. So it is with stories of a living mytholgy. They are polyfunctional entities that operate on multiple levels within a culture. Quilts can be described as cartographical in nature, having to do with map making ? literaly a form that helps people negotiate their culture. So it is that the stories of a living mythology form a map by which a people may negotiate their place in culture, the universe, and their place in that universe. The Functions of a Living Mythology The question to ask is what is it that makes a mythology function. Acording to Joseph Campbel, perhaps the greatest mythologist of the 20 th century, there are four functions to a living, working mythology. Understanding what these four functions are wil help us grasp the importance of having access to a living mythology. First there is the Mystical (Metaphysical) Function. This is the idea that there is something more than just what your senses tel you. There is something transcendent behind nature and its many faceted forms, something sentient but beyond human comprehension. This transcendence has been given many names by each culture and the methods, systems, and rituals associated with the realization and experience of this transcendence, the Sacred Space, the Great Mystery, and that Which Canot Be Named being just a few. A human being becoming aware (coming in contact with) of this level of existence is filed with awe. This 'numinous" experience has a strong relationship to symbols. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 96 (NOTE) This is a state that biologists cal arousal and that theolgians cal numinous. The term ?numinous? was used most famously in a bok by Rudolf Oto (The Idea of the Holy, 1917). He used the word to describe what he believed to be the fundamental experience comon to all religions ? namely, that sense of awe and exaltation created by the feeling of being in the presence of the Creator. Arousal is very similar to various emotional experiences: sexual desire, anger, fear, and nuinous excitement. Al of these are asociated with increased heart rate, raised blood pressure, increased muscular tension, changes in the amplitude and frequency of the brain waves, piloerection (the hair standing on end), dilation of the pupil of the eye, and respiratory changes. Second is the Cosmological Function. This is the function that gives you the world- picture of a culture. Your cultural cosmology provides your picture the universe, the Earth, al the physical things that suround you and how you fit into that picture. This picture changes as the culture changes. The cosmology of the primitive agricultural based societies has a relatively small world picture. The sun comes up and goes down, the moon comes up and goes down, the plants grow up and die down. The world is constructed through what they can see with unassisted eyes. With Copernicus and his telscope and the amazing abstract system of mathematics sudenly everything changes. We are NOT the center of the universe. This is a tremendous shift for us. The sun does not come up each morning and go down each night. It is we who are moving, turning, spinning in space around the sun. This requires a new cosmolgical picture to emerge, which is not an easy proces for any culture to go through. Always remember it's al about the stories. Your cosmology comes to you through stories. What is the quality of these stories, who is teling the stories, and why are the stories being told? What do you get from believing these stories? These are the questions to think about as we explore the functionality of mythology. One of the important aspects of each of these functions is that they conect the individual to these various perspectives. For the mytholgy to be alive the cosmological function not only gives you your picture of the universe, the stories truly conect you to that picture. You can find yourself in the stories. You are a part of the picture. Third is the Sociological Function. This aspect of myth has to do with the construction of social patterns within a given culture. This function is al about comunity, comunion, and al the other comings together, metings, comunications, and social convergence within a culture. The Law, writen and unwriten is a manifestation of Sociological Function. The rules and regulations of ethics and morality vary from culture to culture. These orders and hierarchies are established in the mytholgy of each culture through the stories we grow up with. Most of your identity happens at this level, from this perspective. Names like Mother, Father, Brother, Sister, Teacher, Pastor, Priest, the President, al refer to this aspect of life. The hierarchies of family, of the work place, of an institution of education, like the Academy of Art University, are the textures of our sense of self. A living mythology stabilizes our sense of self and ofers possibility and agency within its web of relationships for its members to find a place to be who and what they are. Fourth and last is the Pedagogical Function. This is the function of a mythology that guides the individual through life, assisting you with the moments of passage from stage to stage and guiding through the turbulent emotions that accompany those changes. A human life folows a general patern and when this patern is not honored at the important nodal points via ritual and story or any other variation of marking, then what results is the feeling of being adrift, bereft, or lost. But within the embrace of a living mythology an individual is acutely aware of the passage of time and the POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 97 rich play of a life along the banks of that pulsing chronological river. Each stage of life has an important and vital role within a community governed by a living mythology. Births are celebrated, young people explore and are guided through the world and their relationship to that larger sphere, mature adults operate fuly within their recognized spheres of interest and talent, and the elderly are honored and loked to for their rich experience and life wisdom. While these four basic functions are the same for al mytholgies the translations of how each function wil operate for each culture can vary greatly. What the pedagogical function means to someone who is Japanese can be quite diferent when compare to a Bushman from South Africa. Yet the function operates in the same way in that it guides the individual through life. It is often easy to se the differences betwen people and cultures. These differences are important and require reflection and celebration. We are, in a real sense, built to notice the diferences. But truly there are more similarities betwen us than diferences. As a species, al humans share a large basic territory in biology and psychology. What are these similarities between us? What is it that makes us the same? These are also important questions also and deserve our contemplation and exploration. At the end of the 19 th century a mythologist named Adolf Bastian, after studying mythologies from many various cultures, decided that there were two basic concepts in Myth. The first is the notion of Elementary Ideas. These are the universal ideas and themes that run through al mythologies. And secondly there are Ethnic or Folk Ideas. These are the indigenous ideas and thees that are specific to each culture, to each group. The people who are interested in the diferences betwen each culture, that is, in the Folk Ideas, would be Historians and Ethnographers. They do an important work in helping us to note, record, preserve, and celebrate the wonderful diversity that is our human existence. The study of the Elementary Ideas is, for the most part, psychological and sociological in its focus. Carl Jung was one of the most important thinkers in the search for the universal ideas, or what Bastian caled the Elementary Ideas. We wil be exploring some of Jung's thoughts on these elemental ideas. Because of the nature of Mythology one must always aproach Jung's (and I would say ANY) work in this field as ?sugestive? rather than ?factual.? The ideas that surface should be taken as a starting place for a continued and lifelong proces of exploration. Mythology is extremely vast and often quite mysterious, but always informative, helpful, and never, never boring. In his own work Jung caled these Elemental Ideas, the Archetypes of the Unconsciousness. The Archetypes are the psychological ground upon which we establish basic experiences. Archetypes are extremely dificult to pin down. We wil approach them through various paths. As we know from the first Module, Archetypes can be sen as primal energy templates through which the life force speaks or manifests. These energy templates are located deply imbeded in the psyche and to explore the archetypes and their uses we need to explore this area. What is the Psyche? The Greks used the term Psyche to refer to the soul. Later we wil explore the myth of Psyche and Eros, a Grek myth that tels of the mariage of the soul (Psyche) and desire (Eros) and the birth of their child Voluptia (Joy). But for now, and in this specific reference, Psyche/Soul refers to the whole of you. That which you are and that includes the potential of you as wel as the you that sits fuly manifested in a clasrom listening to me chat about these things, or reading it in a Course Reader, or front of the computer scren reading this mesage. Wiliam Blake, the poet, artist, and mystic saw the universe as a continum and man existence as a part of that eternal continuation. The physical body, for Blake, is just the extension of the soul into the physical realm. In other words there is no differentiation betwen body and soul. As the soul is so the body is and then of course, as the body is the soul follows. (NOTE) Wiliam Blake (November 28, 1757?August 12, 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Though largely unrecognized during his lifetime, today Blake's work, produced in partnership with his wife Catherine, is widely known. Acording to Northrop Frye, who undertook a study of Blake's entire poetic opus, his prophetic poems form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the [English] language". Others have praised Blake's visual artistry, in POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 98 particular his engravings: "[Blake] is far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". In 1957 a smal memorial was erected in memory of him and his wife. Viewing Blake's acomplishments in either poetry or in the visual arts separately is to do hi a disservice; Blake himself saw these two disciplines as being companions in a unified spiritual endeavor, and they are inseparable in a proper apreciation of his work. His life is, perhaps, sumed up by his statement that "The imagination is not a State: it is the Human existence itself"; though this alone may not do justice to his thought. ? If the dors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. From A Memorable Fancy ? The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind. From A Memorable Fancy ? Opposition is true Friendship. From A Memorable Fancy For Carl Jung the Archetypes were deep manifestations of the human psyche. The psyche is in this sense the land of the gods and the play of the gods in mythology is metaphorical of the play of the soul within the human experience. One of Jung's most influential students is Joseph Campbell, and in the folowing portion of the clas we wil lok at Campbel?s description of how the archetypes function in a human life. The Grek philosopher, PLATO caled the Soul a circle, so we wil folow his lead. (NOTE) In Plato?s dialogue known as the Symposium, a group of Athen?s leading thinkers gather around a dinner table discus the topic of ?Love.? The spech of Aristophanes is often regarded by clasicists as being the literary high point of the Symposium. Departing from the rhetorical structure of the preceding speches, Aristophanes, a comedic playwright perhaps best remembered today for his satire of Socrates in The Clouds, contributes a yth accounting for the origin of both humans and love. He explains that there were originaly thre types of humans: male, female, and an androgynous combination of the two. These humans had four arms, two faces, two sets of sexual organs, and so on; they were completely round, and when they wished to move quickly, used their eight arms and legs to spin rapidly by perforing cartwhels. The male was an ofspring of the sun, the female of the earth, and the androgyny of the moon, as according to Aristophanes, the moon is a combination of the sun and the earth. Due to their form, they had great strength and made repeated atempts to atack the gods. In response, Zeus cut these early humans in half . The humans, in turn, began to die from hunger and general idleness: they longed for their former halves so deeply that they did nothing but wrap themselves around each other. Zeus tok pity and moved their genitals to the front; previously, Aristophanes explains, humans had reproduced by casting their seed on the ground. The purpose of this was so that, when a man embraced a woman, he would cast his sed and they would have children; but when male embraced male, they would at least have the satisfaction of intercourse, after which they could stop embracing, return to their jobs, and look after their other neds in life.' Symposium POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 99 Humans continue to sek after their halves; love, then, "is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete". For the human race to flourish, love must be brought to its conclusion, and one must win the favors of his own young man, "so that he can recover his original nature". The previous division between higher and lower forms of love is not completely disregarded; Aristophanes claims that many "lecherous" men are those who run after women, and sems to rank lesbians above them, with men who love men being superior to both. Aristophanes also sugests that sex, even betwen people that have matching halves, is not what each lover truly longs for. Aristophanes states that "these are the kinds of people who finish out their lives together and stil canot say what it is that they want from one another". When Hephaestus ofers to give the lovers what they want from each other, they are unable to answer him. When Hephaestus suggests welding the lovers together physically, Aristophanes postulates that no lovers could find anything they desired more. However, this union canot actualy be what the lovers truly desire because they were unable to state what they did desire. This is because what the lovers, and al humans, desire is what they have ben deprived of by Zeus; their true, whole form. The ?welding? of the body is desired by the lovers because during sex humans are as close as physicaly possible to becoming one with their other half. Hephaestus canot, however, join the lovers where it maters most; their soul. Thus, Aristophanes exhibits an intrinsic shortfal of al huan love. He also shows that the desire to unite one's soul with its other half is what love truly is. Every circle has a center (the dot in the midle). This dot represents the emanating life force. The emanating life force has been called by many various names but in this case Nature is what is meant. The Earth and everything on the earth is a manifestation of Nature from the largest Blue Whale to the tiniest huming bird. Each blade of gras and every mighty Sequoia can be seen as aspects of Nature, and of course man is as much a part of Nature?s expresion as any of the other elements of life on this planet. The potentiality of Nature?s multitudinous forms is located in the literal and symbolic form of the seed. Within the acorn lies the ful potentiality of the oak tre. So the dot in the midle of our circle represents the sed that holds the ful potentiality of you. Within you is the sed of everything you could possibly become. It is a Nature form; the sed from which life blosoms. This is not to say that we always manifest our ful potential. Just as the oak tre might encounter any number of things to inhibit it ful manifestation (growing in the shade, or to close to other trees, or in a constant wind that forces it to grow in a twisted position) so human potentials are inhibited by any number of forces in the world around them. But the archetype of the sed is there as the potential of the life force manifesting in that particularity that you cal yourself. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 100 Notice that there are thre aspects to the psyche in this diagram of the Soul. First, the Threshold of Consciousness is the line that separates the conscious from the unconscious. This line is a primary aspect of the conscious Psyche at work, busy keeping the disturbing energies of the animal unconscious at bay. Above this line is the mental, waking Psyche known as Consciousness. This is that part of you that you refer to as I. Sigmund Freud caled this part of the Psyche, the Ego. Below the Threshold of Consciousnes is what Jung and Campbel caled the Wisdom Consciousnes of the physical body itself. Freud caled this aspect of the Psyche the Libido, and it is also known at the Unconscious. All of these parts together as a whole make up what Jung caled the Self (capital S). This is not to be confused with the Hindi concept of the Atman that is sometimes translated as the Self (capital S). If the diagram above were describing the Atman there would be no circle. It is the undifferentiated consciousness of the cosmos - The Atman is you as the Universe. The experience of this larger Self (the Atman) is what is described in Hindi thought as Nirvana, The Blis of Nothingnes. The experience of Nirvana could perhaps be described as when the particular self completely identifies with this larger Self which, is everything. Of course the particular identity is anihilated in the blinding flash of that awesome realization. In other words, I can't be the individual named John Dobson and experience the Atman simultaneously. (NOTE) The Atman or Atma is a philosophical term used within Hinduism and Vedanta to identify the soul. Some schools such as Advaita see the POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 101 soul within each living entity as being identical with Brahman - the all- pervading soul of the universe, whereas other schools such as Dvaita diferentiate between the individual atma in living beings, and the Supreme atma (Paramatma) as being at least partialy seperate beings. Thus atan can be used to describe an individual soul (jiva) or the impersonal 'supreme' depending on the speaker's philosophical point of view. In Advaita the Atman is the universal life-principle, the animator of all organisms, and the world-soul. This view is of a sort of panentheism (not pantheism) and thus is sometimes not equated with the single creator God of onotheism. Dvaita Vedanta cals the al-pervading aspect of Brahman Paramatman, quantitatively different from individual Atman. Identification of individual souls, or jiva-atmas, with the 'One Atman' is the monistic Advaita Vedanta position, which is critiqued by dualistic/theistic Dvaita Vedanta. Dvaita Vedanta claims reality for both a God functioning as the ultimate metaphorical "soul" of the universe, and for actual individual "souls" as such and compromise schols like Vishishtadvaita Vedanta. The 'dvaita' (or dualist) schols, therefore, in contrast to Advaita, advocate an exclusive monotheistic position wherein Brahman is made synonymous with Vishnu. By contrast, Jiva is the psychological or phenomenological self, the "I" which apears as the subject of verbs. The jiva is typicaly regarded as having its fredom limited by the triple bond of anava (ego), karma (action) and maya (ilusion). Adherents to Jainism also believe in the atman. However, the Jungian notion of the Self is the oposite of this. It is the manifestation of the life force differentiated. That is, the life force clothed in the body of each individual. Jung's Self is, the you that is sitting there hearing (or reading) these words. Introducing the Archetypes What is the Ego? To the diagram of the Self we ad the Rectangle of the EGO. It is rectangular to indicate that it is not in accord with the body and the body?s own natural inclinations. The Ego is about rules and orders. It is about control and construction. For example, this rom is rectangular but walk out into Nature and you wil generaly not find any rectangles out there. An example related to this clas is that Myths come from the space of the Unconscious. The same place fro where Dreams come. It is the business of the Ego to bring the, often disturbing, animal energies of the unconscious into relationship with the orders it has constructed. Trouble occurs sometimes when the Ego tries to force the 'round' energies of the Unconscious to fit into its 'square' holes. Culture is for the most part the coperation between the Self and the ego. Mytholgy is the language of the Self, speaking to the Ego System. We ned to learn how to read this language. It is exactly this language that modern man has lost or forgoten and is now strugling to regain. The Shadow Archetype The Shadow is the Blind Spot of the Ego. For Jung the Shadow is generaly analogous to the Freudian notion of the personal unconscious. For Freud it is constructed through a rejection, turning away, or suppressing of emotional or psychological shocks or traumas usually of a sexual nature that happened when we were children. These traumas build up as we live our lives and eventually the Personal Unconscious is constructed. An analogy that works for me is that every driver knows there is a blind spot for every car. It is a spot that no miror shows and if you don?t check the blind spot by physicaly turning your head and loking when changing lanes of trafic an acident might ocur. There might be a 10 ton Truck in that Blind Spot or there might be a small compact ? but either way checking it prevents something bad from hapenig. It is iportant to see that the personal unconscious rests on the ground of the Self. The Self is the wisdom of the functioning human body, its biology. This forms the two basic centers from which dreams coe. First is the personal unconscious (also known as the Shadow for Jung) which is specific to each individual, and the second is unconscious Self (the rest of the unconscious) POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 102 which is the source of Myths, the Archetypes, the Elemental Ideas. This second area is the comon, shared ground of al human beings. Most dreams eanate from the Personal Unconscious as we try to come to terms with those dificult, day-to-day isues of our individuality coming in contact with the world around us. But occasionally, at important moments of our lives, we have Significant Dreams. These are dreams that emanate from the unconscious Self and are a source of help and guidance when we are facing major isues in our lives. Jung caled the first sort of dream - Smal Dreams and the second ? Big Dreams, which are often in Technicolor and resonate with important sybols and mythic paterns, that is the Big Dream trigers and are energized by the Archetypes. These dreams emanate from the colective unconscious, that part of the unconscious that is shared within the species. (NOTE) Colective unconscious is a term of analytical psycholgy originally coined by Carl Jung. While Freud did not distinguish betwen an "individual psychology" and a "collective psychology", Jung distinguished the colective unconscious from the personal unconscious particular to each human being. The collective unconscious refers to that part of a person's unconscious which is comon to all human beings. It contains archetypes, which are forms or symbols that are manifested by all people in all cultures. They are said to exist prior to experience, and are in this sense instinctual. Critics have argued that this is an ethnocentrist view, which universalized Jung's European-styled archetypes into human beings' archetypes. Less mystical proponents of the Jungian model hold that the collective unconscious can be adequately explained as arising in each individual from shared instinct, comon experience, and shared culture. The natural process of generalization in the human mind combines these comon traits and experiences into a mostly identical substratum of the unconscious. For example, the archetype of "the great mother" would be expected to be very nearly the same in al people, since all infants share inherent expectation of having an atentive caretaker (human instinct); every surviving infant must either have had a mother, or a surogate (comon experience); and nearly every child is indoctrinated with society's idea of what a mother should be (shared culture). The amalgam of al these efects could be the source of the shared figure, or archetype, which reportedly apears very nearly the same in most peoples' dreams. Regardles of whether the individual's conection to the colective unconscious arises from undane or mystical means, the term collective unconscious describes an important comonality that is observed to exist between diferent individuals' dreams. It was simply formulated by Jung as a model. Colective unconscious in Jung's works In his earlier writings, Jung caled this aspect of the psyche the colective unconscious. He later changed the term to objective psyche. The objective psyche may be considered objective for two reasons: it is comon to everyone; and it has a beter sense of the self's ideal than the ego or conscious self does. It thus directs the self, via archetypes, dreams, and intuition, and drives the person to make mistakes on purpose. In this way, it moves the psyche toward individuation, or self- actualization. In the "Definitions" chapter of Jung's seminal work Psychological Types, under the definition of "collective" Jung references representations colectives, a term coined by Levy-Bruhl in his 1910 bok How Natives Think. Jung says this is what he describes as the colective unconscious. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 103 Colective unconscious in Fiction ? On the television show Star Trek: Voyager, the crew encounters an alien race that places them al in a masive, shared dream. Character Seven of Nine describes this as a "colective unconscious". ? In the Hitchiker novel Life, the Universe and Everything, the game of Cricket is a "collective unconscious" memory of the Krikit Wars. ? In the Stephen King novel Cel, after an aparent terorist atack wipes the minds of a majority of humanity, Colective Unconscious is used as the premise behind the basic instinct to kil, adapt and survive after the "Phoners" transition from humanity into a new species. Telepathy is also noted as a continuance of the Colective Unconsciousness The Personae System The Persona ? Personae System has its rots in the mask worn by actors in the theater. Each society has its own set of costumes for its members to wear. This is conected in some ways to Bastion's notion of Folk Ideas. It is through the Personae System that we come in contact with other people. These are the masks that we wear during the day that enable us to be seen and identified by people and vice versa. Therefore our personae is tied to our very character. An example of the personae system at work is my personae as Teacher. I am not always a teacher, I don the role of Teacher and it comes with it's own set of clothing, actions, language, regulations, even emotions. My culture provides this role for me to play. I try to play it to the best of my ability. Your personae in this relationship, is that of Student. It also comes with its own set of clothing, actions, language, regulations and even emotions. I am not always the Teacher, as (hopefuly) you are not always the Student. Sometimes I am the Lover, the Partner, the Brother, the Friend and, I'm sure, the Enemy at times and each caries with it a diferent way of being. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, the personae system is extremely diferent when comparing Eastern culture and Western culture. In the Traditional Hindu Social System, the Hindi is born into a system of Duty. He is born a Brahman or he is born a warior, or he is born a merchant and that is what he is Brahman, warrior, or merchant. The person completely identifies with the persona. He is it. In the West we have a lot more respect for individuality. We se the personae as a suit of clothes to be worn and taken of acording to the situation. Someone who is unable to take of his or her personae we identify as a ?stufed shirt.? The executive comes home and is greeted at the door by the executive?s wife. The executive then plays a litle ball with the executive?s son before siting down for the executive?s dinner. Later that night the wife wil have the privilege of going to bed with the executive. This is a Stufed Shirt. In the West we not only learn how to take on and off the personae ? we also must develop our critical faculties. This is the development of the Ego (very Western). His parents ask litle Johny ?do you want vanila or chocolate ice cream?? ? ?I want strawbery!!? ? and they go and get it for him. This builds Ego. Oriental thought is very diferent. At its core is the elimination of Ego. We in the West even get to chose our husband or wife ? not so in the traditional societies of the East where parents chose the mates for their children. These traditional societies are becoming more rare as Western culture becomes globally hegemonic. But, consider for a moment, in the Traditional East the cultural system is built around eliminating the ego and underscoring and fortifying identification with the personae system. Imagine Westerners go to the East seking enlightenment. The Guru (Master Teacher Mentor) takes out his litle hamer (symbolic for method) used for shatering of the Ego. This method can be breathing exercises, chanting, meditation, or various physical exercises. In general the methods are caled Yoga. The Guru is used to fragile egos (like a Christmas ornament) of the Eastern person. By eliminating the Ego one focuses on the role society has placed upon you (personae system). What we think of as the creative (ego) faculty is completely gone. The Westerner brings his big rock of an Ego to the Master and the hamer strikes the rock and nothing hapens. Years can go by and nothing hapens? the Westerner may think there is something very wrong with him and this can be a psycholgical tragedy. Traditionally speaking, Life POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 104 happens to people in the East. In contrast to this, we are creatively involved with Life in the West (I am the master of my Fate, I am the captain of my Soul). INVICTUS Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul In the fel clutch of circumstances I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonigs of change My head is blody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the year Finds, and shal find, me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scrol, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. by Wiliam Ernest Henley AND FROM THE MATRIX: ? Morpheus: I imagine that right now you're feling a bit like Alice.. ? Neo: ...? ? Morpheus: Tumbling down the rabit hole? Hmm? ? Neo: You..could say that. ? Morpheus: I can se it in your eyes. You have the lok of a man who acepts what he ses, because he is expecting to wake up. Ironicaly, this is not far from the truth.... Morpheus sits down in the armchair oposite from Neo ? Morpheus: Do you believe in fate, Neo? ? Neo: No. ? Morpheus: Why? ? Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my own life. ? Morpheus : I know.._exactly_ what you mean. Let me tel you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know, you can't explain. But you fel it. You've felt it your entire life. That there's something _wrong_ with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there..like a splinter in you're mind, driving you mad. It is this feling that has brought you to me. Do you _know_ what I'm talking about? ? Neo: The Matrix? POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 105 Look at the Hindu concept of Sati (Sanskrit: 'To Be'). A woman throws herself on the funeral pyre of her dead husband. We would say in the West that she comits Sati. In Hindi, they say she becomes Sati. These are two very diferent perspectives. She and her husband are one. He is dead and she must folow him. There is no choice. It is her great hero?s ded - she must go down into the underworld and join with him, then and only then, together, they can achieve imortality. If she does not do this within her culture- she becomes A Sati, that is, nothing. This is the idea of Dharma (Duty). With Dharma comes a complete and concrete system of morality. What is right and what is wrong? There is no question about corect and incorect behavior ? within the traditional culture one absolutely knows one?s place and what the corect actions in any given circumstance in life. (NOTE) The practice of sati (or suttee) is a Hindu funeral custom, now very rare, in which the dead man's widow imolates herself on her husband?s funeral pyre. The term is derived from the original name of a goddess (see article on Dakshayani), who imolated herself, unable to bear the humiliation of her (living) husband. The term ay also be used to refer to the widow herself. The term sati is now sometimes interpreted as 'chaste woman'. Sati (The Matrix) Sati is a fictional character (played by Tanver K. Atwal) in the science fiction film, The Matrix Revolutions, named after a Hindu deity who comited suicide after her parents forbade her mariage. Plot: Sati is a program created by her "father" Rama-Kandra and "mother" Kamal. Sati is scheduled for deletion because she has no purpose, born only out of love. To save her, Rama-Kandra sels the deletion codes for the shell of the Oracle to the Merovingian. He does this at the Le Vrai restaurant, just before the crew of the Nebuchadnezar speaks to the Merovingian. In exchange for the codes, Sati is smugled into the Matrix through the Mobil Avenue train station where she wil be put under the care of the Oracle, who has gotten a new shel. Sati is the daughter of two programs. Her father is the "power plant systems manager for recycling operations" and her mother is an "interactive-software designer" who is "very creative". This seemingly has some impact on Sati's purpose. An object of hot debate is whether Sati has creative power in the Matrix. Some viewers believe this because Agent Smith's aparent ability to manipulate the weather apears only after copying himself onto Sati. At the end of Matrix Revolutions, the Oracle states that Sati made a sunrise in honor of Neo. However, other viewers believe this power comes as a consequence of copying himself over the Oracle, the "Mother of the Matrix." Sati is named after a Hindu deity who comited suicide after her parents forbade her marriage. This is probably a reference to her prospected deletion because she does not have a purpose and not a statement about her parents, who both were wiling to risk a lot for her. Speculation During the film the Oracle is sen showing Sati how to bake cokies. It has been speculated that the Oracle's cookies are actually representations of special Matrix-codes she makes (The Merovingian is POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 106 capable of "programing" his own 'special' piece of cake that gave a woman an orgasm when she ate it). Thus the Oracle could have activated some new level of function and understanding in Neo when she gave him a cookie (and later a candy). Therefore the scene with Sati being taught this may imply that she is being kept by the Oracle not just to hide, but as a protege. It is worth noting that when Smith comes to assimilate the Oracle, Sati is escorted off by Seraph, whose self-stated purpose is to "..protect that which matters most." The Anima/Animus Archetype The Anima/Animus Archetype is the female/male construction within the psyche. One might say it is the readines in the male psyche to respond to the female presence and its oposite in the female psyche. The idea or concept of Woman in the psyche has two aspects; the archetypal and the personal. The first object for any subject is the female that is the Mother. The Mother is the total universe of the infant, intrauterine. This does not sudenly stop after birth. The Mother continues to be the world, the landscape, of the infant's being after birth. Is she rough, gentle, knowledgeable, or confident? Al of this comes through to the child and, of course, wil difer from other to mother. But whatever the experience, what is being construct during this fundamental stage of development is the Anima. That is, the archetype of female within the psyche is developing. The experience of the male as something other than Mother?s hairy helper comes later, in the second year usualy. It is then that diferentiation begins to occur within the psyche of the child. I am this, not that! For Freud this is where the Oedipus and Electra complexes come into the picture. The boy sees the Father as a rival for the Mother?s affection and wishes to eliminate the father to regain his primary position. For the Girl its oposite ocurs. This should be sen as particularly Western, coming out of the closed, nuclear family system of Western society. Something very diferent would naturaly occur in the open tribal experience in which the child belongs to the tribe and all males are father and all females are mother. Projections, How They Work The unconscious is exactly that, unconscious, you don?t know what?s going on in there. There are few windows into that mysterious zone; analysis of dreams, guided meditation, therapy, and through studying psycholgical projections. An excelent method of gainig knowledge of your own unconscious world is to pay atention to how you project that interior world upon the exterior world. Often the people, animate and inanimate objects, anything we might encounter in the world apears to us as reflecting soe aspect of our own interior state. Metaphoricaly, we are walking projectors that run a constant movie, but one that you can interact with the characters and partake in the seting. An example of a projection of the Anima for a heterosexual male might be the folowing situation. I?m at a party with lots of women, very nice loking women with whom I would be grateful and delighted if even one showed me the slightest interest. But then SHE walks into the rom and I am struck like a bel. I don?t know her, I?ve never seen her before but I am struck! She is so luminous that al others pale before her. What has happened? She has received an Anima Projection from e. I have projected my Anima upon her. Why her? Good question! Well, maybe it?s a dimple in a specific location or some other physical attribute, a particular hair color or a peculiar pheromone, or a combination of several subtle atributes. Now, don?t think for a moment that I think of her as mother. That?s not how projections work. The Anima is not my mother. It is a very specific notion of the female constructed through my relationship with my mother. But I se HER as that amazing thing out there ? and then I up and marry the creature! I don?t realy know what I am doing. What I am realy doing is joinig up with a projection of my own psyche. Its all a lovely dream, but it doesn?t take long for a fact to break through. I wake up a day, a month, a year later and sudenly I discover a stranger in my bed. Maybe, it?s the breath, the messy hair, or the face without make-up, but whatever it is I come face to face with another person and not my anima projection! Reality dawns and I am faced with a choice. You thought you were marying this and you got that! Now what! Disilusionment! You can say: ?Dear, I?m sory but I made a mistake! I?m taking my anima back for (re)projection.? Or you can stay and work at transforming Pasion into Compasion. This is Love. Love is a relationship between two separate people; person to person. If you are only in a relationship POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 107 with your anima projection then you are just didling with yourself. In a later lecture we wil be loking at the Grek Myth of Narcisus, a young man who gets traped at this very junction. He was unable to mature, wasting away while staring at the reflection of himself in a pol. But true Love can only hapen between two separate people. In Life there must be reconciliation, that is a coming together in agreement, of the inner world of the Psyche with the Fact World outside. This is what is eant by the term Maturation. Shadow Projections: Anything in the unconscious is capable of being projected out onto things in the world. The Shadow projection is usualy negative and frightening. It comes from the space within you that is constructed around rejection or denial. Your Shadow is made up of al the things that you have rejcted or denied about yourself so when it is projected out onto someone in the world it is extremely dificult to deal with it. There is a tremendous amount of Shadow projection in stereotyping, bigotry, and denigration. The projection wil usually be a person of your own sex, but not always. The Psyche is tricky. Always remember that it is the you that you are refusing to admit. My mother always told me that when I pointed at someone out in the world to remember there were always three fingers on the same hand pointing back at me. Carl Jung said that for Individuation, that is, for maturity to take place an individual must embrace the Shadow. Individuation is Jung's notion of the process of the development of the psyche toward maturation - this is soul building. Regarding the shadow and soul building, this is what was meant in the section before when ?checking what is in your Blind Spot? was discussed. The next time you come face to face with your own prejudice or bias or stereotype, stop and think about what this person has to tel you about something you might be rejecting in yourself. So begins the journey of self-discovery, ironicaly not by looking inward in a meditative frame of mind, but loking carefuly at the relationships that have manifested around you. It is in those relationships that you wil find the true nature of your psycholgical self. Self Projections: The Self-Projection is usualy strongly pedagogical in nature. It is a teaching, projection. The archetype of the self is that seed of potentially everything that you can possibly be seeded within you. It is everything that you dream of becoming, the manifestation of your Potentiality guiding you to your higher self. It could also be caled self-realization. There is theory going around that the character of the teacher doesn?t matter as long as the information is ofered. This is all wrong. It is the character of the Teacher that sparks the ideological participation within the student. The engagement of the student (the actual entry of the student into the field of learning) is determined through the teacher?s character. When I think back in my life among all the many teachers I have had there are 3 or 4 that stand out as people that truly motivated me to come into my own potential as a student, not of the given of subject, but of Life itself. These people are the projections of the Self (sen as the wise old man or woman) archetype. In the Heroes Journey they are the mentors that help the hero come into their own, like Obi Wan Kanobe for Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. What Is It That Enforces the Psychological System What Wil the Neighbors Think? This is the most important aspect of enforcing the system. Litle Sati won?t jump on her husband?s funeral pyre! What wil the neighbor?s think! Let?s throw her on. We maintain our Personae based on these feeling more than any other, in other words, peer pressure. From the moment of birth, and now even before with Ultrasound, eyes are always watching us. Parents, siblings, pastors, priests, friends, family, and even the stranger passing by are watching. By the time we are young adults that relentles gaze has ben internalized. For the most part we do not notice that most of our decisions of how to act, what to say, what to do, when to do it, say, even think it, are determined through ?what wil the neighbors think?? The interiorized gaze of the other is by far the strongest factor in maintaining the status quo. It is best not to be to radical, or to far out. What if soeone laughs at me! Of course there is that oposite character as wel that determines POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 108 their identity against that standardizing gaze and creates a personae that is totaly anti- establishment. Institutions of Morality The next level up is when the thoughts and ideas of the neighbors get inscribed as Laws. The rules and regulations are then protected by institutions. These are established institutions that reinforce what the neighbors think. Things like, Churches, Legal Structures, Morays, Hierarchies, al enforce the personae system of the culture. The Idea Of Nature Now, this is the strange notion of a Natural Law. It is true that we are in and of Nature and there are certain basic tenants that come from being a manifestation of Nature. Take Gravity for instance. Gravity is a stern task master that every living thing on the Earth must contend with. There are few situations inded where Gravity's presence isn't felt. Continuous living under the law of Gravity means that the body begins to drop and sag with old age and each crease, wrinkle and sag is a gravity marker. But many people use terms like Nature?s Law, or Natural, or Normal to enforce an-made laws. But whether these actualy come from Nature or they come from man-made constructs their impact on a life is very strong. Transcendence Finaly there is the reigning Dor of Heaven. The sun disk as a representation of idea of ultimate transformation. A person?s belief in the transcendent mystery of death and what happens after can be a tremendous force in maintaining the personae system. These are the things that enforce the formal aspect of the Psyche and its manifestations. When al of this is in place you have the localized face of the specific culture experienced manifested in the life of each individual. Two Kinds of Mythology With al of this in place we can talk about two kinds of mythology. First the mytholgy of the village or the compound. This is sometimes called the Right Hand Path. It is a mythology fixed within the compound of your world. Its rots are in the tribal experience of carving out the Vilage from the Chaos and Danger of the forest or jungle and gathering together with family and friends within the protected Vilage wals. Simultaneous with the development of social life in a tribal vilage, the psyche of modern man is developed as wel. Much of the Vilage and its structures are stil there in the structure of our psyches. One of the major aspects of Vilage life is duty. It is the structure that supports the traditional life. It sounds like this; growing up within the family, getting a job, having children of your own, raising your family, going through the passages of life that accompany duty to family, neighbors, comunity, society and culture. It is a deeply satisfying mythology and in a culture as wonderfully complex and diverse as ours it can be a richly fulfiling life. The second type of mythology is very different. It is sometimes called the Left Hand Path. Some people flip-out, the life of the vilage compound is not for the. They leave. Moving out of that other world, they folow their own star, they hear music and rhythm of a completely different druming. They enter the labyrinth. In the ancient tribal past, these strange-ones often became Shaman of their tribes. They went out into the forest, or jungle, and learned the energies and rhythms of Nature. The young person who indicated in various ways that they were not for vilage life were often taken in by the old Shaman and trained for the mystical life. In contemporary culture most people who folow this path are seking their own sense of things so it is primarily about exploration and discovery. It is a dangerous life in many ways and perhaps a life that sometimes gains litle or no respect. But it wil always be an interesting life. It is the journey, the hero?s quest emanating from the general space of the psyche. At its heart is the fulfillment of the individual?s potentialities. These are the potentialities that are peculiar and specific to the individual. In Eastern thought there are similar notions of the Elemental and Folk Ideas. In Sanskrit you have the notion of Desi, that is the local, provincial, popular (Folk Ideas). And you have the notion of Marga, which, is the Path (Elemental Ideas). Its definition is exactly that of folowing animal tracks. By folowing Marga (the Archetypes) you are led to the den of the animal. What is this animal we are tracking. The POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 109 animal is Man and the den is the Heart. In other words you are led on a path that leads inward, on a journey of self-discovery. (NOTE) From the writings of Tom Brown Jr. a.k.a. The Tracker, the folowing is a description of the art of tracking. Tracking is an age-old art . . . and one that's been prety much forgoten in modern times. The finely honed skills that native Americans once used to sustain and protect themselves have ben ? in the eyes of many people ? rendered unecessary by supermarkets and governent- provided security. However, the ground stil has a wealth of stories to tel those who'l take the time to learn to read it. Imprinted upon the earth's surface is a manuscript that's writen and rewriten every day . . . recording the movements of racons and squirrels, the foragings of deer and elk, and the daily dramas that make up the lives of other residents of our forests and fields. Of course, as is the case with almost any avocation, it takes years of dedication and practice to become an expert tracker . . . but anyone can become more sensitive to the flow of animal life by simply learning to recognize the basic signs of its pasage. Furthermore, it isn't even necessary to enter the wilderness to study tracking. In fact, most of the essential skils can be learned in your back yard or in a city park. Your own dog or cat can teach you a wealth of lessons that wil give you a deeper understanding of ? and interelationship with ? the great outdoors. (The entire article is in the Suporting Material for this lecture) There are two fundamental aspects of this mythic knowledge The elemental (universal archetypal) is enclosed within the folk (localized specific). The source is the human imagination (Spirit) and it is addressed to the human imagination (Spirit). Folk inflections, the sociology of the local culture, the rituals of the folk also enclose the Elemental. The young person being trained in the folk rituals (moral order) is at the same time being introduced to the elementary ideas (the ground of his or her nature) First the young person is inducted into their own society through training. As this is hapening the elemental ideas will speak deply to the conscious/unconscious of the person. The person is then deply engaged with their culture. This is the kind of engagement that comes from identifying deply with the society. With this kind of life the individual experiences identity as a social being, not autonomously, not separately, but as a part of the whole of their culture, it is a deply felt and experiential identity. We don?t have it. Our engagement with the world and each other is primarily an intelectual one, from up here in the head rather than the heart and gut. For example, people ask for reasons. What is this war about? Should I be involved? Why? This kind of questioning would never come up in a traditional society. You do not have this in traditional societies at al. You are your society and it is you. Final Thoughts In this lecture we explored the nature of mythology through the metaphor of the quilt. The weavings of the stories of a living mythology are polyfunctional. The four primary functions of a living mythology conect the individual to the great mystery of life (Mystical), the universe and great world around them (Cosmological), to their culture and society (Sociological), and to their journey through life and its rhythms and patterns (Pedagogical/Psychological). We also explored the structure and nature of the Psyche and the deply experienced paterns with the soul known as the Archetypes. Finally, we began to understand the diferences between traditional cultures and the contemporary cultures of First World man. What is revealed in this study is the two basic kinds of mythology that are known as Right Hand Path, or Left Hand Path. In the next chapter we wil lok at the great cycles of life. We wil se that the first half of life is about engagement, that is, doing your duty and making you place. The second half of life is about disengagement, that is, making room for the next generation. You have connected to the society through POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 110 the folk rituals and folowed the Right Hand Path and now at the half-way-point, things begin to change. When every person you met is like everyone you have ever met, and the things you do and say has al been done and said before, its time for a new game! The Marga is there incased within the Desi, the folk idea, and its time you started tracking. Follow the White Rabit that leads inward and begin the discovery of what you are in relation to the larger picture. Know Thyself! This is the path of wisdom. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 111 VOCABULARY Mythology Myths are generaly naratives about divine or heroic beings, aranged in a coherent system, passed down traditionally, and linked to the spiritual or religious life of a comunity, endorsed by rulers or priests. Once this link to the spiritual leadership of society is broken, they lose their mythological qualities and evolve into folk or fairy tales. Not every religious narrative is a myth however; unles it is deply roted in tradition, it may also be trivial pious anecdote or legend. Myths are often intended to explain the universal and local beginnings ("creation myths" and "founding myths"), natural phenomena, inexplicable cultural conventions, and anything else for which no simple explanation presents itself. All sacred traditions have myths, and there is nothing pejorative or dismisive intended in the use of the term, as there often is in comon usage. This broader truth runs deper than the advent of critical history which may, or may not, exist as in an authoritative writen form which becomes "the story" (Preliterate oral traditions may vanish as the writen word becomes "the story" and the literate become "the authority"). However, as Lucien Lévy-Bruhl puts it, "The primitive mentality is a condition of the human mind, and not a stage in its historical development." Most often the term refers specificaly to ancient tales from very old cultures, such as Greek mythology or Roman mythology. Some myths descended originally as part of an oral tradition and were only later writen down, and many of them exist in multiple versions. Mythemes (Claude Levi-Straus) The various paterns within Myths that are at any given time in use - these themes are changed and altered by truly creative storytelers - mythees are the elementary constituent units within the stories of mytholgy Polyfunctional Having several functions simultaneously Anthropology The scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of humans. That part of Christian theology concernig the genesis, nature, and future of humans, especialy as contrasted with the nature of God: ?changing the church's anthropolgy to include more positive images of women? (Priscila Hart). Metaphor In language, a metaphor (from the Grek: metapherin) is a rhetorical trope defined as a direct comparison betwen two or more semingly unrelated subjects. In the simplest case, this takes the form: "The [first subject] is a [second subject]." More generaly, a metaphor describes a first subject as being or equal to a second subject in some way. Thus, the first subject can be economicaly described because implicit and explicit atributes from the second subject are used to enhance the description of the first. This device is known for usage in literature, especially in poetry, where with few words, emotions and associations from one context are asociated with objects and entities in a different context. Cartography The science of map making Metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the nature of the world. It is the study of being or reality. It addresses questions such as: What is the nature of reality? Is there a God? What is man's place in the universe? A central branch of metaphysics is ontology, the investigation into what categories of things are in the world and what relations these things bear to one another. The metaphysician also atempts to clarify the notions by which people understand the world, including existence, objecthod, property, space, time, causality, and possibility. More recently, the term "metaphysics" has also been POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 112 used to refer to "subjects which are beyond the physical world". A "metaphysical bokstore," for instance, is not one that sels boks on ontology, but rather one that sells books on spirits, faith healing, crystal power, occultism, and other such topics. This last meaning is not recognized in academic philosophy. Mystical Function (Campbel) The function of a living mythology that connects the individual to an experience of transcendence Numinous Of or relating to a numen; supernatural. Filed with or characterized by a sense of a supernatural presence: a numinous place. Spiritualy elevated; sublime. Cosmolgical Function (Campbel)The function of a living mytholgy that conects the individual to their universe and their place in that universe Sociological Function (Campbel) The function of a living mythology that conects the individual to people in their society and helps them identify their place in that hierarchy Pedagogical Function (Campbel) The function of a living mythology that conects the individual to their own self on the journey of their life. Adolf Bastion German Mythologist who said that myths express two basic concepts: Elementary Ideas and Folk Ideas. Archetypes (Jung) Dep energy templates within the unconscious that find shape and form in Art, Dreams and Myths Psyche (Greek) the Soul Plato Grek Philosopher who said that the soul was a circle Libido (Freud) The apetites of the body expresed in the unconscious Ego The controling aspect of the consciousnes - think square The Shadow Your personal 'blind spot' within the unconscious mind Threshold of Consciousnes The line that separates the conscious from the unconscious Smal Dreams (Jung) Dreams that emanate from the personal unconsciousnes Big Dreams (Jung) Dreams that emanate from the colective unconscious Projections Outward iages that reflect unconscious drives and desires Consciousnes The waking self - that which you cal "I" Unconsciousnes The sleping or dreaming self - the body wisdom of the self construct Jungian notion of the Self Diferentiated expresion of a specific, individual life force Atman Undiferentiated expresion of the life force (Hindi) - think blinding flash Persona/Personae Figuratively: Masks or Suites of clothing provided by a culture for its members to identify through The Anima The nurturing aspect of the Self which is formed through the primary experience with the mother The Animus The outgoing aspect of the Self which is formed through the primary experience with the father Individuation (Jung) The proces of development toward maturation - soul building Desi (Hindi) The indigenous folk ideas that are encapsulated in the stories of its mythology Marga (Hindi) The Path - By folowing Marga (the Archetypes) you are led to the den of the animal - The animal is Man and the den is the Heart POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 113 SUPPORTING MATERIAL SIGMUND FREUD From Wikipedia Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856?September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology. Although Freud's writings were not always perfectly systematic, the received views of his theories generaly include the folowing hypotheses: ? Human development is best understod in terms of changing objects of sexual desire. ? The psychic aparatus habitualy represes wishes, usualy of a sexual or aggressive nature, whereby they become preserved in one or more unconscious systems of ideas. ? Unconscious conflicts over represed wishes have a tendency to manifest themselves in dreams, parapraxes ("Freudian slips") and symptoms. ? Unconscious conflicts are the source of neuroses. ? Neuroses can be treated through bringing the unconscious wishes and repressed memories to consciousnes in psychoanalytic treatment. He is comonly refered to as "the father of psychoanalysis" and his work has ben tremendously influential in the popular imagination?popularizing such notions as the unconscious, defense mechanisms, Freudian slips and dream symbolism ? while also making a long-lasting impact on fields as diverse as literature, film, marxist and feminist theories, literary criticism, philosophy, and of course, psychology. Life Sigismund Schlomo Freud was born into a Jewish family in Freiberg (Pfiíbor), Moravia, in the Austrian Empire (now belonging to the Czech Republic). In 187, at the age of 21, he abreviated his given name to "Sigmund." Although he was the first-born of three brothers and five sisters among his mother's children, Sigmund had older half-brothers from his father's previous marriage. His family had limited finances and lived in a crowded apartment, but his parents made every effort to foster his intelect (often favoring Sigmund over his siblings), which was aparent from an early age. Sigmund was ranked first in his class in six of eight years of schooling. He went on to attend the University of Vienna at 17, from 1873 to 181. Overal, litle is known of Freud's early life, as he destroyed his personal papers at least twice, once in 1885 and again in 1907. Additionaly, his later papers were closely guarded in the Sigmund Freud Archives and were only made available to his oficial biographer Ernest Jones and a few other members of the inner circle of psychoanalysis. In 186, Freud returned to Viena and, after opening a private practice specializing in nervous and brain disorders, he married. He experimented with hypnotism with his most hysteric and neurotic patients, but he eventually gave up the practice. He found that he could get his patients to talk by putting them on a couch and encouraging them to say whatever came into their minds (a practice termed fre association). In his 40s, Freud "had numerous psychosomatic disorders as wel as exagerated fears of dying and other phobias" (Corey, 2001, p. 67). During this time, Freud was involved in the task of exploring his own dreams, memories and the dynamics of his personality development. During this self-analysis, he came to realize the hostility he felt towards his father (Jacob Freud) and "he also recaled his childhod sexual feelings for his mother (Amalia Freud), who was attractive, warm, and protective" (Corey, 201, p. 67). Corey (201) considers this time of emotional difficulty to be the most creative time in Freud's life. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 114 After publishing sucesful boks on the unconscious mind in 190 and 1901, Freud was apointed to a professorship at the University of Vienna, where he began to develop a loyal following. Freud had litle tolerance for coleagues who diverged from his psychoanalytic doctrines. He atempted to expel those who disagreed with the movement or even refused to accept certain central aspects of his theory (Corey, 201): the most notable examples are Carl Jung and Wilhelm Reich. Freud wrote a stinging atack on both Jung and Alfred Adler in a piece caled "On the History of the Psycho-Analytic Movement." In 1930, Freud was awarded the Goethe Prize by the city of Frankfurt, in recognition of his contributions to psychology. His mother died the same year, at the age of ninety-five. In 193, as Hitler and the Nazis seized power in Germany, Freud's boks were burnt publicly by the S. A. Folowing the Nazi German Anschlus, Freud fled Austria with his family with the financial help of his patient and friend Princess Marie Bonaparte. On June 4, 1938, they were allowed across the border into France and then they traveled from Paris to Hampstead, London, England, where they lived at 20 Maresfield Gardens (now the Freud Museum). As he was leaving Germany, Gestapo forced him to sign a statement that he had ben treated respectfuly. Freud wrote a stateent: "I warmly recomend Gestapo for everyone." In England, in 1938, Freud's longing to be embraced by society as an important scientist was partly realized when two secretaries of the Royal Society brought the bok of the Society for Freud to sign. Freud wrote to his friend Arnold Zweig: "They left a facsimile of the bok with me and if you were here I could should show you the signatures from I. Newton to Charles Darwin. God company!" Freud smoked cigars for most of his life; even after having his jaw removed due to malignancy, he continued to smoke until his death on September 23, 1939. He smoked an entire box of cigars daily. After contracting cancer of the mouth in 1923 at the age of 67, he underwent over 30 operations to treat the disease. In the end, Freud could no longer tolerate the pain associated with his cancer. He requested that his personal physician visit him at his London home for the purpose of helping him end his own life. Freud's death was by a physician-assisted morphine overdose. Family / Descendants Sigmund Freud's youngest daughter, Anna Freud, was also a distinguished psychologist, particularly in the fields of child and developmental psychology. Sigmund is the grandfather of painter Lucian Freud and comedian/politician/writer Cleent Freud, and the great-grandfather of journalist Ema Freud, fashion designer Bela Freud and media magnates Matthew Freud and Ria Wilems. Sigmund Freud was also both a blood uncle and an uncle-in-law to public relations and propaganda wizard Edward Bernays. Bernays's mother, Anna Freud Bernays, was sister to Sigmund. Bernays's father, Ely Bernays, was brother to Sigmund's wife, Martha Bernays Freud. Innovations Freud has ben influential in two related but distinct ways. He simultaneously developed a theory of the human mind and human behavior, as well as clinical techniques for attempting to help neurotics. Early work A leser known interest of Freud's was neurology. He was an early researcher on the topic of cerebral palsy, then known as "cerebral paralysis." He published several medical papers on the topic and showed that the disease existed far before other researchers in his day began to notice and study it. He also sugested that Wiliam Litle, the man who first identified cerebral palsy, was wrong about lack of oxygen during the birth process being a cause. Instead, he suggested that complications in birth were only a symptom of the problem. It was not until the 1980s, that Freud's speculations were confirmed by more modern research. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 115 Freud was an early user and proponent of cocaine as a stimulant. He wrote several articles on the antidepressant qualities of the drug and he was influenced by his friend and confidant Wilhelm Fliess, who recomended cocaine for the treatment of the "nasal reflex neurosis." Flies operated on Freud and a number of Freud's patients whom he believed to be suffering from the disorder, including Ema Eckstein, whose surgery proved disastrous. Freud felt that cocaine would work as a cure-all for many disorders and wrote a well-received paper, "On Coca," explaining its virtues. He prescribed it to his friend Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow to help him overcome a morphine addiction he had acquired while treating a disease of the nervous system. Freud also recomended it to many of his close family and friends. He narrowly mised out on obtaining scientific priority for discovering cocaine's anesthetic properties (of which Freud was aware but on which he had not writen extensively), after Karl Koler, a colleague of Freud's in Vienna, presented a report to a medical society in 184 outlining the ways in which cocaine could be used for delicate eye surgery. Freud was bruised by this, especialy because this would turn out to be one of the few safe uses of cocaine, as reports of adiction and overdose began to filter in from any places in the world. Freud's medical reputation became somewhat tarnished because of this early enthusiasm. Furthermore, Freud's friend Fleischl-Marxow developed an acute case of "cocaine psychosis" as a result of Freud's prescriptions and died a few years later. Freud felt great regret over these events, which later biographers have dubed "The Cocaine Incident." Freud hoped that his research would provide a solid scientific basis for his therapeutic technique. The goal of Freudian therapy, or psychoanalysis, was to bring to consciousness repressed thoughts and feelings. Acording to some of his sucesors, including his daughter Ana Freud, the goal of therapy is to alow the patient to develop a stronger ego; acording to others, notably Jacques Lacan, the goal of therapy is to lead the analysand to a ful acknowledgement of his or her inability to satisfy the most basic desires. Clasicaly, the bringing of unconscious thoughts and felings to consciousnes is brought about by encouraging the patient to talk in free association and to talk about dreams. Another important elment of psychoanalysis is a relative lack of direct involvement on the part of the analyst, which is meant to encourage the patient to project thoughts and feelings onto the analyst. Through this process, transference, the patient can reenact and resolve represed conflicts, especially childhood conflicts with (or about) parents. The unconscious Perhaps the most significant contribution Freud has made to modern thought is his conception of the dynamic unconscious. During the 19th century, the dominant trend in Western thought was positivism, the belief that people could ascertain real knowledge concerning themselves and their environment and judiciously exercise control over both. Freud, however, sugested that such declarations of fre wil are in fact delusions; that we are not entirely aware of what we think and often act for reasons that have little to do with our conscious thoughts. The concept of the unconscious was groundbreaking in that he proposed that awarenes existed in layers and that there were thoughts occurring "below the surface." Dreams, which he caled the "royal road to the unconscious", provided the best aces to our unconscious life and the best ilustration of its "logic", which was different from the logic of conscious thought. Freud developed his first topology of the psyche in The Interpretation of Dreams (189) in which he proposed the argument that the unconscious exists and described a method for gaining aces to it. The preconscious was described as a layer betwen conscious and unconscious thought?that which we could aces with a little efort. Thus for Freud, the ideals of the Enlightenment, positivism and rationalism, could be achieved through understanding, transforming, and mastering the unconscious, rather than through denying or represing it. Crucial to the operation of the unconscious is "represion." Acording to Freud, people often experience thoughts and feelings that are so painful that people canot bear them. Such thoughts and feelings?and associated memories?could not, Freud argued, be banished from the ind, but could be banished from POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 116 consciousness. Thus they come to constitute the unconscious. Although Freud later atempted to find patterns of repression among his patients in order to derive a general model of the mind, he also observed that individual patients repress diferent things. Moreover, Freud observed that the process of represion is itself a non-conscious act (in other words, it did not occur through people wiling away certain thoughts or feelings). Freud suposed that what people represed was in part determined by their unconscious. In other words, the unconscious was for Freud both a cause and effect of repression. Later, Freud distinguished between three concepts of the unconscious: the descriptive unconscious, the dynamic unconscious, and the system unconscious. The descriptive unconscious referred to all those features of mental life of which we are not subjectively aware. The dynamic unconscious, a more specific construct, refered to mental process and contents which are defensively removed from consciousness as a result of conflictual forces or "dynamics". The system unconscious denoted the idea that when mental processes are repressed, they become organized by principles diferent from those of the conscious mind, such as condensation and displacement. Eventualy, Freud abandoned the idea of the system unconscious, replacing it with the concept of the Ego, super-ego, and id (discussed below). Throughout his career, however, he retained the descriptive and dynamic conceptions of the unconscious. Psychosexual development Freud also believed that the libido developed in individuals by changing its object, a proces designed by the concept of sublimation. He argued that humans are born "polymorphously perverse", meaning that any number of objects could be a source of pleasure. He further argued that, as humans developed, they become fixated on diferent and specific objects through their stages of development?first in the oral stage (exemplified by an infant's pleasure in nursing), then in the anal stage (exeplified by a todler's pleasure in controlling his or her bowels), then in the phallic stage. Freud argued that children then passed through a stage in which they fixated on the mother as a sexual object (known as the Oedipus Complex) but that the child eventualy overcame and represed this desire because of its tabo nature. (The leser known Electra complex refers to such a fixation upon the father.) Freud hoped to prove that his model was universaly valid and thus turned to ancient mythology and contemporary ethnography for comparative material. Freud named his new theory the Oedipus complex after the famous Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. ?I found in myself a constant love for my mother, and jealousy of my father. I now consider this to be a universal event in childhod,? Freud said. Freud sought to anchor this patern of development in the dynamics of the mind. Each stage is a progression into adult sexual maturity, characterized by a strong ego and the ability to delay gratification (cf. Thre Esays on the Theory of Sexuality). He used the Oedipus conflict to point out how much he believed that people desire incest and must repress that desire. The Oedipus conflict was described as a state of psychosexual development and awareness. He also turned to anthropolgical studies of totemism and argued that totemism reflected a ritualized enactment of a tribal Oedipal conflict. It is interesting to note that originally Freud believed childhod sexual abuse to be the cause of hysteria? but he then recanted this so-caled "seduction theory" ("The Index of Sexual Abuse"), claiming that he had found many cases in which aparent memories of childhod sexual abuse were based more on imagination than on real events. Instead he began to emphasize the Oedipus Theory, which aserts that everyone unconsciously wishes to possess their parents. Ego, super-ego, and id In his later work, Freud proposed that the psyche was divided into three parts: Ego, super-ego, and id. Freud released this structural model of the mind in the 1920 esay Beyond the Pleasure Principle, and fuly adopted in The Ego and The Id (1923) as an alternative to his previous topographical scheme (conscious, unconscious, preconscious). Defense mechanisms POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 117 According to Freud, the defense mechanisms are the method by which the ego can solve the conflicts between the super-ego and the id. The use of defense mechanisms may atenuate the conflict between the id and super-ego, but their overuse or reuse rather than confrontation can lead to either anxiety or guilt which may result in psychological disorders such as depression. His daughter Anna Freud had done the most significant work on this field, yet she credited Sigmund with defense mechanisms, as he began the work. The defense mechanisms include: denial, reaction formation, displacement, represion/supresion (the proper term), projection, intelectualization, rationalization, compensation, sublimation and regressive emotionality. ? Denial ocurs when someone fends off awarenes of an unpleasant truth or of a reality that is a threat to the ego. For example, a student may have received a bad grade on a report card but tells himself that grades don't mater. (Some early writers argued for a striking paralel between Freudian denial and Nietzsche's ideas of resentiment and the revaluation of values that he attributed to "herd" or "slave" morality.) ? Reaction formation takes place when a person takes the oposite approach consciously copared to what that person wants unconsciously. For example, someone may engage in violence against another race because, that person clais, the embers of the race are inferior, when unconsciously it is that very person who feels inferior. ? Displacement takes place when someone redirects emotion from a "dangerous" object to a "safe" one, such as punching a pilow to avoid hiting a friend. ? Represion ocurs when an experience is so painful (such as war trauma) that it is unconsciously forced from consciousnes, while supression is a conscious effort to do the same. ? Psychological projection ocurs when a person "projects" his or her own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, feelings ? basicaly parts of oneself ? onto someone or soething else. An example of this would be to say that Alice doesn't like Bob, but rather than to admit she doesn't like Bob, she wil project her sentiment onto Bob, saying that Bob doesn't like her. ? Intelectualisation involves removing one's self, emotionally, from a stresful event. Intellectualisation is often accomplished through rationalisation rather than accepting reality; one may explain it away to remove one's self. ? Rationalization involves constructing a logical justification for a decision that was originally arrived at through a diferent mental process. For example, Jim ay have bought a tape player to listen to self-help tapes, but he tells his friends he bought it so that he can listen to classic rock mixes for fear of his actual reason being rejected. ? Compensation ocurs when someone takes up one behaviour because one canot accomplish another behaviour. For example, the second born child may clown around to get atention since the older child is already an accomplished scholar. ? Sublimation is the chaneling of impulses to socialy acepted behaviours. For instance, the use of a dark, gloomy poem to describe life by such poets as Emily Dickinson. The life and death instincts Freud believed that humans were driven by two conflicting central desires: the life drive (Eros) (incorporating the sex drive) and the death drive (Thanatos). Freud's description of Eros and Libido included all creative, life-producing drives. The Death Drive (or death instinct) represented an urge inherent in all living things to return to a state of calm, or, ultimately, of non-existence. The presence of the Death Drive was only recognized in his later years, and the contrast betwen the two represents a revolution in his maner of thinking. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 118 Social psychology Freud gave explanations of the genesis of religion in his writings, included in a reflection on crowd psychology. In Totem and Tabo (1913), he proposed that humans originaly banded together in ?primal hordes?, consisting of a male, a number of females and the offspring of this polygamous arangement. According to Freud?s psychoanalytical theory, a male child early in life has sexual desires for his mother ? the Oedipus Complex ? which he held to be universal. Ethnologists would later criticize this point, leading to ethno-psychoanalytic studies. Acording to Freud, the father is protective, so his sons love him, but they are also jealous of their father for his relationship with their mothers. Finding that individualy they canot defeat the father-leader, they band together, kil and eat him in a ritual meal, thereby ingesting the substance of the father?s hated power ? but their subsequent guilt leads the sons to elevate their father's memory and to worship him. The super-ego then takes the place of the father as the source of internalized authority. A ban was then put upon incest and upon mariage within the clan, and symbolic animal sacrifice was substituted for the ritual kiling of a human being. In Moses and Monotheism (1939) Freud reconstructed biblical history in acord with his general theory, but biblical scholars and historians would not accept his account since it defied the viewpoint of the accepted criteria of historical evidence. However, his point was probably more in proposing a just-so story and an interpretation of leadership based on mass psychology, using the Prophetic figure of Moses. His ideas about religion were also developed in The Future of an Ilusion (1927). When Freud spoke of religion as an ilusion, he maintained that it is fantastic structure from which a man must be set fre if he is to grow to maturity; and in his treatment of the unconscious he moved toward atheism. In this sense, Freud aproached the Marxist theory of alienation. Freud isolated two main principles: Thanatos is the drive towards the disilusion of all life, whereas, Eros is to strive towards stopping that drive. When one goal is reached, the other becomes out of reach, and vice versa. In Group Psychology and Ego Analysis (Masenpsychologie und Ich-Analysis, 1920), Freud explored crowd psycholgy, continuing Gustave Le Bon's early work. When the individual joins a crowd, he ceases represing his instincts, and thus relapses into primitive culture, acording to Freud's analysis. However, crowds must be distinguished into natural and organized crowds, folowing William McDougal' distinction. Thus, if intelectual skils (the capacity to doubt and to distance oneself) are systematicaly reduced when the individual joins a mas, he may eventualy be "moraly enlightened". Prefiguring Moses and Monotheism and The Future of an Ilusion, he states that the love relationship betwen the leader and the mases, in the Church or in the Army, are only an "idealist transformation of the conditions existing in the primitive horde". Freud then compares leader's relationship with the crowd to a relation of hypnosis, a force to which he relates Mana. Pesimistic about humanity's chances of liberty, Freud writes that "the leader of the crowd always incarnate the dreaded primitive father, the crowd always want to be dominated by an ilimited power, it is grasping at the highest degree for authority or, to use Le Bon's expression, it is hungry for subservience". According to Freud, self-identification to a comon figure, the leader, explained the phenomenon of mases' obedience. Each individual conected themselves verticaly to the same ideal figure (or idea), each one thus have the same self-ideal, and hence identify together (horizontal relation). Freud also quoted Wilfred Trotter's The Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War (1914). Along with Moses and Monotheism, Masenpsychologie.. would be one of the articles most quoted by Wilhelm Reich and the Frankfurt Schol in its Freudo-Marxist synthesis. Freud's legacy Psychotherapy Freud's theories and research methods were controversial during his life and remain so today, but few dispute his far-reaching impact on psycholgists and academics. Most importantly, Freud popularized the "talking-cure"--the notion that a person could be treated simply by talking over his or her problems, which was almost unheard of in the 19th century. Even though many POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 119 psychotherapists today partly or wholy reject the specifics of Freud's theories, this basic model of treatment stems largely from his work. In adition, Freud's development of "unconscious" sources of behavior and his emphasis on motivational structures of the human mind have had a lasting impact on psychological theory and research. However, most of Freud's specific theories--like his stages of psychosexual development--and especially his methodology, have falen out of favor in modern experimental psychology. Some psychotherapists, however, stil folow an aproximately Freudian system of treatment. Many more have modified his approach, or joined one of the schools that branched from his original theories. Stil others reject his theories entirely, although their practice may stil reflect his influence. Psychoanalysis today maintains the same ambivalent relationship with medicine and academia that Freud experienced during his life. Philosophy While Freud saw himself as a scientist, his theories have had a tremendous impact on the humanities-- especially on the Frankfurt school and critical theory. In addition, any philosophers have discussed his theories and their implications, in the broader context of Western thought. Freud's model of the mind is often seen as a critical chalenge to the enlightenment model of rational agency, which was a key element of much modern philosophy. ? Rationality. While many enlightenment thinkers viewed rationality as both an unproblematic ideal and a defining feature of man, Freud's model of the mind drastically reduced the scope and power of reason. In Freud's view, reasoning occurs in the conscious mind--the ego--but this is only a smal part of the whole. The mind also contains the hiden, irational elements of id and superego, which lie outside of conscious control, drive behavior, and motivate conscious activities. As a result, these structures cal into question humans' ability to act purely on the basis of reason, since lurking motives are also always at play. Moreover, this model of the mind makes rationality itself suspect, since it may be motivated by hidden urges or societal forces (e.g. defense mechanisms, where reasonig becomes "rationalizing"). ? Transparency of Self. Another comon asumption in pre-Freudian philosophy was that people have imediate and unproblematic aces to themselves. Emblematic of this position is René Descartes' famous line, "I think therefore I am." However, for Freud, many central aspects of a person remain radically inacesible to the conscious mind (without the aid of psychotherapy), which undermines the once unquestionable status of first-person knowledge. Critical reactions Although Freud's theories were quite influential, he never faced a shortage of criticism during his lifetime or afterward, from those who described his theories as inadequate, ludicrous, or repugnant. Some critics, like Juliet Mitchel, have sugested that Freud's basic claim ? that many of our conscious thoughts and actions are driven by unconscious desires and fears ? should be rejected because it implicitly challenges the posibility of making universal and objective claims about the world. Some proponents of science conclude that this invalidates Freudian theory as a means of interpreting and explaining human behavior. Another frequently criticized aspect of Freud's theories is his model of psychosexual development. Some have atacked Freud's claim that infants are sexual beings, and, implicitly, Freud's expanded notion of sexuality. Others have accepted Freud's expanded notion of sexuality, but have argued that this patern of development is not universal, nor necessary for the development of a healthy adult. Instead, they have POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 120 emphasized the social and environmental sources of patterns of development. Moreover, they cal attention to social dynamics Freud de-emphasized or ignored, such as clas relations. This branch of Freudian critique owes a great deal to the work of Herbert Marcuse. Freud has also come under fire from any feminist critics. Freud was an early champion of both sexual fredom and education for women (Freud, "Civilized Sexual Morality and Modern Nervousnes"). Some feminists, however, have argued that at worst his views of women's sexual development set the progress of women in Western culture back decades, and that at best they lent themselves to the ideology of female inferiority. Believing as he did that women are a kind of mutilated male, who must learn to acept their "deformity" (the "lack" of a penis) and submit to some imagined biological imperative, he contributed to the vocabulary of misogyny. Terms such as "penis envy" and "castrating" (both used to describe women who attempted to excel in any field outside the home) contributed to discouraging women from obtaining education or entering any field dominated by men, until the 1970s. On the other hand, feminist theorists such as Juliet Mitchel, Nancy Chodorow, Jesica Benjamin, Jane Galop, and Jane Flax have argued that psychoanalytic theory is esentialy related to the feminist project and must, like other theoretical traditions, be adapted by women to free it from vestiges of sexism. Freud's views are stil being questioned by people concerned about women's equality. Another feminist who finds potential use of Freud's theories in the feminist movement is Shulamith Firestone. In "Freudianism: The Misguided Feminism", she discuses how Freudianism is esentialy completely accurate, with the exception of one crucial detail: everywhere that Freud writes "penis", the word should be replaced with "power". Finaly, Freud's theories are often criticized for not being real science. This objection was raised most famously by Karl Poper, who claimed that al proper scientific theories must be potentialy falsifiable. If a theory canot posibly be falsified, then it canot be considered scientific. Poper argued that Freud's theories of psychology can never be properly "verified," because no type of behavior could ever falsify them (e.g. someone who denies having any sort of Oedipal conflict is interpreted as represing it). However, Poper's own theory about falsifiability as the criterion for science has come under criticism, and Freud's theories stil have many adherents. Dr. J. Von Schneidt was the first to propose that most of Freud's psychonalytical theory was a byproduct of his cocaine use. Cocaine enhances dopaminergic neurotransmision increasing sexual interest and obsessive thinking. Chronic cocaine use can produce unusual thinking paterns due to the depletion of dopamine levels in the prefrontal cortex. Bibliography Major works by Freud ? Studies on Hysteria (with Josef Breuer) (Studien über Hysterie, 1895) ? The Interpretation of Dreams (Die Traumdeutung, 189) ? The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (Zur Psychopathologie des Altagslebens, 1901) ? Thre Esays on the Theory of Sexuality (Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, 1905) ? Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious (1905) ? Totem and Tabo (Totem und Tabu, 1913) ? On Narcisism (Zur Einführung der Narzißmus, 1914) ? Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Jenseits des Lustprinzips, 1920) ? The Ego and the Id (Das Ich und das Es, 1923) ? The Future of an Ilusion (Die Zukunft einer Ilusion, 1927) ? Civilization and Its Discontents (Das Unbehagen in der Kultur, 1929) ? Moses and Monotheism (Der Man Moses und die Monotheistische Religion, 1939) ? An Outline of Psycho-Analysis (Abriß der Psychoanalyse, 1940) POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 121 Biographies The area of biography has ben especialy contentious in the historiography of psychoanalysis, for two primary reasons: first, the vast majority of historical material on Freud has been, since his death, made available only at the permision of his biological and intellectual heirs (his daughter, Ana Freud, was extremely protective of her father's reputation); second, much of the data and theory of Freudian psychoanalysis hinges upon the personal testimony of Freud himself, and so to challenge Freud's legitimacy or honesty has been seen by many as an attack on the roots of his enduring work. The first biographies of Freud were writen by Freud himself: his On the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement (1914) and An Autobiographical Study (1924) provided much of the basis for discussions by later biographers, including "debunkers" (as they contain a number of prominent omissions and potential misrepresentations). A few of the major biographies on Freud to come out over the 20th century were: ? Helen Walker Puner, Freud: His Life and His Mind (1947) ? Puner was remarkably insightful on Freud, especialy concerning Freud's unanalyzed relationship to his mother, Amalia. ? Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, 3 vols. (1953?1958) ? the first "authorized" biography of Freud, made by one of his former students with the authorization and assistance of Anna Freud, with the hope of "dispelling the myths" from earlier biographies. There can be no doubt that Jones wrote more of a hagiography than a history of Freud. Although correct on the biographical facts of Freud's life, Jones diagnosed his own analyst, Ferenczi, as "psychotic." In the same breath, Jones also maligned Oto Rank, Ferenczi's close friend and Jones's most important rival for leadership of the movement in the 1920s. These two libels are expresions of a personal vendetta by Jones that seriously harm his reputation for honesty. ? Henri Elenberger, The Discovery of the Unconscious (1970) ? was the first book to, in a compelling way, attempt to situate Freud within the context of his time and intelectual thought, arguing that he was the intelectual heir of Franz Mesmer and that the genesis of his theory owed a large amount to the political context of turn of the 19th century Viena. ? Frank Suloway, Freud: Biologist of the Mind (1979) ? Suloway, one of the first professional/academic historians to write a biography of Freud, positioned Freud within the larger context of the history of science, arguing specificaly that Freud was, in fact, a biolgist in disguise (a "crypto-biologist", in Suloway's terms), and sought to actively hide this. ? Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for Our Time (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988) ? Gay's work was published as a response to the anti-Freudian literature and the "Freud Wars" of the 1980s (see below). FREUD'S STRUCTURAL THEORY Ego In Freud's theory, the ego mediates betwen the id, the super-ego and the external world. Its task is thus to find a balance between primitive drives, morals and reality while satisfying the ID. Its main concern is with the individual's safety and alows some of the Id's desires to be expresed, but only when consequences of these actions are minimal. Ego defense mechanisms are often used by the ego when ID behavior conflicts with reality. This conflict ocurs between the ID and either society's morals, norms, and tabos or betwen the ID and the individual's expectations as a result of the internalization of these morals, norms, and tabos into the superego. Although in his early writings Freud equated the ego with the sense of self, he later began to portray it more as a set of psychic functions such as reality-testing, defence, synthesis of inforation, intelectual functioning, and memory. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 122 The word ego is taken directly from Latin where it is the nominative of the first person singular personal pronoun and is translated as "I myself" to express emphasis. Super-ego The super-ego is a symbolic internalization of the father figure and cultural regulations. The super-ego tends to stand in opposition to the desires of the id because of their conflicting objectives, and is agressive towards the ego. The super-ego acts as the conscience, maintainig our sense of morality and the prohibition of tabos. Its formation takes place during the disolution of the Oedipus complex and is formed by an identification with and internalization of the father figure after the little boy canot successfuly hold the mother as a love-object out of fear of castration. "The super-ego retains the character of the father, while the more powerful the Oedipus complex was and the more rapidly it sucumbed to represion (under the influence of authority, religious teaching, scholing and reading), the stricter wil be the domination of the super-ego over the ego later on ? in the form of conscience or perhaps of an unconscious sense of guilt" (The Ego and the Id, 1923). The concept of super-ego has been subject to criticism for its sexism. Women, who are considered to be already castrated, do not identify with the father, and therefore form a weak super-ego, apparently leaving them susceptible to immorality and sexual identity complications. In Freud's work Civilization and Its Discontents (1930) he also discuses the concept of a "cultural super-ego". Id The id ("das Es", cf. Latin id, English it, German es) is the psychical system "which behaves as though it were the Unconscious", or the "dynamicaly unconscious represed", in efect, the reservoir of ned-gratification impulses such as the primitive instinctual drives of sexuality and agresion. Freud believed that the id is inborn, operating on the dynamics of the primary process mode of thinking. The drives of the id are said to work according to the pleasure principle, requiring imediate gratification or release without concern for external exigencies. Though hunger itself may be sen as a pure id desire, the crying of the hungry infant is already an instinctive atempt to relate, that is, to comunicate that ned to the object of the drive in question, namely, one who can help to satisfy that need. Thus drives are linked to object relations, as Freud observed in his 1895 essay "Project for a Scientific Psychology". Freud may have borowed the term das Es from his advocate and personal acquaintance Georg Grodeck. Grodeck, a pioner of psychosomatic medicine and self-proclaimed "wild analyst", published Das Buch vom Es (roughly, "The Bok of It") several weks before Freud published The Ego and the Id (1923). German readers would have ben aware of Nietzsche's previous use of "it" to describe that which is impersonal and subject to natural law within us. Colaboration and cordination The id, the ego, and the super-ego collaborate to serve the needs of the body and to control the conduct of the person. For example, an infant wil cry when hungry, because the long evolutionary history of the species that a convenient figure of spech dubs the "id" has provided this means for atracting, inded, compeling the atention of one who fils a suitably coevolved caregiver role. However, an adult will not normaly cry when hungry, because the more experienced ego has learned that the same recourse is no longer available, and also because the enculturated super-ego embodies the information that crying is not a socialy aceptable reaction to being hungry. It may be pertinent in this conection that an infant in German is refered to under a gramaticaly neuter gender, in other words, as an "it". POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 123 CARL JUNG Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 ? June 6, 1961) was a Swis psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology. Introduction Jung's unique and broadly influential aproach to psycholgy emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, world religion and philosophy. Though not the first to analyze dreams, he has become perhaps the most wel known pioner in the field of dream analysi. Although he was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician for most of his life, much of his life's work was spent exploring other realms: Eastern vs. Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, sociology, as well as literature and the arts. Jung also emphasized the importance of balance. He cautioned that modern humans rely to heavily on science and logic and would benefit from integrating spirituality and appreciation of the unconscious realm. Interestingly, Jungian ideas are not typicaly included in curiculum of most major universities' psychology departments, but are occasionally explored in humanities departments. Many pionering psychological concepts were originally proposed by Jung. Some of these are: ? The Archetype (se below) ? The Colective Unconscious (se below) ? The Complex (se below) ? Synchronicity (se below) In adition, the popular carer test curently offered by high schol and colege carer centers, the Myers- Brigs Type Indicator, is entirely based upon Jung's theories. Jungian psycholgy Jung developed a distinctive aproach to the study of the human psyche. Through his early years working in a Swiss hospital with psychotic patients and collaborating with Sigmund Freud and the burgeoning psychoanalytic comunity, he gained a closer look at the mysterious depths of the human unconscious. Fascinated by what he saw (and spured on with even more pasion by the experiences and questions of his personal life) he devoted his life to the exploration of the unconscious. However, Jung did not feel that experimental natural science was the best means to understand the human soul. For him, an empirical investigation of the world of dream, myth, and soul represented the most promising road to deeper understanding. The overarching goal of Jung's work was the reconciliation of the life of the individual with the world of the supra-personal archetypes. He came to see the individual's encounter with the unconscious as central to this proces. The human experiences the unconscious through symbols encountered in al aspects of life: in dreams, art, religion, and the symbolic dramas we enact in our relationships and life pursuits. Esential to the encounter with the unconscious, and the reconciliation of the individual's consciousness with this broader world, is learning this symbolic language. Only through atention and openness to this world (which is quite foreign to the modern Western mind) are individuals able to harmonize their lives with these suprapersonal archetypal forces. "Neurosis"(A term not comonly used in contemporary Psychology) results from a disharmony betwen the individual's consciousnes and the greater archetypal world. The aim of psychotherapy is to asist the individual in restablishing a healthy relationship to the unconscious (neither being swamped by it ? a state characteristic of psychosis ? nor completely shut off from it ? a state that results in malaise, empty consumerism, narcissism, and a life cut of from deper meaning). The encounter betwen consciousness and the sybols arising from the unconscious enriches life and promotes psycholgical development. Jung considered this process of psychological growth and maturation (which he caled the process of individuation) to be of critical importance to the human being, and ultimately to modern society. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 124 In order to undergo the individuation proces, the individual must be open to the parts of oneself beyond one's own ego. In order to do this, the modern individual must pay attention to dreams, explore the world of religion and spirituality, and question the assumptions of the operant societal worldview (rather than just blindly living life in acordance with dominant norms and asumptions). The colective unconscious Jung's concept of the colective unconscious has often ben misunderstod. In order to understand this concept, it is essential to understand his idea of the archetype, something foreign to the highly rational, scientificaly-oriented Western mind. The colective unconscious could be thought of as the DNA of the human psyche. Just as al humans share a comon physical heritage and predisposition towards specific physical forms (like having two legs, a heart, etc.) so do all humans have a comon psychological predisposition. However, unlike the quantifiable information that composes DNA (in the form of coded sequences of nucleotides), the colective unconscious is composed of archetypes. In contrast to the objective material world, the subjective realm of archetypes can not be fuly plumbed through quantitative modes of research. Instead it can be revealed more fuly through an examination of the symbolic comunications of the human psyche ? in art, dreas, religion, myth, and the themes of human relational/behavioral patterns. Devoting his life to the task of exploring and understanding the colective unconscious, Jung theorized that certain symbolic themes exist across al cultures, al epochs, and in every individual. The shadow The shadow is an unconscious complex that is defined as the diametrical oposite of the conscious self, the ego. The shadow represents unknown attributes and qualities of the ego. There are constructive and destructive types of shadow. On the destructive side, it often represents everything that the conscious person does not wish to acknowledge within themselves. For instance, someone who identifies as being kind has a shadow that is harsh or unkind. Conversely, an individual who is brutal has a kind shadow. The shadow of persons who are convinced that they are ugly appears to be beautiful. On the constructive side, the shadow may represent hiden positive influences. Jung points to the story of Moses and Al-Khidr in the 18th Book of the Koran as an example. Jung emphasized the importance of being aware of shadow material and incorporating it into conscious awareness, lest one project these atributes onto others. The shadow in dreams is often represented by dark figures of the same gender as the dreamer. According to Jung the human being deals with the reality of the Shadow in four ways: denial, projection, integration and/or transmutation. Anima and Animus Jung identified the anima as being the unconscious feminine component of men and the animus as the unconscious masculine component in women. However, this is rarely taken as a literal definition: many modern day Jungian practitioners believe that every person has both an anima and an animus. Jung stated that the anima and animus act as guides to the unconscious unified Self, and that forming an awareness and a connection with the anima or animus is one of the most dificult and rewarding steps in POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 125 psychological growth. Jung reported that he identified his anima as she spoke to him, as an inner voice, unexpectedly one day. Oftentimes, when people ignore the anima or animus complexes, the anima or animus vies for atention by projecting itself onto others. This explains, according to Jung, why we are sometimes imediately attracted to certain strangers: we se our anima or animus in them. Love at first sight is an example of anima and animus projection. Moreover, people who strongly identify with their gender role (e.g. a man who acts agresively and never cries) have not actively recognized or engaged their anima or anius. Psychological Types The often misunderstod terms extrovert and introvert derive from this work. In Jung's original usage, the extrovert orientation finds meaning outside the self, in the surrounding world, whereas the introvert is introspective and finds it within. There are four primary modes of experiencing the world in Jung?s model: two rational functions (thinking and feeling), and two perceptive functions (sensation and intuition). Sensation is the perception of facts. Intuition is the perception of the unsen. Thinking is analytical, deductive cognition. Feeling is synthetic, all-inclusive cognition. In any person, the degre of introversion/extroversion of one function can be quite diferent to that of another function. Broadly speaking, we tend to work from our most developed function, while we ned to widen our personality by developing the others. Related to this, Jung noted that the unconscious often tends to reveal itself most easily through a person's least developed function. The encounter with the unconscious and development of the underdeveloped function(s) thus tend to progress together. Jung's life Jung was born in Kesswil, in the Swiss canton of Thurgau on July 26, 1875. A very solitary introverted child, Jung was convinced from childhood that he had two personalities?a modern Swis citizen, and a personality more at home in the eighteenth century. His father was a vicar, but, although Jung was close to both parents, he was rather disapointed in his father's academic approach to faith. Jung wanted to study archaeolgy at university, but his family was to por to send him further afield than Basel, where they did not teach this subject, so instead Jung studied medicine at the University of Basel from 1894? 1900. The formerly introverted student became much more lively here. Towards the end of studies here, his reading of Krafft-Ebbing persuaded him to specialise in psychiatric medicine. He later worked in the Burghölzli, a psychiatric hospital in Zurich. In 1906, he published The Psycholgy of Dementia Praecox, and later sent a copy of this book to Freud, after which a close but brief friendship between these two men folowed (se section on Jung and Freud). Dementia praecox was the name of a chronic psychotic disorder which was renamed schizophrenia by Jung's coleague at the Burgholzli, Eugen Bleuler, in an article published in 1908. By 1913, however, especialy after Jung had published Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (known in English as The Psychology of the Unconscious) their theoretical ideas had diverged so sharply that the two men fel out, each sugesting that the other was unable to admit he could posibly be wrong. After this faling-out, Jung had some form of psychological transformative experience, exacerbated by news of the First World War, which had a dire effect on Jung even in his own neutral Switzerland. Henri Ellenberger caled Jung's experience a "creative ilnes" and compared it to Freud's period of what he caled neurasthenia and hysteria. Folowing World War I, Jung became a worldwide traveler, facilitated by the funds he realized through book sales, honoraria, and moneys received for sabbaticals from achieving seniority in the medical institutions at which he was eployed. He visited Northern Africa shortly after, and New Mexico and Kenya in the mid-1920s. In 1938, he delivered the Tery Lectures, Psychology and Religion, at Yale University. It was at about this stage in his life that Jung visited India, and while there, had dreams related to King Arthur. This convinced him that his agenda should be to pay more attention to Western spirituality, POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 126 and his later writings do show deep interests in Western mystery tradition and esoteric Christianity, and especially alchemy. In 1903 Jung maried Ema Rauschenbach, from one of the richest families in Switzerland, and together they had five children. Their mariage lasted until Ema's death in 195, but certainly experienced emotional torments, brought about by Jung's relationships with women other than Ema. The most wel- known women with whom Jung is believed to have had extramarital afairs are Sabina Spielrein and Toni Wolf. Jung continued to publish boks until the end of his life, including a work showing his late interest in flying saucers. He also enjoyed a brief friendship with an English Catholic priest, Father Victor White, who coresponded with Jung after he had published his controversial study of the Bok of Job. Jung died in 1961 in Zürich, Switzerland. Jung and Freud Jung was thirty when he sent Sigmund Freud in Viena his work Studies in Word Association. Half a year later, the then 50 year old Freud, reciprocated by sending a collection of his latest published esays to Jung in Zurich, which marked the begining of an intense correspondence and colaboration lasting more than six years and ending shortly before World War I in May 1914, when Jung resigned as the chairman of the International Psychoanalytical Asociation. Today Jung and Freud rule two very diferent empires of the mind, so to speak, which the respective proponents of these empires like to stress, downplaying the influence these men had on each other in the formative years of their lives. But in 1906 psychoanalysis as an institution was non-existent. And Jung, who had become interested in psychiatry as a student by reading Psychopathia Sexualis by Richard Kraft-Ebing, profesor in Viena, now worked as a doctor under the psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in the Burghölzli and became familiar with Freud's idea of the unconscious through Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (190) and a proponent of the new "psycho-analysis". Freud at that time needed nothing more than colaborators and folowers to validate and spread his ideas. The Burghölzli was a renowned psychiatric clinic in Zurich and Jung an aspiring young doctor there on the rise. Another problem Freud had was that his slowly growing followership in Vienna was almost exclusively Jewish and Eugen Bleuler and Carl Jung were not. In 1908 Jung became editor of the newly founded Yearbok for Psychoanalytical and Psychopathological Research, the folowing year Jung traveled with Freud and Sandor Ferenczi to the U.S.A. to spread the news of psychoanalysis and in 1910 Jung became chairman for life of the International Psychoanalytical Association. While Jung worked on his Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (Symbols of Transformation), the tensions betwen him and Freud were rising, the nature of libido and religion playing an important role. In 1912 these tensions came to a peak, when Jung felt severely slighted by Freud visiting his coleague Ludwig Binswanger in Kreuzlingen without paying him a visit in nearby Zurich, an incident Jung at the time and in his autobiography refered to as the gesture of Kreuzlingen. Shortly thereafter Jung again traveled to the U.S.A. and gave the Fordham lectures, which were published as The Theory of Psychoanalysis and while they contain some remarks on the disenting view of Jung about the nature of libido, if you read them today you'l be surprised to find largely a "psychoanalytical Jung" and not the Jung we've become used to in the following decades. Jung and Freud personaly met for the last time in September 1913 for the Fourth International Psychoanalytical Congres in Munich. Jung gave a talk on psychological types, the introverted and the extroverted type, in analytical psychology. This constituted the introduction of some of the key concepts which came to distinguish Jung's work from Freud's in the next half century. The year before a strange incident had hapened in the same city, when Jung and Freud met there with others in November 1912: At lunch there was a talk about a new psychoanalytic essay on Aenhotep IV, who introduced monotheism in ancient Egypt and who aparently had his father's name erased on al documents after his death. Relating this to actual conflicts in the psychoanalytic movement, Jung explicated his view on this, when Freud suddenly fainted and Jung carried him to a couch. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 127 In the folowing years Jung experienced considerable isolation in his profesional life, exacerbated through World War I. His Seven Sermons to the Dead (1917) reprinted in his autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections can also be read as expresion of the psychological conflicts which beset Jung around the age of forty after the break with Freud. Jung's primary disagrement with Freud stemed from their difering concepts of the unconscious. Jung saw Freud's theory of the unconscious as incoplete and unecessarily negative. According to Jung, Freud conceived the unconscious solely as a repository of represed emotions and desires. Jung believed that the unconscious also had a creative capacity. The collective unconscious of archetypes and images which made up the human psyche was procesed and renewed within the unconscious. In efect, Jung's unconscious, as oposed to Freud's, serves a very positive role: the engine of the colective unconscious essential to human society and culture. Jung, Nazism and anti-Semitism Though the field of psychoanalysis was dominated at the time by Jewish practitioners, and Jung had many friends and respected coleagues who were Jewish, a shadow hung over Jung's carer due to allegations that he was a Nazi sympathizer. Jung was editor of the Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie, a publication that eventually endorsed Mein Kampf as required reading for al psychoanalysts. Jung claimed this was done to save psychoanalysis and preserve it during the war, believing that psychoanalysis would not otherwise survive because the Nazis considered it to be a "Jewish science". He also claimed he did it with the help and suport of his Jewish friends and coleagues. Jung also served as president of the Nazi-dominated International General Medical Society for Psychotherapy. Later in the war though, Jung resigned and joined the alied cause in the United States. In addition, in 1943 he aided the Ofice of Strategic Services by analyzing Nazi leaders for the United States. However, it is stil a topic of interest whether Jung's later explanations of his actions to save psychoanalysis from the Nazi Regime meant that he did not actually believe in Nazism himself. There being several controversial books writen on said subject, the question is stil debated. Influence Jung has had an enduring influence on psycholgy as wel as wider society. He has influenced psychotherapy. ? The concept of introversion vs. extroversion ? The concept of the complex ? Myers-Brigs Type Indicator (MBTI) was inspired by Jung's Psychological Types theory. The Myers-Brigs Type Indicator aseses people on extraversion and introversion, Jung's function types and also on judging-perceiving, a dimension not found in Jung's original taxonomy but germane to his distinction between rational and irrational functions. ? Socionics, similar to MBTI, is also based on Jung´s Psycholgical Types. Spirituality as a cure for alcoholism Jung's influence can sometimes be found in more unexpected quarters. For example, Jung once treated an American patient - one Rowland H. - suffering from chronic alcoholism. After working with the patient for some time, and achieving no significant progres, Jung told the man that his alcoholic condition was near to hopeless, save only the possibility of a spiritual experience. Jung noted that occasionaly such experiences had been known to reform alcoholics where all else had failed. Rowland tok Jung's advice seriously and set about seking a personal spiritual experience. He returned home to the United States and joined a Christian evangelical church. He also told other alcoholics what Jung had told him about the importance of a spiritual experience. One of the alcoholics he told was Eby POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 128 Thatcher, a long-time friend and drinking budy of Bil Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) Thatcher told Wilson about Jung's ideas. Wilson, who was finding it impossible to maintain sobriety, was impresed and sought out his own spiritual experience. The influence of Jung ultimately found its way into the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous, the original 12-step program, and from there into the whole 12- step recovery movement. Above claims are documented in the leters of Carl Jung and Bil W., excerpts of which can be found in Pas It On published by Alcoholics Anonymous. Influences on culture ? Dr. Niles Crane on the popular television sitcom Frasier is a devoted Jungian psychiatrist, while his brother Dr. Frasier Crane is a Freudian psychiatrist. This is mentioned a number of times in the series, and from time to time forms a point of argument between the two brothers. One memorable scene had Niles filing in for Frasier on Frasier's cal-in radio program, in which Niles introduces himself as the temporary substitute saying, "...and while my brother is a Freudian, I am a Jungian, so there'l be no blaming Mother today." ? Episode 16: Urgo of Season 3 of sci-fi tv series Stargate SG-1 explores the Jungian theory of the duality and the shadow. ? Jung had a 16-year long friendship with author Laurens van der Post from which a number of books and a film were created about Jung's life. ? The concept of the colective unconscious is one of the main topics in the Dune novel series. ? The various Jungian ideals and archetypes heavily influenced the modern philosophical, surreal roleplaying game Persona and are one of the reasons cited for its strong, intriguing plot. ? Jung's influence on noted Canadian novelist Robertson Davies is aparent in many of Davies's fictional works. In particular, The Cornish Trilogy and his novel The Manticore each base their design on Jungian concepts. ? Jung influenced much of Joseph Campbel's thought. ? Ted Hughes's 1970 colection 'Crow' shows Hughes' interest in Jungian theory. ? The progresive metal band, Tool, have incorporated ideas from Jung's work into their albums, especialy Ænima. Songs such as "Forty Six & 2" and "Ænema" (the title of this song and the title of the album both being derived from Jung's anima) are particularly fraught with references. Additionally, The Police made references to Carl Jung in their album Synchronicity. ? J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5 television series used many of Jung's concepts throughout the series. ? The video games Xenogears and Xenosaga utilize many of the ideas proposed by Carl Jung as major storyline components of the game, and even create physical manifestations of his notions within actual characters, Albedo, Nigredo, Rubedo, etc. ? Jung's writing was introduced to Italian film aker Federico Felini in the 1950s and had an efect on the way Fellini incorporated dreams into films after La Dolce Vita. ? Jungian ideas make up a large part of the intelectual foundations of the Earthsea stories, the classic fantasy series writen by Ursula le Guin. ? Blue Man Group's "Rock Concert Movement #237" is "Taking the audience on a Jungian journey into the colective unconscious by using the shadow as a metaphor for the primal self that gets represed by the modern persona and also by using an underground setting and labyrinth ofice design to represent both the depths of the psyche and the dungeon-like isolation of our increasingly mechanistic society which prevents people from finding satisfying work or meaningful conections with others." POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 129 ? In the movie Batman Begins, the character of Jonathan Crane, aka "The Scarecrow", is a Jungian psychiatrist and at the same time personifies one of man's primal archetypes (the Scarecrow). ? Jung's theory of the shadow is of central importance in the modern horor roleplaying game Kult, in which reality as humanity knows it is merely an ilusion, built to deprive us of our natural divinity. The act of merging with one's shadow is the ultimate step on the path to transcending this spiritual prison. ? In The Electric Kol-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe describes the clasic experiment in which Ken Kesey and his Mery Pranksters, under the influence of LSD, explore manifestations of synchronicity by listening to a recording of a drug- induced monologue while watching the Ed Sullivan Show. Also, the central goal of the psychedelic movement, opening the doors of perception, is repeatedly associated with Jungian concepts throughout the bok. ? Stanley Kubrick's 1987 film Ful Metal Jacket features an underlying theme about the duality of man throughout the action and dialogue of the film. One scene plays out this way: A Colonel asks a soldier, "You write 'Born to Kil' on your helmet and you wear a peace button. What's that supposed to be, some kind of sick joke?" To which the soldier replies, "I think I was trying to sugest something about the duality of man, sir.. The Jungian thing, sir." ? The plot of James Kerwin's scifi noir film Yesterday Was a Lie is said to contain multiple Jungian references, and pres interviews with the cast and crew confirm that Jung's work in alchemy and dream analysis played a pivotal role in the development of the screenplay. ? Jung is one of the main characters in Thomas Findley's novel, Pilgrim. ? In the Emy award wining television show Northern Exposure the radio D.J. Chris Stevens made continual references to Jung's ideas. The show often let the audience into the characters' unconscious by weaving their dreams into the plot. ? Jung apears as a major character as a ghost in the novel Betwen the Bridge and the River by Scottish TV personality Craig Ferguson. He apears as an hallucination to one of the main characters in various parts of the novel. ? Jung's theories about the colective unconscious are a tol used by the character Peter Wilmot to get to know Misty in the Chuck Palahniuk novel Diary. ? Jung apears in the last row of the Sgt. Peper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover, on Edgar Alen Poe's right. Portrayed in this modern pantheon of the collective unconscious, Jung's presence is a tribute to his thought about mass- comunication and mass-desire. ? Herman Hese, author of works such as Sidhartha and Stepenwolf, was treated by a student of Jung, Dr. Joseph Lang. This began for Hesse a long preoccupation with psychoanalysis, through which he came to know Carl Jung personally, and was challenged to new creative heights: During a three-week period during September and October 1917, Hesse penned his novel Demian. Recomended Reading There is expansive literature on Jungian thought. For a god, short and easily acesible introduction to Jung's thought read: ? Chapter 1 of Man and His Symbols, conceived and edited by Jung. (The rest of this bok also provides a god overview.) Other god introductory texts include: ? The Portable Jung, edited by Joseph Campbel (Viking Portable), ISBN 0140150706 ? Edward F Edinger, Ego and Archetype, (Shambala), ISBN 08773576X ? Another recomended tol for navigating Jung's works is Robert Hopcke's bok, A Guided Tour of the Colected Works of C.G. Jung, ISBN 1570624054. He offers short, lucid sumaries of all of Jung's major ideas and suggests readings from Jung's and others' work that best present that idea. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 130 ? Edward C. Whitmont, The Symbolic Quest: Basic Concepts of Analytical Psychology, Princeton University Pres, Princeton, New Jersey, 1969, 1979, ISBN 0691024545 Good texts in various areas of Jungian thought: ? Robert E. Aziz, C.G. Jung?s Psycholgy of Religion and Synchronicity (190), curently in its 10th printing, is a refered publication of The State University of New York Pres. ISBN 079140169. ? Edward F. Edinger, The Mystery of The Coniunctio, ISBN 0919123678. A god explanation of Jung's foray into the symbolism of alchemy as it relates to individuation and individual religious experience. Many of the alchemical symbols recur in contemporary dreams (with creative aditions from the unconscious e.g. space travel, internet, coputers) ? James A Hall M.D., Jungian Dream Interpretation, ISBN 0919123120. A brief, wel structured overview of the use of dreams in therapy. ? James Hilman, "Healing Fiction", ISBN 0-88214-363-8. Covers Jung, Adler, and Freud and their various contributions to understanding the soul. ? Andrew Samuels, Critical Dictionary of Jungian Analysis, ISBN 041505910 ? June Singer, Boundaries of the Soul, ISBN 0385475292. On psychotherapy ? Marion Wodman, The Pregnant Virgin: A Proces of Psycholgical Transformation ISBN 0919123201. The recovery of feminine values in women (and men). There are many examples of clients' dreams, by an experienced analyst. And a more academic text: ? Andrew Samuels, The Political Psyche (Routledge), ISBN 0415081025. Difficult, but useful. For the Jung-Freud relationship: ? Ker, John. A Most Dangerous Method : The Story of Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein. Knopf 193. ISBN 0679404120. For critical scholarship on Jung from the perspective of an historian of psychiatry: ? Richard Nol, The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement (Princeton University Pres, 194); and ? Richard Nol, The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung (Random House, 1997) For a scholarly work contesting the historical validity of Richard Nol's asertions: ? Sonu Shamdasani, Cult Fictions, ISBN 0415186145. Casts serious doubts on the historical evidence provided by Noll. For a cubist history of Jungian ideas and how they evolved: ? Sonu Shamdasani, Jung and the Making of Modern Psycholgy : The Dream of a Science, ISBN 052153909. A comprehensive study of the origins of Jung's psychology which places it in a historical and philosophical context. "Cubist history" is the author's term. Jung bibliography Works aranged by original publication date if known: ? Jung, C. G. (1902?1905). Psychiatric Studies. Colected Works Vol. 1. 1953 ed. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, and Princeton, N.J.: Bollingen. This was the first of 18 volumes plus separate bibliography and index. Not including revisions the set was completed in 1967. ? Jung, C. G. (1904?1907) Studies in Word Association. London: Routledge & K. Paul. (contained in Experimental Researches, Colected Works Vol. 2) ? Jung, C. G. (1907). The Psychology of Dementia Praecox. (2nd ed. 1936) New York: Nervous and Mental Disease Publ. Co. (contained in The Psychogenesis of Mental Disease, Colected Works Vol. 3. This is the disease now known as schizophrenia) POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 131 ? Jung, C. G. (1907?1958). The Psychogenesis of Mental Disease. 191 ed. London: Routledge. (Colected Works Vol. 3) ? Jung, C. G., & Hinkle, B. M. (1912). Psychology of the Unconscious : a study of the transformations and symbolisms of the libido, a contribution to the history of the evolution of thought. London: Kegan Paul Trench Trubner. (revised in 1952 as Symbols of Transformation, Colected Works Vol.5 ISBN 0691018154) ? Jung, C. G., & Long, C. E. (1917). Colected Papers on Analytical Psycholgy (2nd ed.). London: Baliere Tindal & Cox. (contained in Freud and Psychoanalysis, Colected Works Vol. 4) ? Jung, C. G. (1917, 1928). Two Esays on Analytical Psycholgy (196 revised 2nd ed. Collected Works Vol. 7). London: Routledge. ? Jung, C. G., & Baynes, H. G. (1921). Psychological Types, or, The Psychology of Individuation. London: Kegan Paul Trench Trubner. (Colected Works Vol.6 ISBN 0691018138) ? Jung, C. G., Baynes, H. G., & Baynes, C. F. (1928). Contributions to Analytical Psychology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. ? Jung, C. G., & Shamdasani, S. (1932). The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga: notes of a seminar by C.G. Jung. 1996 ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ? Jung, C. G. (193). Modern Man in Search of a Soul. London: Kegan Paul Trench Trubner, (195 ed. Harvest Boks ISBN 015612062) ? Jung, C. G., (1934?1954). The Archetypes and The Colective Unconscious. (1981 2nd ed. Colected Works Vol.9 Part 1), Princeton, N.J.: Bolingen. ISBN 0691018332 ? Jung, C. G. (1938). Psychology and Religion The Tery Lectures. New Haven: Yale University Pres. (contained in Psychology and Religion: West and East Colected Works Vol. 1 ISBN 069109720). ? Jung, C. G., & Del, S. M. (1940). The Integration of the Personality. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. ? Jung, C. G. (194). Psychology and Alchemy (2nd ed. 1968 Colected Works Vol. 12 ISBN 0691018316). London: Routledge. ? Jung, C. G. (1947). Essays on Contemporary Events. London: Kegan Paul. ? Jung, C. G. (1947, revised 1954). On the Nature of the Psyche. 198 ed. London: Ark Paperbacks. (contained in Collected Works Vol. 8) ? Jung, C. G. (1951). Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (Colected Works Vol. 9 Part 2). Princeton, N.J.: Bolingen. ISBN 069101826X ? Jung, C. G. (1952). Synchronicity: An Acausal Conecting Principle. 1973 2nd ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, ISBN 0691017948 (contained in Colected Works Vol. 8) ? Jung, C. G. (1956). Mysterium Coniunctionis: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Oposites in Alchemy. London: Routledge. (2nd ed. 1970 Colected Works Vol. 14 ISBN 0691018162) This was Jung's last bok length work, completed when he was eighty. ? Jung, C. G. (1957). The Undiscovered Self (Present and Future). 1959 ed. New York: American Library. 190 ed. Bolingen ISBN 069101894 (50 p. esay, also contained in colected Works Vol. 10) ? Jung, C. G., & De Laszlo, V. S. (1958). Psyche and Symbol: A Selection from the Writings of C.G. Jung. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. ? Jung, C. G., & De Laszlo, V. S. (1959). Basic Writings. New York: Modern Library. ? Jung, C. G., & Jafe A. (1962). Memories, Dreams, Reflections. London: Colins. This is Jung's autobiography, recorded and edited by Aniela Jafe, ISBN 0679723951 ? Jung, C. G., Evans, R. I., & Jones, E. (1964). Conversations with Carl Jung and Reactions from Ernest Jones. New York: Van Nostrand. ? Jung, C. G., & Franz, M.-L. v. (1964). Man and His Symbols. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, ISBN 040351839 POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 132 ? Jung, C. G. (196). The Practice of Psychotherapy: Esays on the Psychology of the Transference and other Subjects (Colected Works Vol. 16). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Pres. ? Jung, C. G. (1967). The Development of Personality. 191 ed. London: Routledge. Colected Works Vol. 17 ISBN 0691018383 ? Jung, C. G. (1970). Four Archetypes; Mother, Rebirth, Spirit, Trickster. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Pres. (contained in Colected Works Vol. 9 part 1) ? Jung, C. G. (1974). Dreams. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Pres (compilation from Colected Works Vols. 4, 8, 12, 16), ISBN 0691017921 ? Jung, C. G., & Capbel, J. (1976). The Portable Jung. a compilation, New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0140150706 ? Jung, C. G., Rothgeb, C. L., Clemens, S. M., & National Clearinghouse for Mental Health Information (U.S.). (1978). Abstracts of the Colected Works of C.G. Jung. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Printing Office. ? Jung, C. G., & Antony Stor ed., (1983) The Esential Jung. a compilation, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Pres, ISBN 0-691-02455-3 ? Jung, C. G. (1986). Psychology and the East. London: Ark. (contained in Colected Works Vol. 1) ? Jung, C. G. (1987). Dictionary of Analytical Psycholgy. London: Ark Paperbacks. ? Jung, C. G. (1988). Psychology and Western Religion. London: Ark Paperbacks. (contained in Colected Works Vol. 1) ? Jung, C. G., Wagner, S., agner, G., & Van der Post, L. (190). The World Within C.G. Jung in his own words [videorecording]. New York, NY: Kino International : Dist. by Insight Media. ? Jung, C. G., & Hul, R. F. C. (191). Psychological Types (a revised ed.). London: Routlege. ? Jung, C. G., & Chodorow, J. (197). Jung on Active Imagination. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Pres. ? Jung, C. G., & Jarett, J. L. (198). Jung's Seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra (Abridged ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Pres. ? Jung, C. G., & Pauli, Wolfgang, C. A. Meier (Editor). (201). Atom and Archetype : The Pauli/Jung Letters, 1932-1958, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Pres. ISBN 0691012075 ? Jung, C. G., & Sabini, M. (202). The Earth Has a Soul: the nature writings of C.G. Jung. Berkely, Calif.: North Atlantic Boks. An early writing by Jung, dating from around 1917, was his poetic work, The Seven Sermons to the Dead. Writen in the persona of the 2nd century religious teacher Basilides of Alexandria, it explores ancient religious and spiritual themes, including those of gnosticism. This work is published in some editions of Memories, Dreams, Reflections. ARCHETYPE An archetype is an idealized model of a person, object or concept from which similar instances are derived, copied, paterned or emulated. In psychology, an archetype is a model of a person, personality or behaviour. This article is about archetypes in literature and psychology, which retain the definition of archetype. Archetypes found in the history of literature such as Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's fictional hero Don Quixote, stretch back hundreds of years if not milenia (back to 1605 in the case of Don Quixote de la Mancha). With our modern understanding of archetype as a psychological atribute advanced by Jung c. 1919, we can analyze Don Quixote's literary archetype as a character (perhaps even making corelations to the author) and proceed to consider archetypal behavior, inclinations and speculate as to his quixotic psychology. Thus, psychological archetypes employ a scientific approach to POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 133 evaluating archetypes generally in human behavior, real or fictional and can add much value to study of archetypes in al of huan literature. Archetype is sometimes broadly and misleadingly used to refer to a prototype, a stereotype or an epitoe. It may thus indicate a type of person, e.g. a mother, a father, a hero, a warrior or a martyr. Etymology Reliable apearances of archetype's use can be traced to European texts as early as 1545. It springs from the Latin noun archetypum, the same word and meanig for the Grek noun arkhetypon, meanig a template, old, copy, "pattern or model." Other historical forms included the adjectives archetypal, archetypic, archetypoid and archetypical; also the adverb archetypically. The word is comprised of the neutral adjective arkhetypos or arkhetupos, meaning "first-moulded," logicaly derived from conjoinig the prefix (or any one of its variations) of arkhe- "first" + typos "mark" or "type," in reference to the blow of a printing pres. As an interesting note regarding the investigation of the origin of the sufix "type" or "typos," the pres was not invented until the 12th or 13th centuries in the far East (China) and the first known pres in Europe is widely acepted as Gutenberg's c. 145. The Bible was Gutenberg's first and most influential large printing project, which clearly influenced literature and language, including pronunciation of modern day English. As a note in English usage, the "ch" in archetype (and others such as architect and chorus, were transliterations from the Greek É? (chi; perhaps most frequently used in mathematics as "chi-square", articulated in English as a "k." A general usage linguistic survey reported that 94 percent of literary experts of the usage panel pronounced the word archetype (ärk-tp), with the "k" inflection with the remainder using the "ch" (ärch-tp), like in church. Some 10 percent of those who pronounced it with a "k" reported that the "ch" usage was an acceptable pronunciation. Similarly, "Noah's Ark," "archangel," "architect" and "archaic" al spring from the variations of the prefix arch, arche, ark, arc, or arce, al transliterations from the Grek and Latin meaning "first." It is thought that Bible translations printed by Gutenberg, who used the Latin Vulgate), Martin Luther, and Wiliam Tyndale's work on the King James Version (the later two also used the Vulgate, of which Jerome used the Septuagint as a basis) faithfuly transliterated these words into English with little or no change in meaning. The use of psychological archetype reveals that it was advanced by Jung in c. 1919 and generally adopted in the social sciences, although the study of archetype frameworks has undergone many academic treatments. Jungian archetypes In the psychological framework of Carl Jung, archetypes are inate, universal prototypes for ideas and may be used to interpret observations. A group of memories and interpretations asociated with an archetype are a complex, e.g. a mother complex associated with the mother archetype. Jung treated the archetypes as psychological organs, analogous to physical ones in that both are morphological givens that arose through evolution. Jung listed four main forms of archetypes: ? The Self: In Jungian theory, the Self is one of the archetypes. It signifies the coherent whole, unified consciousness and unconscious of a person. The Self, acording to Jung, is realized as the product of individuation, which in Jungian view is the proces of integrating one's personality. For Jung, the self is symbolized by the circle (especially when divided in four quadrants), the square, or the mandal. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 134 ? The Shadow: In Jungian psychology, the shadow or "shadow aspect" is a part of the unconscious mind which is mysterious and often disagreeable to the conscious mind, but which is also relatively close to the conscious mind. It may be (in part) one's original self, which is superseded during early childhod by the conscious mind; afterwards it comes to contain thoughts that are repressed by the conscious mind. The shadow is instinctive and irational, but is not necesarily evil even when it might apear to be so. It can be both ruthles in conflict and empathetic in friendship. It is important as a source of hunches, for understanding of one's own more inexplicable actions and atitudes (and of others' reactions), and for learning how to cope with the more problematic or troubling aspects of one's personality. The shadow may appear in dreams and visions in various forms, often as a feared or despised person or being, and may act either as an adversary or as a friend. It typicaly has the same aparent gender as one's persona. It is possible that it might tend to appear with dark skin to a person of any race, since it represents an old ancestral aspect of the mind. The shadow's apearance and role depend greatly on individual idiosyncrasies, because the shadow develops in the individual's mind rather than simply being inherited in the colective unconscious. Interactions with the shadow in dreams may shed light on one's state of mind. A disagrement with the shadow may indicate that one is coping with conflicting desires or intentions. Friendship with a despised shadow may mean that one has an unacknowledged resemblance to whatever one hates about that character. These examples refer to just two of many posible roles that the shadow may adopt, and are not general guides to interpretation. Also, it can be dificult to identify characters in dreams, so that a character who seems at first to be a shadow might represent some other complex instead. Jung has also made mention of there being more than one layer making up the shadow. The top layer is the rationaly explicable unconscious. It contains material which has been made unconscious artificially; that is, it is made up of elements of one's personal experiences. Underneath this layer, however, is an absolute unconscious that has nothing to do with personal experiences. Jung described this botom layer as "a psychic activity which goes on independently of the conscious mind and is not dependent even on the upper layers of the unconscious - untouched, and perhaps untouchable - by personal experience" (Campbell, 1971). This botom layer of the shadow is also what Jung refered to as the colective unconscious. According to Jung, the shadow sometimes takes over a person's actions, especially when the conscious mind is shocked, confused, or paralyzed by indecision. ? The Anima: Anima, acording to Carl Jung, is the feminie side of a male's unconscious mind. It can be identified as al the unconscious feminine psychological qualities that a male poseses. In a film interview, Jung was not clear if the ania/animus archetype was totaly unconscious, calling it "a litle bit conscious" and unconscious. In the interview, he gave an example of a man who falls head over hels in love, then later in life regrets his blind choice as he finds that he has maried his own anima?the unconscious idea of the feminine in his mind, rather than the woman herself. The anima is usualy an agregate of a man's mother but may also incorporate aspects of sisters, aunts, and teachers. Jung also believed that every woman has an analogous animus within her psyche, this being a set of unconscious masculine attributes and potentials. He viewed the animus as being more complex than the anima, as women have a host of animus images while the male POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 135 anima consists only of one dominant image. Jung viewed the anima/animus process as being one of the sources of creative ability. The anima is one of the most significant autonomous complexes of al. It manifests itself by apearing as figures in dreams as wel as by influencing a man's interactions with women and his atitudes toward them. Jung said that confronting one's shadow is an "aprentice-piece," while confronting one's anima is the masterpiece. Jung also had a four- fold theory on the anima's typical development, begining with its projection onto the mother in infancy, continuing through its projection on prospective sexual partners and the development of lasting relationships, and concluding with a phase he termed Sophia, a Gnostic reference. It is worth noting that Jung aplies similar four-fold structures in many of his theories. In Italian and Spanish, anima is most closely translated as "soul," while in Latin , animus and anima may both be translated as "soul" or "mind," depending on context. ? The Anius: Animus is considered to be that natural and primitive part of the mind's activity and processes remaining after dispensing with persona, which is the "mask" displayed in interactions with others and which has ben shaped by socialization. Symbols of the unconscious abound in Jungian psycholgy: ? The Syzygy ("Divine Couple"), e.g. Aeons ? The Child, e.g. Linus van Pelt ? The Übermensch ("Superman", the Omnipotent) ? The Joker, Iago ? The Hero, e.g. Siegfried, Batman, Beowulf, Doc Savage, Luke Skywalker and Matrix's Neo. ? The Great Mother, either god or terible, e.g. Devi (MahaDevi), the Great Godes, Glinda the Good Witch of the North ? The Wise old man, e.g. Merlin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Gandalf, Albus Dumbledore, Mazer Rackham and Mr. Miyagi ? The Trickster or Ape, e.g. Reynard, Robin Godfelow, Br'er Rabit, Bart Simpson, Bugs Buny, Feris Bueler, and Loki ? The Puer Aeternus (Latin for "eternal boy"), e.g. Peter Pan Archetypes in literature Archetypes often apear in many forms of literature. Wiliam Shakespeare, for example, is known for popularizing any archetypal characters that hold great social import such as Hamlet, the self-doubting hero; Falstaf, the bawdy, rotund comic knight; Romeo and Juliet, the il-fated ("star-crossed") lovers; Richard I, the hero who dies with honor; and many others. Although Shakespeare based many of his characters on existing archetypes from fables and myths (i.e. Romeo and Juliet on Tristan and Isolde), Shakespeare's characters stand out as original by their contrast against a complex, social literary landscape. For instance, for The Tempest, Shakespeare borowed from a manuscript by Wiliam Strachey that detailed an actual shipwreck of the Virginia-bound 17th-century English sailing vessel Sea Venture in 1609 on the islands of Bermuda. Shakespeare also borowed heavily from a spech by Medea in Ovid's Metamorphoses in writing Prospero's renunciative spech; nevertheles, the unique combination of these elements in the character of Prospero created a new archetype, that of the sage magician as a carefuly ploting hero, quite distinct from the wizard-as-advisor archetype of Merlin or Gandalf (both of which may be derived from priesthood authority archetypes from the Bible such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Elijah, etc). Prospero also represents the archetype of storyteler, with Shakespeare perhaps entreating his audience as he resigns the end of what was to be his last play. The Bard signs off as if he were the Prospero himself: POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 136 Now my charms are al o'erthrown, And what strength I have's mine own,... As you from crimes would pardon'd be, Let your indulgence set me free. Many archetypes date back much further than Shakespeare, taking their rots from mythology. A model for Neo, the nearly godlike hero of The Matrix, can be found in the Ancient Sumerian character, Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh's friend, Enkidu, provides the archetypal sidekick character (powerful but uncivilized), which is paralleled by Robin Hood's Litle John, Sundance from Butch Casidy and the Sundance Kid, and perhaps even Chewbacca in Star Wars. This is not to imply that George Lucas, Wiliam Goldman and the Wachowski brothers borrowed directly from an Ancient Sumerian epic poem; rather, this sugests that these archetypes are perpetuated as a sort of typecasting, repeated again and again as elements of a story. Indeed, these remain part of our cultural memory and may be roted in a colective unconscious, as Jung described it. Similar to literary archetypes, although somewhat more narowly focused, are stock characters. For a list of literary archetypes, see this page. A pastiche is an imitation of an archetype or prototype in order to pay homage to the original creator. COLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS Colective unconscious is a term of analytical psychology originaly coined by Carl Jung. While Freud did not distinguish betwen an "individual psycholgy" and a "colective psychology", Jung distinguished the collective unconscious from the personal unconscious particular to each human being. Definition The colective unconscious refers to that part of a person's unconscious which is comon to al human beings. It contains archetypes, which are forms or symbols that are manifested by al people in al cultures. They are said to exist prior to experience, and are in this sense instinctual. Critics have argued that this is an ethnocentrist view, which universalized Jung's European-styled archetypes into human beings' archetypes. Less mystical proponents of the Jungian model hold that the collective unconscious can be adequately explained as arising in each individual from shared instinct, comon experience, and shared culture. The natural process of generalization in the human mind combines these comon traits and experiences into a mostly identical substratu of the unconscious. For example, the archetype of "the great mother" would be expected to be very nearly the same in al people, since al infants share inherent expectation of having an atentive caretaker (human instinct); every surviving infant must either have had a mother, or a surogate (coon experience); and nearly every child is indoctrinated with society's idea of what a mother should be (shared culture). The amalgam of all these efects could be the source of the shared figure, or archetype, which reportedly appears very nearly the same in most peoples' dreams. Regardles of whether the individual's conection to the colective unconscious arises from mundane or mystical means, the term colective unconscious describes an POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 137 important comonality that is observed to exist betwen different individuals' dreams. It was simply formulated by Jung as a model. Timothy Leary's 8-Circuit Model of Consciousnes includes the colective unconscious as being the 7th circuit, or the neurogenetic circuit of consciousness. Colective unconscious in Jung's works In his earlier writings, Jung caled this aspect of the psyche the colective unconscious. He later changed the term to objective psyche. The objective psyche may be considered objective for two reasons: it is comon to everyone; and it has a beter sense of the self's ideal than the ego or conscious self does. It thus directs the self, via archetypes, dreams, and intuition, and drives the person to make mistakes on purpose. In this way, it moves the psyche toward individuation, or self-actualization. In the "Definitions" chapter of Jung's seminal work Psychological Types, under the definition of "collective" Jung references representations colectives, a term coined by Levy-Bruhl in his 1910 bok How Natives Think. Jung says this is what he describes as the colective unconscious. Colective unconscious in Fiction On the television show Star Trek: Voyager, the crew encounters an alien race that places them al in a masive, shared dream. Character Seven of Nine describes this as a "colective unconscious". In the Hitchiker novel Life, the Universe and Everything, the game of Cricket is a "colective unconscious" memory of the Krikit Wars. In the Stephen King novel Cel, after an aparent terorist atack wipes the minds of a majority of humanity, Colective Unconscious is used as the premise behind the basic instinct to kill, adapt and survive after the "Phoners" transition from humanity into a new species. Telpathy is also noted as a continuance of the Colective Unconsciousness. The Colective Unconscious is a level-select menu in the game Psychonauts. COMPLEX In psychology a complex is generaly an important group of unconscious asociations, or a strong unconscious impulse lying behind an individual's otherwise mysterious condition: the detail varies widely from theory to theory. However their existence is quite widely agreed upon in the area of depth psychology at least, being instrumental in the systems of both Freud and Jung. They are generally a way of mapping the psyche, and are crucial theoretical items of comon reference to be found in therapy. The term "complex," or "feling-toned complex of ideas," was adopted by Carl Jung when he was stil a close associate of Sigmund Freud. (Theodor Ziehen is credited with coining the term in 1898.) Jung described a "complex" as a 'node' in the unconscious; it may be imagined as a knot of unconscious felings and beliefs, detectable indirectly, through behavior that is puzzling or hard to account for. Jung found evidence for complexes very early in his carer, in the word asociation tests conducted at the Burghölzli, the psychiatric clinic of Zurich University, where Jung worked from 190-1908. In the word association tests, a researcher read a list of words to each subject, who was asked to say, as quickly as possible, the first thing that came to mind in response to each word. Researchers timed subjects' responses, and noted any unusual POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 138 reactions--hesitations, slips of the tongue, signs of emotion. Jung was interested in patterns he detected in subjects' responses, hinting at unconscious feelings and beliefs. In Jung's theory, complexes may be related to traumatic experience, or not. There are many kinds of complex, but at the core of any complex is a universal patern of experience, or archetype. Some of the key complexes Jung wrote about were the anima (a node of unconscious beliefs and felings in a man's psyche relating to the oposite gender) and animus (the corresponding complex in a woman's psyche); and the shadow (Jung's term embracing any aspect of psyche which has ben excluded from conscious awareness). Many Jungian complexes appear in complementary pairs: for example, the puer, or eternal youth, often appears in relationship to the senex, or archetypal old man. A puer complex might manifest as an individual's unconscious dread of growing up, of losing one's romantic ideals or fredom; a senex complex, by contrast, might be sen in a person who, without seeming to understand why, is driven to act out an "old man" role, in creative or destructive ways. Only when a complex results in destructive behavior would it be sen as pathological; otherwise, a Jungian view of psyche acepts the presence of diverse complexes in ordinary health. One of the key diferences betwen Jungian and Freudian theory is that Jung's thought posits several diferent kinds of complex, and emphasizes duality or plurality rather than unity as a basic condition of the human psyche. Freud held that the Oedipus complex was universal--reflecting developmental chalenges that face every child--and was the central complex in most or al psychopathology. Once Jung broke from Freud and the two men went their own ways, forming their own disciplines behind them, there was briefly a movement in some of Freud's circle to remove al of Jung's work and terminology from their schol of psychoanalysis. Freud himself however refused, and so the name "complex" stayed. List of proposed psychological complexes Freudian ? Oedipus complex ? Castration complex se also Gender narcisism ? Electra complex (se also penis envy) Jungian ? anima ? animus ? puer ? senex Other ? Inferiority complex ? Napoleon complex ? Mesianic complex SYNCHRONICITY Synchronicity is a word coined by the Swis psychologist Carl Jung to describe the "temporaly coincident ocurences of acausal events." Jung spoke of synchronicity as an "acausal conecting principle" (i.e. a patern of conection that canot be explained by direct causality). Plainly put, it is the experience of having two (or more) things hapen coincidentaly in a maner that is meaningful to the person or persons experiencing them, where that meaning sugests an underlying patern. It difers from coincidence in that synchronicity implies not just a hapenstance, but an underlying pattern or dynamic that is being expresed through meaningful relationships or events. It was a principle that Jung felt encompassed his concepts of archetypes and the colective unconscious, in that POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 139 it was descriptive of a governing dynamic that underlay the whole of human experience and history?social, emotional, psycholgical, and spiritual. Jung believed that many experiences perceived as coincidence were due not merely to chance, but instead, sugested the manifestation of paralel events or circustances reflecting this governig dynamic. Examples A wel-known example of synchronicity is the true story of the French writer Émile Deschamps who in 1805 was treated to some plum puding by the stranger Monsieur de Fontgibu. Ten years later, he encountered plum pudding on the menu of a Paris restaurant, and wanted to order some, but the waiter told him the last dish had already been served to another customer, who turned out to be M. de Fontgibu. Many years later in 1832 Émile Deschamps was at a diner, and was once again ofered plum pudding. He recaled the earlier incident and told his friends that only M. de Fontgibu was mising to make the seting complete - and in the same instant the now senile M. de Fontgibu entered the room. During production of the The Wizard of Oz (1939 film), a coat purchased from a second- hand store for the costume of Professor Marvel was later discovered to have belonged to L. Frank Baum; author of the original children's book which the film is based on. Study A recent study within the Princeton Enginering Anomalies Research Lab has sugested that there is a smal though statisticaly measurable link betwen human thought and patterns that occur in random data sets. There is no evidence as to whether this is caused by individuals unintentionally recognizing complex paterns and then molding their thoughts towards an unconsciously known result or the thoughts of the individual are themselves affecting the random patterns in a maner of individuation. This study's results have not ben replicated, and its methodologies are disputed. Criticism Since the theory of synchronicity is not testable acording to the clasical scientific method, it is not widely regarded as scientific at al, but rather as pseudoscientific or an example of magical thinking. However, it is doubtful that Jung would have considered the theory to be scientificaly testable. Probability theory can atempt to explain events such as the plum puding incident in our normal world, without any interference by any universal alignment forces. However, the corect variables required for actualy computing the probability canot be found. This is not to say that synchronicity is not a good model for describing a certain kind of human experience, but, according to the scientific method, it is a reason for the refusal of the idea that synchronicity should be considered a "hard fact", i.e., an actually existing principle of our universe. Suporters of the theory claim that since the scientific method is aplicable only to those phenomena that are reproducible, independent of observer and quantifiable, the argument that synchronicity is not scientifically 'provable' should be considered a red herring, as, by definition, synchronistic events are not independent of the observer, since the observer's unique history is precisely what gives the synchronistic event meaning for the observer. A synchronistic event apears like just another meaningles 'random' event to anyone else without the unique prior history which correlates to the event. This reasoning claims POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 140 that the principle of synchronicity raises the question of the subjectivity of significance and meaning in the sequence of natural events. Alternative explanations The feling of making a conection where there is none has been described as apophenia. Aspects of the subjective experience of schizophrenia have much in comon with the subjective experience of synchronicity, in the sense that ordinary events are seen as having a direct personal relevance to the schizophrenic, but are sen as 'normal' by non- schizophrenics. Many psychoses are similar to schizophrenia but can last for a very short time, such as in rare instances from nicotine withdrawal (as an example) causing the sae efect even with a non-schizophrenic. Those who have experienced a near-death experience or mystical awakenings (such as kundalini awakenigs) report an increase in synchronistic events hapenig to them. This is also comon in the study of mystical symbol systems such as Kabalah. A religious analogy3 of this experience might be atributed to the fulfilment of prayer or miracles, however Jung did not describe it in these terms. Corelation can be described as statisticaly significant relationship between two or more events and so is a possible explanation for the phenomenon of synchronicity. Though corelation does not imply direct causation, corelation ay of course be a property shared by events without there being a direct cause-effect relationship, i.e. two events in an acausal relationship. However, the link between two correlated events which are known to be causaly unrelated is not generaly the subject of scientific investigation. For example, there is a very high correlation between drownings and ice cream sales. While not directly related, they share a comon factor, that being that lots of swiming and ice cream sales occur during sumertie. However, it would be very un-scientific to say that ice cream causes drownings. Synchronicity has ben proposed as a corolary phenomenon of the many-worlds or parallel universes theory of quantum physics, in that the subject might somehow be 'navigating' to those particular alternate worlds that are corelated to their past history, avoiding the myriad possible other worlds that are not as strongly "correlated" to their past history. Although this idea has made it into the popular press, it is considered pseudoscience by most scientists as the paralel universe theory states that all possible futures exist simultaneously, therefore the subject inded lives out al posible futures in parallel, and would be consciously present in all of them. Trivia ? In the roleplaying game d20 Modern, the suplement Urban Arcana features a spel known as 'Synchronicity', which subtly alters the laws of reality to make the mundanities of life more convenient for the caster, such as altering bus and taxi schedules so that they always apear within a maximum of four minutes after the caster begins waiting for one, and subtly moving pedestrians on crowded strets out of the way of the caster. ? A similar efect is delivered by the Felix Felicis potion in the Hary Poter bok series. ? John Constantine, the main character in the Vertigo Comics series Helblazer, is sometimes seen "riding the synchronicity highway," to eet certain goals or even just to one up those around him. This has the same efect as that described in this article, and it is one of John Constantine's more unusual tricks, and part of POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 141 what makes him so dangerous. He is also sen doing this in Books of Magic, the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman. ? The phenomenon is also explored, though not named in "The Red Notebok" by Paul Auster. ? In the 1983 release Synchronicity by The Police (A&M Records), basist Sting is reading a copy of Jung's Synchronicity on the front cover along with a negative/superimposed image of the actual text of the synchronicity hypothesis. A photo on the back cover also shows a close-up but mirored and upside-down image of the bok. There are two songs titled "Synchronicity I" and "Synchronicity I" included in the album. The later song cleverly contrasts the dangerous breakdown of a desperate family man with the simultaneous emergence of a menacing creature from the botom of Loch Ness. ? In the 1976 film The Eagle Has Landed, the character Max Radl (Robert Duval) asks a subordinate if he is familiar with the works of Jung, and then explains the theory of Synchronicity. He also tels a cautionary tale of not reading too much into suposed synchronicity, comenting that "a wink from a prety girl at a party rarely results in climax..but a man is a fol not to push a sugestion as far as it wil go!" ? The Dirk Gently series of boks by Douglas Adams often plays on the synchronicity concept. The main character caries a "pocket I Ching" that also functions as a calculator, up to a point (se A suffusion of yelow). ? The concept of ta'veren in Robert Jordan's The Whel of Time series functions similarly to synchronicity. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 142 CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS Claude Lévi-Straus born November 28, 1908, is a French anthropologist who developed structuralism as a method of understanding human society and culture. Biography Claude Lévi-Straus is an anthropologist best known for his development of structural anthropology. He was born in Brusels and studied law and philosophy at the Sorbone in Paris. He did not pursue his study of law, but agrégated in philosophy in 1931. After a few years of teaching secondary schol, in 1935 he took up a last-minute ofer to be part of a French cultural mision to Brazil in which he would serve as a visiting professor at the University of São Paulo. Lévi-Straus lived in Brazil from 1935 to 1939. It was during this time that he caried out his first ethnographic fieldwork, conducting periodic research forays into Mato Grosso and the Amazon Rainforest. He studied first the Guaycuru and Bororo Indian tribes, actualy living among them for a while. Several years later, he came back again in a second, year-long expedition to study the Nambikwara and Tupi-Kawahib societies. It was this experience that cemented Lévi-Straus's profesional identity as an anthropologist. He returned to France in 1939 to take part in the war efort, but after French capitulation to the Germans, Lévi-Straus, a Jew, fled Paris. While there, Lévi-Straus was offered a position in New York and granted admision to the United States, but stil had to find a way to flee the increasingly precarious situation in France. After a series of atempts to obtain pasage, Lévi-Straus found a captain he had known on previous voyages and secured a space on a ship voyaging to South America. A series of voyages eventualy brought Lévi-Straus to Puerto Rico where he had to undergo one final investigation by the FBI after customs agents grew suspicious of German leters in his lugage. After satisfying suspicious government agents, Lévi Strauss spent most of the war in New York City. Like many other intellectual emigrés, he taught at the New School for Social Research. Along with Jacques Maritain, Henri Focilon and Roman Jakobson, he was a founding member of the École Libre des Hautes Études, a sort of university-in-exile for French academics. The war years in New York were formative for Lévi Straus in several ways. His relationship with Jakobson helped shape his theoretical outlok (Jakobson and Lévi-Straus are considered to be two of the central figures on which structuralist thought is based). In adition, Lévi-Straus was also exposed to the American anthropology espoused by Franz Boas, who taught at Columbia University on New York's Upper West Side. This gave his early work a distinctive American tilt that helped facilitate its aceptance in the U.S. After a brief stint from 1946 to 1947 as a cultural ataché to the French embasy in Washington, DC, Lévi Straus returned to Paris in 1948. It was at this time that he received his doctorate from the Sorbone by submitting, in the French tradition, both a "major" and a "minor" thesis. These were The Family and Social Life of the Nambikwara Indians and The Elementary Structures of Kinship. The Elementary Structures of Kinship was published the next year and instantly came to be regarded as one of the most important works of anthropological kinship to be published and was even reviewed favorably by Simone de Beauvoir, who viewed it as an important statement of the position of women in non-western cultures. A play on the title of Émile Durkheim's famous Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, Elementary Structures re-examined how people organized their families by examining the logical structures that underlay relationships rather than their contents. While British anthropologists such as Alfred Reginald Radclife-Brown argued that kinship was based on descent from a comon ancestor, Lévi Strauss argued that kinship was based on the alliance betwen two families that formed when women from one group maried men from the other. Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, Lévi Straus continued to publish and experienced considerable professional success. On his return to France, he became involved with the administration of the CNRS and the Musée de l'Home before finally becoming chair of fifth section of the École POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 143 Pratique des Hautes Études, the 'Religious Sciences' section previously chaired by Marcel Maus, which he renamed "Comparative Religion of Non-Literate Peoples". While Lévi Straus was wel-known in academic circles, it was in 195 that he became one of France's best known intelectuals by publishing Tristes Tropiques. This bok was esentialy a travel novel detailing his time as a French expatriate throughout the 1930s. But Lévi Straus combined exquisitely beautiful prose, dazzling philosophical meditation, and ethnographic analysis of Aazonian peoples to produce a masterpiece. The organizers of the Prix Goncourt, for instance, lamented that they were not able to award Lévi Strauss the prize because Tristes Tropiques was technicaly non-fiction. Lévi Strauss was named to a chair in Social Anthropology at the Collège de France in 1959. At roughly the same time he published Structural Anthropology, a colection of his esays which provided both examples and programatic statements about structuralism. At the same time as he was laying the groundwork for an intellectual program, he began a series of institutions for establishing anthropology as a discipline in France, including the Laboratory for Social Anthropology where new students could be trained, and a new journal, l'Home, for publishing the results of their research. In 1962 Lévi Straus published what is for many people his most important work, La Pensée Sauvage. The title is a pun untranslatable in English ? in English the bok is known as The Savage Mind, but this title fails to capture the other posible French meaning of 'Wild Pansies'. In French pensée means both 'thought' and 'pansy,' the flower, while sauvage means 'wild' as wel as 'savage' or 'primitive'. The bok concerns primitive thought, forms of thought we al use. (Lévi Strauss sugested the English title be Pansies for Thought, riffing off of a spech by Ophelia in Hamlet.) The French edition to this day retains a flower on the cover. The first half of the bok lays out Lévi Straus's theory of culture and mind, while the second half expands this acount into a theory of history and social change. This part of the book engaged Lévi Strauss in a heated debate with Jean-Paul Sartre over the nature of human fredom. On the one hand, Sartre's existentialist philosophy comited him to a position that human beings were fundamentally free to act as they pleased. On the other hand, Sartre was also a leftist who was commited to the idea that, for instance, individuals were constrained by the ideologies imposed on them by the powerful. Lévi Straus presented his structuralist notion of agency in opposition to Sartre. Echoes of this debate betwen structuralism and existentialism would eventualy inspire the work of younger authors such as Piere Bourdieu. Now a world-wide celebrity, Lévi Straus spent the second half of the 1960s working on his master project, a four-volume study caled Mythologiques. In it, Lévi Straus tok a single myth fro the tip of South America and folowed al of its variations from group to group up through Central America and eventualy into the Arctic circle, thus tracing the myth's spread from one end of the American continent to the other. He acomplished this in a typicaly structuralist way, examining the underlying structure of relationships betwen the elements of the story rather than by focusing on the content of the story itself. While Pensée Sauvage was a statement of Lévi Straus's big-picture theory, Mythologiques was an extended, four-volume example of analysis. Richly detailed and extremely long, it is less widely read than the much shorter and more acesible Pensée Sauvage despite its position as Lévi Straus's master work. After completing the final volume of Mythologique in 1971 Lévi Straus was elected to the Académie Française in 1973, France's highest honor for an intelectual. He is also a member of other notable Academies worldwide, including the American Academy of Arts and Leters. He also received the Erasmus Prize in 1973. In 203 he received the Meister-Eckhart-Prize for Philosophy. He has received several honorary doctorates from universities such as Oxford, Harvard, and Columbia. He is also a recipient of the Grand-croix de la Légion d'honeur, and is a Comandeur de l'ordre national du Mérite and Comandeur des Arts et des Lettres. Although retired, he continues to publish occasional meditations on art, music and poetry. Anthropological theories POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 144 Lévi Strauss' theories are set forth in Structural Anthropolgy (1958). Briefly, he considers culture a system of symbolic comunication, to be investigated with methods that others have used more narowly in the discusion of novels, political speches, sports, and movies. His reasoning makes best sense against the background of an earlier generation's social theory. He wrote about this relationship for decades. A preference for "functionalist" explanations dominated the social sciences from the turn of the century through the 1950s, which is to say that anthropologists and sociologists tried to state what a social act or institution was for. The existence of a thing was explained if it fulfilled a function. The only strong alternative to that kind of analysis was historical explanation, accounting for the existence of a social fact by saying how it came to be. However, the idea of social function developed in two diferent ways. The English anthropolgist Alfred Reginald Radclife-Brown, who had read and admired the work of the French sociologist Émile Durkheim, argued that the goal of anthropological research was to find the collective function, what a religious creed or a set of rules about marriage did for the social order as a whole. At back of this approach was an old idea, the view that civilization developed through a series of phases from the primitive to the modern, everywhere the same. Al of the activities in a given kind of society would partake of the same character; some sort of internal logic would cause one level of culture to evolve into the next. On this view, a society can easily be thought of as an organism, the parts functioning together like parts of a body. The more influential functionalism of Bronislaw Malinowski described the satisfaction of individual neds, what a person got out of participating in a custom. In the United States, where the shape of anthropology was set by the German-educated Franz Boas, the preference was for historical acounts. This aproach had obvious probles, which Lévi Straus praises Boas for facing squarely. Historical information is seldom available for non-literate cultures. The anthropologist fills in with comparisons to other cultures and is forced to rely on theories that have no evidential basis whatever, the old notion of universal stages of development or the claim that cultural resemblances are based on some untraced past contact between groups. Boas came to believe that no overall patern in social development could be proven; for him, there was no history, only histories. There are thre broad choices involved in the divergence of these schols ? each had to decide what kind of evidence to use; whether to emphasize the particulars of a single culture or lok for patterns underlying all societies; and what the source of any underlying patterns might be, the definition of a comon humanity. Social scientists in al traditions relied on cros-cultural studies. It was always necessary to suplement information about a society with information about others. So some idea of a common human nature was implicit in each aproach. The critical distinction, then, remained: does a social fact exist because it is functional for the social order or because it is functional for the person? Do uniformities across cultures occur because of organizational needs that must be met everywhere or because of the uniform needs of human personality? For Lévi Straus, the choice was for the demands of the social order. He had no dificulty bringing out the inconsistencies and triviality of individualistic acounts. Malinowski said, for example, that magic beliefs come into being when people ned to fel a sense of control over events where the outcoe was uncertain. In the Trobriand Islands, he found the prof of this claim in the rites surounding abortions and weaving skirts. But in the same tribes, there is no magic atached to making clay pots even though it is no more certain a busines than weaving. So the explanation is not consistent. Furthermore, these POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 145 explanations tend to be used in an ad hoc, superficial way ? you just postulate a trait of personality when you ned it. But the acepted way of discusing organizational function didn't work either. Diferent societies might have institutions that were similar in many obvious ways and yet served diferent functions. Many tribal cultures divide the tribe into two groups and have elaborate rules about how the two groups can interact. But exactly what they can do ? trade, intermarry ? is different in different tribes; for that matter, so are the criteria for distinguishing the groups. Nor wil it do to say that dividing-in-two is a universal ned of organizations, because there are a lot of tribes that thrive without it. For Lévi Straus, the methods of linguistics became a model for al his earlier examinations of society. His analogies are usually from phonology (though also later from usic, mathematics, chaos theory, cybernetics and so on). "A truly scientific analysis must be real, simplifying, and explanatory," he says (in Structural Anthropology). Phonemic analysis reveals features that are real, in the sense that users of the language can recognize and respond to them. At the same time, a phoneme is an abstraction from language ? not a sound, but a category of sound defined by the way it is distinguished from other categories through rules unique to the language. The entire sound-structure of a language can be generated from a relatively smal number of rules. In the study of the kinship systems that first concerned him, this ideal of explanation alowed a comprehensive organization of data that had ben partly ordered by other researchers. The overal goal was to find out why family relations difered in diferent South American cultures. The father might have great authority over the son in one group, for example, with the relationship rigidly restricted by taboos. In another group, the mother's brother would have that kind of relationship with the son, while the father's relationship was relaxed and playful. A number of partial paterns had ben noted. Relations betwen the mother and father, for example, had soe sort of reciprocity with those of father and son ? if the mother had a dominant social status and was formal with the father, for example, then the father usualy had close relations with the son. But these smaler paterns joined together in inconsistent ways. One posible way of finding a master order was to rate al the positions in a kinship system along several dimensions. For example, the father was older than the son, the father produced the son, the father had the same sex as the son, and so on; the matrilineal uncle was older and of the same sex but did not produce the son, and so on. An exhaustive colection of such observations might cause an overal patern to emerge. But for Lévi Straus, this kind of work was "analytical in apearance only." It results in a chart that is far harder to understand than the original data and is based on arbitrary abstractions (empirically, fathers are older than sons, but it is only the researcher who declares that this feature explains their relations). Furthermore, it doesn't explain anything. The explanation it ofers is tautological ? if age is crucial, then age explains a relationship. And it does not ofer the posibility of inferring the origins of the structure. A proper solution to the puzle is to find a basic unit of kinship which can explain al the variations. It is a cluster of four roles--brother, sister, father, son. These are the roles that must be involved in any society that has an incest tabo requiring a man to obtain a wife from some man outside his own hereditary line. A brother can give away his sister, for example, whose son might reciprocate in the next generation by allowing his own sister to marry exogenously. The underlying demand is a continued circulation of women to kep various clans peacefuly related. Right or wrong, this solution displays the qualities of structural thinking. Even though Lévi Straus frequently speaks of treating culture as the product of the axioms and corolaries that underlie it, or the POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 146 phonemic diferences that constitute it, he is concerned with the objective data of field research. He notes that it is logically posible for a different atom of kinship structure to exist ? sister, sister's brother, brother's wife, daughter ? but there are no real-world examples of relationships that can be derived from that grouping. The purpose of structuralist explanation is to organize real data in the simplest effective way. Al science, he says, is either structuralist or reductionist. In confronting such maters as the incest taboo, one is facing an objective limit of what the human mind has so far acepted. One could hypothesize some biological imperative underlying it, but so far as social order is concerned, the taboo has the effect of an irreducible fact. The social scientist can only work with the structures of human thought that arise from it. And structural explanations can be tested and refuted. A mere analytic scheme that wishes causal relations into existence is not structuralist in this sense. Lévi Strauss' later works are more controversial, in part because they impinge on the subject mater of other scholars. He believed that modern life and al history was founded on the same categories and transformations that he had discovered in the Brazilian back country ? The Raw and the Coked, From Honey to Ashes, The Naked Man (to borow some titles from the Mythologies). For instance he compares anthropology to musical serialism and defends his "philosophical" approach. He also pointed out that the modern view of primitive cultures was simplistic in denying them a history. The categories of myth did not persist among them because nothing had hapened ? it was easy to find the evidence of defeat, migration, exile, repeated displacements of al the kinds known to recorded history. Instead, the mythic categories had encompassed these changes. He argued for a view of human life as existing in two timelines simultaneously, the eventful one of history and the long cycles in which one set of fundamental mythic patterns dominates and then perhaps another. In this respect, his work resembles that of Fernand Braudel, the historian of the Mediterranean and 'la longue durée,' the cultural outlook and forms of social organization that persisted for centuries around that sea. Selected bibliography ? Les Structures élémentaires de la parenté (1949, The Elementary Structures of Kinship, ed. *Rodney Nedham, trans. J. H. Bel, J. R. von Sturmer, and Rodney Nedham, 1969) ? Race et histoire (1952, UNESCO; Race and History) ? Tristes tropiques (195, trans. John Weightman and Doren Weightman, 1973) ? Anthropologie structurale (1958, Structural Anthropology, trans. Claire Jacobson and Broke Grundfest Schoepf, 1963) ? Le Totemisme aujourdhui (1962, Totemism, trans. Rodney Nedham, 1963) ? La Pensée sauvage (1962, The Savage Mind, 196) ? Mythologiques I-IV (trans. John Weightman and Doren Weightman ? Le Cru et le cuit (1964, The Raw and the Coked, 1969) ? Du miel aux cendres (196, From Honey to Ashes, 1973) ? L'Origine des manières de table, 1968, The Origin of Table Maners, 1978 ? L'Homme nu (1971, The Naked Man, 1981) ? Anthropologie structurale deux (1973, Structural Anthropology, Vol. II, trans. M. Layton, 1976) ? La Voie des masques (1972, The Way of the Masks, trans. Sylvia Modelski, 1982) ? Paroles donés (1984, Anthropology and Myth: Lectures, 1951-1982, trans. Roy Wilis, 1987) ? Le Regard éloigne (1983, The View from Afar, trans. Joachim Neugroschel and Phoebe Hos, 1985) ? La Potière jalouse (1985, The Jealous Potter, trans. Bénédicte Chorier, 198) ? Histoire de lynx (191) ? Regarder, écouter, lire (193, Lok, Listen, Read trans. Brian Singer, 197) POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 147 JOSEPH CAMPBEL Joseph Campbel (March 26, 1904 ? October 31, 1987) was an American profesor, writer, and orator best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion. Life Childhod Joseph Campbel was born and raised in New York City in an uper midle clas Roman Catholic family. As a child, Campbel became fascinated with Native American culture when his father tok him to se the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He son became versed in numerous aspects of Native American society, primarily in its mytholgy. This led to Campbel's lifelong pasion with myth and to his maping and study of its semingly cohesive threads among disparate human cultures. Education While at Dartmouth Colege he studied biology and mathematics, but decided that he preferred the humanities. He transferred to Columbia University where he received a B.A. in English literature in 1925 and M.A. in Medieval literature in 1927. Campbell was also an accomplished athlete, receiving awards for track and field. Europe In 1927, Campbel received a felowship provided by Columbia to study in Europe. Campbel studied Old French and Sanskrit at the University of Paris in France and the University of Munich in Germany. He learned to speak at least French, German, and Japanese in addition to English. He was highly influenced in Europe by the period of the Lost Generation, a time of enormous intelectual and artistic innovation. Campbell commented on this influence, particularly that of James Joyce, in The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbel on His Life and Work (190, first edition:28): CAMPBEL: And then the fact that James Joyce grabed me. You know that wonderful living in a realm of significant fantasy, which is Irish, is there in the Arthurian romances; it's in Joyce; and it's in my life. COUSINEAU: Did you find that you identified with Stephen Daedalus..in Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man? CAMPBEL: His problem was my problem, exactly..Joyce helped release me into an understanding of the universal sense of these symbols . . . Joyce disengaged himself and left the labyrinth, you might say, of Irish politics and the church to go to Paris, where he became one of the very important members of this marvelous movement that Paris represented in the period when I was there, in the '20s. It was within this climate that Campbel was also introduced to the work of Thomas Man who was equally influential upon his life and ideas. While in Europe Campbel was introduced to modern art. He became particularly enthusiastic about the work of Paul Kle and Pablo Picaso. It was also during this time that he met and became friends with Jidu Krishnamurti, a friendship which began his lifelong interest in Hindu philosophy and mythology. In adition, after the death of Indologist Heinrich Zimer, Campbel was given the task to edit and posthumously publish Zimer's papers. Return to the United States and the Great Depresion On his return from Europe in 1929, Campbel anounced to his faculty at Columbia that his time in Europe had broadened his interests and that he wanted to study Sanskrit and Modern art in adition to Medieval literature. When his advisors did not suport this, Campbel decided not to go forward with his plans to earn a doctorate and never returned to a conventional graduate program (The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbel on His Life and Work, (190, first edition:54). POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 148 A few weks later, the Great Depresion began. Campbel would spend the next five years (1929-1934) trying to figure out what to do with his life (Larsen and Larsen, 2002:160) and engaging in a period of intensive and rigorous independent study. Campbell discused this period in The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbel on His Life and Work (190, first edition:52-3). Campbel states that he "would divide the day into four four-hour periods, of which I would be reading in three of the four hour periods, and free one of them...I would get nine hours of sher reading done a day. And this went on for five years straight." He also traveled to California for a year (1931-32), continuing his independent studies and becoming close friends with the buding writer John Steinbeck and his wife Carol (Larsen and Larsen, 202, chapters 8 and 9). Campbel also maintained his independent reading while teaching for a year in 193 at the Canterbury Schol during which time he also attempted to publish works of fiction (Larsen and Larsen, 2002:214). Campbel's independent studies lead him to the ideas of the Swis psychiatrist Carl Jung, a contemporary and colleague of Sigmund Freud. Campbell edited the first Eranos conference papers and helped to found Princeton University Pres' Bolingen Pres. Another disident member of Freud's circle of influence to Campbell was Wilhelm Stekel (1868 - 1939). Stekel pionered the aplication of Freud's conceptions of dreams, fantasies of the human mind, and the unconscious to such fields as anthropology and literature. Sarah Lawrence Colege In 1934, Campbel was offered a position as a profesor at Sarah Lawrence College (through the eforts of his former Columbia advisor W.. Laurence). Campbell married one of his former students, Jean Erdman, in 1938 and retired from Sarah Lawrence in 1972. Death Campbel died in 1987, in Honolul, shortly after filming The Power of Myth with Bil Moyers. Select works James Joyce and early works As noted above, James Joyce was an important influence on Campbel. Campbel's first important bok (with Henry Morton Robinson), A Skelton Key to Finegans Wake (194), is a critical analysis of Joyce's final text Finegans Wake. In adition, Campbel's seminal work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, discuses what Campbel termed the monoyth cycle of the journey of the hero, which he directly attributes to Joyce's Finegans Wake (Campbel, 1949:30). The Masks of God His four-volume work The Masks of God covers mythology around the world from ancient to modern. Where The Hero with a Thousand Faces focused on the comonality of mythology (the ?elementary ideas?), the Masks of God boks focus upon historical and cultural variations the monomyth takes (the ?folk ideas?). In other words, where The Hero with a Thousand Faces draws more from psychology, the Masks of God boks draw more from anthropology and history. The four volumes of Masks of God are: Primitive Mythology, Oriental Mythology, Occidental Myth, and Creative Mythology. The Historical Atlas of World Mythology At the time of Campbel?s death he was producing a large-format, beautifuly ilustrated series titled The Historical Atlas of World Mythology. This series was to folow Campbel?s idea (first presented in The Hero with a Thousand Faces) that myth evolved over time through four stages: The Way of the Animal Powers (the myths of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers with their focus on shamanism and animal totems), The Way of the Seded Earth (the myths of Neolithic, agrarian cultures with their focus on the mother godes and POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 149 fertility rites), The Way of the Celestial Lights (the myths of Bronze Age city-states with their pantheons of gods up in the heavens), and The Way of Man (religion and philosophy as it developed after the Axial Age). Only the first two parts were completed? and are unfortunately now out-of-print. The Power of Myth Campbel's widest popular recognition came from his colaboration with Bil Moyers on the PBS series The Power of Myth, which was first broadcast in 198, the year after Campbel's death. The series presented his ideas on archetypes to milions and remains a staple on PBS. A companion book, The Power of Myth, containig expanded transcripts of their conversations, was released shortly afterward. Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor A recent compilation of many of his ideas is titled Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor. In it Campbel states:"..Mythology is often thought of as other people's religions, and religion can be defined as mis-interpreted mythology." In other words, Campbell did not read religious symbols literally as historical facts, but instead he saw them as symbols or as metaphors for greater philosophical ideas. Campbel had previously discused this idea with Bil Moyers in The Power of Myth: CAMPBEL: That would be a mistake in the reading of the symbol. That is reading the words in terms of prose instead of in terms of poetry, reading the metaphor in terms of the denotation instead of the conotation. MOYERS: And poetry gets to the unsen reality. CAMPBEL: That which is beyond even the concept of reality, that which transcends al thought. The myth puts you there al the time, gives you a line to conect with that mystery which you are (Campbel, 198:57). Campbel's original voice Campbel relied on the texts of Carl Jung as an explanation of psychological phenomena, as experienced through archetypes. But Campbel din?t agre with Jung on every issue, and certainly had a very original voice of his own. Joseph Campbel believed al the religions of the world, al the rituals and deities, to be ?masks? of the same transcendent truth which is ?unknowable.? He claims Christianity and Budhism, whether the object is 'budha-consciousness' or 'Christ-consciousness,' to be an elvated awareness above ?pairs of opposites,? such as right and wrong. Indeed, he states in the preface of The Hero with a Thousand Faces: "Truth is one, the sages speak of it by many names." which is a translation of the Rig Vedic saying "Ekam Sat Vipra Bahuda Vadanthi." Campbel was fascinated by what he viewed as universal sentiments and truths, diseminated through cultures which all featured diferent manifestations. In the preface of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, he also indicates that his goal was to demonstrate the similarities between Eastern and Western religions. In his four-volume series of boks "The Masks of God", Campbell tried to sumarize the main spiritual threads of the world, in suport of his ideas on the "unity of the race of man"; tied in with this was the idea that most of the belief systems of the world had a comon geographic ancestry, starting off on the fertile grasslands of Europe in the Bronze Age and moving to the Levant and the "Fertile Crescent" of Mesopotamia and back to Europe (and the Far East), where it was mixed with the newly emerging Indo- European (Aryan) culture. He believed al spirituality is searching for the same unknown force (which he spoke of as both an immanent and a transcendent force, or that which is both within and without, as oposed to only without) from which everything came, in which everything curently exists, and into which everything wil return. He referred to this force as the conotation of what he caled "metaphors", the metaphors being the various deities and objects of spirituality in the world. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 150 Heroes and the monomyth (se below) Heroes played a crucial role in his comparative studies. In 1949 The Hero with a Thousand Faces introduced his idea of the monomyth (borowed from Joyce as stated above), which outlined the archetypal paterns Campbel recognized. Heroes were important to Campbell because, to him, they conveyed universal truths about how one should live one's life and about an individual's role in society. Influence Scholars who influenced Campbel Campbel often refered to the work of modern writers James Joyce and Thomas Man in his lectures and writings. He also stated that his thre favorite philosophers were Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and Immanuel Kant [citation needed]. Anthropologist Leo Frobenius was important to Campbel?s view of cultural history. He often indicated that the single most important bok in his intelectual development was Oswald Spengler?s The Decline of the West. Campbel's ideas regarding myth and its relationship to the human psyche are heavily dependent on the work of Carl Jung, whose studies of human psychology, as previously mentioned, heavily influenced Campbel. The Jungian method of dream interpretation, which is heavily reliant on symbolic interpretation, is closely related to Campbell's conception of myth: ?Myths are public dreams; dreams are private myths." Jung's insights into archetypes were in turn heavily influenced by the Bardo Thodol (also refered to as the The Tibetan Bok of the Dead). Campbel in his 1981 text, The Mythic Image, quotes Jung on the Bardo Thodol who states that it "belongs to that clas of writings which not only are of interest to specialists in Mahayana Budhism, but also, because of their dep humanity and stil deper insight into the secrets of the human psyche, make an especial apeal to the layman seking to broaden his knowledge of life".. "For years, ever since it was first published, the Bardo Thodol has ben my constant companion, and to it I owe not only many stimulating ideas and discoveries, but also many fundamental insights" (Campbell 1981:392). Campbel's "Folow your blis" philosophy was influenced by the Sinclair Lewis 192 novel, Babit. In The Power of Myth Campbel quotes from the novel: Campbel: "Have you ever read Sinclair Lewis' 'Babit'? Moyers: "Not in a long time." Campbel: "Remember the last line? 'I have never done the thing that I wanted to do in al my life.' That is a man who never folowed his blis" (Campbel, 198:117). Campbel also referenced the Sanskrit concept of "Sat Chit Ananda." Sat (Being) Chit (Ful Consciousnes) Ananda (Rapture). He said, "I don't know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don't know hether what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know here my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that wil bring me both my consciousness and my being." (The Power of Myth) Campbel studied under mythology Profesor Heinrich Zimer while a young student at Columbia. Zimer taught Campbel that myth (instead of a guru or person) could serve as a mentor, in that the stories provide a psychological roadmap for the finding of oneself in the labyrinth of the complex modern world. Zimer relied more on the meaning (symbols, metaphor, imagery, etc.) of mythological fairytales for psychological realizations than on psychoanalysis. Campbel later borowed from the interpretative techniques of Jung and reshaped them in a fashion that folowed Zimer's beliefs- interpreting directly from world mythology. This is an important distiction because it helps explain why Campbel did not directly folow Jung's footsteps in applied psychology. Campbel's influences on others George Lucas POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 151 George Lucas was the first Holywod filmaker to openly credit Campbel's influence. He stated during the release of the first Star Wars films during the late 1970s that they were based upon ideas found in The Hero With a Thousand Faces and other works of Campbel. Inded, the 198 documentary The Power of Myth, was filmed at Lucas' Skywalker Ranch. During these interviews with Bil Moyers, Campbel discuses the way in which Lucas used The Hero's Journey in the Star Wars films (IV, V, and VI) to re-invent the mythology for contemporary times. Moyers and Lucas filmed an interview 12 years later in 199 called the Mythology of Star Wars with George Lucas & Bil Moyers, to further discus the impact of Campbell's work on Lucas' films. In adition, the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution sponsored an exhibit during the late 190s caled Star Wars: The Magic of Myth which discused the ways in which Campbel's work shaped the Star Wars films [4]. A companion guide of the same name was published in 1997. Lucas also granted an extensive interview to the oficial biography of Joseph Campbell, Joseph Campbel:A Fire in the Mind by Stephen and Robin Larsen. He states: I came to the conclusion after 'American Graffiti' that what's valuable for me is to set standards, not to show people the world the way it is..around the period of this realization..it came to me that there realy was no modern use of mythology...The Western was possibly the last generically American fairy tale, teling us about our values. And once the Western disapeared, nothing has ever taken its place. In literature we were going of into science fiction..so that's when I started doing more strenuous research on fairy tales, folklore, and mythology, and I started reading Joe's books. Before that I hadn't read any of Joe's books..It was very eerie because in reading 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces' I began to realize that my first draft of 'Star Wars' was folowing classic motifs..so I modified my next draft [of 'Star Wars'] according to what I'd ben learning about classical motifs and made it a litle bit more consistent..I went on to read 'The Masks of God' and many other boks (Larsen and Larsen, 202: 541). Chris Vogler Other members of the film industry were also inspired by Campbel. Christopher Vogler, a Holywod screnwriter, created a now-legendary 7-page company memo, A Practical Guide to The Hero With a Thousand Faces, based on Campbel's work which led to the development of Disney's 193 film, The Lion King. Vogler's memo was later developed into the late 190's bok, The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers , which would become the basis for a number of sucesful Holywod films. Others influenced by Campbel ? More recently, computer game companies in search of new ideas and techniques for storyboarding and developing new products have turned to Campbel. ? Musician and composer Tori Amos has also acknowledged the influence of Campbell in the ideas on mythology and archetypes she employs on her album projects. ? Senses Fail lead singer Budy Nielsen has noted Campbel as in influence to his lyric writing and uses the Campbell phrase "Follow your blis" in the track "Irony of Dying on Your Birthday". Quotes ? "Mythology is often defined as 'other peoples' religions', religion can be thought of as misinterpreted mythology." He asked people to step back and examine their own religious traditions as mythology, and in doing so, people with doubts as to the literal interpretations of religious texts could get more meanig from the mythological symbolism instead. ? ?This is an esential experience of any mystical realization. You die to your flesh and are born to your spirit. You identify yourself with the consciousnes and life of which your body is but the vehicle. You die to the vehicle and become identified in your consciousnes with that of which the vehicle is the carier. And that is the God.? - Tape 4, Power of Myth. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 152 ? "The one radiance shines through all things." - Tape 4, Power of Myth. ? "Art is the clothing of a revelation" - Transformations of Myth Through Time ? ?Participate joyfuly in the sorrows of life? - this was not an endorsement of masochism, but rather a recognition that life contains hardship and an individual should embrace the experience of being alive by living affirmatively in the face of inevitable sorrow and sufering. This was an echo of a Budhist teaching that cals for "joyful participation in the sorows of the world." ? "I don?t have to have faith, I have had experience" - Tape 6, Power of Myth ? BIL MOYERS: Do you ever have the sense of.. being helped by hiden hands? JOSEPH CAMPBEL: Al the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming al the time - namely, that if you do folow your blis you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to met people who are in your field of blis, and they open dors to you. I say, folow your blis and don't be afraid, and doors wil open where you didn't know they were going to be. ? "Read myths. They teach you that you can turn inward, and you begin to get the message of the symbols. Read other people's myths, not those of your own religion, because you tend to interpret your own religion in terms of facts -- but if you read the other ones, you begin to get the mesage." Criticism A few years after his death, some acused Campbel of anti-Semitism begining with Brendan Gil's article, "The Faces of Joseph Campbell," published in the New York Review of Boks, Vol. 36, Isue 14, September 28, 1989, pages 16-19. Gil, who identified himself as a friend of Campbel from the Century Club in New York City, notes in the article that he wrote it in reaction to the enormous popularity of The Power of Myth series in 198. Profesor of religion, Robert Segal, folowed Gil's contention of anti- semitism with the article, "Joseph Campbel on Jews and Judaism" ( Religion Volume 2, Isue 2, April 1992: 151-170). Later in the article Segal also sugests that this view of Campbel stems, at least in part, from his tendency to critique aspects of diferent religions. Other scholars disagred both with Gil's general critiques as wel as the acusation of anti-semitism. A few months after Gil's article apeared, the New York Review of Boks, Volume 36, Issue 17, November 9, 1989, pages 57-61, published the series of leters "Brendan Gill vs. Defenders of Joseph Campbell" (cover of New York Review), "Joseph Campbel: An Exchange" (title of leter colection). A number of the leters, from former students and colleagues, argue against the acusations. In particular, Profesors Roberta and Peter Markman argue that "we were dismayed because this piece of character asasination was unsuported by any evidence." Gil, in a response to these leters, continued to uphold his claims. Stephen Larsen and Robin Larsen, the authors of the biography "Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind," (202) also argued against what they referred to as "the so caled anti-Semitic charge" (p.x). They state that: "For the record, Campbel did not belong to any organization that condoned racial or social bias, nor do we know of any other way in which he endorsed such viewpoints. During his lifetime there was no record of such acusations in which he might have publicly betrayed his bigotry or visibly ben forced to defend such a position" (2002:x). National University profesor Tom Snyder wrote an esay in 191 entitled "Myth Perceptions: Joseph Campbel's Power of Deceit" that acused him of launching a single-minded vendeta against organized religion. Campbel's scholarship has also come under atack; and the American novelist Kurt Vonnegut satirized Campbel's views as being excesively baroque by ofering his interpretation of the monomyth, caled the "In The Hole" theory; losely defined as "The hero gets into trouble. The hero gets out of trouble." Bibliography of works by Campbel Books by Joseph Campbel POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 153 ? When the two came to met their father; Navaho War Ceremonial (Jeff King, Joseph Campbel, Maud Oakes) (1943) ? A Skeleton Key to Finegans Wake (Joseph Campbel and Henry Morton Robinson) (194) ? The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949) ? The Flight of the Wild Gander:Explorations in the Mythological Dimension (1951) ? The Masks of God; Volume 1, Primitive Mythology (1959) ? The Masks of God; Volume 2, Oriental Mythology (1962) ? The Masks of God; Volue 3, Ocidental Mytholgy (1964) ? The Masks of God; Volume 4, Creative Mythology (1968) ? Myths to Live By (1972) ? The Mythic Image (1974) ? The Iner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor As Myth and As Religion (1986) ? Historical Atlas of World Mythology Volume I: The Way of Animal Powers; Part 1 (198) ? Historical Atlas of orld Mythology Volume I: The ay of Animal Powers; Part 2 (198) ? Historical Atlas of World Mythology Volume I: The Way of the Seded Earth; Part 1 (198) ? Historical Atlas of orld Mythology Volume I: The ay of the Seeded Earth; Part 2 (1989) ? Historical Atlas of World Mythology Volume I: The Way of the Seded Earth; Part 3 (1989) ? Transformations of Myth Through Time (190) ? A Joseph Campbel Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living (Edited by Diane K. Osbon) (191) ? Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: On the Art of James Joyce (Edited by Edmund L. Epstein) (193) ? The Mythic Dimension: Selected Esays (1959-1987) (Edited by Anthony Van Couvering) (193) ? Bakshesh & Brahman: Indian Journals (1954-1955) (Edited by Robin/Stephen Larsen & Anthony Van Couvering) (195) ? Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor (Edited by Eugene Kenedy) (201) ? Sake & Satori: Asian Journals - Japan (Edited by David Kudler) (202) ? Myths of Light: Eastern Metaphors of the Eternal (Edited by David Kudler) (203) ? Pathways to Blis: Mythology and Personal Transformation (Edited by David Kudler) (204) Books based upon interviews with Joseph Campbel ? The Power of Myth (with Bil Moyers and Betty Sue Flowers, ed.), (198) ? An Open Life: Joseph Campbel in Conversation with Michael Toms (1989) ? This busines of the gods: Interview with Fraser Boa (1989) ? The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbel on His Life and Work. Edited and with an Introduction by Phil Cousineau. Forward by Stuart L. Brown, Executive Editor. New York: Harper and Row, (190) Audio Tapes of Joseph Campbel ? The Power of Myth (With Bil Moyers) (1987) ? Transformation of Myth through Time Volume 1-3 (1989) ? The Hero with a Thousand Faces: The Cosmogonic Cycle (Read by Ralph Blum) (190) ? The Way of Art (190) ? The Lost Teachings of Joseph Campbel Volume 1-9 (With Michael Toms) (193) ? On the Wings of Art: Joseph Campbel; Joseph Campbel on the Art of James Joyce (195) ? The isdom of Joseph Campbel (With Michael Toms) (197) ? Joseph Capbel Audio Colection; Volume 1:Mytholgy and the Individual (197) ? Joseph Campbel Audio Colection; Volue 2:The Inward Journey (197) ? Joseph Capbel Audio Colection; Volume 3:The Eastern Way (197) ? Joseph Campbel Audio Colection; Volume 4:Man and Myth (197) ? Joseph Capbel Audio Colection; Volue 5:The Western Quest (197) ? Joseph Campbel Audio Colection; Volume 6:The Myths and Masks of God (197) POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 154 ? Myth and Metaphor in Society (With Jamake Highwater)(abridged)(202) Video/DVDs of Joseph Campbel ? Transformations of Myth Through Time (1989) ? Mythos (1987/198) ? Joseph Campbel and the Power of Myth (198) ? The Hero's Journey: The World of Joseph Campbel (1987) (Phil Cousineau) ? Myth and Metaphor in Society (With Jamake Highwater) (1993) ? Sukhavati (205) MONOMYTH The monomyth (often refered to as the Hero's Journey) is a cyclical journey found in myths sugested by Joseph Campbel in his bok The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). As a noted scholar of James Joyce (in 1944 he authored the text, with Henry Morton Robinson, A Skelton Key to Finegans Wake [2]), Campbel borowed the term, monomyth from Joyce's Finegan's Wake. This patern was adopted by George Lucas in both the original Star Wars trilogy and its prequels, as he was highly influenced by Campbel, particularly The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Holywood screnwriter, Christopher Vogler, also used Campbel's theories in the creation of first a memo for Disney and later the bok, The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers. This influenced Disney's The Lion King in 194 and the Wachowski brothers' The Matrix in the 200s. Campbel's acount of the monomyth explains its ubiquity through a mixture of Jungian archetypes, unconscious forces of mind from the Freudian conception, and Arnold van Genep's structuring of rites of pasage rituals. Since the late 1960s, with the introduction of Post-structuralism, theories such as the monomyth (which are dependent upon aproaches based in Structuralism) have lost ground in the academy. This pattern of the hero's journey is stil influential among artists and intelectuals worldwide, however, which may indicate the continued usefulness and ubiquitous influence of Campbell's works (and thus as evidence for the importance and validity of Freudian and especialy Jungian psycholgical models). Structure The Manganielo Monomyth is divided into thre sections: Departure (sometimes caled Separation), Initiation and Return. This was laid out by Joseph Campbel in the first part of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, "The Adventure of the Hero." His thesis was that al myths folow this structure to at least some extent. To take three examples: the Christ story follows this structure almost exactly, whereas the Odysey features frequent repetitions of the Initiation section and the Cinderela story folows this structure somewhat more loosely. Departure deals with the hero venturing forth on his quest; Initiation deals with the hero's various adventures along his or her way; and Return deals with the hero's return home with knowledge and powers he or she has acquired along the way. Departure (or Separation) The Cal to Adventure POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 155 The quest begins with the hero receiving a cal to action. Such as a threat to the peace of the community, or the hero in a state of neurotic anguish or simply fals into or blunders into the quest. The quest is often anounced to the hero by another character who acts as a "herald". The herald is often represented by a benign forest creature (frog, rabbit, deer) or a chthonic creature (serpent, spider). ? In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker, the hero, begins the story in frustration over being unable to leave home. The heralds are the two droids who cary a message from Princess Leia. In The Matrix, the cal comes in the form of Morpheus and his folowers who encourage the hero, Neo, to question reality. Morpheus literally cals Neo on a cell phone and Neo's phone at home. In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf acts as the herald who gives Frodo his mision to destroy the One Ring. Aragorn, in a separate hero's journey, is told by Elrond of his true name and lineage as the Heir of Isildur and rightful heir to the throne of Gondor when he is 20 years of age. In Ender's Game, Graff, head of the Battle Schol informs Ender that he has ben chosen to be trained to fight the Formics, an alien race intending to destroy the human race. In the origin story for Spider-Man, Peter Parker's first cal to adventure comes when he is first biten by a radioactive spider and granted superpowers but later on he answers a want ad promising money if he can last thre minutes in a ring with a wrestler. At the begining of Prey, Tomy Tawodi wants to convince his girlfriend to leave the reservation where they live, and soon after he is abducted by aliens. In the Wheel of Time, Rand and his friends are warned by Moraine that the Dark One is hunting them. In The Neverending Story, Bastian is interested at the idea of a neverending story and "borows" the bok, while in the bok, Atreyu is summoned to save Fantastica from The Nothing. Refusal of the Cal In many stories, the hero initialy refuses the cal to adventure. When this happens, the hero sufers somehow, and eventually chooses the quest. ? In The Matrix, Neo refuses to take the window washing scaffold to escape and is captured by the Agents. In Star Wars, Luke is refused adventure by his uncle, a man who seeks to protect Luke from the inevitable dangers of fate. As a result, Luke's family is killed by stormtropers. In The Lord of The Rings, Frodo is unwiling to set out on an adventure. Because of his delay, he is nearly captured by the Ringwraiths. In Ender's Game, Ender is reluctant to leave the Earth because he knows he wil not see his sister Valentine Wiggin for many years. Peter Parker at first uses his powers for personal gain, ignoring his Uncle Ben's advice that "With great power, comes great responsibility." It is only after Uncle Ben is kiled by a burglar that Peter takes his uncle's mantra and adopts the mantle of Spider-Man. In Prey, Tomy's girlfriend does not want them to leave the reservation because that is the land of their ancestors. In "The Neverending Story" Cairon the centaur refuses to believe that Atreyu is a young boy, not a ful grown warior. Later Bastian refuses to help because he's afraid that the characters in the bok wil mock him for his apearance like the children at school, and is forced to go when the Old Man of Wandering Mountain puts him in the Circle of Eternal Return. Supernatural Aid Along the way, the hero often encounters a helper, usualy a wise old man, who gives the hero both psychological and physical weapons. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 156 ? In Star Wars, Luke encounters the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi who presents Luke with a lightsaber and teaches him the Force. In The Lord of the Rings Frodo and Sam Gamge receive help early in their journey from several figures, notably Tom Bombadil, Bilbo Bagins and Gandalf. In the James Bond series of movies, the character of Q, acting as a Shaman, gives Agent 07 gadgets, tols, and cautionary advice, and the character of M acts in the role of Mentor, ofering 07 guidance. Hanibal Lecter, in The Silence of the Lambs gives Agent Starling many psychological weapons. In Ender's Game, Mazer Rackham the hero of the second bugers' invasion returns from a light speed journey that kept him alive in order to train Ender. In Prey, Tomy mets a premature end (from which he is then resurrected) and mets again with his grandfather in the spirit world, who teaches him to use the power of spirit walk. In The Whel of Time, Moiraine plays the role of a mentor to Rand, though her and Rand often struggle to be in charge, and Rand doesn't trust her The Crosing of the First Threshold The hero eventualy must cros into a dark underworld, where he wil face evil and darkness, and thereby find true enlightenment. Before this can occur, however, the hero must cross the threshold between his home world and the new world of adventure. Often this involves facing of against and queling a "threshold guardian". ? In Star Wars, the threshold is Mos Eisley, a spaceport that acts as a doorway between Luke's home planet and the wider universe; Luke must avoid capture by the threshold guardians, the imperial stormtroopers. In The Matrix, Neo takes the "red pil". In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo finaly acepts his mision in Rivendel and croses the threshold once he leaves there. Also in Rivendell, Aragorn meets Boromir who tells of the plight that Gondor is now in while at the same time confronting those present for not aiding Gondor; Aragorn sees that he must now save Gondor and claim the kingship. In The Odysey, Odyseus must pas the island of the Sirens. In The Silence of the Lambs, Agent Starling must enter not only Lecter's hospital, guarded by the semen-flinging guardian, but also the second threshold of the sealed storage facility Lecter directs her to. In Prey, this is a literal threshold: a wal of fire through which Tomy must pas to pick up his spirit bow. In The Whel of Time, The heroes must elude the Draghar and escape across the Taren River that isolates their comunity. The Bely of the Whale Having defeated the threshold guardian, the hero finds himself in a place of darkness where he begins his true adventure, perhaps discovering his true purpose. This 'bely of the whale' may be an ambiguous place of dream-like forms. The name for this stage of the monomyth is based upon the story of Jonah. ? In Star Wars, it is the Death Star, in which Luke is engulfed and in which he learns how to be a hero. In The Lord of the Rings, the Felowship passes through the abandoned mines of Moria. In The Matrix, Neo finds himself waking up in a bio-electric cel where he is one of the humans being harvested by the machines. In The Silence of the Lambs, Starling finds the serial kiler Buffalo Bil's first victim within the dark, womblike storage facility. In Prey, Tomy ventures through a semi-organic Dyson sphere, with coridors resebling intestines, to save his girlfriend. In The POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 157 Whel of Time, the company must make their way through the cursed ruins of Shadar Logoth. In "The Neverending Story" Bastian finds himself in Perilin, the Night Forest. Initiation The Road of Trials Once in the other world, the hero is repeatedly chalenged with mental and physical obstacles that must be overcome. Often these take the form of a test, by which the hero improves his skils and proves his worth. ? In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke undergoes his training with Yoda. Aragorn, after the los of Gandalf in Moria, must now take the position of leader of the Fellowship, and strugles to lead them as well as Gandalf wanted to. In The Silence of the Lambs, Starling must deal with sexism and her own fear while investigating Buffalo Bil. In The Matrix, Neo must deal with "the diference betwen knowing the path and walking the path" while rescuing Morpheus from the Agents. The Meting with the Godes After overcoming the Road of Trials, the hero often encounters a godes-like woman: beautiful, quenlike, or motherly. The hero faces the godes and in doing so, faces his anima. By uniting with the goddess, he becomes a whole person, reconciling his feminine nature with his masculine nature. This can also be a negative encounter when the goddess is replaced by The Temptress (see next section). Campbell cites the lure of the woman, leading the hero astray (the hero is assumed to be male). Other cultural mythologists broaden this to include all temptation, and sometimes lump this stage in with the Road of Trials. ? Examples: In The Matrix, Neo confronts the Oracle. In The Matrix Reloaded, Neo takes Trinity as a lover. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo meets Galadriel, who shows him the future. Aragorn also meets Galadriel, who counsels him on his future actions. In The Silence of the Lambs, Buffalo Bil kidnaps a senator's daughter and the female senator initially apears as a benevolent, matriarchal force. In Garden State, the actress Natalie Portman plays an epileptic young woman named Sam who helps the hero, Large, feel and live again. In "The Neverending Story" Bastian mets The Childlike Empres, while Atreyu mets her and the Southern Oracle. Woman as Temptres, or Temptation From the True Path In some Hero's Quests, the hero wil encounter the godes, but before he can unite with her, he must prove his worthiness by overcoming the temptation of the Woman as Temptres. ? There is some debate as to whether this is truly a universal feature of myths, or a specific example of a broader category of "temptation away from the true path". Although most of Campbell's book uses examples from many cultures, his chapter on "Woman As the Temptres" draws examples exclusively from Judeo-Christian mytholgy. Some examples of temptations which do not cast woman as the vilain are Satan tempting Christ (and similarly, various saints), and the seductive 'Dark Side' in the Star Wars series. ? Some examples which do involve women in the role of temptres: The Matrix Reloaded, Persephone atempts to seduce Neo. In The Odysey, the temptres is the nymph Calypso. Interestingly, in Star Wars, there is POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 158 tension betwen Luke and Han Solo over their love for Princes Leia -- this is resolved in Episode VI, Return of the Jedi when Luke finds out that Leia is actually his sister. Luke is also tempted by the dark side itself, as demonstrated by his vision in the cave on Dagobah. In this way, George Lucas broke away from the Campbelian model and put the Woman as Temptres into the Road of Trials category. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo is tempted to give the Ring to Galadriel and forsake his mision. An interesting twist here is that Frodo also tempts Galadriel into becoming a "Lady of the Ring". In The Silence of the Lambs, Starling's offer of a reduced sentence for Hannibal Lecter, supposedly authorized by the senator, is revealed as a trick. In the recent miniseries of Hercules (205), he fals in love with the nymph Deianeira. In the "The Neverending Story" Xayide tempts Bastian into trying to become the Childlike Emperor and abandon his friends. Similarly, a majority of the citizens of Fantastica, now rendered hopeless, give in to the temptation of jumping into The Nothing. ? Interesting twists on this theme can be found in love stories, love-based dramas, and romantic comedies. For example, in the movie Almost Famous, the character of Wiliam Miler must give in to the temptation of the band groupies to prove to Peny Lane that he is worldly enough to love her. Atonement with the Father The hero may encounter a father-like figure of patriarchal authority. "Father" and "son" are often pited against each other for mastery of the universe. To understand the father, and ultimately himself, the hero must reconcile with this ultimate authority figure. ? In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke confronts Darth Vader and learns that he is his father; in Return of the Jedi, he is reconciled with the reformed Vader. In The Matrix Reloaded, Neo mets The Architect, a progra who identifies himself as the father of the Matrix. In The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn must face the legacy of his ancestor Isildur, by rising above the darkness where he failed. Aragorn directly faces this legacy most clearly when he decides to ride the Paths of the Dead and gain the allegiance of the Army of the Dead, a feat which only the true Heir of Isildur can perform. In The Silence of the Lambs, Starling comes to terms with the death of her father through Hanibal Lecter. In "The Neverending Story" Bastian brings the Water of Life to help both him and his father get over his mother's death. Apotheosis The Hero's Ego is disintegrated in a breakthrough expansion of consciousnes. Quite frequently his idea of reality is changed, he may find himself able to do new things or able to se a larger point of view, alowing him to sacrifice self. ? In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke sacrifices himself rather than turn to the dark side. In The Matrix, Neo decides to face off against Agent Smith resulting in his eventual initiation as The One. In The Matrix Reloaded, Neo destroys several Sentinels in the real world using only his mind. In The Matrix Revolutions, Neo realises that machine life is as valid as human life and decides to give his own life in order to reconcile the worlds of both man and machine. Aragorn gains comand of the immortal Army of the Dead, making his forces undefeatable. In The Silence of the Lambs after atonement, Starling gains knowledge from POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 159 Lecter and must chalenge Bufalo Bil on her own. In While You Were Sleping, Sandra Bulock gives up her dream of the perfect man (Peter Galagher), and also gives up the real perfect an that she's et (Bil Pulman), and the perfect family she could have had with one of them, the perfect life, everything that she ever wanted. The Ultimate Bon Having reconciled with the father and achieved personal enlightenment, the hero's psychological forces are again balanced. His new found knowledge, or boon, also has potential to benefit society. ? In the Christ story, Jesus surenders himself to the Romans, setting in motion his ultimate fate of crucifixion. In The Lord of the Rings, al of the hobbits gain wisdom and experience during their journey which allows them to easily set things right in the Shire on their return. By caling upon his heritage as the Heir of Isildur to take command of the Army of the Dead, Aragorn is now more in tune with his true nature and purpose as rightful heir to the throne of Gondor than ever before. In The Silence of the Lambs Starling graduates into an agent, her psycholgical forces balanced despite Lecter's escape. At the end of The Return of the Jedi, Luke has made peace with his father, and recognizes that he has saved him from the Dark Side. Return Refusal of the Return Having found blis and enlightenment in the underworld, the hero may not want to return with the bon. ? In Ender's Game Ender and Valentine choose to leave the Earth forever by opting to go on a starship to colonize the conquered Bugger worlds. ? In "The Neverending Story" Bastian refuses to return to the Human World, being caught up in Fantastica. The Magic Flight A mad dash is made by the hero to return with the prize. ? In The Matrix Revolutions, Neo takes a ship to the Machine City. In The Lord of the Rings Frodo and Sam are rescued from the slopes of Mt. Doom by Gandalf and the Eagles (which is also a "Rescue from Without"). Aragorn, after exiting the Paths of the Dead with his new invincible Shadow Army, must now make a mad dash acros Gondor in a race against time to liberate the coast from an invasion of Corsairs, then lead the Southern army of Gondor north to save Minas Tirith from destruction, all in only six days. In "The Neverending Story" Bastian takes the Water of Life and runs through Auryn to return home. ? In many fairy tales and folktales, it is literaly a magic flight, with the hero or heroine transforming objects to stop the pursuit (The Master Maid, The Water Nixie) or transforming himself and any companions to hide themselves (Farmer Weathersky or Foundling-Bird). Rescue from Without The hero may ned to be rescued from without by humanity. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 160 ? In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo is ultimately unable to destroy the Ring without Golum's unwiling help. ? In The Return of the Jedi, Luke is unable to destroy the Emperor, and must rely on his redemed father. The Crosing of the Return Threshold Before the hero can return to the real world, he must confront another threshold guardian. The first threshold was a symbolic death; this is now a symbolic rebirth. ? In The Matrix Revolutions, Neo again confronts Smith. In Return of the Jedi, Luke again confronts Darth Vader. In The Lord of the Rings, the final threshold for the hobits re-entering the Shire is guarded by Saruman and his Rufians. For Aragorn, this means making a final confrontation with Sauron's forces in a suicidal atack on his massive army at the Black Gate. Master of Two Worlds Once the final threshold is crosed, the hero is now fre to move back and forth between the two worlds at wil. He has mastered the conflicting psychological forces of the mind. ? In Return of the Jedi, Luke becomes a Jedi. In the Christ story, Jesus is resurrected. In The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn is crowned King of Gondor and Arnor, and has defeated Mordor (later re-destributing its conquered lands to the former slaves that tiled the fields in its southern regions). Aragorn then marries Arwen, daughter of his father-figure Elrond, uniting the worlds of Elf and Man. Finaly, Aragorn finds a new sapling of the White Tre of Gondor, and Gandalf informs him that he is leaving Middle-earth now that Sauron is defeated: Gandalf now oficially "pases the torch" of responsibility for protecting Midle-earth and its peoples from himself on to Aragorn and his descendants. Fredom to Live With the journey now complete, the hero has found true fredom, and can turn his eforts to helping or teaching humanity. ? In The Lord of the Rings, the hobits become prominent citizens of the Shire with the wisdom they have gained. Aragorn reigns as King for many decades and ushers in a new age of peace and the rebuilding of Midle-earth. He then starts a family with Arwen, his Quen. ? In "The Neverending Story" Bastian feels more confident when he returns, and prepares to help other humans reach Fantastica. Criticism Many myths and stories do not folow monomyth patern. Suposed general nature of monomyth may have come from overloking non-monomythic stories or deming them a priori less interesting. American novelist Kurt Vonegut satirized Campbel's views on the monomyth as being excessively complicated by ofering his interpretation, called the 'In The Hole' theory; loosely defined as "The hero gets into trouble. The hero gets out of trouble.' POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 161 American philosopher John Shelton Lawrence and American religious scholar Robert Jewet have discussed an "American Monomyth" in many of their boks, The American Monomyth, The Myth of the American Superhero, and Captain American and the Crusade of Zealous Nationalism. The theory may "beg the question", and one may lok in a story for the elements, and subsequently discover them, although the conclusion rests on the premise that the elements would be found. The scope for interpretation on each stage may allow any story to fit it if analysis is undertaken, making any insights from the theory useles. Similarly, works writen after the popularization of Campbel's theory may have ben deliberately structured to conform to it; this cannot be taken as supporting the theory that the elements of the monomyth arise unconsciously and inevitably. The most famous example of a story consciously writen as a monomyth is the Star Wars series. Comon use of monomyth was blamed for lack of originality and clichés in popular culture, especialy big-budget Hollywod films. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 162 ADOLF BASTIAN Adolf Bastian (Bremen, German Confederation 26 June 1826 - Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, 2 February 1905) was a 19th century polymath best remembered for his contributions to the development of ethnography and the development of anthropology as a discipline. Bastian was born into a prosperous bourgeois German family of merchants. His career at university was broad almost to the point of being eccentric. He studied law at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, and biology at the Humboldt University of Berlin, the Friedrich Schiler University of Jena, and the University of Würzburg. It was at this last university that he attended lectures by Rudolf Virchow and developed an interest in what was then known as 'ethnology'. He finally settled on medicine and earned a degree from Prague in 1850. Bastian became a ship's doctor and began an eight year voyage which tok him around the world. This first of would be a quarter of a century of travels outside the German Confederation. He returned to the Confederation in 1859 and wrote a popular acount of his travels along with an ambitious thre volume work entitled Man in History, which became one of his most wel-known works. In 1861 he undertook a four-year trip to Southeast Asia and his account of this trip, The People of East Asia ran to six volumes. For the next eight years Bastian remained in the teritory of the North German Confederation, where be became involved in the creation of several key ethnolgical institutions in Berlin. He has always ben an avid colector, and his contributions to Berlin's Royal museum was so copious that a second museum, the Museum of Folkart, was founded largely as a result of Bastian's contributions. Its colection of ethnographic artifacts one of the largest in the world for decades to come. He was also worked with Rudolf Virchow to organize the Ethnological Society of Berlin. During this period he was also the head of the Royal Geographical Society of Germany. In the 1870s Bastian left the German Empire and began traveling extensively in Africa as wel as the New World. He died during one these journeys in 1905. Works and ideas Bastian is remembered as one of the pioners of the concept of the 'psychic unity of mankind' -- the idea that al humans shared a basic mental framework. This became the basis of notions of cultural relativism and influenced Carl Jung's idea of the colective unconscious. He also argued that the world was divided up into diference 'geographical provinces' and that each of these provinces moved through the same stages of evolutionary development. According to Bastian, inovations and culture traits tended not to difuse across areas. Rather, each province took its unique form as a result of its environment. This approach was part of a larger nineteenth century interest in the 'comparative method' as practiced by authors such as Edward B. Tylor. While Bastian considered himself to be extremely scientific, it is worth noting that he emerged out of the naturalist tradition that was inspired by Johann Gotfried Herder and exemplified by figures such as Alexander von Humboldt. For him, empiricism eant a rejection of philosophy in favor of scrupulous observations. As a result, he was extremely hostile to Darwin's theory of evolution because the physical transformation of species had never ben empiricaly observed, despite the fact that he posited a similar evolutionary development for human civilization. Additionally, he was much more concerned with documenting unusual civilizations before they vanished (presumably as a result of contact with Western civilization) than with the rigorous application of scientific observation. As a result, some have criticized his works for being disorganized collections of facts rather than coherently structured or carefuly researched empirical studies. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 163 QUILTING Quilting is a method of sewing or tying two layers of cloth with a layer of insulating bating in between. A bed covering or similar large rectangular piece of quilting work is called a quilt. A quilt does not have to be rectangular, however. Many quilts hang on the wal as art quilts and are al kinds of shapes and sizes. History ? There is a comon belief that quilting originated for its utility rather than decoration. But in Colonial times most women spent their days spining, weaving and making clothing. Meanwhile women of the wealthy clases prided on their fine quilting of wholecloth quilts. Both their trapunto and broderie perse were considered fine needlework. ? The origins of this method of craft are thought to be in the Crusades, when soldiers neded warmth as wel as protection from the chafing caused by heavy armor. Aditionaly, there are ancient Egyptian sculptures showing figures which appear to be wearing clothing which is quilted, possibly for warmth in the chily desert evenings. ? Quilting is used in the making of a garment caled a gambeson ? Many antique quilts made in North America have a worn-out blanket or older quilt as the internal batting layer - quilting it betwen new layers of fabric alowed it to continue to be useful despite being worn. ? In modern times, art quilts have started to become popular for their aesthetic, artistic qualities rather than for functionality (i.e. they may hang on a wal instead of lying on a bed). ? The study of quilting history reveals the evolution of quilting as we know it today. Quilts made during the early 1800s were not constructed of pieced blocks but instead whole cloth quilts, broderie perse quilts and medalion quilts were made. Practice ? The most basic form of quilting is a simple geometric grid and sometimes complex teselation, sewn either by hand or nowadays by machine. The grid work of stitches traps air in the material, making it much warmer than a single layer of fabric would be, or even the layers separately. ? Quilting can also be used as a form of elaborate decoration, where the stitchery creates complex designs and patterns, with or without the use of color. Designs in the original fabrics can be put together to form new patterns. ? A quilt using a single piece of fabric as a quilt top is caled a whole cloth quilt. ? The proces of making a quilt involves three steps: piecing, layering, and binding. Piecing is the sewing of the quilt top. Layering places the quilt's backing, bating, and top in place. The main function of quilting is to hold the thre layers together. Binding completes the quilt by finishing the edges with a trim of fabric. ? While a majority of quilt tops are pieced, many are made from a single piece of fabric. Using the later enhances the intricacy of detailed quilting. ? Quilting is very often combined with embroidery, patchwork, apliqué and other forms of needlework to create patchwork quilts. ? Specialist quilting techniques: ? Sashiko quilting, or Japanese quilting ? Trapunto quilting, also known as Italian quilting ? Shadow trapunto - quilting a design in fine Lawn and filing the pattern with small lengths of colored wol. ? Crazy quilting ? Rag quilting is a style of quilting where people make the edges ragedy. If you lok at a traditional quilt, the edges are al smoth. With rag quilting, the edges are frayed and then sometimes the fabric within the quilt is also frayed. So, it is almost three-dimensional loking. ? Appliqué is a very popular style of quilting, which is basicaly sewing fabric onto fabric. You have your quilt top and then you ad pieces of fabric in shapes on top of that. So, it is almost like a fourth layer of quilting. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 164 ? Quilting motif is a style of quilting in which the blocks have a certain theme, say a bird motif or basket motif. ? Art quilting is a style in which the quilt may lok like an impresionistic painting. ? Photo transfers on quilts and fusible designs. With photo transfer, you take actual photographs and print them on fabric with a computer. There are some amazing quilts that show the stages of a person's life using this method. ? Pictorial quilting entails making a quilt entirely of fabric that end up looking like a photograph. People take a photo and they recreate it in fabric down to the last detail. ? For examples of therapeutic quilts, se AIDS quilt Social aspects ? Quilters are often coperative people. They exchange fabrics or quilt blocks with each other. ? They also frequently gather in larger groups (sometimes caled "quilting bes") to colectively apply the gridwork of quilting. ? Quilters may also atend Quilt Guild metings in their local area. Many quilt guilds met monthly and feature lectures and other activities. ? Quilters are usualy very charitable, giving away many of the beautiful projects to loved ones and to organizations which then redistribute the quilts to children's hospitals, crisis centers, and similar groups. ? Quilts are often made to comemorate events (e.g. wedings and births) and can incorporate pieces of fabric from used or worn-out clothing. Such quilts become historical documents for the quilt maker and his or her loved ones. ? Quilting is an excellent educational tool. It requires students to use mathematical, geometric, spatial, artistic and manual skils. It can be used in conjunction with any unit of study (examples would be to make a pictorial quilt that depicts a story the clas is reading, or a particular event in history). It can be made age-appropriate by choice of materials (paper, fabric, etc.) and complexity of design. ? Quilters have embraced the use of technology and the Internet to reach other quilters and to share quilting practices and how-tos. Tivaevae A separate and distinct art form practiced in the Pacific, especialy the Cok Islands, is tivaevae, with many of the social and value aspects of quilting. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 165 METAPHOR In language, a metaphor (from the Grek: metapherin) is a rhetorical trope defined as a direct comparison between two or more seemingly unrelated subjects. In the simplest case, this takes the form: "The [first subject] is a [second subject]." More generaly, a metaphor describes a first subject as being or equal to a second subject in some way. Thus, the first subject can be economicaly described because implicit and explicit atributes from the second subject are used to enhance the description of the first. This device is known for usage in literature, especially in poetry, where with few words, emotions and associations from one context are associated with objects and entities in a diferent context. Aspects of metaphor A metaphor, acording to I. A. Richards in The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936), consists of two parts: the tenor and vehicle. The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the subject from which the atributes are borowed. All the world's a stage, And al the men and women merely players They have their exits and their entrances; Wiliam Shakespeare, As You Like It This wel known quote is a god example of a metaphor. In this example, "the world" is compared to a stage, the aim being to describe the world by taking wel-known atributes from the stage. In this case, the world is the tenor and the stage is the vehicle. "Men and women" are a secondary tenor and "players" is the vehicle for this secondary tenor. The metaphor is sometimes further analyzed in terms of the ground and the tension. The ground consists of the similarities between the tenor and the vehicle. The tension of the metaphor consists of the disimilarities between the tenor and the vehicle. In the above example, the ground begins to be elucidated from the third line: "They all have their exits and entrances". In the play, Shakespeare continues this etaphor for another twenty lines beyond what is shown here - making it a god example of an extended metaphor. The coresponding terms to 'tenor' and 'vehicle' in George Lakof's terminology are target and source. In this nomenclature, metaphors are named using the convention "target IS source", with the word "is" always capitalized; in this notation, the metaphor discused above would state that "humankind IS theater". Types of metaphor ? An extended metaphor, or conceit, sets up a principal subject with several subsidiary subjects or comparisons. The above quote from As you like it is a god example. The world is described as a stage and then men and women are subsidiary subjects that are further described in the same context. ? A mixed metaphor is one that leaps, in the course of a figure, to a second identification inconsistent with the first one. Example: "He steped up to the plate and grabed the bull by the horns," where two comonly used metaphors are confused to create a nonsensical image. ? A dead metaphor is one in which the sense of a transfered image is not present. Example: "to grasp a concept" or "to gather you've understod." Both of these phrases use a physical action as a metaphor for understanding (itself a metaphor), but in none of these cases do most speakers of English actualy visualize the physical action. Dead metaphors, by POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 166 definition, normally go unnoticed. Some people make a distinction between a "dead metaphor" whose origin most speakers are entirely unaware of (such as "to understand" meaning to stand underneath a concept), and a dormant metaphor, whose metaphorical character people are aware of but rarely think about (such as "to break the ice"). Others, however, use dead metaphor for both of these concepts, and use it more generaly as a way of describing metaphorical cliché. ? An epic or Homeric simile is an extended metaphor containing details about the vehicle that are not, in fact, necessary for the metaphoric purpose. This can be extended to humorous lengths, for instance: "This is a crisis. A large crisis. In fact, if you've got a moment, it's a twelve-story crisis with a magnificent entrance hal, carpeting throughout, 24-hour porterage and an enormous sign on the roof saying 'This Is a Large Crisis.'" (Black Ader) ? A synechdochic metaphor is one in which a smal part of something is chosen to represent the whole so as to highlight certain elements of the whole. For example "a pair of raged claws" represents a crab in Eliot's Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock. Describing the crab in this way gives it the atributes of sharpnes and savagery normaly asociated with claws. ? Other types of metaphor have ben identified as wel, though the nomenclatures are not as universally accepted: ? An active metaphor is one which by contrast to a dead metaphor, is not part of daily language and is noticeable as a metaphor. Example: "You are my sun." ? An absolute or paralogical metaphor (sometimes caled an antimetaphor) is one in which there is no discernible point of reseblance between the idea and the iage. Example: "The couch is the autobahn of the living room." ? A complex metaphor is one which mounts one identification on another. Example: "That throws soe light on the question." Throwing light is a metaphor and there is no actual light. ? A compound or lose metaphor is one that catches the mind with several points of similarity. Example: "He has the wild stag's fot." This phrase sugests grace and sped as wel as daring. ? An implicit metaphor is one in which the tenor is not specified but implied. Example: "Shut your trap!" Here, the mouth of the listener is the unspecified tenor. ? A submerged metaphor is one in which the vehicle is implied, or indicated by one aspect. Example: "my winged thought". Here, the audience must suply the image of the bird. ? A simple or tight metaphor is one in which there is but one point of resemblance betwen the tenor and the vehicle. Example: "Col it". In this example, the vehicle, "col", is a temperature and nothing else, so the tenor, "it", can only be grounded to the vehicle by one attribute. ? A rot metaphor is the underlying asociation that shapes an individual's understanding of a situation. Examples would be understanding life as a dangerous journey, seeing life as a hard POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 167 test, or thinking of life as a god party. A rot metaphor is different from the previous types of metaphor in that it is not necesarily an explicit device in language, but a fundamental, often unconscious, assumption. ? Religion provides one comon source of rot metaphors, since birth, mariage, death and other universal life experiences can convey a very diferent meaning to diferent people, based on their level or type of religious conditioning or otherwise. For example, some religions se life as a single arow pointing toward a future endpoint. Others see it as part of an endlessly repeating cycle. ? An individual's political afiliations provide another source of rot metaphors. In the United States, both conservatives and liberals assume a 'family' metaphor for the nation. However, as George Lakoff has shown, in Moral Politics, they have very diferent ideas about what a family comprises and how it should function. Many conservatives believe in a "strict father" type of family whilst a lot of liberals se the family as a nurturing and educating social institution. ? A dying metaphor is a derogatory term coined by George Orwel in his esay Politics and the English Language. Orwel defines a dying metaphor as a metaphor that isn't dead (dead metaphors are diferent, as they are treated like ordinary words), but has ben worn out and is used because it saves people the trouble of inventing an original phrase for themselves. In short, a cliché. Example: Achiles' hel. Orwel sugests that writers scan their work for such dying forms that they have 'sen regularly before in print' and replace them with alternative language patterns. ? The category of metaphor can be further considered to contain the folowing specialized subsets: ? allegory: An extended metaphor in which a story is told to ilustrate an important atribute of the subject ? catachresis: A mixed metaphor (sometimes used by design and sometimes a rhetorical fault) ? parable: An extended etaphor told as an anecdote to ilustrate or teach a moral leson Metaphor and Simile Metaphor and simile are two of the best known tropes and are often mentioned together as examples of rhetorical figures. Metaphor and simile are both terms that describe a comparison: the only diference between a metaphor and a simile is that a simile makes the comparison explicit by using "like" or "as." The Colombia Encyclopedia, 6th edition, explains the diference as: a simile states that A is like B, a metaphor states that A is B or substitutes B for A. According to this definition, then, "You are my sunshine" is a metaphor whereas "Your eyes are like the sun" is a simile. However, some describe siiles as simply a specific type of metaphor; in this case, metaphor is the umbrela term for making comparisons between unlike concepts, and simile describes the figure where one makes the comparison explicit. Usualy, similes and metaphors could easily be interchanged. For example remove the word 'like' from Wiliam Shakespeare's simile, "Death lies on her, like an untimely frost," and it becomes "Death lies on her, an untimely frost," which retains almost exactly the same meaning. Despite the similarity of the two figures, the distinction between them is often focused upon when the terms are introduced to students. "Not knowing the diference betwen a simile and a metaphor" is soetimes used as a euphemism for knowing litle about rhetoric or literature and many lists of literary terms define metaphor as "a comparison not using like or as", showing the emphasis often put on this distinction. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 168 Although in practice their use is often synonymous, in a rigorous sense, their meanings can be understood to be quite diferent. Whereas simile explicitly describes a comparison, metaphor asserts an identity. A simile always expreses something trivially true (anything can be likened to anything else), whereas a metaphor always expreses something patently false (which the listener must then make sense of). In other words, one could argue that when listenig to an active metaphor, the listener always visualizes something false before analyzing the phrase metaphoricaly. On the other hand, a simile requires a diferent kind of analysis: the listener is explicitly asked to compare two objects rather than being forced to when confronted with an otherwise nonsensical phrase. In both cases, this analysis depends on the assumption that listeners think of the literal meaning first, which is only guaranteed when a comparison is fresh. There are cases where the use of a simile rather than a metaphor makes a clear diference in meaning or listener expectation. Using a simile as oposed to a metaphor can clarify an analogy by calling out exactly what is being compared. "He had a posture like a question mark" (Corbet, Clasical rhetoric for the modern student (1971), page 479) has one posible interpretation, that the shape of the posture is that of a question mark, whereas "His posture was a question mark" has at least a second interpretation, that the reason for the posture is in question. Using a simile rather than a metaphor can ad meanig by caling attention to the process of comparison, as in, "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle." The point is not to compare a person to a fish, but to ask the reader to consider how the woman is like the fish. Similarly, when speakers wish to cal attention to a particularly unexpected comparison, they typicaly use a simile rather than a metaphor, as in the Magnetic Fields line, "When I'm with you, it's like I'm on the moon; I can hardly breathe but I fel lighter." Finaly, similes are often more convenient than metaphors when analogizing actions as oposed to things: "Wide sleves flutering like wings" (Marcel Proust) does not translate easily from simile to metaphor. A final diference is that in practice, often-used metaphors can "wear away" into dead etaphors as listeners come to learn metaphorical meanigs by rote rather than making sense of semingly nonsensical asertions, whereas a simile, because it explicitly calls attention to the act of comparison, is not as susceptible to the loss of metaphoricity. Thus, although for fresh comparisons metaphors are typicaly sen as "stronger" than similes, similes can retain their metaphorical nature more consistently than metaphors precisely because they are not likely to be reanalyzed as secondary meanigs of words or phrases. Metaphors in literature and language Metaphor is present in writen language back to the earliest surviving writings. From the Epic of Gilgamesh (one of the oldest Sumerian texts): My friend, the swift mule, flet wild as of the mountain, panther of the wildernes, after we joined together and went up into the mountain, fought the Bul of Heaven and kiled it, and overwhelmed Humbaba, who lived in the Cedar Forest, now what is this sleep that has seized you? - (Trans. Kovacs, 1989) POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 169 SATI The practice of sati (or suttee) is a Hindu funeral custom, now very rare, in which the dead man's widow immolates herself on her husband?s funeral pyre. The term is derived from the original name of a godes (se article on Dakshayani), who imolated herself, unable to bear the humiliation of her (living) husband. The term ay also be used to refer to the widow herself. The term sati is now sometimes interpreted as 'chaste woman'. Origin Few reliable records exist of the practice before the time of the Gupta empire, aproximately 40 AD. While a couple of instances of voluntary self imolation by women as wel as men are mentioned in the Mahabharata and other works that may be considered at least partly historical accounts, it is known that large parts of these works are relatively late interpolations into an original story. Also, the immolation or desire of self imolation is not regarded as a custom in the Mahabharata and as such the word 'sati' as a custom never occurs in the epic as compared to other customs such as the Rajsuya yagna. Rather, the instances are viewed as an expresion of extreme grief on the los of a beloved one. Aristobulus of Cassandreia, a Greek historian who traveled to India with the expedition of Alexander of Macedon, recorded the practice of sati at the city of Taxila. A later instance of voluntary co-cremation appears in an account of an Indian soldier in the army of Eumenes of Cardia, whose two wives vied to die on his funeral pyre, in 316 BC. The Greeks believed that the practice had been instituted to discourage wives from poisoning their husbands. Voluntary death at funerals has ben described in northern India before the Gupta empire. The original practices were caled anumarana, and were not comon. They were not necesarily practices that would be understod as sati at present, since it was not necesarily a widow who died. Those who died could be anyone, male or female with a personal loyalty to the dead person. They included other relatives of the dead person, servants, followers or friends. Sometimes these deaths were because of vows of loyalty taken in life. Compare with later Japanese seppuku. Widow burnig, the practice as understood today, started to become more extensive after about 50 AD, and the end of the Gupta empire. This is sometimes ascribed to the decline of Buddhism in India, the rise of caste based societies, and the idea that sati was used to reinforce caste status. There are also sugestions that the practice was introduced into India by the Huna invaders who contributed to the fal of the Gupta empire. At about this time, instances of sati began to be marked by inscribed memorial stones. The earliest of these is in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, though the largest colections are some centuries later, in Rajasthan. These stones, called devli, or sati-stones, became shrines where the dead woman became an object of reverence and worship. They are most common in western India. By about the 10th century sati, as understood today, was known acros much of the subcontinent. It continued to ocur, usually at a low frequency and with regional variations, until the early 19th century. The practice The act of sati was suposed to take place voluntarily, and from the existing acounts, most of them were inded voluntary. The act may have ben expected of widows in some comunities. The extent to which any social pressures or expectations should be considered as compulsion has ben the mater of much debate in modern times. It is frequently stated that a widow could expect litle of life after her husband's death, especially if she was childless. However, there were also instances where the wish of the widow to comit sati was not welcomed by others, and where efforts were made to prevent the death. Traditionaly, the funeral of any dead person would usualy have taken place within a day of the death. Thus a decision by a widow to die at her husband's funeral would often have to be made quickly. In some cases, such as when the husband died elsewhere, it was stil possible for the widow to die by imolation, but at a later date. The connection with the original marriage between the widow and the deceased was emphasised. Unlike other mourners, the sati at the funeral was often dresed in mariage robes, or in other finery. Her death may have been seen as a culmination of the marriage. In the preliminaries of the POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 170 related act of Jauhar, both the husbands and wives have been known to dress in their marriage clothes and re-enact their wedding ritual, before going to their separate deaths. There are acounts of many diferent aproaches of the widow to her death. The majority have the widow seated or lying down on the funeral pyre beside her dead husband. There are also any descriptions of widows who walked or jumped into the flames after the fire had ben lit, and there are descriptions of widows who lit their own funeral pyres after seating themselves on it. Some writen prescriptions to the practice exist; a recent one has been quoted at a mailing list. Compulsion Sati was suposed to be voluntary, but it is argued that it has usualy not ben voluntary in practice. Leaving aside the mater of social pressures, it is common understanding that many widows were physically forced to their deaths. Pictorial and narrative accounts often describe the woman seated on the unlit pyre, and tied or otherwise restrained to keep her from fleeing after the fire was lit. Some accounts say that the woman was drugged. There is one description of men with long poles preventing a widow from fleing the flames. Royal funerals Royal funerals sometimes have included the deaths of many wives and concubines. A number of examples of these occur in the history of Rajsthan. Symbolic sati There have ben acounts of symbolic sati in some Hindu comunities. A widow lies down next to her dead husband, and certain parts of both the marriage ceremony and the funeral ceremonies are enacted, but without her death. Jauhar The practice of jauhar, known from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh was the colective suicide of a comunity. It consisted of the ass imolation of women, and sometimes also of the children, the elderly and the sick, at the same time that their fighting en died in battle. It is detailed in a separate article. Burials In some Hindu comunities, it is conventional to bury the dead. It has ben known for similar widow deaths to occur in these comunities, but with the widow being buried alive with the husband, in ceremonies that are otherwise largely as in the imolation. Prevalence Records exist of sati acros most of the subcontinent. However, there sem to have ben major diferences historicaly, in diferent regions, and among diferent comunities. Numbers There are no reliable figures for the numbers who died by sati acros the country. A local indication of the numbers is given in the records kept by the Bengal Presidency of the British East India Company. The total figure of known ocurences for the period 1813 to 1828 is 8,135, thus giving an average of about 600 per year. Bentinck, in his 1829 report, states that 420 occurrences took place in one (unspecified) year in the 'Lower Provinces' of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and 4 in the 'Uper Provinces' (the uper Gangetic plain). Given a population of over 50 milion at the time for the Presidency, this sugests a maximum frequency of immolation among widows of wel under 1%. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 171 Comunities It is said by some authorities that the practice was more comon among the higher castes, and among those who considered themselves to be rising in social status. It was little known or unknown in most of the population of India and the tribal groups. Acording to at least one source, it was very rare for anyone in the later Mughal empire except royal wives to be burnt. However, it has ben said elsewhere that it was unusual in higher caste women in the south (quoted from Kamat). Regional variations It was known in Rajasthan from the earliest (6th century) to the present. About half the known sati stones (about 150 in total) in India are in Rajsthan. However, the extent to which individual instances of deaths resulted in veneration (glorification) implies that was not very comon. It is known to have ocured in the south from the 9th century through the period of the Vijayanagara empire, up to the 17th century. Madhavacharya, who is probably the best known of those historical figures who justified the practice, was originally a minister of the court of this empire. The practice continued to ocur after the colapse of the empire, though apparently at a fairly low frequency. A record exists of a minister of the kingdom of Mysore giving permision for a widow to commit sati in 1805. In the Uper Gangetic plain, while it ocured, there is no indication that it was especialy widespread. The earliest known atempt by a government to stop the practice tok place here, that of Muhamad Tughlaq, in the Sultanate of Delhi in the 14th century. In the Lower Gangetic plain, the practice may have reached a high level fairly late in history. it appears possible, based on available evidence and the existing reports of the occurrences of it, that the greatest incidence of sati in any region and period, in terms of total numbers, ocured in Bengal and Bihar in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This was during the earlier period of British rule, and before the abolition. The Bengal Presidency kept records from 1813 to 1829. The frequency increased in periods of hardship and famine. Ram Mohan Roy suggested that it was more prevalent in Bengal than in the rest of the subcontinent. An unusualy large number of the surviving reports for this period are from Bengal, also sugesting that it was most comon there. In modern times, it has ben largely confined to Rajasthan, mostly in or near Shekhawati, with a few instances in the Gangetic plain. This practice though rare in these days but is mainly confined to Rajputs in Rajasthan. The latest known case was that of Rop Kanwar at Deorala in Sikar district. Recent incidence Sati stil ocurs ocasionaly, mostly in rural areas. About 40 cases have ocured in India since independence in 1947, the majority in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan. The last clearly documented case was that of Rop Kanwar. However there are claims that other more recent deaths have also ben cases of Sati. Roop Kanwar, a childles 18-year old widow, comited sati on 4 September 1987, some alege forcibly, dressed in her red wedding dres, in Rajasthan's Deoral vilage. Several thousand people were said to have been at the event. After her death, she was hailed as a 'sati mata', meaning pure mother. The event quickly produced a public outcry in urban centres, piting a modern Indian ideology against a traditional one. A much-publicised investigation led to the arrest of a large number of people from Deorala, said to have been present in the ceremony, or participants in it. Eventually, 11 people were charged. On January 31, 2004, a special court in Jaipur acquited all of the 1 acused in the case, observing that the prosecution had failed to prove charges that they glorified Sati. On 18th May 206, Vidyawati, a 35-year-old woman allegedly comited sati by jumping into the blazing funeral pyre of her husband in Rari-Bujurg Vilage, Fatehpur district in the State of Utar Pradesh. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 172 Justifications and criticisms Brahmin scholars of the second milenium justified the practice, and gave reasonings as to how the scriptures could be said to justify them. Aong them were Vijnanesvara, of the Chalukya court, and later Madhavacharya, theologian and minister of the court of the Vijayanagara empire, acording to Shastri, who quotes their reasonig. It was lauded by them as exemplary conduct in pious women, and it was explained that this was considered not to be suicide (suicide was otherwise variously banned or discouraged in the scriptures). It was deemed an act of peerless piety, and was said to purge the couple of al accumulated sin, guarantee their salvation and ensure their reunion in the afterlife. Scriptures Although the myth of the godes Sati is that of a wife who dies by her own volition on a fire, this is not a case of the practice of sati. The godes was not widowed, and the myth is quite unconected with the justifications for the practice. The Puranas have examples of women who comit sati and there are sugestions in them that this was considered desirable or praiseworthy: A wife who dies in the company of her husband shal remain in heaven as many years as there are hairs on his person. (Garuda Purana 1.107.29) Acording to 2.4.93 she stays with her husband in heaven during the rule of 14 Indras, i.e. a kalpa. It is notable that in the Ramayana, Tara, in her grief at the death of husband Vali, wished to comit sati. Hanuman, Rama, and the dying Vali disuade her and she finaly does not imolate herself. Examples of the act in the puranas include the folowing. In the Mahabharata, Madri, the second wife of Pandu, imolates herself. She holds herself responsible for the death of her husband, who had ben cursed with death if he ever had intercourse. He died while performing the forbidden act with Madri, who blamed herself for not having rejected his advances, although she was well aware of the curse. Argument that the Rig Veda sanctions sati It is often claimed that this most ancient text sanctions or prescribes sati. This is based on verse 10.18.7, part of the verses to be used at funerals. Whether they even describe sati or something else entirely, is disputed, The hymn is about funeral by burial, and not by cremation. There are difering translations of the passage. The translation below is one of those said to prescribe it. Let these women, whose husbands are worthy and are living, enter the house with ghe (aplied) as colyrium (to their eyes). Let these wives first step into the pyre, tearless without any afliction and wel adorned. The text does not mention widowhod, and other translations difer in their translation of the word here rendered as 'pyre' (yoni, literaly "seat, abode"; Griffith has "first let the dames go up to where he lieth"). In addition, the folowing verse, which is unambiguously about widows, then contradicts any suggestion of the woman's death; it explicitly states that the widow should return to her house. Rise, come unto the world of life, O woman ? come, he is lifeles by whose side thou liest. Wifehod with this thy husband was thy portion, who tok thy hand and wooed the as a lover. A reason given for the discrepancy in translation and interpretation of verse 10.18.7, is that one consonant in a word that meant house, yonim agre "formost to the yoni", was deliberately changed by those who wished claim scriptural justification, to a word that meant fire, yomiagne. Argument that sati was an act of self defense POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 173 Hindu scholars such as Prabhat Varun have argued that Sati was not part of Hindu doctrine at al, but a practice of voluntary imolation by Hindu women as a means to avoid the humiliation and stigma associated with rape. The argument is that the practice came into efect during the Islamic invasion of India, to protect their honor from uslims who were known to comit mas rapes on the women of cities that they could capture sucesfuly (one is reminded, however, that acts such as this were relatively comon during the midle ages in other parts of the world as wel). It is argued that the prevalence of Sati has ben exagerated by European Colonialists and muslim radicals as a canard against Hinduism itself. Counter-arguments within Hinduism No early criticisms of the practice within Hinduism, (or in the other native religions of Budhism or Jainism), are known before the Gupta period. This is possibly because the practice was litle known at that time. Explicit criticisms in the first milenium AD, included that of Medhatithi, a comentator on various theological works. He considered it suicide, which was forbiden by the Vedas One shal not die before the span of one's life is run out, Another critic was Bana, who wrote during the reign of Harsha. Bana condemned it both as suicide, and as a pointless and futile act. There does not seem to be any thought or suggestion among any of these critics that the act would not be voluntary. Reform and bhakti movements within Hinduism tended to be anti-caste, favoured egalitarian societies, and in line with the tenor of these beliefs, they generally condemned the practice, sometimes explicitly. The Alvars condemned sati, in the 8th century. The Virashaiva movement in the 12th and 13th centuries, also condemned it. In the early 19th century, Ram Mohan Roy wrote and diseminated arguments that the practice was not part of Hinduism, as part of his campaign to ban the practice. Non-Hindu views and criticisms The Sikh religion explicitly proscribed the practice, by about 150 AD. The principal foreign early visitors to the subcontinent whose have left records of the practice, are from Western Asia, mostly Muslim, and later on, Europeans. Both groups were fascinated by the practice, and sometimes described it as horific, but often also as an incomparable act of devotion. Ibn Batuta described an instance, but said that he collapsed or fainted and had to be carried away from the scene. European artists in the eightenth century produced many images for their own native markets, showing the widows as heroic women, and moral exemplars. As Islam established itself in the subcontinent, their opinion of sati changed to regarding it as a barbaric practice. The earliest known governmental efort to halt the practice were by Muslim rulers, including Muhammad Tughlaq. Europeans also showed a change in their atitude to local customs as they became dominant local powers. The earliest Europeans to establish themselves were the Portuguese in Goa. They tried early on to overide local customs and practices, including sati, as they attempted to Christianise teritories in their control. The British entered India as a trading body, and in the earlier periods of their rule, they were largely indiferent to local practices. A campaign against sati was however set up by the evangelical movement in Britain, particularly by Wiliam Wilberforce, as part of a campaign to increase misionary activity in India. The practice of sati, and its later legal abolition by the British (along with the supresion of thuggee) went on to become one of the standard justifications for British rule. British atitudes in their POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 174 later history in India are usually given in the following much repeated quote, usually ascribed to General Napier - You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very wel. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters wil build a galows. You may folow your custom. And then we wil folow ours. Noted political scientist Barington More mentions the practice of sati in his bok Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. More says of sati that "Such a custom ight inded test the beliefs of even the most firm present-day believer in the equal worth of al cultures". More goes on to state that the British supresion of sati and other religious and cultural activities was a factor in the Mutiny of 1857. [edit] Supresion The first known instance of oficial atempts to stop the practice were those of the Sultanate of Delhi, under Muhamad Tughlaq. They required formal permits to be isued before the act could take place, from about 1325. [edit] Mughal period Humayun isued a royal fiat against sati, which he later withdrew. Akbar required that permision be granted by his oficials, and these oficials were instructed to delay the woman's decision for as long as posible. The reasonig was that she was less likely to chose to die once the emotions of the moment had pased. In the reign of Shah Jahan, widows with children were not allowed in any circumstances to burn. In other cases governors did not readily give permision, but could be bribed to do so[35]. Later on in the Mughal period, pensions, gifts and rehabilitative help were ofered to the potential sati to wean her away from comitting the act. Children were strictly forbiden from the practice. The later Moghuls continued to put obstacles in the way but the practice carried on in the areas outside their capitals. The strongest atempts to control it were made by Aurangzeb. In 163, he "isued an order that in al lands under Mughal control, never again should the oficials allow a woman to be burnt"[36]. In spite of such atempts however, the practice continued, especialy in conditions of war and upheaval. British and other European teritories By the end of the 18th century, the practice had ben baned in teritories held by some European powers. The Portuguese banned the practice in Goa by about 1515, though it is not believed to have been especially prevalent there. The Dutch and the French had also banned it in Chinsurah and Pondichery. The British who by then ruled much of the subcontinent, and the Danes, who held the small teritory of Shrirampur, permitted it into the 19th century. Attempts to limit or ban the practice had ben made by individual British oficers in the 18th century, but without the backing of the British East India Copany. The first formal British ban was in 1798, in the city of Calcutta only. The practice continued in surrounding regions. Toward the end of the 18th century, the evangelical church in Britain, and its members in India, started campaigns against sati. Leaders of these included William Carey and William Wilberforce, and both apeared to be motivated partly by a desire to convert Indians to Christianity. These movements put pressure on the copany to ban the act, and the Bengal Presidency started colecting figures on the practice in 1813. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 175 From about 1812, the Bengali reformer Ram Mohan Roy started his own campaign against the practice. He was motivated by the experience of seing his own sister-in-law comit sati. Among his actions, he visited Calcutta cremation grounds to persuade widows not to so die, fored watch groups to do the same, and wrote and disseminated articles to show that it was not required by scripture. On 4 December 1829, the practice was formaly baned in the Bengal Presidency lands, by the then governor, Lord Wiliam Bentinck. It was mainly due to the eforts of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. The ban was chalenged in the courts, and the mater went to the Privy Council in London, but was upheld in 1832. Other company teritories also baned it shortly after. Although the original ban in Bengal was fairly uncompromising, later in the century British laws include provisions that provided mitigation for murder when "the person whose death is caused, being above the age of 18 years, sufers death or takes the risk of death with his own consent". Sati remained legal in some princely states for a time after it had ben abolished in lands under British control. The last such state to permit it, Jaipur, baned the practice in 1846. Modern times In modern India, folowing outcries after each instance, there have ben various fresh measures pased against the practice, which now effectively make it ilegal to be a bystander at an event of sati. The law now makes no distinction between passive observers to the act, and active promoters of the event; al are suposed to be held equaly culpable. Other measures include eforts to stop the 'glorification' of the dead women. Glorification includes the erection of shrines to the dead, the encouragement of pilgrimages to the site of the pyre, and the derivation of any income from such sites and pilgrims. Enforcement of these measures is not always consistent however. The enforcement of some measures, such as the possible stoping of worship at ancient shrines, is a mater of modern controversy. Influences on art and culture A famous fictional depiction of sati is found in Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). The English gentleman Phileas Fogg and his servant Passepartout are traveling India when they find a sati. They risk their lives battling the Indians and rescue the druged princes Aouda from death. In Tom Robins' 1984 novel Jitterbug Perfume, the main character Alobar witneses and attempts to intervene in an act of sati, although it is writen "sute". George MacDonald Fraser's character Flashman witneses a mas sati by the wives and concubines of an Indian ruler, Jawaheer, in the Punjab in Flashman and the Mountain of Light, which is set during the First Sikh War. In Flashman in the Great Game, he questions the widowed ruler of Jhansi, Lakshmibai about why she, when her husband died, did not follow the custom; Lakshmibai's response is to ask whether Flashman thinks she is a fol. (While Fraser is normaly a most meticulous researcher, whose books are quite accurate on matters of historical fact, the Sikh prohibition on sati mentioned above indicates that, in this case, he may have ben in eror---or that the Sikhs' prohibition did not apply at this time, or not to royalty.) Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem entitled "The Last Sute" in 189. In this poem, the Bondi Quen escapes her British captors (who are seeking to keep her alive) and throws herself upon her husband's burial fire, to become his foremost queen in the afterlife - "To rule in Heaven his only bride, while the others howl in Hell." POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 176 AT HOME IN THE WILDERNES: ANIMAL TRACKING by Tom Brown, Jr. Tracking is an age-old art . . . and one that's been prety much forgoten in modern times. The finely honed skils that native Americans once used to sustain and protect themselves have been ? in the eyes of many people ? rendered unecesary by supermarkets and government-provided security. However, the ground stil has a wealth of stories to tel those who'l take the time to learn to read it. Imprinted upon the earth's surface is a manuscript that's written and rewritten every day . . . recording the movements of racons and squirrels, the foragings of der and elk, and the daily dramas that make up the lives of other residents of our forests and fields. Of course, as is the case with almost any avocation, it takes years of dedication and practice to become an expert tracker . . . but anyone can become more sensitive to the flow of animal life by simply learning to recognize the basic signs of its passage. Furthermore, it isn't even necessary to enter the wilderness to study tracking. In fact, most of the essential skils can be learned in your back yard or in a city park. Your own dog or cat can teach you a wealth of lessons that wil give you a deper understanding of ? and interelationship with ? the great outdors. RECOGNIZING RELATIVES Learning to track is like learning to read: Before you can begin making out meaningful words, sentences, and paragraphs, you have to know the alphabet. And the ABC's of tracking are the distinctive prints of various species of animals. It's usualy possible to determine the family to which the owner of a given track belongs by doing little more than counting the number of toes in the footprint. Then you can determine the creature's species, by examining foot size and other features, with the help of a reputable guidebook. (Olaus Murie's A Field Guide to Animal Tracks ? Peterson Field Guide Series, $9.95 ? is one of the best.) To help get you started, though, here are the track clasifications for the most comon families of animals. The felines include the house cat, bobcat, lynx, and cougar. These beasts leave very rounded tracks, with four toes aparent on each foot but no claw marks (their claws are usualy retracted). The cats are the only family of animals that directly register when they walk . . . which means that a hind foot usually falls directly into the print made by a front foot, creating what appears to be a single track. The canines include dogs, foxes, coyotes, and wolves. These animals' front and rear feet also have four toes each, but the claw marks are typicaly visible in canine prints. The fox is the one member of the dog family that directly registers when it walks. Al other canines show indirect register . . . eanig that the back foot's mark fals slightly behind and to one side of the front print. The weasel family consists of martens, fishers, minks, ferets, skunks, oters, badgers, wolverines, and (of course) weasels. Prints made by these mamals show five toes up front and in the rear, and usualy reveal sharp claws. Many members of the weasel family also have very pungent scent glands and leave an acrid smell wherever they go (the skunk is merely the most famous example). So use your nose when you investigate unknown tracks or animal signs. Racons, oposums, and bears are not in the weasel family, but they do have similar clawed five-and- five tracks. Al thre of these animals, though, have very flat, humanlike feet . . . and the oposum has distinctively opposing thumbs that are used for climbing. The rodents include such gnawing mamals as voles, mice, rats, squirels, chipmunks, gophers, porcupines, muskrats, and beavers. Their tracks show four toes on each front foot and five on the rear, with thre exceptions: Beaver and muskrat leave five-and-five prints some of the time (often the fifth toes don't make visible impressions), while aplodont ? or mountain beaver ? marks show five and five al the time. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 177 Pika, hare, and rabbit family members are not rodents, in spite of their chisellike gnawing teeth and often similar size. Their tracks show four toes up front and in the rear, and generaly (except for those of the marsh rabit and the pika) the back fet leave impresions that are at least twice the size of those made by the front paws. The hofed animals are easily recognized by their one- or two-part heart-shaped prints. This group includes pronghorns, goats, shep, der, caribou, musk ox, mose, reinder, and elk. TRACK PATTERNS Once you've learned the tracking alphabet, you'l be ready to start reading the "words" . . . that is, the simple statements made by animals as they pass over the landscape. As you'l soon discover, tracking involves more than merely following an animal from one place to another. When done well, it's a proces of answering a continuing series of questions about a beast and its interactions with the environment. It's important, then, to familiarize yourself with the various track patterns of animals, in order to read the thoughts and intentions that might have inspired the movements recorded on the ground. Animals are no more eager to wear themselves out nedlesly than humans are, so they usualy walk or shufle from one place to another. Therefore, the vast majority of the tracks you find wil indicate an animal moving at or near its slowest gait. And there are four distinctive walking paterns that you'l have to learn to recognize and to link up with specific families of creatures. Once you're familiar with them, you'l be able to see how these same gaits are used by diferent animals at diferent speeds. Diagonal walkers ? like the cats, dogs, and hofed animals ? lift front and hind feet on oposite sides of the body at the same time, alternating sides as they go. This movement leaves a stagered set of tracks. At progresively higher speds, diagonal walkers often move into troting, loping, bounding, and finaly galloping patterns. Bounders include members of the weasel family (except for the wide-bodied shuflers . . . such as skunks, badgers, and wolverines). These animals hop in a series of "stitching" jumps in which the front feet come down first and the back feet pul up right behind them. Bounders maintain this pattern most of the time regardles of sped (though the "stride" increases ? that is, the jups become longer ? when the beast hurries). Galopers are animals ? such as rabits ? that hunch their bodies even more than do bounders . . . bringing their hind feet down in front and to the side of the front paws. This gait usualy creates an easily recognized U-shaped track patern. If the prints of the two front fet regularly lie side by side, the track probably was made by a tree-dweling creature ? perhaps a squirrel ? while a consistent pattern of diagonal front-foot marks indicates a ground-dwelling animal, such as a rabbit. (Incidentally, tree-dwelling and ground-dwelling bird tracks can generally be distinguished in a similar way. Arboreal "hoppers" leave parallel prints, while "walking" birds stroll on the bias.) The speed of a galloper can be determined partly by the increasing distance between sets of tracks. Pacers include such wide-bodied animals as raccoons, opossums, bears, beavers, porcupines, wolverines, badgers, and skunks. These beasts usually move both fet on one side of the body at the same time in a shufling or lumbering fashion. As their sped increases, the broadbeamed members of the weasel family ? wolverines, badgers, and skunks ? progres from pacing to bounding. Other pacers, though, often move first into a diagonal trot, then into a bounding lope, and finaly into a full gallop. ANIMAL HIGHWAYS AND HOMES Footprints are only one of the groups of animal signs that an experienced tracker reads. In fact, an astute nature observer, realizing that almost every facet of the surrounding environment can contribute to the understanding of a track, tries to interpret the entire landscape. For example, animals create a wealth of thoroughfares, as was pointed out in my article on survival traps, and many of them are much like our own highways and side streets. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 178 The most obvious routes are the trails . . . wel-worn paths that are generaly used by a wide variety of species. Runs are less noticeable pathways that conect trails to feding, beding, and watering areas. Usualy these wil be traveld by only one or two kinds of animals and are subject to constant change. Pushdowns are the suden escape routes indicated by vegetation that has ben crushed in one direction. Beds are habitual sleping spots, sometimes lined with fur or other debris. They often apear as wel- used depressions in thickets, grasses, and hollow logs or under rocks. Lays are less-frequented resting spots, typicaly near feding or watering areas. They are indicated by depresed vegetation and wil often show the outline of the animal. You're most likely to find these highways and homes on the edges of forests and fields . . . in the transition areas that offer abundant food, water, and cover. OTHER ANIMAL SIGNS As you're tracking, kep in mind that animals leave a whole host of clues as they pas over the landscape. Lok for rubs and nicks . . . those bare spots on branches and trunks where animals have scraped themselves either intentionaly or acidentaly in pasing. Study scat (animal dropings), because it can tell you a great deal about what a creature has been eating. And always examine likely areas to see whether you can detect scratchings or hairs. You may also discover obvious signs of gnawing such as the substantial marks left by a beaver on a tre trunk. Remember, though, that every piece of gnawed vegetation ? even tiny twigs and grases ? can help you decipher the signature of a specific animal. Rodents and rabbits slice through greenery with a clean diagonal cut, while hofed animals clamp down and yank upward, a motion that produces a flat, serated cut. On the other hand, mebers of the dog and cat families chew on vitamin-rich grases and herbs, leaving those plants with a crushed or mashed appearance. Of course, the height of any gnawing wil indicate the size of the animal (standing on either four or two fet) that made it. FOLOWING TRACKS Naturaly, the best places to begin tracking are areas covered with wet sand, soft mud, or new snow. Beaches, crek beds, plains, and desert areas are usualy excelent learning spots, since tracks made in soft earth are typicaly quite distinct and easy to read. If no such area is readily available, you can study the basics by making a tracking box filed with wet sand, or by smoothing out a section of soft soil in your garden or back yard. Put a variety of bait on the "track trap", and then study the prints of the creatures that it attracts. A tracking stick is an especialy useful self-teaching tool. It's simply a smoth, straight 3- to 4-foot length of dowel ? or a ski pole ? fitted with ruber washers or bands that can be moved to divide the tol into sections. Use the first marker to indicate the length of a fotprint . . . the distance between the first and second, the animal's stride . . . and the space betwen the second and third, the width of the fot. Once you've found a god track, set these measurements on your stick, and you'l be able to more easily identify your animal and predict ? if you're in dificult terain ? the aproximate location of its next track. Whether or not you're using a tracking stick, there are some basic procedures that wil improve your ability. First, keep the track between yourself and the source of light, as doing so wil ake it easier for you to see the shadows in the fotprint. And for the same reason, it's best to track in the early mornig or late afternon, when the sun's rays hit the ground at an angle that makes the shaded prints pop out more clearly. Also, be sure to get down on al fours and examine the track from diferent angles. Vary the focus of your vision to see how the track fits into the total environment. And use side-heading . . . that is, get one eye as close to the ground as posible and squint the other eye when you scan the earth for signs. (This technique is especialy useful for picking up the duling and shining efects that are created when animals walk across grassy surfaces.) When folowing tracks (especialy while you're in the process of acquiring this skil), try to learn everything you can about one fotprint before moving on to the next. Don't be content just to identify and folow an animal. Ask yourself the "why" questions. "Why is this track here?" "Why is the animal moving in this particular manner?" "Why is it headed in this direction?" POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 179 And don't skip tracks . . . the print that could teach the most is usualy the one that you "can't" locate. You'l discover it if you just remember that the key to the next mark is contained in the one you're already looking at. (You may find the clue you ned to determine where and how the animal moved next by examining ? very closely ? the soil distortions or "presure relases" in the track.) Understand as wel that you'l rarely come acros a perfect print. Most of the time, you'l se parts of tracks ? a toe or two, a hel pad perhaps ? and you'l have to visualize the rest. That's why it's so important to familiarize yourself with clasifications and patterns before trying to read too complicated a manuscript. In my opinion, one of the best ways to master these basics is to watch an animal make a track, and then immediately go examine the print. That way, you'll know what the ground says (that is, what the animal was doing) before you read the mesage, and you can memorize a wealth of diferent "words" and "phrases" that wil help you more easily "translate" stories later on. Sometimes, of course, you'l lok for a print and find only creases or faint depresions in a bed of leaves. If so, you can often carefuly lift those fronds up and find perfect tracks in the soil beneath. Remove any debris ? with a pair of twezers ? from the prints you discover before you examine them. And use a magnifying glas often. It's much easier to pick up dirt smudges or teltale presure-related cracks in the ground when your eye is looking from behind a good lens. Since tracks are thre-dimensional rather than flat, many folks find that they're able to develop their skils by trying to follow a trail blindfolded. Before you attempt this exercise, familiarize your hands with the feel of visible marks. Then gently press and probe the ground where you think there ought to be a track but you can't see one . . . and the sensitive parts of the fingers and palms wil help you find prints that may have deceived your eyes. Ultimately, your hands wil be able to read the ground like a book writen in braile. Finaly, you can learn a lot by simply marking each print in a series with a popsicle stick and then conecting the sticks with light string. The layout that results can be a big help to you in learnig an animal's patern of movement. (It'l also let you know when you've made a mistake and left out a print . . . because the strides and overal patern should always be flowing and logical.) AGING TRACKS Determinig the age of a track is an art in itself . . . and one that can be learned only through observation and practice. The main thing to remember is that all disturbances in the earth tend to become flat. However, the terain and weather can have a great efect on just how long a track lasts. For instance, a good wind may smooth out a depression made in dry sand within 30 seconds, but a trail that dries into hard clay may last for weks or months (or ore) if it's not washed out by rain. Under most conditions, though, the peaks of a track ? one made in, say, medium-hard garden soil ? wil have deteriorated or rounded somewhat after 24 hours. In another day, the mark may have acumulated debris, leaves, or pockmarks from raindrops. Eventually, as the track crubles and fils or is covered by other prints, it wil disappear completely. It's often posible to get a feel for the age of an individual track by making a thumbprint in the soil right next to it and comparing the sharpness of the ridges. However, the most efective and systematic way to familiarize yourself with the basics of track deterioration is to make several thumbprints in an outdor tracking box every 6 or 12 hours, kep a record of weather changes, and note the relative deterioration of your prints each time you return to make a new set. You can learn to age broken or mashed vegetation by the similar method of snapping twigs or tearing leaves . . . and returning at regular intervals to examine them. I cal this method "learning the wisdom of the marks" . . . with it, you'l quickly become more proficient at aging tracks. After a while, you should be able not only to date tracks to within a few hours of when they were made, but also to read stories writen on the same piece of ground by diferent animals at diferent times. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 180 PRESERVING TRACKS If you'd like to make a more complete and leisurely study of a particular footprint, you can take a plaster casting. This is done by stiring up a honey-thick mixture of plaster of Paris and water, pouring it into the track, and letting it set (five or ten minutes should be long enough). To asure greater cast strength, pour the mix until it overflows and creates a lip around the edges. If the print is so shallow that you fear your model may crack when you take it out, you can reinforce the casting by ading a couple of twig "backbones" to it while it's stil wet. Remove the preserved print by carefuly diging around its edges and lifting up from below. After the cast is completely dry, clean of debris with a brush. DIRT TIME I've outlined the major skils you'l ned to learn in order to track animals, but the knowledge that can come only with dedication and practice is more important than all the information you can posibly gain from any article or bok. There is no substitute for dirt time . . . for the hours and days spent on one's hands and knees, following prints and absorbing the secrets that only those mysterious marks can teach. Stil, no mater who you are or where you live, you can learn to track by simply devoting a litle time to it each day. And once you become familiar with this new language, I think you'l be amazed at the abundance of stories that await you . . . many of which wil begin just beyond your own back dor. Tom Brown, Jr. was brought up in the ways of the wods by a displaced Apache named Stalking Wolf. Today, he is one of our country's leading outdoors experts, author of The Tracker and The Search , and head of one of the largest tracking and wildernes survival schols in the U.S. (write Tom Brown Jr., Dept. TMEN, Box 173, Asbury, New Jersey 08802). POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 181 TRACKING Tracking in hunting is the science and art of observing a place through animal fotprints and other sign, including: trails, beds, chews, scat, hair, etc.. Specifically, maping a changing landscape and soaking up sensory data like a sponge. The later goal to be further understanding of the systems and paterns around you, including that of the animal life. So called, "master trackers," are able to know an animal through its tracks and trails, also known as spor. These include not only identification and interpretation of tracks, but also scat (or feces), feathers, kils, scratching posts, trails, drag marks, sounds, marking posts, and more. There is a story in most of these marks to be found. The skiled tracker is able to discern these markings and recreate what transpired. Tracking has ben traditionaly practiced for thousands of years by the majority of tribal peoples al across the world. The Art of Tracking The Art of Tracking very wel may be the origin of science, practiced by hunter-gatherers since the evolution of modern humans. After hundreds of thousands of years, traditional tracking skils may son be lost. Yet tracking can be developed into a new science with far-reaching implications for nature conservation. Apart from knowledge based on direct observations of animals, trackers gain a detailed understanding of animal behavior through the interpretation of tracks and signs. In this way much information can be obtained that would otherwise remain unknown, especially on the behavior of rare or nocturnal animals that are not often sen. Furthermore, tracks and signs ofer information on undisturbed, natural behavior, while direct observations often influence the animal by the mere presence of the observer. Tracking is therefore a non-invasive method of information gathering, in which potential stres caused to animals can be minimized. Creating employment oportunities for trackers provides economic benefits to local comunities. In addition, non-literate trackers who have in the past ben employed as unskilled laborers can gain recognition for their specialized expertise. The employment of trackers wil also help to retain traditional skils which may otherwise be lost in the near future. This has cultural significance in that comunities wil be able to make a unique contribution to conservation. This wil create a sense of cultural ownership of conservation, which may well be one of the most important contributions traditional tracking can make. Some of the most important aplications of tracking would be in controling poaching, ecotourism, environmental education, police investigation, search and rescue, and in scientific research. Recognition of signs To be able to recognize signs trackers must know hat to lok for and where to lok for them. Someone who is not familiar with spor may not recognize it, even when loking straight at the sign. It may sem as if no signs are present at all. In order to recognize slight disturbances in nature, trackers must know the pattern of undisturbed nature. Only when they are familiar with the terrain, the ground and the vegetation in its natural or "baseline" state, will they be able to recognize very subtle disturbances in it. In order to recognize a specific sign, a tracker often has a preconceived image of what a typical sign looks like. Without such preconceived images many signs may be overloked. However, with a preconceived image of a specific animal's spoor in mind, trackers wil tend to 'recognize' spoor in markings made by another animal, or even in random markings. Their mind wil be prejudiced to se what they want to see, and in order to avoid making such errors they must be careful not to reach decisions too POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 182 soon. Decisions made at a glance can often be eroneous, so when encountering new signs, time should be taken to study them in detail. While preconceived images may help in recognizing signs, the tracker must, however, avoid the preconditioned tendency to look for one set of things in the environment to the exclusion of all others. If one goes out with the intention of seeing a particular set of things, the mind is shut off from everything else. Trackers need to vary their vision in order to see new things. Trackers wil always try to identify the trail positively by some distinguishing mark or manerism in order not to lose it in any similar spoor. They will look for such features in the fotprints as well as for an individual maner of walking. Often hofs of antelope are broken or have chiped edges, or when the animal is walking it may leave a characteristic scufmark. Experienced trackers wil memorise a spor and be able to distinguish that individual animal's spoor from others. When folowing a spoor, trackers wil walk next to it, not on it, taking care not to spoil the trail so that it can easily be found again if the spor is lost. The shadows cast by ridges in the spor show up best if the spor is kept betwen the tracker and the sun. With the sun shinig from behind the spor, the shadows cast by smal ridges and indentations in the spor wil be clearly visible. With the sun behind the tracker, however, these shadows wil be hidden by the ridges that cast them. Tracking is easiest in the morning and late afternon, as the shadows cast by the ridges in the spor are longer and stand out better than at or near miday. As the sun moves higher in the sky, the shadows grow shorter. At miday the spor may cast no shadows at al, making them difficult to se in the glare of the sunlight. Trackers wil never lok down at their fet if they can help it, since this wil slow them down. By loking up, well ahead of themselves, aproximately five to ten meters depending on the terain, they are able to track much faster and with more ease. Unles they ned to study the spor more closely, it is not necessary to examine every sign. If they see a sign ten meters ahead, those in betwen can be ignored while they lok for spor further on. Over dificult terain it may not be posible to se signs wel ahead, so trackers wil have to lok at the ground in front of the and move more slowly. Trackers must also avoid concentrating all their atention on the tracks, thereby ignoring everything around them. Tracking requires varying attention, a constant refocusing between minute details of the track and the whole pattern of the environment. Anticipation and prediction Although in principle it is posible to folow a trail by simply loking for one sign after the other, this may prove so time-consuming that the tracker wil never catch up with the quary. Instead, trackers should place themselves in the position of their quary in order to anticipate the route it may have taken. They wil thereby be able to decide in advance where they can expect to find signs and thus not waste time loking for them. Trackers wil often lok for spor in obvious places such as openings betwen bushes, where the animal would most likely have moved. In thick bushes they wil lok for the most acesible throughways. Where the spor croses an open clearing, they wil lok in the general direction for aces ways on the other side of the clearing. If the animal was moving from shade to shade, they wil look for spoor in the shade ahead. If their quarry has consistently moved in a general direction, it may be possible to follow the most likely route by focusing on the terain, and to lok for signs of spor only occasionaly. They must, however, always be alert for an abrupt change in direction. Animals usualy make use of a network of paths to move from one locality to another. If it is clear that an anial was using a particular path, this can simply be folowed up to the point where it forks, or to where the animal has left the path. Where one of several paths may have ben used, trackers must of course determine which path that specific animal used. This may not always be easy, since many animals often use the same paths. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 183 In areas of high animal densities that have much-used animal paths which interlink, it may seem imposible to follow tracks. However, once tracks have ben located on an animal path, it is often possible to folow the path even though no further tracks are seen. By looking to either side of the path, one can establish if the animal has moved away from the path, and then follow the new trail. In difficult terain, where signs are sparse, trackers may have to rely extensively on anticipating the animal's movements. In order to move fast enough to overtake the animal, one may not be able to detect all the signs. Trackers sometimes identify themselves with the animal to such an extent that they folow an imaginary route which they think the animal would most likely have taken, only confirming their expectations with occasional signs. When trackers come to hard, stony ground, where tracks are virtualy imposible to discern, apart from the od smal peble that has ben overturned, they may move around the patch of hard ground in order to find the spor in softer ground. Should the trackers lose the spor, they should first search obvious places for signs, chosing several likely aces ways through the bush in the general direction of movement. When several trackers work together, they can simply fan out and quarter the ground until one of them finds it. An experienced tracker may be able to predict more or les where the animal was going, and wil not waste time in one spot looking for signs, but rather lok for it further ahead. Knowledge of the terain and animal behavior alows trackers to save valuable time by predicting the animal's movements. Once the general direction of movement is established and it is known that an animal path, river or any other natural boundary lies ahead, they can leave the spoor and move to these places, cutting across the trail by sweeping back and forth across the predicted direction in order to pick up tracks a considerable distance ahead. To be able to anticipate and predict the movements of an animal, trackers must know the animal and its environment so well that they can identify theselves with that animal. They ust be able to visualize how the animal was moving around, and place themselves in its position.If the animal was moving in a straight line at a steady pace, and it is known that there is a waterhole or a pan further ahead, trackers should leave the spor to lok for signs of it at the waterhole or pan. While feding, an animal wil usualy move into the wind, going from one bush to another. If the trackers know the animal's favored fod, and know moreover how they generaly move, they ned not folow its zigzag path, but leave the spor at places, moving in a straight course to save time, and pick up the spor further on. Since signs may be fractional or partly obliterated, it may not always be posible to make a complete reconstruction of the animal's movements and activities on the basis of spor evidence alone. Trackers may therefore have to create a working hypothesis in which spor evidence is suplemented with hypothetical assumptions based not only on their knowledge of animal behavior, but also on their creative ability to solve new problems and discover new information. The working hypothesis is often a reconstruction of what the animal was doing, how fast it was moving, when it was there, where it was going to and where it might be at that time. Such a working hypothesis enables the trackers to predict the animal's movements. As new information is gathered, they may have to revise their working hypothesis, creating a beter reconstruction of the animal's activities. Anticipating and predicting an animal's movements, therefore, involves a continuous proces of problem-solving, creating new hypotheses and discovering new information. Stealth In order to come close to an animal, trackers must remain undetected not only by the animal, but also by other animals that may alert it. Moving as quietly as posible, trackers wil avoid stepping on dry leaves and twigs, and take great care when moving through dry grass. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 184 If the trackers are in close proximity to the animal, it is important that they remain downwind of it, that is, in a position where the wind is blowing away from the animal in the direction of the tracker. They must never be in a position where their scent could be carried in the wind towards the animal and thereby alert it. It is also important that the animal does not have the oportunity to cros their tracks, since the lingering human scent will alert it. Most animals prefer to kep the wind in their faces when traveling so that they can scent danger ahead of them. Trackers wil therefore usualy be downwind from them as they approach the animals from behind. The wind direction may, however, have changed. If the wind direction is unfavorable, the trackers may have to leave the spor to search for their quary from the downwind side. As the trackers get closer to the animal, they must make sure that they se it before it sees them. !Xõ trackers maintain that an animal keps loking back down its own trail, always on the alert for danger coming from behind. When the spor is very fresh, trackers may have to leave the spor so that the animal does not see them first. Animals usualy rest facing downwind, so that they can se danger approaching from the downwind side, while they can smell danger coming from behind them. An animal may also double back on its spor and circle downwind before setling down to rest. A predator folowing its trail will move past the resting animal on the upwind side before realizing that the animal had doubled back, and the resting animal wil smell the predator in time to make its escape. When stalking an animal, trackers use the cover of bushes, going down on their hands and knees where necessary. In long grass they go down on their stomachs pulling themselves forward with their elbows. The most important thing is not to atract atention by suden movements. Trackers should take their time, moving slowly when the animal is not loking, and keping stil when the animal is loking in their direction. When stalking an animal, trackers must also be careful not to disturb other animals. A disturbed animal wil give its alarm signal, thereby alerting al animals in the vicinity, including the animal being tracked down. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 185 CHAPTER 04: SACRED GEOGRAPHY POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 186 The universe is atainig an expresion of itself. This expresion has thre basic directions ? differentiation, interiority, and bonding ? that makes the universe a universe. There is differentiation ? one thing the universe does not permit is duplication. Every leaf on every tree, and every snowflake, is unique. There is interiority ? everything expreses the deep mystery of existence. Whether it?s a particle or whatever, there?s that mysterious element of existence and inner spontaneity. And there is bonding ? every least particle is bonded with every other least particle. Everything is integral and interacts with everything else. This means that nothing is itself without everything else. There is a comonality, an integrity, an intimacy of the universe with itself. And that intimacy, I think, is the fulfilment of the universe, with the intimacy conditioned on the uniquenes of things. Saint Thomas has a wonderful phrase, where he speaks of diference as the perfection of the universe. Uniqueness in communion with. That?s what the universe is about. Thomas Bery in conversation with Derick Jensen CHAPTER 04: SACRED GEOGRAPHY Anima Loci ? Local Spirits There are places in the world that poses a strange energy and people can sense a change in perspective, or a kind of charge, almost imediately when they approach. Many times these are places of worship and date back to a time before recorded history. The anima loci, or ?spirit of the place?, was venerated by the local people as a nature deity. Forests and sacred groves, rivers, waterfals, hils with vistas, the living features of the landscape were believed to harbor spirits, or gods. These gods could be sometimes be enticed to bring various powers or kinds of protection to the ancients who honored them. Even into the modern times, Japanese Shinto folowers worship and revere the kami who gave life and energy to the living world. They would tie gohei, or white paper streamers, on tres to symbolize the kami?s eternal presence. (NOTE) Shinto is a native religion of Japan and was once its state religion. It is a form of animism. It involves the worship of kami, gods. Some kami are local and can be regarded as the spiritual being/spirit or genius of a particular place, but others represent major natural objects and processes, for example, Amaterasu, the Sun goddess. The word Shinto was created by combining two kanji: (shin), meaning gods or spirits (the character can also be read as "kami" in Japanese), and (tÿ), meaning way or path in a philosophical sense (the same character is used for the Chinese word Tao). As such, Shinto is comonly translated as "the Way of the Gods". After World War I, Shinto lost its status of state religion; some Shinto practices and teachings, once given a great deal of prominence during the war, are no longer taught nor practiced today, and others remain largely as everyday activities, like omikuji (a form of fortune-teling) and Japanese New Year, that few identify with religious conotations. The landscape in which the native people live, both ancient and modern, remains the most sacred legacy of many systems of belief, representing the afinity they experience with the geography and making it a metaphor of their spiritual tradition. If I were to ask you, what are sacred places? Most would probably answer this question by saying churches or temples. While these places are obviously important and holy sites for certain people and sometimes have an ancient history conected to their geography, there are other kinds of sacred sites. Water is esential to life and so there are sacred pols or springs of water like Lourdes in France, or grottos of miraculous sightings of the Virgin Mary like in Fatima in Portugal. Sacred waters, consecrated by the believers, are used in baptism rituals and for healing, cleansing and spiritual awakening. For the Hindi of India many of their most sacred sites lie along the Ganges River. The river is believed to be the personification of the goddess Ganga and it caries the very esence of shakti, or divine female energy, in its waters. Because of this sacred quality it is the favored site for scatering ashes of cremated bodies as a final act of purification. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 187 (NOTE) In Hinduism, the river Ganga or Ganges River (as caled by westerners) is considered sacred. It is worshiped by Hindus, and personified as a goddess in Hinduism, who holds an important place in the Hindu religion. Hindus believe that bathing in the river on certain occasions causes the remision of sins and facilitates the atainment of salvation. Many people believe that this efect obtains from bathing in Ganga at any time. People travel from distant places to imerse the ashes of their kin in the waters of the Ganga; this imersion also is believed to be meritorious, as the ashes are believed to go to heaven. Several places sacred to Hindus lie along the banks of the river Ganga, including Haridwar, Varanasi and Kashi. But even the standard graveyard is considered sacred to many as a site for remembrance of ancestors recent and far. For the Christian burial sites are sanctified by the Church. There are also ancient sites that stil retain a sacred resonance, the prehistoric stonehenges that are scattered about Northern Europe and British Islands or the great Egyptian monuments to the dead, the pyramids or the Temple at Karnak. Sometimes these locations are on mountaintops and sometimes in Caves ? like the deep and mysterious caves of Lascaux, in France where the earliest members of our Paleolithic ancestors, traced for the first time representations of the world around them, enshrined in the very womb of Mother Earth. Why They Are Sacred These places are set aside as unique, holy, or sacred because something special hapened or continues to hapen there. Usualy these events are conected to something of a religious or sacred nature. For instance, miracles happened to others in the past or people in the present believe that miracles wil hapen again at these sites. Holy personages might have visited one of these places, or it might have ben a National Hero; George Washington semingly slept, ate, or stoped for a rest at just about every Inn in the entire New England area. (NOTE) Interesting stories about the Father of the United States of America are a part of the American Mythos. For instance: George Washington?s Indian Name: Town Destroyer Town Destroyer, also translated as Town Taker, Burner of Towns, or Devourer of Vilages, was a nickname given to George Washington by Iroquois Indians. The name in its original language(s) has ben given variously as "Caunotaucarius", "Conotocarious", and "Hanadahguyus." Historians have given diferent origins of the nickname. According to some historians, Washington was given the name in 1753 by the Seneca leader Tanacharison (the "Half-King"). Tanacharison ? Washington's guide and aly at the outset of the French and Indian War ? bestowed the name on Washington because it was the Iroquois nickname given to Washington's great-grandfather John Washington, who had emigrated to Virginia from England in 1657. John ashington was given the nickname because he had swindled American Indians out of some land, or, in another version of the story, after he had ordered the deaths of some American Indians during Bacon's Rebelion. When Tanacharison bestowed the name on George Washington, it may have been as part of Washington's ceremonial adoption as a Seneca, intended to compliment the young Virginian's military ardor. In other acounts, Washington was given the nickname sometime after the 179 Sulivan Expedition in the American Revolutionary War, which POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 188 destroyed at least 40 Iroquois vilages. Years later, in 1790, the Seneca chief Cornplanter told President Washington: "When your army entered the country of the Six Nations, we caled you Town Destroyer," a title that some Iroquois stil use to describe any President of the United States. In relating this story, historian Barbara Graymont also notes that, as President, Washington had a god relationship with the Iroquois in the United States, so much so that the Seneca religious leader Handsome Lake (Cornplanter's half-brother) declared that Washington was the only white man alowed to enter the Indians' heaven. The two versions of the nickname's origin are not necesarily contradictory. If Washington was first given the nickname during the French and Indian ar, it may have gained new meaning for the Iroquois during the Revolution, when four out of the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy fought against Washington's armies. AND! George Washington?s Teth George Washington has ben hailed by Americans through the years as one of the greatest founding fathers. Many Americans respect him greatly and see him as much more than a mere man. Al over schools his posters are on walls, standing bravely and mightily with an American flag waving in the wind behind him. It has ben over 20 years since Washington died and myths surounding his life are continuously popping up in children?s books and internet articles. One fable in particular that stil breaths life and deceived Americans every day is the story of Washington?s woden teth! It?s amazing how this legend has survived. The idea of someone chewing their fod with woden teeth is absurd, but stil, the story lives on. Here?s the true story: President Washington lost his teth at a relatively early age. He sufered from por dental health throughout his younger years. He had two sets of false teeth (dentures) made by the most prominent American dentist of his day, Dr. John Greenwood. The false teeth were carved from the finest hippopotamus ivory and gold. These teeth were far from wooden and far from cheap. Washington was one of the richest men in Aerica when these teeth were made for him. The myth circulating around his woden teeth sems to sugest that George Washington was a comon man. However, there was nothing comon about Washington. As one of the most sucesful plantation owners in America, ashington was one of the social elites. Though he wil continue to live on as an American hero, Washington should never be remembered as the president with woden teeth. But back to sacred sites, (not that George Washington?s mouth isn?t a sacred site), sometimes the sites are old and have ben sacred as far back as memory, and soetimes the site is briefly sacred and as new as yesterday?s newspaper. Just a few years ago, on the outside wall of a church in the Mision District of San Francisco, the Virgin Mary apeared to a woman in the neighborhod. For months people came by the hundreds to stand in the presence of this miracle, bringing sick and lame and smal children to blesed. Many claimed to se the Virgin as they prayed on the sidewalk in front of the church. As sudenly as She apeared, She disapeared and the crowds dispersed. Why do people make journeys or pilgrimages to these sacred sites? Sometimes they come for healing, sometimes for salvation, or for repentance, expiation, or for atonement of sins. A pilgrim is a person who travels to a sacred or revered place as an act of religious devotion. The pilgrim?s journey, a pilgrimage, is a very specific kind of trip made to a specific site, for a specific purpose. The end result of a successful pilgrimage is transformation, of some kind; intelectual, emotional, physical, psychological, or spiritual. The history of the pilgriage is interesting and complex. Huans have ben making these kinds of special journeys for milennia. One important connection to the pilgrimage in the modern western world POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 189 is the Christian pilgrimage. An interesting aspect of the Christian rots of the sacred journey can be found in the punitive measures of the Church during what are sometimes called the Dark Ages. In the Midle Ages of the Gothic period 50 A D to 100 A D, the practice of the Roman Catholic Church was to pas judgment upon people who had sined. The punishment must fit the crime was in the minds of the judges. Take for example the drunken and ireverent baron, as told by Wiliam Manchester in his masterful text A World Lit Only By Fire, who after stealing the sacred chalice from the local parish church and was seen comiting the crime. The crime was demed severe inded and the punishment? Excomunication! Acording to Manchester?s text, ?The local Bishop ordered the church bel toled in the mournful cadence usualy reserved for major funerals. The church itself was draped in black. The congregation gathered in the nave. Amid a frightful hush the prelate, surrounded by his clergymen, each carrying a lighted candle, appeared in the chancel and pronounced the name of the thief, shouting: ?Let him be cursed in the city and cursed in the field; cursed in his granary, his harvest, and his children; as Dathan and Abiram were swalowed up by the gaming earth, so may hel swalow him. And even as today we quench these torches in our hands, so may the light of his life be quenched for al eternity, unles he do repent.? As the priests flung their candles down and stamped them out, the parishioners trembled for the knight?s soul, which, they knew, had very litle chance of surviving so awful an imprecation. The wayward baron was now an outlaw; every man?s hand was against him; neither lepers nor Jews were so completely isolated. This social exile was a formidable weapon, and it brought the sinner to his knees, for eventually he bought back his salvation ? at a formidable price. First he donated his entire fortune to the bishop. Then he appeared at the chancel barefot, wearing a pilgrim?s robe. For twenty-four hours he lay prostrate before the high altar, praying and fasting; then he knelt while sixty monks and priests clubed him. As each blow fel he yeled, ?Just are thy judgments, O Lord!? At last, when he lay bleeding, bones broken and senses impaired, the bishop absolved him and gave him the kis of peace.? Today this punishment sounds excesive but the Medieval Church was very strong on law and order and if it let acts such as this go unpunished chaos would surely folow. There were greater siners than the scourged baron and the ultimate punishment was saved for them; the pilgrimage. In a very real sense it was because there were not enough dungeons in Europe or the Vatican to hold all the miscreant population of the period that the Church began to use the penance of the pilgrimage. The road to atonement could take over six years for some, ten years, and even for the worst of the criminals, 12 years of pilgrimage. They were sent to various places, Rome was a favorite spot for some the incredibly arduous trip to Jerusalem. The general rule was the greater the sin the longer the distance and if you were of noble descent then the extra burden of having to wear chains around your neck and wrists created from your own armor ? as a sign of how far the high have falen. These ?pilgrims? had their heads shaved, they were forced to abandon their families, fast constantly, and journey to far destinations barefoot. Many of them had already received ?civic? punishment for their crimes; hands or ears cut of, eye?s gouged out, scourged and/or tortured. Now they were attempting to reenter the good graces of the Church. These travelers would carry a ?passport? signed by a Bishop of the Church, explaining in detail the horrible sin they had commited and asking good Christians to be charitable and offer food and lodging. Certainly what must be one of the worst-case scenarios of pilgrimage was the punishment of Count Fulk. After twenty years of the worst crimes imaginable, not the least among them the murder of his wife, the Black Count stood before a Bishop and had his catalogue of sins listed and his punishment intoned. It is said he fainted when he heard it. He was to be shackled and condemned to a triple Jerusalem pilgrimage. Imagine it! In irons he walked acros most of France and Savoy, over the Alps, through the Papal States, Corinthia, Hungary, Bosnia, mountainous Serbia, Bulgaria, Constantinople, and the entire length of Anatolia with its mountains, then down through what is today Syria and Jordan to the city of Jerusalem itself, thre times! Something close to 15,30 miles ? and the last time, it is reported he was draged through the strets on a hurdle while being lashed with bullwhips. Wel, in spite of such a dark past, pilgrimages have and can be undertaken voluntarily for the purpose of personal atonement, or for any number of various reasons; spiritual, physical, or psychological. But what is common to al pilgrimages is that the destination is a sacred site. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 190 What does ?sacred? mean The dictionary defines it as something asociated with or dedicated to God or a god or regarded with reverence because of this. Something is sacred if it is dedicated to some person or purpose, as in ?sacred to the memory of those who died.? The idea of sacred is conected to religion, the dictionary is explicit by saying that sacred is ?not secular.? The sacred object (or location) is sacrosanct. The word ?sacrosanct? refers to an idea or institution that its suporters will not allow to be criticized. Conected with the making of a sacred place or the pilgrimage to a sacred, no mater for what purpose, is the practice of rituals associated with the idea of making the experience sacrosanct. Following is a 5 point breakdown of the pilgrimage but should be sen as a lose template for experience rather than a recipe and could be used for various other activities; getting a degre at the Academy of Art Colege or mariage, for example. The five-part breakdown of the pilgrimage journey folows. First there must be the preparation, which might include such things, as ritual cleansing, meditation, and various acetic practices, like fasting or extended silence. These rituals are movements or experiences, of a symbolic nature. The symbolic language being used here can be found in the various stories of the heroes. The Christian hero, Jesus is baptized symbolizing his death to the old self and birth of the new self, at the beginning of his ministry. There was a baptism (ritual cleansing), then a period of 40 days and 40 nights in the desert (meditation and acetic practices). Second, there comes the actual pilgrimage or the journey to the site. This journey is often fraught with danger and challenges. We wil spend some time with the symbolic practices of this aspect when we study the hero?s journey. One of the most famous literary accounts of a pilgrimage can be found in The Canterbury Tales of the 14 th century English writer Geoffrey Chaucer. These are a colection of stories about people making a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury and the wonderful and sometimes quite bawdy experiences along the way. The third step is when you get there and have the experience, which represents the phenomenal experience of the transcendent mystery, that is, it is an experience of transformation. The Gothic sinner taking the pilgrimage for the atonement of guilt wil achieve salvation by standing in the presence of some sacred object; a holy relic of a saint, a fragment of the true cros, or the shroud that Christ was wraped when He was buried. But the journey doesn?t end there. After the transcendent experience, the fourth step of journey ocurs and you must return, that is re- enter the everyday world of the living. This is more chalenging than it seems and ultimately holds great rewards not only for the pilgrim but also for al those that come in contact with the transformed individual. If you are having difficulty with the religious overtones of pilgrim, pilgrimages, atonement for sins and the like, as I have had on occasion, then apply it to something non-religious. For example, the only ?life? available to me had I stayed in the tiny hamlet in Central Florida, without geting an education and venturing out into the world, would have ben extremely limiting. While I lived there I found the climate (moraly, ethicaly, intelectualy, and even physicaly) stifling. I was unhapy and biter and generaly made life miserable for everyone that came in contact with me. I decided to go to colege but to prepare myself for it I had to take tests and fil-out countles forms and figure out some way to pay for it. I had to ?clean-up? a litle to make the student-loan people consider me a worthy aplicant (step one - preparation). I was accepted! Four years later, after so many difficulties and strugles that I never thought I could overcome and wonderful life changing experiences too (step two ? the journey itself), I found myself walking acros the stage with al my comrades along the journey to receive my Degre (step thre ? the experience). I felt a true kin-ship with these guys. Whether friend or foe or just classmate we al persevered through the hardships and shared the joys and here is the end ? the diploma. Whoa!! The end? No way! Now that I was this completely diferent person with al kinds of new inforation and skils I had to go back out into the world (step four ? the return). But what a difference the ?new? me was compared to the ?old? me. New people in my life, new experiences, and even the people I knew before, family and friends saw me differently and treated me differently and I them, because of going through the process (step five ? belief in the transformation). The last, and in a sense the most important, aspect of the pilgrimage is the requirement of belief or faith. Without believing, it just another eanigles trip with photographs to prove you were there. Without faith in yourself and what you are doing, the ?long-haul? is just imposible. Someone told me that you usualy met only two kinds of people at a sacred site; pilgrims and tourist. If you try to figure out which is which - keping these two thoughts in mind may help. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 191 A pilgrim is someone with an open and searching heart. A tourist is someone with a focused and interested eye. The Symbolism Of The Sacred ? Macrocosmic/microcosmic view A pilgrimage is a microcosm of the macrocosmic ?Journey of Life.? The Macrocosm represents the universe with its stars, planets and signs of the zodiac; the world and its entirety. Its oposite, the Microcosm, represents the world in its particulars, particularly man. Since Boethius (Roman philosopher, writer c. 480-524 AD) the microcosm has been a term for man as a ?miror of the world.? Acording to Hildegard von Bingen, Giordano Bruno, Leibniz, and many others (particularly during the Renaisance, such as Agripa von Netesheim), the microcosm is also a term for the human soul. The paralel betwen Microcosm and Macrocosm is most likely very old, having existed in the ancient Near East, as we can see in this phrase from the Doctrine of Signs: ?that, which is below, is equal to that, which is above, is equal to and corresponds to that, which is above.? Microcosm-macrocosm thinking may have originated in ancient myths, according to which ?everything? was supposedly formed from one being who existed before time. The paralel between microcosm and macrocosm is one of the most important basic ideas in alchemy, numerology and the teachings of Pythagoras, in astrology and the belief in the cartography of the stars, and the tarot system of divination. With the Zodiac and Astrological life maping, or the Major and Minor Arcana cards of the Tarot system, you can really begin to get a sense of the resolve to create an all-embracing archetypal pattern ? a kind of model which would ofer comprehensive definition for every single possibility in the larger picture of the unfolding Universe, and the smaller picture of the unfolding life of man. Anthony Steven?s explanation of this is interesting. ?As is the case with other symbolic forms, zodiacal symbolism is the product of the serial intelection of the universe, arising out of the belief that al things ocupy positions and situations in space-time which are limited and typical, and implying, not determinism, but belief in the ?system of destinies?, that is to say, the theory that certain antecedents must cause certain consequences and that any given situation must have ramifications that are neither replaceable nor arbitrary.? To see the pilgrimage as microcosmic/macrocosmic in form is to allow the participants on the journey to stand for, represent or symbolize the various kinds of people on the earth and the trip to symbolize the journey we are al on, as we strugle to make our way through life. The Symbolism Of The Sacred ? Cartography Conected to journeys of al kinds is the symbolism of the Map. A map is a representation of Earth?s surface or a part of it. Or sometime it can be a representation of the sky as in maps showing the position of stars. Mapping is to plan in detail, like when we ?map out? a vacation or map a strategy for success. Another interesting conception that accompanies this is that when something becomes important we put it on the map. It sems only the important landmarks get noted when constructing a map. The construction of maps is known as Cartography. Having or not having a map can symbolize many things, from being lost or found to who is the leader and who is the folower in a group ? i.e. who has the map, plan, etc. The symbolism goes deep into the structure of consciousnes, in that consciousness of man is cartographical in nature, that is, it is busy ?maping? new teritories and reviewing and revising the existing map, as oposed to the unmaped, complex, chaotic, and ?wild? space of the unconscious. In many knight tales the valiant knight rides his ajestic sted to the edge of the forest and stops. The dark wild space facing him is awesome and frightening, especialy because he knows that monsters lurk in those dark recesses. Beautiful maidens in high towers and ancient wise guides also live in the leafy complex of the forest. Al of that adventure is looming before the knight who pauses in front of the woods. Then the knight releases the reins of his steed, and unguided, the horse steps into the forest. The symbolism is clear - you can?t ?map? the adventure ? or it?s not an adventure. In this sense the pilgrimage is NOT an adventure tale. It is maped. There is a definite road with a specific destination. That it?s a pilgrim?s road implies that others, many others, have gone before. But it is important to note that one of the important themes that arise consistently in pilgrim tales is that no mater how ?mapped? the journey might be, the ?unknown? stil erupts in some way bringing the possibility of growth and transformation. You can look to your own experience with maps, mapping, and cartography to find examples. As a personal example from my own experience I offer this story. My partner and I were in Paris a few years ago and I convinced him to visit Pére Lachaise cemetery. I love cemeteries. They appeal to me on so many levels; lineage and history, art and beauty, loss and sadness, decay and POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 192 fecundity, shadows, spirits, and memory, al come together in one place for an experience that for me is strongly synaesthetic (that is encopassing al the aesthetic senses) and deply moving. And besides they are just so darned spoky! Guy, my partner, does not feel the same way about graveyards. He finds them to be rather depresing, and quite boring. It is true after al that most conversation and activity is decidedly one-sided and introspection is the rule. But, he went along with me to Pére Lachaise anyway?. ahhh the power of love! Pére Lachaise is truly a necropolis, a city of the dead within the living city of Paris, with it?s large shady avenues that wander for miles, esplanades, narow mysterious paths, forests, pools and fountains. Lining the sides of many of the broad avenues are elaborate family tombs, mausoleums, and monuments to dead family members. Literally, miles of mystery and pleasure for me ? not so much for Guy. As it turned out, we didn?t bring a map with us. I planned to just wander and discover whatever, or whomever, I might stumble upon. I knew that celebrated artists, writers, musicians, politicians, great men and women from every walk of life throughout European history were buried there. Just one example among countless fascinating stories would be, Abelard, the medieval monk who was castrated because of his strangely modern, and wonderfuly dangerous love affair, and Héloise, the object of his afection, and a woman whose writings about women and power would be at home in the 20 th century, were entombed there (they were originaly buried separately but were exhumed and brought together to rest finaly in this place). Other great ones buried there are Frederic Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Jim Morison, and the list is practicaly endles. As I stroled through along the strets poking my nose into tombs and mausoleums being moved, horrified, delighted, and generally having a wonderful time I didn?t notice Guy?s mounting frustration. Until it exploded! Chuckle? I was taken aback by his anger and we sat down on a convenient bench in the shadow of an ornate and hauntingly beautiful tomb and discussed what was happening. It turned out he needed a map ? the freform wandering with no apparent goal and undetermined timeframe was driving him to distraction. So, this was easily solved, we went and got a map and then as I wandered he kept track of where we were on the map. Both of us were satisfied and there in that vast City of the Dead we learned a rather important Life lesson. Guy neds a map, I don?t. Wel, to tel the truth. I ned and want a map once in a while? when feling ?lost? overwhelms me and then its nice to know there?s someone next to me that always caries one. And wel? Guy neds to be able to put the map in the backpack once in a while and let the adventure hapen and I am there to make that happen every once in a while. The Symbolism Of The Sacred ? Landscapes Another important thing to notice about pilgrimages is the landscape of the journey. Landscapes are deeply symbolic forms. Whether the pilgrim is going through a dark forest, a populous city, an endless desert, or a pastoral woodland, each represents various aspects of the journey through life, its hardships, pleasures, pains, and moments of ecstasy. What if the journey is down a river? If you are familiar with the films of Marilyn Monroe, you might recal ?The River of No-Return.? A sledgehamer-symbol of Life?s journey? a journey that canot be repeated. One fraught with dangers and filled with surprise and delight - a journey of self-discovery and maturation. As Marilyn?s character in the film finds meaning and purpose and struggles toward individuation and maturity the ever-changing nature of the river (broad, safe, and slow, to narow, dangerous, and rapid) reflects, symbolizes the stages of the psycholgical journey. Or broadening the perspective from the river to the sea (al rivers eventually must reach the sea) - the ?sea passage? is another example of the important symbolism of the environment. Once again it is only too obvious why the Titanic resonates so deeply within our cultural psyche. The mighty vesel alone on the vast dark ocean (microcosmic symbol of the earth floating in the vast dark sea of space), the division of peoples on board from poor, to working class, to merchant rich, to aristocrat all going about their business oblivious to the looming danger just ahead (echoes with deply shared felings of apocalypse: of ecological doom, biological doom, sociological doom, or even astrophysical destruction, as from collision with asteroids or comets). That the environment of the event is nightime on a vast, cold, and dep ocean resonates as symbolical of Modern Man?s (our) psychological and social landscape. The naiveté (not to mention hubris) of believing the ship to be unsinkable! (A fatal atitude inded) is certainly reflective of modern man?s (our) attitude toward what is only too quickly becoming his (our) fate. For the Greks (especialy in Greek theater), hubris, was an arogant pride toward the gods that always led to nemesis, or retributive justice, a downfal. In this sense the sinking of the Titanic speaks a powerfuly symbolic leson to the peoples of this amazingly fragile vesel known as Earth. What does the story tell us about POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 193 who and where we are and what might be the energies, the rites, rituals and practices, and the atitudes that might prevent the tragedy of apocalypse? (See the Earth Charter in the Supporting Material) (NOTE) The folowing is a synopsis of Starhawk?s, The Fifth Sacred Thing. A post-apocalyptic novel that touches on some of these themes. The Fifth Sacred Thing (ISBN 05373803) is a 193 post-apocalyptic novel writen by Starhawk. It describes a world set in the year 2048 after a catastrophe that has fractured the United States into at least several nations. The protagonists of the story are located in San Francisco and have evolved in the direction of Ecotopia, reverting to a sustainable economy, using wind power, local agriculture, and the like. To the south, though, an overtly-theocratic Christian fundamentalist nation has evolved and plans to wage war against the San Franciscans. The novel explores the events before and during the ensuing strugle betwen the two nations. The story is primarily told from the points of view of Maya, a 98-year-old woman living in San Francisco, her nominal grandaughter, Madrone, and her grandson Bird. Through Maya and the other characters, the story explores many elments from ecofeminism and ecotopian fiction. The name of the story is derived from the four elements of fire, earth, air, and water plus an additional element revealed as the plot unfolds. This novel erily predicts the recent eforts of corporations to control water; in recent years figureheads in Bolivia `sold` the nation`s water rights to Bechtel, a private corporation. The people rebeled and declared the sale both unethical and fundamentally impossible and created the Cochabamba declaration. In the novel, San Francisco is a mostly pagan city where the strets have been torn up for gardens and streams, no one starves or is homeless, and the city`s defense council consists primarily of nine elderly women who "listen and dream". The Symbolism Of The Sacred ? Scallop Shell The Scalop Shel has, since the Medieval period, ben a symbol of the Pilgrimage. We have seen this symbol in an earlier module conected to the Venus and representing female genitalia, the womb, and sacred space of creativity and generation. The Christians retranslated the pagan fertility symbol into a representation of the hope of resurection, and rebirth. Very early in the history of the Church the Scalop becomes asociated to one of the Apostles (or disciple) of Christ, James, the Son of Zebede. Perhaps this is because James and his brother John, were fisherman who plied their trade on the Sea of Galile. But, whatever the reason, the myth of James is that he eventualy ends up in Spain doing Misionary work for the young and growing, but stil at that time strongly persecuted Christian Faith. He is condemned, and beheaded, by Herod Agripa I in 4 AD and buried at Santiago de Compostella, a seacoast town on the Northwest coast of Spain. St. James is the Patron Saint of Spain. The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is built on the site of the Apostle?s tomb, which had ben, and remains a major pilgrimage site for Christians from antiquity. Wearing a scallop shell, or a representation of the scallop shel became a symbol of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and eventualy to pilgrimages in general. Recaling the time of the painting of the Birth of Venus by Sandro Boticelli, this symbolism would have been very strong with the European Christian culture of the period. Perhaps in this sense the shell would bring to mind the corect atitude with which to aproach the awesome quest of Beauty and Truth; that of the humble and devout pilgrim. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 194 (NOTE) The folowing is an extended exploration of the symbolism of the Scalop Shel and several variations. KTEIS Kteis is the Grek word meaning either scalop shel or female sexual organs. It most frequently is used in regard to the divine feminine or the Great Mother, Sophia. Sometimes the kteis is symbolized by the circle, as in the circle around the (male) cross in the celtic cros. Other times, it is symbolized by the vesica piscis. VESICA PISCIS The vesica piscis is a symbol made from two circles of the same radius, intersecting in such a way that the center of each circle lies on the circumference of the other. The name literaly means the bladder of the fish in Latin. In the Christian tradition, is is a reference to Christ, as in ichthys. It is caled a mandorla ("almond") in India and known in the early Mesopotamia African and Asian civilizations. Geometry The sybol is formed from the almond-shaped area in the overlap between the circles, as shown in black in the diagram ? for certain purposes also including the upper arcs as far as the edges of a rectangle whose sides coincide with the widest points of the almond (as shown in light blue in the diagram). The resulting figure looks like a stylized fish, or in the extended version like a flatened Grek leter alpha. Mystical and religious significance It has ben the subject of mystical speculation at several periods of history, perhaps first among the Pythagoreans, who considered it a holy POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 195 figure. The mathematical ratio of its width (measured to the endpoints of the "body", not including the "tail") to its height was reportedly believed by them to be 265:153. This ratio, equal to 1.73203, was thought of as a holy number, caled the measure of the fish. The geometric ratio of these dimensions is actually the square root of 3, or 1.73205.. (since if you draw straight lines connecting the centers of the two circles with each other, and with the two points where the circles intersect, then you get two equilateral triangles joined along an edge, as shown in light red in the diagram). The ratio 265:153 is an aproximation to the square rot of 3, with the property that no beter approximation can be obtained with smaler whole numbers. The number 153 apears in the Gospel of John as the exact number of fish Jesus caused to be caught in a miraculous catch of fish, which is thought by some to be a coded reference to Pythagorean beliefs. (Read about this conection below) Ichthys a symbol used by early Christians, more popularly known as the fish symbol is created by the almond shape and the light blue extension as seen in the Construction Diagram of the Vesica Pisces above. Uses of the shape Other uses of the shape include that by some early peoples of the almond-shaped central area as a representation of the female genitals, and the use of a similar (horizontally-oriented) fish symbol called the Ichthys by early Christians. In Christian art, some aureolas are in the shape of a verticaly-oriented vesica piscis, and the seals of ecclesiastical organizations can be enclosed within a verticaly-oriented vesica piscis (instead of the more usual circular enclosure). The most comon modern object based on the vesica piscis is the American footbal, which resembles the interior almond-shaped area of the vesica piscis swept about its long "axis" to produce a 3D object with rotational symmetry. MANDORLA In iconography, a Mandorla is an almond-shaped aureole that surounds the figure of Christ in traditional Christian art. Examples may be sen in icons of the transfiguration and other imagery. The symbol is also used in non-Christian contexts. CHALICE WEL Chalice el is a holy wel situated at the fot of Glastonbury Tor in the county of Somerset, England. The natural spring and surounding gardens are owned and managed by the Chalice Well Trust (registered charity no. 204206), founded by Welesley Tudor Pole in 1959. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 196 Archaeological evidence sugests that the wel has ben in almost constant use for at least two thousand years. Waters issues from the spring at a rate of 25,00 galons per day and has never failed, even during drought. Iron oxide deposits give water a reddish hue, as disolved ferrous oxide becomes oxygenated at the surface and is precipitated. Like the hot springs in nearby Bath, the water is believed to possess healing qualities. In adition to the legends asociated with Glastonbury, the Wel is often portrayed as a symbol of the female aspect of deity, with the male symbolized by Glastonbury Tor. As such, it is a popular destination for pilgrims in search of the divine feminine, including modern Pagans. Wels often feature in Welsh and Irish mythology as gateways to the spirit world. The overlaping of the iner and outer worlds is represented by the wel cover, designed by archaeologist Bligh Bond and presented as a gift in 1919. Two interlocking circles constitute the symbol known as the Vesica Piscis. A sword bisects these two circles, a posible reference to Excalibur, the sword of the legendary King Arthur, believed by some to be buried at the nearby Glastonbury Abbey. Christian mythology sugests that Chalice Wel marks the site where Joseph of Arimathea placed the chalice that had caught the drops of Christ's blod at the Last Super, linking the Wel to the wealth of speculation surounding the existence of the Holy Grail. The red of the water is also said by some Christians to represent the rusty iron nails used at the Crucifixion. Frequent events are held in the grounds of Chalice Wel including anual celebrations for the winter and sumer solstices FLOWER OF LIFE The Flower of Life is a geometrical figure composed of multiple evenly- spaced, overlaping circles, that are aranged so that they form a flower- like patern with a six-fold symetry like a hexagon. In other words, the center of each circle is on the circumference of six surounding circles of the same diameter. The Temple of Osiris at Abydos, Egypt contains the oldest to date example. It is carved in granite and may possibly represent the Eye of Ra a symbol of the authority of the pharaoh. Other examples can be found in Phoenician, Asyrian, Indian, Asian, Midle Eastern, and medieval art. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 197 A Flower of Life patern can be constructed with a pen, compas and paper, by creating multiple series of interlinking circles. In some renditions, the rosette on the unofficial flag of Padania is a partial version of the "flower of life" pattern. A rosete from the flower of life patern is also used as a basis for traditional Pensylvania Dutch building ornamentation. The Flower of Life patern contains the basis of Metatron's Cube. From this pattern, al five of the Platonic solids can be derived. CATCH OF 153 FISH The Catch of 153 fish is an episode in the appendix of the Gospel of John, in which seven of the Twelve Apostles were out fishing when they unexpectedly witness one of the resurection apearances of Jesus. In the narative, a mysterious stranger asks the apostles for fish, but when they say that they have none, the stranger tels the apostles to throw their net into the water, and the apostles are unable to pul it back due to the volume of fish. The narative goes on to state that the (unamed) beloved disciple identifies the stranger as Jesus, which causes Simon Peter to jump into the water, wraping his coat around him, while the others follow in their boat dragging the net behind them. The number of fish caught is specified to have ben 153. The precision of the number of fish has long ben considered peculiar, and many scholars, throughout history, have argued that 153 has some deeper significance. Jerome, for example, claimed that the Greeks had identified that there were exactly 153 species of fish in the sea (modern marine biology puts the figure as something over 29,00). Mathematicaly, 153 is a triangular number, more precisely it is the sum of the integer numbers from 1 to 17 inclusive; more significantly, 153 also has the rare property that it is the sum of the cubes of its own digits (i.e. 153 = 1x1x1 + 5x5x5 + 3x3x3). In the time of Pythagoras, 153 was most significant for being one of the two nubers in the closest fraction known, at the time, to the true value of the square rot of 3, the fraction in question being 265/153 (the difference betwen this and the square root of 3 is merely 0.0025......). This number frequently croped up in geometry, most notably in a simple shape known as the vesica piscis, Grek for the body of the fish (because the shape loks like the body of a stereotyped fish), and the ratio of 153:265 was consequently known throughout the Helenic world as the measure of the fish. The fact that the measure of the fish was known to include 153, as one of its two numbers, and that the measure of how many fish the disciples are said to have caught is also 153, has not gone unoticed by many scholars, with some sugesting that the number of fish in the New Testament episode is simply down to being the most familiar large number to the writer, or a deliberate reference to the geometric nomenclature as a sort of in-joke. It is significant that a story was told of Pythagoras, and later reported by Plato, that is very similar, even in wording, to the Biblical narative of this event; some scholars have argued that that the entire Biblical episode is a coded reference to a geometric diagram, since Pythagoreanism saw geometry and numbers as having deep esoteric meaning, and via Hermeticism (and more minor routes) it was profoundly influential in the development of Helenic mystery religions, and in certain aspects of Gnosticism, an early form of POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 198 Christianity. While such themes would be unusual if the New Testament was only intended to be taken literaly, several modern scholars, as wel as most ancient followers of Gnosticism, have argued that parts of the New Testament were written as gnostic documents. A diagram with significance to Pythagoreanism can be constructed easily by attepting to represent the biblical scene using simple geometric shapes, whose sizes and number are dictated by the numbers given in the text, as wel as by the Isopsephia values of significant words and short phrases in the narative (the Greks often wrote numbers by using leters of their alphabet - Isopsephia is the reverse system of working out what numbers are indicated by various words). The scene esentialy involves representing Simon Peter as a circle of the same radius as the Isopsephia of the Grek words translated as Simon Peter (in any unit), and the 6 other disciples as identical circles with a single point in comon and circumscribed by a circle representing the boat. Since Simon Peter is said by the narative to have entered the water in front of the disciples, in the diagram he is shown adjacent to the boat, with a chord representing his coat that has the same width as the Isopsephia of the Greek term translated as fisher's coat (in the same units as before), and with the shape of a vesica piscis divided in half along its length. The net is depicted on the opposite side to Simon Peter, by a symetrical 4x4 grid oriented so that only one point is in contact with the circle representing the ship (i.e. the grid is drawn as a rhombus), as if it had been thrown out by the ship and held only at the corner; the grid is adjusted so that it has 153:265 (the measure of the fish) as the ratio of distances between opposite corners, and has the same width as the Isopsephia of the Grek term translated as The Net. Despite the aparent simplicity of constructing the diagram, it has several aditional features that the re-enforce suggestions of the diagram being deliberately encoded in the text. The Isopsephia of the Grek term translated as The Net is exactly the same as that for Fishes, and by choosing a 4x4 grid, in addition to the body of the fish (i.e. vesica piscis) that exists for the net itself we also have 16 smaller bodies of fish, due to each cel in the grid being mathematically siilar to the net; by numbering each of these fish and ading up the numbers, we end up with the total of the numbers of the fish being 153, as in the biblical narrative. Also, the half vesica piscis representing Simon Peter's coat is one corresponding to the intersection of two circles of exactly the same size as the circle representing the boat, which is also true of a vesica piscis circumscribing the grid representing the net. The resulting diagram is mentioned in pre-Christian Pythagorean works, and is mentioned briefly in Plato's Timaeus; suposedly the uper portion, resembling depictions of emergence such as the sun emerging from the horizon, represented to the Pythagoreans the realm of the gods, while the central portion represented humanity, and the lower portion represented the shifting world of manifestation. The motif or symbol of the sacred journey refers to the truth of our experience with Life. One might ask the question; ?Are you pilgrim or tourist at the site of the transcendent mystery of the unfolding of Life.? Each moment life is unfolding not only in front of us, but we are the unfolding of life in our own becoming. What is that truth and how do we manifest that truth ? how do we honor that truth? Do we believe in Life? Ours is a strongly nihilistic culture. We believe so strongly in Death and fear Death to such an extent that we construct the primary focus of our experiences with Life in techniques and methodologies to avoid the knowledge of its constant presence. The privileging of the Rational, the Mind, POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 199 Scientific Knowledge and the ever-increasing development of technologies based on the extension of our physical selves without the balance of extending our understanding and connections to the iner world of our psyches and the intricate relationship of life on Earth has created our present conundrum. As we seem to spiral toward destruction ? seventy years is the time frame the leading Scientists tel us we wil have completely depleted the natural environment, creating basicaly an uninhabitable world. The question begs to be asked, ?How do we make the Earth a Sacred Place?? The Symbols Of The Sacred Earth Sacred Mountains Sacred mountains are literally called the mons veneris of Mother Earth. They symbolize the generative powers of the Earth. In some cosmolgies, the Hopi, for instance, mankind is born inside the Earth and crawls out onto the surface at the top of a mountain. The sacred mountain is the cosmic center on which a temple or city is built. It is the spot nearest to the supreme sky god, where the word of god is received (cosmic energy ? the Law). Examples of sacred mountains would be: Mount Parnasus for the Grek ? the home of the Olympian gods, the Golden Mountain Meru in India where Shiva sits, the Acropolis where the godess Athena built her temple and founded her city Athens, Mount Sinai the mountain where Moses receives the 10 comandments, and from the story of Christ the mountain where Jesus is transfigured and, of course, Golgotha, the place of the crucifixion. Even on a phenomenal, physical level there is a change of perspective from the top of a hil or mountain. Vistas open to the viewer, that were not known before. This is a beautiful metaphor for the mystic vision or perspective that ses things unknown, or not sen by a normal perspective. When someone gets lost often the solution is to climb to a high place to find your bearing, to see where you are. Sacred Cities Cities in general are humanity?s stand against Chaos. The city is feminine in nature like so many other man-made constructs. The sacred city is a representation of nourishment and protection. The gateways of the city must be guarded against potential invaders, conected to the idea that the city is our ?mother? and her fal or corruption is among the most moving of tragedies. Examples would be, Troy and the Greek gift of the great horse. Historical Jerusalem, sacred to Christian, Muslim, and Jew, she remains magnificent through blod and tears. Thebes, the Grek capital of the god-fated family Orestes is stil haunted by her guardian sphinx. Of course, Uruk, the most ancient city of all, and therefore the mother of al cities. There are the cities of our dreams: Camelot ? golden in the sun, full of hope and promise and Oz ? emerald gem, the destination of travelers of yelow brick roads. Sacred to al the Greks and the very center of the Grek world is the city of Delphi which is the omphalos or navel of the earth and the sun god Apolo?s oracle city. (NOTE) An omphalos is a religious stone artifact in the ancient world. In Grek, the word omphalos means "navel". Most acounts locate the Omphalos in the temple adyton near the Pythia. The stone itself (which may have been a copy) has a carving of a knotted net covering the stone, and has a holow centre, widening to the base of the stone. According to the ancient Greks, Zeus sent out two eagles to fly acros the world to met at its center, the "navel" of the world. Omphalos stones to denote this point were erected in several areas surounding the Mediteranean Sea, the most famous of those was at the oracle in Delphi. Erwin Rohde wrote that the Python at Delphi was an earth spirit, who was conquered by Apolo, and buried under the Omphalos, and that it is a case of one god seting up his temple on the grave of another. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 200 Omphalos stones were said to alow direct comunication with the gods. Leicester Holland (1933) has suggested that the stone was hollow to chanel intoxicating vapors breathed by the Oracle. Christian destruction of the site in the 4th century at the order of Emperors Theodosius and Arcadius makes al sugestions about its use tentative. Sacred Temples The Sacred Temple is a microcosmic version of the city. It is also gendered feminine and is representative of the Mother Mountain. It is a symbol of the maternal womb into which the hero enters and plants his sed. In the case of Christ it is the sacred womb of Mary (Notre Dame) that produces the hero, made manifest in the ?flower? of the Rose Window. Another example would be Cathedrals in which the actual body of Christ is symbolized on the horizontal plane of the cruciform style of architecture. In the cathedral this male horizontal symbolism is joined with the verticality of the Mother Mountain on the vertical plane. This could be sen as an architectural depiction of the union of the hero and mother/wife. The connotation of the Mother Church which connects with the notion of the Church as the Bride of the Lamb Two symbols from the interior of the cathedral are, the feminine font into which the Pascal candle is plunged on Holy Saturday (?O felix culpa? ? Oh hapy fault). Secondly, the feminine altar-tomb-throne that is the place of the lover-god?s sacrifice. It is from the altar-table that the high priest offers the broken body of the hero for ritualized canibal consumption during the Eucharist. Various examples would be; the pyramids of Egypt, the Zigurat of Babylon at the top of which the King maries the Godes, the Chapel Perilous where Galahad rediscovers the blod vesel, The Holy Grail. Galhad is a representation of the Puer Aeternus ? the eternal child. Jesus on Mary?s lap, and today?s lost boy, Peter Pan are other examples of the Puer. The feminine equivalent is the Puela Aeterna. (NOTE) Puer Aeternus is Latin for Eternal Boy. In Jungian Analytical Psychology, examples of the puer archetype include the child, young boy or adolescent. The term can also be applicable to females in which case the Latin terminology is Puela. Puer Aeternus: A Psychological Study of the Adult Strugle With the Paradise of Childhod and The Problem of the Puer Aeternus are boks that Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz wrote about a specific instance of the archetype, the puer aeternus (or "eternal youth"), which includes such figures as Peter Pan and The Litle Prince in the book of the same name by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Mozart as portrayed in the movie Amadeus demonstrates the puer archetype. The antithetical archetype, or enantiodromic oposite, of the puer is the senex. In Jungian analytical psycholgy, examples of the senex archetype in a positive form include the old wise man or wizard. The senex may also apear in a negative form as a devouring father (e.g. Ouranos, Chronos) or a dodering fol. Sacred Gardens, Groves, and Caves These wonderful places are asociated with the Mother Godes. They are the places of the birth of the Hero: The Nativity Cave of Jesus, Mithras, the Buddha, Dionysus as wel as Zeus al conected strongly to caves. Gardens and groves are places of withdrawal for meditation: Muhammad, Endymion, Jesus in Gethsemene. They are enclosed, protective places, the hortus conclusus of Mary. As metaphors for the construction of Cosmos in the face of Chaos, they are sometimes represented as the garden of the creation as in Eden. Cosmic Trees are often found in these creation gardens. Another version of union in the Hindu tradition of Lingam-Yoni. The Lingam- Yoni is usualy symbolized by two stones that sit, one on-top-of the other. The Lingam POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 201 (top) stone is usualy long, phalic in shape and represents the male. The Yoni (bottom) stone is the base or foundation in which the Lingam sits and it usualy round or circular with an indentation or concavity in which the Lingam rests. It is the same symbology as the Chinese Tai Chi symbol known as the Yin-Yang. Sacred Tres Sacred or Cosmic Tres are symbols of the Axis Mundi, which bring together the temporal and the eternal. They are symbols of life and wholeness. Examples of Sacred Tres would be: the Cros of Christ and the Bodhi Tre of Budha, Osiris, the father god of the Egyptians is found in a tree by his Sister/Wife Isis, and the same with Adonis, the beautiful child of Myrna and lover of Aphrodite who was born of a Myrh (mother) tree. Beautiful Ygdrasil of the Icelandic peoples, one of the most famous of the cosmic tres is the tre of Wisdom and Knowledge but also the Tre of Life. The tre in the Garden of Eden is also known as the source of Knowledge as wel as of Death. It is the precursor (Christian) to the Tree of Life and synonymous with the cros upon which Christ was crucified in order to complete the cosmogonic round of Christian symbolism. Therefore as the ?Second Adam,? he overcame death, and ofers atonement as the sacrificial, dying and rising Hero. This is directly related to the Osirian scriptures of redemption and atonement and to the story of Woton whose sacrifice on Yggdrasil represents the atonement/redemption matrix for the Icelandic peoples. The Power Of Labyrinths The Labyrinth is a major symbol of the sacred journey. One form of labyrinth represents the dificult journey into the Unknown. To escape from the Labyrinth, and the monster within, is to have faced death and been reborn: the stories of Theseus and the Minotaur and Daedalus and his son Icarus are examples. There is something about a labyrinth that atracts lovers of analogy. Over the centuries, they have likened the journey through the labyrinth to virtually every mysterious or circuitous process you care to name including: Birth, Sex, Politics, Psychoanalysis, Life, the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the life of Jesus, the descent into sin, the ascent to heavenly glory, and of course, Bacacio?s ?labyrinth of love? (a popular concept of the 14 th century). Seventeenth century?s love of out-door labyrinths recreate in their mysterious mazes, the hide and sek of seduction. Acording to mythologist Keith Critchlow, ?The labyrinth is a model of spiritual cosmology that is quite unrecognizable to the modern mentality since this understanding disappeared after the acceptance of Descartes? world view and the split of the mind/body/spirit.? Many people believe the labyrinth is a divine imprint. From the Jungian perspective they are universal patterns created in the realm of the collective unconscious (archetype), birthed through the human psyche and passed down from the dim reaches of prehistory. Labyrinths are wonderfully mysterious spaces because we don?t know the origin of the design. Certain labyrinth designs represent the oposite of the mysterious and dangerous, monster filed space of Theseus. These designs provide a space that alows openess, clarity, and understanding. Such ?peaceful? labyrinths are unicursal, that is POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 202 there is one path that leads from the outside to the center and then back out again. The other kind of labyrinth, the dangerous maze of the Hero, are multicursal, that is there are many paths one may chose ? though usualy one wil lead to the center. The other paths lead to cul-de-sacs and dead ends and prove to be chalenging to the intelect. Unicursal labyrinths do not chalenge the intelect, their purpose is in fact the oposite ? that is to encourage meditation, to invite the intuitive and pattern (symbol)-seeking aspect of mind to emerge. The parts of the unicursal labyrinth are: ? The Center which is sometimes caled the rosete. It is a symbol of Mary, Isis, Aphrodite/Venus and is conected to beauty and love. It is also the symbol of the midpoint of the lunar (life) cycle: when the mon is ful - and the sun, as it is setting, and the mon, as it is rising mirror one another with equal luminosity on the horizon. The labyrinth in the Gothic cathedral is architecturaly squared to a 45 degree angle to the Rose Window (symbol of Mary) in the Eastern façade. The Circle symbolizes the cosmic center. ? The Labrys are the turns from which the name Labyrinth comes. Usualy conected to the symbol of the double headed axe of the Minoan civilization, it is a sign of the feminine power, a sign of the mother. ? The Lunations are the simi-circles and cusps that suround the labyrinth design. These are not just decorative and point to one of the early uses of the Labyrinth as a lunar calendaring system (remember the moon and the cycle of life patterns). The moon is always symbolic of female energies, female space, female powers. The mon, the night and the subconscious are good symbols to apply here as well. ? In some labyrinth designs there is an Invisible thirteen point star that acts as a pattern that holds the unicursal labyrinth together, for example the labyrinth at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and at Chartres Cathedral in Chartres, France. It is against this interior patern that all measurements are made. Thirten is a prime number only divisible by itself and one and is therefore ireducible and symbolic of the Prime Mover in Grek thought. It is related to Pythagorean ratios upon which the architecture of Chartres Cathedral is constructed. It is the number of Christ because ? 12 (disciples) + 1 = 13. There are also thirten ful mons each year. Thirten is the number of death/transformation. The thirtenth card of the Tarot system is the Death card, which is the great card of transformation and change. Echoing the fotsteps of milions of pilgrims over the milenia it is god to remember what Saint Augustine said, ?Solvitur ambulando? (It is solved by walking). To walk the unicursal labyrinth is a three part process. These three aspects of the journey are known as the Three-Fold Path. ? Purgation: This is the walk from the entrance of the labyrinth to the center. It represents the first part of the mystical path. The purpose of this first leg of the journey is to purge, to release, to empty, to quiet. I like to think of it as a sheding, as a snake sheds its skin. ? Illumination: This is the moment of experiencing the center. It represents the second part of the mystical path. Often, for the labyrinth walker, it is a surprise to reach the center, because the path to it is sems rather ?ilogical.? As you folowed the path in, you were led back and forth, closer to the center and then farther from the center to the outside edge of the labyrinth. The ?experience? of the center is being fuly present in the moment. This ?being fuly present in the moment? is the key to realizing the potential of time. The future and past are constructs within the mind of man, the only real time is THE MOMENT you are in NOW. But the totality of our lives, especially in modern culture and society, is spent in future planning or thinking of past events and experiences. To be able to forget all of that and be fuly in the moment of existence is a rare gift. It is indeed the gift of the sacred path of the unicursal labyrinth form. The Ilumination, or Center, symbolizes the clearing in the forest, the center of the garden (exactly where the Tree of Knowledge stands) ? Union: Finaly, the last leg of the journey is the walk from the center out to the exit of the labyrinth. It represents the third part of the mystical path, that is, reconnecting to the outside world: comunion, rentry, and integration of insight found along the way. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 203 What is the diference betwen a tourist and a pilgrim? The Tourist comes with an ?interested eye? The pilgrim comes with a ?searching heart? For the most part the experience of the labyrinth is determined through these two atitudes. Conclusion On the journey of life there are various kinds of people. The atitude with which the traveler approaches the journey determines the kind of journey it is. The ?tourist? is someone determined to have nice time with map in hand and the journey well planned. H(er) eyes wil be turned outward focusing on the stuff scenery going by. The ?pilgrim,? on the other hand, wil be someone who aproaches the journey of Life quite diferently. The gaze of the pilgrim is inward, meditative. S(he) wil follow the path intuitively, folowing h(er) heart and expecting transformative experience. Growth and transformation are the goal of the pilgrimage. The unicursal labyrinth as an archetypal pattern of the journey of transformation can be studied for guidance and inspiration. The thre steps to walking the labyrinth of meditation and rebirth (purgation, ilumination, and union) echo the iner thre steps of the pilgrimage (the journey, the experience, and the return). The outer steps of the pilgrimage are implied in the labyrinth experience even though they sem not to be emphasized. The preparation through some symbolic or ritual of cleansing is a step that determines the walking of the labyrinth wil be truly transformative. Finally, the aspect of belief underlines the iportance of the pilgrimage and the labyrinth forms as archetypal paterns for a life well lived. At the end of life to be able to lok back over the journey and be able to say, ?yes, that was a wel- lived, authentic, and worthy experience,? requires belief in the journey. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 204 VOCABULARY Stonehenges: Ancient sacred site of the Stone Age peoples made of large standing stones aranged in circular and linear paterns Shinto: A native religion of Japan and was once its state religion. It is a form of animism. It involves the worship of kami, gods. Some kami are local and can be regarded as the spiritual being/spirit or genius of a particular place, but others represent major natural objects and processes. Shinto is comonly translated as "the Way of the Gods". Amaterasu: (Japanese) the Sun godes. As such, Temple of Karnak: Center of worship in Ancient Egypt from the 20 th century BC Lascaux caves: Ancient sacred site of the Paleolithic peoples ? paintings on the cave wals represent the very dawn of homo sapiens (?the one who knows, or thinks?) Shakti: (Indian) Divine female energy Caunotaucarius: (Seneca) George Washington?s Native American name meanig ?Town Destroyer? Pilgrimage Sacred journey sometime voluntary, often proscribed by Religious belief with the destination usualy being a sacred site of some kind Excomunication: To cut of someone from participation in a religion, especially in its sacraments. Count Fulk: Medieval siner whose penance was a triple pilgrimage to Jerusalem Sacrosant: Reverenced or respected and therefore secure from violation or damage Pilgrim: Someone with an open and searching heart Tourist: Someone with a focused and interested eye Macrocosm: The universe with its stars, planets and signs of the zodiac, the world and its entirety. Microcosm: Opposite of the Macrocosm, the world in its particulars, particularly man Boethius: (Roman) Philosopher, writer who represented the macrocosmic- microcosmic view in man being the miror of the world and vice versa, the world is a reflection of man Kteis: The Grek word meaning either scalop shel or female sexual organs. It most frequently is used in regard to the divine feinine or the Great Mother, Sophia. Sometimes the kteis is symbolized by the circle, as in the circle around the (male) cros in the celtic cros. Other times, it is symbolized by the vesica piscis. The vesica piscis a symbol made from two circles of the same radius, intersecting in such a way that the center of each circle lies on the circumference of the other. The name literally means the bladder of the fish in Latin. In the Christian tradition, is is a reference to Christ, as in ichthys. It is caled a mandorla ("almond") in India and known in the early Mesopotamia African and Asian civilizations. Ichthys: (Greek: also transliterated and latinized as ichthys, icthus, ichthus or ikhthus; ichthus, speled: Iota Chi Theta Upsilon Sigma), is the Grek word for "fish." In English it refers to a symbol consisting of two intersecting arcs resembling the profile of a fish, used by early Christians as a secret symbol and is now known colloquially as the "Jesus fish." Ichthus is an acronym, which is a word formed from the initial leters of the several words in the name. It compiles to "Jesus Christ God's Son is Savior." Pythagoras: (Greek) Philosopher, hero, the ?father? of Mathematics and Music Zodiac: A band of the sky containing the paths of sun, moon, and principal planets, divided into twelve equal parts (called signs of the zodiac) each named from a constelation that was formerly situated in it. Cartography: The art of map making Pére Lachaise: A wonderful cemetery in Paris POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 205 Scalop Shel: Pagan symbol: fertility ? Christian symbol ? hope of resurection and rebirth ? pilgrimage symbol St James: (The Great) Apostle of Christ, one of the Sons of Zebede ? was martyred and buried in Spain, The patron saint of Spain Santiago de Compostela: Pilgrimage destination, the Cathedral houses the tomb of St. James Mandorla: an almond-shaped aureole that surounds the figure of Christ in traditional Christian art. Examples may be sen in icons of the transfiguration and other imagery. The symbol is also used in non- Christian contexts. Mons Veneris: Sacred Mountain Sacred Mountains: The generative powers of the Earth Sacred Cities: Humanity?s stand against Chaos Delphi: Sacred City to the Greks ? it was the center of their cosmolgy because it contained the omphalos ? the ?Zeus stone? regurgitated by Cronos the Titan. Omphalos: The ?navel? of the world ? an axis mundi in the form of a stone as in the stone at Delphi. The Pole star is sometimes thought of as the omphalos of the sky around which al the heavens seem to rotate. Sacred Temple: Microcosmic version of the Sacred City, the aternal womb Zigurat: A steped temple structure of the ancient Midle East on the top of which the ritual mariage of King and Godes takes place Puer Aeternus: The Divine (Eternal) Child ? the feminie: Puela Aeterna Lingam-Yoni: (Hindu) Symbol of the marriage of oposites, balnce, Male/female, Yin- Yang, usualy represented by two stones, one long the other round Sacred Tres: Axis Mundi ? symbolizes the joinig of the temporal and the eternal. Sacred tres conect the 3 worlds of the cosmos (Hel, Earth, and Heaven) Labyrinth: Symbol of the journey, there are two types: unicursal labyrinths that have one path from beginning to the center, and multicursal labyrinths that have multiple paths one of which usualy leads to the center. Maze: A multicursal labyrinth Labyrinth Parts: Center, or rosete, symbol of Mary, the cosmic center Labrys, or turns, represent the double-headed axe of the Minoan civilization, a sign of feminie power and the mother Lunations, simi-circles and cusps surounding the labyrinth, a lunar calendaring system 13-point Star, Prime or God number, the symbol of transformation Solvitur ambulando: It is solved by walking ? St. Augustine Thre Fold Path: Purgation ? First leg of journey. From begining to Center. To purge, release, or shed Illumination ? Second leg of journey. The center. To experience the Now Union ? Last leg of journey. From center to the exit. To reconect, reentry, the integration of insight Hubris (Greek) an arrogant pride toward the gods Nemesis (Greek) where hubris always leads ? to retributive justice or downfal POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 206 SUPPORTING MATERIAL SHINTO From Wikipedia Early history A number of theories exist about the ancestors of today's Japanese. Most scholars acept there was migration from central Asia and to a leser extent from Indonesia, though there is no consensus as to where Shinto first developed. Nationalists claim that it has always existed, back into the mists of the Jomon age. Others maintain that it came about in the Yayoi period as the result of imigrants from China and Korea, who brought agricultural rites and shamanic ceremonies from the continent that took on Japanese forms in the new environment. Some modern scholars now claim that "Shinto" as it is presently understood did not exist in this age at all and should be more properly referred to as 'kami worship'. In the early centuries BCE, each tribe and area had its own colection of gods with no formal relationship between them. However, following the ascendancy of the Yamato Kingdom around the third to fifth centuries, the ancestral deities of its Emperor of Japan (Imperial family) were given prominence over others and a narrative made up to justify it. The result was the mythologizing of Kojiki (Record of Ancient Maters, 712) in which it was claimed that the imperial line descended directly from the sun-goddess Herself. Another important kingdo, Izumo, was dealt with in a separate cycle within the mythology and its deities incorporated into service of Amaterasu's descendants. A more objective and historical version of events appeared in Nihon Shoki (The Chronicles of Japan, 720), where alternative versions of the same story are given. Early ceremonies were held outside before copses or sacred rocks (Iwakura). There was no representation of the kami, for they were conceived as formles and pure. After the arrival of Budhism in the sixth century, the idea of building 'houses' for the kami arose and shrines were built for the first tie. The earliest examples are thought to have ben at Izumo (659) and Ise (690). An important development was the introduction of the Ritsuryo System in the late seventh and early eighth centuries, based on the Chinese system. This established in law the supremacy of the emperor and great nobles, as wel as formalising their relationship to major shrines and festivals. Even before the arival of Budhism, the rituals involved in kami worship had borowed from Chinese Taoism and Confucianism. Though clan rivalry led to friction and fighting during the introduction of Budhism, the worship of kami and the teachings of the Budha son setled down into coexistence. In fact, syncretism betwen Budhism and Shinto was to become the dominant feature of Japanese religion as a whole. Shinto and Budhism The introductions of writing in the 5th century and Budhism in the 6th century had a profound impact on the development of a unified system of Shinto beliefs. Within a brief period of time, in the early Nara period, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki were written by compiling existing myths and legends into a unified account. These accounts were writen with two purposes in mind. First, the introduction of Taoist, Confucian, and Buddhist themes into Japanese religion. Second, to shore up support for the legitimacy of the Imperial house, based on its lineage from the Sun Godes Amaterasu. Much of the area of modern Japan was under only fragmentary control by the Imperial family, and rival ethnic groups (including, perhaps, the ancestors of the Ainu people) continued to war against the encroachment of the Japanese. The mythological anthologies, along with other poetry anthologies like the Manyoshu and others, were al meant to impress others with the worthiness of the Imperial family and their divine mandate to rule. With the introduction of Budhism and its rapid adoption by the court, it was necesary to explain the apparent diferences between native Japanese beliefs and Buddhist teachings. Inded, Shinto did not POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 207 have a name until it became necessary to distinguish it from Buddhism. One explanation saw the Japanese kami as supernatural beings stil caught in the cycle of birth and rebirth. The kami are born, live, die, and are reborn like al other beings in the karmic cycle. However, the kami played a special role in protecting Budhism and allowing its teachings of compasion to flourish. This explanation was later chalenged by Kukai, who saw the kami as diferent ebodiments of the Budhas themselves. For example, he famously linked Amaterasu, Sun Goddess and ancestor of the Imperial family, with Dainichi Nyorai, a central anifestation of the Budha, whose name is literaly "Great Sun Budha". In his view, the kami were just Budhas by another name. Budhism and Shinto coexisted and were amalgamated in the Shinbutsu Shugo and Kukai's syncretic view held wide sway up until the end of the Edo period. At that time, there was a renewed interest in "Japanese studies" (kokugaku), perhaps as a result of the closed country policy. In the 18th century, various Japanese scholars, in particular Motori Norinaga (1730?1801), tried to tease apart the "real" Shinto from various foreign influences. The atempt was largely unsucesful; since as early as the Nihon Shoki, parts of the mythology were explicitly borowed from Chinese doctrines. (For example, the co- creator deities Izanai and Izanagi are explicitly compared to yin and yang.) However, the atempt did set the stage for the arival of state Shinto, folowing the Meiji Restoration, when Shinto and Budhism were separated (Shinbutsu bunri). State Shinto Folowing the Meiji Restoration, Shinto was made the oficial religion of Japan, and in 1868 its combination with Budhism was outlawed. During this period, it was felt by numerous scholars of kokugaku that Shinto was neded in order to unify the country around the Eperor as the process of modernization was undertaken with al posible sped. The psychological shock of the Western "Black Ships" and the subsequent colapse of the shogunate convinced many that the nation neded to band together if it was going to resist being colonized by outside forces. As a result, Shinto was used as a tool for promoting Emperor (and Empire) worship, and Shinto was exported into conquered territories like Hokaido and Korea. In 1871, a Ministry of Divinities was formed and Shinto shrines were divided into twelve levels with the Ise Shrine (dedicated to Amaterasu, and thus symbolic of the legitimacy of the Imperial family) at the peak and small sanctuaries of humble towns at the base. The folowing year, the ministry was replaced with a new Ministry of Religion, charged with leading instruction in "shushin" (moral courses). This was a major reverse from the Edo period, in which families were registered with Budhist temples, rather than Shinto shrines. Priests were oficialy nominated and organized by the state, and they instructed the youth in a form of Shinto theology based on the official history of divinity of Japan's national origins and its Emperor. As time went on, Shinto was increasingly used in the advertising of nationalists' popular sentiments. In 1890, the "Imperial Rescript on Education" was passed, and students were required to ritually recite its oath to "ofer yourselves courageously to the State" as well as protect the Imperial family. The practice of Emperor worship was also further spread by distributing imperial portraits for esoteric veneration. All of these practices were used to fortify national solidarity through patriotic centralized observance at shrines. This use of Shinto gave to Japanese patriotism a special tint of mysticism and cultural introversion, which became more pronounced as time went on. Such proceses continued depening until the Showa Period, before coming to an abrupt halt in August 1945. Post-war The era of State Shinto came to an abrupt close with the end of World War I. Son after the war, the Emperor isued a statement renouncing his claims to the status of "living god" (Arahitogami). In the aftermath of the war, most Japanese came to believe that the hubris of Empire had led to their downfal. Lust for foreign territory blinded their leaders to the importance of their homeland. In the post-war period, numerous "New Religions" croped up, many of them ostensibly based on Shinto, but on the whole, POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 208 Japanese religiosity may have decreased. However, the concept of religion in Japan is a complex one. A survey conducted in the mid-70's indicated that of those participants who claimed not to believe in religion, one-third had a Budhist or Shinto altar in their home, and about one quarter caried an o- mamori (an amulet to gain protection by kami) on their person. Folowing the war, Shinto has, for the most part, persisted with less importance placed on mythology or the divine mandate of the Imperial family. Instead, shrines tend to focus on helping ordinary people gain better fortunes for themselves through maintaining god relations with their ancestors and other kami. Post-war, the number of Japanese citizens identifying their religious beliefs as Shinto has declined a god deal, yet the general practice of Shinto rituals has not decreased acordingly, and many practices have persisted as general cultural beliefs (such as ancestor worship, which is stil very popular), superstitions, and community matsuri - focusing more on religious practices and items than principles. The explanation generaly given for this anomaly is that, following the demise of State Shinto, Shinto has reverted to its more traditional position as a folk religion which is culturaly ingrained, rather than enforced. In any case, Shinto and its values continue to be an important component of the Japanese cultural mindset. Shinto has also reached the shores of North Aerica where the first non-Japanese Shinto priests have ben ordained. A relatively smal number of people practice Shinto in America. Definition Shinto can be sen as a form of animism and may be regarded as a variety of shamanist religion. Shinto beliefs and ways of thinking are deeply embedded in the subconscious fabric of modern Japanese society. The afterlife is not a primary concern in Shinto, and much more emphasis is placed on fiting into this world, instead of preparing for the next. Shinto has no binding set of dogma, no holiest place for worshipers, no person or kami demed holiest, and no defined set of prayers. Instead, Shinto is a colection of rituals and methods meant to mediate the relations of living humans to kami. These practices have originated organicaly in Japan over a span of many centuries and have been influenced by Japan's contact with the religions of other nations, especialy China. Notice, for example, that the word Shinto is itself of Chinese origin and that much of the codification of Shinto mythology was done with the explicit aim of answering Chinese cultural influence. Conversely, Shinto had and continues to have an impact on the practice of other religions within Japan. In particular, one could even make a case for discussing it under the heading of Japanese Buddhism, since these two religions have exercised a profound influence on each other throughout Japanese history. Further, the Japanese "New religions" that have emerged since the end of the Second World War have also shown a clear Shinto influence. Some fel Shinto was used as a legitimising ideology during the militaristic phase of Japanese history folowing the Meiji Restoration. Because Shinto has no absolute source of authority, some feel what was a natural expression of the beliefs of the people was hijacked by radical Nationalists, who desired to unify the Japanese people against the "inferior" people in other nations. Others wonder if the emphasis Shinto places on Japanese exceptionalism ade such developments inevitable. Even today, some far right factions within Japanese society want to se a greater emphasis placed on Shinto and increased reverence shown to the Emperor as part of a project to restore Japan to its "rightful place" as the leading nation of the world. However, for most Japanese, Shinto is not about expressing disdain for other nations but expressing one's own love of the natural landscape of Japan and the people and spirits that reside within it. Types In order to distinguish betwen these diferent focuses of emphasis within Shinto, many fel it is important to separate Shinto into different types of Shinto expresion. ? Shrine Shinto is the oldest and most prevalent of the Shinto types. It has always ben a part of Japan's history and constitutes the main curent of Shinto tradition. ? Sect Shinto is comprised of thirten groups formed during the 19th century. They do not have shrines, but conduct religious activities in meting hals. Shinto sects include the mountain- POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 209 worship sects, who focus on worshipping mountains like Mt. Fuji, faith-healing sects, purification sects, Confucian sects, and Revival Shinto sects. Konkokyo,Tenrikyo,Kurozumikyo,although operating separately from odern Shinto, is considered to be a form of Sect Shinto. ? Folk Shinto includes the numerous but fragmented folk beliefs in deities and spirits. Practices include divination, spirit posesion, and shamanic healing. Some of their practices come from Taoism, Budhism, or Confucianism, but some come from ancient local traditions. ? State Shinto was the result of the Meiji dynasty's restoration and the downfal of the shogunate. The Meiji atempted to purify Shinto by abolishing many Budhist and Confucian ideals; also, the emperor was once again considered divine. After Japan's defeat in World War I, State Shinto was abolished and the emperor was forced to renounce his divine right. Characteristics The most imediately striking theme in the Shinto religion is a great love and reverence for nature. Thus, a waterfal, the moon, or just an oddly shaped rock might come to be regarded as a kami; so might charismatic persons or more abstract entities like growth and fertility. As time went by, the original nature- worshiping rots of the religion, while never lost entirely, became attenuated and the kami took on more reified and anthropomorphic forms, with a formidable corpus of myth atached to them. The kami, though, are not transcendent deities in the usual Western and Indian sense of the word - although divine, they are close to us; they inhabit the same world as we do, make the same mistakes as we do, and fel and think the same way as we do. Those who died would automaticaly be aded to the rank of kami regardles of their human doings. (Though it is thought that one can become a ghost under certain circustances involving unsetled disputes in life.) Belief is not a central aspect in Shinto, and proper observation of ritual is more important than whether one "truly believes" in the ritual. Thus, even those believing other religions ay be venerated as kami after death, if there are Shinto believers who wish them to be. This transmogrification after death creates ambiguities that are being debated even today amid the controversy surounding curent Japanese Prie Minister Junichiro Koizumi's anual visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japanese war-dead. While the visits are widely viewed as an act of political swager on the part of Japanese conservatives who eschew expressions of regret for past Japanese military agresion - and take place against the backdrop of historic reasertions of Japanese militarism by the current government - some Japanese, even liberals and moderates, wonder if oposition to the visits is based on a misunderstanding of Japanese spirituality. (These explain that there is a kind of "apotheosis" when deceased become kami; since Japan's war-dead are already kami, then, paying respects to their spirits at the shrine is not the same as honoring specific acts during their lives.) This view, naive at best, may have some foundation but is not shared by Japanese neighbors who have ben on the receiving end of Japanese ilitary aggression - though their oposition bears clear signs of political manipulation from governments in East Asia especialy and these complicate any easy condenation of this politicization of Japanese Shinto taking place on the contemporary international stage. Practices and teachings Afterlife Unlike many religions, one does not ned to publicly profes belief in Shinto to be a Shintoist. Whenever a child is born in Japan, a local Shinto shrine adds the child's name to a list kept at the shrine and declares him or her "Ujiko", literally named child. After death an "Ujiko" becomes an "Ujigami"; literaly, named kami. One may chose to have one's name aded to another list when moving and then be listed at both places. Names can be added to the list without consent and regardless of the beliefs of the person added to the list. However, this is not considered an imposition of belief, but a sign of the welcome of the POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 210 area kami, with the promise of addition to the pantheon of kami after death. Those children who die before addition to the list are caled "Mizuko", literally water child, and believed to cause troubles and plagues. "Mizuko" are often worshipped in a Shinto shrine dedicated to stiling their anger and sadness. These shrines have become more popular with the growth of abortion in modern Japan. Because Shinto has co-existed with Buddhism for well over a milennium, it is very dificult to untangle Shinto and Budhist beliefs about the world. One might say that where Budhism emphasizes the afterlife and ending the cycle of rebirths; Shinto emphasizes this life and finding happiness within it. Though Budhism and Shinto have very diferent perspectives on the world, most Japanese do not see any chalenge in reconciling these two very diferent religions, and practice both. Thus it is comon for people to practice Shinto in life yet have a Budhist funeral. Their different perspectives on the afterlife are sen as complementing each other, and frequently the ritual practice of one wil have an origin in the other. Four afirmations Though Shinto has no absolute comandments for its adherents outside of living "a simple and harmonious life with nature and people", there are said to be "Four Afirmations" of the Shinto spirit: ? Tradition and the family: The family is sen as the main mechanism by which traditions are preserved. Their main celebrations relate to birth and mariage. ? Love of nature: Nature is sacred; to be in contact with nature is to be close to the kami. Natural objects are worshiped as containig sacred spirits. ? Physical cleanlines: Folowers of Shinto take baths, wash their hands, and rinse out their mouth often. ? "Matsuri": Any festival dedicated to the Kami, of which there are many each year. Impurity Shinto teaches that certain deds create a kind of ritual impurity that one should want cleansed for one's own peace of mind and good fortune, not because impurity is wrong in and of itself. Wrong deds are caled kegare (literaly, "dirtines"), oposed to kiyoe (purity). Normal days are caled ke (day), and festive days are caled hare (suny, or simply god). Kiling living beings should be done with reverence for taking a life to continue one's own, and should be kept to a minimum. Modern Japanese continue to place great emphasis on the importance of aisatsu, or ritual phrases and gretings. Before eating, most (though not al) Japanese say "itadakimasu" ("I wil humbly receive [this fod]") in order to show proper thankfulnes to the preparer of the meal in particular and more generaly to al those living things that lost their lives to make the meal. Failure to show proper respect can be sen as a lack of concern for others, looked down on because it is believed to create problems for all. Those who fail to take into acount the feelings of other people and kami wil only bring ruin on themselves. The worst expresion of such an attitude is the taking of another's life for personal advancement or enjoyment. Those kiled without being shown gratitude for their sacrifice wil hold "urami" (a grudge) and becoe aragami, a powerful and evil kami that seeks revenge. This same emphasis on the ned for coperation and colaboration can be sen throughout Japanese culture today. Aditionaly, if anyone is injured on the grounds of a shrine, the area affected must be ritually purified. Purification Purification rites are a vital part of Shinto. These may serve to placate any restive kami, for instance when their shrine had to be relocated. Such ceremonies have also ben adapted to modern life. For example, a ceremony was held in 1969 to halow the Apolo 1 mision to the mon, new buildings made in Japan are frequently blessed by a Shinto priest during the groundbreaking ceremony, and many cars made in Japan have ben blessed as part of the assembly process. A more personal purification rite is the purification by water. This may involve standing beneath a waterfall or performing ritual ablutions in a river-mouth or in the sea. These two forms of purification are often refered to as harae. A third form of purification is avoidance, that is, the taboo placed on certain persons or acts. For example, women were not allowed to climb Mount Fuji until 1868, in the era of the Meiji Restoration. Although this aspect has POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 211 decreased in recent years, religious Japanese wil not use an inauspicious word like "cut" at a wedding, nor wil they attend a wedding if they have recently been bereaved. Shrines The principal worship of kami is done at public shrines, although home worship at smal private shrines (sometimes only a high shelf with a few ritual objects) is also comon. It is also posible to worship objects or people while they exist. While a few of the public shrines are elaborate structures, most are smal buildings in the characteristic Japanese architectural style. Shrines are comonly fronted by a distinctive Japanese gate (tori) made of two uprights and two crosbars. These gates are there as a part of the barrier to separate our living world and the world the kami live in. There are often two guardian animals placed at each side of the gate and they serve to protect the entrance. There are wel over 100,000 of these shrines in operation today, each with its retinue of Shinto priests. Shinto priests often wear a ceremonial robe caled a jo-e. Kami are invoked at such important ceremonies as weddings and entry into university. The kami are comonly petitioned for quite earthly benefits; a child, a promotion, a happier life. While one may wish for il bidding on others, this is believed to be possible only if the target has commited wrongs first, or if one is wiling to offer one's life. Though Shinto is popular for these occasions, when it comes to funerals most Japanese turn to Buddhist ceremonies, since the emphasis in Shinto is on this life and not the next. Almost al festivals (matsuri) in Japan are hosted by local Shinto shrines and these festivals are open to al those that wish to attend. While these could be said to be religious events, Japanese do not regard these events as religious since everyone can atend, regardles of personal beliefs. Gods Shinto teaches that everything contains a kami (god), every rock, every squirel, every living and nonliving thing. There is also a main kami for al groups of thing, for instance, there is a kami within a rhino, and there is also a main kami residing over al the rhinos of the world. kami are also not imortal, with the exception of Amaterasu, Suusano, and Tsukiyomi. these three were born from parts of Izanagi-no-Mikoto, one the original kami, and rule parts of the earth and things that wil last forever. Amaterasu rules over heaven and the sun, Suusano rules the sea and storms, Tsukiyomi rules over the land and the mon. Shinto's kami are colectively caled Yaoyorozu no Kami, a traditional expresion literaly meaning "eight milion kami". The arcane name of eight milion, Yaoyorozu, is not the exact number, but the concept of an infinite number did not exist at that time. The most widely worshiped of al kami is the sun-goddess Amaterasu. However, Japanese do not specificaly worship Her or invoke her name to ask for help. Her main shrine is the Grand Shrine of Ise, but many lesser shrines are dedicated to Her. Within the shrine, She is often symbolized by a miror. Alternatively, the iner sanctum may be empty. This emptines does not mean non-existence; rather, it symbolizes that everything that one sees through the miror is the embodiment of Amaterasu and every other kami. Until the end of World War I, the Teno (Emperor) was believed to have ben descended from Amaterasu and father of al Japanese, and was therefore a kami on earth (an ikigami or "living kami"); this divine status was popularized during the Meiji Restoration. This did not prevent military governors (Shogun) from usurping power, but the emperor was always sen as the true ruler of Japan, even when his rule was only nominal. Although Emperor Hirohito renounced his divine status in 1946 under American presure (Ningen-sengen), the imperial family remains deply involved in the Shinto ritual that unifies the Japanese nation symbolically. Because Shinto doesn't require a declaration or an enforcement to be worshiped, which is actualy "unharmonious" and is something to be avoided, this declaration, while serving political reasons, is religiously meanigles and merely means that the state enforcement has ended. Ema POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 212 In medieval times, wealthy people would donate horses to shrines, especially when making a request of the god of the shrine (for example, when praying for victory in battle). For smaler favors, giving a picture of a horse became customary, and these ema (äGîn, ema?) are popular today. The visitor to a shrine purchases a wooden tablet with a likeness of a horse, or nowadays, something else (a snake, an arrow, even a portrait of Thomas Edison), writes a wish or prayer on the tablet, and hangs it at the shrine. In some cases, if the wish comes true, the person hangs another ema at the shrine in gratitude. Cultural efects Shinto has ben caled "the religion of Japan", and the customs and values of Shinto are inseparable from those of Japanese culture prior to the influx of Chinese religious ideas that occurred in the mid 6th century. Many famously Japanese practices have origins either directly or indirectly roted in Shinto. For example, it is clear that the Shinto ideal of harmony with nature underlies such typically Japanese arts as flower-arranging (ikebana) and traditional Japanese architecture and garden design. A more explicit link to Shinto is sen in sumo wrestling, where, even in the modern version of the sport, many Shinto-inspired ceremonies must be performed before a bout, such as purifying the wrestling arena by sprinkling it with salt. The Japanese emphasis on proper gretings and respectful phrasings can be seen as a continuation of the ancient Shinto belief in kotodama (words with a magical effect on the world). Many Japanese cultural customs, like using woden chopsticks and reoving shoes before entering a building, have their origin in Shinto beliefs and practices. Also, a number of other Japanese religions, including Tenrikyo, have originated from or been influenced by Shinto. Tenrikyo is a religion of Shinto origin with some Budhist influence. Important shrines ? Atsuta Shrine, Nagoya, Aichi, shrine to the Imperial sword Kusanagi ? Heian Jingu (Kyoto), dedicated to Emperor Kamu and Emperor Kÿmei ? The Grand Shrine of Ise (Ise), dedicated to Amaterasu ? Itsukushima Shrine, Hiroshima prefecture ? Iwashimizu Shrine, Yawata, Kyoto ? Izumo Shrine (Izumo) ? Kasuga Shrine, Nara ? Katori Shrine, Chiba Prefecture ? Kumano Shrines, Wakayama Prefecture ? Meiji Shrine (Tokyo), the shrine of Emperor Meiji ? Niko Toshogu, Niko, Tochigi Prefecture ? Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine, Kamakura, Kanagawa ? Usa Hachiman Shrine, Oita Prefecture ? Yasukuni Shrine (Tokyo), controversial shrine dedicated to the 'peace of the nation' and sen by some as a symbol of Japan's militaristic past POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 213 GANGA IN HINDUISM In Hinduism, the river Ganga or Ganges River (as caled by westerners) is considered sacred. It is worshiped by Hindus, and personified as a godes in Hinduism, who holds an important place in the Hindu religion. Hindus believe that bathing in the river on certain ocasions causes the remision of sins and facilitates the atainment of salvation. Many people believe that this effect obtains from bathing in Ganga at any time. People travel from distant places to imerse the ashes of their kin in the waters of the Ganga; this imersion also is believed to be meritorious, as the ashes are believed to go to heaven. Several places sacred to Hindus lie along the banks of the river Ganga, including Haridwar, Varanasi and Kashi. Birth There are several legends that give various versions of the birth of Ganga. Acording to one version, the sacred water in Brahmas Kamandalu (water-vessel) became personified as a maiden, Ganga. According to another (Vaishnavite) legend, Brahma had reverently washed the feet of Vishnu and colected this water in his Kamandalu. Acording to yet a third version, Ganga was the daughter of Himavan, king of the mountains, and his consort Mena; she was thus a sister of the godes Parvati. Every version declares that she was raised in the heavens, under the tutelage of Brahma. Several years later, a king named Sagara magicaly acquired sixty thousand sons. One day, King Sagara performed a ritual of worship for the good of the kingdom. One of the integral parts of the ritual was a horse, which was stolen by the jealous Indra. Sagara sent all his sons al over the earth to search for the horse. They found it in the nether-world (or Underworld) next to a meditating sage Kapila. Believing that the sage had stolen the horse, they hurled insults at him and caused his penance to be disturbed. The sage opened his eyes for the first time in several years, and loked at the sons of Sagara. With this glance, all sixty thousand were burnt to death. The souls of the sons of Sagara wandered as ghosts since their final rites had not ben performed. When Bhagiratha, one of the descendants of Sagara, son of Dilip, learnt of this fate, he vowed to bring Ganga down to Earth so that her waters could cleanse their souls and release them to heaven. Bhagiratha prayed to Brahma that Ganga come down to Earth. Brahma agred, and he ordered Ganga to go down to the Earth and then on to the nether regions so that the souls of Bhagiratha's ancestors would be able to go to heaven. The vain Ganga felt that this was insulting and decided to swep the whole earth away as she fell from the heavens. Alarmed, Bhagiratha prayed to Shiva that he break up Ganga's descent. Ganga arogantly fel on Shiva's head. But Shiva calmly trapped her in his hair and let her out in smal streams. The touch of Shiva further sanctified Ganga. As Ganga traveled to the nether-worlds, she created a diferent stream to remain on Earth to help purify unfortunate souls there. Because of Bhagiratha's efforts Ganga descended on to earth and hence the river is also known as Bhagirathi, and the term "Bhagirath prayatna" is used to describe valiant eforts or dificult achievements. Another name that Ganga is known by is Jahnavi. Story has it that once Ganga came down to earth, on her way to Bhagiratha, her rushing waters created turbulence and destroyed the fields and the sadhana of a sage called Jahnu. He was angered by this and drank up all of Ganga's waters. Upon this, the Gods prayed to Jahnu to release Ganga so that she could proced on her mision. Pleased with their prayers, Jahnu released Ganga (her waters) from his ears. Hence the name "Jahnavi" (daughter of Jahnu) for Ganga. It is sometime believed that the river wil finaly dry up at the end of Kali Yug (the era of darknes, the curent era) just as with the Sarasvati river, and this era wil end. Next in (cyclic) order wil be the SatYug or the era of Truth. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 214 According to the Hindu scriptures, the godes Ganga is foster-mother to Kartikeya (Murugan), who was actually a son of Shiva and Parvati.She was also the mother of Devavrata (also known as Bhishma), who is one of the most respected characters of the Mahabharata. Rig Veda The Ganga is definitely mentioned in the Rig-Ved, the earliest and theoreticaly the holiest of the Hindu scriptures. The Ganga is entioned in the nadistuti (Rig Veda 10.75), which lists the rivers from east to west. In RV 6.45.31, the word Ganga is also mentioned, but it is not clear if the reference is to the river. RV 3.58.6 says that "your ancient home, your auspicious friendship, O Heroes, your wealth is on the banks of the Jahnavi". This verse could possibly refer to the Ganga. In RV 1.116.18-19, the Jahnavi and the Gangetic dolphin ocur in two adjacent verses. Iconography In the canons of Indian art, Ganga is visualized as voluptuous and beautiful, carying an overflowing pot in her hand. The vesel conveys the idea of abundant life and fertility, which nourishes and sustains the universe. The second distinguishing aspect of Ganga's iconography is her animal mount, which is often shown serving as a pedestal for her. This is the makara, a hybrid creature having the body of a crocodile and the tail of a fish. The makara in Hindu thought coresponds to the star sign of Capricorn in western astrolgy. The makara is also the vehicle of the Vedic god of waters, Varuna, thus establishing firmly Godes Ganga's Vedic rots. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 215 STONEHENGE Stonehenge is a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument located near Amesbury in the English county of Wiltshire, about 8 miles (13 km) north of Salisbury. It is composed of earthworks surounding a circular seting of large standing stones and is one of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world. Archaeologists think that the standing stones were erected betwen 250 BC and 200 BC although the surounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. The site and its surroundings were added to the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986 in a co-listing with Avebury henge monument, and it is also a legaly protected Scheduled Ancient Monument. Etymology Christopher Chipendale's Stonehenge Complete gives the derivation of Stonehenge as coming from the Old English words meaning "stone", and either "hencg" meaning "hinge" (because the stone lintels hinge on the upright stones) or "hen(c)en" meaning "galows" or "instrument of torture". Medieval gallows consisted of two uprights with a lintel joinig them, resembling Stonehenge's trilithons, rather than looking like the inverted L-shape more familiar today. The "henge" portion has given its name to a clas of monuments known as henges. Archaeologists define henges as earthworks consisting of a circular banked enclosure with an internal ditch. As often happens in archaeological terminology, this is a holdover from antiquarian usage, and Stonehenge canot in fact be truly classified as a henge site as its bank is inside its ditch. Despite being contemporary with true Neolithic henges and stone circles, Stonehenge is in many ways atypical. For example, its extant trilithons make it unique. Stonehenge is only distantly related to the other stone circles in the British Isles, such as the Ring of Brodgar. Development of Stonehenge The Stonehenge complex was built in several construction phases spaning 2,00 years, although there is evidence for activity both before and afterwards on the site. Dating and understanding the various phases of activity at Stonehenge is not a simple task; it is complicated by porly-kept early excavation records, surprisingly few accurate scientific dates and the disturbance of the natural chalk by periglacial efects and animal burrowing. The modern phasing most generally agreed by archaeologists is detailed below. Features mentioned in the text are numbered and shown on the plan, right, which ilustrates the site as of CE 204. The plan omits the trilithon lintels for clarity. Holes that no longer, or never, contained stones are shown as open circles and stones visible today are shown colored. Before the monument Archaeologists have found four (or posibly five, although one may have ben a natural tre throw) large Mesolithic postholes which date to around 800 BC nearby, beneath the modern tourist car-park. These held pine posts around 0.75m (2.4ft) in diameter which were erected and left to rot in situ. Thre of the posts (and possibly four) were in an east-west alignment and may have had ritual significance; no parallels are known from Britain at the time but siilar sites have ben found in Scandinavia. At this time, Salisbury Plain was stil woded but four thousand years later, during the earlier Neolithic, a cursus monument was built 60m north of the site as the first farmers began to clear the forest and exploit the area. Several other early Neolithic sites, a causewayed enclosure at Robin Hood's Bal and long barrow tombs were built in the surounding landscape. Stonehenge 1 POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 216 The first monument consisted of a circular bank and ditch enclosure measuring around 110 m (360 feet) in diameter with a large entrance to the north east and a smaller one to the south. It stod in open grassland on a slightly sloping but not especially remarkable spot. The builders placed the bones of der and oxen in the bottom of the ditch as well as some worked flint tools. The bones were considerably older than the antler picks used to dig the ditch and the people who buried them had loked after them for some time prior to burial. The ditch itself was continuous but had been dug in sections, like the ditches of the earlier causewayed enclosures in the area. The chalk dug from the ditch was piled up to form the bank. This first stage is dated to around 3100 BC after which the ditch began to silt up naturaly and was not cleared out by the builders. Within the outer edge of the enclosed area was dug a circle of 56 pits, each around 1m in diameter, known as the Aubrey holes after John Aubrey, the seventeenth century antiquarian who was thought to have first identified them. The pits may have contained standing timbers, creating a timber circle although there is no excavated evidence of them. A smal outer bank beyond the ditch could also date to this period. Stonehenge 2 Evidence of the second phase is no longer visible. It appears from the number of postholes dating to this period that some form of timber structure was built within the enclosure during the early 3rd milennium BC. Further standing timbers were placed at the northeast entrance and a paralel alignment of posts ran inwards from the southern entrance. The postholes are smaller than the Aubrey Holes, being only around 0.4m in diameter and are much less regularly spaced. The bank was purposely reduced in height and the ditch continued to silt up. At least twenty-five of the Aubrey Holes are known to have contained later, intrusive, cremation burials dating to the two centuries after the monument's inception. It sems that whatever the holes' initial function, it changed to become a funerary one during Phase 2. Thirty further cremations were placed in the enclosure's ditch and at other points within the monument, mostly in the eastern half. Stonehenge is therefore interpreted as functioning as an enclosed cremation cemetery at this time, the earliest known cremation cemetery in the British Isles. Fragments of unburnt human bone have also been found in the ditch fil. Late Neolithic grooved ware potery has been found in connection with the features from this phase providing dating evidence. Stonehenge 3i Archaeological excavation has indicated that around 260 BC, timber was abandoned in favour of stone and two concentric crescents of holes (called the Q and R Holes) were dug in the centre of the site. Again, there is litle firm dating evidence for this phase. The holes held up to 80 standing stones (shown blue on the plan) 43 of which were derived from the Preseli Hils, 250 km away in modern day Pembrokeshire in Wales. Other standing stones may wel have ben smal sarsens, used later as lintels. The far-traveled stones, which weighed about four tons, consisted mostly of spotted dolerite but included examples of rhyolite, tuf and volcanic and calcareous ash. Each measures around 2m in height, between 1m and 1.5m wide and around 0.8m thick. What was to become known as the Altar Stone (1), a six-ton specimen of gren micaceous sandstone, twice the height of the bluestones, is derived from either South Pembrokeshire or the Brecon Beacons and may have stod as a single large monolith. The north eastern entrance was also widened at this time with the result that it precisely matched the direction of the midsumer sunrise and midwinter sunset of the period. This phase of the monument was abandoned unfinished however, the smal standing stones were apparently removed and the Q and R holes purposefuly backfiled. Even so, the monument appears to have eclipsed the site at Avebury in importance towards the end of this phase and the Amesbury Archer, found in 202 thre miles (5 km) to the south, would have sen the site in this state. The Helstone (5) may also have ben erected outside the north eastern entrance during this period although it cannot be securely dated and may have been installed at any time in phase 3. At first, a second stone, now no longer visible, joined it. Two, or possibly three, large portal stones were set up just inside the northeastern entrance of which only one, the fallen Slaughter Stone (4), 16 ft (4.9 m) long, now remains. Other features losely dated to phase 3 include the four Station Stones (6), two of which stod atop mounds (2 and 3). The mounds are known as 'barows' although they do not contain burials. The POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 217 Avenue, (10), a paralel pair of ditches and banks leading 3 km to the River Avon was also aded. Ditches were later dug around the Station Stones and the Heelstone, which was by then reduced to a single monolith. Stonehenge 3i The next major phase of activity at the tail end of the 3rd milenium BC saw 30 enormous sarsen stones (shown grey on the plan) brought from a quarry around 24 miles (40 km) north to the site on the Marlborough Downs. The stones were dresed and fashioned with mortise and tenon joints before 30 were erected as a 3 m (108 ft) diameter circle of standing stones with a 'lintel' of 30 stones resting on top. The lintels were joined to one another using another wodworking method, the tongue in grove joint. Each standing stone was around 4.1 m (13.5 fet) high, 2.1 m (7.5 fet) wide and weighed around 25 tons. Each had clearly ben worked with the final effect in mind; the orthostats widen slightly towards the top in order that their perspective remains constant as they rise up from the ground whilst the lintel stones curve slightly to continue the circular apearance of the earlier monuent. The sides of the stones that face inwards are smother and more finely worked than the sides that face outwards. The average thicknes of these stones is 1.1 m (3.75 feet) and the average distance betwen them is 1 m (3.5 feet). A total of 74 stones would have ben neded to complete the circle and unles some of the sarsens were removed from the site, it would sem that the ring was left incomplete. Of the lintel stones, they are each around 3.2 m long (10.5 feet), 1 m (3.5 feet) wide and 0.8 m (2.75 feet) thick. The tops of the lintels are 4.9 m (16 feet) above the ground. Within this circle stod five trilithons of dresed sarsen stone aranged in a horseshoe shape 13.7 m (45 feet) acros with its open end facing north east. These huge stones, ten uprights and five lintels, weigh up to 50 tons each and were again linked using complex jointings. They are aranged symetricaly; the smalest pair of trilithons were around 6 m (20 fet) tal, the next pair a litle higher and the largest, single trilithon in the south west corner would have been 7.3 m (24 feet) tal. Only one upright from the Great Trilithon stil stands; 6.7 m (2 ft) is visible and a further 2.4 m (8 fet) is below ground. The images of a 'dager' and 14 'axe-heads' have been recorded carved on one of the sarsens, known as stone 53. Further axe-head carvings have been seen on the outer faces of stones known as numbers 3, 4, and 5. They are dificult to date but are morphologicaly similar to later Bronze Age weapons; recent laser scaning work on the carvings suports this interpretation. The pair of trilithons in north east are smalest, measuring around 6 m (20 fet) in height and the largest is the trilithon in the south west of the horseshoe is almost 7.5 m (24 feet) tal. This ambitious phase is radiocarbon dated to between 2440 and 2100 BC. Stonehenge 3ii Later in the Bronze Age, the bluestones appear to have been re-erected for the first time, although the precise details of this period are stil unclear. They were placed within the outer sarsen circle and at this time may have ben trimed in some way. A few have timber working-style cuts in them like the sarsens themselves, sugesting they may have ben linked with lintels and part of a larger structure during this phase. Stonehenge 3iv This phase saw further rearangement of the bluestones as they were placed in a circle betwen the two setings of sarsens and in an oval in the very centre. Some archaeologists argue that some of the bluestones in this period were part of a second group brought from Wales. Al the stones were wel- spaced uprights without any of the linking lintels infered in Stonehenge 3ii. The Altar Stone may have been moved within the oval and stood vertically. Although this would seem the most impressive phase of work, Stonehenge 3iv was rather shabily built compared to its imediate predecesors, the newly re- installed bluestones were not at all well founded and began to fall over. However, only minor changes were made after this phase. Stonehenge 3iv dates from 280 to 1930 BC. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 218 Stonehenge 3v Soon afterwards, the north eastern section of the Phase 3iv Bluestone circle was removed, creating a horseshoe-shaped seting termed the Bluestone Horseshoe. This mirored the shape of the central sarsen Trilithons and dates from 2270 to 1930 BC. This phase is contemporary with the famous Seahenge site in Norfolk. Stonehenge 3vi Two further rings of pits were dug outside the outermost sarsen circle, caled the Y and Z Holes (11 and 12). The Z holes were about 2m outside the outermost sarsen circle and the Y holes about 5m further out. These were each of thirty pits and each sems to match with one of the uprights in the outer sarsen circle. They were never filed with stones however and were permited to silt up over the next few centuries; their uper fils contain Iron Age and Roman material. Monument building at Stonehenge appears to have ended around 1600 BC. After the monument Even though the last known construction of Stonehenge was about 160 BC, and the last known usage of Stonehenge was during the Iron Age (if not as late as the 7th century AD), where Roman coins, prehistoric potery, an unusual bone point and a skeleton of a young male (780-410 cal BC) were found, we have no idea if Stonehenge was in continuous use or exactly how it was used. The burial of a decapitated Saxon man has also been excavated from Stonehenge, dated to the 7th century AD. The site was known by scholars during the Midle Ages and since then it has ben studied and adopted by numerous different groups. For further details of Stonehenge's historical role, se below. Theories about Stonehenge Early interpretations Many early historians were influenced by supernatural folktales in their explanations. Some legends held that Merlin the wizard had a giant build the structure for him or that he had magically transported it from Mount Kilaraus in Ireland, while others held the Devil responsible. Henry of Huntingdon was the first to write of the monument around 130 son folowed by Geofrey of Monmouth who was the first to record fanciful asociations with King Arthur which led the monument to be incorporated into the wider cycle of European medieval romance. In 1615, Inigo Jones argued that Stonehenge was a Roman temple, dedicated to Caelus, (a Latin name for the Grek sky-god Ouranos), and built following the Tuscan order. Later comentators maintained that the Danes erected it. Inded, up until the late ninetenth century, the site was comonly attributed to the Saxons or other relatively recent societies. The first academic efort to survey and understand the monument was made around 1740 by John Aubrey. He declared Stonehenge the work of Druids. This view was greatly popularised by Wiliam Stukeley. Aubrey also contributed the first measured drawings of the site, which permited greater analysis of its form and significance. From this work, he was able to demonstrate an astronomical or calendrical role in the stones' placement. By the turn of the ninetenth century, John Lubock was able to attribute the site to the Bronze Age based on the bronze objects found in the nearby barrows. Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge Stonehenge is aligned north east ? south west, and it has ben sugested that particular significance was placed by its builders on the solstice and equinox points, so for example on a midsumer's morning, POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 219 the sun rose close to the Helstone, and the sun's first rays went directly into the centre of the monument between the horseshoe arrangement. It is unlikely that such an alignment can have ben merely accidental. A huge debate was trigered by the 1963 publication of Stonehenge Decoded, by British born astronomer Gerald Hawkins, who claimed to se a large number of astronomical alignments, both lunar and solar, at the site and argued that Stonehenge could have been used to predict eclipses. Hawkins' book received wide publicity, partly because he used a computer in his calculations, then a rarity. Further contributions to the debate came from British astronomer C. A. Newham and Sir Fred Hoyle, the famous Cambridge cosmolgist, as wel as by Alexander Tho, a retired professor of enginering, who had ben studying stone circles for more than 20 years. Their theories have faced criticism in recent decades from Richard Atkinson and others who have suggested impracticalities in the 'Stone Age calculator' interpretative approach. Today, the consensus is that most of the astronomical case, although not al, was overstated. The bluestones Roger Mercer has observed that the bluestones are incongruously finely worked and has suggested that they were transfered to Salisbury Plain from an as yet unlocated earlier monument in Pembrokeshire. J. F. S. Stone felt that a Bluestone monument had earlier stod near the nearby Stonehenge cursus and been moved to their current site from there. If Mercer's theory is correct then the bluestones may have been transplanted to cement an alliance or display superiority over a conquered enemy although this can only be speculation. Oval shaped setings of bluestones similar to those at Stonehenge 3iv are also known at the sites of Bed Arthur in the Preseli Hils and at Skomer Island of the southwest coast of Pembrokeshire. Some archaeologists have sugested that the igneous bluestones and sedimentary sarsens had some symbolism, of a union between two cultures from diferent landscapes and therefore from different backgrounds. Recent analysis of contemporary burials found nearby known as the Boscombe Bowmen, has indicated that at least some of the individuals asociated with Stonehenge 3 came either from Wales or from some other European area of ancient rocks. Petrological analysis of the stones themselves has verified that they could only have come from the Preseli Hils and it is tempting to conect the two. The main source of the bluestones is now identified with the dolerite outcrops around Carn Menyn although work led by Olwen Wiliams-Thorpe of the Open University has shown that other bluestones came from outcrops up to 10 km away. Aubrey Burl and a number of geolgists and geomorpholgists contend that the bluestones were not transported by human agency at al and were instead brought by glaciers at least part of the way from Wales during the Pleistocene. There is god geolgical and glaciolgical evidence that glacier ice did move acros Preseli and did reach the Somerset coast. However, it is uncertain that it reached Salisbury Plain, and no further specimens of the unusual dolerite stone have so far ben found in the vicinity. One curent view is that glacier ice transported the stones as far as Somerset, and that they were colected from there by the builders of Stonehenge. Stonehenge as part of a ritual landscape Many archaeologists believe Stonehenge was an atempt to render in permanent stone the more comon timber structures that doted Salisbury Plain at the time, such as those that stod at Durington Wals. Modern anthropological evidence has ben used by Mike Parker Pearson and the Madagascan archaeologist Ramilisonina to suggest that timber was asociated with the living and stone with the ancestral dead amongst prehistoric peoples. They have argued that Stonehenge was the terminus of a long, ritualized funerary procesion for treating the dead, which began in the east, during sunrise at Woodhenge and Durington Wals, moved down the Avon and then along the Avenue reaching Stonehenge in the west at sunset. The journey from wod to stone via water was, they consider, a POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 220 symbolic journey from life to death. There is no satisfactory evidence to sugest that Stonehenge's astronomical alignments were anything more than symbolic and current interpretations favor a ritual role for the monument that takes into acount its numerous burials and its presence within a wider landscape of sacred sites. Many also believe that the site ay have had astrological/spiritual significance atached to it. Construction techniques and design Much speculation has surounded the enginering feats required to build Stonehenge. Asuming the bluestones were brought from Wales by hand, and not transported by glaciers as Aubrey Burl has claimed, various methods of oving them relying only on timber and rope have ben sugested. In a 2001 exercise in experimental archaeology, an atempt was made to transport a large stone along a land and sea route from Wales to Stonehenge. Volunteers pulled it for some miles (with great dificulty) on a wooden sledge over land, using modern roads and low-friction netting to asist sliding, but once transfered to a replica prehistoric boat, the stone sank in Milford Haven, before it even reached the rough seas of the Bristol Chanel. As far as positioning the stones, it has ben sugested that timber A-frames were erected to raise the stones, and that teams of people then hauled them upright using ropes. The topmost stones may have been raised up incrementaly on timber platforms and slid into place or pushed up ramps. The carpentry- type joints used on the stones imply a people wel skiled in wodworking and they could easily have had the knowledge to erect the monument using such methods. Alexander Thom was of the opinion that the site was laid out with the necesary precision using his megalithic yard. The engraved weapons on the sarsens are unique in megalithic art in the British Isles, where more abstract designs were invariably favoured. Similarly, the horseshoe arrangements of stones are unusual in a culture that otherwise aranged stones in circles. The axe motif is, however, comon to the peoples of Britany at the time, and it has been suggested at least two stages of Stonehenge were built under continental influence. This would go some way towards explainig the monument's atypical design, but overall, Stonehenge is stil inexplicably unusual in the context of any prehistoric European culture. Estimates of the manpower neded to build Stonehenge put the total efort involved at milions of hours of work. Stonehenge 1 probably neded around 1,00 man-hours (or 460 man-days) of work, Stonehenge 2 around 360,000 (15,000 man-days or 41 years) and the various parts of Stonehenge 3 may have involved up to 1.75 million hours (73 00 days or 20 years) of work. The working of the stones is estimated to have required around 20 milion hours (830 000 days or 2300 years) of work using the primitive tools available at the time. Certainly, the wil to produce such a site must have been strong, and it is considered that advanced social organisation would have ben necesary to build and maintain it. Alternative views Stonehenge's fame comes not only from its archaeological significance or potential early astronomical role but also in its les tangible efect on visitors, what Christopher Chipindale describes as "the physical sensation of the place", something that transcends the rational, scientific view of the monument. This manifests itself in the spiritual role of the site for many diferent groups and a belief that no single scientific explanation can do justice to it as a symbol of the great achievement of the ancient Britons and as a symbol of something that continues to confound mainstream archaeology. Some have theorized that it represents the female sexual organs (Article from The Observer) or have identified a phallic shape in the Helstone. UFO sightings in the area, perhaps conected with the military installations around Warminster, have led to ideas over it being an extraterestrial landing site. Alfred Watkins found thre ley lines runing through the site and others have employed numerolgy dowsing or geomancy to reach diverse conclusions regarding the site's power and purpose. New Age and neo-pagan beliefs might see Stonehenge as a sacred place of worship which can conflict with its more mainstream POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 221 role as an archaeological site, tourist atraction, or marketing tol. Post-processualist archaeologists might consider that treating Stonehenge as a computer or observatory is to aply modern concepts from our own technology-driven era back into the past. Even the role of indigenous peoples in archaeology, rarely aplied in Western Europe, has created a new function for the site as a symbol of Welsh nationalism. The significance of the 'ownership' of Stonehenge in terms of the difering meanings and interpretations held by the many orthodox and unorthodox stakeholders in the site has ben increasingly aparent in recent decades. Researchers Jeny Blain and Robert J. Walis (Sacred Sites, Contested Rites/Rights project, htp:/ww.sacredsites.org.uk) have pointed to the huge variety of views which show the continued and growing importance of Stonehenge today, as symbol and 'Icon of Britishness'; and indicate also the increased awareness of pasts by many people with no training in archaeology or heritage. For many, Stonehenge and other ancient monuments form part of the 'living landscape' which holds its own stories and which is there to be engaged with as people mark the seasons of the year. Today's mytholgy around Stonehenge includes the recent history of the Battle of the Beanfield and the previous Free festivals. Stonehenge has not one meaning but many. Today, curators English Heritage facilitate 'managed open aces' at solstices and equinoxes, with some disputes over the days on which these fal. Blain and Walis argue that isues over aces relate not only to physical presence at the stones but to interpretations of past and validity of 'new-indigenous' and pagan usages in the present and such 'alternative' views have ben central in alerting public awarenes to the isues of roads, tunels and landscape, noted below. Excavations at Stonehenge The first recorded excavations at Stonehenge were caried out by Wiliam Cunington and Richard Colt Hoare. In 1798, Cunington investigated the pit beneath a recently falen trilithon and in 1810, both men dug beneath the falen Slaughter Stone and concluded that it had once stood up. They may have also excavated one of the Aubrey Holes beneath it. In 1900 Wiliam Gowland undertook the first extensive work, establishing that antler picks had ben used to dig the stone holes and that the stones themselves had been worked to shape on site. The largest excavation at Stonehenge was undertaken by Lieutenant-Colonel Wiliam Hawley and Robert S. Newal after the site had come into state hands. Their work, initialy focusing on righting falen stones, began in 1919 folowing the transfer of land and continued until 1926. It was funded by the Ofice of Works. The two men excavated many portions of the features at Stonehenge and were the first to establish that it was a multi-phase site. In 1950 the Society of Antiquaries commisioned Richard Atkinson, Stuart Piggott and John FS Stone to cary out further excavations. They recovered many cremations and developed the phasing that stil dominates much of what is writen about Stonehenge. In 1979 and 1980 Mike Pits led two smaler investigations as part of service trenching, close by the Helstone, finding cryoturbated chalk and evidence for its neighbor. Myths and legends "Friar's Hel" or the "Sunday Stone" The Heel Stone was once known as "Friar's Heel." A folk tale, which cannot be dated earlier than the sevententh century, relates the origin of the name of this stone: The Devil bought the stones from a woman in Ireland, wraped them up, and brought them to Salisbury plain. One of the stones fel into the Avon, the rest were caried to the plain. The Devil then cried out, "No- one wil ever find out how these stones came here." A friar replied, "That's what you think!," whereupon the Devil threw one of the stones at him and struck him on the hel. The stone stuck in the ground and is stil there. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 222 Some claim "Friar's Hel" is a coruption of "Freya's He-ol" or "Freya Sul", from the Nordic goddess Freya and (allegedly) the Welsh words for "way" and "sun day" respectively. Arthurian legend Stonehenge is also mentioned within Arthurian legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth said that Merlin the wizard directed its removal from Ireland, where it had been constructed on ount Kilaraus by Giants, who brought the stones from Africa. After it had been rebuilt near Amesbury, Geofrey further narates how first Ambrosius Aurelianus, then Uther Pendragon, and finaly Constantine III, were buried inside the ring of stones. In many places in his Historia Regum Britaniae Geofrey mixes British legend and his own imagination; it is intriguing that he connects Ambrosius Aurelianus with this prehistoric monument, seeing how there is place-name evidence to connect Ambrosius with nearby Amesbury. Recent history By the begining of the 20th century a number of the stones had fallen or were leaning precariously, probably due to the increase in curious visitors clambering on them during the nineteenth century. Three phases of conservation work were undertaken which righted some unstable or fallen stones and carefuly replaced them in their original positions using information from antiquarian drawings. Stonehenge is a place of pilgrimage for neo-druids and those following pagan or neo-pagan beliefs. The midsummer sunrise began atracting modern visitors in 1870s, with the first record of recreated Druidic practices dating to 1905 when the Ancient Order of Druids enacted a ceremony. Despite efforts by archaeologists and historians to stress the diferences between the Iron Age Druidic religion, the much older monument and modern Druidry, Stonehenge has become increasingly, almost inextricably, associated with British Druidism, Neo Paganism and New Age philosophy. The earlier rituals were augmented by the Stonehenge fre festival, held betwen 1972 and 1984, and loosely organised by the Politantric Circle. However, in 1985 the site was closed to festivalgoers by English Heritage and the National Trust by which time the number of midsumer visitors had risen from 500 to 30,000. A consequence of the end of the festival was the violent confrontation betwen the police and new age travellers that became known as the Battle of the Beanfield when police blockaded a convoy of travellers to prevent them from approaching Stonehenge. There was then no midsumer access for almost fifteen years until limited opening was negotiated in 200. In more recent years, the setting of the monument has ben affected by the proximity of the A303 road between Amesbury and Winterbourne Stoke, and the A344. In early 2003, the Department for Transport announced that the A303 would be upgraded, including the construction of the Stonehenge road tunel. The controversial plans have not yet ben finalised by the government. Also anounced has ben a new heritage centre, which was intended to be open in 206. Curent provision for visitors has often been criticized; in 1993 Stonehenge's presentation was condemned by the Public Accounts Comite of the British House of Comons as 'a national disgrace'. English Heritage proposes a new purpose-built facility 3km from the stones at Countes Road in Amesbury, on the edge of the World Heritage Site boundary. Locals in Amesbury have complained that the scheme would shift traffic congestion from Stonehenge to their own vilage. They have also sugested that the necesary time that the public would now have to spend travelling to and from Stonehenge would likely disuade many visitors, especialy American and Japanese tourists on whistle-stop tours of England, from visiting at al. In July 205 the plans were thrown into uncertainty folowing refusal of planing permision for the visitors' centre by Salisbury District Council whilst the British government placed the rising costs of the road scheme under review. Replicas and derivative names POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 223 There is a ful-size replica of Stonehenge as it would have ben before decay at Maryhil in Washington State, built by Sam Hil as a war memorial. Stonehenge Aotearoa in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand is a modern adaptation aligned with the astronomy sen from the Antipodes; it was built by the Phoenix Astronomical Society from wod and sprayed concrete. The University of Misouri at Rola has a half- scale replica located on capus, UMR Stonehenge, built from solid granite. East Stroudsburg University, in East Stroudsburg, Pensylvania, has a small replica on its campus dubed "Stroudhenge". Carhenge was constructed from vintage American cars near Aliance, Nebraska by the artist Jim Reynolds in 1987. Another replica, caled Stonehenge I, in Texas is constructed from an adobe-like material. Tankhenge existed in the border zone of Berlin in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Wal. Tankhenge was constructed from thre ex-Soviet armoured personel cariers. A ful-size Stonehenge made out of foam ? and inevitably caled Foamhenge ? stands near Natural Bridge, Virginia. The rock band Black Sabath featured a Stonehenge stage set for the 1983-1984 Born Again tour that ended up being too large to fit in most venues. This was ridiculed in the movie This is Spinal Tap, when the band orders a Stonehenge set but it arrives in miniature due to a confusion between feet and inches. There was also a Chicago based heavy metal band named Stonehenge that actualy owned the trademark to the name. Stonehenge met with underground suces in the 1990's - 200's performing with acts such as Pantera, Iced Earth, Trouble and Manowar. Aside from odern replicas, several other archaeological sites have had Stonehenge's name partialy or fuly incorporated into their own names. America's Stonehenge is an unusual and controversial site in New Hampshire. A henge near Stonehenge containig concentric rings of postholes for standing timbers, discovered in 1922, was named Woodhenge by its excavators because of similarities with Stonehenge. The timber Seahenge in Norfolk was named as such by journalists writing about its discovery in 198. In May 206, reports emerged of an "Amazon Stonehenge" Calcoene, 390 kilometres from Macapa, the capital of Amapa state, near Brazil's border with French Guyana. It is comprised of 127 stones, posibly forming astronomical observing points. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 224 PILGRIMAGE A pilgrimage is a term primarily used in religion and spirituality of a long journey or search of great moral significance. Someties, it is a journey to a sacred place or shrine of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. Members of every religion participate in pilgrimages. A person who makes such a journey is caled a pilgrim. Secular and civic pilgrimages are also practiced, without regard for religion but rather of importance to a particular society. For example, many people throughout the world travel to the City of Washington in the United States for a pilgrimage to se the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. British people often make pilgrimages to London for public apearances of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Pop culture has also sought to redefine pilgrimages, defining a demoscene party as a pilgrimage. Antiquity Many ancient religions had holy sites, temples and groves, where pilgrimages were made. ? Karnak, Egypt. ? Thebes, Egypt. ? Kurukshetra, India ? Delphi, Grece. Oracle. ? Ephesus Temple of Diana. ? Baalbek Lebanon. Bahá'í Faith A Bahá'í pilgrimage curently consists of visiting the holy places in Haifa, Akká, and Bahjí in Northwest Israel. Bahá'ís do not have aces to other places designated as sites for pilgrimage. Bahá'u'láh decred pilgrimage in His Motherbok (Kitáb-i-Aqdas) to two places: the House of Bahá'u'láh in Baghdad, Iraq, and the House of the Báb in Shiraz, Iran. In two separate Tablets, known as Suriy-i- Haj, He prescribed specific rites for each of these pilgrimages (lifting the injunction regarding the shaving of one's head for pilgrimage in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas). It is obligatory to make the pilgrimage, "if one can afford it and is able to do so, and if no obstacle stands in one's way". Bahá'ís are free to choose between the two Houses, as either has ben demed sufficient. And although women are not bound to perform pilgrimage, they are certainly not prohibited to do so. Later, `Abdu'l-Bahá designated the Shrine of Bahá'u'láh at Bahji (the Qiblih) as a site of visitation. No rites have ben prescribed for this. Budhism Gautama Budha spoke of four holy sites that folowers may sek. ? Lumbini birth place ? Bodh Gaya place of Enlightenment ? Sarnath (formaly Isipathana) where he delivered his first teaching ? Kusinara (now Kusinagar, India) where he died Tibetan Budhist pilgrimages include: ? Lhasa, capital of Tibet and traditional home of the Dalai Lama ? Mount Kailash ? Lake Nam-tso POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 225 Christianity Pilgrimages were first made to sites conected with the birth, life, crucifixion and resurection of Jesus. Surviving descriptions of Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land date from the 4th century, when pilgrimage was encouraged by church fathers like Saint Jerome. Pilgrimages also began to be made to Roe and other sites asociated with the Apostles, Saints and Christian martyrs, as wel as to places where there have ben aleged aparitions of the Virgin Mary. The second largest single pilgrimage in the history of Christendom was to the Funeral of Pope John Paul II after his death on April 2, 205. An estimated four milion people traveled to Vatican City, in adition to the almost thre milion people already living in Rome, to se the body of Pope John Paul I lie in state. World Youth Day is a major Catholic Pilgrimage, specificaly for people aged 16-35. It is held internationally every 2-3 years. In 2005, young Roman Catholics visited Colgne, Germany. In 195, the largest gathering of all time was to World Youth Day in Manila, Philippines, where four million people from all over the world attended. The major Christian pilgrimages are to: ? Jerusalem. Site of the crucifixion and resurection of Jesus. ? Rome on roads such as the Via Francigena. Site of the deaths of Saint Peter, Saint Paul and other early martyrs. Headquarters of the Catholic Church. ? Santiago de Compostela in Spain on the Way of St James (Spanish: El Camino de Santiago). This famous medieval pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James is stil popular today. Other important Christian pilgrimage sites include: ? Ávila, Spain, St Theresa of Avila, relics ? Bethlehem, in Israel, Birthplace of Jesus and King David. ? Canterbury asociated with Saint Thomas à Becket. ? Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, Canada in honour of Our Lady of the Cape. ? Cathedral of Chartres, France. ? Csíksomlyó, Transylvania, Romania. Whit Sunday gathering of (mostly ethnic Hungarian) Catholics. ? Croagh Patrick, Ireland. Saint Patrick. ? Conques, France ? Cologne, Germany. Relics of the Thre Kings. ? Cz´stochowa, Poland. Virgin Mary image. ? Glastonbury, England. St Joseph of Arimathea. ? Goa, India. St. Francis Xavier ? Guadalupe, Spain. ? Kapel in 't Zand, Limburg ? Kevelaer, Germany ? Knock, Ireland ? Lisieux, France. Saint Therese of Lisieux, burial place. ? Lourdes, France. Apparition of the Virgin Mary. Place of healing. ? Mariazel, Austria. Marian Shrine to Austria and Hungary ? Mount Athos, Grece. Orthodox monastic centre. ? Mount Nebo, Jordan. Traditional site of the death of Moses. ? Mount Sinai, Egypt, holy mountain to the ancient Hebrews, traditional site has ben comemorated since time of Constantine ? Nazareth, Israel, hometown of Jesus ? Fatima, Portugal. Aparition of the Virgin Mary. ? Sea of Galile, Israel, site of Jesus' early ministry. ? Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City. Apparition of the Virgin Mary. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 226 ? St. Patrick's Purgatory, Donegal, Ireland ? St. Thomas Mount, India. Place where St. Thomas was martyed. ? Taizé Comunity, France, modern monastery that actively encourages pilgrimages to it ? Nidaros, Norway ? Turin, Italy. Holy Shroud. ? Vailankani, India. 16th-century Mary aparition site. ? Vierzehnheiligen, Germany. ? Walsingham, England. Virgin Mary aparition site. ? Witenberg, Germany. Church of Martin Luther and centre of the Protestant Reformation. Hinduism ? Kedarnath ? Gangotri ? Yamunotri ? Rishikesh ? Haridwar ? Benares ? Mandher Devi temple in Mandhradevi ? Vrindavan ? Mayapur The first four sites in the list above together comprise the Chardham, or four holy pilgrimage destinations. It is believed that traveling to these places leads to moksha, the release from samsara (cycle of rebirths). Vrindavan is most important place of pilgrimage for every Vaishnava, especialy for the folowers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism who regard Krishna as the original Personality of Godhead (God). Here one can attain love of God (prema). Islam Haj Pilgrimage to Meca ? the haj ? is one of the Five Pilars of Islam. It should be attempted at least once in the lifetime of al able-bodied Muslims. In adition to that most of the Shite Muslims undertake a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mashad in northeastern part of Iran. The Haj is an inward journey to the Kab'ah of heart and soul. Ziarah Local Pilgrimage traditions - those undertaken as ziarah visits to local graves, are found throughout Muslim countries. In some countries, the graves of saints and heroes have very strong ziarah traditions as visiting the graves at auspicious times is a display of national and comunity identity. Some traditions within Islam have negative atitudes towards grave visiting. Judaism Within Judaism, the Temple in Jerusalem was the center of the Jewish religion, until its destruction in 70 AD, and al who were able were under obligation to visit and ofer sacrifices known as the korbanot, particularly during the Jewish holidays in Jerusalem. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 227 Folowing the destruction of the Second Temple and the onset of the diaspora, the centrality of pilgrimage to Jerusalem in Judaism was discontinued. In its place came prayers and rituals hoping for a return to Zion. It wasn't until fairly recently that pilgramage has now become a posibility for the World's Jewish population. Besides the residents of the modern State of Israel, Jews from any countries make periodic pilgrimages to the holy sites of their religion. The Western retaining wal of the original temple, known as the Wailing Wal, or Western Wal remains in the Old City of Jerusalem and this has ben the most sacred sight for Zionist Jews. This has only recently been open for Jews, when in 1967 Israel claimed ownership of Jerusalem. Some Reform and Conservative Jews who no longer consider themselves exiles, stil enjoy visiting Israel even if it is not an oficial "pilgrimage." Other Holy Sites for Jews in Israel: ? Gamla mountain in the Golan Heights. ? Masada the Judean Desert. ? Meron, burial site of Rabi Shimon Bar Yochai. Other Holy Sites for Jews in other countries: ? Rabi Nachman of Breslov's Burial Site in Uman, Ukraine Pilgrim A pilgrim is one who undertakes a religious pilgrimage, literaly 'far afield'. This is traditionaly a visit to a place of some religious significance; often a considerable distance is traveled. Examples include a Muslim visiting Meca, or a Christian or Jew visiting Jerusalem. No religion has laid greater stres on the duty of a pilgrimage than Islam in the Hajj. History Early pilgrimage Some of the oldest destinations for pilgrimages are in India. On the sacred river Ganges lies Benares, the holy city of Brahminism. Buddhism offers four sites of pilgrimage: the Buddha's birthplace at Kapilavastu, the site where he first preached at Gaya, where the highest insight dawned on him at Benares, and where he achieved Nirvana at Kusinagara. In the kingdoms of Israel and Judah the visitation of certain ancient cult-centers was repressed in the 7th century BC, when the worship was restricted to Jahweh at the temple in Jerusalem. In Syria, the shrine of Astarte at the headwater spring of the river Adonis survived until it was destroyed by order of Emperor Constantine in the 4th century AD. In mainland Grece, a stream of individuals made their way to Delphi or the oracle of Zeus at Dodona, and once every four years, at the period of the Olympic games, the temple of Zeus at Olympia formed the goal of swarms of pilgrims from every part of the Hellenic world. When Alexander the Great reached Egypt, he put his whole vast enterprise on hold, while he made his way with a smal band dep into the Libyan desert, to consult the oracle of Amun. During the iperium of his Ptolemaic heirs, the shrine of Isis at Philae received many votive inscriptions from Greks on behalf of their kindred far away at home. Pilgrimage in the Midle Ages In the Midle Ages, even as early as the 4th century AD, Christian pilgrimage was regarded as a sacred obligation and a trial of one's faith, since travel was dangerous, expensive and time-consuming. A POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 228 returning pilgrim was caled a palmer, as they would wear two crosed palm leaves to show they had made the pilgrimage. The anonymous "Pilgrim of Bordeaux" has left an itinerary of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 33. Empres Helena's discovery of the True Cros outside Jerusalem was the result of a pilgrimage. The Seven Slepers of Ephesus atracted pilgrims, who left their graffiti in the catacomb. In the West, Saint Martin of Tours and Martial of Limoges inspired building projects and an industry catering to pilgrims' requirements, including, in Martial's case, elaborately faked pious documentation (see Adhemar of Chabannes). The shrine of Santiago de Compostela in Spain lay at the end of the Way of St. James and a long conected string of pilgrims' sites. The city of Rome was also the destination of pilgrimage, by routes such as the Via Francigena, as the center of the Western Church. Popular destinations for pilgrimage in England included Bury St. Edmunds and Thomas Becket's shrine at Canterbury, the destination of Chaucer's 14th century pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales. In the north, many pilgrims headed to the shrine of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. Effects on trade Pilgrims contributed an important element to long-distance trade before the modern era, and brought prosperity to successful pilgrimage sites, an economic phenomenon unequalled until the tourist trade of the 20th century. Encouraging pilgrims was a motivation for asembling (and sometimes fabricating) relics and for writing hagiographies of local saints, filed with inspiring acounts of miracle cures. Lourdes and other modern pilgrimage sites keep this spirit alive. Modern pilgrimage Pilgrimages are stil made throughout the world: modern-day pilgrimages include the Way of St. James, the Haj, and the pilgrimage to Mount Kailash. Nowadays the terms pilgrim and pilgrimage can also have a somewhat devalued meanig as they are often applied in a secular context. For example, fans of Elvis Presley may choose to visit his home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tenese. Similarly one may refer to a cultural center such as Venice as a "tourists' Meca". Way of St. James The Way of St James, or St James' Way, often known by its Spanish name the Camino de Santiago, is the pilgrimage to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in north-westernmost Spain where the apostle Saint James the Great is said to be laid to rest. A major Christian pilgrimage route The Way of St James has ben one of the most important Christian pilgrimages since medieval times and it has existed for over 100 years. It was considered one of thre pilgrimages on which all sins could be forgiven - the others being the Via Francigena to Rome and the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. There is not a single route - the Way can be one of any number of pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. However a few of the routes are considered ain ones. Santiago is such an important pilgrimage destination as it is considered the burial site of the apostle James the Great. Legend states that St. James' remains were caried by boat from Jerusalem to northern Spain where they were buried on the site of what is now the city of Santiago de Compostela. In the midle ages the route was highly traveled. However, the Protestant Reformation and political unrest in 16th century Europe resulted in its decline. In the early 1980s only a few pilgrims arrived in Santiago annually. However, since the late 1980s the way has attracted a growing number of modern-day pilgrims from all around the globe. The route was declared the first European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe in October 1987 and inscribed as one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites in 193. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 229 History of St James' Way Pre-Christian history of the route Prior to its existence as a Catholic pilgrimage, the route is believed to also have had significance for the ancient pagan peoples of the Iberian peninsula, among them the Celts, and later the Romans who conquered Spain. The site of Santiago de Compostela itself may have ben perhaps a Roman shrine. To this day many of the pilgrims continue on from Santiago de Compostela to the Atlantic coast of Galicia to finish their pilgrimage at Spain's westernmost point Cape Finistere (Galician: Fistera). Though many pilgrims today erroneously believe Cape Finisterre is also the westernmost point of mainland Europe, the fact that the Romans caled it Finisterae (literally the end of the world, or Land's End in Latin) indicates that the Romans viewed it as such. Pagan influences can stil be sen along the Way; inded some of the modern-day pilgrims themselves are atracted more to the pagan legends associated with the Way rather than the Christian. One of the more popular legends holds that the route was sen as a sort of fertility pilgrimage, undertaken when a young couple desired to bear ofspring. The scalop shel is believed to have originaly ben caried by the Pagans as a symbol of fertility. The early-Christian pilgrimage The earliest records of visits paid to the shrine dedicated to St James at Santiago de Compostela date from the 8th century, in the times of the Kingdom of Asturias. This was the most renowned medieval pilgrimage; and the custom of those who carried back with them from Galicia scallop shells as proof of their journey gradualy extended to other forms of pilgrimage. The earliest recorded pilgrims from beyond the Pyrenes had visited the shrine in the midle of the 10th century, but it seem that it was not until a century later that pilgrims from abroad were regularly journeying there in large numbers, even the first recorded pilgrims from England, betwen 1092 and 105. By the early 12th century the pilgrimage was a highly organized afair. Four established pilgrimage routes from starting points in France converged in the Basque country of the western Pyrenes. Fro there a single combined track crossed northern Spain, linking Burgos, Carión de los Condes, Sahagún, León, Astorga and Lugo. The route in the Medieval period Diverse requirements of the pilgrim trade were met by a series of hospices along the way, by royal protection of such a lucrative source of revenue, by the evolution of a new genre of Romanesque ecclesiastical architecture designed to cope with huge devout crowds; and by the familiar paraphernalia of tourism, selling badges and souvenirs, and the remarkable guide-book put together in about 1140, the Codex Calixtinus. The pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela was opened most particularly to the influence of France, whence the great majority of pilgrims always came. Enterprising French people setled in the pilgrimage towns, where their names crop up in the archives. Pilgrims would walk the Way of St. James for months to arive finaly at the great church in the main square to pay homage, and so many pilgrims have laid their hands on the pilar just inside the dorway to rest their weary bones, that a groove has ben worn in the stone. The symbol of St. James pilgrims is the scalop shel, usualy sourced at Finistere, which they used to drink water from. So numerous were the pilgrims that the popular Spanish name for the Milky Way is El Camino de Santiago. Recent scholarship also posits that this "Milky Way - El Camino de Santiago" link may also have roots in the revival of goddess worship in Spain during this time. The pilgrimage as penance POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 230 Once a system of penance had ben established by the Church, part of the rituals of confesion and absolution, pilgrimages were established as adequate punishments assessed for certain crimes. The Catholic Encyclopedia noted: "In the registers of the Inquisition at Carcasone? we find the four folowing places noted as being the centres of the greater pilgrimages to be imposed as penances for the graver crimes, the tomb of the Apostles at Rome, the shrine of St. James at Compostela [sic], St. Thomas's body at Canterbury, and the relics of the Three Kings at Cologne." The modern-day pilgrimage Today tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims and other travelers set out each year from their front doorstep, or popular starting points across Europe, to make their way to Santiago de Compostela. Most travel by foot, some by bicycle, and a few travel as some of their Medieval counterparts did on horseback or by donkey (e.g. the British author and humorist Tim Moore). In addition to people on a religious pilgrimage there are many travellers and hikers who walk the route for non-religious reasons such as for enjoyment, travel, sport or simply the challenge of weeks of walking in a foreign land. Routes to Santiago Pilgrims on the Way of St. James walk for weks or months to visit the city of Santiago de Compostela. They can folow many routes (any path to Santiago is a pilgrim's path) but the most popular route is the French Way or Camino Francés. The most comon starting points on the Camino Francés are Saint- Jean-Pied-de-Port on the French side of the Pyrenes or Roncesvales on the Spanish side, however many pilgrims begin further afield mainly from one of the official four French starting cities: Le Puy, Vézelay or Arles or Tours. Some pilgrims start even further away, usualy from their own homes (e.g. in the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany). Generaly these pilgrims finds their own way to one of the four French cities mentioned above; afterwards folowing the more often walked paths. Pilgrims' acomodation St.James' shel, a symbol of the route. Taken in Leon, Spain. In Spain and southern France pilgrim's hostels dot the common routes providing overnight accommodation for recognised pilgrims, travellers who hold a credencial. In Spain these are caled refugios or albergues. Sometimes these hostels are run by the local parish, sometimes by the local council, and sometimes they are privately owned or run by pilgrim's associations. Occasionaly these refugios are located in monasteries, such as the one in Samos, and run by the monks. Beds can be found in dormitories and usualy cost betwen 3 and 7 Euros per night - though a few are by donation only. Pilgrims are usually limited to one night's accommodation. The style of accomodation is somewhat similar to those provided by the simpler class youth hostels, or the French systes of Gîtes d'étape. [edit] The Pilgrim's passport The credencial is a pas which alows you to overnight acomodation in refugios. Also known as the Pilgrim's pasport, the credencial is stamped with the oficial stamp of each refugio the pilgrim stays at - it therefore provides the pilgrim with a complete record of where they stayed overnight. The credencial is usualy available at refugios, some tourist offices, and some local parish houses and costs about 3 Euros. The Compostela POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 231 Pilgrims ariving in Santiago de Compostela who have walked at least 10km, or cycled 250km to get there (as indicated on their credencial) are eligible for a certificate caled the Compostela fro the Pilgrim's Ofice in Santiago. Pilgrim's mas A Pilgrim's mas in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is held each day at non for pilgrims. Pilgrims who received the Compostela the day before have their countries of origin and the starting point of their pilgrimage announced at the mass. The pilgrimage as tourism The Galician government seeks to make the way into a powerful tourism destination. When there is a Holy Compostelan Year (whenever July 25 fals on a Sunday) the government's Xacobeo tourism campaign is reinforced. The Way's name in other languages The ay of St. James has an often bewildering variety of diferent names in various European languages: ? In Spanish it is usualy caled El Camino de Santiago ? In Galician it is O Camiño de Santiago and often also Ruta Xacobea ? In Basque it is Donejakue Bidea ? In Catalan it is caled the Camí de Sant Jaume de Galícia ? In Czech it is caled the Cesta Svatého Jakuba ? In German it is caled Der Jakobsweg or the more archaic Der Jakobusweg ? In French le chemin de Saint Jacques ? In Italian Camino di Santiago ? In Polish Droga (or szlak) Êwi´tego Jakuba ? In Portuguese O Caminho de Santiago ? In Irish Slí Naomh Shéamais ? In Slovak it is caled the Cesta Svätého Jakuba POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 232 EARTH CHARTER The Earth Charter is a declaration of international values and principles thought to be necesary for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful future. Created by the largest global consultation proces ever associated with an international declaration, endorsed by thousands of organizations representing milions of individuals, the Earth Charter seks to inspire in al peoples a sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the wel-being of the human family and the larger living world. History The idea of a Charter originated in 1987, when the United Nations World Comision on Environment and Development called for a new charter regarding fundamental principles for sustainable development. In 192, the ned for a charter was urged by then-Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Sumit. In 193, there was a conference in Rome organized by the Franziscan Study Center for Environment (Bernhard J. Prezwozny) where a first draft was formulated (together with Maurice Strong). In 194, the Earth Charter Initiative was formed by Canadian Maurice Strong, secretary general of the Earth Sumit and chairman of the Earth Counsel, Mikhail Gorbachev, who was then president of Green Cross International, with support with the government of The Netherlands. The document was drafted from early 1997 to March 2000, through an international, open proces. It has not yet ben endorsed by the United Nations, although the Earth Charter Organization is atempting to gain its international suport. General Principles The Earth Charter urges environmental responsibility, peaceful coexistence, respect for life, democracy, and justice. It is organized into 16 general headings, each covering a general principle, as follows: 1. Respect Earth and life in al its diversity. 2. Care for the comunity of life with understanding, compasion and love. 3. Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable and peaceful. 4. Secure Earth's bounty and beauty for present and future generations. 5. Protect and restore the integrity of Earth's ecological systems, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life. 6. Prevent harm as the best method of environmental protection and, when knowledge is limited, apply a precautionary approach. 7. Adopt paterns of production, consumption and reproduction that safeguard Earth's regenerative capacities, human rights and comunity wel being. 8. Advance the study of ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of the knowledge acquired. 9. Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social and environmental imperative. 10. Uphold the right of al, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment suportive of human dignity, bodily health and spiritual well-being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities. 11. Ensure that economic activities and institutions at al levels promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner. 12. Affirm gender equality and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal access to education, health care and economic oportunity. 13. Strengthen democratic institutions at al levels, and provide transparency and acountability in governance, inclusive participation in decision-making, and aces to justice. 14. Integrate into formal education and lifelong learning the knowledge, values and skils needed for a sustainable way of life. 15. Treat al living beings with respect and consideration. 16. Promote a culture of tolerance, nonviolence and peace. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 233 CHAPTER 05: THE GREAT CYCLE OF LIFE POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 234 Welcome, O Life! I go to encounter for the milionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race. James Joyce CHAPTER 05: THE GREAT CYCLE OF LIFE What is it like to live a myth? What is it like to live a Myth? Well, it?s like being in Love. You don?t know what you?re mising until you?ve experienced it. This is the problem we face in the first world culture of the technolgicaly advance west. It?s dificult for us to know what it?s like to live a myth or to be enclosed within a living mythology. A mythology that works is a kind of glue that holds a community together. If we were fish, mythology would be the water in which we lived, and like fish out of water, a community without a living mythology tends toward disolution. From an earlier chapter we learned that there are four functions of a living mythology: the Mystical, the Cosmological, the Sociological, and the Pedagogical. If mythology only includes the cosmolgical and sociolgical functions, it is an Ideology not a mythology. We have plenty of Ideology in the West. What we lack is mythology. A mythology MUST include the mystical and the pedagogical function. (NOTE) You wil remember that A living mytholgy CORDINATES a living human individual with: ? The Cycle of their life. It operates as a guide through the journey. ? The Environment they live in. It helps them to se their place in the picture. ? The Society in which they find themselves. It links them to a comunity and culture Think about the events that fil our newspapers, magazines, and journals in relationship to these thre cordinates. What you wil find imediately is that in every tragedy some aspect, if not al, of these coordinates are missing. Remember a ytholgy binds a comunity together. A comunity without a living mythology tends toward dissolution. Today, without a viable social mythos, it is up to the individual, to take the responsibility to find for themselves the structure of belief that works for them. As one does this, it is important to remember the functions of mythology and what that mythology should cordinate. There were men, at an earlier time in our history in the West who expresed great interest in these very questions: the Alchemists. Some have described Alchemy as an ancient technological symbol for the perfectibility of the human soul. Alchemists are often pictured as primitive scientists who were trying to transform base metals into gold and silver. But when one loks at the Alchemist's complex charts and recipes as a symbolic language that speaks of the search for the 'gold' (or goal) of human existence, their texts on arcane and strange symbology sudenly resonates with philosophical and psychological meaning. (NOTE) One interpretation by Michele Emerson states: When one loks at a drop of blod under a microscope, its color is gold ... sparkling, shiny beautiful GOLD. Now translate that beauty into the way we have valued gold over the milenia. Why is this planet so in awe of the beautiful metal? One of the least recognized reasons is that liquid gold holds cellular/genetic and geophysical memory. Ancient archetypal symbols are being activated through the golden conductive properties within us. For the alchemist, gold represented the perfection of al matter on any level, including that of the mind, spirit, and soul. If we take time to lok into the science and spirit of gold we will find many interesting similarities POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 235 and understand that the purest aura around the body is golden-white light. In the beginning .. golden threads combined with blood, to create a bloodline that carries the DNA code for the movement of consciousness in the alchemy of time. In this way it can be said the Alchemist were searching for a way for a human to attain ful potentiality; the gold and goal of their life. This was often symbolized as a universal solution, an elixir of life created from the elements of earth, fire, air, and water. Aded to the four basic elements was a primal fifth; the quintesence. (NOTE) Clasical elements in Grece The Grek clasical elements are Fire, Earth, Air, and Water. They represent in Greek philosophy, science, and medicine the realms of the cosmos wherein al things exist and whereof al things consist. Plato mentions them as of Pre-Socratic origin, a list created by the Ionic philosopher Empedocles (ca. 450 BC). ? Fire is both hot and dry. ? Earth is both cold and dry. ? Air is both hot and wet. ? Water is both cold and wet. One clasic diagram (right) has two squares on top of each other, with the corners of one being the clasical elements, and the corners of the other being the properties. According to Galen, these elements were used by Hipocrates in describing the human body with an association with the four humours: yelow bile (Fire), black bile (Earth), blod (Air), and phlegm (Water). Some cosmologies include a fifth element, the "aether" or "quintesence." These five elements are sometimes asociated with the five platonic solids. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 236 The Pythagoreans aded idea as the fifth element, and also used the initial leters of these five elements to name the outer angles of their pentagram. Aristotle aded aether as the quintesence, rationalizing that whereas Fire, Earth, Air, and Water were earthly and coruptible, the stars were not made out of any of the four elements but rather a heavenly substance. The word aether was revived by late 19th century physicists as a term for the proposed invisible medium which permeated the universe, the luminiferous aether. Some ocultists have noted that in modern science the general rule is that most visible matter can be clasified as either a solid (Earth), liquid (Water), gas (Air), or plasma (Fire). By extension, more exotic phases of mater (such as Bose-einstein condensate) are sometimes seen as representative forms of a fifth element (Aether). (NOTE) Alchemy refers to; both an early protoscience and an early philosophical discipline, both combining elements of chemistry, metalurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, spiritualism, and art. Alchemy has ben practiced in Mesopotaia, Ancient Egypt, Persia, India, and China, in Clasical Grece and Rome, in the Islamic Caliphates, and then in Europe up to the 19th century ? in a complex network of schools and philosophical systems spaning at least 250 years. Western alchemy has always ben closely conected with Hermeticism, a philosophical and spiritual system that traces its roots to Hermes Trismegistus, a syncretic Egyptian-Grek deity and legendary alchemist. These two disciplines influenced the birth of Rosicrucianism, an important esoteric movement of the sevententh century. In the course of the early modern period, as mainstream alchemy evolved into modern chemistry, its ystic and Heretic aspects becae the focus of a modern spiritual alchemy, where material manipulations are viewed as mere symbols of spiritual transformations. Today, the discipline is of interest mainly to historians of science and philosophy, and for its mystic, esoteric, and artistic aspects. Nevertheless, alchemy was one of the main precursors of modern sciences, and we owe to the ancient alchemists the discovery of many substances and processes that are the mainstay of modern chemical and metalurgical industries. Exactly what this fifth element was is unclear. Acording to the film based on this aspect of Alchemy, The Fifth Element (with Bruce Wilis as the hero), the ?fifth element,? after wind, water, earth, and fire, is love. This would be no surprise to an Alchemist. Because the Quintessence is that substance that causes the coniunctio mysterium, (or coniunctio opositorum) that is, the joinig of the oposites of elements earth/air and water/fire. The process was constructed through symbols. The symbolism of Alchemy comes from various sources: philosophy, astrology, mysticism, and religion. Symbolic terms were used for every elment of the proces from the equipment and materials to the various stages of the process. The colors black, white, red, and gold symbolize a progression from reduction (equated with original sin or guilt) to distilation (equated with a pure state). Hence the notion of transforming base metal into gold. Although there were charlatans among the Alchemists, serious alchemists aplied their knowledge and curiosity with a true sense of purpose that shared elments of both the scientific and the religious. Inspired by a drawing in a 16 th century alchemy text caled The Miror of Men and Angels the folowing chart is offered as a means of exploring some of these ideas. The folowing is a modified version POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 237 of this amazing collection of symbols. It makes an analogy between the cycle of the Moon and the cycle of Life. By looking closely at its symbols we begin to discover a map connecting one?s existence to that of a living Mythology. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 238 The Moon Cycle and its significance In the astrological and astronomical system of ancient cultures, the Mon was sen and thought of as a planet, like the other planets known to those early peoples. The seven wandering or dynamic heavenly bodies for the ancients were the Sun, the Mon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. For them the Mon was the planet closest to the earth. Today, with our heliocentric system of astronomy we would describe it as the celstial body closest to the earth. The path of the Moon around the earth and the rhythmicaly changing phases of the Mon have ben important bases of the calendar since Man first began to mark the events of the skies. The Moon plays an important role in the magical and graphic symbolic thought of most people. It is especialy significant that the Mon appears to be alive due to its constantly changing shape. This waxing and wanig lunar aspect is strongly associated with various life rhythms on the earth. It is also one of the main reasons the Moon became an important fixed point in the measurement of time. Among many peoples it has ben revered as a god or godes. For the Greks it was personified as Selne and for the Romans it was Luna. In the ancient Orient the Mon often played a more significant role in calendar systems than the Sun. The Mon?s phases are known as waxing (growing) and waning (diminishing). These phases have been associated with female fertility, rain, moistening, and with all becoming and passing since the earliest of times. This is priarily because of its aparent influence upon the earth (i.e., the tides), on mankind in general (i.e., the circadian cycles of night and day), and particularly upon the bodies of women (i.e., the menstrual cycle). (NOTE) To find out what phase the mon is in at any given time check out: http:/ww.shetline.com/java/moonphase/moonphase.html We can say that the Mon symbolizes fertility, cyclic regeneration, ocult power, mutability, intuition and the emotions. It is the ancient regulator of time, the waters, crop growth and in part, the lives of women. There has always been rituals and rites associated with the Moon and it?s phases. For instance, there were certain rites designed to strengthen the Mon, or even to rescue the Mon during the phase of the New Mon or lunar eclipses. These moments of lunar activity were sen as times when the Mon was weaken or threatened. Some cultures have sen the phases of waxing and waning as the moon being devoured and then regurgitated. In comparison, the self-luminescent sun is strongly symbolized as a male principle and closely related to the Yang principle in Chinese philosophy. While the moon is strongly symbolized as female and closely related to the Yin principle in Chinese philosophy. (NOTE) From Mircea Eliade?s The Myth of the Eternal Return, we have the folowing pasage. ?The Phases of the mon ? apearance, increase, wane, and disappearance followed by reappearance after thre nights of darknes ? have played an imense part in the elaboration of cyclical concepts. We find analogous concepts especialy in the archaic apocalypses and anthropogonies; deluge or flood puts an end to an exhausted and sinful humanity, and a new regenerated humanity is born, usualy from a POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 239 mythical ?ancestor? who escaped the catastrophe, or from a lunar animal. A stratigraphic analysis of these groups of myths brings out their lunar character. This means that the lunar rhyth not only reveals short intervals (wek, month) but also serves as the archetype for extended duration; in fact, the ?birth? of humanity, its growth, decrepitude (wear), and disappearance are assimilated to the lunar cycle. And this assimilation is important not only because it shows us the ?lunar? structure of universal becoming but also because of its optimistic consequences: for, just as the disapearance of the mon is never final, since it is necessarily folowed by a new mon, even the disapearance of an entire humanity (deluge, flod, submersion of a continent, and so on) is never total, for a new humanity is born from a pair of survivors.? The First Nodal Point: Adolescence In the cycle of life we begin at birth, which on the Chart is the moment of the New Mon. This might be described as the moment a person is born from the transcendent mystery. Immediately after birth our culture begins to imprint itself on our psyche. Primarily this could be seen as imprinting the masks (Personae System) of society. The life phase of youth to adolescence is about submiting to the dominance of family, school, and church and through these institutions we learn and become like each one another. In French there is a word; envi, that means to emulate. The phrase that is often use is 'á l'envi l'un de l'autre' which means generaly in emulation of one another. The proces of envigilation (to create a neolgism) would be this process of interiorizing the paterns of culture in order to be identified with and through, or taken inside the culture. Another way of seing this is that the individual is initiated into its specific culture through a proces of interiorizing the culture patern. If you wil notice on the chart, the four quarters of the Mon (New, Waxing Quarter, Ful, Waning Quarter) are placed at the nodal points of a typical human life. For instance, Day 8 of the Mon cycle is analogous to year 18/19 in the life cycle, Day 15 of the Moon cycle is analogous to year 35 in the life cycle, and Day 2 in the Mon cycle is analogous to year 54-55 in the life cycle. As we reach the nodal point of Adolescence (Day 8 of the lunar cycle) the light begins to dominate. This is the symbolic moment when individuality begins to manifest strongly. This individuality has been in the process of developing throughout youth. Individuality was cultivated if you are born and raised in the West. If you were born and raised in the East, in a traditional culture, then it is a very diferent thing as we learned in last week?s Module. The 'light' or 'radiance' of Self-identity comes in conflict with the masks that have ben set by Culture and maintained and taught by Cultural representatives such as parents, pastors, priests and teachers. There is often a split betwen the two and a choice becomes necessary. The young person has to choose between the two paths. They might be destined for the Right Hand path and to become the executor of the established culture. That is to choose to align oneself with the society, comunity, culture, and vilage. The Right Hand path is the choice to become not only an expression of Culture?s orders and hierarchies but to represent those structures to others through a life live within its patterns. The other path is the Left Hand path. It is a path that takes the individual away from the established culture on a quest to find something that the originary culture can not ofer. There is a tremendous strugle betwen the existing mask and the ?antithetical? mask. The ?antithetical mask? is the mask constructed as individuality, as opposed to the thesis, or ?ethical mask? of the tradition. As you can se in the Chart, the descriptor for this nodal point is the word: temptation, and the sign of this nodal point is the cup of Tristan and Isolde. The story of Tristan and Isolt is an old knight?s tale whose rots go far back into Celtic and Pagan prehistory. It is one of the root stories of the Arthur Legend, which wil become clearer as you hear the story. What folows is an abreviated version of the begining of this wonderful tale. The Story of Tristan and Isolde Tristan was a great knight and worked for his uncle, King Mark. King Mark?s kingdom was on the shores of England, and far across the water was an wild and magical island kingdom ruled by a Quen, sometimes depicted in the legend as Ireland. These two POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 240 kingdoms wared with one another until a pact was made in the form of an aranged mariage betwen King Mark and the princes of the Emerald Isle whose name was Isolt. Princes Isolde and her mother (who is also named Isolde) were shamans to their people; both were great healers. (NOTE) One interpretation why the two women have the same name is that it is refering to the same person symbolicaly. The Quen represents the Right Hand Path and the Princes represents the Left Hand Path. At any rate, when Princes Isolt came of mariageable age a mesage was sent to Mark to come fetch his bride. The King was unable to leave his kingdom at that moment and so sent his first knight, a knight of so virtuous and strong a countenance that he practicaly glowed with goodness, Sir Tristan the good and noble, to fetch Isolde back for him. He was the only man King Mark trusted with such a delicate and diplomatic task. Isolde and Mark?s mariage represents the Tradition. This story comes from a time of Traditional values and social structures when aranged mariage was the norm and so there was no question as to the arangement and Isolde prepared herself for the event. She prepared her bag of magical herbs and potions to cary with her on the trip. One important potion her mother helped her prepare was a love potion. In a traditional arranged marriage love was never guaranteed and so to make sure, a love potion would be mixed in a glass of wine on the marriage night and after sharing the ?loving cup? the couple would be deply in love with each other forever. When Tristan arived to take Isolde back to King Mark, Isolde discovered that this great knight had kiled her brother and she was filed with a desire for revenge. But what could she do? Tristan was a relative, representative, and first knight to her future husband and any violent act against him would be, in effect a blow against her future husband. Not only would the marriage be stopped, it would also end the peace between the two countries. For the sake of Duty and Tradition she needed to swalow her own individual feelings for the benefit of her culture. On the long boat ride back to Mark?s kingdom Isolde?s anger depens, especialy when she was reminded at every turn of the wonderful knight Tristan. Not only was he handsome, young and brave, but also courteous and kind. Her every desire was met with sped and devotion. The great knight was the epitome of grace and virtue and as Isolde found it more difficult to find fault in him, her heart was hardened all the more. Eventualy she could stand it no longer and directed her maid to prepare a poison fro her magic potions and to mix it in a glass of wine. She called Tristan to her room and offered to share a toast with him. She prepared a toast to the most kind host who has shown her nothing but complete kindness. Her plan, of course, was to kil not only Tristan but herself as wel. But the maid (realizing how dangerous a position poisoning two such important people would place her) decided to use the love potion instead. So, when Tristan and Isolde drank the wine, anything that had blocked their love for one another dropped away and they stood gazing into eyes burning with a love of absolute and complete abandon. Revenge, Duty, Virtue, Tradition; none of this mattered now. In that moment the entire universe dropped away and they were the only two people in existence. (NOTE) This is NOT the cup betwen Isolde and King Mark, which is the cup of Duty and Tradition. This is the cup of Isolde and Tristan which, is the cup of Temptation, and transgresion. It is about the individual's radiant becoming. It is the coming into awarenes of the reality of your identity. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 241 For some the Right Hand path (the path of Duty) is the way. But there are those for whom the cup of Mark and Isolde is impossible. You may instead be destined, in a sense, to drink the cup of Isolde and Tristan, and take the Left Hand path, which leads to adventure and danger. This path leads away from the protection and patterns of the vilage compound (Culture). The Hero?s Journey wil be covered in later Modules and we wil explore its labyrinths and models. It is important to note here that for Isolde, sharing the loving cup with either Mark or Tristan meant death to her old self and being ?born again? to a new self and a new life. One path is very diferent than the other. Yes, but both require the death of the maiden for the birth of the woman to take place. If you want to know what hapens to Tristan and Isolde, their story has ben told and retold in many boks and poems. Richard Wagner even wrote a wonderful Opera caled, Tristan und Isolde, which has great musical themes connected to the story. (Film Clip #1 from the Milenium Series) In this film clip you wil met a young Wodaabe girl named Jarro, who has reached the adolescent nodal point. Notice how her culture ofers choices and opportunity for a young person at this point in the cycle. Compare her experience with your experience at that point in life. Is there a sense of ending as wel as a sense of begining in her story? The Wodabe culture is very diferent from ainstream First World (western) culture. To recognize these diferences and to discover why the Wodabe do things diferently is to perform the Cultural Analysis. For example the calbashes that are colected by the maried women of the tribe are an indication of a nomadic lifestyle as wel as the portable homes. Everything owned must be caried on the backs of livestock during the nomadic period of the year. Jarro speaks of the "tie of smoke" the period of wandering in the bush as oposed to the "time of fire" the period of the rainy season when the various family groups settle together for a few months. Al of these things point to cultural differences between the Wodaabe and First World culture. But also remember the Universal Analysis and lok for the similarities betwen this tribal people and our own technological culture. It should be easy to locate paterns of similarity. For instance, a young girl and her interest in meeting young men and her desire for creating relationship and exploring sexuality. These are universal themes that ocur in al human cultures. The hierarchies betwen men and women, between the married and unmarried women, and the organization of social behaviors around specific locations like the Market (think Mall) and the Dances (think Clubs). Isues of Identity are often universal at their rot, while culturaly differentiated when manifested. I love Jaro's reference to the Dances and al they entail as a woven tapestry. This is speaking directly to the mythos, the deply woven social and cultural paterns that create a living mythology. Even as a young person she understands her role and responsibility. The children are watching, she says. The children are learning from the stories they se lived out in everyday tribal life. The children are always watching, always in every culture, the children watch and learn. (NOTE) A major division, a kind of polarity, in the lives of the Wodabe is the ?Time of the Smoke? and the ?Time of the Fire?. The long period of migration and folowing the herds to grazing lands through the arid region of Niger is the long time of the smoke. The short, but intense period of the gathering together of al the family clans during the rainy season, caled the Gerewol, is the time of fire. It is in these divisions of existence for tribal peoples that one can perhaps begin to se the development of the relationship betwen the larger, wild and untamed Unconscious and the smaler, controled and ordered Conscious. It is out of the bush, wild nature, we developed and we stil carry much of that wildness within us. The is a strong social development to Consciousnes; as we came together to live in vilages, tribes, and eventualy nations and states, our specific kind of consciousness developed. This is not to say there is also a very individual aspect to consciousness ? but the very notion of the individual comes about in relationship to the group (whether the relationship is consonant or disonant). POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 242 The Second Nodal Point: Mid-life Looking at the chart above you wil notice that the middle node (15 th day of the lunar cycle) coresponds to the 35 th year of the Life cycle. At this point during the monthly solar and lunar cycles the moon and the sun sit facing one another on the eastern and western horizons equaly bright and almost indistinguishable. This is truly a mystical moment, this solar/lunar equivalency. In the greater Life cycle this moment symbolizes the individual at a prie moment of awarenes. At the nodal point of adolescence there was death to the child and the birth of a new awareness of self in the young adult. At this midle nodal point the individual must die to the body (the attachment to the physical self) to become associated with the spirit (the psychological self). The question this moment cals for is; Am I the consciousnes or am I the vehicle of consciousness?? Am I the light itself or am I the vehicle through which the light shines? This is the question of the Buddha or Christ Consciousness. Look up at the ceiling toward the lights located there (or the lamp beside your computer). One might say the lights are on, referencing the individual light bulbs. Or one might say the light is on, referencing the light itself. When the janitor comes in to replace a burned out light bulb s(he) doesn't say ?Ge! That was my favorite one!? No! Of course not, s(he) just replaces the bulb. The important thing is the light. If you can at this point identify with the light of your own conscious self, that is, the life force that continualy manifests in so many diferent and specific ways from your specific location, then the droping away of the body (aging) is no big thing. In fact it has its own beauty and path. ?Oh Death Where Is Thy Sting!? The 15 th day ? the Ful Mon ? symbolizes this moment perfectly. The descriptor for this nodal point is the word plentitude and the sign of this nodal point is the rose in ful blom. When this sign is pictured in the abstract form it becomes the rosete, such as in the Rose Window of a Cathedral. The Rosete is an ancient sign dating back to Mesopotamia and represents Paradise and signifies the Sun and the Moon simultaneously. There is an old saying that no mater how old we are when we die that when we get to paradise we wil al be 35 years old. If from the moment of pasing the adolescent nodal point of the 18 th year an individual choses the Right Hand path then they begins to become fuly engaged within their comunity. The light of consciousness burns ever brighter as it aproaches the zenith of the Ful Mon. This form of self- consciousness is realized primarily in the physical realm, that is through identifying through the wife (or husband), the children, the house, the car, the job (carer), The descriptor plenitude is referencing this aspect of life at this point. Your life is ful. It is ful of the many things that determine who you are within your family, comunity, and culture. As for the body, this age represents the apex of physicality, the halfway mark between birth and death. Up until then the body has been an extropic system; that is growing or expanding. Afterward the body becomes an entropic system; that is winding down or contracting. Rather like a breath. You breathe-in and the body expands. You breathe-out and the body contracts. The breath is inded a wonderful symbol of life. The Sanskrit word for breath is prana and it is used to mean life force, or spirit. The life force is divided by Hindu philosophy into ten classifications beginning with the breath, and including the air of digestion, of evacuation, of relaxation, of opening and closing the eyes and mouth, of contraction, of circulation, and of sustenance. The seat of the life airs is the heart. Prana is closely conected with Yoga. Yoga is a Hindu philosophical system atributed to Patanjali, who lived about 150 BC. He preached mystical union with a personal deity through the practice of self-hypnosis and a rising above the senses by abstract meditation, adoption of special postures, and ascetic practices. In the practice of yoga ? calm breathing brings calmness of mind. The practice of pranayama (breath control) is the fourth of the eight limbs of yoga. The Life Force of the 'Star Wars Trilogy' and the teachings of Yoda resonate with these ideas. To be ?one with the Force? means to be in alignment with Life and to allow that spirit to manifest strongly in your activities. (NOTE) Yoga, meanig union in Sanskrit, is a family of ancient spiritual practices, and also a school of spiritual thought that originated in India, where it remains a vibrant living tradition and is sen as a means to enlightenent. Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, and Raja Yoga are considered the four main yogas, but there are many other types. In other parts of the world where yoga is popular, notably the West, Yoga has become associated with the asanas (postures) of Hatha Yoga, which POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 243 are popularly considered there as fitness exercises and also form the basis of an expanding busines. Yoga as a means to enlightenment is central to Hinduism, Budhism, Jainism and has influenced other religious and spiritual practices throughout the world. Ancient Hindu texts establishing the basis for yoga include the Upanishads, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Bhagavad Gita, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and many others, which specify the criteria of having successfully mastered a particular yoga technique. Each of these nodal points along the cycle of life reference moments of transformation. Transformation generaly requires the dying of the old self for a new self to emerge and each of these points along the path of life give us hints as to the aspect of life upon which we should be concentrating. In this case we turn from (or ?die? to) the physical and begin to meditate on the non-physical aspect of who we are; the consciousnes self. This meditation wil lead us to the understanding that al floats on the sea of consciousness and our physical identity is so much debris washed up along the shoreline of that large, mysterious, and dep body of which we all are part. (Film Clip #2 from the Milenium Series) In this film clip you wil met a Dogon man named Dogolu, who has reached this point of mid-life plenitude in his life. The sudden event of the death of his uncle reminds him of the preciousnes of life. Dance and Meditation blend in an interesting matrix of life and death. Notice how the Dogon of Mali use the meditation on death as a way to always apreciate and validate life. Curiously, there is often a reflection or influence of the polar nodal point that inaugurates the transformation of the given node. For example, King Mark would have been at the 53-year nodal point and Isolt at the 18 year nodal point, and the same can be said for Mary in the story of Jesus. Mary would have been at the adolescent nodal point when Gabriel the Archangel apears with his anouncement. Joseph, as we wil explore in a moment was at the Old Age Nodal point the 53 marker. What often awakens the psycholgical consciousness at the Mid-life node, the 35 marker is the death of an older family member. The Mali people have a vibrant tribal culture. I especially enjoy the dancing of the Masks. There is a connection to the psychological in the basic structure of life for these people. Notice the strong distinction between the Vilage and the Bush. It is here that one can begin to imagine the construction of consciousnes in our ancient past as we established tribal village life out of the chaos of the wildness of nature whether the forest, the jungle, or the bush. Listen to Doogolu's description in the film clip. He says there is tremendous energy in the Bush, too much for any one person to handle. But the energy neds to come into the vilage to make a harmony betwen Bush and Vilage and there's a way; the dance of the Mask's. (NOTE) DOGON DAMA MASKS: While many of the Dogon dances are spectacles of entertainment, encouraged by tourism, the Dama is stil a highly religious ceremony ending a period of mourning. The masks used by the Dogon for their religious rituals are only known to the Dogon. Their meanings are secret and are only worn by members of the Awa, a secret asking association. The function of the Awa asquerades is to lead the souls of the deceased to their final resting place. The death anniversary ceremonies, the Dama, take place every few years to honor male and female elders who have died since the last Dama. The period betwen the death of a man and the end of the mourning ceremonies, which close the cycle, is a long one. After the "first funeral" the family wil acumulate gods that can be exchanged to enable them to organize a dance. Numerous tabos are enforced while the soul of the deceased roams the vilage, haunting the places he once frequented. The Dama raises the tabos and masters the secret force that emanates from the deceased directing the soul through the masks to the sacred POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 244 places where it wil be fixed. At the end of the Dama, the deceased wil belong to the ranks of the ancestors. It is through them that the word of Ama (or Ama), the Creator, wil be transmited again to mankind, fertilizing the fields and fecund the women and cattle. In order to achieve this goal, there are a wide display of symbolic practices involving masks, songs, music, feasting and drinking of ilet ber. The Dama may last as long as long as six days. The begining of the Dama preparations is anounced by the sound of the rhombe, a woden or metal saw edged plate, that is whirled round the end of a rope by one of the Awa initiates. This humming sound is the voice of the first ancestor. From that moment on, the circumcised member of the Awa repaint and carve the masks they wil wear--away from the vilage in secret. The hods and short skirts for the costumes are made from the bark of the pollo tree while the long skirts are made from sanseviera fibers. These are plaited (braided and woven) and dyed black, red or yellow. Cowrie shells are added for ornamentation. When the masks emerge from their secret places, their arrival is announced; the women and children take shelter in their huts. A group of musicians are nearby playing two bui-na drums and iron castanets. This is not a gay masquerade, but actors in a cosmic theater, aiming to recreate the creation of the world-- men, plants, and animals. The period of disorder caused by the death is now brought to an end. The audience watches with great atention the diferent stages of the ritual. The place where the sacred dances are held is invaded by more than eighty different types of masks. Of these, the most numerous are the kanaga and most symbolic, the sirige masks. The kanaga has become an emblem of the Dogon. It is so wel know that is often used as an eblem of the Mali Republic. To the uninitiated, it appears to be a bird of prey with outspread wings. However, any attempts by art historians to put meanings to these famous masks are just gueses. The kanaga is toped with a short pole intersected by two parallel blades. At the ends of the blades are boards, which point upwards on the top blades and downwards on the botom blade. The face in encircled by dyed fibers. For those who have atained knowledge through initiation, it symbolizes man, axis of the world, pointing to both earth and sky. Another interpretation links kanaga to the water insect that implanted in the soil the first sed from which all other sed sprung. The flat, crushed shape of the pole evokes the fal of the first troublemaker, Ogo, the fox. What ever the meaning is today, may not have been the meaning of the first kanaga masks. No one can say what they originaly meant, not even the Dogon. Al of these interpretations are included in the dance of the Dama. A dancer with rapid movement of the uper body sweps the mask close to the ground, evoking the creation by Ama. The sirige mask with rectangular face--somewhat architectural in appearance with two vertical hollowed spaces--is toped with a long blade nearly fifteen feet in length. The pierced and painted blade of geometric triangles is said to represent the diferent stages of creation as sirige means, "storied houses"; the face represents the family house. The sirige mask dances. After a rapid change in drum rhyth, he knels to the east, moving his body backwards and forward, forcing the blade to touch the ground marking the limits of the horizon. As he rises, he creates whirling horizontal motions with the mask sugesting the POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 245 evolution of the sun around the earth--the universe being created by the rotation of the divine axis. Following the kanaga and the sirige are more familiar faces to the uninitiated since they are less abstract. These represent the behavior of some of the animals that haunt the region. They include antelopes, hares, lions, hyenas, cows, birds and monkeys. The myths of al may not be known, but it has been writen in some of Griaule's acounts that the black monkeys, Dege, are the "male vilains of the bush." The black monkeys stand for wickednes, glutony and must not be emulated because it is the antithesis of the Dogon order. Other masks mie Dogon social characters: the "old man", the "young girl" with cowrie shel face covering and baobob fruit breasts, the "ritual thief" (this may be the misionary), masks of castes (blacksmith, shoemaker, farmer and so on), the white "Misus," the ethnographer "Dokotor." There are also masks of the "Bamana woman" and always several of the "Peul (or Fulani) woman" for the Peul are the ones who forced the Dogon from their original land and have ben their enemies for centuries. The masks of the Peul women are made of fibers mocking the hairstyle of the women--tal comb and numerous plaits decked out with cowrie shels. The brasiere ads realism. Ocasionaly the yashigine appears as the legendary woman who stole the secrets of the masks from the men, and therefore had to be initiated into the secret mask society. Al of the available masks are never used at one Dama for each requires its own type of mask. Each vilage has mask types that are unknown elsewhere. Every group of masks demonstrates its own style of dance; every dancer in red and black fibrous costume with red fiber bracelets and anklets. Even the back of the head is covered, for no one shal know his true identity. One acount of the Dama festivities from begining to end says that as each group comes forward, the rhythms change; dances go on late into the afternon, with new dancers replacing those who drop out from exhaustion. Gradually the dancers leave and the crowd diminishes. As the last of the musician go, the dancing place is quiet and abandoned. The Dama has ended; the nyama of the dead man has made its journey to the beyond. There is nothing more to fear. The masks and the dancing have fulfiled their responsibilities and may be returned to the cave where they are kept--safe until the next Dama. If you notice what the masks represent you'l se a nice picture of the personae system, the masks that culture provides for us to wear. In adition to that naming aspect of the conscious, we are, after all, the species that names (neo-cortex development). So, in the Dance we can see images representing white man and black, in adition to male and female, young and old, healthy and sick (the man with the goiter on his neck) and we can se the tre, the antelope, the gazelle, and the crocodile. Nature, Animals, and Man weave together in a dance that symbolizes, and honors, the web of their relationships in the actual world. But, as Dogolu says, the masks are just pieces of painted wod, until they are picked up and danced and then they become the Masks, the things that matter in the world. The Teacher personae can be sen in a similar way. The abstract mask of the teacher is just a suit of clothing and tally of knowledge and techniques. But when a 'master of the dance' wears the mask then the energy of knowledge is activated and transformation takes place; individuals become students and students are transformed into masters of their craft. From where does the energy come to activate the masks and initiate the transformation? The unconscious is the source. In the structure of the Dogon culture it is the Bush, Nature wild and untamed. A great wind blows from the bush and through the Vilage to the clif, up the clif to the houses of the dead and then back again to the Bush forming a great cycle; the great cycle of life. The conscious self floats on POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 246 the great ocean of the unconscious and it is from the unconscious and to the unconscious that we return in the circadian cycles of each day and night. The energy is the life force that energizes the self to action in the world. The ritual of the dance in the Dogon Village activated the energies within the larger comunity and this is the role of ritual within comunity. Religion does not monopolize ritual, although the purpose of religious ritual is exactly to activate life-suporting energies within the comunity. Individuals and groups within the comunity can and do perform ritual to activate the energies and powers of the unconscious. The mid-life nodal point in the life cycle requires an understanding that the things you have colected around you in the world are not what you are. You are a manifestation of the life force in relationship with the energies of the world. That realization is goal of this leg of the journey and the path it takes us along wil lead to the next, the Third Nodal Point. The Third Nodal Point: Old Age The nodal point of the 2 day on the Lunar Cycle symbolizes the moment in the Life Cycle of the turning back toward the Transcendent Mystery from which we came but Life isn?t over yet and there are stil important tasks ahead. The physical body is droping of and consciousness returns to the vilage sense of Duty and the individual at this point in life should share the knowledge and experience gained through their lives within the framework of the vilage to make and maintain the tapestry of comunity. There is a slowing down in pace and a dep reflecting on the life lived. A long-lived life is shared in stories, tales, songs, and a diversity of activities. Life can and perhaps should, become pedagogic (teaching) material for the young, but the old aging ones among us have important and vital roles to play in all areas of the life of the comunity. It is the moment of the emergence of the Elder Teacher. The descriptor for this nodal point is the word steadfastness, and the sign for this nodal point is the 'the sprouting wand.' You might say, there?s stil juice in the old stick. This sign references the story of Joseph and his duty to Mary and the strength of purpose necesary to do what his destiny told him was necessary. What follows is from the legend of Joseph, and can not be found in the canon of scripture. There is very litle of his story in the pages of the four Gospels of the New Testament. There is more of his story told in the apocryphal texts that exist outside the closed canon of the Bible. The Gothic imagination fills in the rest of the story. The Story of Joseph Joseph was retired, a widower, and living a peaceful life in Jerusalem when he received the mesage. The High Priest from the Temple of Solomon, his own local temple, made a proclamation that every man available for marriage in Jerusalem should bring in his staff and ofer it to the temple oficials for a blessing. He wondered what it could mean as he walked to the Temple with his staf in hand. He noticed that lots of men were heading in the same direction with their own staves. Some were young and fresh, hardly weaned, while others were more mature wel set and obviously quite proud of their place in the comunity. He noticed there were very few men his age walking along the road to the temple. Most men his age would of course be maried, but his beloved wife had died sudenly just two years before. He had at that point decided to turn his busines over to his sons and retire from life and to concentrate on meditation, reading scriptures and prayer in the temple. When the proclamation from the High Priest came he had actualy considered refusing the cal, but since the High Priest was God?s representative on earth, he knew that by refusing the High Priest he would be refusing God. The Law said that after one year of mourning the death of a wife the man would be once again able to mary. So, here he was walking the road to the Temple with his staff ready. He over heard the conversation of the men along the way, some were excited about the proposal of marriage and some were les than thriled at the thought of their lives being burdened with another mouth to feed. Many of these men seemed to know ho the woman was for whom these preparations were being made. Everything he overheard about this young girl indicated she was something quite out of the ordinary. Words like ? great beautiful,? ?extremely POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 247 devotional,? ?rare flower,? and ?exquisitely pure? kept being repeated. Perhaps if he had been a younger man with his life out ahead of him he would be excited at the chance to have such a rare flower. But at his age, with all of life behind him, all he wanted and needed was a devotional shawl and his prayer beads. Everything life could have ofered him had been granted by the grace of God and he had no complaints about his place in his comunity. He was well loved and respected by his sons, neighbors, and his custoers who were always faithful to his carpentry shop. Even the damnable Romans had no cause for complaint considering he paid his taxes and tried to live as honest and upright a life as possible. Joseph was a happy and contented man. Surely this would be a mere ritual of acquiescence and the High Priest would choose one of these obviously worthy young men that now surounded him on the road. He quickened his pace, peaceful in the thought that this would soon be over and he could get back to his prayer beads. The High Priest was waiting at the great doors of the magnificent Temple of Solomon in the heart of Jerusalem and as the last of the men gathered at the foot of the broad stairs he lifted his hands and caled for silence. His stern gaze seemed to capture every man?s eyes as he loked over the crowd. In the silence that fel his voice could be heard clearly. There was a young girl named Mary who came from a very wel placed family in Jerusalem, she brought with her a matchless pedigre with a kingly lineage. While she was not of the wealthiest of families, her beauty and purity could not be matched in the kingdom. Her inteligence had ben proven and her grace and decoru wel known. Her devotions to the scriptures and prayers was so great that most of her youthful hours had been spent in the Temple in humble servitude to the elders who lived and taught there. She was wel loved by al those who knew her. But now she was very close the age of mariageability and the parents of the child had asked the High Priest to make the choice for a suitable husband. In his nightly prayers, the High Priest said, an angel came to him and explained what must be done. Every male of marriageable age in Jerusalem should bring a staff to leave in the Temple for three days and that God himself would make the choice for the husband of this young woman. So each of the men filed past the High Priest to receive a blesing and to lay their staf at his fet. The Temple staf tok and labeled the staves acordingly and everyone returned home to wait for three days. (NOTE) Making Staves, by Michael Playle Scout sticks are caled staves. As a youth I was in a trop where we used "staves". When we were invested it was our task to find or obtain a stave or stick and to make it "your own." Mine remained with me during my scouting life and to this day I stil have it. The first rule was it had to be at least as tall as you were. Often Patrol names were carved in them and measurement in inches for the first foot then every foot was marked the key to these were they were "yours" an individual mode of expresion. Many of us fited ferules but there were also those of us who chose not to. My own was a piece of wood from a peach tre with the bark striped of then my name cut in with my knife. The stick was dried and in the early days many people oiled them with linseed oil. I had carved out 2 bands around the stick and painted these in my patrol colors (Red and Black). Mine was shelacked and leather bands tied around it at intervals and then shellacked again If you don't put a ferule on them you can make a noise using them in the den when coming to the alert (bang them on the flor). We also used ours for making pioneering projects in the den. Staves were taken to camp too. I never knew anyone who had to make a new one only when theirs broke from misuse. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 248 Our staves were kept in racks in our patrol corners and the key to it is the reverence with which they were treated. As they were "ours" and ceremonial items I only ever saw in ten years them being used for fighting with. Nedles to say the seriousnes by which the Court of Honor dealt with this bought home to the ofenders the gravity of the offence. Any wod can be used. In New Zealand, Manuka makes a god stick. Many people have a suitable stick at home or can put the word out to family members. Next time you go to camp go "stave" hunting. Often branches that are fallen reveal beauty when stripped and whitled right. Accumulate them slowly encourage and adopt them as trop treasures. Think of al the things you can use them. If you read Scouting for Boys it wil tel you how to measure the height of an object using a stave. You can use them for walking sticks, playing games, on parade, pioneering, for carrying troop colors, making a stretcher, and loads of other things Joseph?s excitement turned to trepidation as he returned home. Why did there have to be a three day wait and then to return to the Temple for the choice? The thought kept him from his prayers and meditations for two days. He tried to forget about the cal of the Temple and concentrate on the scripture in the open bok on his lap but like a buzing bee, thoughts of this young girl and the unusual method of choosing a mate for her kept returning to his mind. Finaly on the last afternon as the sun sat low over the dusky eastern sky, in desperation he walked to his shop and picked up a fresh block of fragrant Myrtle wod from the leftover wod stack, and finding his favorite knife he sat down in the doorway to whitle. In the past this was the way he found peace. If he became woried or frustrated about something he would let his hands meditate for him. Letting his mind wander over the events of the day, his skiled hands would cut away at a block of wod allowing the shape that always seemed to be hiding within to slowly emerge. His most expressive and beautifully exquisite work came from these moments of solitude. Joseph lifted his face to the cool night breze. He had just finished his carving and was sudenly at great peace with himself. Hours had pased since he started and the night sky over Jerusalem was bright with stars. Tomorow he would go to the Temple to hear the decision of the High Priest, but it no longer woried him. To whatever God decided he would answer ?yes? and that was al he needed to know. One step at a time life proceeds and what strength and courage that would be needed in the future would be there ? of this he was absolutely sure. So, now at peace with himself, and with the universe he looked into the star-filed heavens and noticed for the first time a star shining overhead, that semed to glow brighter with each pasing moment. A beacon of light hovering above the city. In wonder, Joseph smiled and began to walk home through the quiet familiar strets. He held in his hands what would be his first gift to his new young wife ? a perfectly carved rose. At each of these nodal points there has ben a moment of awakening, a becoming aware of a deeper understanding of the self and its natural process of maturation. With the emerging awareness there is, simultaneously, the dying of the old concept of self so that the new can manifest. It is out of the old compost heap of Self that the new self grows. The seed of the New Self is always, already embedded with the Old. (Film Clip from the Millennium Series) POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 249 In the last clip from the Milenium flim, Jack Polack, an artist in New York City, faces the last leg of the journey. Though at the end of the cycle of his life he finds there are plenty of things for him to do. Giving up is not one of them. The journey of life is diferent for everyone in spite of the general paterns we have discused in this lecture. This is so for many reasons, the patern is extremely flexible in order to allow for individual experience and each individual approaches the pattern of life from (h)er own unique perspective. This last life passage into old age is generally looked upon as a time of retirement, a steping away from life. Jack Polack shows us that there is much to do at every stage of life, even this last stage when things begin to slow down and drop away. Rather than retiring from life at this moment Jack embraces living and makes each day another oportunity to leave a trace of beauty and grace in his place in the universe. As Jack says, you can't separate Art from Life. They are integrated: intelect, emotion, and technique. These three things are crucial in a work of art, but it is exactly these three things that are necesity for a quality of Life. Think about life as art and tie that to the notion of you as the storyteler of your life story. The living of Life is the crafting of a person's life story and it is co-writen by you and each person in your life. This Life-Text, your 'ultimate' artwork, is determined through your how you aproach every aspect of life moment to moment with qualities of intelect, eotions, and technique (thinking, feling, and action). It is here that Art resonates most profoundly as a metaphor for human existence. Each work of art is an example of life's posibilities and potentials; realized or unrealized. The last phase of life ends at the fourth nodal point that is Death. There are stil lesons to be learned here. Perhaps this is the most important leson of all. The Fourth Nodal Point: Death/Birth The Final nodal point is also the begining nodal point indicating the return to the Transcendent Mystery. The sign for this nodal point is the Aple and the descriptor for this nodal point is the word Wisdom. While this moment is about Death, it is truly about transformation, the ultimate transformation. Death in its symbolic form signifies the death of the old to make way for the new. This is the notion of death and transfiguration as in the caterpilar's 'death' within the cocoon, which makes the buterfly possible. It is a proces. James Hilman, describes it as Soul-Building. How does one gain a profound depth of character, with empathy for the other, and a rooted sense of Self, in other words, Soul? Anyone who sings the Blues, a most ?soulful? kind of music, wil tell you that sufering has something to do with it, as well as the ebulience and grace to weather the storms of life and take those lessons deep within. You are shaped by those episodes, marked as surely as the twister, or hurricane, shapes the topology of terain they cros over. As David Maybery-Lewis says in the documentary The Art of Living, there are those who say that we only have these seventy some od years to make our way on this god earth. That there may be nothing after death and these short precious years that we are living now are the only time we are aloted. Whether this is true or false isn?t the question to ask! Whether there is only one life to live, or whether there are thousands of lives to live? Whether the grave is the end or whether some form of purgatory, heaven, or hell? These things are not the important points to focus upon. The point is that Life, and eternity for that mater, is happening in each moment lived. It is not in the past nor in the future. Life is taking place in the Alchemical Caldron of the Now of existence. One should LIVE one?s life as though it were the only life to live, because the only absolute given is this moment you are living right now. Craft it wisely, as an artist would a beautiful work of art. One might imagine what it would be like to live a life that has honored each of those precious lived moments. Singing, dancing, writing a Life-Text wel worth writing, wel worth living, wel worth reading. Then standing at the end of the course loking back over such an adventure with good grace and pleasure. We have all gone to the picture show and the seat, in the end, the seat didn?t mater at al. It was a great show! Not a bad way to go realy! Conclusion So why study these things? A man might wel say that he has goten along quite well in his life without thinking about these things. Joseph Campbel responded to such a question with this response. ?It is very true that one can live a fine and hapy life without asking these questions and seking such answers. A dog lives a wonderful and hapy existence without ever asking even one of these questions. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 250 But after al is said and done, it is a dog's life. The person who is human and interested in what it means to be human lives a very different kind of existence.? What is it like to be a part of these living proces? What is it like to live a Myth? We have but to lok to the Native American to se very clearly a people who lived their Mythology. A people so intricately connected to their world that there was no diference between their living world and the Mythology through which they identified. Listen to the Letter that Chief Seattle sent to the President of the United States upon request that the Indians sel their lands to the Government. Here it is we can glimpse something of the power of a living mythology, functioning as it should by conecting its members to the artful way of living. (Film Clip from Joseph Campbel?s Myth and Symbol) CHIEF SEATLE'S LETER "The President in Washington sends word that he wishes 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 freshnes of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every huming insect. Al are holy in the memory and experience of my people. We know the sap which courses through the tres as we know the blod that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man al belong to the same family. The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each glosy reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tels of events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father. The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They cary our canoes and fed our children. So you must give the rivers the kindness that you would give any brother. If we sel you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life that it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell our land, you must kep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is swetened by the meadow flowers. Wil you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befals the earth befals al the sons of the earth. This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. Al things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 251 One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator. Your destiny is a mystery to us. What wil hapen when the bufalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will hapen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hils is blotted with talking wires? Where wil the thicket be? Gone! Where wil the eagle be? Gone! And what is to say goodbye to the swift pony and then hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival. When the last red man has vanished with this wildernes, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving acros the prairie, wil these shores and forests stil be here? Wil there be any of the spirit of my people left? We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So, if we sel you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it, as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for al children, and love it, as God loves us. As we are part of the land, you to are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you. One thing we know - there is only one God. No man, be he Red man or White man, can be apart. We ARE al brothers after al." POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 252 VOCABULARY Disolution death, decease - a bringing or coming to an end; disintegration; decay; termination - Decomposition into fragments or parts; disintegration Ideology The body of doctrine, myth, belief, etc., that guides an individual, social movement, institution, clas, or large group. Alchemy A medieval form of chemistry whose main purpose was to turn base metal into gold The Quintesence In Alchemy the ?5 th Element? after Earth, Water, Fire and Air in the Elixir of Life Four Basic Elements (Alchemy) Earth, Air, Fire and Water The Quintesence (Alchemy) Ether, Spirit, Thought, Love Hermeticism A philosophical and spiritual system that traces its rots to Hermes Trismegistus, a syncretic Egyptian-Grek deity and legendary alchemist. Hermeticism is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs[1] based primarily upon the writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. These beliefs have had the impact of effecting magic traditions and further, the impact of serving as a set of religious beliefs. Whatever the impact of the beliefs, they stem from teachings and books accredited to Heres Trismegistus, who is put forth as a wise sage and Egyptian priest, coonly seen as synonymous with the Egyptian god Thoth. Rosicrucianism An important esoteric movement of the sevententh century. Coniunctio mysterium (or coniunctio opositorum) that is, the joinig of the oposites of elements earth/air and water/fire. Astrology The study of the relative positions of the planets/stars to learn their influence on earth Selene The Grek personification of the Mon Luna The Roman personification of the Mon Waxing The extropic or expanding phase of the Mon Wanig The entropic or contracting phase of the Mon Yin/Yang The concepts of yin and yang originate in ancient Chinese philosophy and metaphysics, which describes two primal opposing but coplementary forces found in al things in the universe. Yin, is sad, the darker element, is passive, dark, feminine, downward-seeking, and coresponds to the night; Yang, is hapy, the brighter element, is active, light, masculine, upward-seeking and coresponds to the day; yin is often symbolized by water, while yang is symbolized by fire. The pair probably goes back to ancient agrarian religion; it exists in Confucianism, and it is prominent in Taoism. Though the words yin and yang only apear once in the Tao Te Ching, the bok is laden with examples and clarifications of the concept of mutual arising. The concept is a fundamental principle of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Yin and yang are descriptions of complementary oposites rather than absolutes. Any yin/yang dichotomy can be seen as its opposite when viewed from another perspective. The categorisation is seen as one of convenience. Most forces in nature can be broken down into their respective yin and yang states, and the two are usualy in movement rather than held in absolute stasis. Envigilation In French there is a word; envi, that means to emulate. The phrase that is often use is 'á l'envi l'un de l'autre' which means generaly in emulation of one another. The process of envigilation (to create a neologism) would be this process of interiorizing the patterns of culture in order to be identified with and through, or taken inside the culture. Another way of seeing this is that the individual is initiated into its specific culture through a process of interiorizing the culture pattern POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 253 Right Hand Path (The Path of Duty) To become the executor of the established culture. That is to chose to align oneself with the society, comunity, culture, and vilage. The Right Hand path is the choice to become not only an expression of Culture?s orders and hierarchies but to represent those structures to others through a life live within its paterns. Folowing the principles of the ?vilage compound? Left Hand Path (The Path of Destiny) A path that takes the individual away from the established culture on a quest to find something that the originary culture can not ofer. There is a tremendous strugle betwen the existing mask and the ?antithetical? mask. The ?antithetical mask? is the mask constructed as individuality, as oposed to the thesis, or ?ethical mask? of the tradition. Tristan and Isolde The story of star-crossed lovers Tristan and Isolde - an old knight?s tale whose rots go far back into Celtic and Pagan prehistory - It is one of the root stories of the Arthur Legend King Mark Symbol of Tradition, Duty, and Culture in the story of Tristan and Isolde The Wodabe The Wodabe (or Bororo) are a subgroup of the Fulani (sometimes Fula, Fulbe, or Peul) ethnic group. The Wodabe are traditionaly nomadic catle-herders and traders, with migrations stretching from southern Niger, through northern Nigeria, northeastern Cameron, and the western region of the Central African Republic. Gerewol A gather of the Wodabe peoples during the rainy season. In the Gerewol celebration the most handsome young men participate in a beauty contest, perform sensual dances and try to charm their way into the heart of a potential lover. The Gerewol condones self-indulgence and preoccupation with one's physical atributes, placing it in direct opposition with Islam's notion of keeping the human ego in check so that Allah remains the most important entity in a Muslim's life. Temptation The Descriptor for the Node of the Mon?s waxing quarter ? conected to Isolt?s ?loving cup? Plenitude The Descriptor for the Node of the Ful Mon ? conected with the Rose or the Rosete The ?loving? cup The Sign of the Waxing Quarter node - cup of wine laced with a love potion ? ritual of initiation The Rose The Sign of the Ful Mon node ? symbol of plenitude ? Mary?s flower Prana Sanskrit word for breath, life force, spirit Pranayama Breath control ? a method of meditation in the practice of Yoga Yoga (Sanskrit) Union - A family of ancient spiritual practices, and also a schol of spiritual thought that originated in India, where it remains a vibrant living tradition and is seen as a means to enlightenment Transformation generally requires the dying of the old self for a new self to emerge and each of these points along the path of life give us hints as to the aspect of life upon which we should be concentrating. In this case we turn from (or ?die? to) the physical and begin to meditate on the non-physical aspect of who we are; the consciousness self. This meditation wil lead us to the understanding that all floats on the sea of consciousness and our physical identity is so much debris washed up along the shoreline of that large, mysterious, and dep body of which we al are part Dogon The Dogon are a group of people living in the central plateau region of Mali, south of the Niger bend near the city of Bandiagara in the Mopti region. They number about 30,00. The Dogon are best known for their mythology, their mask dances, woden sculpture and their architecture. The past century has sen significant changes in the social organization, material culture and beliefs of the Dogon, partly because Dogon country is one of Mali's major tourist atractions. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 254 The Dama (Dogon) The death aniversary ceremonies, the Dama, take place every few years to honor male and female elders who have died since the last Dama. Ama (or Ama), (Dogon) the Creator (Dogon) The Kanaga masks The kanaga has become an emblem of the Dogon. It is so wel know that is often used as an emblem of the Mali Republic. To the uninitiated, it apears to be a bird of prey with outspread wings. However, any atempts by art historians to put meanings to these famous masks are just gueses. The kanaga is toped with a short pole intersected by two paralel blades. At the ends of the blades are boards, which point upwards on the top blades and downwards on the botom blade. The face in encircled by dyed fibers. For those who have atained knowledge through initiation, it symbolizes man, axis of the world, pointing to both earth and sky. Another interpretation links kanaga to the water insect that implanted in the soil the first seed from which al other seed sprung. The flat, crushed shape of the pole evokes the fall of the first troublemaker, Ogo, the fox. What ever the meaning is today, may not have been the meaning of the first kanaga asks. No one can say what they originaly eant, not even the Dogon. Al of these interpretations are included in the dance of the Dama. A dancer with rapid movement of the uper body sweps the mask close to the ground, evoking the creation by Amma. The Sirige masks (Dogon) The sirige mask with rectangular face--soewhat architectural in apearance with two vertical hollowed spaces--is toped with a long blade nearly fifteen feet in length. The pierced and painted blade of geometric triangles is said to represent the diferent stages of creation as sirige means, "storied houses"; the face represents the family house. The sirige mask dances. After a rapid change in drum rhyth, he knels to the east, moving his body backwards and forward, forcing the blade to touch the ground marking the limits of the horizon. As he rises, he creates whirling horizontal motions with the mask sugesting the evolution of the sun around the earth--the universe being created by the rotation of the divine axis. Extropic system That is growing or expanding Entropic system That is winding down or contracting Steadfastnes The Descriptor of the Waning Quarter node ? Don?t give up yet? there are things yet to be done Staves or stafs A staf is a large, thick stick or stick-shaped object used to help with walking or as a status symbol or a weapon. An older plural form of staf, based on the archaic variant word stave, is staves. In American English the usual plural form has become stafs, however British and International English regard both as aceptable and "staves" as preferred. Staves, in particular those used for status, are often ornately ornamented, but are sometimes also deliberately bland-looking. Stafs are also associated with wizards and other fictitious users of magic and sorcery. Staves are a traditional prop for the elderly and infir, and this has led to their association with wisdom. Haraibou (literal translation meaning 'purification stick') were staves that were used by the miko (Japanese female exorcists) to fight demons in Japanese lore. Apple The Sign of the New Mon node ? and the symbol of Knowledge and Wisdom Wisdom The Descriptor of the New Mon node ? the reward of the rightly lived Life Intelect (thinking) Inteligence is a property of mind that encompases many related mental abilities, such as the capacities to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. Although many POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 255 regard the concept of inteligence as having a much broader scope, for example in cognitive science and computer science, in some schools of psychology, the study of intelligence generaly regards this trait as distinct from creativity, personality, character, or wisdom. Emotion (feling) Although a widespread word, it is not so easy to come up with a generally acceptable definition of emotion. Growing consensus does agree that the distinction between emotion and feeling is important. Feeling, can be sen as emotion that is filtered through the cognitive brain centers, specifically the frontal lobe, producing a physiological change in adition to the psycho-physiological change. Daniel Goleman, in his landmark bok Emotional Inteligence, discuses this differentiation at length. Some have made the folowing distinctions between afect, feeling and emotion: "As I define them, affect is an innately structured, non-cognitive evaluative sensation that may or may not register in consciousness; feling is afect made conscious, possessing an evaluative capacity that is not only physiologically based, but that is often also psychologically (and sometimes relationaly) oriented; and emotion is psychosocially constructed, dramatized feling." In the Triune brain model, emotions are defined as the responses of the Mammalian cortex. Emotions competes with even more instinctive responses from the Reptilian cortex and the more logicaly developed neocortex. Technique (action) A technique is a way of eficiently acomplishing a task in a maner that is not imediately obvious or straightforward. Technique may also refer to: ? Technology, the study of or a collection of techniques ? Anything that can be done employing tols or algorithms ? In art technique includes tools, proceses, structures, forms, and details, as wel as the maner in which those are used and put together, one example being collage ? In music, technique refers to the manner of playing an instrument, as well as the tols and maner of composition and precomposition, see also: extended technique ? In fine art, a technique refers to the style and tools used to create a particular effect with, for example, oil paints, where the technique used by the artist can be the result of his training, fashions or personal styles or any combination of these. Art A metaphor for human existence. Each work of art is an example of life's possibilities and potentials; realized or unrealized. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 256 SUPPORTING MATERIAL ALCHEMY From Wikipedia Alchemy as a proto-science The comon perception of alchemists is that they were pseudo-scientists, crackpots and charlatans, who attempted to turn lead into gold, believed that the universe was composed of the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water, and spent most of their time concocting miraculous remedies, poisons, and magic potions. Although some alchemists were inded crackpots and charlatans, most were wel-meanig and inteligent scholars; aong their number can be counted such distinguished scientists as Sir Isaac Newton. These people in many ways served as innovators, and attempted to explore and investigate the nature of chemical substances and processes. They had to rely on experimentation, traditional know-how, rules of thumb ? and speculative thought in their attempts to uncover the mysteries of the physical universe. At the same time, it was clear to the alchemists that "something" was generaly being conserved in chemical processes, even in the most draatic changes of physical state and apearance; that is, that substances contained some "principles" that could be hiden under many outer forms, and revealed by proper manipulation. Throughout the history of the discipline, alchemists struggled to understand the nature of these principles, and find some order and sense in the results of their chemical experiments ? which were often undermined by impure or porly characterized reagents, the lack of quantitative measurements, and confusing and inconsistent nomenclature. Alchemy as a philosophical and spiritual discipline The best known goals of the alchemists were the transmutation of comon metals into gold or silver, and the creation of a "panacea", a remedy that supposedly would cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely. Starting with the Middle Ages, European alchemists invested much efort on the search for the "philosopher's stone", a legendary substance that was believed to be an esential ingredient for either or both of those goals. Alchemists enjoyed prestige and support through the centuries, though not for their pursuit of those goals, nor the mystic and philosophical speculation that dominates their literature. Rather it was for their mundane contributions to the "chemical" industries of the day ? the invention of gunpowder, ore testing and refining, metalworking, production of ink, dyes, paints, and cosmetics, leather taning, ceramics and glas manufacture, preparation of extracts and liquors, and so on (It seems that the preparation of aqua vitae, the "water of life", was a fairly popular "experiment" among European alchemists). On the other hand, alchemists never had the inclination to separate the physical (chemical) aspects of their craft from the metaphysical interpretations. Inded, from antiquity until wel into the Modern Age, a physics devoid of metaphysical insight would have been as unsatisfying as a metaphysics devoid of physical manifestation. For one thing, the lack of comon words for chemical concepts and proceses, as well as the need for secrecy, led alchemists to borrow the terms and symbols of biblical and pagan mythology, astrology, kabalah, and other mystic and esoteric fields; so that even the plainest chemical recipe ended up reading like an abstruse magic incantation. Moreover, alchemists sought in those fields the theoretical frameworks into which they could fit their growing colection of disjointed experimental facts. Starting with the midle ages, some alchemists increasingly came to view these metaphysical aspects as the true foundation of alchemy; and chemical substances, physical states, and material proceses as mere metaphors for spiritual entities, states and transformations. Thus, both the transmutation of comon metals into gold and the universal panacea symbolized evolution from an imperfect, diseased, coruptible and ephemeral state towards a perfect, healthy, incorruptible and everlasting state; and the philosopher's POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 257 stone then represented some mystic key that would make this evolution posible. Applied to the alchemist himself, the twin goal symbolized his evolution from ignorance to enlightenment, and the stone represented some hiden spiritual truth or power that would lead to that goal. In texts that are writen according to this view, the cryptic alchemical symbols, diagrams, and textual imagery of late alchemical works typicaly contain multiple layers of meanings, alegories, and references to other equaly cryptic works; and must be laboriously "decoded" in order to discover their true meaning. Some humanistic scholars now se these spiritual and metaphysical alegories as the truest and most valuable aspect of alchemy, and even claim that the development of chemistry out of alchemy was a "coruption" of the original Hermetic tradition. This is the view espoused by contemporary practitioners of spiritual alchemy. Most scientists, on the other hand, tend to take quite the oposite view: to them, the path from the material side of alchemy to modern chemistry was the "straight road" in the evolution of the discipline, while the metaphysicaly oriented brand of alchemy was a "wrong turn" that led to nowhere. In either view, however, the naïve interpretations of some practitioners or the fraudulent hopes fostered by others should not diminish the contribution of the more sincere alchemists. Alchemy and astrology Since its earliest times, alchemy has ben closely conected to astrology ? which, in the Islamic world and Europe, generaly meant the traditional Babylonian-Grek schol of astrology. Alchemical systems often postulated that each of the seven planets known to the ancients "ruled" or was associated with a certain metal. Se the separate article on astrolgy and alchemy for further details. In Hermeticism it is linked with both astrology and theurgy. "Everything that hapens once will never hapen again. But anything that happens twice wil surely happen a third time." A quote from The Alchemist. Alchemy in the age of science Up to the 18th century, alchemy was actually considered serious science in Europe; for instance, Isac Newton devoted considerably more of his time and writing to the study of alchemy (se Isac Newton's occult studies) than he did to either optics or physics, for which he is famous. Other eminent alchemists of the Western world are Roger Bacon, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Tycho Brahe, Thomas Browne, and Parmigianino. The decline of alchemy began in the 18th century with the birth of modern chemistry, which provided a more precise and reliable framework for matter transmutations and medicine, within a new grand design of the universe based on rational materialism. In the first half of the ninetenth century, one established chemist, Baron Carl Reichenbach, worked on concepts similar to the old alchemy, such as the Odic force, but his research did not enter the mainstream of scientific discussion. Mater transmutation, the old goal of alchemy, enjoyed a moment in the sun in the 20th century when physicists were able to convert lead atoms into gold atos via a nuclear reaction. However, the new gold atoms, being unstable isotopes, lasted for under five seconds before they broke apart. More recently, reports of table-top element transmutation - by means of electrolysis or sonic cavitation - were the pivot of the cold fusion controversy of 1989. None of those claims have yet ben reliably duplicated. Alchemical symbolism has ben ocasionaly used in the 20th century by psychologists and philosophers. Carl Jung rexamined alchemical symbolism and theory and began to show the iner meanig of alchemical work as a spiritual path. Alchemical philosophy, symbols and methods have enjoyed something of a renaissance in post-modern contexts, such as the New Age movement. Alchemy as a subject of historical research The history of alchemy has become a vigorous academic field. As the obscure hermetic language of the alchemists is gradually being "deciphered", historians are becoming more aware of the intelectual conections betwen that discipline and other facets of Western cultural history, such as the sociology POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 258 and psychology of the intellectual comunities, kabbalism, spiritualism, Rosicrucianism, and other mystic movements, cryptography, witchcraft, and the evolution of science and philosophy. Etymolgy The word alchemy comes from the Arabic which might be formed from the article al- and the Grek word chemeia meaning "cast together", "pour together", "weld", "aloy", etc. (from khumatos), "that which is poured out, an ingot", or from Persian Kimia meaning "gold." A decre of Diocletian, written about 30 AD in Grek, speaks against "the ancient writings of the Egyptians, which treat of the khïmia [transmutation] of gold and silver". It has ben sugested that the Arabic word actualy means "the Egyptian [science]", borowing from the Coptic word for "Egypt", kïme. The Coptic word derives from Demotic, itself from ancient Egyptian kmt. The ancient Egyptian word refered to both the country and the color "black" (Egypt was the "Black Land", by contrast with the "Red Land", the surrounding desert); so this etymology could also explain the nickname "Egyptian black arts". However, this theory may be just an example of folk etymology. History Alchemy encompases several philosophical traditions spaning some four millenia and thre continents. These traditions' general penchant for cryptic and symbolic language makes it hard to trace their mutual influences and "genetic" relationships. One can distinguish at least two major strands, which apear to be largely independent, at least in their earlier stages: Chinese alchemy, centered in China and its zone of cultural influence; and Western alchemy, whose center has shifted over the milennia between Egypt, Greece and Rome, the Islamic world, and finaly back to Europe. Chinese alchemy was closely conected to Taoism, whereas Western alchemy developed its own philosophical system, with only superficial connections to the major estern religions. It is stil an open question whether these two strands share a comon origin, or to what extent they influenced each other. Alchemy in ancient Egypt The origin of western alchemy may generaly be traced to ancient (pharaonic) Egypt. Metalurgy and mysticism were inexorably tied together in the ancient world, as the transformation of drab ore into shinig metal must have seemed to be an act of magic governed by mysterious rules. It is claimed therefore that Alchemy in ancient Egypt was the domain of the priestly clas. Egyptian alchemy is known mostly through the writings of ancient (Helenic) Grek philosophers, which in turn have often survived only in Islamic translations. Practicaly no original Egyptian documents on alchemy have survived. Those writings, if they existed, were likely lost when the emperor Diocletian ordered the burning of alchemical books after suppressing a revolt in Alexandria (292), which had been a center of Egyptian alchemy. Neverthels archaeological expeditions in recent times have unearthed evidence of chemical analysis during the Naqada periods. For example, a copper tool dating to the Naqada era bears evidence of having been used in such a way. Also, the process of tanning animal skins was already known in Predynastic Egypt as early as the 6th milenium BC; although it posibly was discovered haphazardly. Other evidence indicates early alchemists in ancient Egypt had invented mortar by 400 BC and glas by 1500 BC. The chemical reaction involved in the production of Calcium Oxide is one of the oldest known. Ancient Egypt aditionaly produced cosmetics, cement, faience and also pitch for shipbuilding. Papyrus had also been invented by 3000 BC. Legend has it that the founder of Egyptian alchemy was the god Thoth, caled Hermes-Thoth or Thrice-Great Hermes (Hermes Trismegistus) by the Greeks. Acording to legend, he wrote what were called the forty-two Boks of Knowledge, covering al fields of knowledge? including alchemy. Hermes's symbol was the caduceus or serpent-staf, which became one of many of POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 259 alchemy's principal symbols. The "Emerald Tablet" or Hermetica of Thrice-Great Hermes, which is known only through Greek and Arabic translations, is generally understood to form the basis for Western alchemical philosophy and practice, caled the hermetic philosophy by its early practitioners. The first point of the "Emerald Tablet" tels the purpose of hermetical science: "in truth certainly and without doubt, whatever is below is like that which is above, and whatever is above is like that which is below, to accomplish the miracles of one thing." This is the macrocosm-microcosm belief central to the hermetic philosophy. In other words, the human body (the microcosm) is affected by the exterior world (the macrocosm), which includes the heavens through astrology, and the earth through the elments. It has ben speculated that a ridle from the Emerald Tablet?"it was caried in the womb by the wind"? refers to the distilation of oxygen from saltpeter?a proces that was unknown in Europe until its (re)discovery by Sendivogius in the 17th century. In the 4th century BC, the Grek-speaking Macedonians conquered Egypt and founded the city of Alexandria in 32. This brought them into contact with Egyptian ideas. The prof of alchemic practices in Ancient Egypt also suports that not al forms of alchemy are Christian based. Chinese alchemy Whereas Western alchemy eventualy centered on the transmutation of base metals into noble ones, Chinese alchemy had a more obvious conection to medicine. The philosopher's stone of European alchemists can be compared to the Grand Elixir of Imortality sought by Chinese alchemists. However, in the hermetic view, these two goals were not unconected, and the philosopher's stone was often equated with the universal panacea; therefore, the two traditions may have had more in comon than it initialy appears. Black powder may have ben an important invention of Chinese alchemists. Described in 9th century texts and used in fireworks in China by the 10th century, it was used in canons by 1290. From China, the use of gunpowder spread to Japan, the Mongols, the Arab world and Europe. Gunpowder was used by the Mongols against the Hungarians in 1241, and in Europe by the 14th century. Chinese alchemy was closely conected to Taoist forms of traditional Chinese medicine, such as Acupuncture and Moxibustion, and to martial arts such as Tai Chi Chuan and Kung Fu (although some Tai Chi schols believe that their art derives from the philosophical or hygienic branches of Taoism, not the Alchemical). Indian alchemy Litle is known in the West about the character and history of Indian alchemy. An 11th century Persian alchemist named al-Biruni reported that they "have a science similar to alchemy which is quite peculiar to them, which is caled RasayÇna in persian RasavÇtam. It means the art of obtaining/manipulating Rasa, nectar, mercury, juice. This art was restricted to certain operations, metals, drugs, copounds, and medicines, most of which have mercury as their core element. Its principles restored the health of those who were il beyond hope and gave back youth to fading old age." One thing is sure though, Indian alchemy like every other Indian science is focused on finding Moksha: perfection, imortality, liberation. As such it focuses its eforts on transumation of the human body: from mortal to immortal. Many are the traditional stories of alchemists stil alive since time imemorial due to the effects of their experiments. The texts of Ayurvedic Medicine and Science have aspects similar to alchemy: concepts of cures for al known diseases, and treatments that focus on anointing the body with oils. Since alchemy eventualy became engrained in the vast field of Indian erudition, influencies from other metaphisical and philosophical doctrines such as Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika and Ayurveda were inevitable. Nonetheles, most of the RasayÇna texts track their origines back to Kaula tantric schols associated to the teachings of the personality of Matsyendranath. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 260 The RasayÇna was understod by very few people at the time. Two famous examples were Nagarjunacharya and Nityanadhiya. Nagarjunacharya was a budhist monk who, in ancient times, ran the great university of Nagarjuna Sagar. His famous book, Rasaratanakaram, is a famous example of early Indian medicine. In traditional Indian medicinal terminology 'rasa' translates as 'mercury' and Nagarjunacharya was said to have developed a method to convert the mercury into gold. Much of his original writings are lost to us, but his teachings stil have strong influence on traditional Indian medicine (Ayureveda) to this day. Alchemy in the Grek world The Grek city of Alexandria in Egypt was a center of Grek alchemical knowledge, and retained its preeminence through most of the Greek and Roman periods. The Greeks appropriated the hermetical beliefs of the Egyptians and melded with them the philosophies of Pythagoreanism, ionianism, and gnosticism. Pythagorean philosophy is, essentially, the belief that numbers rule the universe, originating from the observations of sound, stars, and geometric shapes like triangles, or anything from which a ratio could be derived. Ionian thought was based on the belief that the universe could be explained through concentration on natural phenomena; this philosophy is believed to have originated with Thales and his pupil Anaximander, and later developed by Plato and Aristotle, whose works came to be an integral part of alchemy. Acording to this belief, the universe can be described by a few unified natural laws that can be determined only through careful, thorough, and exacting philosophical explorations. The third component introduced to hermetical philosophy by the Greks was gnosticism, a belief prevalent in the Christian and early post-Christian Roman empire, that the world is imperfect because it was created in a flawed maner, and that learning about the nature of spiritual matter would lead to salvation. They further believed that God did not "create" the universe in the classic sense, but that the universe was created "from" him, but was corupted in the proces (rather than becoming corupted by the transgresions of Adam and Eve, that is, original sin). According to Gnostic belief, by worshiping the cosmos, nature, or the creatures of the world, one worships the True God. Gnostics do not sek salvation from sin, but instead sek to escape ignorance, believing that sin is merely a consequence of ignorance. Platonic and neo-Platonic theories about universals and the omnipotence of God were also absorbed. One very important concept introduced at this time, originated by Empedocles and developed by Aristotle, was that al things in the universe were formed from only four elments: earth, air, water, and fire. According to Aristotle, each element had a sphere to which it belonged and to which it would return if left undisturbed. The four elements of the Grek were mostly qualitative aspects of mater, not quantitative, as our modern elements are. "..True alchemy never regarded earth, air, water, and fire as corporeal or chemical substances in the present-day sense of the word. The four elements are simply the primary, and most general, qualities by means of which the amorphous and purely quantitative substance of al bodies first reveals itself in diferentiated form." Later alchemists (if Plato and Aristotle can be caled alchemists) extensively developed the mystical aspects of this concept. Alchemy in the Roman Empire The Romans adopted Grek alchemy and metaphysics, just as they adopted much of Grek knowledge and philosophy. By the end of the Roman empire the Grek alchemical philosophy had been joined to the philosophies of the Egyptians to create the cult of Hermeticism. However, the development of Christianity in the Empire brought a contrary line of thinking, steming from Augustine (354-430 AD), an early Christian philosopher who wrote of his beliefs shortly before the fal of the Roman Empire. In esence, he felt that reason and faith could be used to understand God, but experimental philosophy was evil: "There is also present in the soul, by means of these same bodily sense, a kind of empty longing and curiosity which aims not at taking pleasure in the flesh but at acquiring experience through the flesh, and this empty curiosity he is dignified by the names of learning and science." POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 261 Augustinian ideas were decidedly anti-experimental, yet when Aristotelian experimental techniques were made available to the West they were not shuned. Stil, Augustinian thought was wel ingrained in medieval society and was used to show alchemy as being un-Godly. Much of the Roman knowledge of Alchemy, like that of the Greks and Egyptians, is now lost. In Alexandria, the centre of alchemical studies in the Roman Empire, the art was mainly oral and in the interests of secrecy litle was comited to paper. (Whence the use of "hermetic" to mean "secretive".) (Lindsay, p. 15) It is posible that some writing was done in Alexandria, and that it was subsequently lost or destroyed in fires and the turbulent periods that followed. Alchemy in the Islamic world After the fal of the Roman Empire, the focus of alchemical development moved to the Islamic World. Much more is known about Islamic alchemy because it was beter documented: inded, most of the earlier writings that have come down through the years were preserved as Islamic translations. The Islamic world was a melting pot for alchemy. Platonic and Aristotelian thought, which had already been somewhat appropriated into hermetical science, continued to be assimilated. Islamic alchemists such as al-Razi (Latin Rasis or Rhazes) and Jabir ibn Hayyan (Latin Geber) contributed key cheical discoveries of their own, such as the technique of distilation (the words alembic and alcohol are of Arabic origin), the muriatic(hydrochloric), sulfuric, and nitric acids, soda, potash, and more. (Latinized into Natrium and Kalium, become the modern symbols for sodium and potasium.) The discovery that aqua regia, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, could disolve the noblest metal; gold, was to fuel the imagination of alchemists for the next milennium. Islamic philosophers also made great contributions to alchemical hermeticism. The most influential author in this regard was arguably Jabir Ibn Hayan (Latin Geberus; usually rendered in English as Geber). Jabir's ultimate goal was takwin, the artificial creation of life in the alchemical laboratory, up to and including human life. He analyzed each Aristotelian element in terms of four basic qualities of hotnes, coldness, dryness, and moistnes. Acording to Geber, in each etal two of these qualities were interior and two were exterior. For example, lead was externally cold and dry, while gold was hot and moist. Thus, Jabir theorized, by rearanging the qualities of one metal, a diferent metal would result. By this reasonig, the search for the philosopher's stone was introduced to Western alchemy. Jabir developed an elaborate numerology whereby the root letters of a substance's name in Arabic, when treated with various transformations, held corespondences to the element's physical properties. It is now comonly acepted that Chinese alchemy influenced Arabic alchemists, although the extent of that influence is stil a matter of debate. Likewise, Hindu learning was asimilated into Islamic alchemy, but again the extent and effects of this are not wel known. Alchemy in Medieval Europe Because of its strong conections to the Grek and Roman cultures, alchemy was rather easily acepted into Christian philosophy, and Medieval European alchemists extensively absorbed Islamic alchemical knowledge. Gerbert of Aurilac, who was later to becoe Pope Silvester I, (d. 103) was among the first to bring Islamic science to Europe from Spain. Later men such as Adelard of Bath, who lived in the 12th century, brought aditional learning. But until the 13th century the moves were mainly asimilative. In this period there apeared some deviations from the Augustinian principles of earlier Christian thinkers. Saint Anselm (103?1109) was a Benedictine who believed faith must precede rationalism, as Augustine and most theologians prior to Anselm had believed, but Anselm put forth the opinion that faith and rationalism were compatible and encouraged rationalism in a Christian context. His views set the stage for the philosophical explosion to ocur. Peter Abelard followed Anselm's work, laying the foundation for acceptance of Aristotelian thought before the first works of Aristotle reached the West. His major influence on alchemy was his belief that Platonic universals did not have a separate existence outside of man's consciousnes. Abelard also systematized the analysis of philosophical contradictions. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 262 Robert Groseteste (170?1253) was a pioneer of the scientific theory that would later be used and refined by the alchemists. He tok Abelard's methods of analysis and added the use of observations, experimentation, and conclusions in making scientific evaluations. Grosseteste also did much work to bridge Platonic and Aristotelian thinking. Albertus Magnus (193?1280) and Thomas Aquinas (125?1274) were both Dominicans who studied Aristotle and worked at reconciling the diferences betwen philosophy and Christianity. Aquinas also did a great deal of work in developing the scientific method. He even went as far as claiming that universals could be discovered only through logical reasoning, and, since reason could not run in oposition to God, reason must be compatible with theolgy. This ran contrary to the comonly held Platonic belief that universals were found through divine ilumination alone. Magnus and Aquinas were among the first to take up the examination of alchemical theory, and could be considered to be alchemists themselves, except that these two did litle in the way of experimentation. The first true alchemist in Medieval Europe was Roger Bacon. His work di as much for alchemy as Robert Boyle's was to do for chemistry and Galileo's for astronomy and physics. Bacon (1214?1294) was an Oxford Franciscan who explored optics and languages in addition to alchemy. The Franciscan ideals of taking on the world rather than rejecting the world led to his conviction that experimentation was more important than reasoning: "Of the thre ways in which men think that they acquire knowledge of things: authority, reasoning, and experience; only the last is efective and able to bring peace to the intelect." (Bacon p. 367) "Experimental Science controls the conclusions of al other sciences. It reveals truths which reasoning from general principles would never have discovered." Roger Bacon has also ben attributed with originating the search for the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life: "That medicine which wil remove al impurities and coruptibilities from the leser metals wil also, in the opinion of the wise, take off so much of the coruptibility of the body that human life may be prolonged for many centuries." The idea of imortality was replaced with the notion of long life; after al, man's time on Earth was simply to wait and prepare for imortality in the world of God. Immortality on Earth di not mesh with Christian theology. Bacon was not the only alchemist of the high midle ages, but he was the most significant. His works were used by countles alchemists of the fiftenth through ninetenth centuries. Other alchemists of Bacon's time shared several traits. First, and most obviously, nearly al were members of the clergy. This was simply because few people outside the parochial schols had the education to examine the Arabic- derived works. Also, alchemy at this time was sanctioned by the church as a god method of exploring and developing theology. Alchemy was interesting to the wide variety of churchmen because it ofered a rationalistic view of the universe when men were just begining to learn about rationalism. So by the end of the thirteenth century, alchemy had developed into a fairly structured system of belief. Adepts believed in the macrocosm-microcosm theories of Hermes, that is to say, they believed that processes that affect minerals and other substances could have an efect on the human body (for example, if one could learn the secret of purifying gold, one could use the technique to purify the human soul). They believed in the four elements and the four qualities as described above, and they had a strong tradition of cloaking their writen ideas in a labyrinth of coded jargon set with traps to mislead the uninitiated. Finally, the alchemists practiced their art: they actively experimented with chemicals and made observations and theories about how the universe operated. Their entire philosophy revolved around their belief that man's soul was divided within himself after the fal of Adam. By purifying the two parts of man's soul, man could be reunited with God. In the fourteenth century, these views underwent a major change. William of Ockham, an Oxford Franciscan who died in 1349, atacked the Thomist view of compatibility betwen faith and reason. His view, widely accepted today, was that God must be accepted on faith alone; He could not be limited by human reason. Of course this view as not incorect if one acepted the postulate of a limitles God versus limited human reasonig capability, but it virtualy erased alchemy from practice in the fourtenth and fifteenth centuries. Pope John XI in the early 1300s issued an edict against alchemy, which effectively removed all church personnel from the practice of the Art. The climate changes, Black plague, POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 263 and increase in warfare and famine that characterized this century no doubt also served to hamper philosophical pursuits in general. Alchemy was kept alive by men such as Nicolas Flamel, who was noteworthy only because he was one of the few alchemists writing in those troubled times. Flamel lived from 1330 to 1417 and would serve as the archetype for the next phase of alchemy. He was not a religious scholar as were many of his predecessors, and his entire interest in the subject revolved around the pursuit of the philosopher's stone, which he is reputed to have found; his work spends a great deal of time describing the proceses and reactions, but never actualy gives the formula for carrying out the transmutations. Most of his work was aimed at gathering alchemical knowledge that had existed before him, especially as regarded the philosophers' stone. Through the high middle ages (130-150) alchemists were much like Flamel: they concentrated on looking for the philosophers' stone and the elixir of youth, now believed to be separate things. Their cryptic alusions and symbolism led to wide variations in interpretation of the art. For example, many alchemists during this period interpreted the purification of the soul to mean the transmutation of lead into gold (in which they believed elemental mercury, or 'quicksilver', played a crucial role). These men were viewed as magicians and sorcerers by any, and were often persecuted for their practices. One of these men who emerged at the begining of the sixtenth century was named Heinrich Cornelius Agripa. This alchemist believed himself to be a wizard and was capable of sumoning spirits. His influence was negligible, but like Flamel, he produced writings which were refered to by alchemists of later years. Again like Flamel, he did much to change alchemy from a mystical philosophy to an ocultist magic. He did kep alive the philosophies of the earlier alcheists, including experimental science, numerology, etc., but he added magic theory, which reinforced the idea of alchemy as an occultist belief. In spite of al this, Agripa stil considered himself a Christian, though his views often came into conflict with the church. Alchemy in the Modern Age and Renaisance European alchemy continued in this way through the dawning of the Renaisance. The era also saw a flourishing of con artists who would use chemical tricks and sleight of hand to "demonstrate" the transmutation of comon metals into gold, or claim to poses secret knowledge that - with a "smal" initial investment - would surely lead to that goal. The most important name in this period is Philipus Aureolus Paracelsus, (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493?1541) who cast alchemy into a new form, rejecting some of the occultism that had accumulated over the years and promoting the use of observations and experiments to learn about the human body. He rejected Gnostic traditions, but kept much of the Hermetical, neo-Platonic, and Pythagorean philosophies; however, Hermetical science had so much Aristotelian theory that his rejection of Gnosticism was practicaly meaningless. In particular, Paracelsus rejected the magic theories of Agripa and Flamel. He did not think of himself as a magician, and scorned those who did. Paracelsus pionered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine, and wrote "Many have said of Alchemy, that it is for the making of gold and silver. For me such is not the aim, but to consider only what virtue and power may lie in edicines." His hermetical views were that sickness and health in the body relied on the harmony of man the microcosm and Nature the macrocosm. He tok an aproach diferent from those before him, using this analogy not in the maner of soul-purification but in the manner that humans must have certain balances of minerals in their bodies, and that certain ilnesses of the body had chemical remedies that could cure them. While his attempts of treating diseases with such remedies as Mercury might sem il-advised from a modern point of view, his basic idea of chemically produced medicines has stod time surprisingly wel. This involve human transmutation. In England, the topic of alchemy in that time frame is often asociated with Doctor John De (13 July 1527 ? December, 1608), better known for his role as astrologer, cryptographer, and general "scientific consultant" to Quen Elizabeth I. De was considered an authority on the works of Roger Bacon, and POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 264 was interested enough in alchemy to write a bok on that subject (Monas Hieroglyphica, 1564) influenced by the Kabbala. Dee's associate Edward Keley ? who claimed to converse with angels through a crystal ball and to own a powder that would turn mercury into gold ? may have ben the source of the popular image of the alchemist-charlatan. Another leser known alchemist was Michael Sendivogius (156 - 1636), a Polish alchemist, philosopher, medical doctor and pioner of chemistry. Acording to some acounts, he distiled oxygen in a lab sometime around 160, 170 years before Schele and Priestley, by warming nitre (saltpetre). He thought of the gas given off as "the elixir of life". Shortly after discovering this method, it is believed that Sendivogious taught his technique to Cornelius Drebel. In 1621, Drebel practicaly aplied this in a submarine. Tycho Brahe (1546?1601), better known for his astronomical and astrological investigations, was also an alchemist. He had a laboratory built for that purpose at his Uraniborg observatory/research institute. The decline of Western alchemy The demise of Western alchemy was brought about by the rise of modern science with its emphasis on rigorous quantitative experientation and its disdain for "ancient wisdom". Although the seds of these events were planted as early as the 17th century, alchemy stil flourished for some two hundred years, and in fact may have reached its apogee in the 18th century. Robert Boyle (1627?1691), beter known for his studies of gases (cf. Boyle's law) pionered the scientific method in chemical investigations. He asumed nothing in his experiments and compiled every piece of relevant data; in a typical experiment, Boyle would note the place in which the experiment was caried out, the wind characteristics, the position of the Sun and Moon, and the barometer reading, al just in case they proved to be relevant. This aproach eventualy led to the founding of modern chemistry in the 18th and 19th centuries, based on revolutionary discoveries of Lavoisier and John Dalton ? which finaly provided a logical, quantitative and reliable framework for understanding mater transmutations, and revealed the futility of longstanding alchemical goals such as the philosopher's stone. Meanwhile, Paracelsian alchemy led to the development of modern medicine. Experimentalists gradualy uncovered the workings of the human body, such as blood circulation (Harvey, 1616), and eventualy traced many diseases to infections with germs (Koch and Pasteur, 19th century) or lack of natural nutrients and vitamins (Lind, Eijkman, Funk, et al.). Supported by parallel developments in organic chemistry, the new science easily displaced alchemy from its medical roles, interpretive and prescriptive, while deflating its hopes of miraculous elixirs and exposing the inefectivenes or even toxicity of its remedies. Thus, as science steadily continued to uncover and rationalize the clockwork of the universe, founded on its own materialistic metaphysics, Alchemy was left deprived of its chemical and medical conections ? but stil incurably burdened by them. Reduced to an arcane philosophical system, poorly connected to the material world, it sufered the common fate of other esoteric disciplines such as astrology and Kabalah: excluded from university curricula, shunned by its former patrons, ostracized by scientists, and comonly viewed as the epitome of charlatanism and superstition. These developments could be interpreted as part of a broader reaction in European intelectualism against the Romantic movement of the preceding century. Modern alchemy In modern times, progres has ben made toward achieving the goals of alchemy using scientific, rather than alchemic, means. These developments may on occasion be called "alchemy" for rhetorical reasons. In 1919, Ernest Rutherford used artificial disintegration to convert nitrogen into oxygen. This proces of bombarding the atomic nucleus with high energy particles is the principle behind modern particle accelerators, in which transmutations of elements are common. Indeed, in 1980, Glenn Seaborg POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 265 transmuted lead into gold, though the amount of energy used and the microscopic quantities created negated any possible financial benefit. In 1964, George Ohsawa and Michio Kushi, based on the claims of Corentin Louis Kervran, reportedly successfuly transmutated sodium into potassium, by use of an elctric arc, and later of carbon and oxygen into iron.[citation needed] In 194, R. Sundaresan and J. Bockris reported that they had observed fusion reactions in electrical discharges betwen carbon rods imersed in water. However, none of these claims have ben replicated by other scientists, and the idea is now thoroughly discredited. As of 206, a universal panacea remains elusive, though futurists such as Ray Kurzweil believe suficiently advanced nanotechnology may prolng life indefinitely. Some say the third goal of alchemy has been fulfiled by IVF and the cloning of a human embryo, although these technologies fall far short of creating a human life from scratch. The aim of artificial inteligence research could be said to be creating a life from scratch, and those philosophically opposed to the possibility of AI have compared it with alchemy, such as Herbert and Stuart Dreyfus in their 1960 paper Alchemy and AI. Alchemy in art and entertainment References to alchemy in art and entertainment are far to numerous to list. Here we give only a few indicative samples. More titles can be found in the philosopher's stone article. Film and Television ? The concepts of the replicator and Holodeck in the fictional Star Trek universe are frequently used as alchemical plot devices. Within that universe, base raw materials can be rearranged at the molecular level in order to produce objects, devices, fodstuffs, and chemical compounds of virtualy any nature?in the case of the Holodeck, even animate replicas of "living" things such as sentient beings, historical figures, animals, and plants. Modern Art and Exhibition Some contemporary artists used alchemy symbols to create new masterpieces. ? Tryptukos is a paralel betwen modern physics and alchemy exposed at Liverpol by an unknown artist. The right part of this triptych is an original 14th century engraving from the Naturæ Liber, property of the Alchemic Museum, Kutna Hora, Czech Republic. ? Four Ways of Measuring the Distance Betwen Alchemy and Contemporary Art explains why alchemy is marginal to current visual art, and why alchemical thinking remains absolutely central. This article has ben published in the International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry. Novels and plays Many writers lamponed alchemists and used them as the but of satirical atacks. Two early and wel- known examples are ? Geofrey Chaucer, Canon's Yeoman's Tale (ca. 1380). The main character, an alchemist on the way to Canterbury, claims that he wil "pave it al of silver and of gold". ? Ben Jonson, The Alchemist (ca 1610). In this five-act play, the characters set up an alchemy workshop to swindle people. ? In more recent works, alchemists are generaly presented in a more romantic or mystic light, and often litle distinction is made between alchemy, magic, and witchcraft: ? Mary Sheley, Frankenstein (1818). Victor Frankenstein uses both alchemy and modern science to create Frankenstein's monster. ? Vladimir Odoevsky, Salamandra (1828). ? Goethe, Faust, Part 2 (1832). Faust's servant Wagner uses alchemy to create a homunculus. ? Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967). An alchemist naed Melquíades ads to the novel's sureal atmosphere. ? Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist (198). ? Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum (198). POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 266 ? J. K. Rowling, Hary Poter and the Philosopher's Stone (197). Features Nicholas Flamel as a character. ? Neal Stephenson, The Baroque Cycle (203?2004). Features real and imaginary alchemists such as Isaac Newton, de Duilier, and Enoch Rot. ? Martin Both, Doctor Iluminatus: The Alchemist's Son (203). ? Margaret Mahy, Alchemy (204). ? John Fasman, The Geographer's Library, whose plot revolves around thirten alchemical artifacts. ? Gregory Keyes, The Age of Unreason series . Features Isac Newton and de Duilier. ? Cornelia Funke, Dragon Rider (204). Twigleg the homonculus was created by an alchemist. ? Antal Szerb "The Pendragon legend" (1934) ? Some of Tery Pratchet's Discworld novels (1983-present) feature a Guild of Alchemists. They are noted for blowing up their own Guild building on a regular basis. They play a particularly important role in Men at Arms (193). ? In the movie "Silence Becomes You" (205) alchemy clearly influences the decisions and lives of the characters. Comics, manga, and video games ? In Ful Metal Alchemist (203), Anime series centered around brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, in which alchemy is at the core. ? Sega's Chakan, Genesis and Game Gear video game (192). The undead swordsman colects potions around the afterlife - each with ingredients of four elements. Chakan has the option of mixing any two potions whether its fire and air, earth and earth, etc. A variety of Alchemic solutions ocur healing Chakan, damaging surounding demons, enhanced abilities in jumping and strength, as well as granting elemental properties of fire, ice, thunder and lightning to Chakan's two swords. ? Stan Le and Jack Kirby, Fantastic Four comics (ca. 1962?). Vilain Diablo is an alchemist. ? Darklands PC game (192). Alchemy features prominently throughout the game. ? Mike Mignola's Helboy comics (193?). The character Roger the Homunculs was created by alchemy. ? Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage video game. Alchemy is featured as a skil. ? Verant Interactive's smash hit computer game Everquest (198-). Shaman characters may learn and train in this skill. ? Nintendo's Golden Sun video game (201). Psynergy is a force that threatens the world, which is conected to many displines, Ki, Chi, Ply, and of course, Alchemy. ? Hiromu Arakawa, Fulmetal Alchemist (202?2006). 'Alchemists' can transform anything within the principle of Equivalent Exchange. ? Nobuhiro Watsuki, Buso Renkin manga (203?2006). ? Kazuki Takahashi, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime (204?). The character Lyman Baner (Daitokuji) is an alchemist who preserved his soul within a homunculus. ? Square Enix's Final Fantasy Tactics Advance video game (203). Has a playable clas caled Alchemist. ? Square Enix's Final Fantasy XI computer game (203). Alchemy is one of the tradeskils a character may learn and train in. ? Alchemist is a family trade in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles ? Bethesda Softworks' The Elder Scrols II: Morowind prominently features alchemy as a method of creating various potions for use by the player. ? Bethesda Softworks' The Elder Scrols IV: Oblivion computer game (206) similarly contains an alchemical tradeskil. ? Konami' Shadow of Destiny features an alchemist and a creature made by alchemy as major characters. ? Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb computer game (203). A large portion of the game is centered around a castle in Prague forerly owned by an alchemist king. ? World of Warcraft computer game (204). Alchemy is one of the profesions the player can learn. ? Ultima Online computer game (197). Alchemy is one of the player skils and profesions. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 267 ? Zork Nemesis video game (196). ? Secret of Evermore (195) for the SNES, uses an alchemy combat system where the player mixes ingredients for combat efects, in lieu of typical magic systems. ? RuneScape, the masive online mulitplayer game by Jagex, alows a player to turn items into gold with spells once they have achieved a certain mage level. ? Alchemy is a key plot point and aspect of gameplay in the Playstation 2 RPG, Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana. ? In the popular MORPG Ragnarok Online a playable character clas caled Alchemist is able to create potions, explosives, simple plant type monsters, and homunculi that fight for them. ? In the video game Haunting Ground (2005) alchemy is a large plot point, and the main character is traped in a castle owned by powerful alchemists and their creations, whom chase her in order to obtain "the Azoth" in one way or another. The stalkers are al clones of a great alchemist from the middle ages, and the whole story revolves around enlightenment and purification, rife with symbolism for alchemy in general and what its practitioners believed. ? In Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident a brief reference is made to alchemy;specificaly that it can be achieved through greater technolgy. ? In Square Enix's Final Fantasy X-2 (203), Alchemist was one of the Drespheres. ? In Square Enix's Star Ocean: Til the End of Time, Alchemy is a trade that a character can learn in the shops. ? In The Big O (199-2003) act 8 Mising Cat, a modern alchemist, Eugene, transmutates humans and animals into chimera. Music ? The Smashing Pumpkins, album Machina/The Machines of God (200). The album concept and design is based on alchemy and its symbols. ? Tool (band), album Lateralus (201). ? Susumu Hirasawa, album "Philosopher's Propeler (å´é?ÇÃÉvÉçÉyÉâ, Kenja no Puropera)" (200). ? Bruce Dickinson, album The Chemical Weding (198). The Album's concept and artwork are based on Wiliam Blake's works as wel as Alchemy and its symbols. ? XTC album "Mumer" features the song "Human Alchemy" about the early philosophy behind slavery. ? Alchemy, the first of Dire Straits' two live albums ? Home(Band), The Alchemist, 1970s progresive rock concept album. Other alchemical subjects ? Vulcan of the alchemists ? Philosopher's stone ? Hermeticism ? Astrology and alchemy ? Transmutation ? Duality ? The four humours ? Alkahest, arcanum, berith, elixir, quintesence ? Alembic ? Alchemical symbol ? Gold water Related and alternative philosophies ? Western mystery tradition ? Astrology ? Necromancy, magic, magick ? Esotericism, Rosicrucianism, Iluminati ? Taoism and the Five Elements ? Asemic Writing POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 268 ? Kayaku-Jutsu ? Acupuncture, moxibustion, ayurveda, homeopathy ? Anthroposophy ? Psychology and Carl Jung ? Herbert Silberer ? New Age ? Tay al-Ard Scientific conections ? Chemistry ? Physics ? Scientific method ? Protoscience, Pseudoscience, and Anti-science ? Obsolete scientific theories ? Historicism Substances of the alchemists ? lead ? tin ? iron ? gold ? coper ? mercury ? silver ? phosphorus ? sulfur ? arsenic ? antiony ? vitriol ? cinabar ? pyrites ? orpiment ? galena ? magnesia ? lime ? potash ? natron ? saltpetre ? kohl ? ammonia ? amonium chloride ? alcohol ? camphor ? Acids: sulfuric ?muriatic ? nitric ? acetic ? formic ? citric? tartaric ? aqua regia ? gunpowder A Partial List of Alchemist: An alchemist was a person versed in the art of alchemy, an ancient branch of natural philosophy that eventualy evolved into chemistry and pharmacology. Alchemy flourished in the Islamic world during the Midle Ages, and then in Europe from the 13th to the 18th centuries. We know the names and doings of a large number of alchemists, thanks to the numerous alchemical manuscript and boks that survived; some of those names are listed below. It must be kept in mind however that the vast majority of old alchemists, being self-taught and more bent on experimenting than writing, have left no trace in history. Midle East Geber / Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayan (721-815) Abu Bakr Mohamad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi (864-930) Avicena - Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdalah ibn Sina (985-1037) Clasical and Roman Empire Plato (ca. 360 BC) Olympiodorus of Thebes (ca. 40) Albertus Magnus (193-1280) Roger Bacon (120- 1292) Thomas Aquinas (125-1274) Arnald of Vilanova (1240-1311) Nicolas Flamel (130-1418) - 5 Files Basil Valentine (suposed 15th cent.) The 12 Keys - 2 Files Georg Agricola (1494-1555) Paracelsus (1493-1541] Valentin Weigel (153-1588) - 2 Files Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) John De (1527-1608) Edward Kelley (155-1595) Jacob Bohmen (1575 - 1624) POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 269 Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1605) Michal Sedziwoj (156-1636) Jan Baptista van Helmont (157-1644) Robert Boyle (1626-1691) John Mayow (1641-1679) Isac Newton (1642 -1727) - 2 Files Count Alesandro de Cagliostro (1743-1795) Count of Saint Germain (18th Century) Demosthenes - The Alchemist God Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre The Archeometre (1842-1909) Fulcaneli POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 270 MOON PHASES The revolution of the Mon around the Earth makes the Mon apear as if it is changing shape in the sky. This is caused by the diferent angles from which we se the bright part of the Mon's surface. These are caled "phases" of the Mon. Of course, the Mon doesn't generate any light itself; it just reflects the light of the Sun. The Mon passes through four major shapes during a cycle that repeats itself every 29.5 days. The phases always follow one another in the same order. What you see when you look at the moon depends on its location in relationship to the sun and Earth. We see a different fraction of sunlight being reflected from the mon to Earth The four major mon phases are "New" , "1st Quarter" , "Ful" and "Last or 3rd Quarter". These phases have to do with the relative positions of the sun, the moon and the earth in the mon's 29 day monthly orbit of the earth. Moon Phase Descriptions.. Although this cycle is a continuous proces, there are eight distinct, traditionaly recognized stages, caled phases. The phases designate both the degree to which the Moon is iluminated and the geometric appearance of the iluminated part. These phases of the Moon, in the sequence of their occurrence (starting from New Mon), are listed below (1) New Mon - When the Mon is roughly in the same direction as the Sun, its iluminated half is facing away from the Earth, and therefore the part that faces us is al dark: we have the new moon. When in this phase, the Moon and the Sun rise and set at about the same time. (2) Waxing Crescent Mon - As the Mon moves around the Earth, we get to se more and more of the iluminated half, and we say the Mon is waxing. At first we get a sliver of it, which grows as days go by. This phase is called the crescent moon. (3) Quarter Mon - A wek after the new mon, when the Mon has completed about a quarter of its turn around the Earth, we can se half of the iluminated part; that is, a quarter of the Mon. This is the first quarter phase. (4) Waxing Gibous Mon - During the next wek, we kep seing more and more of the iluminated part of the Moon, and it is now called waxing gibbous (gibbous means "humped"). (5) Ful Mon - Two weks after the new mon, the mon is now halfway through its revolution, and now the iluminated half coincides with the one facing the Earth, so that we can see a full disk: we have a full mon. As mentioned above, at this time the Mon rises at the time the Sun sets, and it sets when the Sun rises. If the Mon hapens to align exactly with the Earth and Sun, then we get a lunar eclipse. (6) Wanig Gibous Mon - From now on, until it becomes new again, the iluminated part of the Moon that we can se decreases, and we say it's waning. The first wek after ful, it is caled wanig gibous. (7) Last Quarter Moon - Thre weks after new, we again can se half of the iluminated part. This is usually called last quarter. (8) Wanig Crescent Mon - Finaly, during the fourth wek, the Mon is reduced to a thin sliver from us, sometimes called waning crescent. A while after four weks (29.5 days, more precisely) the iluminated half of the Mon again faces away from us, and we come back to the begining of the cycle: a new mon. Sometimes, when the Mon is almost new, it is possible to dimly see its darkened disk. The light from the Sun cannot reach this part of the Mon directly; but at this time the Earth (as viewed from the Mon) is at its ful and very bright, and what we se is light reflected from the Earth, that then bounces back at us from the Mon. It's a long trip for this light: from the Sun to the Earth, to the Mon, and back to the Earth. Moon Phase Views.. For practical purposes, phases of the Mon and the percent of the Mon iluminated are independent of the location on the Earth from where the Mon is observed. That is, al the phases ocur at the same time regardles of the observer's position. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 271 ? New Mon, First Quarter, Ful Mon, and Last Quarter phases are considered to be primary phases and their dates and times are published in almanacs and on calendars. The two crescent and two gibous phases are intermediate phases, each of which lasts for about a week between the primary phases, during which time the exact fraction of the Mon's disk that is iluminated gradualy changes. ? New Mon - The Mon's uniluminated side is facing the Earth. The Mon is not visible (except during a solar eclipse).The lighted side of the Mon faces away from the Earth. This means that the Sun, Earth, and Moon are almost in a straight line, with the Moon in betwen the Sun and the Earth. The Mon that we se loks very dark. ? Waxing Crescent - The Mon appears to be partly but less than one-half iluminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Mon's disk that is iluminated is increasing. This Mon can be seen after the New Mon, but before the First Quarter Mon. The crescent wil grow larger and larger every day, until the Mon loks like the First Quarter Mon. ? First Quarter - One-half of the Moon appears to be iluminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is iluminated is increasing. The right half of the Moon appears lighted and the left side of the Moon appears dark. During the time betwen the New Mon and the First Quarter Mon, the part of the Mon that apears lighted gets larger and larger every day, and wil continue to grow until the Full Moon. ? Waxing Gibous - The Mon apears to be more than one-half but not fully iluminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is iluminated is increasing. This Moon can be seen after the First Quarter Moon, but before the Ful Moon. The amount of the Mon that we can se wil grow larger and larger every day. ("Waxing" means increasing, or growing larger.) ? Ful Mon - The Mon's iluminated side is facing the Earth. The Mon apears to be completely iluminated by direct sunlight. The lighted side of the on faces the Earth. This means that the Earth, Sun, and Moon are nearly in a straight line, with the Earth in the midle. The Mon that we se is very bright from the sunlight reflecting off it. ? Wanig Gibous - The Mon apears to be more than one-half but not fuly iluminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is iluminated is decreasing. This Moon can be seen after the Ful Mon, but before the Last Quarter Mon. The amount of the Mon that we can se wil grow smaler and smaler every day. ("Waning" means decreasing, or growing smaller.) ? Last Quarter - One-half of the Mon apears to be iluminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Moon's disk that is iluminated is decreasing. Sometimes called Third Quarter. The left half of the Mon apears lighted, and the right side of the Mon apears dark. During the time betwen the Ful Mon and the Last Quarter Mon, the part of the Mon that apears lighted gets smaller and smaller every day. It will continue to shrink until the New Moon. ? Wanig Crescent - The Mon apears to be partly but les than one-half iluminated by direct sunlight. The fraction of the Mon's disk that is iluminated is decreasing. This Mon can be seen after the Last Quarter on and before the New Mon. The crescent wil grow smaler and smaller every day, until the Moon looks like the New Moon. Moon Phase Comparison The mon's cycle is a continuous proces that is in constant change. The mon never stays at any one phase for more than an instance in time. Starting with a new mon on day one and ending with a wanig crescent on on day 29, the mon's light shape and intensity in always changing. As noted the mon reaches a major phase every seven days after the new mon. The first of which is the first quarter mon ocuring after 7.4 days. Betwen the new and first quarter is the time of the waxing crescent mon. 14.8 days into trip around the earth we see a ful mon, but not before the waxing gibbous make an appearance. After the full moon a state of waning begins on the 15th day. Along with a last quarter mon both a waning gibbous and crescent mon is visible before a new mon cycle starts a new on the 29th day. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 272 THE HEALING POWER OF SPIRITUAL BREATHING by Dan Brulé In the begining, we are told, "was the word," but behind the word is an even greater power: the breath. Have you noticed that words are simply specific formations, shapes and movements of breath? In the end days, it is said: al the secrets and mysteries wil be revealed. Those end days must be approaching, because today, the breath itself seems to be revealing those secrets to us. It seems that the secret of life has ben right under our nose al the tie! But it should come as no surprise, since almost every spiritual teacher throughout time has pointed to the breath in some way, and every contemporary healer makes use of the breath at some point. Almost al the ancient languages use the same word for air, wind or breath, as they do for life, vital energy, or spirit; or the animating principle of life. This principle, this spirit of life, is called chi, ki, prana, or energy. The breath is often overloked and underestimated in our search for the source and meaning of life, yet the author of Genesis tels us tels us that "God took the dust of the earth and formed the body or man, and breathed into the nostrils of man the Breath of Life, and man became a living soul." So, is it any wonder that today, we can find our way back to God, we can met the source of life by turning to the breath--or more specifically--to what is refered to in the Bok of Genesis as neshemet ruach chayim: "the spirit of life within the breath"? The author of Genesis understod something that the yogis have ben teaching since early times: that there is a diference betwen the air we breathe and the life giving principle contained within it. This iner breath also called chi, ki, prana or energy runs through body, mind and soul. In German, the word Atman means both soul and breath. The movement of spirit in the body is reflected in the movement of breath. As the Sufi Master Hazrat Inayat Kahn writes: "The healing power of Christ, the miraculous power of Moses, the charm of Krishna, and the inspiration of the Buddha--all these were attained by breath." The Course in Miracles teaches us that: "A universal theolgy is imposible, but a universal experience is not only possible, it is necessary." I believe that this universal experience is the breath, is breathing! In the Nei Ching: Yelow Emperor's Clasic of Internal Chinese Medicine, we read: "In ancient times, there were the so-caled spiritual en; they mastered the universe, and controled yin and yang. They breathed the esence of life and were independent in preserving the spirit. Their muscles and flesh remained unchanged. In his Book of Secrets, Rajnesh/Osho writes: ""If you can do something with breath, you wil attain the source of life. If you can do something with breath, you can transcend time and space. If you can do something with breath, you wil be in the world and also beyond it." He said: "there are certain points in the breathing which you have never observed, and those points are the dors, the nearest dors to you, from where you can enter into a different world, into a different being, a diferent consciousness.." I believe that Spiritual Breathing is to psychosomatic ilnes what penicilin was to infection. Spiritual Breathing is the quickest way to clear your head, setle your stomach, calm your nerves, and open your heart. It will uplift you, center you, and ground you in your being. Spiritual Breathing opens your heart to love and fills your body with light and life. In the Songs of Solomon, we read "Breath restores me to my exact self." Maybe that's why one of the most powerful modern spiritual breathing methods is caled "Rebirthing." It ofers us a spiritual technolgy of awakening to our essence. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 273 It sems to me that the breath is the fire of the heart--the heart of love. The Quakers have a wonderful tradition. At their Sunday service, people simply sit in silence and meditation, waiting, open to inspiration. And when it comes, when the spirit moves them, they speak. They say their piece (peace). They also hold this great idea: "Now and then, you need to open all the doors and windows of your heart and soul, and you need to let the spirit of God blow through you!" Breathwork is a spiritual technology for purification and awakening. When you work with the breath, you automatically develop spiritual skils. To play with breath is to play with the subtlest form of mater. That's why people who have mastered spiritual breathing can acomplish so much on the level of subtle energies. Spiritual Breathing makes it clear that the original creative life force energy that built our bodies in the womb is stil available to us, to maintain and even rebuild the body. Yoga is the science of union (with God). And yoga holds as a central truth that Breath is the conection, the bridge betwen mind and body, betwen the visible and the invisible. Breath connects us to each other, and it connects all of us to God, nature and existence. Every breath can be a prayer, an invitation, a demonstration of our faith, our trust. It can be an expresion of forgiveness, gratitude and surrender. Tremendous power is to be gained through combinig meditation and breathing. In the mid 70s, I was inspired by Richard Alpert (Ram Dass). He taught us to practice a beautiful spiritual breathing technique: On the inhale we think "the power of God is within me," and on the exhale we think "the grace of God surrounds me." Each of us must walk his/her own unique path. And that is the empowering aspect of Breathwork: no one can do it for you! Yet, we are al breathing the same breath. The breath that is in me now was in you before, wil be in the bird flying overhead tomorrow, was in the dog walking down the street yesterday. It is not just a philosophy. It is a fact in reality! The same atoms and molecules of air, the breath that Jesus breathed, Moses breathed, Buddha breathed, that sae breath is flowing into you right now! If you realy want to go into the depest realities of life, and to reach the highest states of consciousnes, then you wil have to awaken to the breath. It is the path, or at least the dorway, to your essence, your core, your soul, your heart of hearts. Breath and breathing techniques are now being taught al over the world. Breath awarenes leads to the healing of stress, emotional problems, substance abuse, to the healing of unconscious, blocks, fears, and anxieties. The Angel of Breath is at work on the planet! This Angel of Breath brings fire and light to everyone on the spiritual path. Evolutionary contractions in the form of natural disasters, social upheaval, and wars, are doing the work of pushing spiritual seekers out of their comfort zone and into the dynamic working zone of spiritual awakenig, purification and rebirth. It sems to me that everyone is born a spiritual master. But we forget, we lose touch with our esence, our purpose, our source. The sadnes, anger, and the love of a child is total: it sems infinite. That is a reflection of the power and nature of their spirit. As children, we are forced to chose betwen folowing outer authority and listening to our inner divinity. You can begin to incorporate the life of spirit back into your body and being. Simply breathe in a conscious way. Practice breathing in a peaceful way, an accepting way, a trusting way, a loving way, a grateful way, a forgiving way, an inviting way, a surrendering way. Incorporating these atributes through spiritual breathing makes manifesting them in reality easy and efortless! More than knowing, believing or doing it, when you are breathing it, you are "living" it. You are "being" it. Opening and relaxing the breath is like opening the dors to your soul. Alow every fiber of your being to POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 274 be bathed in this life that flows from God. Spiritual breathing has been called a biological experience of divine energy. It takes courage to live a unique life, an inspired life. It requires that you turn to your own iner truth. That inner truth can be reflected and expresed through every breath you take. Breathing is like a language: the language of the soul. Spiritual Breathing can take you to the eye of the storms in your life. Spiritual breathing can help you to balance yin and yang, peace and power, rhythm and harmony. Learn from the breath itself. Follow your own blis! Start by watching your breath. Do what the Budha did at the moment of enlightenment: follow the breath as it comes and goes. Feel the sensations of breath, the movement of breath in you. Be a witness. Observe, notice, pay atention to what is hapening inside of you in each moment, and be aware of the one being aware! Add to that the wilingness to let go, to surrender. And then begin to conspire with the life that surrounds and permeates everything in existence. Breathe consciously. Feel the expansion and contraction of life! Celebrate the flow of life, and marvel at the mysteries that life reveals to you through the breath. Seek out others who are comited to breath mastery. Share your experience. No one is fre until we are all free. But if only one of us gets free, everyone wil be liberated! Breathe peace and love, fredom and safety, energy and alivenes, love and light. And watch the world within you and around you change forever. Dan Brulé (Guchu Ram Singh) is a world renowned leader in the Spiritual Breathing Movement, and one of the originators of "Breath Therapy." He was first among the original group of Internationaly Certified Rebirthers, and is a Master of Prana Yoga (The Hindu Science of Breath) and Chi Kung / Qigong (Chinese Medical Breathing Exercises). He is the founder and director of the Growth Center, Inc. and One Sky International (Life Skils/Healing Arts Institute), and a leading member of the International Breathwork Foundation and the International Breathworker Training Alliance, Dan teaches for various agencies and organizations, and in locations throughout the USA, Canada, Europe and the world. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 275 THE ART OF LIVING: By Vipasana Meditation Everyone seks peace and harmony, because these are what we lack in our lives. From time to time we all experience agitation, iritation, disharmony, sufering; and when one suffers from agitation, one does not keep this misery limited to oneself. One keeps distributing it to others as well. The agitation permeates the atmosphere around the miserable person. Everyone who comes into contact with him also becomes iritated, agitated. Certainly this is not the proper way to live. One ought to live at peace with oneself, and at peace with al others. After al, a human being is a social being. He has to live in society--to live and deal with others. How are we to live peacefully? How are we to remain harmonious with ourselves, and to maintain peace and harmony around us, so that others can also live peacefuly and harmoniously? One is agitated. To come out of the agitation, one has to know the basic reason for it, the cause of the sufering. If one investigates the problem, it wil become clear that whenever one starts generating any negativity or defilement in the mind, one is bound to become agitated. A negativity in the mind, a mental defilement or impurity, cannot exist with peace and harmony. How does one start generating negativity? Again, by investigating, it becomes clear. I become very unhappy when I find someone behaving in a way which I don't like, when I find something happening which I don't like. Unwanted things happen and I create tension within myself. Wanted things do not happen, some obstacles come in the way, and again I create tension within myself; I start tying knots within myself. And throughout life, unwanted things kep on hapenig, wanted things may or may not happen, and this process or reaction, of tying knots--Gordian knots--makes the entire ental and physical structure so tense, so ful of negativity, that life becomes miserable. Now one way to solve the problem is to arange that nothing unwanted happens in my life and that everything keeps on happening exactly as I desire. i must develop such power, or somebody else must have the power and must come to my aid when I request him, that unwanted things do not happen and that everything I want happens. But this is not possible. There is no one in the world whose desires are always fulfiled, in whose life everything happens according to his wishes, without anything unwanted happening. Things keep on occurring that are contrary to our desires and wishes. So the question arises, how am I not to react blindly in the face of these things which I don't like? How not to create tension? How to remain peaceful and harmonious? In India as wel as in other countries, wise saintly persons of the past studied this problem--the problem of human sufering--and found a solution: if something unwanted happens and one starts to react by generating anger, fear or any negativity, then as soon as possible one should divert one's attention to something else. For example, get up, take a glass of water, start drinking--your anger wil not multiply and you'l be coming out of anger. Or start counting: one, two, thre, four. Or start repeating a word, or a phrase, or some mantra, perhaps the name of a deity or saintly person in whom you have devotion; the mind is diverted, and to some extent, you'l be out of the negativity, out of anger. This solution was helpful: it worked. It stil works. Practicing this, the mind fels fre from agitation. In fact, however, the solution works only at the conscious level. Actualy, by diverting the atention, one pushes the negativity dep into the unconscious, and on this level one continues to generate and multiply the same defilements. At the surface level there is a layer of peace and harmony, but in the depths of the mind there is a sleping volcano of supresed negativity which soner or later wil explode in violent eruption. Other explorers of iner truth went stil further in their search; and by experiencing the reality of mind and mater within themselves they recognized that diverting the atention is only runing away from the problem. Escape is no solution: one must face the problem. Whenever a negativity arises in the mind, just observe it, face it. As soon as one starts observing any mental defilement, it begins to lose strength. Slowly it withers away and is uproted. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 276 A god solution: it avoids both extremes--supression and fre license. Keping the negativity in the unconscious wil not eradicate it; and alowing it to manifest in physical or vocal action wil only create more problems. But if one just observes, then the defilement pases away, and one has eradicated that negativity, one is freed from the defilement. This sounds wonderful, but is it realy practical? For an average person, is it easy to face the defilement? When anger arises, it overpowers us so quickly that we don't even notice. Then overpowered by anger, we comit certain actions physicaly or vocaly which are harmful to us and to others. Later, when the anger has passed, we start crying and repenting, begging pardon from this or that person or from God: 'Oh, I made a mistake, please excuse me!' But the next time we are in a similar situation, we again react in the same way. All that repenting does not help at all. The dificulty is that I am not aware when a defilement starts. It begins dep in the unconscious level of the mind, and by the time it reaches the conscious level, it has gained so much strength that it overwhelms me, and I cannot observe it. Then I must kep a private secretary with me, so that whenever anger starts, he says, 'Lok master, anger is starting!' Since I cannot know when this anger wil start, I must have three private secretaries for thre shifts, around the clock! Suppose I can afford that, and the anger starts to arise. At once my secretary tels me, 'Oh, master, lok--anger has started!' The first thing I wil do is slap and abuse him: 'You fol! Do you think you are paid to teach me?' I am so overpowered by anger that no god advise wil help. Even suposing wisdom prevails and I do not slap him. Instead I say, 'Thank you very much. Now I must sit down and observe y anger.' Yet it is possible? As soon as I close my eyes and try to observe the anger, imediately the object of anger come into my mind--the person or incident because of which I become angry. Then I am not observing the anger itself. I am erely observing the external stimulus of the emotion. This wil only serve to multiply the anger; this is no solution. It is very dificult to observe any abstract negativity, abstract emotion, divorced from the external object which aroused it. However, one who reached the ultimate truth found a real solution. He discovered that whenever any defilement arises in the mind, simultaneously two things start happening at the physical level. One is that the breath loses its normal rhythm. We start breathing hard whenever a negativity comes into the mind. This is easy to observe. At subtler level, some kind of biochemical reaction starts within the body--some sensation. Every defilement wil generate one sensation or another inside, in one part of the body or another. This is a practical solution. An ordinary person canot observe abstract defilements of the mind--abstract fear, anger, or pasion. But with proper training and practice, it is very easy to observe respiration and bodily sensations--both of which are directly related to the mental defilements. Respiration and sensation wil help me in two ways. Firstly, they wil be like my private secretaries. As soon as a defilement starts in my ind, my breath wil lose its normality; it wil start shouting, 'Lok, something has gone wrong!' I canot slap y breath; I have to accept the warning. Similarly the sensations tell me that something has gone wrong. Then having been warned, I start observing my respiration, my sensation, and I find very quickly that the defilement pases away. This mental-physical phenomenon is like a coin with two sides. On the one side are whatever thoughts or emotions are arising in the mind. One the other side are the respiration and sensations in the body. Any thought or emotion, any mental defilement, manifests itself in the breath and the sensation of that moment. Thus, by observing the respiration or the sensation, I am in fact observing the mental defilement. Instead of running away from the problem, I am facing reality as it is. Then I shall find that the defilement loses its strength: it can no longer overpower me as it did in the past. If I persist, the defilement eventualy disappears altogether, and I remain peaceful and happy. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 277 In this way, the techniques of self-observation shows us reality in its two aspects, inner and outer. Previously, one always loked with open eyes, mising the inner truth. I always looked outside for the cause of my unhapiness; I always blamed and tried to change the reality outside. Being ignorant of the inner reality, I never understod that the cause of sufering lies within, in my own blind reactions toward pleasant and unpleasant sensations. Now, with training, I can se the other side of the coin. I can be aware of my breathing and also of what is happening inside me. Whatever it is, breath or sensation, I learn just to observe it, without losing the balance of the mind. I stop reacting, stop multiplying my misery. Instead, I alow the defilement to manifest and pas away. The more one practices this technique, the more quickly one wil find one wil come out of negativity. Gradualy the mind becomes fred of the defilements; it becomes pure. A pure mind is always ful of love- -selfless love for al others; ful of compassion for the failings and suferings of others; ful of joy at their success and hapiness; ful of equaniity in the face of any situation. When one reaches this stage, the entire patern of one's life starts changing. It is no longer posible to do anything vocally or physically which wil disturb the peace and happiness of others. Instead, the balanced mind not only becomes peaceful in itself, but it helps others also to become peaceful. The atmosphere surounding such a person wil become permeated with peace and harmony, and this wil start afecting others too. By learning to remain balanced in the face of everything one experiences inside, one develops detachment towards all that one encounters in external situations as well. However, this detachment is not escapism or indiference to the problems of the world. A Vipassana meditator becomes more sensitive to the suferings of others, and does his utmost to relieve their suffering in whatever way he can- -not with any agitation but with a mind ful of love, compassion and equanimity. He learns holy indifference--how to be fully comited, fully involved in helping others, while at the same time maintaining the balance of his mind. In this way he remains peaceful and hapy, while working for the peace and happiness of others. This is what the Budha taught; an art of living. He never established or taught any religion, any 'ism'. He never instructed his followers to practice any rites or rituals, any blind or empty formalities. Instead, he taught just to observe nature as it is, by observing reality inside. Out of ignorance, one keps reacting in a way which is harmful to oneself and to others. But when wisdom arises--the wisdom of observing the reality as it is--one come out of this habit of reaction. When one ceases to react blindly, then one is capable of real action--action proceeding from a balanced mind, a mind which sees and understands the truth. Such action can only be positive, creative, helpful to oneself and to others. What is necesary, then, is to 'know thyself'--advice which every wise person has given. One must know oneself not just at the intellectual level, the level of ideas and theories. Nor does this mean to know just at the emotional or devotional level, simply acepting blindly what one has heard or read. Such knowledge is not enough. Rather one must know reality at the actual level. One must experience directly the reality of this mental-physical phenomenon. This alone is what wil help us to come out of defilements, out of sufering. This direct experience of one's own reality, this techniques of self-observation, is what is called 'Vipasana' meditation. In the language of India in the time of the Budha, pasana meant seing with open eyes, in the ordinary way; but Vipassana is observing things as they really are, not just as they seem to be. Aparent truth has to be penetrated, until one reaches the ultimate truth of the entire mental and physical structure. When one experiences this truth, then one learns to stop reacting blindly, to stop creating defilements--and naturally the old defilements gradually are eradicated. One come out of all the misery and experiences happiness. There are thre steps to the training which is given in a Vipasana meditation course Firstly, one must abstain from any action, physical or vocal, which disturbs the peace and harmony of others. One cannot POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 278 work to liberate oneself from defilements in the mind while at the same time one continues to perform deeds of body and speech which only multiply those defilements. Therefore, a code of morality is the essential first step of the practice. One undertakes not to kil, not to steal, not to comit sexual misconduct, not to tel lies, and not to use intoxicants. By abstaining from such action, one alows the mind to quiet down suficiently so that it can proced with the task at hand. The next step is to develop some mastery over this wild mind, by training it to remain fixed on a single object: the breath. One tries to keep one's attention for as long as possible on the respiration. This is not a breathing exercise: one does not regulate the breath. Instead one observes natural respiration as it is, as it comes in, as it goes out. In this way one further calms the mind so that it is no longer overpowered by violent negativities. At the same time, one is concentrating the mind, making it sharp and penetrating, capable of the work of insight. These first two steps of living a moral life and controling the mind are very necesary and beneficial in themselves; but they wil lead to self-represion, unles one takes the third step - purifying the mind of defilements by developing insight into one's own nature. This is Vipasana: experiencing one's own reality, by the systematic and dispasionate observation of the ever-changing mind-mater phenomenon manifesting itself as sensation within oneself. This is the culmination of the teaching of the Budha: self- purification by self-observation. This can be practiced by one and al. Everyone faces the problem of sufering. it is a universal disease which requires a universal remedy--not a sectarian one. When one suffers from anger, it is not a Budhist anger, Hindu anger, or Christian anger. Anger is anger. hen one become agitated as a result of this anger, this agitation is not Christian, or Hindu, or Buddhist. The malady is universal. The remedy must also be universal. Vipasana is such a remedy. No one wil object to a code of living which respects the peace and harmony of others. No one wil object to developing control over the mind. No one wil object to developing insight into one's own reality, by which it is posible to fre the mind of negativities. Vipassana is a universal path. Observing reality as it is by observing the truth inside--this is knowing oneself at the actual, experiential level. As one practices, one keps coming out of the misery of defilements. From the gros, external, apparent truth, one penetrates to the ultimate truth of mind and mater. Then one transcends that, and experiences a truth which is beyond mind and matter, beyond time and space, beyond the conditioned field of relativity: the truth of total liberation fro al defilements, al impurities, al sufering. Whatever name one gives this ultimate truth, is irelevant; it is the final goal of everyone. May you al experience this ultimate truth. May al people come out of their defilements, their misery. May they enjoy real hapines, real peace, real harmony. MAY AL BEINGS BE HAPY The above text is based upon a talk given by Mr. S.N. Goenka in Berne, Switzerland. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 279 EDGAR CAYCE ON THE CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS Oftentimes, when individuals hear the terms "Christ" or "Jesus," right away they may fal into preconceived notions based upon their upbringing or particular religious background. Throughout history, the perspectives people have had on the life and teachings of Jesus have ben varied, oftentimes even at odds. Sometimes individuals involved in so called "new age" philosophies or comparative religious studies have decided that Jesus was "just a teacher." Was he only a prophet? Others have decided to disregard him altogether. Members of non-Christian faiths may have ignored his life and ministry. Was he a man who comited blasphemy by thinking himself a God? Others may have said, "Wel, Christians have been cruel to me and therefore I'm not interested in Jesus." Even among those who call themselves Christian there is not complete agrement about the meaning of Jesus' life and work. These disagreements have resulted in dozens of denominational factions, charges of heresy or breaking away from the faith, and countles wars. The Edgar Cayce material, however, ofers an approach that suggests there is a way of loking at Jesus' life in a maner that unifies al of humankind rather than dividing it. Because of our focus on the material things in life, much of humankind has forgoten its true birthright as a child of a loving God. From Cayce's perspective, we are not simply physical bodies, instead we are spiritual beings who are having a physical experience entailing personal growth and development. Many individuals have incorectly asumed that the goal of being in the earth is to simply reach heaven, find enlightenment, or somehow "get out of the earth." And yet, this is a perspective quite diferent from that contained in the Cayce material. Instead, Cayce believed that as children of God, our mission was to somehow bring spirit into the earth. The dynamics of our dep and literal conection to God can be found throughout scripture, begining with Genesis when we are told that God made humankind in the Creator's image. But our relationship with God as our Parent is perhaps no more clearly ilustrated than in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-24). This parable describes the journey of the soul: we were with God in the beginning, through the power of our free wil we were able to make choices that were not necesarily in perfect acord with the Creator. And, at some point, we wil "arise" and decide to return to God, regainig our inheritance and experiencing our true relationship with Him. One of the readings beautifully describes the spiritual nature of humankind in this way: "For ye are a corpuscle in the body of God; thus a co-creator with Him, in what ye think, in what ye do." Edgar Cayce reading #2794-3 The readings state that God desires to be expresed in the world through us. The example set by Jesus is aparently a "patern" of wholenes for each and every soul. Regardles of an individual's religious or personal beliefs, this Christ patern exists in potential upon the very fiber of their being. It is that part of each of us that is in perfect acord with the Creator and is simply waiting to find expresion in our lives. This Christ patern was further described as "the awarenes within each soul, imprinted in pattern on the mind and waiting to be awakened by the wil, of the soul's oneness with God" (5749-14), and its manifestation is the eventual destiny of each and every soul. With this in mind, the readings present Jesus as our "Elder brother," a soul who came to show each one of us the way back to our spiritual Source by perfectly manifesting the laws of the Creator in the earth. Just as an older sibling can sometimes provide insight and counsel into some of life's dificulties ( because he or she went through them first ) Jesus as Elder brother can asist us in facing life's challenges. What may surprise individuals is that this fact has nothing to do with religion, it has to do with spirituality and discovering our true relationship with God - a relationship we share with Jesus. The readings not only afirm that Jesus was the Son of God, but they also state the same thing about each and everyone of us. In other words: Jesus was like each one of us and, ultimately, each one of us is destined to be like Him. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 280 I and my Father are one. Then they took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many god works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of these do you stone me? They answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not writen in your law, "I said, Ye are gods." John 10:30-34 Although many of us may be repeled at first by such a sugestion, evidence for this premise is found in both the Bible and the Edgar Cayce material. When speaking of humankind, Jesus, himself, states, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world," (John 17:16). Surprisingly, perhaps, a Jewish businessman came to this very conclusion in questions that he posed in a Cayce reading: Q. Jesus was made perfect, God came into His Own. We are men not yet perfect, god not yet equal to God. He represents our so-caled future, the path to the Throne? A. Corect. He is the path to the throne, in that we, man, must become as the One as directs the way. Q. ..Like us, Jesus was both God and Man until He became God alone? A. Corect. Reading 90-100 Before becoming ofended by this incredible posibility, shouting out charges of heresy, or believing the idea to be the work of the devil, we ned to look closely at the life of Jesus. Not only wil we find that He was charged with blasphemy for this very claim, but we wil find that He stated this truth for each and every one of us: For inded in Him, the Father-God, ye move and have thy being. Act like it! Don't act like ye think ye are a god! Ye may become such, but when ye do ye think not of thyself. For what is the patern? He thought it not robery to make Himself equal with God, but He acted like it in the earth. He made Himself of no estate that you, through His grace, through His mercy, through His sacrifice might have an advocate with that First Cause, God; that first principle, spirit.. Reading 4083-1 The law Jesus is refering to is the Old Testament, specificaly the 82nd Psalm which aserts that not only are we God's children, but we are also "gods" (to be sure in-the-making), as wel. Although some individuals may be ofended with the statement that everyone is a part of God, in recent years more and more people working with esoteric spiritual traditions have come to that very conclusion. Unfortunately, oftentimes those individuals who accept this premise have forgotten the appropriate attitudinal stance that should accompany it. In reality, this claim is not so much true as a verbal statement made about oneself. Instead, it is only true as we become god-like toward one another: For the Master, Jesus, even the Christ, is the patern for every man in the earth, whether he be Gentile or Jew, Parthenian or Grek. For al have the pattern, whether they cal on that name or not; but there is no other name given under heaven whereby men may be saved from themselves. Reading 3528-1 When Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life,"(John 14:6) it was not a cal to religious conversion; but rather an oportunity for us to realize that His life could serve as an example for each one of us. Regardless of our religious background, in Jesus' life we can find a pattern of how to live, enabling each of us to overcome our personal weaknesses, our shortcomings, even our problems. In the language of the Cayce readings: POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 281 Q-5. What is the main purpose of this incarnation? A-5. To glorify the Christ Consciousness in the earth . in the lives of those with whom ye come in contact, and to live the same thyself. Reading 241-4 On one ocasion, a thirty-eight-year-old male who primarily desired additional information on how he might beter manifest his life's purpose, asked Edgar Cayce for clarification on these words "Jesus" and "Christ": Q. What is the meaning and significance of the words Jesus and Christ..? A. Just as indicated. Jesus is the man . the activity, the mind, the relationships that He bore to others. Yea, He was mindful of friends, He was sociable, He was loving, He was kind, He was gentle. He grew faint, He grew weak . and yet gained that strength that He has promised, in becoming the Christ, by fulfiling and overcoming the world! Ye are made strong . in body, in mind, in soul and purpose . by that power in Christ. The power, then, is in the Christ. The patern is in Jesus. Reading 253-7 This transformative power of the Christ Consciousnes is awakened as individuals act in acord with the pattern set by the example of Jesus' life. In fact, this awakening is the essential purpose for which each soul enters into life: In terms of how this Christ Consciousnes could unfold in an individual's life, one person was told: What [then] wil ye do with this man thy elder brother, thy Christ, who . that thy Destiny might be sure in Him . has shown the the more excellent way. Not in mighty deds of valor, not in the exaltation of thy knowledge or thy power; but in the gentleness of the things of the spirit: Love, kindness, longsuffering, patience; these thy brother hath shown the that thou, aplying them in thy asociations with thy felow man day by day, here a litle, there a litle, may become one with Him as He has destined that thou shouldst be! Wilt thou separate thyself? For there be nothing..that may separate thee from the love of thy God, of thy brother, save thine own self! Reading 849-11 From Cayce's perspective, Jesus is the Elder brother for al of humankind, deply comited to asisting all souls in reawakening to the awareness of their oneness with God. This Jesus is not interested in religious conversion, denominationalism, or even mighty personal accomplishments. Instead, He is simply interested in how we treat one another. With this in ind, even in the idst of our diversity as a human family, we share a comon spiritual heritage. We are al Children of the same God. We are al part of the one spiritual Source. And, we are al destined to return to our Creator, our Mother/Father, our God. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 282 CHAPTER 06 - INTRODUCTION TO THE GREK GODS POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 283 THOUGHTS ABOUT FAMILY The voice of parents is the voice of gods, for to their children they are heaven's lieutenants. - Shakespeare Family life is ful of major and minor crises -- the ups and downs of health, suces and failure in carer, mariage, and divorce -- and al kinds of characters. It is tied to places and events and histories. With al of these felt details, life etches itself into memory and personality. It's dificult to imagine anything more nourishing to the soul. - Thomas More In every conceivable maner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future. - Alex Haley The family is the nucleus of civilization. - Ariel and Wil Durant In each family a story is playing itself out, and each family's story embodies its hope and despair. - Auguste Napier: Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and of family disagreements. - Elizabeth II Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body. - Elizabeth Stone Important families are like potatoes. The best parts are underground. - Francis Bacon If you canot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as wel make it dance. - George Bernard Shaw The family is one of nature's masterpieces. - George Santayana A man can't make a place for himself in the sun if he keeps taking refuge under the family tree. - Helen Keler Cal it a clan, cal it a network, cal it a tribe, cal it a family: Whatever you cal it, whoever you are, you ned one. - Jane Howard Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live al by itself in a box the way we do. With no relatives, no suport, we've put it in an impossible situation. - Margaret Mead Having children makes you no more a parent than having a piano makes you a pianist. - Michael Levine CHAPTER 06 - INTRODUCTION TO THE GREK GODS In the Beginning In this chapter we wil be loking at the Greks and their wonderfuly diverse and often unruly family of gods and godeses. We wil explore thre generations of gods and godeses to se if their stories stil hold value for us today. Are the lessons we find in the Grek myths stil pertinent to contemporary life? Hopefuly, as we lok at the tangled web they weave, their strugles and triumph wil begin to resonate in world around us. Some cultures, like the Egyptians for example, have various creation stories. Varying acounts of the creation of the world and coming into being of the gods usualy indicated the layering of cultural influence in any given people. The Greks are certainly no exception to this rule. Acording to the archeological record, the loosely connected groups of Stone-Age people who setled in Grece around 3,500 B.C.E., were a goddess worshiping tribal people, peaceable, and industrious. These people have been given the name of Pelasgian, to help identify them. An example of one of the creation stories of the Pelasgian tribes began with Eurynome, the godes of al things. She arose from dark watery void of nothingness and began to dance, her toes tickled and trailed in the dark waters. Her advent separated the sea from the sky and as she whirled in her dance, the wind was created and blew across the vast expanse of the sea and sky. Then the wind began to take shape and slowly formed into a giant serpent known as Ophion. Ophion coiled himself around lovely Eurynome and mated with the godes. She transformed into a dove who laid the Cosmic Eg. Ophion the great serpent wound itself around the eg seven ties and squezed until the eg broke open, and so the universe was hatched. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 284 The symbolism of the cosmic eg is ancient. It is the sed of life - which makes it a potent fertility symbol. The World Eg or Cosmic Eg can ben found in cultures from al over the globe and stands for the totality of creative forces brought to bear at the moment of creation. It is sometimes pictured floating on the vast primordial waters and breaking open to release the four elements, the originary gods, or the earth and stars and eventually all living things both mortal and divine. Chinese heroes are sometimes pictured breaking out of eggs and at least four of the gods of the Greek pantheon were hatched from eggs; Artemis of the hunt and Apollo of the sky being two of the more prominent. Because of its siple shape, its frequently white color and the wealth of possibilities before it, the eg is often encountered as a symbol of perfection. (NOTE) A world eg or cosmic eg is a mythological motif found in the creation myths of many cultures and civilizations. Typicaly, the world egg is a beginning of some sort, and the universe or some primordial being comes into existence by "hatching" from the egg. Chinese mythology In the myth of Pangu, developed by Taoist monks hundreds of years after Lao Zi, the universe began as an egg. A god named Pangu, born inside the eg, broke it into two halves: the uper half became the sky, while the lower half became the earth. As the god grew taler, the sky and the earth grew thicker and were separated further. Finally Pangu died and his body parts became different parts of the earth. Egyptian mythology In the original myth concerning the Ogdoad, the Milky Way arose from the waters as a mound of dirt, which was deified as Hathor. Ra was contained within an eg laid upon this mound by a celestial bird. In the earliest version of this myth, the bird is a goose (it is not explained where the gose originates). However, after the rise of the cult of Thoth, the egg was said to have been a gift from Thoth and laid by an ibis, the bird with which he was asociated. Finnish mythology In the Kalevala, the Finish national epic, there is a myth of the world being created from the fragments of an egg laid by a diving duck on the kne of Ilmatar, godess of the air: One eg's lower half transformed And became the earth below, And its uper half transmuted And became the sky above; From the yolk the sun was made, Light of day to shine upon us; From the white the mon was formed, Light of night to glea above us; All the colored brighter bits Rose to be the stars of heaven And the darker crumbs changed into Clouds and cloudlets in the sky. Sanskrit scriptures and Vedanta The earliest knowledge/ideas of "Eg-shaped Cosmos" comes directly from revaled Vedic-Avestan scriptures notably the part dealing with Ritual-mantras. The Sanskrit term for it is BRAHMANDA where Brahm=Cosmos and Anda=Egg, a word also found in Hindi. The BRAHMANDA PURANA and other puranas/shastras deal authoritatively on the Cosmic Egg Brahmanda, and its relation to Heaven. The creation of the world also has an epithet "The Big Bang Brahman". Here the word Brahman means explosion. POWER OF MYTH AND SYMBOL READER 285 Among important ovule symbolism the Philosophical Egg is worth noting. In Alchemy the Philosophical Egg symbolized the Prima Materia from which the philosophical fire hatched the Philosopher?s Stone. You might remember the importance of this stone in the first Hary Poter story and its ability to give whoever poseses it eternal life. Specifically the yellow yoke was interpreted as a symbol for Gold and the eg white as a symbol for Silver. In Christianity, the eg is regarded as a symbol of resurrection, because Christ broke out of the grave like a fully developed chick breaks out of an egg. Hence the Easter eg, which had already from before memory ben used as a pagan fertility symbol in rites of Spring, acquired its specificaly Christian meaning. Tahitian Creation Story Listen to a Tahitian tale. For a long, long time the god Ta?aroa lived inside an egg. It revolved in darknes and silence for eons until the shel cracked open and Ta?aroa steped outside. To his distress, he discover