DIVINEINFORMATION PART 11 Dear friends,
While going through one of my externalmemory device, I came across some good information stored from a website (not available now). I thought of sharing interesting ones from themas a series. These are short information. Inpart 11 , I am starting with 50th item in this posting. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 20-05-2021. 50 MYTHOLOGY What is mythology? It is an organizedcollection of stories (i.e., "myths") by which we explain our beliefsand our history. Beneath the story-lines, myths usuallyconfront major issues such as the origin of humanity and its traditions, andthe way in which the natural and human worlds function on a profound, universallevel. Othermyths, however, seem merely to narrate the deities' daily activities -- theirlove affairs and pleasures, their jealousies and rages, their ambitions andschemes, and their quarrels and battles. 50-1 Myths, legends, folktales, and fables. We commonly use the word"myth" interchangeably with the following terms, but some authoritieshave made distinctions Legends. Unlike many myths,legends generally do not have religious or supernatural content. Legends emphasizethe story more than the significance of the story; we might still gain a philosophical and moralmeaning from a legend, but we probably will not feel the archetypal intensitywhich permeates myths. An example of a legend is the tale of Atlantis. Folklore. While legends and mythsmight be embraced as true stories, folktales are generally known to be fictitious. They are often told onlywithin a limited geographical area -- one town, one mountain range, or onecountry. Examples include thestories of Paul Bunyan and Rip Van Winkle from early American history. Fables. Even more so thanfolktales, fables are acknowledged to be fictional -- certainly when thecharacters include talking animals. A fable's emphasis is on a"moral." Examples includeAesop's fables, such as the stories of the tortoise and the hare, and the fox who complained about"sour grapes." 50-2 Mythology serves manypurposes. Myths grant continuity and stability to a culture. Theyfoster a shared set of perspectives, values, history -- and literature, in thestories themselves. Through these communal tales, we are connectedto one another, to our ancestors, to the natural world surrounding us, and tosociety; and, in the mythswhich have universal (i.e., archetypal) themes, we are connected to othercultures. Myths present guidelines for living. When myths tell about the activities and attitudes of deities,the moral tone implies society's expectations for our own behaviors andstandards. In myths, we see archetypal situations and some of the optionswhich can be selected in those situations; we also perceive the rewards andother consequences which resulted from those selections. Myths justify a culture's activities. Through their authoritativeness and the respected characters within them,myths establish a culture's customs, rituals, religious tenets, laws, socialstructures, power hierarchies, territorial claims, arts and crafts, holidaysand other recurring events, and technical tips for hunting, warfare, and otherendeavors. Myths give meaning to life. We transcend our common life into a world in whichdeities interact with humans, and we can believe that our daily actions arepart of the deities' grand schemes. In our difficulties,the pain is more bearable because we believe that the trials have meaning; weare suffering for a bigger cause rather than being battered randomly. And whenwe read that a particular deity experienced something which we are now enduring-- perhaps a struggle against "evil forces" -- we can feel that ourown struggle might have a similar cosmic or archetypal significance, though ona smaller scale. Myths explain theunexplainable. They reveal our fate after death, and the reasons for crises ormiracles, and other puzzles -- and yet they retain and even encourage an auraof mystery. Myths also satisfy our need to understand the naturalworld; for example, theymight state that a drought is caused by an angry deity. This purpose ofmythology was especially important before the advent of modern science, whichoffered the Big Bang theory to replace creation myths, and it gave us thetheory of evolution to supplant myths regarding the genesis of humanity. And yet, sciencecreates its own mythology, even as its occasional secular barrenness threatensto strip us of the healthful awe which other types of mythology engender. Myths offer role models. In particular, children pattern themselves after heroes; comic books andSaturday-morning cartoons depict many archetypal characters, such as Supermanand Wonder Woman. Adults, too, can find role models, in the stories of deities'strength, persistence, and courage. 50-3 There are various typesof myths. In The Global Myths,Alexander Eliot defined four types of myth: Primitive myths (which were generally stories about nature, as told byshamans). Pagan myths (which were mostly from the Greek and Roman tales of theinterplay between deities and humans). Sacred myths (as in the stories from current eastern and westernreligions such as Christianity and Hinduism) Scientific myths (i.e., "the most solemn and revered creeds ofscience -- from Lucretius on Nature through Darwin's The Origin ofSpecies"). David Adams Leeming, inThe World of Myth, listed four other types: Cosmic myths (including narrativesof the creation and end of the world). Theistic myths (which portraythe deities). Hero myths (with accounts ofindividuals such as Achilles and Jesus). "Place and object" myths (describingplaces such as Camelot, and objects such as the Golden Fleece). We have had deities for many aspects of life. This bookcontains dozens of classifications, but that is only a small percentage. The Egyptians had more than2,000 deities; the Hindus have 333 million. Deities have governed virtuallyevery possible activity, object, and emotion. In addition to the broad categories (e.g., war or the sea), we have haddeities for individual items; forexample, the Irish honored both the goddess of rivers (Boann) and the goddessof the Lagan River (Logia). There have been deities for individual cities(Athena for Athens), mountains (Gauri-Sankar for Mount Everest), lakes, tribes,plant species, temples, constellations, parts of the body, etc. In some cultures,each home possessed its own deity, to supplement the culture's "goddess ofthe home" (who was named Hestia in the Greek religion). Deities governednot only major phenomena such as agriculture or love or the sun, but also suchcommon matters as leisure, reptiles, the kitchen stove, guitars, jeering, thenose, politics, prostitution, singing, burlesque, doors, virginity, willpower,firecrackers, gambling, face cream, drunkenness, and the toilet. 50-4 Additions to Mythology study "God" is different from mythological gods and goddesses.In mythology, the dieties are not like the monotheistic deity of westernreligion. (Hinduism has its quasi-monotheistic deity -- Brahman -- butit also has millions of lesser deities.) Mythological deities were notomniscient, omnipotent, or omnipresent. Like people, they were viewed aslimited, flawed, and driven by emotions and ambitions; their main differencefrom humans was that they had more knowledge and power. Ancientmyths live in our culture. We find references to those myths in many contemporarywords and expressions, such as Pandora's box, Oedipus complex, nymph,and olympian. Other words derived from mythology include adonis (from Adonis),aurora (from Aurora), chlorophyll (from Chloris), chronology (from Kronos),discipline (from Disciplina), discord (from Discordia), eros (from Eros), fate(from Fate), fauna (from Faunus), fidelity (from Fides), flora (from Flora),fortune (from Fortuna), fraud (from Fraus), Hades (from Hades), Hell (fromHel), hygiene (from Hygieia), jovial (from Jove), liberty (from Libertas),lunar (from Luna), morphine (from Morpheus), mortality (from Mors), mute (fromMuta), narcissism (from Narcissus), nemesis (from Nemesis), ocean (fromOceanus), -- and the names of the planets, and some of the months (includingJanus for January), etc. Mars (the Roman war god) is remembered in words suchas Mars (the planet), March (the month), and martial (as in martial arts). Our modern society has itsown myths. Some authors say that our society lacks a vigorous mythology;they believe that this lack can cause a sense of meaning-lessness,estrangement, rootlessness, and the cold brittleness of a life devoid ofreverence and awe. Other authors assertthat we do have a mythology -- in certain concepts(such as "progress") and in our larger-than-life celebrities (e.g., Mother Teresa as the goddessof compassion, Albert Einstein as the god of the intellect and the imagination,and Bill Gates as the god of commerce). "Screen goddesses Marilyn Monroe and Madonna incarnate thealluring qualities of Aphrodite. AristotleOnassis expressed the wheeling-and-dealing Zeus qualities that built a shippingempire, while Muhammad Ali called on the aggressive instinct of Ares, the godof war, every time he stepped into the boxing ring." (As Above So Below,copyright 1992 by New Age Journal.) The media enlargescertain people to mythical proportions, and weeach do the same (often by projecting the "Hero" archetype onto otherpeople). Corporations have a mythology, in their "corporate culture." There is a mythology in every group -- our socialclub, our family, our profession, our subculture, our ethnic group, ourreligion and denomination, our city, our neighborhood, our friendships, etc. Our mythology changes as our culturechanges -- from one generation to the next, from one presidentialadministration to the next, from one decade to the next. We each have our ownmythology. Consciously or unconsciously, we create our own myths. We have our deities-- the things which are important and valued and vibrant to us personally. We are heroes in "mythic journeys" by which weromanticize our various passages through life. Although we generally acceptcultural myths to the extent to which we are a part of our culture, the trulysatisfying and exciting myths are those which arise from our own passions, ourown dreams, and our own visions. Similar mythsexist in every culture. The myths have different characters anddifferent plot-lines, but we do find some common themes. Some of the recurring themesinclude a Golden Age, a fall from a heavenly state, resurrections from death,virgin births, worldwide floods, creation stories in which "one becomestwo," and a future apocalypse. When Carl Jung examinedthe commonalities of myths, he developed his theory of archetypes, which areuniversal forces which influence us to manifest their particular trait. 50-5 Mythology and history Myths are metaphorical. Somepeople regard myths as mere fabrications, to be discarded in our enlightenedage. Those people are repelled by the myths' preposterous elements(such as centaurs) and contradictions (within an individual myth, or in itsrevisions from one oral transmission to the next). But mythology's enduring worth is not in its possiblehistorical or scientific accuracy; instead, myths are important because theyare metaphors. We learnabout life and people and values in a way which cannot be offered by dryhistorical or philosophical accounts; in mythology, we learn throughimagination, as we feel and visualize the colorful adventures of the deities. Althoughmythology is not a literal rendering of a culture's history, we can still use mythsto explore the culture -- its viewpoints, activities, and beliefs. Myths represent forces in the psyche and the world. As Joseph Campbellsaid, in An Open Life, "The imagery of mythology is symbolic of spiritualpowers within us." In this symbolism, wesee mythological characters who represent love, youth, death, wealth, virility,fear, evil, and other archetypal facets of life -- and we also see naturalevents such as rain and wind. The deities are personifications of those facets,those "energies." Aswe read about the interplay of deities, we are viewing a dream-like fantasywhich portrays the interaction of the elements of our own lives. To say thatthe deities are symbolic is not to say that they might not exist as actualbeings; after all, some contemporary people believe in a deity which is anindividual "person" (portrayed in art as an old man), so we mightgrant equal respect and open-mindedness toward those who have believed in theliteral reality of ancient deities. Mythology is a valid way tolook at the world.Even if we respect the archetypal significance of mythology, we might disregardmyths as primitive, clumsy attempts to express those psychological truths. But some authors have argued that mythologyis actually a sophisticated means of labeling and studying psychological dynamics -- a means which is as cultured and insightful as that ofmodern psychology. Surely somemyths were concocted by soma-intoxicated shamans, but perhaps others weredevised by thoughtful scholars and mystics who intentionally chose mythology asa vehicle for passing on their revelations. These sages might haverealized that myths are: 1. Easy to remember in anilliterate society in which ideas cannot be written nor read. 2. Approachable and somewhat understandable by people of anylevel of intelligence, including people for whom a philosophical discoursewould be incomprehensible. 3. Stimulating to theimagination and feelings, where the effect can be more profound andlife-changing than that from intellectual comprehension. 50-6Can we use mythology in psychology? Althoughwe might include mythology within psychology, we would surely not abandonpsychology's scientific approach for the stories and practices of traditionalmythology. (I, for one, would feel silly burning incense to Apollo.) Butthe idea of a "mytho-psychology" is intriguing. We can envision the advice given bya Roman priest in a counseling session with a person who, for instance, wasexperiencing problems due to a lack of self-discipline. "Know the power of Disciplina, the Roman goddess ofdiscipline." Simply to accept the reality of this force (whetherinternally or externally) is a primary step inresolving a condition which has been exacerbated by denial, repression, andlack of development. (However, the "acceptance" of the reality ofDisciplina would be virtually impossible in our culture; mythologicalcharacters seemed real in other cultures, but that milieu of mythology issimply too alien to provide an effective format for contemporary psychologicaltherapy. But let us continue anyway ...) "Honor Disciplina." To "honor" her,we would respect her importance as a goddess. (Intherapy, we might learn to respect ourselves, including our natural drive toseek goals and fulfillment through self-discipline.) "Fear the wrath of Disciplina, whom you have angered; she has cursed you with poverty." Actually, thepoverty is the result of a lack of self-discipline, but at least the priestexplains that some type of cause-and-effect dynamic is occurring, so that wemight recognize our responsibility in the dilemma. "Seek guidance from Disciplina." If we try tocontact Disciplina via a type of receptive meditation, the meditationmight arouse our intuition to suggest ways to increase our self-discipline.This meditation might even precipitate an experience of Jungian "activeimagination," in which we would "converse" with whatever partsof the psyche manage our self-discipline; this part might assume the mind's-eyeappearance of Disciplina. "Perform these rituals." The rituals couldinclude actions in which we exercise our self-discipline (as a tribute to Disciplina), andalso ceremonies in which we symbolically strengthen the self-discipline ordestroy whatever disrupts it. Perhaps we would chant incantations, which areanalogous to "affirmations." Rituals can indeed produce psychologicalchanges if we believe in their potency and we perform them with feeling. 50-7 Why do we mythologize? We do it to acquire the benefits which have been describedthroughout this chapter. But, beyond the pragmatic reasons, we do it to satisfyour natural, healthy craving to live in a world which is still filled withmystery and wonder and archetypal grandeur I will continue in nextposting -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/936294892.1690561.1621491000146%40mail.yahoo.com.
