Unread post
by Grey Cloud » Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:59 am
I've only just noticed this thread as I have only now had the wit to scroll down on the topic index page.
The subjects being discussed here are just those which need to be addressed in the thread I have been mainly involved with, i.e. 'The Origins of Myth'.
One of the points I made there in my opening post (A Cautionary Note) was basically they are seeing dragons behind every tree in that they are treating every mythical story are pertaining to plasma phenomena in space. I am arguing that unless you take into account what I, for convenience, call the Ancient Wisdom, then you will not understand what the myths are saying (allegorically) and will be merely projecting your own assumptions etc back onto the ancient peoples.
I categorise myths into 3 basic groups:
1. Creation stories
2. The human condition (basically Alchemy)
3. Other, e.g. stuff happening in the sky.
Group 2 is the largest. Dave Talbot and Plasmatic wont have it.
I feel that they are conflating, for instance, several goddesses into this Mother goddess and ditto this warrior-king 'archetype'.
I posted an iterpretation of the myth of the abduction of Persephone to try to illustrate the point re the mother goddess and an interpretation of the Perseus and Andromeda story re the warrior-king. You can check them out but basically the Persephone describes the souls descent into the material realm and Perseus (Everyman) is battling the material in order to gain Enlightenment, Andromeda in this case playing the part of the soul. I made the point that in these type of hero myths, the hero is generally a demi-god, with a mortal mother (of Earth) and the father is a god (of the heavens). 'I am a child of Earth and the Starry Heavens...' as the Orphic prayer has it. Another clue is that the hero is generally helped (in Greek myth at least) by Athena and sometines and/or Hermes. Both of these are associated with intelligence and mind.
Needless to say they somehow still see these two stories as referring to celestial catastrophic events.
I think it was arc-us in his opening post who mentioned a triune world? I couldn't agree more. This in Alchemy, and the Ancient Wisdom generally, is the Law of Three. In the I Ching it is expressed thusly:
From Dao, One arises.
From One, two.
From two, three.
Three becomes the ten thousand things.
The ten thousand things carry yin on their backs
and hold yang in their arms.
Existence depends on the two.
Men hate to be orphaned, bereft, unworthy,
yet this is how the noble man describes himself.
Loss is gain, gain is loss.
I teach what has always been taught:
"A fervent man is surprised by death."
I see this as the foundation of my teaching.
I Ching 42, trans Bart Marshall.
Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu; Mercury, Salt, Sulphur; Body, Soul, Consciousness. Two opposites and an intelligent principle.
I have been a serious Seeker for a year or so (I have picked up Ariadne's thread; I have heard the song of the Siren) but I have been blundering about for several decades.
Quote:
The universe and I exist together, and all things and I are one. As all things are one, there is no need for further speech. But since I just said that all things are one, how can speech be not important?...Behind the divisible there is always something indivisible. Behind the disputable there is always something indisputable. You ask: What? The wise man carries it in his heart.
CHUANG-TZU
Peace people.
_________________
If I have the least bit of knowledge
I will follow the great Way alone
and fear nothing but being sidetracked.
The great Way is simple
but people delight in complexity.
I Ching, 53.
If I have the least bit of knowledge
I will follow the great Way alone
and fear nothing but being sidetracked.
The great Way is simple
but people delight in complexity.
Tao Te Ching, 53.