Starting Week #2: Egptian Mythology

I began with the myths of ancient Egypt because the civilization fascinates me. They build the pyramids, sphinx and many other great things. There is an air of romance to their culture. I find it intriguing. The great pharaohs like Ramses and Hatshepsut led interesting lives. They did great things for their people.

Believe part of my interest stems form the movies Hollywood makes about ancient Egypt. I love all of them. Every year when the “Ten Commandments” is shown, I watch the part of the story set in Egypt. My love of “Stargate” comes from my love of science fiction. I loved how elements of ancient Egypt and its mythology are mixed in with a space faring species. All of the movies appeal to me.

Exploration Beginning

I’m beginning an exploration of world mythology by using an online class I discovered from the University of Oklahoma. The material is available for free if people don’t have the time or money to take the class. I’m doing the assignments, which I’ll post here. I’m hoping this will deepen my understanding of myths. I’m sure it will help me with my writing too. It’s good to explore mythic themes and archetypes for inspiration. The site is found at: http://www.mythfolklore.net/3043mythfolklore/

Myths of Forests

I love forests. Used to want to lose myself in them when I was a child and we would go on picnics.(My mother is still angry to this day about those little forays.) Forests are mysterious with their trees and wildlife. There is something new behind every tree. When the wind blows through them, the trees seem to speak in a secret language.

Forests appear in many works of fiction. Fantasy writers give them a magical element with strange denizens, mirroring ancient myths. Robert Holdstock gave them even more mystery with his Mythago Wood books. These books prompted me to read a book on the mythology of forests and write this entry.

The Lore of Forests by Alexander Porteous is an older book from 1928. The author talks about the myths of forests, trees and mythical forest dwellers. I found the book interesting for the stories, but lacking in analysis or in depth interpretation. I prefer a little more explanation for myself. Still, the book did inspire me.

Mythical denizens were explored in one chapter. I enjoyed the further stories of the Wild Hunt. Learning differences between dryads and hamadryads was helpful. There was a lot of belief that forests were filled with demons and other spirits.

Individual stories about trees fascinated me. One was about the Dragon’s Blood tree. It was purported to be a huge tree in the Canary Islands that had fruit with the image of dragon inside when you cut it open. The tree bleeds a red sap at a certain time of year that was supposed to be a
strong drink. Another interesting tree was one that lives on a barren plain. It is so poisonous that nothing can live near it. There is a flower called Hata. It is big and white, growing on some tree in some forest somewhere in the world for a moon. Someone who finds this flower will get all his desires, overcome his enemies and get a longer life.

Myth in Our World

My latest exploration into mythology led me to read Once and Future Myths; The Power of Ancient Stories in Our Lives by Phil Cousineau. The author had Joseph Campbell as a mentor. He explores how myths still erupt into our modern day world, tracing them through his life experiences. I learned about the myth of artistic creativity, travel, mentorship, sports, cities and time. Some didn’t catch my interest like sports while other made some sense.

The myth of Sisiphus is still alive and well in our world. It demonstrates that people must persevere through tedious tasks. We can’t allow the relentless task to break our spirit. It is especially true of creativity as the author talks about in the chapter. Artists must struggle to bring their work to life. I can relate to this in my writing when I must continue to work on different projects. Writing every day is important to improve my craft and get my ideas down on paper.

Another aspect of myth in our present day is mentorship. Mentors can change people’s lives. They can be coaches, teachers or any adult that is not a family member. The author talks about how mentors help a young person find themselves by helping them explore new ideas and things. A mentor is not threatening to a person because they do not judge their charges. As an instructional assistant at the high school, I mentor students while they transition to life. Am I successful? I don’t know. I would like to think I’m keeping the myth alive with my help to students.

According to the author, travel is an important myth today. Many people travel every day all over the world. Phil Cousineau says we search for something sacred in the world like his trip to Easter Island. Some people travel internally in their minds. I have traveled some, but don’t consider myself a world traveler. Most of my travels consist of watching documentaries about the world. I’m not big on traveling far away from home. I think part of it is due to reading Fantasy literature. I’ve taken many journeys to imaginary worlds in my thoughts. Exploring my imagination is more intriguing to me.

The myth of the city is prominent today. People move to the cities of the world each day. They seek better lives for themselves and futures for their children. Cities gain a sort of character of their own. Paris is the city of lights. New York City the Big Apple. And so on. I come from San Jose,
California part of the Silicon Valley. Native born, I’ve seen my city change from a quiet agricultural town to a technology capital of the world. We have a population of diverse cultures. What I do resent is the area becoming a place where only rich people can live. I am a product of my city, growing and changing with it. Cities do influence our lives like myths.

Finally, time is a myth that affects our lives. The author states that humans are obsessed with saving time. In our fast paced lives, we rush to get things done. Time is a part of myth therefore timeless. People need to take time for contemplating life. Allowing yourself to sit quiet and think
lets time put you over the border into the realm of myth. I try to do this every day.

This mythology book is very interesting. The author gives you many things to think about in your life. I feel myths do live in our modern day world. We just need to be alert, pay attention and they can pop into our lives. This book inspires me to listen for them and continue my exploration of mythology.

Exploring Coming of Age

This is a bulleted list of excerpted notes from the article “Unriddling the World: Rites of Passage” Tales by Terri Windling. The complete article can be found at The Endicott Studio of Mythic Arts in the Forum section.

This article spoke to me because it was about rites of passage and the changes we go through in our lives. Recent events in my life had some changes I needed to adapt to quickly. It doesn’t matter what your age, you go through different cycles of rites of passage.

A journey through the dark of the woods is a motif common to fairy tales: young heroes set off through the perilous forest in order to reach their destiny, or they find themselves abandoned there, cast off and left for dead.

The western road is one of trials, ordeals, disasters, and abrupt life changes-yet a road to be honored, nevertheless, as the road on which wisdom is gained.

Myths of descent and rebirth connect the soul’s cycles to those of nature.

Myths have a way of doing this, whispering at the edge of consciousness in the stage of life when they’re needed most.

What we do need is to remember that fantasy (even more than other kinds of fiction) is a rites-of-passage literature-whether its themes are based on collective battles or on private, individual ones. The best fantasy is rooted not only in myth but in life experience--while the worst draws
experience second-hand from film, television, and other books.

As fantasists, we must look to the quests, ordeals, and trials that form (as Susan Cooper says) the shape of our own imagination and all its unconscious preoccupations. Through myth, symbol, and metaphor, the true fantasist transforms the personal into the universal--creating stories that not only entertain but provide the mythic tools we need to face the ordeals, the monsters, the wolves, of our modern age.

”I see much current Fantasy and SF in full retreat from real human needs,” writes Ursula K. LeGuin. “Where a Tolkien prophetically faced the central fact of our time, our capacity to destroy ourselves, the present spate of so-called heroic fantasy, in which Good defeats Evil by killing it
with a sword or staff or something phallic, seems to have nothing in mind beyond instant gratification, the avoidance of discomfort, in a fake-medieval past where technology is replaced by magic and wishful thinking.”

Yet the magic of our human heritage, formed by centuries of stories, dances, songs, sacrificial ordeals and ritual acts, is evoked, not manufactured-the science lab is not going to help us here. Magic is a symbol, a metaphor, an integral part of a mythic belief system-and of the mage, or shaman, or storyteller’s relationship with the numinous world. Take myth away, and the magic in a fantasy book is nothing more than special effects, or LeGuin’s phallic staff of wish-fulfillment.

Theories of Myth

What is myth? Some say they are fictional stories. Others think they are the deepest wellings of the human mind. No one can come to a consensus on the subject. Those who study myth have come up with several theories over the years. These are a few of the various theories about myth.

• One theory is that myth depicts important processes of a historical nature. For example, the change in religious beliefs from a female aspect of the fertile goddess to a male one of dominance. It was a shift of earth worship to the sky gods.
  

  
  

• Another theory is myths are the leftover parts of widespread fertility rituals derived from agriculture. Sir James Frazer, in his work The Golden Bough, explored the myths of many cultures and noted these links of similar myths.
  

  
  

• A third theory is that myths have a heritage of language joined with an interest in astronomical events that became culturally isolated. This theory comes from the fact that names of deities are similar in a regional area such as many of the myths from Mesopotamia.
  

  
  

• Myths arise from a deep, instinctive part of our minds. Carl Gustav Jung championed this theory of a collective unconscious where archetypes well up from to enter our dreams.
  

  
  

• Next is the theory that myths are stories for people’s survival or financial success by adapting to environmental constraints. This is a view that humans create myths to help in their successful survival.
  

  
  

• Finally there is the structuralist approach of Claude Levi-Strauss. He says that myths are people’s ways to work out a structure to explain their place within the universe. Humans always operate on some logic to use structure in their lives.
  

Introduction

There and back again. . . This is my journal for my personal exploration of mythology and Fantasy literature. In it there will be notes, summaries and impressions on my learning of these subjects. I hope it will lead to a greater understanding of myself and awakening of my imagination and creativity.

My exploration began many years ago with classes of mythology in high school and college. The class in college introduced me to the deeper meanings of mythology. Later, a TV series with Joseph Campbell called the “Power of Myth” triggered my desire for further knowledge on the subject. Since then, I have read many books of myths and interpretations about mythology. This lead to a strong interest in Fantasy literature.

I will continue my exploration by adding things to this journal as time permits. I might fill it or not. Hope it leads to a greater understanding of my spirituality and fulfilling my drams. Having a deeper understanding of mythology will make me a better person and I hope a writer. So lets go there and back again. . . .