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Posts from the ‘Mythology’ Category

Mar 22

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Far Across the Universe

“There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens…” – Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)

What a complete mind frack! I had to re-watch the ending twice to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. It’s hard to believe that this series was actually on television – an invention of which I have so much contempt. How could something so sublime come from something so vulgar? I was blown away. The writers allowed something so intense, non-linear, and incomplete into the finale that your imagination is allowed to run wild. A book could be written just to explain the last 15 minutes of the show.

One of Battlestar’s themes throughout the series has been the concept of a collective unconscious – a collective mythology. This collective is shared not just by humans but by Cylons as well. Shared visions, dreams, hopes, and fears bind the two races together. Which race gave rise to the other is posed as an infinite regress, a möbius strip of which the answer becomes, in the end, irrelevant. In fact, so many questions raised during the 5 year run become irrelevant when compared to the real unknown that runs throughout the entire story … the question of God. Is there a bigger question? Do angels walk among us? Are we merely pawns in a game that belongs to beings born billions of years before us? Now, I will have to re-watch the series with the end in mind to figure out exactly what happened. I’ll write more once my brain stops spinning.

Aug 23

Gandhi on God (1931)

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Aug 12

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The Matrix Monomyth

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Apr 19

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Joseph Campbell Foundation

The Joseph Campbell Foundation website has been redesigned. The new site is really nice. They’ve done a great job tying together the many sections into a single design. It’s an excellent site to discuss Campbell’s books and ideas. It has an active, intelligent discussion group that has also given rise to several “Round Table” groups in cities around the world where people take the online discussion offline and in person. If you’re not a member, you should sign up and join the conversation … it’s free.

Joseph Campbell Foundation

Feb 17

7 Comments

By What Myth Am I Living?

I haven’t really written much in the past few months – other than posting stuff on politics from other sites. I’ve been reflecting on the past. I remember someone once telling me that as you get older you get the most vivid flashback memories of your life. That is what’s been happening to me. Every moment I spend unglued from the internet or work, I am forced to confront those memories. For the most part, my memories of the past are quite good.

What bothers me now is not that I have bad memories but that I have good. I have had to make certain compromises to live a normal life. Experience of new once held me captive and dazzled me with vivid dreams of freedom and greatness. Lately, those dreams have turned dark and only a shell of what once was. I wonder if the compromises are worth it. It is better to live normal or to rage on in peaks and valleys?

What I’m hoping for is that after 2 years of fear, uncertainty, and doubt, I can find that divine spark that is a part of us all. It is not what keeps us living from day to day, but it is what makes us look forward to the next and plan ahead with a sparkle in our eye. It is a barely conscious realization that each day is a chance to make good on the dreams of yesterday. Or, as Jung or Campbell would ask themselves, by what myth am I living?

Nov 16

19 Comments

Hindu Holiday Calendar

I missed Diwali this year so I hunted around the internet looking for an .ics or .vcs file that I could import into my Outlook calendar. I couldn’t find any and the default holiday tool that comes with Outlook 2007 doesn’t include any Hindu holidays either. So, I made one for 2008 – 2009 (based on the dates from here) if you want to download it. It includes most of the major celebrations:

Update (9/22/2008): I’ve updated the .ics file. You can grab it here. The new file includes the remaining holidays for this year through the end of 2011. So, 2008 – 2011.

hindu-holidays-calendar.zip

Nov 8

8 Comments

Where Is the Kingdom of God?

It’s fascinating to see how divisive the interpretation of a single line of the Bible can be. People ask, “How should a line be translated? What was the original intent?” as if there is some secret decoder key. The exact intent is important only when you begin to base your entire ideology on the literal interpretation of the Bible. Then, an exact translation is very important. Otherwise, you are not sure what to believe in. Read more

Aug 20

Sheldrake at the Temple in Thanjavur

Not that I am trying to establish any spiritual or epistemological ancestry in my view of the world … but here is another hero/friend of mine at the Shiva Temple in Thanjavur. You may not know that from 1974 to 1985 Dr. Sheldrake worked at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Hyderabad, India. While in India, he also lived for a year and a half at the ashram of Fr Bede Griffiths in Tamil Nadu, where he wrote his first book, A New Science of Life. Interesting how the ley lines of our life intersect at the most unusual spaces.

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