The Matrix Monomyth
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Posts from the ‘Mythology’ Category
Aug 12
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Apr 19
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.
Feb 17
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
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.
Nov 8
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
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.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/v/7EQk1ATt6Yk[/youtube]
Aug 15
The Mahabharata
Here is an episode from the popular Dutch series, Myths of Mankind. When the British ruled India, experienced colonial administrators would advise newcomers to read one book if they wanted to grasp the essence of the place: the Mahabharata. The longest known poem in any language, this 90,000-verse Sanskrit epic remains a favorite of millions to this day, inspiring stage productions, TV programs and comic books. Its account of the epochal conflict between two sets of cousins is both a richly entertaining saga and an expression of Indian religious thought.
While Indian scholars place its origins thousands of years before recorded history, their Western counterparts disagree. New studies, however, suggest that the Mahabharata may indeed have originated as far back as the fourth millennium BC – or even earlier. How can a work so ancient maintain such a powerful hold on contemporary imaginations? This episode is hosted by Canadian author Paul William Roberts, author of Empire of the Soul: Some Journeys in India, and features clips from director Peter Brook’s critically acclaimed 1989 television adaptation of the Mahabharata.
Featured Conversation: A Woman’s Hero Journey
In our Conversations of a Higher Order, threaded discussion forums, over 25,700 messages have been posted! This week we feature A Woman’s Hero Journey: Is it different?, where JessicaP says: I would love to hear other people’s thoughts on whether you think the hero’s journey is different for women than it is for men. I’ve felt I can identify with the stages of the hero’s journey despite the fact that many of the heroes in our literature tend to be male. (Perhaps this is partially due to the fact that I do not have children.) However, if we look at myths with female heroes, do we find a different journey, different archetypes? Do we need to adjust the stages of the hero’s journey to fit the female life or do we just need to search for heroes (male or female) that we can relate to. What are your thoughts?
Original post by Joseph Campbell Foundation
Why Speak With Symbols?
In our Conversations of a Higher Order, threaded discussion forums, over 25,500 messages have been posted‚—a thousand more since our last featured thread in July! In this featured conversation, Nandu begins:We speak of the symbolism and metaphor of myth. It is part and parcel of any art form, too. Why? What is the universal attraction of symbols? Why does everything (dreams, myth, legends, literature, art) have to use symbols to communicate?
Original post by Joseph Campbell Foundation
Practical Campbell: Smoke or Mirrors?
“The occult” – an emotionally charged term evoking sinister associations, everything from fraudulent and greedy fortune tellers to satanic rituals, images reinforced on movie screens and in pulpits across the country … but is this the reality, or merely projections of the public imagination? Is the practice of occult arts–particularly popular forms of divination, including astrology, tarot, and the I Ching–simply ignorant superstition? Do such represent at best an exercise in futility, an abdication of responsibility for one’s own life? Or do they really work?
Original post by Joseph Campbell Foundation