What is a Mythologist?

Introducing people of all ages to mythology... in pre-college educational curricula, youth orgs, the media, etc. Share your knowledge, stories, unit and lesson plans, techniques, and more.

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JBurden
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What is a Mythologist?

Post by JBurden »

And how will this information affect my credit score, burn unused caleries and otherwise help me make lots of money from home?

Hello my name is James, and I’m a mythologist.

Most folks hear that you study mythology and you are bound to get a few of those “what the hell did he just say?” looking faces. It certainly isn’t as fashionable or glamorous as some other professions.

Is there a boat load of money to be made in Mythology? “Probably not, and if that is the first concern we have when approaching a career than perhaps we ought to change careers.”

Why should myth be anything to us other than entertainment? “The value a myth has in ferociously capturing our attention is wonderful, and serves a high purpose. But if the story merely functions as entertainment and little else, I would hesitate call it a myth. However, while many of our modern stories may only appear to operate as entertainment, I would argue that, in reality, there are tremendous happenings occurring both in the individual and in the culture at large. These mythic vibrations are woven into the makeup of civilization. It’s what we do.”

But mythology is dead, and what good is it to anyone anyways? “Mythology is all around us. It is living, breathing, and it exerts a force upon all of our lives. For starters, if we would just take a moment, and open up our wallets and purses we might discover small green sheets of parchment. Each one, a reference to myth; each dollar bill coded with eons of mythic symbolism. And we use them every day without a second thought as to their meaning.”

What good is meaning? “My intuition tells me that there is a lot of meaning behind meaninglessness. But, I for one ask questions about, well, everything. I find meaning; I loose it, and re-discover meaning on my drive home from work, in the random occurrences of my life, and in the line at the supermarket. You don’t have to seek out meaning, give it time, and I’ll bet that meaning will come out to seek and find you. There are countless stories from people who where walking around one day, minding their own business, without a care in the world, and something happened to them and suddenly everything changed. Call it an epiphany; call it a close encounter with death; call it falling in love; what ever we call it, it is meaning. It is meaning that jumps out of the unknown and darts into our lives with reckless abandon, and instantly, everything seems to mean something, or everything looses what meaning it did have and we may begin the search for it once more.”

In short, no, Mythology will not help you to get ripped toned abs; it probably won’t help balance your budget; it may not give you the same kind of security against mayhem that Allstate can nor will its value be delivered within 15 minutes or less, as with Geico. However, if we take the time to listen to the story and delve into the murky depths of this human experience we may discover something of interest: ourselves.

www.mythicmeditations.com

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