Myth vs Rite

Share thoughts and ideas regarding what can be done to meet contemporary humanity's need for rites of initiation and passage.

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Martin_Weyers
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Post by Martin_Weyers »

On 2006-10-12 22:32, dbronzeh wrote:
maybe someone already said this: a rite is the act of living a myth. It is the most intensive form of story telling.

I personally believe myth came first because it is based on history. The purpose of ritual is to initiate a person through psycological transformation.
Hi Dbronzeh, and welcome to the JCF forums!

You're certainly very close to Joe Campbell. He was one of those who used to explain, that ritual is an "enactment of myth".

Personally I love this explanation, but, at the same time, tend to disagree slightly:

To me, in the early "mythologically based" societies, myth and ritual used to build a unity: Experience, life, story, invention and interpretation was all the same. Nothing before, nothing beyond.

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Kunst, Kultur, Fine Arts - Mythologie & Symbole

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Martin_Weyers on 2006-10-16 21:14 ]</font>

Andromeda
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Post by Andromeda »

My thoughts are these: Where would a ritual come from except a reenactment, an attempt to relate to others a mystical or otherwise enlightening experience? I imagine a person talking about an idea and being unable to get it across in words, then resorting to simply saying "Look, here's what happened in my dream, I was standing here and ... " acting out the experience etc.

How could a ritual come into being except from some influence to create it? I'm not sure it could. The mutation of the experience in the telling, especially through different people, now there's a fertile field for debate. People can be so strange about changing the message when communicating. Look what happened to me, I ended up chained to a rock by the shore for some monster to eat just because someone supposedly said so-and-so was better looking than so-and-so ... I'm glad the ritual of chaining people to rocks for the monster to eat (ritual sacrifice) to settle disputes has not caught on generally.
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Evinnra
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Post by Evinnra »

Hi All,

Just this week I happened to come accross the information that one meanings of the word 'dharma' is ritual. Interesting?

Evinnra


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