Development of Mythology

What needs do mythology and religion serve in today's world and in ancient times? Here we discuss the relationship between mythology, religion and science from mythological, religious and philosophical viewpoints.

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marmalade
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Development of Mythology

Post by marmalade »

I've been blogging on Gaia and my recent posts have been about comparative mythology. I use Spiral Dynamics as a context, but I'm interested in other views on how mythology(and religion) develops.

http://benjamindavidsteele.gaia.com/blo ... evelopment

I've been reading several authors recently that are related.

I just finished The Gospel & the Zodiac by Bill Darlison. I'm now reading Christianity: the Origins of a Pagan Religion by Philippe Walter. I've also been perusing two of Joseph Campbell's works: Thou Art That and The Flight of the Wild Gander, and Alexander Eliot's The Universal Myths.

They all are related(in my mind). First, they're all about mythology. Second, they all speak about Christianity.

There are 5 mythic/archetyapl characters that fit closely together. There is the Trickster, the Primal Man, the Titan/Giant, the Hero, and the Savior. The Hero and the Savior are obviously related as Jesus fits fairly well into the Hero's Journey. The Primal Man is known as Adam in Christianity and Jesus is known as the Second Adam, one causes death and the other conquers it. The cause of death is normally an element of the Trickster which is closely related to the Primal Man. Loki connects the Titan/Giant with the Trickster, and Prometheus fairly well brings together the different categories.

In Walter's book, he theorizes about a European pagan mythology that was incorporated into Christianity of the Middle Ages. He sees at the center of this was a Giant and also related was the class of Birdwomen. Birds have been related to shaman's and their visions for as long as man has been thinking about such things. He mentions the difference between myth and ritual, and how rituals are more reliable evidence of ancient religions because rituals are more stable and unchanging even as the explanations(stories) surrounding them change.

Campbell writes about the differences betweem visions and rituals in reference to what he calls the 'Titan-shaman'. He also details how this can be understood through looking at the differences of hunter societies and planting societies. This relates to paganism and Christianity and the development of religion in general, and Campbell also mentions the differences of religions that emphasize the individual vs the collective. All of this fits into the insights from Spiral Dynamics. I also thinks this relates to Jasper's notion of the Axial Age.

Furthermore, I've been thinking about the distinction between symbol and sign, connotation and denotation. And also what Campbell was saying about tender-minded vs tough-minded.

And something I said in the comments:
I was reading the chapter about the Trickster in Jeremy Taylor's book The Living Labyrinth. He mentions how the Divine Child and the Shadow are polar opposite faces of the Trickster. As an example, the child who points out the king is wearing no clothes is simultaneously playing both roles. Also, two well known examples of the Divine Child Trickster are Hermes and Krishna. As for the Shadow, I'd think the Trickster archetype would be inseparable from it.

http://benjamindavidsteele.gaia.com/blo ... nt_part_ii

First Era: Prior to the post-Pleistocene shift, we have the vmemes of beige and purple. It seems that Campbell and Shepard are treating these two inseparably. As we know very little about the myths of beige, we don't need to worry about it. Still, its beige that Shepard is somewhat romanticizing. In addition, I think the individualistic focus of red vmeme gets mixed in because the myths were written down during the development of the blue vmeme, and red came to represent all of the past. There is the theory that the vmemes switch between a focus on the individual and a focus on the collective, and it makes sense to me. So, beige and red would be individualistic which isn't to say the individual has yet fully developed.

Anyways, to simplify, this first era is the Age of the Shaman... Campbell's Shamanistic Titan seeking personal power through personal sacrifice. But the Shaman isn't a monk... the Shaman is also the Warrior and the Hunter. Visions have power.

Also, this was the time when the divine man-animal was worshipped, the prototype of all later dying/ressurection gods. Here is a quote from a review of a book by Paul Shepard(along with Barry Sanders) titled The Sacred Paw:

They give a really good argument for the shifting of the emphasis of the myths from the Bear Mother to the adventures of her sons, who eventually become purely human heroes. The Underworld and Rebirth themes of the Bear Mother are slowly stripped form her until she is nothing but a memory.

Post-Pleistocene(or rather post-hunter/gatherer) shift: The cause of this is explained variously. Did the Ice Age traumatize the collective psyche of the human species? Or, according to Shepard, did the shift occur from within... for some unknown reason man falling out of alignment with his environment? Or was it some kind of Telos(God?) that propelled social evolution? And was this shift a good thing(an evolugionary advantage) or a bad thing(Shepard's collective madness)? For our purposes, answering these questions isn't necessary. All we need to know is that a major shift happened.

As for Spiral Dynamics, my guess is that this shift was red vmeme and also red shifting into blue. This shift probably occurred over a very long period of time.

Second Era: This is the beginnings of civilization proper: agriculture and city-states, and the great Matriarchies... this is very early blue vmeme which isn't blue as we know it now. This era was blue in a more pure form, not adulterated by orange and green as found in the Third Era.

At this time, society became hierarchical and the caste system came about... and with it the division of labor. Life was extremely organized including religion... the visions of the shaman became the oracles that served the priesthood, and the myths became complex rituals. Life revolved around the seasons and the seasonal celebrations. This was where we got our celebrations of the Equinxes and Solstices as Solar symbolism was the focus.

(A shift within the Second Era) In the later part of this era, the Matriarchies lost power and written history began. But the Patriarchies were also blue and they retained the hierarchical structure even if a different gender was on top. The primary difference was that orange was beginning to develop with a reemergence of individualism, meaning the hierarchy was not quite as strict as previously. The shift between Matriarchy and Patriarchy is significant, but it isn't my focus for the moment. The development of Patriarchy was a disatisfaction with the old ways. One explanation(that Jeremy Taylor brings up) is that the precession of the equinoxes altered the timing by which the Matriarchies had planted and harvested. This led to priesthood no longer being able to predict the seasons and so social unrest followed. This disatisfaction with the prior Goddess worship can be felt in the myth of Gilgamesh.

Axial Age: (Karl Jaspers first wrote about this, and Karen Armstrong wrote a whole book about it.) This is when first arose all of the world religions that we know today. Or, in the case of Hinduism and Judaism, when previous religions were revisioned. The Old Testament was written down for the first time during this time. Christianity and Islam were later manifestations of this Age.

Blue is still in power, but orange has developed enough to allow some incisive questioning of tradition. Also, green is first showing itself to any significant degree. So we have the development of rationality and self-inquiry along with a sense of social equality and justice. Liberation was the spiritual response and democracy was the political response.

Mythologically, we have the development of the savior stories as we know them today. Jesus doesn't change the world by conquering nations. He changes the world by confronting himself, challenging the human condition. The prophets of this age tended to turn inward.

The agricultural city-states were being forced to develop new modes of politics. The Greeks developed democracy and philosophy. The great myths were being written down and questioned which meant man was no longer controlled by the gods, but could choose their own destiny. The heroes of this time often challenged the gods. Man could save himself, man was coming of age.

Third Era: The age of empires... symbolized in the West by the Romans and the later Catholic Church. Blue is still very much the dominating paradigm, but orange has become established. However, the green that showed itself in the Axial Age is squelched back out of existence not to be seen again until the Rennaisance.

Religion becomes more ritualized and homogenized than it had ever before. Using the Roman Empire as its structure, the Catholic Church destroys and/or incorporates every religion it comes into contact with. And this is why we have such a strange mix of mythologies in Christianity today. But also this paved the way for us moderns to see the universal truths behind all myths. (Buddhism did something similar for the East.)

During this time, Jesus the prophet and savior becomes the Ruler of the World.[/url]

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