Tuesday, July 12, 2016

The Possible Meaning of Myth

The Possible Meaning of Myth

The belief in symbols as real is not necessarily a habit of the insane, or the simple minded.  Believing in a man named God in an actual place in the sky called Heaven, a unified field theory, or various religious scriptures, all represent the same thing in different languages of the unconscious.  Which symbolic language a person subscribes to depends largely on that person’s individual life experience.  With the current conditions of the world that this division has created, it is necessary to explore and expose the possible function of religion and myth through scientific exploration, 
that this exploration may reveal the patterns of mind responsible for their creation.  Perhaps embarking on this journey may move humanity forward in the attempt to achieve greater peace in the world.

As a culture with the predominating religion being Christianity, we so often forget that what we regard now as myth was once believed as truth.  Greek civilization had a host of mythical beings and a comparable amount of stories involving these beings, all of which enacted the soap opera spun by humanity. 

In addition to the aforementioned duel nature of god in Christianity, many religious and mythological parables, as well as modern myths, (genre fiction, whether written or in film: i.e. sci-fi/horror, and comic book narratives) deal with the battle between good and bad.  Star Wars come to mind as a popular example, although a favorite of mine is a Russian film and its sequel, Night Watch and Day Watch.  The plot line deals with a group of humans with supernatural powers, known as The Others.  The Others are divided into two groups, the forces of Darkness and the forces of Light.  First at battle with each other, the Lord of Light recognizes that to prevent them annihilating one another, he must offer a truce to the forces of Darkness.  For many centuries, both forces exist peacefully with one another.

In addition to modern myth portrayed in pop culture, there are a plethora of mythological beings that have emerged in various cultures throughout history, that also represent good, bad, or display a complex, duel nature. 

What we believe to be fairies today, small benevolent beings with wings, often wish-granting and nature conscious, find their roots in ancient Christianity or Paganism.  In Ireland, the “good people” (the Irish called them this for fear the beings would be offended by the term “fairies” – which is hypothesized to be a derivative of fata, referring to fate) were believed to be angels who revolted against God.  After the revolt, God closed the gates of Heaven and Hell, leaving the rogue angels trapped on Earth.  Many cultures have their own versions of fairies: the Jinn in Middle Eastern cultures, or the Kijimuna of Okinawa, Japan.  Both cultures ascribe good and bad traits to these fantastic races.  The reason for this could be because these beings are projections of mankind itself.  Projecting the experience of being human outward in the creation of symbolic beings may facilitate mankind’s exploration of its own duel nature. 

Many myths of similar races from around the world, involve tales of abduction by these beings, stories that seem oddly coherent with demonic possession and belief in alien entities from space.  A curious aspect of these myths is that it is often the habit of these cross-cultural entities to sit upon the chest of a person at night, causing them inability to breathe (we are reminded of the painting by Henri Fuseli The Nightmare).  Though some cultures consider the good aspects of these beings, it is typical to associate these entities with the realm of evil, encompassing witches, vampires, ogres, banshees, etc., created to represent real psychological, currently inexplicable phenomena. 


It is sensible that these terrifying creatures commonly reside in darkness.  Fear of the unknown is the paramount fear; one could say it is the only fear, as all subsequent fears (fear of spiders, fear of heights, fear of driving) can be traced back to it.  It is the fear of death, and death is the ultimate unknown.

The study of myth reasons its creation as a way for man to explain the existence of the world.  The study of comparative myth delves a bit further.  It reveals similarities cross-culturally to find the sociological and psychological meaning behind them, for the purpose of finding the origins of their existence, be it psychological (The Hero’s Journey representative of psychic growth), anthropological (a myth that may have been passed on and altered by other cultures, from nomadic races) or environmental (myths representing the behavior of the sun).  But my question does not necessarily refer solely to what myth does.  Not only do I wish to understand the purpose of paranoia and its relationship to myth, I wish to understand why we create these symbols – specifically symbols that represent our psychic experience.  Furthermore, aside from a defense against anxiety (and other emotions), why do we, as a species, seem to have an innate habit of tying together various symbols, applying stories to them, and as a result create entire realms of myth, and consequently religion?

Theory on How A Symbol Functions

We do not create symbols for things that already exist.  Why would we need a symbol for a turtle, a building or a human?  These things already exist physically.  We can create a symbol that looks like a bird that refers to a bird.  Therefore, we can say, “This is a bird symbol,” yet to make a symbol in the shape of a bird would serve the purpose of creating a message.  Perhaps it means, “bird watching” or “bird sanctuary.”  Animals themselves are also used as symbols to represent characteristics of a human, or to relay messages to humans based on the traits of the animal.  The totem is a good example of this.  A silhouette of a woman and man together often means, “This is where the restrooms are.”  The silhouette of a deer on a deer crossing sign does not simply mean, “deer.”  It is a symbol telling us to watch out for deer, and this message exists in the realm of thought – an immaterial realm. 

Employing symbols is a way for us to understand processes that are not material.  To recognize the existence of what is immaterial could be impossible for the human mind to grasp, in the same way that colors are unimaginable for those who are unable to see them.  To make a symbol one must take an immaterial force, (such as gravity or light) or concept and put it into a pseudobody.  It has to be born or conceived in the physical realm before we can fully recognize its existence and understand it.  This pseudobody is the symbol, a container for the meaning.  The meaning is immaterial.  The reason that symbolism is necessary is because humans only know what it is like to live physically, possibly in conjunction with a spiritual outlook, and definitely with at least a consideration of the immaterial forces that move through physical life.  

 A process itself implies the transformation of the physical.  What is immaterial and difficult for us physical beings to understand is applied to the physical.  It is possible that this is wired in our nature because in the physical world the immaterial needs corresponding things to exist.  “But the universe doesn't only contain matter; it also contains forces that act upon that matter. The standard model has given us more insight into the types of matter and forces than perhaps any other theory we have.” Jonathon Attebery (2012, Pg. 2) The Higgs field is a theorized force much like the concept of ether, that is diffused the physical world and also responsible for the physical world via the Higgs Boson particle.  With enough energy, the Higgs Boson is theorized to emerge from the Higgs field.  If it is necessary for immaterial forces to have a physical counterpart - for space to contain a physical object, perhaps the psyche, which encompasses thought and emotion, must also have objects attached to it.  Perhaps we are simply applying what we know about how nature functions, to our mental processes. 

It is possible environmental forces are being employed by the mind, and that these forces can be explored through the avenue of human behavior.  The following is interesting, relative to this idea:  “Paintings from Van Gogh’s periods of psychotic agitation behave remarkable similar to fluid turbulence.  His self portrait from a pipe, from a calmer period in Van Gogh’s life showed no sign of this correspondence.” (Natalya St. Clair, 2014)

In our current paradigm, we have created a system of symbols, the alphabet, to convey messages.  Though the alphabet is a system of visual symbols, it has replaced an important vault of information that is downloaded early on into our psyches, before we learn to speak.  This vault contains all that we experience through sight.

The physical world is the first alphabet, which we not only project meaning onto, but glean meaning from.  Because our intuitive ability to glean meaning from and project meaning onto something is relative to one’s individual experience, we all develop our own visual alphabet.  This visual alphabet contains not twenty-six symbols, but thousands, downloaded into our psyche, each containing either a meaning projected upon it from a specific experience related to it, or gleaned from it.  For example, having the experience of being beaten by a stick renders a stick a weapon, though it is not in and of itself a weapon.  And like the same letter may yield a different sound depending on its context or cultural association, so may a visual symbol contain multiple meanings depending on its context and the way an individual interprets it. We can also glean universal meanings from the symbols presented to us by the physical world.  A flower, for example, represents beauty and order.   


Because we do not experience anything without the conduit of our physical body, we must understand thoughts, emotions, and processes, by employing a set of symbols that give these concepts bodies.  And because change is constant, we must have these symbols enact stories.  We are left with external representations of our own psychic reality and development.  The Odyssey, the Biblical parable of the prodigal son, and Dante’s Divine Comedy are all examples of this.  Nonspecific bodies would include beings like angels, demons, sirens, aliens, skinwalkers, etc. that do not have stories in and of themselves, but appear in various narratives to represent specific ideas.

Image - Ferdinand Lured By Ariel - John Everett Millais

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