Detective of Stories

As stated in my previous blog, I was in a void without inspiration, when suddenly inspiration was thrust upon me. Now like I've said before, one of my favorite hobbies is reading. Sometimes I will read 2-3 books at a time, bouncing back and forth between them, but lately I've fallen in love with audiobooks. I listen to them in my car, when I pick up my house, hell anytime you see me on campus with earbuds in, I'm most likely listening to a book on tape. Now this obsession with audiobooks actually began sometime over last summer due to the ending of my favorite book series, The Wheel of Time.
The first book in this series was released in 1991, and the final (14th) volume was just released this January. I first started this series in highschool, and I have reread it multiple times. My tradition usually involves me restarting the series everytime a new book is slated to be released (don't worry I've only had to do this three times). The author himself passed away in 2007 after the release of the 11th book, and they had a ghost writer finish the series from his notes and ideas that he left prior to his death. So needless to say the ending has been a long time coming, and I'm eager to finish it, but I'm still trying to finish my rereading before I can jump into book 14. This is where my audiobooks jump in, becaus my last rereads, have been on the audio version of the previous books.

this isn't even all of them...

 But since my last blog I have been trying to look at the stories in a way a mythic detective would, and it's been pretty enlightning. I was trying to break each book into where it would fit into the Seperation-Initiation-Return area, and I realized that the first 2-3 books are each of the Characters' seperation story, and that books 4-12 are all INITIATIONS! It slowly dawned on me that the bulk of story in each of these books is just pain, and pain, oh and more pain for the characters, it seems like every continuation is another trial by fire (in some cases literally). The thing about this is you see the change everytime they go throught these trials. the main characters in the first book are nothing like themselves in the 5th, hell even themselves in the 5th are changed by the time they reach the 6th.

So i've begun looking at the symbols within the books, and you have a faction that is represented by the snake eating its own tail as seen above(Ouroboros is the actual term), which is a symbol of continuation and immortality.
Another symbol which is described in the book is The Yin-Yang symbol. In the book it is the symbol of the ancient male and female users of the one power, and much like in real-life, it is used to symbolize the balace between the male and female halves of life.
I think my favorite mythological part of the writing though is the opening paragraph that is the same in each book, this is from the very first one
"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning."

Stale Detective Work

So I have had an extremely hard time lately to find some sort of inspiration to blog about. I have been thinking that I must be the worst Mythic Detective alive. Nothing has really popped out at me that seems very mythic, or mythological in nature.

 So I am an avid reader and I was finishing a book last night and a line jumped out at me and made me think that maybe, I have just been passing by all these little clues and I should pay more attention.
The context of the line is that two characters are talking about stories, and one says that all stories intertwine, and that good and evil are more complex than a princess and a dragon, because the dragon has its own stories that make the dragon who it is. The other then counters that there must then be no simple stories, which led to this passage
"That is a complicated matter. The heart of the tale and the ideas behind it are simple. Time has altered and condensed their nuances, made them more than story, greater than the sums of their parts. But that requires time. The truest tales require time and familiarity to become what they are."

This was they book I finished if anyone is interested

This really hit me because I was thinking of Ovid and how I have read and reread these tales and they are so familiar, but that every time I read them again I learn new things and see new perspectives in the pages. The line about the truest tales (myths!) require time and familiarity to become what they are, was just what I needed to hear. This was the mythic universe telling me I needed time and familiarity to interpret the world around me as myth. So with that in mind I returned to my detective work. Which I will continue on another blog, because it has its own seperate kind of them.

Personal Initiation

Unfortunately, due to a very sick girlfriend, I will not be attending class today. But in spite of that I still have my computer, and she happens to be a part of my subject so I figured I would do a little blogging.

Now we were asked to do a modern day initiation rite that we have gone through in our lives and I immediately thought of the first time I met my girlfriends family. This to me is one of those things that we all experience at sometime or another. At some point in a relationship it becomes time to meet your significant others' family. They've heard about you, you've heard about them, and now you have to essentially bring these two worlds together. You each have to go through a sort of initiation where you're introduced and you kind of feel each other out, checking boundaries, and trying to find out where you fit in this new "tribe". Sometimes this is easy, yet it can be awkward and painful so to me that makes this the perfect modern day initiation rite.


Now the first time I met my girlfriend's family it was the 4th of July weekend, and we drove to her home to stay with them for the weekend. So she is the youngest daughter of 13 children, and I was a little nervous because in my head I knew that they thought I was essentially stealing their baby. Thankfully only a few siblings were going to be there this weekend, so I thought I might be able to get off lightly, little did I know that this was not going to be the case. As soon as we walked into the door I was met by one of the older sisters (refered to as R) and sister-in-law. The first thing they did was call me by my girlfriend's ex-boyfriend's name (Zach) and things began to proceed down hill from there. I quickly learned that this was going to be a trial by fire, that even the Spanish Inquisition would have been proud of.

Her sister R, was one of those people that absolutely loved to push boundaries. Now my own family can be quite a handful, so thankfully I was prepared for some harsh blows. R spent much of our first afternoon drilling me with questions, who are you, where are you from, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop? I handled much of this with ease, taking the occasional ex-boyfriend jokes in stride, while my girlfriend became increasingly annoyed at her sister (as sisters are wont to do) until eventually the straw that broke the camels back appeared. R noticing that my girlfriend had become increasingly perturbed, looked at me and Said "AJ, why can't you make her happy, Zach used to make her happy" at this point all activity ceased and my girlfriend exploded! (verbally not literally) She then ran out of the room and refused to speak to anyone except her mother. Which of course made R mad because now mom was mad at her. So we had to spend the rest of the evening in a mixture of awkward silences and angry stares accross the room.
Eventually things were patched up and it was time for bed, now up to this point there hadn't been much conversation between the Father and I, but to make up for that he arranged a pallet for me on the floor in front of his massive gun safe. I knew this would be a great weekend. The next morning I awoke and had some coffee with my girlfriend's brother and friend, which was great because we got along well. I just knew my luck was turning around and today would be awesome. Then the telephone rang, Mother and Father had just left to go to the store, and Father had backed his truck into a silver car in the driveway, He was in a hurry so he'd take care of it later... Of course the silver car was my car. Despite this and the many other things that occured over the weekend, I was able to pull through and not run away crying like a small child, this cemented my place in the family, because ties forged in battle are stronger than steel, and to this day I can't help but laugh at it all, because once you hit rock bottom there's no where to go but up!
(Disclaimer: I love my girlfriend's family, they're great and I wouldn't have them any other way, but they sure know how to give a guy Hell)

Thinking back on this now I see that this was definately a sort of initiation. While lacking in physical pain, there were definately some tense moments emotionally. These types of meetings are really like I said earlier, a kind of welcoming of someone into the tribe. The family really tests you to see if you are "worthy" of being with someone from within their circle, sure the test may be if you can take a joke, or what your intentions are for the future, but they really are trying to see if you can contribute to the overall "wealth" of the family. That fact is what makes this an initiation, because it still seems kind of primal a way, and you know that although we as a culture may have changed, there were still guys thousands of years ago that had to prove to a family that they were worth something in order to court a daughter.

Initiation of a Warrior: Going Berserk

After looking through Eliade's Initiation myths I came upon the Story of Berserkers, and this really intriqued me, so Since I don't see that anyone else has posted about this initiation ceremony, I'm going to go ahead and snag it. Here is the link if anyone would like a preview.

http://www.mircea-eliade.com/from-primitives-to-zen/145.html

Long overdue Lecture notes

these lecture notes are a tad overdue, so I thought I would play catch up and get them in now before the Quiz next week.

1/11/13
Pay no attention to the man behind the Curtain


Basic Myth:
1. Seperation
2. Initiation
3. Return

*bookmark blogs as most recent
-From Primatives to Zen
      -Resource Book: Mircae Eliade
-Pain is associated with initiation, pain is a learning experience

Beginnings----> Creation
Middles--------> Initiation
Ends------------> Death/Return

Sparagmos--> tear,rend, pull to pieces. an act of mangling
 *Pentheus is dismembered by his mother at the order of Bacchus--> birth of sparagmos

01/14/13

-Be alert to what you hear and say as Detective
     *Hug a tree and put on blog*
-1st stage of Mythological Hero = The Call to Adventure


-Bacchus on the corner of Wilson and Main
-All fairytales are deteriorated Myths

Frogs are from Jersey, with terrible table manners

-Monomyth- Wikipage
"Education is not information, its Transformation."

Unlisted Date

*Cave of Forgotten Dreams
*Death is the mother of beauty*
    -Shakespeare sonnet 73
-Definition of Virgin: See Olive Oil
-Human Nature: you always want what you cannot have (Appollo and Daphne)
Etiology- the study of causation

In Ilo Tempore--->
The Hero w/ a Thousand Faces
  EPIC

Eliade
* what most creation myths
1. Creation ex nihilo ( out of nothing)
2. Creation through Earth Diver
       - God dives through ocean to bring up the world
3. Ceation by dividing in two the original mass
4. Creation by dismemberment of divine being

Mon-Friday
I have all the creation myths written down in order, really long and probably not relevant to put them all on here

02/04/13

4 quartets (#4: little gidding)---> T.S. Eliot

*Arrive where we started and know it for the first time*
      -not known because not looked for
Initiation: presentation- painful growing pains, pain, gruesome

3 parts
- creation, initiation, apocolypse

-initiation myths *see Eliade* associated w/pain
tell a gruesome story
*3 minutes. gruesome.

*first quiz= 15th of February
1. Know Creation stories (he'll specify)
2. what stories from Ovid you need to know

Ovid--> no diety, creation from chaos, then God or Nature, calmed the elements---> world not complete w/out man, Prometheus Created Man.

Gold--> Silver-->Bronze-->Iron : Declining Ages

Adam: Live in the sweat of your brow, and when you die return to dust
Eve: pain of child birth
Snake: on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat

Apocolypse---> APO-Calypso--> un-covering (the veil is lifted)
Catholic---> All embracing

Monological--> one thought
*Find interesting that which is boring*


02/06/13

Death, Afterlife, Eschatology

Eschatology: Study of end times

The middle is where we DO things
    - talk about the bad things- pain and suffering
Ritual---> performed mainly for symbolic calue
   *Rituals accepted as initiation
Sacrafice- to make sacred

no pain---> no gain

Stories for the test
1. Apollo and Daphne. 2. Io's transformation. 3. Pan's pipes (syrinx's transformation). 4. Callisto. 5. Peacocks and Argus. 6. Europa. 7. Cadmus. 8. Actaeon. 9. Semele. 10. Teirisris. 11. Narcissus. 12. Penthus. 13 Orpheus. 14. Pygmalian. 15. Mirra and Adonis.
Creation and the Flood

My New Mythologies Proffessor

I know I have posted a dream already, but last night I had a dream that was about as mythological as one could get, because it involved our Mythologies class. Having just woken up I have to get this out immediately before any part of it fades, so I shall begin

The Setting: Mythologies class

I have been waiting hours to present my myth to the class. I was unfortunately situated to go last and although there have been very creative myths, no one adhered to the 3 minute policy, instead there was one guy that completely acted out Ovid's Metomorphoses. Now its my time to present, and for some reason Professor Sexson is Ryan Gosling

Now as I go to the front of the class and I realize I'm only wearing underwear, and i become extremely nervous. Dispite this nervousness, I give my speech (which upon waking i still remember)

This is the story of how Posiedon became known as the Earthshaker. You see Zeus fell in love with this beautiful wood nymph and they went on to make beautiful nymph babies, unfortunately for Zeus this wood nymph is a trickey Ho, and she's been running around behind his back with his brother Posiedon. Now Hades is visiting Olympus on the Winter Solstice, which is the only time he's allowed to visit. He sees Zeus' main wood nymph and falls quickly in love. He doesn't know what to do so he confides in Posiedon. Posiedon, tells him that she will sleep with anyone, in fact he's been fooling around with her, so Hades takes her to the underworld to become his mistress. Suddenly Zeus realizes she is missing and confronts Hades, who tells him, that Posiedon Made him do it! So Zeus grabs Posiedon and hurls him off of Mount Olympus. As Posiedon Crashes down, the whole earth begins to shake and mountains and valleys form, where non before existed, which is why we have mountains on the earth, and Posiedon can make earthquakes. (Now at some point I realize that my underwear has fallen off and I'm completely nude, but I quickly recover my garments and cover myself up, never stopping the story)

So the myth is over and everyone leaves, then Prof. Sexson/Ryan Gosling comes up and says "Bro, you were naked through like half of your story, now I didn't say anything because I didn't want to point it out."
and my response is "Screw it, at least it was a good story"

I woke up laughing this morning and had to post this.

Rites of Passage

I just so happened to be reading funny articles on my phone and as I was refreshing the page, guess what the number one new article was...
5 most intense rights of passage from around the world.

And since it seems that the world is doing all my mythic detective work for me I thought I would share the article just to help stimulate some ideas on painful initiations for everyone

http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-most-intense-rites-passage-from-around-world/

Similarities in creation

It seemed to me like our creation myths all touched upon each of the 4 common themes, and as Prof. Sexton pointed out, we had more than a few earth diver myths.
One of the things that jumped out at me for those was how there were at least 2-3 in which a duck was the animal to dive and retrieve the earth.
I was also surprised at how many of the myths encompassed a reason to why there were different colored peoples populating the world.
Another common theme was water, almost every one of the myths had some symbolic use of water, be that it was the great nothingness, or that it flooded the world creating new beginnings, or that a primordial beings tears created the earths water.
It also intrigued me that only middle earth earth was created by kick as beats, and I would have loved to have recorded that performance because it was great!

Origins of a Superstition

In light of GroundHog's Day I was reading an article from the Today Show on 13 superstitions that are still persistent today, and their origins. It was all pretty common place until I came upon this one...
Umbrella opened indoors

Featurepics.com

Why is it so wrong to open an umbrella indoors?
Because you don't want to offend the spirit of the umbrella, silly!
Consider these insights from Richard Webster's reference work "The Encyclopedia of Superstitions":
"A common superstition is the belief that opening an umbrella inside a house causes bad luck. The origin of this is that the umbrella acts as a shield against the sun or rain outdoors. To open it indoors offends the spirit of the umbrella, who will cause bad luck to occur as a result."

I had never thought about why you're not supposed to open the umbrella indoors, and now knowing the reason, it makes me laugh, because that is as mythological as you can get! Trying not to offend the spirit of the umbrella, because all things have a spirit.