NOTES to understanding, reading and applying Myths to real life:
Read the notes along with the myth here.
“Art is in the eye of the beholder.”
Myths are simply stories that have lots of layers of meaning to them, layers that can be of the collective understanding…and layers of individual understanding.
I know from my time in the Christian Evangelical Church, though, that myths have a bad connotation. The word implies that myths are of pagan origin, that of profanity and disregard to the holiness of the Bible’s God.
There are many reasons for this…more than I can get into in a post on a blog. One of these reasons is rooted in the desire of the human ego to control the uncontrollable aspects of life. How better to do that than to ruin the deep, rich language with which one creates their own inner world. Your ego self can’t keep you physically locked up in order to serve its needs… but your ego can do so by controlling your language. By believing there is only one “right” way to view and use words, you create stories in your head, which reflect out into your life, limiting your freedom for yourself and others around you. Freedom does not exist primarily in the outer physical world around us. It is in our minds. It is in the images, the pictures, the feelings we create in our minds and bodies. If we want true freedom, all we have to do is to simply change our ideas…and we do that with language.
Another reason the Church sees the word myths as “bad” is because of semantics. Semantics is simply the study of the changing of meaning of words and symbols over time. In the olden ancient days, they had fewer words. One word had multiple meanings. To understand the meaning of a word, you would have to hear/see it used in context. An example of this is the word “cool”.
Over the years, the number of words has grown…in a way simplifying language. However, I believe, this has “dumbed” down our language, stripping it of deep meaning…having to write or use A LOT of words to get to the symbology, meaning, feeling of what you are trying to express from your inner world to the outer world. With the invention of writing and the passing of time, words have become more literal, losing their ability to create in our minds. In the beginning of writing, words were pictures, they were art. They were symbols that stood for more than the mere word which you read. An example of this is the word “body”. (As an exercise, you could write down all that you can think of that is associated with this word. Have a friend do this and then compare notes. You might just find that your lists will differ…proving words are more than just mere words.
Since words do carry an energy to them that can either pull us in or repel us, I have found that I often need to do research on a word to get a better understanding of its meaning…especially in regards to how past generations and civilizations understood a word. Then often times if I am still repelled by a word, I find a substitute word that allows my mind to expand, to be pulled deeper into the story – and to set me free from limited, shallow understanding of life.
Such is the case with the word “myth” I am guessing for many. If you are still getting hung up on the word “myth”, simply replace it with either “story” or “parable”, or some other more familiar word, and see what physical reactions occur in your body and mind with that replacement.
In short, I am giving you complete permission and freedom to read my myth and to change it so that it fits your life…if you so desire. Read it and make you OWN interpretations based on your own experiences and understanding. Try “thinking” with what “feels” right deep inside you…without questioning it or seeing if it makes logical sense. Try allowing yourself to be free of judgements and condemnations about your own thoughts.
See the below list as simply a starting point to jump off from. In my world, there are no “right” nor “wrong” ways to see this myth. Sure I give you what it means to me…but “Art is in the eye of the beholder,” meaning art is meant to expand us beyond where we are currently…and only you have the ability to do that for yourself.
Never underestimate the power of the words you use, both out loud and internally. Be freed from the prison of your mind: expand it, wake it up, call it forth to set you free you from the captivity of limitations! You hold the key to your jail cell. When something limits you in any way, shape or form, use your own self-authority vested in you to change it so that it frees you. This includes your own personal story about yourself, your history and the world. And HAVE FUN!
When reading myths: it is important to note that labels for family members or relationships – it is important to note that the ancient writers didn’t necessarily mean just the physical representation in the physical world (a literal interpretation of text). They often meant the metaphorical meaning with these labels as well…which in my myth is the internal aspects of my own psyche. So while you could read “lover” as an external, physical male whom I am/did date (literal meaning), the deeper understanding of this word is that “lover” is equal to the internal aspects of either my masculine side (being a female)…or I even use it to represent the Soul.
Number 7: In the Ancient Near East (modern day Middle East), the number 7 was seen as the number of wholeness, completion.
Two sides of every Archetype:
Best side – the fulfillment of that characteristic that would harmonize the individual in their human development
Shadow/Sinful side – the downside of that Archetype if not properly harmonized
Sisters: In ancient myths, sisters were often seen as the dual nature of the feminine. Please keep in mind that when I use the word “she” I am not talking about sexual gender…but about the Energy of the Feminine that resides in both males and females.
One sister was of the “light” – which was the Mother characteristics – nurturing, compassion, tender love, care-giving, encouraging. The “easier” side of the feminine. Her “shadow” or “sinful” side is that of a controller/manipulator.
The other sister was the “dark” sister – the side of the feminine that I identify as the Sacred Lover. The Best side of Her was her passion and zest for life, full or Eros wanting to turn others on so they were full of creative life force. She knew when it was time to cut others off from the Goddess…so as to not keep a child a perpetual child…but so they would be forced to make choices to grow up. Typically her “shadow” or “sinful” side is the side that is never satisfied, lustfull in sex/work/the world for her own purposes.
+Erishkigal: the “dark” sister in the Sumer religious text of the Story of Inanna: The Queen of Heaven and Earth. It was thought that Inanna in her younger days had “sacrificed” her twin sister (i.e. the other half of her feminine nature) in order to “use” Her energies for our own selfish gain…allowing her to accomplish all that she had accomplished in the now heavily masculine energy dominated world. Her visit to Erishkigal’s queendom – that of the Underworld (see notes below) – was one of desire to see this other part of herself that Inanna had cut off from herself.
Important to note here is that Inanna’s story was at the tail end of the Creation of Patriarchy – a process that took over 4000 years to establish itself as the societal, familial and cultural structure. My personal take on this story is that it was the society’s way of keeping and maintaining a crucial aspect of their own inner identity as well as outer identity in the newly formed civilization (which allowed for the continuation of our species, driven as much by the females of that time as the males) that was run heavily by the masculine energy of both genders. If this is true, this meant our ancient ancestors understood the NEED for a harmonized world between the two energies, at least in part, doing their best to maintain the delicate balance.
Erishkigal’s Queendom: a place where Questions have no answers, where there seems to be no reason nor rhyme to Her actions, where she seems bent on destruction many times. However these actions are misunderstood by the Logical mind. They are simply the part of Her nature that knows when it is time to “let go” of the unnecessary parts that have overgrown or overstayed their welcome…in order to bring about a more harmonized balance of all of life (not just human life). Erishkigal is the force of Mother Nature Herself we all seem to be terrified of (earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, etc.). Try as we may to understand this aspect through weather reports ~ and try as we may to control Her in our measly attempts to outsmart nature ~ She will not be controlled nor manipulated by anyone. She, and only She, in the end knows what must be done in order to maintain the delicate harmonizing balance of all of Life on this planet.
Underworld (the Great Below)– in Ancient Near East, the more literal meaning of this word was often viewed as inside the Mountain. It was the tomb, the cave of burial, often on the side of a large rock or mountain or hill…a place where no one came back out in the physical form at least. In the metaphorical sense, this was the subconscious….a place where reason, logic and analytical thinking did not work. It was the place of emotions and feelings, of “darkness” not because that darkness was bad or evil but simply in contrast to the “light” of consciousness. This side of life was associated with the Feminine because women exhibited more of this characteristic…and because, like the Earth, they had the ability to “create” life inside of them – where there is darkness….just like Earth created life by pushing seedlings through Her “underworld”. In symbology, this is the womb – whether the physical womb inside a woman, or the metaphorical womb inside man (yes men have the ability to create as well!) or Mother Earth Herself. I would even argue the body in today’s language is a symbol of the underworld as well – seeing it is under the mind, not honored no prized…seen as “dirty” and useless…much as the idea of death is seen in our culture.
In modern terms, the subconscious is associated more with the Right side of the brain (left side of body) – the artistic/creative center, the more Feminine aspect of our brain, a place where questions make no sense because what is will simply be what is. The consciousness is associated with Left brain thinking (logic, analytical, reason), where questions lead to answers and “progress”.
7 Gates: In the story of Inanna, as she enters Erishkigal’s queendom, the Underworld, she must relinquish one item at each gate that symbolizes her Patriarchal/Left Brain accomplishments as a woman….being stripped of anything that makes sense in the outer world…for again in the Underworld sense and logic do not apply. In the Underworld, in the Great Below only intuition/gut instinct are what guide us. Remember the number 7 represents wholeness, so she is being stripped of her wholeness of the mind, having nothing left but the body. In order to answer the call to the Great Below, one must be willing to leave their logical, reasoning mind above and descend into a space where Questions will have no answers, where reason seems to cease to exist and choices are made on instinct not rational thought.
I have done a preliminary search to see if these 7 gates also represent the 7 chakra system, but as of yet haven’t turned up anything concrete. However, my gut instinct tells me they do…I just don’t have all the puzzle pieces yet.
* The Sacred Prostitute: Eternal Aspect of the Feminine by Nancy Qualls-Corbet is where a lot of the completion of my understanding about what I am calling the Sacred Lover comes from. To me the importance of this Archetype is summed up in this quote – which actually comes from The Feminine In Jungian Pscyhology and in Christian Theology,
“The highest phase of confrontation and individuation in both sexes is initiated by the feminine: for the man, through the anima (female aspect of his soul), which leads to self; for the woman, through the feminine self, not through any contrasexual elements. The feminine, in this sense, is the completing element of each sex. The masculine initiates the emergence of consciousness from primary unconsciousness; the feminine initiates the completion of consciousness by re-establishing contact with the unconscious.”
“Closing” thoughts on the journey to the Great Beyond:
In summation, the story of the Call of the Great Beyond: the Birth of the Sacred Lover is my attempt to write a myth as great as the ancient myths in our modern day language and cultural understanding. For me, today as of 2/14/14, it is about reclaiming my entire inner world, leaving nothing behind, but integrating ALL aspects of this inner world so that I become whole – learning how to integrate the Left Brain with the Right Brain…utilizing my subconscious and conscious minds together, harmonizing and dancing between ALL aspects of myself seamlessly.
This is the Sacred Marriage, the way to Oneness that I see Jesus talk about. For not until I learn to accept and integrate all aspects of my inner world so that I can practice Unconditional Love, acceptance and freedom there, will I be able to fully own and practice these “commandments” in the outer world. With out the deep inner work to create the roots of these commandments internally, my attempt to carry out these commandments will be like throwing seed on shallow soil where I will either quickly sprout and then die off or where I get washed away by the rain.
This is why I see this myth is teaching me today. Tomorrow I might look at this and see something different. It does not negate what I learn from it today…it is simply, “both, and”.
In the end and in the beginning, this path is not an easy path…as Jesus told the rich young ruler. It is not a path for the faint of heart. When you begin, you might be more confused more of the time than gain clarity. You might feel scared, like “big brother is watching you,” asking you what the hell you think you are doing taking on self-authority to name and label your own inner world. Instead of trying to suppress this voice within, honor it, ask it what it really needs from you, what it really fears and how you can come to a compromise with it that would allow you to explore your own self-authority to name and label your own world.
At times, you might feel like you are going slightly “insane” if you stay to much in your Left side of the brain and make sense of your journey according to the world’s norms and procedures. You will hear, feel, see things that you know you need to know for the journey, yet not understand why…yet.
There is no one absolute right way to make the descent and ascent because we are each unique, individual incarnations of the Divine. Sure you can get hung up on Jesus’ supposed words in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to The Divine (a better translation than just the masculine aspect of the Divine) except through me.” Or you could look at this verse and “see” a different way to understand it. Breaking down the actual original words here is a conversation for another time…but I can share that I believe Jesus understood the path to the Great Beyond by first descending into the Great Below BEFORE his return to the Great Above and Beyond. Therefore, these words can be viewed in an Archetypical view instead of literal…giving one permission to TAKE the PATH that he laid out. He did not give specifics on how to do this…but he gave us signposts.
These common sign posts can be written down, but trying to write down the “correct” way to a the Great Beyond is hogwash. It is best done as an oral tradition. This is how Jesus started “the way”…this is the path of a Rabbi, of a Sage, of a what we call in modern language “Life Coach.”
Read the Myth here.
