The Ramayana

I am one of the many people that get Dharma and Karma confused and tend to think that they are indistinguishable from each other. Dharma is the compass that guides us to do good for others and Karma are those individual actions. I see this as the same as Christianity; you should do good for the sake of good, not because “the boss” is watching.

When Rama was faced with killing a demigod, yaksha he did not want to complete this task knowing that she is a woman. “Rama hesitated; for all her evil, she is still a woman. How could I kill her?” (pg.12) This shows Rama’s good side where he does not kill for the glory but, when it is necessary. He has a code of honor that he lives by.

Manthara and Queen Kaikeyi are equally not great people. Manthara told the Queen that Rama should not be the king, but her own son should. To top this off the Queen is told that in order to accomplish this Rama should be exiled for 14 years and Bharata should be on the throne. (pg.38) I don’t see either of these women moving up in their Dharma journey.

I found Devdutt Pattanaik to be fascinating when he talked about the differences between how cultures can think (my world vs. your world). You can see how many disagreements can occur with western and eastern religions. Rama is definitely not infallible as Jesus is widely perceived to be. You can see how due to Rama’s mistakes he can still be a hero and looked up to for we can see ourselves in Rama because the Dharma train keeps rolling. For most western religions it’s a one and done mentality. Mr. Pattanaik explained this is where we get our different priorities in cultures, the “straight answer” west verses the “maybe” east.

Hero’s Journey 2

I will be writing about Carol from The Walking Dead and her journey. I’m sure even if you don’t watch the show you are familiar with the apocalyptic zombie theme.

1. Carol’s ordinary world happened many seasons ago where she was an abused housewife. She was incredibly meek and timid. She accepted her role and would actually defend her husband when he was physically or verbally abusive.
2. Carol’s call to adventure was essentially like all of the characters in the story, zombies are here whether you like it or not. Carol had many “calls to adventure” as the story progressed but this was everyone’s first step out of the Shire.
3. Carol’s refusal was not to get involved in any of the killing of the walkers or any scuffles with other people. She was the motherly type and stayed in the role that she was comfortable with within the group. This included the laundry and cooking.
4. Meeting with the mentor was getting a bigger role as the seasons progressed. This permission was given to her by Rick.
5. Carol’s crossing the threshold was “taking care” of her husband that had been bit by a walker. He had just laid hands on Carol and got his face pummeled by Shane, another Alpha male of the group and local hot head. By zombie law you have to destroy the brain and she does this with a pick axe.
6. Carol’s tests and allies are numerous as the series progresses. She makes several allies though keeps everyone at a certain arms length. She also learns to step toe to toe with any Alpha male or female crap that gets thrown her way.
7. Her approach to each of these was a slow journey from meek to bad ass.
8. Carol has had many ordeals, one that comes to mind is having to make the decision to shoot a little girl (I know, I know, hear me out!) The girl killed her sister and could not distinguish between walker and human. Everyone was her friend and wanted to play. Obviously someone like this does not work well with others.
9. Carol did not receive any reward for killing a little girl, though as the seasons progress she attained self confidence and purpose among the group and herself.
10. The road back has yet to be traveled for Carol or anyone for that matter. Every episode and season gets worse for Rick and the gang. It is now season 6 and they have become to question whether they have lost their own humanity and have gone too far to come back.
11. Carol has resurrected as a leader and a hero. She has left the body of abused submissive wife to zombie warrior. She is one of the most ruthless Alpha’s in the show and her lack of penis means nothing in the zombie apocalypse.
12. I have yet to see an elixir in this show or even a philosophical one at that. The show is still going strong and many things can change from now until the end.

Carol’s journey might differ from a males due to the fact as she is a chameleon. They end up living in a gated civilized community where the people don’t understand what things need to be done living outside the wall. Carol put on the persona of the happy homemaker again and this fooled the gated community, but not the group she has fought with and for. I’m not sure this could be as easily accepted for a male character because of the macho tropes.

The following clip shows the evolution of Carol. This only goes to season 4, but you do get a good idea of her trajectory.

Don’t look at the flowers!

Hero’s Journey

I am not sure if Mr. Campbell has enlightened me or crushed my childhood heroes. Never the less Campbell is correct when he lays out his 12 steps for a heroes journey. They are ordinary world, call to adventure, refusal, meeting with the mentor, crossing the threshold, tests (allies/enemies), approach, crisis, reward, the road back, resolution, and upgraded status. After all of these tasks are complete, rinse and repeat and make a movie that will bring in endless money. You can list any new or old character from film and be able to put any one of them neatly in this list. Most of the modern movies are a pain by numbers or connect the dots version of these.

Theseus was tired of the bloodshed every 9 years so he decided that he would stop the Minotaur himself. His father begged him to stop to no avail. His father did ask to raise white sails on his arrival so he could see that victory was found. Theseus fights the creature with nothing but string and a sword. With one strike to the neck the task was done. He does not raise the white sails as he forgets to raise them. His father sees nothing but the black sail and jumps off the cliff to his doom. Begrudgingly, he is now the new king, however, this is from his own doing.

Herakles was born to Zeus and a mortal woman Alcmene. Hera was obviously not okay with this and always wanted Herakles dead which is tough for you to do to Herakles. Under Hera’s spell he ends up killing his wife and kids. Herakles wants to wash away his blood guilt, but he obviously cannot undo what he did. He is told that after 12 tests (or labors) he can cleanse his blood guilt. He is to conquer a lion, hydra, bring a hind, capture a boar, clean stables in a day, drive away birds, bull, man eating horses, acquire Amazon belt, bring monsters cattle, bring golden apples, and finally conquer the dreaded three headed beast. His sins have been cleaned, however, he is unsure on what to do next. His family is gone by his hands, he turns his vengeful eye on Iphitos. He must be a slave for 3 years and his resurrection will be complete as he is now upgraded in even more status, if that was possible.

WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!

Stephen Cave broke up the way we see death or rather conquering death in four sections.

Elixir – Mr. Cave described how since the beginning of existence we have created a potion in order to conquer death. We have always thought of the fountain of youth as something silly that is a story we have been told time and time again. It is not that bizarre when we think about how in society we are constantly taking pills to look younger, have more energy, and get aroused at a moments notice when we are older (just not longer than 4 hours). These are nothing but modern day elixirs.

Resurrection – In the Religious nation that we live in we are very familiar with the idea of resurrection. We have been told all our lives that when we die we either ride the existential elevator up or down.

Soul – A soul is also something that is familiar to most religious people. Once you die your spirit, soul, or essence does not go away.

Legacy – This is the idea that even when you die, you can be a part of something greater. A cause or team or possibly something that you accomplished. It depends of what your actions are that decide what your legacy is. Both Jesus and Hitler had legacies that will live on forever.

Ancient Egyptians believed that if a body is wrapped in fine linens and a particular ceremony were to take place this would allow them passage to the afterlife. This would be similar to the soul that we are used to hearing about.

We generally think of a legacy in terms of military battles. I immediately thought of the movie Starship Troopers. This was a movie about a distopian future where giant bugs were the enemy and the military were the good guy defenders. In this scene the commander said, “Come on you apes, don’t you want to live forever”. He was talking about not only their legacy, but their survival of their species.Starship Troopers

I found Mr. Cave’s analogy of a book to be very insightful. He explained how the beginning was your birth and the end was your death. We always say that death is a part of life when this is not the case. In fact death is apart from life.

Happy Halloween everyone!

The Simpsons Death

Family Guy Death

Apocalypse myths

We have always loved stories of our own destruction, from the book of Revelation to the countless books, movies, television, and any other medium we can think of. Many can say that Hollywood is out of ideas, though I can’t get enough and neither can most people. Whether in the Terminator franchise, The Walking Dead (and it’s own spin off Fear The Walking Dead), Jennifer Lawrence shooting arrows to smite her enemies, or Jennifer Lawrence quite literally fighting the Apocalypse a big bad from the X-Men franchise that has his own four horsemen by his side who will all be in next years installment of the X-Men series. Our own deaths are always on our mind at some level.

Professor Pagels was amazing I could talk to her all day about the end times. Growing up in a Christian household I was no stranger to the end of days tales. Which is strange looking back on how this is not a bizarre practice for other Christian children to be told about the demise of the world. Professor Pagels explained that the book of Revelation is the most out of place book in the bible and yet so many people are drawn to it to explain many things going wrong in this world. I cannot agree with her more. What blew my mind the most is how she call this chapter in the bible, “anti-Roman propaganda”. This makes complete sense if you think how the repressed people cannot just show their displeasure for their leaders. They would have to find a more creative way for doing so.

In Ragnarok, also a movie coming soon, the third in the Marvel’s Thor stand alone films, you see the end of everything as we are led to believe. As stated earlier many people will point to any tragic happenings in our world and say, this is the end of the world. Mark XIII, v.8 states, “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginning of sorrows”. People constantly point out the sorrows in this current world and I think they are exacerbated by the 24 hour news cycle and “if it bleeds it leads” journalism. There have been terrible times when cavemen were cracking each other skulls open for food. Famine, drought, disease, and just plain bad “stuff” has been going on since the beginning of time. As R.E.M. puts it, “It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine”.

Tommy Boy End of World

Sorry for the quality. Someone recorded off their tv.

The Great Hodge Podge of beliefs.

Vine Deloria Jr. found several differences from the Judeo-Christian values and origins compared to the Native American values and origins. I also sensed a bit of detest from Ms. Deloria when it comes to Christian values. However, I might be reading too much into the selection of the readings. She discussed how when it comes to origin stories the Judeo-Christian creation stories in Genesis show that humans are flawed by their creation. It is a constant struggle between not just good and evil, but sin verses redemption. The Native Americans don’t hold the same rules. As Ms. Deloria points out, “The overwhelming majority of American Indian tribal religions refused to represent deity anthropomorphically”. This is drastically different from the Jesus figure sent from god as his son (yet still part of the trinity). When God made man in his own image and likeness. (Genesis 1:26)

The Native American’s idea of not having an actual deity to be called anything other than grandfather could have caused the animal stewardship differences to come to light. In the same earlier verse from Genesis God said, “let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth”. (Genesis 1:26) Deloria points out that this could have caused the world that we currently live in. There are lots of species that are gone and damaged due to humans wanting another place to live. When you contrast this with Indian Tribal religions they emphasize the importance of nature and how we are all connected. Deloria brought up a story that Walking Buffalo, a Stoney Indian from Canada discussed about how Native American’s are one with nature and this is different from Christian culture. “Did you know the trees talk? Well they do. They talk to each other, and they’ll talk to you if you listen. Trouble is, white people don’t listen”. Some tribes instill in their people that they are no different from a dog, cat, tree, or the tiniest flea.  Did these differences between Christian and American Indian occur due to the humanization of the Christian deity to suit the needs/wants of themselves?

Destruction has always been apart of western religion. From the great floods of Noah to Norse Mythology of Ragnarok there seems to be the need for an ending chapter in the universal story. The story can tend to be a bit brutal. The Native American myths have plenty of strange (in western perspectives) and could be perceived as brutal tales. A rabbit kicking a blood clot into existence may not be considered dinner conversation.

Creation Similarities

From the outside it seems as though not much in common can come from opposite ends of the spectrum of religions such as Judeo-Christian beliefs and Norse mythology. Especially when some of the Norse myths sound like they have been ripped from some heavy metal bands, when the opposite is actually true. In the west we are familiar with the Christian version of the ex nihilo stories that we have probably grown up with even if we aren’t on that same path than we grew up on. This is not the first time a deity has made “something from nothing” in creating the universe. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep”. (Genesis 1:1) This is something that I was very comfortable growing up in, as this was my normal. However, a completely different, yet similar ex nihilo story could be told if I grew up in a Norse background long ago. “Burning ice, biting flame; that is how life began.” (Crossley-Holland, 3) Black Surt, Hrid, Sylg, and Ylg would be common place in my knowledge of creation, as would a cow that licked things into existence. I will say that had I sang songs of frost giants, rivers of blood, and lands being created via broken bones and flesh I might have paid more attention!

The great flood from the Bible is something that is not exclusive to Christians. Flood myths have been an important part of creation stories. This can be due to their massive power and the fact that people are familiar with this phenomena and already respect it. Water is clean, pure and we are created in it, so it makes sense that something in a small quantities that is so necessary to human existence and survival could be our demise. Flood myths like Noah, Pomo creator, or the Ipurina creator was used as a cleansing or starting over period. This was used to get all of the evil or unworthy out-of-the-way and start fresh with the new crop. I’m sure this was also used as a very good tool to keep your followers in check, be good or you never know when their might be another flood around here.

On the topic of creation I couldn’t get this out of my head.

One more thing, how do I get YouTube movies to play within the post? I know it is probably super easy (and I know it can be done). Thanks!

Eric

[Use the “Add Media” button and paste the youtube link – S]

Prometheus your new deity!

Gather around everyone as I tell you about your brand new deity, Prometheus! Now you may say that you are satisfied with your own god. You may say that your god is the one and only for you. Let me tell you a bit about how you need this new god in your life. Prometheus created the human race out of clay and water. Prometheus is a more caring Olympian that his brothers and sisters. They didn’t seem to care much for the actions of human activity, they were much to important to worry about silly humans. Prometheus was much different, he cares about each and every human that has been created, including you! When one talks of Prometheus they talk about fore-thought. This is something that all of us can aspire to have more of.

Zeus had taken away the humans fire and this did not make Prometheus happy to know that his humans creations were suffering without the flame. He decided to do something about this and made his journey to Olympus and found the fire that Zeus hid away. You can see how he truly cares for his creations. Zeus did not like Prometheus to go behind his back the way he did. In fact Zeus was so upset that he had a woman created named Pandora. “Pandora was made to bring men pain”. (Martin, 37) Once the lid of Pandora was once opened more than ten thousand horrible afflictions came spewing out. As if this wasn’t terrible enough for Prometheus to see his children that he loved tortured in this way, things were about to get worse for poor Prometheus.

Zeus had Prometheus chained to Caucasus a mountain far away. Prometheus’ hands and feet were bound together as to not let him get away. Now your new deity has shown his compassion for you, his creation and how he cares greatly for you. Now look at how your deity suffers for you, look how his love for you is shown in his time of need. Wouldn’t a Mt. Caucasus pendant look good around your neck to show what he has done for you? A bird of prey flew in every day to peck at Prometheus’ liver. Being an immortal his liver would heal itself only to be devoured again. Prometheus was eventually saved by Heracles and some say devoured that bird of prey’s own liver or ate him whole, your new deity is a bad ass!

If you have been asked around by others about their new trendy Olympians, ask yourself this question, “does this Olympian deity have my best interest at heart?” Sure they might have the razzle dazzle, however what have they done for you and do they truly care? There is only one who does, all mighty Prometheus. Let us all sing his praise!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Jm3NTD5UU

Works Cited

Martin, Richard P. Myths of the Ancient Greeks. New York: New American Library, 2003. Print.

“Trivium Of Prometheus and the Crucifixion Lyrics.” YouTube. YouTube, 6 Nov. 2008. Web. 11 Sept. 2015.<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Jm3NTD5UU&gt;

“THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY & THE GODS.” THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY, Exploring Mythology & the Greek Gods in Classical Literature & Art. Web. 11 Sept. 2015. <http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanPrometheus.html&gt;.

“Welcome to the Encyclopedia Mythica.” Encyclopedia Mythica: Mythology, Folklore, and Religion. Web. 12 Sept. 2015. <http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/prometheus.html&gt;.

Nostolgia and Myths

Zeus is set to take power and set up his “eternal order” before the gods and goddesses of Olympus. His grandfather, Ouranos and Zeus’ father,  Kronos however are not going to let Zeus take over without a fight. They try to not let the next generation mature. This can easily contrast into our own world today. It seems as though many people who are currently in power (cough, cough, congress). Have issues with relinquishing said power. Even on a smaller, closer to home scale it can be difficult for some parents to let their children grow up and become self sufficient. I understand that it is part of the protection part of having kids. This can be more scary for the parents to loose that control that they have had for so long, than for the fear of the unknown that kids can expect.

Much like the 10 year battle between Kronos and the Titans versus Zeus and the younger gods there can be a battle between taking over the mantle. This can be attributed in modern times from a nostalgia perspective. Many of the older generation see the current state that the world is and would like to change it for their “children”. The younger generation has read about what struggles their elders have gone through, however, this is just from textbooks. The older generation has memories of their struggles and strife. What many people younger and older do not understand is when they think about things that were great in the “good old days” they were much younger and with much less responsibility. True things were so much simpler when everyone was growing up, they were in elementary school and had no concept of typical parental struggles such as bills, work, and while balancing taking care of their kids.

“When human beings were fist created, they lived in perfect peace, like gods”. (Martin, 39) This was called the Golden Age. This was a time when Zeus had yet to rule and would take the place of Kronos. At this time no one knew of old age or of hardships because they have not had to deal with any yet. Once Zeus had taken over the next generation was called the Silver Age and had to deal with many hardships. I see this as an allegory for growth from a child into an adult. During your youth everything you experience is new and exciting. During many childhoods you are treated as a god (looking back on it of course). Once you start going to school and meeting people you tend to realize not everyone will treat you like the god you thought you were.

Myths past and present.

When I hear the word myth I automatically think of the word fable. A story that has very little bearing of truth. I think of a cautionary tale that is told to us as children so that we listen to our parents when they tell us not to talk to strangers. When you get into the difference between myth and religion, here is where it can get decisive. What is one person’s myth is another persons religion. Many people follow Christianity as their religion and will read and follow the Bible due to it being their sacred text. However there are others that will say that these are merely tales to show us right from wrong and don’t necessarily mean that this is an account of what happened in the past. I grew up in a very Christian household and my parents still have these believes and hold on to them dearly. I don’t agree with their beliefs, however they are good people who think they are doing the right thing. I happen to think that one can still be a good person regardless of their religious beliefs. I do think that myths are important in our society now. We still have the good versus evil myth that we have grown up with and is any superhero movie that you have seen lately. I am interested in myths and how they have seeped into our day to day societies. I think it will be fascinating to see how myths can be shared inter-culturally without even knowing about it.People should study myths due to their longevity. There is a reason why they have been around in a certain fashion for so long. They probably hold a certain merit to them even if we don’t quite understand them yet.

I found Ms. Armstrong’s interview with NPR was very enjoyable. I found that the lines between myths and facts can tend to blur. You can see how People who have grown up with these myths can take them as fact and continue this for better or worse. The mythos and logos section of the piece was interesting how that they are both separated from different parts of the brain, yet they can work in tandem with each other. This is just like real life where it can be difficult to decipher which came first the chicken or the egg. I found from listening to Ms. Armstrong that one could debate the topic of myths for their entire lifetime and it is not simply reduced to good versus evil and you can call it a day.