Dervations

I have yet to read past the first sentence of Northrop Frye’s Secular Scripture (although I have read it several times), but something Professor Sexson said in class caught my attention. He said that the book boiled human mythology down to two stories: the quest for an island and the sacrifice story. That allowed me to connect dots upon dots, and I think I may have, thanks largely to the Cosmology Lost reading, put together something noteworthy. 

There are particular myths that I will be referencing, mainly the story of the fall of Lucifer and the events of the Garden in Paradise Lost/Genesis, and the story of Rapunzel as explained by Cosmology Lost. I think we’ve covered fairly well in class how Rapunzel tells the story of the transition from asexual to sexual reproduction, the story of (interesting phrasing here) the rise of man: an (male) intruder betrays the natural order and in doing so creates the world. It starts with the brother/father’s upward quest to get into the garden, where he upsets the natural of order of things and evokes the wrath of the Hag. This story is repeated as the wandering Prince goes through a very dangerous upward quest before reaching the Maiden, changes her and evokes the wrath of the Hag.
(betrayal of the natural order). The story of the dangerous quest repeats for the Prince, and again when he reaches the Maiden she has changed, pregnant with twins this time, and the Kingdom is established. 

The idea of an unnatural betrayal is central here, as is an unknown/unwelcome intruder.

In Paradise Lost, and the book of Genesis to a large degree, the story of the (interesting phrasing) fall of man is told. Milton starts this story by describing the most heinous betrayal conceivable: revolting against God. Satan betrays Nature itself and is cast out into Hell to endure horrible psychological torments. Eventually though, Satan finds his way upward to Eden where he convinces Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge (changing the Maiden), and in doing so casts the descendants of Adam out into the world, thus closing the essential creation story of the Western world. 

The pattern of wandering leading to intrusion/betrayal/trespass leading to creation is significant. 

And of course, it continues. Cain betrays Able and his descendants wander the world. Noah’s ark is a clear example of the sexual reproduction mixed with the quest for shore pattern as well. There are many others the Night Swim being perhaps the best contemporary example: The sperm’s dangerous wandering in the dark looking for the Maiden, from which a new world (human) will be created.

I will posit that there is but one basic moral question central here in our heads (at least for men, as these stories, minus Rapunzel, are heavily influenced by a patriarchal worldview), and the answer to it decides whether the myth will be a quest for the island or a sacrifice story: is the hero willing to betray his brethren to reach the maiden?

If he says yes, he will engage the quest for the island, his sole intent is reaching it, and when he does he will have his Kingdom. This equates to doing whatever it takes to pass on your seed – the subconscious reptilian Id is the real guide, force and energy are required. 

If he says no, the hero will then become the sacrifice, the one willing to die so that his brothers may live on. This equates to staying in the conscious super-ego, losing the race to reproduce. On the surface it might be easy to say that this myth exits to satiate the reality of failure on the quest to the island, to make the losers feel good. However, it may also be that reproductive fitness does not define the worth of a human life, that we are able to ascend to something greater than the cycle of living, reproducing, and dying, the cycle of betrayal and creation, and that this myth is testament to the hero willing to the endure the painful and celibate life required to be released from this cycle. 

This clearly connects with many ideas central to Eastern religions, indicating that these archetypes may indeed by universal (limited to humans that is). The escape from the cycle of reincarnation is what Nirvana is, and with the epitome of the Western sacrifice story being Jesus, there seems to be intense similarities between the most desired human states across religions, across the globe. Going deeper, in the concept of the unnatural betrayal leading to creation lies a massive contradiction, one that ripples out in the Yin Yang symbol’s explanation of harmony resulting from contradiction, in order resulting from the chaos of the universe. Hell, the yin yang symbol looks a lot like DNA to me, picture the double helix spiraling (the golden ratio here in both symbols) out of the nested circles of opposite color. 

If those opposites, the Yin and the Yang, are analyzed, there arise more connections. Yang is the force, the energy, while Yin is the matter (which, thanks to Einstein, we know those to be the same thing, just altered states), or as I like to see it, the Yang is the force applied the strings of the Yin violin, resulting in music, or harmony, a word key to the symbol and music. Interesting, both the phrases, “God spoke and thus created the universe” and the “Big Bang” imply sonic beginnings for our universe. The Hebrew word for the name of God is (phonetically) Yaway. This is supposed to be the sound we make when we inhale and exhale, the result being our every breath is in the name of God. 

Here might be a good place to mention I don't really believe in God. I do however believe in something very big and very musical, and I think it's the same thing people reference when they say they've felt God's presence. But I digress. 

I think all of this mythology is a global song of the interaction of conscious minds with the collective unconscious, the living persona's contact with all the long dead father's and mother's of the species. We have the option to stay and play the game for as long as we like, questing and betraying to our hearts content, until we decide to endure the mystic process required to exit the cycle of life and death.  The subconscious will always be pulling to stay, to engage death and choas, resulting in the continuity of species and of life as a whole, creating new kingdoms for the descendants (this choice is always descending, it seems.). The conscious mind may come to find itself open and ready for something beyond the quest, and may decide to trade the cycle for serentity/singularity, resulting in the sacrifice of the attached life. 

Is the intruder /the force/the male searching to change the maiden/the instrument/ the female and in doing so create a Kingdom/song/child  the over-riding fractal that is repeating endlessly throughout humanity’s experiences with the universe?

  

I have no idea. I'm glad I got to work in some music stuff though, I was worried when I starting that I might not be able to follow up on the promise of my last blog. 

Peace