If you get an hour to sit and watch the video i have posted I highly recommend it. In this video Joseph Campbell, not Mr Bell, discusses the power of Love and the feminine in mythology. It is a transformative experience to see true love in action where the importance of the other eclipses the self.
The reading for today was intended to make you consider the cosmic significance of the goddess and the universal association she has. The first thing to consider is the similarities between the stories of Innana, Isis, and Demeter. Here we have very close association of deeds and significance. These stories all contain an association between sex and death as the correlates of temporality. The life we have is only possible with the death of others. The goddess becomes an all encompassing figure that contains all the possibilities of life and death. Many traditions separate these aspects of goddesses divinity but a few bring them all together as well. Kali from the "Hindu" tradition is a good example of the goddess of all existence. She carries a sword to cut life down, an open hand affirming life and a drum to tap out the minutes and hours of time.
In the case of Isis we see many parallels to Demeter in her story and function. In agrarian societies the goddess is the earth and so she is very important. In many images Osiris can be seen sitting on a throne with Isis in the background. This is not because she is less important but because she is IS the throne upon which he sits. She is all of creation and he is living upon her as a representative of human society. One further note about that story: Campbell once stated that in the older versions of the Isis and Osris story the birth of Horus occurs when Isis is morning the loss of her husband on the river and she actually has sex with his corpse and conceives Horus. Most of the stories we read will make reference to Isis laying down with his corpse or some other vague reference to this act. This simply shows that, as we noted earlier, sex and death are closely bound and we cannot have one without the other. Furthermore, Horus becomes an important god, the patron of Pharaohs and the arch-nemesis of Set, his fathers murderer.
If the goddess is the material of life, the god is the one who moves it into action. The god creates reality out of possibilties. It is through the god that we find that even though we may be reluctant to bring life forward "life must be". He (as the text notes) is "the force that through the green fuse drives the flower".
Consider this poem (a favorite of mine) as we continue:
The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.
Consider this poem (a favorite of mine) as we continue:
The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.
The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.
The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.
The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.
And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.
Dylan Thomas
I found the myth on Isis and Osiris the most interesting. I thought that it was sad how Re cast a curse on Nut so she was unable to have any children. It makes sense he would do this, considering he had found out that Nit's children would take over his reign, but it was a sad beginning to a myth for Nut. She didn't let this stop her though, and she was able to add 5 days on to the end of the year, which is how we have 365 days in a year today. With these 5 added days, she was able to have her children and i thought that was great. I thought it was sad toward the end of the myth, how Seth was jealous of his brother Osiris and ended up killing him over this jealousy. Family is very important and nothing, not even power, is more important than that.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found interesting about today's reading was how closely related the goddesses of different cultures are. The common concept that most often repeats itself for every goddess is that she is the giver of life and allows those on earth to live and nourishes and cares for everything living. What I find most interesting is the emphasis on sex and the cycle of life and death. In biblical mythology, sex is hardly ever mentioned... however is mythology driven by greeks or egyptian culture, sex has always been a constant ooncept. I find it interesting that the cycle of life and death can be thrown off kilter if something like sex is not had.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the stories I found the Isis and Osiris one the most fascinating. It had sex, the woman's power of reproduction, death and great heroism in it. The idea that Nut was able to add five days to the year to conceive her children was so conniving but so necessary for her to be fruitful. It is almost romantic that Isis looked for Osiris's dead body. The fact that he was so gullible about Seth's true self was strange though. I wondered why he didn't see Seth coming or why Isis couldn't convince her husband about Seth's true nature. I found it heroic that their son was able to avenge Osiris's death.
ReplyDeleteI found all of these myths interesting. The Hopi spider woman myth intrugued me because of the similarites that I noticed between the Hopi tale of creation and the Biblical tale of creation. The way that the spider woman and Tawa were here first, and created beings out of the clay of the earth and caused them to come alive reminded me of God creating Adam and Eve. As did the way in which Tawa said that the creatures would multiply and the way in which he separated the different clans of people.
ReplyDeleteI Enjoyed the myth of Isis and Osiris as well. It seems that in almost all myths there is a power struggle, with one God or Goddess trying to defeat another, or prevent them from coming into existence so as to overthrow thier current power. Power is a basic element of life, and people (or gods) will do whatever it takes to rise to and stay in pwer if at all possible.
As far as the story of Inanna and the underworld, I found it interesting how it parelled the story of Persephone as far as the changing of the seasons.