Comments

• 

  Scott Lampman September 17, 2012 at 10:13am

  Hi Christian, thanks for the great quote! Such a simple way of saying, what I've been trying to say, since I first posted on this New Global Mytholgy discussion.

  "Myths are the poetic expression of mystical experience."
• 

  Willi Paul September 14, 2012 at 8:29pm

  Hi Christian - any update on that Journal chapter? I tried to locate the author without success.... Willi
• 

  Willi Paul September 12, 2012 at 9:30am

  Howdy Christian - Can't seem to gain access to the chapter in question. Do you have it?

  Thanks! Willi
• 

  Willi Paul September 9, 2012 at 6:37pm

  Or here?
  
  
  “Mapping Future Myths for the Transition” – Workshop & Video – Willi Paul. The First Study of Myth Symposium, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA. 8/31 – 9/2 – 2012. http://openmythsource.com/2012/09/04/mapping-future-myths-for-the-t...
• 

  Willi Paul September 9, 2012 at 6:33pm

  Hi Christian - can you find the things in your list here?
  
  Journey to Cascadia: Building a New Global Mythology
  http://openmythsource.com/2012/07/15/2584/
• 

  Willi Paul September 9, 2012 at 3:20pm

  Burning Man is Just Bad Smoke! Light Up the Ecological Myth of Green Man. Presented by PlanetShifter.com Magazine and [ openmythsource ]

  Post -http://planetshifter.com/node/1681

  Edited for length

  Mythologist Sam Keen says that “The organizing myth of any culture functions in ways that may be creative or destructive, healthful or pathological. By providing a world picture and a set of stories that explain why things are as they are, it creates consensus, sanctifies the social order and gives the individual an authorized map of the path of life.” Another mythologist, Phil Couseneau, says that “Myth creates the plotline that organizes the diverse experiences of a persona or a community into a single story. Myths come from the same place that dreams and art come from. 

  One of these ecological myths is the story of the Green Man. He has been part of our Western heritage for centuries. Depth psychologist Carl Jung says that archetypes are embedded in our collective unconscious and these archetypes are shared by all. That is why we find very early images of the Green Man in Iraq and all over Europe. His face, which has leaves sprouting from his lips, eyes, nose and ears, can be seen on buildings and signs throughout Europe that date back to the Middle Ages. He is a combination of man and nature; he shows us that we can never be separate from the natural world, that we are part of the earth. He signifies irrepressible life and represents the human longing for the natural world. He is an image from the depths of prehistory and his origins are much older than our Christian era and he is still honored today in England and Europe in May Day festivals where he is evoked to bring in a bountiful growing season.

   

  Jung offered his theory of compensation--that an archetype will reappear in a new form to redress imbalances in society at a particular time when it is needed. According to this theory, the Green Man is rising up into our present awareness in order to counterbalance a lack in our attitude toward Nature. 

  As we destroy the ecosystem something in us dies as well. We then feel a loss of connection to nature, but celebrating the archetype of the Green Man can speak to us today and can remind us of what we have lost and help us to become conscious and to recover our bond with the natural world. Because we have meddled with nature we need to again perform rituals and have our ceremonies to honor the Green Man.

  The Green Man shows his face today at Fairy, Green Man and May Day festivals around the world. There we celebrate the natural world, the fecundity of all life and humanity’s connection to the Earth. We can personally celebrate the Green Man all year round by planting community gardens, planting bulbs in our home in the winter, maintaining a window box or building a shrine to the Green Man in our yard. You only need a few pieces of wood, leaves and twine to make a stick figure to bring the Green man into your life.

  ....

  Source: Janet Kane
• 

  Willi Paul August 23, 2012 at 5:12pm

  I printed Christian’s three part message and headed out for coffee in shade. We are going in circles, Mr. Gerike and I, but are these gyrations of a farce or a new global mythology? You decide. Alongside one shopping district in Burlingame, CA I see no power of myth, only a few sticky brands, cars and litter. Can the values, symbols  and archetypes in permaculture and the Transition Movement occupy a new generation facing extinction?

   

  Myth making is trapped in the dust and ineffective papers of long dead scholars and dream sellers, the purveyors of archetypes.  In 2012 are creativity is reduced to that of social mediated vampires. We are the generation wondering in the crisis of imaginations lost.

  

   

  Back to the circle and Christian’s questions.

   

  I agree that myths are narrative tales. Did the stuff of classic myths beam down into the heads of ancient cave men? No, people wrote them. On wet walls and fallen leaves then as tattoos then on parchment… Myths are inherently re-purposeful and malleable. One woman’s tale is another child’s cartoon.

   

  I subscribe to the POV that we can consciously commit to myth-making. Here I would expose my plan to combine 27 + New Myths into a more robust experience. A graphic novel? Musical for another Green Day explosion?

   

  As to GC’s reference to “traditional story,” and “conscious myth-making,” the Internet has changed this narrow-minded POV with accelerated filters and multiple, daily comments.

   

  What, dear God, is supernatural? Isn’t learning how to survive in a Post-Transition Era world as a community “supernatural “(enough?).

   

  Yes, Christian: “Myths are ambiguous and subtle. They contain many meanings. They are not fixed, but flexible: they adapt to changed circumstances and new knowledge….”

   

  To me, myths are malleable, compostable, spiral, and open source.
• 

  Willi Paul August 4, 2012 at 11:02am

  Hi Christian! Will track the author / book down. At first glance, Mr. Thompson and I are formulating the same new mythic path. To whit, permaculture is one recent design science that I am using as augur for new myths: Cascadia.

  Do you see any parallels to his epochs to the ones in my funnel piece?

  Thanks for bringing this forward. Spectacular.
• 

  Willi Paul July 20, 2012 at 10:51am

  Greetings Christian!  I suspect that there is a difference between "searching for a (existing) myth" and creating a new one! The latter is much more empowering and sticky....Do you also see that MR is alluding to the controllers of the story and that folks can take this away?
• 

  Scott Lampman July 7, 2012 at 12:21pm

  Willi, you seem to be 'following your bliss', like the rest of us... ;-)