Comments

• 

  Ed Koffenberger February 20, 2013 at 11:28am

  I guess I doubt that we are in charge of the creation of our myths, etc. Without the corrective, independent unfolding of creation's story, we would be too strongly tempted toward inflation and thereby a self-aggrandizing narrowness of sight (in other words, the way we are today) that creates the collisions with myths offered by the Other. I believe that myths are, at least, the result of a dialogue if not the result of a an on-going conversation.

  Doesn't "Our challenge is to continue to satisfy the “universal” mandate of myth building" imply something larger going on than individual humans consciously constructing myths with all their human gifts and limitations?
• 

  Willi Paul February 20, 2013 at 10:46am

  Great stuff. But are we not in charge of the creation and telling of our stories, fables and myths? If not us, who? Why do these myth forces have to collide?! And yes, I agree that there is a matrix or mythic quilt that stores and propels different levels of impact, stability and meaning.

   

  Here is an example from my New Myth quiver for discussion:

   

  Reckoning at the 2043 Cascadia Shaman’s Convergence – New Myth 28 by Willi Paul

  * * * * * * *

  The men and women spirit channels hived at a secret crossing along the American River northeast of Auburn, CA. Only Shaman of the Light Network are aware of this geomantic location. A few mature trees that remain in the post-Chaos Era welcome and shelter them.  A look-out schedule is posted as they must keep all eyes for the out-stretch hands of the dark troops mutating in the east.

  One of the rituals in the Shaman’s Convergence is the sharing of new songs, poems or myths from their territories in Cascadia. Zephyr Canon took-up his turn by showing the group how to use a quartz crystal to refract and dance the fire light to help illustrate the times before the Chaos Era finally ended the founding fathers greed, global aggression, and in-sustainability joy ride.

  “The year is 2021, people,” he called.

  “They had to hightail themselves out of the cages of the ruling class and toward local circles of resistance and honest barter.”

  “The future is of little concern for the poor, the homeless and the ill.”

  “Quite so.”

  “Many spoke and marched and broke store windows back then but too few took real actions to build a more egalitarian and localized system.”

  “Permaculture is fractionized; marginalized by old boy egos and profit-taking.”

  “On the surface, many were “acting collectively” but were actually just small businesses preaching sustainable collectivism.  Like so many GMO-corrupt farmers markets. “Latino, Asia, Jamaica, African-America, and White neighbors set-up their own booths to take their profit from the community while forced to pay a percentage -taking authority for the right to locate there for the day.”

  “Fewer and fewer ate healthy, were safe and had access to tools to build local systems.”

  “Who wrote the new myths in the Transition and Chaos eras?”

  “The Shamen.”

  “Here then is a fundamental paradox: who really needs a new story or vision? And by default: who keeps getting the old ones shoved into their ears?”

  “Our challenge is to continue to satisfy the “universal” mandate of myth building – even with so many misplaced souls and twisted spines.”

  “The end of the Transition meant that the rich were out of resources and the poor finally understood the value of their gold. The Chaos on all levels was unavoidable.

  “Fire is as fundamental to our history, sisters and brothers – and to our Post-Transition future – as Nature herself.”

  Zephyr Canon dropped his magic quartz piece into the hands of the next sharer and went to relieve a sister on the perimeter.
• 

  Jerry Kurtyka February 20, 2013 at 9:26am

  Ed; great question.  The bible seems to talk about the Big Gestalt hypothesis that fundagelicals call the Rapture -"...in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye..."  New Agers, too, talk about a Global Mind Shift (Willis Harmon). I tend to believe that things happen gradually and not to everyone simultaneously, but there are suprpises.  Look at the Arab Spring, a sort of collective gestalt shift that an interconnected world (the tweetosphere) made possible.    
• 

  Ed Koffenberger February 20, 2013 at 9:11am

  I am curious about the phrase "collective unveiling so people begin to finally see how the world really works." Do you see these moments as cumulative, small apocalypses coming together in a Gestalt sized apocalypse? Or as a flash of revelation? It might appear that the experience of apocalypse only comes to those who are watching. Is it a societal build up where "truth will out" even if it takes a build up to the 2x4?
• 

  Jerry Kurtyka February 20, 2013 at 8:52am

  Will; I see the archetype of apocalypse as both personal and societal.  The personal I defined below as the end of denial - the 2X4 in the face experience.  The societal is when people become aware (conscious) of how the larger game of society is being played out by the power elite, their secret agendas are "unvelied" and, like Dorothy, we get a peak behind the curtain to see who is really pulling the levers of power. For example, we are now aware of how the Roman Catholic hierarchy orchestrated a cover up of pedophila; it has been unvelied and their moral credibility dashed.  We see how the game on Wall Street is played out by a banking elite who can implode pension funds with toxic securites and still keep their jobs, bonuses, and freedom while innocent shareholders pay the huge fines or taxpayers bail them out (TARP).  Remember when Geitner, who was head of the NY Fed, was in his confirmation hearings for Treasury and it came out that he had not filed his previous year taxes, he had "forgotten"?  Then the curtain parted a little and we all got a peek behind the wall of power and privilege - apocalypse.     This is the era of apocalypse, but it isn't about the Rapture and Tribulation and End Times; it is about the collective unveiling so people begin to finally see how the world really works.  That is why I call apocalypse the myth of our time.
• 

  Ed Koffenberger February 19, 2013 at 6:58pm

  After reading Christian and Kerry's comments I'm envisioning layers of myth in which I am a participant. There are my personal myths related to myself and my immediate relations; community myths; cultural myths, all the way to creation myths. The personal apocalypse occurs when two myths collide, forcing the creation of a new myth or, drastically, the destruction of the initial myth-making process for the creation of a new myth-making process.
• 

  Willi Paul February 19, 2013 at 6:35pm

  Jerry, you raise a key idea: "personal myth." Do you mean this to be a universal story that applies only at the level of a single person (or everyone on the planet)? How do you define it; can a solo person act in his/her own myth? Thanks!
• 

  Jerry Kurtyka February 19, 2013 at 3:21pm

  Apocalypse is also a personal myth, like a fractal of its larger meaning in society. We personally experience apocalypse when our illusion or denial about something or someone is confronted in a way we cannot ignore.  It is a personal "unveiling" and we get an insight into the Self beyond the persona or the masks we might otherwise wear. I think I am a good manager but become aware that my employees are unhappy with me and make me the butt of jokes - apocalypse!  What do I do with that information?   I believe my kids are fine and trustworthy, but one is arrested for possession and dealing - apocalypse!     Vernacular terms for apocalypse are the "2 by 4 in the face" or the "wake call from hell".  These refer to events that "unveil" and force us to stop and notice what we have ignored and that is important to our life. 
• 

  Willi Paul February 17, 2013 at 11:57am

  We require myths about localization now Christian! One of the most glaring ironies in my work and life is that I don't have my own plot of land! 
  
• 

  Ed Koffenberger February 16, 2013 at 6:47pm

  Dang!! Got to get to chores of the day. Must print out the conversation tomorrow to look for threads. Later...and thanks Willi.