Monday, October 31, 2011
The Great Pan is Dead
Let's try this again, it didn't want to post my first try for some reason. We started the ends on Thursday. Stating that it is nothing more than the end of one cycle, and the beginning of another. This seems to happen every 2,000 years. So something is going to change in the near future if this pattern continues. Mythology gave way to religion. We're not sure what religion will give way to. We brought in a stone from outside and made it the holy stone of Mytholgy 285. We passed it around the room to warm it up. We covered ideas in poetry concerning the end. How the cycle is always started by a bird impregnating a woman. We need to change our perceptions of the world. To be inside the temple is to see versus being outside the temple where we can only look at the same thing. We spoke of introverts and extroverts, where I have myself labeled as an introvert, and one of my friends labeled as an extrovert. thinking is personified by Zeus, sensation by Athena, intuition by Demeter, and feeling by Dionysus. When Dr. Sexson was describing Dionysus, Fabio popped into my head. I also have Dionysus summed up in three words: Sex, Drugs, and Rock and roll. I guess the argument could be made that that was actually four words, but only if you count rock and roll as two different words, which I don't.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Rituals part 2
We completed our ritual presentations on Tuesday. Here they are:
Justin: Indian baby dropping (?). They take a 1-2 year-old child and drop it from the top of a 50 foot building onto sheets that are being held there by other people. This is supposed to bring prosperity. It's now illegal in India.
Abby: An Australian manhood rite. The women leave, and the young men are blindfolded, then the older men scare them and threaten harm to the women. Then the young men are either circumcsiced or have their hair/teeth pulled.
Megan: Buddhist purification rite. I didn't get this one down very clearly. I have written that the stupas or relics of the Buddha, and depict scenes from his life. The rituals are done at night with lanterns and the burning of insence.
Zach: The Karamundi Rainmaking Ceremony. See last post.
Jeremy: Modern American fall festival. Carve a face into a pumkin and give candy to strange creatures who come to your door and say "trick-or-treat".
Juniper: Ests death ritual. A man would die and his friends would separate his money from his treasure. With the money they would buy beer and party with the body until the money was gone. Then they would take the treasure and divide it up by placing a large amount well away from town, another pile closer, and on down the line until there wasn't any more. As you got closer to town the piles got smaller. They would hold horse races to see who would get the most treasure. Then they burn the body with whatever remains over. This could go on for months.
After that we had a great discussion about Halloween. Halloween being the American-ized version of All Hallow's Eve (as we heard it from the Scots). This is related to the rites of kenosis (kenosis meaning an emptying out). This is like Totetag in Germany, or the Feast of Fools which is mentioned in Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I was reminded of the Swiss carnival festival which is called Fasnacht. People dress up in costume, and there is much music and dancing as everyone pretty much goes crazy. This is to purge the town of demons, similar to the original idea of Halloween, which as actually a celebration.
Then we covered the Nacirema tribe. They seem quite obsessed with what we call the bathroom, and I think would be quite offended if they knew how much we know about what goes on in there.
My notes kind of go haywire right about here. Where we picked up the Eleussinian Mysteries again. Since we spoke of them elsewhere I'm not going to cover all of it again. The early Christians found the Mysteries as an attack on their own rituals. Initiation is meant to take you from one thing, and turn you into another thing. You won't look different (like Georg in Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis), but you will be different. There will be unconditional joy from having gone through this initiation.
Justin: Indian baby dropping (?). They take a 1-2 year-old child and drop it from the top of a 50 foot building onto sheets that are being held there by other people. This is supposed to bring prosperity. It's now illegal in India.
Abby: An Australian manhood rite. The women leave, and the young men are blindfolded, then the older men scare them and threaten harm to the women. Then the young men are either circumcsiced or have their hair/teeth pulled.
Megan: Buddhist purification rite. I didn't get this one down very clearly. I have written that the stupas or relics of the Buddha, and depict scenes from his life. The rituals are done at night with lanterns and the burning of insence.
Zach: The Karamundi Rainmaking Ceremony. See last post.
Jeremy: Modern American fall festival. Carve a face into a pumkin and give candy to strange creatures who come to your door and say "trick-or-treat".
Juniper: Ests death ritual. A man would die and his friends would separate his money from his treasure. With the money they would buy beer and party with the body until the money was gone. Then they would take the treasure and divide it up by placing a large amount well away from town, another pile closer, and on down the line until there wasn't any more. As you got closer to town the piles got smaller. They would hold horse races to see who would get the most treasure. Then they burn the body with whatever remains over. This could go on for months.
After that we had a great discussion about Halloween. Halloween being the American-ized version of All Hallow's Eve (as we heard it from the Scots). This is related to the rites of kenosis (kenosis meaning an emptying out). This is like Totetag in Germany, or the Feast of Fools which is mentioned in Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I was reminded of the Swiss carnival festival which is called Fasnacht. People dress up in costume, and there is much music and dancing as everyone pretty much goes crazy. This is to purge the town of demons, similar to the original idea of Halloween, which as actually a celebration.
Then we covered the Nacirema tribe. They seem quite obsessed with what we call the bathroom, and I think would be quite offended if they knew how much we know about what goes on in there.
My notes kind of go haywire right about here. Where we picked up the Eleussinian Mysteries again. Since we spoke of them elsewhere I'm not going to cover all of it again. The early Christians found the Mysteries as an attack on their own rituals. Initiation is meant to take you from one thing, and turn you into another thing. You won't look different (like Georg in Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis), but you will be different. There will be unconditional joy from having gone through this initiation.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Rituals Day one
I was amazingly busy yesterday, and lazy today. These are the rituals we presented in class Thursday:
1) Eric: the Karamundi rain making ceremony from Australia. A man cuts a vein, and catches his blood in a hollowed out piece of bark. Then he adds gipsum (I think is how you spell it), and mix until it creates a paste. This paste is sandwiched with another piece of bark. Then it is placed in a river or lagoon, and rain will come after the paste has dissolved. During the time that the paste is dissolving the men must stay away from the women.
2) Stephanie: Egyptian cat mourning. A pharoh stated that cats were demigods because they hunted rodents, and their bodies were treated similarly to humans. They were mummified like humans, and the family would mourn their loss, typically by shaving their eyebrows. This was included in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
3) Courtney: The human mummifcation process of Egypt. They would remove all of the organs, except the heart so that the person could enter into the afterlife with a heart. The brains were removed through the nose. These were placed in special jars. the body was placed in a sarcophagus for forty days, packed in salt. Then the body was removed and wrapped before being returned. She mentioned the exact amount of cloth used for the wrappings, but I didn't catch all of it in time to write it down.
4) Christine: Aztec new fire. At the beginning of their whole year (every 52 years) all the fires in a town would be put out. The priests would go to the top of a mountain and at midnight make a human sacrifice, using that sacrifice to light a fire, and then all the fires of that village.
5) Lucy: Native American, smudging ceremony. One lights a bundle of herbs (different herbs for different occasions) is this was done with a person, the smoke was to be centered over the heart. If this was done with a place, one was to move clockwise around it.
6) Jerrod: Papua New Guinea blood initiation. This is a manhood ceremony. Young men stand in a mountain stream, and the elders demonstrate the three things they must do. First being that they must take canes, and shove these canes in their throats. Then they remove the cane and vomit into the river, this is to remove the taste of woman's food from them. Next they took sharpened reeds to their noses and bleed from their noses into the river. This was to remove the sent of women from them. Finally they took small bows and arrows which they shot into their tongues. I don't remember exactly why that one was done.
7) Sherwood: Also did the Karamundi rainmaking ceremony. He also added that hair from the man's beard is added to the blood and gipsum mixture.
8) Zach: Brazilian manhood ritual. The young men go out, and gather what are known as bullet ants. The shaman drugs the ants, and weaves them into gloves. The young men then must dance for about half and hours with these gloves on their hands. The ants are so named because apparently the sting of this ant is like being shot.
9) Matthew: American political ritual. Canidates are selected, then tour the country, then the people write something mysterious on a piece of paper in a box located at a public area on a certain day, and a new president is elected.
10) Jason: Taurbolium. A priest is placed in a hole in the ground with a wooden cover on it. This cover has several small holes poked into it. A bull is lead to stand on this wooden cover, and is killed. The blood pours down in a shower that the priest cleanses himself in. Then he drinks some of it as well.
11) Bailey: Mayan human sacrifice. They would stand at the top of a pyramid, and rip out the sacrifices heart. Then the body was decapitated, and pushed down the pyramid. People at the bottom of the pyramid would bury the body. This was done to keep up communications with the gods.
12) Darryl: Spartan marriage. The bridesmaid would dress the bride in men's clothing, and leave her on one bed. The groom would show up, and take her to another bed. They do what people do together in bed when not sleeping. And the groom would then have to run back to his barrracks before dawn. Sounds like a one night stand to me.
13) Jessica: Seppuku. Warrior enters a public/common place, writes and performs his death poem. Then he takes his sword and stabs it into his abdomen, makes one cut from right to left, and then two upward cuts. At this point the warrior bends forward over his sword, and a trusted friend decapitates him.
14)Jenny: The Mary Month of May. This was a personal story that she wrote down and read to us. It involved the Catholic school she went to. The sixth graders had a tradtion of selecting one girl to place a crown of lillies on the statue of the Virgin Mary. Her sister got the honor because the nun who was teaching them pulled strings. Normally it would have been one of the rich, popular girls.
15). Rosemary: Mexican Day of the Dead. This is a mixed form from the traditions of the native peoples (who did this for the whole month of August), and the Spanish (who moved it to the end of October, and shortened it to three days). People wear masks with the names of the people in their families who had died, and then they go light candles in the graveyards and cemetaries.
16) Vittoria: Frozen Dead Guy Days. Some Norwegian guy believed in cryogenics enough that he went and got himself frozen in liquid nitrogen. His daughter had to pour more on him every month. She eventually had rent problems, and the media got involved, and now it's a major celebration in Colorado. It includes several races, and Grandpa's Blue Ball.
17) Jill: Eastern Star Ritual. These are the female Masons. The initate goes to the Eastern Star location in a white dress and meets with five women. One stands at each point on a star. I believe that the people represent obedience, devotion, love, charity, and faith. I'm sure of a few of those, but not which woman they correspond with. This is the Eastern Star initiation ritual.
18) Madison: also did the Karamundi rain making. The elders say that as long as the ritual is respected it'll work everytime.
19) Parker: Bridger whale. There is a wooden whale that can be seen on the side of the road on the way from Bozeman to Bridger. You are not supposed to look at it on the way up, or risk a bad day. On the way back you are supposed to salute the whale in order to keep good luck.
20) Sam: Beowulf death ritual. People make a funeral pyre, and heap it with the deceased's possessions. Then they sing songs, and say euligies. Twelve people circle the grave after the ashes were buried.
21) Me: I did the bear ritual of the Anuri (Eliade, I may not have that name completely right), really I did the version used in the novel The Clan of the Cave Bear. The host clan would capture a bear cub and raise it as Clan. It'd be moved to a wooden cage outside the cave when it got too big. People would feed it and play with it. Then every seven years, and the Clan Gathering, the bear would be killed. Two young men would be selected to bring the bear before the people who would torture it, and then kill it. The head would be removed with the rest of the skin attached. Then the meat was prepared. A cup of the bear's blood, and some of it's prepared meat would be presented to the head of the bear. The person who captured the bear would then speak to it saying how it was a good bear and should tell it's parents that so the cycle could be repeated.
22) Andrew: Irish marriage tradtions. This takes place from Halloween to Lent. There are several different ways for people to determine who they should be with. There was one about initialed nuts in a frying pan and if they stay together or not.
23) Kevin: Thai vegetarian ritual. The people would go completely vegan, celebit, and without alcohol. Celebit meaning without sex. This is done for a certain time, based on the story that this was done for some Chinese people who got malaria. They stick sharp objects in their bodies to be closer to the gods at this time.
24) Wena: Chinese New Year. 15 days. 10 days before the house must be completely cleaned to ward off evil spirits. Kids get money on the first day of Chinese New Year, and you shouldn't wash your hair. The 15th day is the Lantern Festival.
25) Ashley: Chrismas Eve. Her grandfather would read Twas the Night Before Christmas. Then the doorbell would ring and something would be at the door.
1) Eric: the Karamundi rain making ceremony from Australia. A man cuts a vein, and catches his blood in a hollowed out piece of bark. Then he adds gipsum (I think is how you spell it), and mix until it creates a paste. This paste is sandwiched with another piece of bark. Then it is placed in a river or lagoon, and rain will come after the paste has dissolved. During the time that the paste is dissolving the men must stay away from the women.
2) Stephanie: Egyptian cat mourning. A pharoh stated that cats were demigods because they hunted rodents, and their bodies were treated similarly to humans. They were mummified like humans, and the family would mourn their loss, typically by shaving their eyebrows. This was included in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
3) Courtney: The human mummifcation process of Egypt. They would remove all of the organs, except the heart so that the person could enter into the afterlife with a heart. The brains were removed through the nose. These were placed in special jars. the body was placed in a sarcophagus for forty days, packed in salt. Then the body was removed and wrapped before being returned. She mentioned the exact amount of cloth used for the wrappings, but I didn't catch all of it in time to write it down.
4) Christine: Aztec new fire. At the beginning of their whole year (every 52 years) all the fires in a town would be put out. The priests would go to the top of a mountain and at midnight make a human sacrifice, using that sacrifice to light a fire, and then all the fires of that village.
5) Lucy: Native American, smudging ceremony. One lights a bundle of herbs (different herbs for different occasions) is this was done with a person, the smoke was to be centered over the heart. If this was done with a place, one was to move clockwise around it.
6) Jerrod: Papua New Guinea blood initiation. This is a manhood ceremony. Young men stand in a mountain stream, and the elders demonstrate the three things they must do. First being that they must take canes, and shove these canes in their throats. Then they remove the cane and vomit into the river, this is to remove the taste of woman's food from them. Next they took sharpened reeds to their noses and bleed from their noses into the river. This was to remove the sent of women from them. Finally they took small bows and arrows which they shot into their tongues. I don't remember exactly why that one was done.
7) Sherwood: Also did the Karamundi rainmaking ceremony. He also added that hair from the man's beard is added to the blood and gipsum mixture.
8) Zach: Brazilian manhood ritual. The young men go out, and gather what are known as bullet ants. The shaman drugs the ants, and weaves them into gloves. The young men then must dance for about half and hours with these gloves on their hands. The ants are so named because apparently the sting of this ant is like being shot.
9) Matthew: American political ritual. Canidates are selected, then tour the country, then the people write something mysterious on a piece of paper in a box located at a public area on a certain day, and a new president is elected.
10) Jason: Taurbolium. A priest is placed in a hole in the ground with a wooden cover on it. This cover has several small holes poked into it. A bull is lead to stand on this wooden cover, and is killed. The blood pours down in a shower that the priest cleanses himself in. Then he drinks some of it as well.
11) Bailey: Mayan human sacrifice. They would stand at the top of a pyramid, and rip out the sacrifices heart. Then the body was decapitated, and pushed down the pyramid. People at the bottom of the pyramid would bury the body. This was done to keep up communications with the gods.
12) Darryl: Spartan marriage. The bridesmaid would dress the bride in men's clothing, and leave her on one bed. The groom would show up, and take her to another bed. They do what people do together in bed when not sleeping. And the groom would then have to run back to his barrracks before dawn. Sounds like a one night stand to me.
13) Jessica: Seppuku. Warrior enters a public/common place, writes and performs his death poem. Then he takes his sword and stabs it into his abdomen, makes one cut from right to left, and then two upward cuts. At this point the warrior bends forward over his sword, and a trusted friend decapitates him.
14)Jenny: The Mary Month of May. This was a personal story that she wrote down and read to us. It involved the Catholic school she went to. The sixth graders had a tradtion of selecting one girl to place a crown of lillies on the statue of the Virgin Mary. Her sister got the honor because the nun who was teaching them pulled strings. Normally it would have been one of the rich, popular girls.
15). Rosemary: Mexican Day of the Dead. This is a mixed form from the traditions of the native peoples (who did this for the whole month of August), and the Spanish (who moved it to the end of October, and shortened it to three days). People wear masks with the names of the people in their families who had died, and then they go light candles in the graveyards and cemetaries.
16) Vittoria: Frozen Dead Guy Days. Some Norwegian guy believed in cryogenics enough that he went and got himself frozen in liquid nitrogen. His daughter had to pour more on him every month. She eventually had rent problems, and the media got involved, and now it's a major celebration in Colorado. It includes several races, and Grandpa's Blue Ball.
17) Jill: Eastern Star Ritual. These are the female Masons. The initate goes to the Eastern Star location in a white dress and meets with five women. One stands at each point on a star. I believe that the people represent obedience, devotion, love, charity, and faith. I'm sure of a few of those, but not which woman they correspond with. This is the Eastern Star initiation ritual.
18) Madison: also did the Karamundi rain making. The elders say that as long as the ritual is respected it'll work everytime.
19) Parker: Bridger whale. There is a wooden whale that can be seen on the side of the road on the way from Bozeman to Bridger. You are not supposed to look at it on the way up, or risk a bad day. On the way back you are supposed to salute the whale in order to keep good luck.
20) Sam: Beowulf death ritual. People make a funeral pyre, and heap it with the deceased's possessions. Then they sing songs, and say euligies. Twelve people circle the grave after the ashes were buried.
21) Me: I did the bear ritual of the Anuri (Eliade, I may not have that name completely right), really I did the version used in the novel The Clan of the Cave Bear. The host clan would capture a bear cub and raise it as Clan. It'd be moved to a wooden cage outside the cave when it got too big. People would feed it and play with it. Then every seven years, and the Clan Gathering, the bear would be killed. Two young men would be selected to bring the bear before the people who would torture it, and then kill it. The head would be removed with the rest of the skin attached. Then the meat was prepared. A cup of the bear's blood, and some of it's prepared meat would be presented to the head of the bear. The person who captured the bear would then speak to it saying how it was a good bear and should tell it's parents that so the cycle could be repeated.
22) Andrew: Irish marriage tradtions. This takes place from Halloween to Lent. There are several different ways for people to determine who they should be with. There was one about initialed nuts in a frying pan and if they stay together or not.
23) Kevin: Thai vegetarian ritual. The people would go completely vegan, celebit, and without alcohol. Celebit meaning without sex. This is done for a certain time, based on the story that this was done for some Chinese people who got malaria. They stick sharp objects in their bodies to be closer to the gods at this time.
24) Wena: Chinese New Year. 15 days. 10 days before the house must be completely cleaned to ward off evil spirits. Kids get money on the first day of Chinese New Year, and you shouldn't wash your hair. The 15th day is the Lantern Festival.
25) Ashley: Chrismas Eve. Her grandfather would read Twas the Night Before Christmas. Then the doorbell would ring and something would be at the door.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Rituals, feuds, and other crazy things
The very first thing I have written down is that we have an assignment to do a blog entry on rituals, and we are to start with the one that we are presenting on Thursday. I'm about to put several blog posts up so that people don't get confused with what I'm talking in each one. We spoke of the Hatfield and McCoy feud, and how it related to the death of Agamemnon and his family. Agamemnon was killed by his wife and her lover, and she was killed by her son, who was chased by the Furies for commiting matricide. The Furies being chthonic (thonic) beings, or from/related to the Underworld. Orestes (Agamemnon's son) goes to Athens, and Athena puts him on trial. This is where our justice system stems from. Apollo won the case by saying that women are inferior to men. Athena agreed because she essentially had no mother figure. This was because Zeus ate her mother (Metis, a titan) have he got her knocked up. We spoke of archetypes which are the original pattern, or model for something. We spoke of the meaning of the word senator, which comes from senex meaning mentor, or wise man, who was also impotent (according to the Romans). Zeus used persuasion (peitho) to control his children. We spoke for awhile about Ulysses by James Joyce. It's suggested we read it, but not alone. The essential part of the book is like when we were told to find Oz in Bozeman: mythology is everywhere. We are the heros, and everyday is a heroic adventure. We then spoke of the Eleussinian Mysteries. Eliade uses quotes to speak, essentially, of the after effects. Which all come around to the idea that those who go through the initiation are blessed and in general better off than those who haven't been initiated. Much of the initiation went on in the temenos or holy precinct, which has been cut out and designated for rituals. The initiation rituals here are concerned with the story of Persephone's abduction by Hades. Because this religion was based on secrecy, the actual rites are lost to time. We are fairly certain that fertility rituals started the initiation, outside. Then they moved into the temenos and something was seen (an ear of corn), something was said ("rain, concieve"), and something was done (likely a renactment of the abduction of Persephone). Then the initiation was complete. We don't see the importance of it because we have not been through it ourselves.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Rituals
Thursday's class was all about rituals. We spoke of several different varities of rituals, and basic criteria for our ritual presentations this Thursday. We can use personal rituals, and even ficticious ones, the more grotesque the better. We mentioned corpediem (I think), which means "sieze the day" and was a ritual from Elizabethan England. People would get together, go out to the woods, and let nature take it's course. We mentioned how prehistoric hunters offered bear meat to the bear because they reverred it as a diety. I have a notation in my notes about a book called The Clan of the Cave Bear which is based in prehistoric times and involves several odd rituals. We talked again about the sacrificing of virgins. I made a rant somewhere in these blogs involving how idiotic that is. Child rape would skyrocket because then they wouldn't be virgins and therefore, couldn't be sacrificed. This time virgins were sacrificed for a harvest festival. We mentioned the short story "The Lottery" and read it in class (or at least the gist of it). I'm fairly sure there was a play done of it as well, and that I saw it in high school. We mentioned deus ex machina which was a crane type thing that was used in ancient theater to pull the hero out of trouble. Myth is tied to rituals, the myth is the written or spoken part of a ritual which is what is done. We went through the ritual involving Charilla which is in Calasso and we cannot be used for ritual presentations. Thaere is a note about one should only do rituals when they know what it is about, otherwise the ritual loses meaning. We mentioned effigies, which are images of people, that other people to horrible things to. Dr. Sexson claims to have been hanged in effigy several times. I have a note in parantheses saying that Mr. Franklin was burned in effigy in The Hound of the Baskervilles, and that he admits that the time referenced in the book was not the first time that they had done so. My last note is that the middle equals life.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Lord Raglan's hero pattern
As I am one of the about six people who will put stuff like this on my blog for the sake of the rest of the class, here is the promised Lord Raglan's hero pattern:
1. Hero's mother is a royal virgin;
2. His father is a king, and
3. Often a near relative of his mother, but
4. The circumstances of his conception are unusual, and
5. He is also reputed to be the son of a god.
6. At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grand father to kill him, but
7. he is spirited away, and
8. Reared by foster -parents in a far country.
9. We are told nothing of his childhood, but
10. On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future Kingdom.
11. After a victory over the king and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast,
12. He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor and
13. And becomes king.
14. For a time he reigns uneventfully and
15. Prescribes laws, but
16. Later he loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and
17. Is driven from the throne and city, after which
18. He meets with a mysterious death,
19. Often at the top of a hill,
20. His children, if any do not succeed him.
21. His body is not buried, but nevertheless
22. He has one or more holy sepulchres.
1. Hero's mother is a royal virgin;
2. His father is a king, and
3. Often a near relative of his mother, but
4. The circumstances of his conception are unusual, and
5. He is also reputed to be the son of a god.
6. At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grand father to kill him, but
7. he is spirited away, and
8. Reared by foster -parents in a far country.
9. We are told nothing of his childhood, but
10. On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future Kingdom.
11. After a victory over the king and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast,
12. He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor and
13. And becomes king.
14. For a time he reigns uneventfully and
15. Prescribes laws, but
16. Later he loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and
17. Is driven from the throne and city, after which
18. He meets with a mysterious death,
19. Often at the top of a hill,
20. His children, if any do not succeed him.
21. His body is not buried, but nevertheless
22. He has one or more holy sepulchres.
The beginning of the middle
With the middles we are talking about heroes, who are human and therefore mortal. We touched on the topic of Lord Raglan's 22 points, which I'll post in a secondary posting like the list of the Eliade readings. I have middles leading to muddles leading to labrynth leading to initiation. I use leading to because it's an arrow pointing to the next word in the list. I mean that they are synonyms. Rituals are things that we do, and we are to look up either a ritual or an initiation to present one week from Thursday like we presented our creation stories. I was hoping to do the hero story, because I already had mine picked out. We learned that the word drama comes from the word dramenon which is Greek for to do things. I have that rituals are very precise things. I didn't write any down but we had a discussion about secular (non-religious) rituals we do everyday. Jessica noted that she has a routine that has to occur before she can leave her house. I noted that I label my notes in the same fashion everyday, for every class. I also came up for having my to do list written in the upper left corner of my notes. I was then encouraged to read them in class. I nearly skipped over the countdown until the arrival of my deerstalker cap from Amazon.com. I felt that was overly nerdy of me, but it's not the first countdown I've held in my notes. We discussed religious rituals, mainly baptism. Dr. Sexson believes that the only true baptism is full-emersion. The majority of Christian churches do not follow this practice anymore. I know the Baptists do, but they are the only ones I'm sure do that. I don't even think the Catholic church does that anymore, please correct me if I'm wrong on that point. I find it interesting that I answer almost all of the religious questions, including how to start Confession which is something the Methodist church does not do. I almost started the Lord's prayer, and then we jumped to the Hail Mary, which I don't know. Only the Catholics use that one. Dr. Sexson was very clear that we are not human if we don't go through these rituals. Another one I have is I write in a journal every night before going to bed, and I only allow myself one side of one sheet of paper in the journal for the entire day. Sometimes it's easier to fill than others. We talked about how rituals are a representation of what we want. This is how drama started, with rituals to provide us with what we desired. The example we used in class was the idea of wanting a successful bear hunt, so we acted it out the way we wanted it to go. Homeopathy is the idea that like produces like. It was the last thing we touched on before breaking into our groups.
Friday, October 7, 2011
The Magus: p.195
Normally I'm a very fast reader, but this book seems to be dragging in my opinion. It hasn't quite dragged me into it yet, but I can see the potential there. I was just slightly offended in fact by the line that Sherlock Holmes would have been baffled by Lily's palm. I like that Nickolas would try to "read" her palm that way. Holmes, however, didn't read palms, but the person in general. I don't know what Holmes would have deduced from Lily, but he would definantly have learned more than Nickolas does. I'm only going off about this because I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan. I've been trying that style with the books, and it actually works well for Calasso. That's more because with Calasso you need to connect the threads to make sense of the reading. Holmes' method to solving crimes is in fact connecting the effect to the cause by creating the chain of events from the thread of the clues that he finds. 
Here's a random Holmes picture from The Sign of Four, from 1987 with Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. The scene is set in either a library, or the records of The London Times which was mentioned in the case presented him in the movie based off the second novel by the same name.
There's my rant about The Magus. I may have another at the end, whenever I get to it.
Sorry the picture is a little blurry, I used the Microsoft snipping tool while watching this movie on YouTube.
Here's a random Holmes picture from The Sign of Four, from 1987 with Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. The scene is set in either a library, or the records of The London Times which was mentioned in the case presented him in the movie based off the second novel by the same name.There's my rant about The Magus. I may have another at the end, whenever I get to it.
Sorry the picture is a little blurry, I used the Microsoft snipping tool while watching this movie on YouTube.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Test review
We had a very full class getting ready for our test on Thursday. From Eliade we need to understand Hainuwele, Apollo, Earth mother of all, Enume elish,and Hesiod's theogony. These along with the intro paragraph about the creation stories (to be found on Jill's and other's blogs), are the six things to know from From Primatives to Zen, or Eliade. Dr. Sexson was kind enough to give us the page numbers, and the things from those pages that are important in The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, or Calasso. On p.5 we need to remember the basket. The etiology of Athenian men's slim hips from p. 15. The story of tragedy, involving the song of the goats from p. 39. More etiology from p. 81, this time concerning Tiresias, and wether men or women have more pleasure with sex, he apparently gave the wrong answer to Hera and was blinded for the rest of eternity. We need to remember ate from p. 94, there are likely to be two questions on that. Inserted here is a note that we need to be able to define in illo tempore, acceptable answers are in the beginning/great time/dream time, or once upon a time. Megan's blog, along with p. 52 in Calasso brings us conviviality, rape, and indifference. Calasso tells us how it all came about on p. 176, where we need to know of Tantalus, Pelops, and that Agamemnon, and Menelaus were the big players for the Trojan War. We also need to remember the different types of creation stories. Then we got into our questions:
1) Which is the mother of the muses? Mnemosyne
2) What was Persephone doing when she was abducted? picking flowers (Narcissus flowers to be precise)
3) Who wrote the alegory of the cave? Plato (This one went through quite the discussion, and that is the simplest version of how that discussion ended.)
4) Who was always describes as decieftull and beautiful, and also considered a phantom? Helen (there was a brief mentioning of a description of Helen as "the face that could launch a thousand ships, but that won't be on the test).
5) Who was Europe named after? Europa (I actually have the word Deutsch written down, because that's what they still call the continent.)
6) Who arrives unexpected and possesses? Dionysus
7) What is the mythological root of enthusiasm? en theos, or god possessed
8) Who says "One more time, Athena, love me, as much as you can." ? Odysseus
9) Abduction is always followed by ____ in Calasso. metamorphosis (that makes more sense then how it is written down in my notes.)
10) Who was born from Uranus' testicles? Aphrodite (goddess of love, name means born of the foam.)
11) Who mothered the minotaur? Pasiphae
12) What means "tearing of limbs"? sparagmos
13) What (typically) follows sparagmos? omophagia
14) Great desire of the hero is? To return home
15) Define anamnesis. recollection, innate knowledge (this is a Plato thing)
16) Define apocalypse. to unveil (not to violently end the world, I don't know if any zombie references would do you any good)
17) Define Eschtology. The study of ends (we swear it's somewhere in our notes.)
18) What was in the labrynth? The minotaur
19) Who is the Destroyer of Delights? Death
20) This one is harder to write down because we got off on a tangent here. The origional question posed was what form did Zeus take to seduce Io? referencing the cloud incident. We then went off and listed pretty much every disguise that Zeuse ever used. I didn't write them all down but Andrew did, and is should all be up on his blog.
The reason the goddess of love part was added in paranthesis on the Uranus question is because we wanted to have another easy question (besides #5), and it was who is the goddess of love?
We were placed in our groups today, our group assignment thing is to describe the way in which myth can be found in everyday life, and we are encouraged to be creative. We were supposed to be given five minutes at the end to get into these groups and exchange contact information. As it is we got sidetracked with #20, and only got a minute to do this. My group (the 3s), simply made a list our names and contact info. One of us has the list, and will email it to the rest of us.
1) Which is the mother of the muses? Mnemosyne
2) What was Persephone doing when she was abducted? picking flowers (Narcissus flowers to be precise)
3) Who wrote the alegory of the cave? Plato (This one went through quite the discussion, and that is the simplest version of how that discussion ended.)
4) Who was always describes as decieftull and beautiful, and also considered a phantom? Helen (there was a brief mentioning of a description of Helen as "the face that could launch a thousand ships, but that won't be on the test).
5) Who was Europe named after? Europa (I actually have the word Deutsch written down, because that's what they still call the continent.)
6) Who arrives unexpected and possesses? Dionysus
7) What is the mythological root of enthusiasm? en theos, or god possessed
8) Who says "One more time, Athena, love me, as much as you can." ? Odysseus
9) Abduction is always followed by ____ in Calasso. metamorphosis (that makes more sense then how it is written down in my notes.)
10) Who was born from Uranus' testicles? Aphrodite (goddess of love, name means born of the foam.)
11) Who mothered the minotaur? Pasiphae
12) What means "tearing of limbs"? sparagmos
13) What (typically) follows sparagmos? omophagia
14) Great desire of the hero is? To return home
15) Define anamnesis. recollection, innate knowledge (this is a Plato thing)
16) Define apocalypse. to unveil (not to violently end the world, I don't know if any zombie references would do you any good)
17) Define Eschtology. The study of ends (we swear it's somewhere in our notes.)
18) What was in the labrynth? The minotaur
19) Who is the Destroyer of Delights? Death
20) This one is harder to write down because we got off on a tangent here. The origional question posed was what form did Zeus take to seduce Io? referencing the cloud incident. We then went off and listed pretty much every disguise that Zeuse ever used. I didn't write them all down but Andrew did, and is should all be up on his blog.
The reason the goddess of love part was added in paranthesis on the Uranus question is because we wanted to have another easy question (besides #5), and it was who is the goddess of love?
We were placed in our groups today, our group assignment thing is to describe the way in which myth can be found in everyday life, and we are encouraged to be creative. We were supposed to be given five minutes at the end to get into these groups and exchange contact information. As it is we got sidetracked with #20, and only got a minute to do this. My group (the 3s), simply made a list our names and contact info. One of us has the list, and will email it to the rest of us.
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