New Mythos

> "What we need is a common story that connects us to Creation, that discovers the sacred, the magic in every moment. We need to evoke the deep sense of connection and relationships, the pattern that illuminates our place, our identity, direction and purpose... We need stories we can share as children of the earth, stories that bring us to a knowledge of ourselves as global beings and as participants in a vast and wondrous unfolding of Creation."
> - Medicine Story

NEW MYTHOS

Myth and legend underly as well as direct our views of the world and our place in it. Concepts of what it is to be a hero or leader, to be male or female, or even to be human, are shaped by imagery and message from childhood stories to ancient mythology around the world. Stories of gods and goddesses, saviors and journeys, transformation and despair, instill in us ideas of how society should function, and of how we as individuals are to act, feel, and think. Beyond the stories themselves, myths and their themes have colonized our consciousness by pervading literature, music, and art. In so doing they establish a ground of accepted assumptions about how the world works and what is possible, bases so omnipresent that we have forgotten that assumptions can be questioned and challenged. Most of the myths that have shaped our cultural construction of reality have been derived from centuries past, when our understanding of the world - and indeed the world itself- was different. Our current reality - of 6 billion people on the planet, of new governments, techologies, science, insight - needs a new set of underlying beliefs about our potential. We need a New Mythos. In fact, the New Mythos is already arising. From popular culture, television, movies, music, art, and the internet are laying down new potential mythological structures and themes - themes certain to shape our shared perception of events and possibilities, or likelihoods and potentials, of what our future can or will hold. Some thematic takes on recent movies: The Lord of the Rings: What do you do with the power to control everything? The Matrix movies: How do you wake up and free yourself from slavery when it's so difficult to wake up, and even, to choose awakening? Star Wars: Attack of the Clones : What is there to do when it is our leaders who betray us to The Dark Side? This page links to explorations in popular culture of new mythos arising in the popular media. It is time to extract the messages these new myths give us, and to understand the new possibilities they suggest, or the fears, drives, and unconscious beliefs that motivate our behavior as individuals, nations, and cultures. The more conscious we are of the mythological underpinnings of our psyche, the more conscious we can be in *choosing* our new directions, and the future. what could be more fun? Religious Mythological Connections Hinduism and Xena Xena's chakram is the weapon of Hindu Gods? The Way of love and non-violence "It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth." -- The Hero with a Thousand Faces (2nd ed., Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968), p. 3. if you have something you would like to see on this page, please email me at myth AT global-dialog.org. | Mythos Emerging:the New Myth-Stories of Our Time The Matrix The Matrix as a mythological construct "...Specifically it is that oldest of all mythic forms, what the great Joseph Campbell had designated as The Hero's Journey." Evil Demons, Saviors, and Simulacra in The Matrix by Doug Mann & Heidi Hochenedel The Matrix by David Bruce.. Pop culture from a spiritual point of view Spiritualism Turns Matrix Into Cult Fare by Bob Harvey XENA - Initiation of the evolving hero ** Xena Warrior Princess: A Native American Perspective By Linda Knighton (simahoyo@rcia.com) The new 'hero' and lots more... Xena ��"I soon discovered that Xena is a myth not from the past, but one of the present. " Xena: Warrior Princess": An Analytical Review by Karen Pusateri The Hero's Path: Gabrielle As Focal Hero In Xena:Warrior Princess by By Richard Carter Jr. (cjcs@flash.net) Xena And The Challenge Of Destiny By Ian Rentoul (IRentoul@msn.com) Xena: Feminist Icon By Suzanne Sheldon Star Wars: the Myth You Grew Up With Star Wars: the New Mythology by Dominic Sagolla Great overview of mythological themes in Star Wars Star Wars "Essentially a classical myth, Star Wars utilizes fantasy imagery and a science-fiction setting to put a modern spin on its mythological themes. " Episode One - The Phantom Menace - Star Wars as Personal Mythology by Jonathan Young The Wisdom of Yoda Mythology in a Galaxy Far Far Away Myth-analysis: the underpinnings of the subconscious Jungian Theories Pop culture from a spiritual point of view Joseph Campbell's Ten Commandments for Reading Mythology Joseph Campbell - you saw the Whole of the Moon

Participant Comments follow below

LINK: The>http://www.mythologicalmovieclub.org/html/index.php">The Mythological Movie Club

- As mythologists, we are compelled by the idea that cultural mythologies are best examined in the dreams of popular culture – in the fantasy and poetic images that stream across our daily paths in the form of television shows and movies.

A. Harken
10/22/04 07:00:11 GMT

Lord of the Rings: Reflections>http://www.windweaver.com/politics/lordrings.htm">Reflections on Lord of the Rings, Mythology, Jungian Psychology, Bush, Saddam, Astrology, and the 2004 Presidential Election - "I believe that our country lacks clearly-definable myths to unite us, and that the latent myths that express the deep archetypal dramas of Americans are most reflected in the world of the movies " A. Harken 10/22/04 06:50:56 GMT

Calendopedia - If time is a myth, how have we constructed it? "Who Put These Fingerprints On My Imagination?" Engaging The Matrix by David Dark, Adapted from Everyday Apocalypse. The stakes are high... what will it take to break free from our captivity? Author David Dark explores apocalyptic messages in The Matrix and sets the stage for The Matrix Reloaded My students often accuse me of madness, but they find nothing particularly controversial in my observation that The Matrix powerfully names and describes the forms of captivity into which we're born and within which we live and move and, by all appearances, have our being...." 11/17/03 15:50:16 GMT

Mind Exchange info. Matrix stuff 11/13/03 07:22:21 GMT

More Martix links for content 11/13/03 07:14:04 GMT

Merovingian info. 11/13/03 07:01:08 GMT

Link to Mythos and Logos web page 11/13/03 06:58:31 GMT

Mythos comparison Neo -Jesus 11/13/03 06:54:19 GMT

Outline of underlying concepts and questions in the Martix Would be interesting to answer these questions in a group 11/13/03 06:47:58 GMT

More words off a forum concerning Morpheus: Morpheus was the god of dreams in Greek mythology. King Sleep was father of a thousand sons - indeed a tribe - and of them all, the one he chose was Morpheus, who had such skill in miming any human form at will. No other Dream can match his artistry in counterfeiting men: their voice, their gait, their face - their moods; and, too, he imitates their dress precisely and the words they use most frequently. But he mimes only men..." Ovid therefore suggests that Morpheus only sends images of humans in dreams or visions, while his brothers Phobetor and Phantasos are in charge of depicting dream images of animals and inanimate objects. Together these three sons of Sleep - Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasos - rule the realm of dreams. 11/13/03 06:44:52 GMT

Neo - more Matrix content 11/13/03 06:17:28 GMT

Persephone Persephone in Greek Mythology I am collecting information on a few of the names in the Matrix. I'd like to understand more about the the concepts behind and beneath the Matrix and talk about what they reflect for us literally and metaphorically. Any other information and comments are welcome! 11/13/03 06:05:45 GMT

05/04/02 22:36:54 GMT

05/04/02 22:36:45 GMT