6 Truths About Myths, Symbols, Legends and Dreams
When was the last time you did something for personal fulfillment? The last time you did something just for your growth?
At age 32, Joseph Campbell retired to Woodstock for four years to read the classics. He spent long periods reading, all the while mining the world’s stories for connections that became available to the world later through his extensive writing.
Carl Jung also embarked on an extended, inner journey he called his “confrontation with the unconscious.” He used the time to sort out his main theories and develop one of the most influential works in the history of psychology: The Red Book.
What I’m leading up to is this.
Individuals who fulfill their life’s task have certain
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characteristics in common: one of them involves carving out their own path. That’s what personal and practical mythology are all about. Personal mythology is an exploration of the mythic stories that help us understand our beliefs and our history. The story-lines and characters help us confront major issues we can relate to on a deep, universal level. Here are a few thoughts about myths, legends, symbols and dreams. Legends.
An example of a legend is the tale of Atlantis. Legends emphasize a story more than the significance of a story. Legends help us grow by giving us stories rich with moral or philosophical meaning we might apply to our lives.
Symbols. Symbols are objects or images that an individual unconsciously uses to represent something else. “We have no symbolic life,” Jung once said, “and we are all badly in need of a symbolic life!”
Dreams. Dreams are symbolic expressions of the unconscious. They can help us process new, important emotionally-charged information about our lives. They help us understand new experiences and cope with trauma or loss.
Myths give us role models. Ever wonder why superhero movies are so popular? Children pattern themselves after heroes and connect with many archetypal characters like Superman and Wonderwoman. As adults we can find strength in stories about deities and mythical figures, and their heroic journeys as well.
Myths explain the incomprehensible. What is our fate after death? What are the reasons for a crisis, a drought or a miracle? The Greeks turned to myths when they faced the mysteries of life and so do we. Myths satisfy our need to understand the natural
world. Myths stabilize society. Myths help us stay connected to society, to our ancestors and to each other. Myths and rituals anchor us and provide a transcendent means for maintaining our self-image. If these ideas intrigue you, you would be great candidate for the New York Open Center’s ground-breaking Holistic Psychology program. Dreams and myths are just the beginning. The program offers seekers the chance to learn from respected thought leaders from the California Institute of Integral Studies and experience the first Holistic Psychology Certificate program in the world. Isn’t it time you did something for your soul?
A symbol is a word or expression which signifies something other than the physical object to which it directly refers. The book “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee contains three recognizable symbols.
But first I need to define what folklore in the movies is. Folklore in the movies has five main points which the hero or heroine goes through. The call to adventure: something has to happen to the hero or heroine in order to get them involved in some situation which concerns them greatly. Refusal of the call: the hero or heroine has to disobey something or someone. Supernatural aid: the hero or heroine gets help from an outside force, someone wiser than the hero or heroine, and someone who understands the situation better. The crossing of the first threshold: once involved with the situation before them, the hero or heroine has a conflict which causes them to get caught in the belly of the whale. The belly of the whale: the hero or heroine gets caught in some place, of which they try to escape.
Through reading about these heroes, kids believe that there are good things that happen to good people. These heroes encourage many kids when they’re young, and provide them with right and wrong. For example, many fairy tales and comic stories show kids the kinds of behaviors that need in order to succeed in life, to improve society, and to overcome hard times. They become their example of healthy adult role models who through hard times and many contractions they were able to react positively and overcome hard times. Heroes prove to them that no matter how much suffering and hardships in the world, there are good people, who always do the right thing and provide us with hope in hard times. Heroes do provide courage for us to overcome emotionally, physically, or spiritually
According to Linda Seger all myths, in all cultures are much the same. In these myths it is just the time, place and setting that changes. This is why Hollywood is so successful at making good movies, because they base it off these myths. The most popular myth is that of the hero, because for most of us this is what we want to be. With this myth we can live that experience through these characters. In the creation of a hero there are ten stages, using the Matrix as an example we will look at these ten stages.
From before the dawn of civilization as we know it, humanity has formed myths and legends to explain the natural world around them. Whether it is of Zeus and Hera or Izanami-no-Mikoto and Izanagi-no-mikoto, every civilization and culture upon this world has its own mythos. However, the age of myth is waning as it is overshadowed in this modern era by fundamental religion and empirical science. The word myth has come to connote blatant falsehood; however, it was not always so. Our myths have reflected both the society and values of the culture they are from. We have also reflected our inner psyche, conscious and unconscious, unto the fabric of our myths. This reflection allows us to understand ourselves and other cultures better. Throughout the eons of humanity’s existence, the myths explain natural phenomena and the cultural legends of the epic hero have reflected the foundations and the inner turmoil of the human psyche.
Myths relate to events, conditions, and deeds of gods or superhuman beings that are outside ordinary human life and yet basics to it” ("Myth," 2012). Mythology is said to have two particular meanings, “the corpus of myths, and the study of the myths, of a particular area: Amerindian mythology, Egyptian mythology, and so on as well as the study of myth itself” ("Mythology," 1993). In contrast, while the term myth can be used in a variety of academic settings, its main purpose is to analyze different cultures and their ways of thinking. Within the academic setting, a myth is known as a fact and over time has been changed through the many different views within a society as an effort to answer the questions of human existence. The word myth in an academic context is used as “ancient narratives that attempt to answer the enduring and fundamental human questions: How did the universe and the world come to be? How did we come to be here? Who are we? What are our proper, necessary, or inescapable roles as we relate to one another and to the world at large? What should our values be? How should we behave? How should we not behave? What are the consequences of behaving and not behaving in such ways” (Leonard, 2004 p.1)? My definition of a myth is a collection of false ideas put together to create
The tales of Greek heroes and the gods are older than all of us. Most of these tales are thought to be myths, but every interpretation of Greek mythology and the stories that it contains correlates with something in the real world today. The story of the creation of the world, and the stories of the heroes Hercules, Perseus and Theseus, are only but a few of the compelling stories Greek mythology has to offer.
Mythology is defined as a collection of interrelated stories of a given culture. Myths are intended to explain and describe the mysteries of nature and give understanding about the world that surrounds us. Each culture has their own mythology that reflects their values and beliefs. Myths were also generated to tell the story of the first people to inhabit the earth. The Egyptian mythology elevated these people to the level of Gods and Goddesses by giving them supernatural and special powers. These myths of creation were passed from one generation to the next, either orally or by hieroglyphs painted in sacred temples, pyramids, and sanctuaries.
A symbol is any “‘object, act, event, quality, or relation which serves as a vehicle for conception’” (230). Peyote Hunt: The Sacred Journey of the Huichol Indians by Barbara Myerhoff is a very intricate text which involves numerous aspects of symbolism. Myerhoff not only applies a much deeper meaning to deer, maize, and peyote, but she also uses these objects as a representation of divine beings and spirits. The deer, maize, and peyote are very powerful entities but together they form the deer-maize-peyote complex, which is central to the Huichol life. The unification of these disparate objects can be easily understood once they are analyzed on three different levels: exegetical, operational, and positional.
The earliest myths are found to exist during the archaic period. The Greek word “Mythos” describes words or speech and can also mean a tale or legend. Myths have continually been to be passed down for traditional purposes. Elders would tell these magnificent stories to inspire and teach young children about gods and heroes. Mythology was important
Oprah Winfrey once said, “The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.” But, what actually is a dream and what do dreams really have to do with one’s everyday life? In essence, a dream is a series of mental images and emotions occurring during a slumber. Dreams can also deal with one’s personal aspirations, goals, ambitions, and even one’s emotions, such as love and hardship. However, dreams can also give rise to uneasy and terrible emotions; these dreams are essentially known as nightmares.
Mythology is an essential part of all cultures. Through myth, ancient cultures attempted to explain the world and make sense of their daily lives. Myth helps us to live in the minds and time period of people who lived many centuries ago with no technology, no running water, and a basic education. Greek myth is possibly the most commonly recognized myth simply because it is likely the most developed and best recorded. Modern Greek myth originated around 1000 B.C. in the writings of the famous Greek poet Homer in the Odyssey and the Illiad. Although early Greek myths are often vague and contain many primitive elements regarding their understanding of death, sacrifice, and fate, later myths show Greek culture developed and changed over time.
Dreams are series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep. Dreams occur during a certain stage of sleep known as REM. Several different psychologists, including Freud and Hobson, have studied dreams. Psychologists have provided many theories as to what dreams are and the meanings behind them.
Myths are an immense part of our life, they shape the way we live, think and believe. When we are young we grow up with various myths that shape our childhood. For example, we grow up believing in Santa Clause, we believe that naughty kids will receive coal and nice kids will receive presents, which is a great way to conditions kids to behave. Life would not be as exciting if we did not have myths to believe in, as I mentioned before, growing up believing in Santa Clause is a great experience for kids, Christmas would not be as exciting without it. It would just be people giving each other gifts, but there's something special about watching the kids set cookies and milk out for Santa Clause and waiting for him to come down the chimney.
In conclusion, myths reflect show us the Greeks view on the world, religion, and nature. Their understanding of the world is both similar and different compared to modern society. Myths also reflect the importance of gods in the Greek society and how each god represented something different. In addition, we can see the role of monsters in myths, what they represent and how were they important. Myths also show us the role of women in society and whether they were as important as men or not.