Groups 5 & 6 Tuesday

Group 5- Amazing acting, loved the way they threw in a bunch of the words we have learned in class, Awesome filming... it was like watching a movie :P Bonus points ++ for POPCORN! The dog was adorable, and the costumes were great too.

Group 6- The funerals was pretty interesting. I liked seeing all of the different cultures thrown together, fighting over how to properly bury poor dead Kyle Miller. All of you were hilarious, I thought it was a cool point of view... Apple juice was delicious and so were the cookies:D

Thursday 12-1 Last Names A - H
Tuesday   12-6     ""              I -S?
Thursday  12-8     ""            T-Z
approx.

Have paper ready to hand in after presentation... No longer than 5 minutes!!
Good Luck!

Notes

Seperation, initiation, return - not specific enough for paper

completely planned/ seemingly unplanned - don't read paper word for word

practice in front of mirro

chose specific important parts of book

Dont use words LIKE & STUFF

25 to 30 blogs by the end

15-18 Startlingly awesome blogs

quality of blog/ engaged blog!

Stranger that Fiction

An IRS auditor suddenly finds himself the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire life, from his work, to his love-interest, to his death.

How did it all begin? Calasso god abducted bull

curse or gift of the alphabet- Cadmus

MOST IMPORTANT LINE IN MAGUS pg 311 "All that is past possesses our present."

masque --> music dancing stage professional actors hired

Nick- all staged deconstructing Urfe's mind.

Conchis looks like Pablo Picasso.

Semian monkey?

Precedent behind every action-same as quote from pg 311 Magus.

Carry pressure of past with you. lives are quotidian small talk, world is present.

Hi(s)tory

-guys play with tonka trucks

mythical baggage- Urfe was unaware of

Collective Unconscious

Carl Jung.  It is  a part of the unconscious mind

  the structure of the psyche autonomously organizes experience. "the collective unconscious collects and organizes those personal experiences in a similar way with each member of a particular species."(WIKI)

 I have trap door to birth? also everyone else's baggage

its all been planned, choreographed

every man must make a trip to see Persephone in the underworld.

Creator, Preserver, & Destroyer

"Every answer is a kind of death" Magus, Lily De' Seitas says to Nicholas on pg 626

Impersonal, not about you... Visit with Lily and Roses mother painful discovery- it's not about us. Don't stop being you just start seeing it's not about everybody else.

"Betrayal is a function of deconstruction!"

I love it !!

Ignorance is stupidity, to hide behind veil

Black widow- gets male into web, uses him for something (impregnates), eat him ...

Mae West- devouring female... no soul

gives him good time, devours him.... JULIE is a Black Widow

Eliade- Taoism

--> dreamed he was a butterfly, enjoying himself he woke as a man and didn't know if he was dreaming of being a butterfly or butterfly dreaming of being a man.

Butterfly mirrors the Soul

As I read The Magus, I came across multiple instances where butterflies were recognized. I found this astounding, as we discussed in class the butterfly is the Greek image for soul. Fowles used butterflies to signal a sense of freedom, of calming in the air, or a weight off his shoulders. " We were silent. Two coupled yellow butterflies flitted heavily, saggingly, past." As Urfe finally told Allison of Julie/Lily, the butterflies were released to purposely flutter past them, as to say, you can relax for a moment and gaze into your soul.

Butterflies make me feel that way. When I am gazing upon a butterfly all else is disappeared, unimportant, life is blissful for that endless second. As if looking into your own soul. I started searching butterfly mirrors and came across this picture, which led me to nothing other than ALICE IN WONDERLAND! The girl who made this lovely piece of art was thinking of transcending into a butterfly realm through a portal, the mirror. Which is exactly how I feel when watching a butterfly. I thought this artwork was marvelous and I had to share it with all of you!

Here is the link if you would like to read what the artist wrote :)

http://prolificsoul.blogspot.com/2010/03/alice-in-wonderland.html

Destiny has brought me footy pajamas!

I was told to do community service at the Salvation Army last September. At that same period in time, I was looking for an awesome pair of footy pajamas for the cold, harsh winter ahead. As I hung clothes, clothes, and more clothes... I stumbled upon  the most perfect pair of footy pajamas and not only were they MY size and exactly what I was looking for... MY NAME was written on the butt flap!!!!! BAILEY in big white letters, right there for me to read:D That day I knew I was destined to be at the Salvation Army, hanging that piece of clothing. I couldn't believe it! It still baffles me, what are the chances!!! "It was destined(256)." Nick did not want to walk with Alison for 6 hours, only to be alone with her all night, in a small hut, where surely she would want to do the deed. At that very moment, frantically trying to find a way around this, a man with a mule stopped and let Alison ride packsaddle. Sigh of relief, things worked out in the nick of time, due to destiny. But he didn't get out of it anyway. Because destiny "Conchis" had controlled the outcome, meaning Alison pretty much forced him to have sex with her... it's just part of the game right? No big deal or anything.

Transformation...

"Toujours the done thing(247)." Forever the thing done? I need help understanding this paragraph on page 247... Where did this come from? One minute they are talking about the hotel room, next this? It threw me off balance a little bit. I understand what it means, in translation, but does it have to do with Nick and Alison reuniting? About remember their past? HELP maybe I'm overlooking something...

Aside from that...

"She spoke as if we had last met the week before. But it didn't work. The nine months stood like a sieve between us, through which words came, but none of the emotions(246-247)."

 This hit home with me, reuniting with people you haven't seen in a year or so. Especially after going through such a transformation as Nick did. Nick thought he met someone new, Julie, and no longer had feelings for Alison. He felt a new life forming, in a new place, with new people. He didn't want anything to do with her... later, as you know, Conchis used his awesome mind playing tricks on Nick to go see her, by hiding everyone and everything in Bourani. My transformation wasn't quite as drastic, yet after three years it seems like I am staring at a stranger, their actions seem different, or maybe it is my actions that are different... I can't help but feel separated from the people I once felt most connected to. I choose to roll with the changes, there is nothing I can do... I have been transformed.

The Unexpected

Kevin was beat up on 8th street in front of the Methodist church.
Priest doesn't have time because he has to go to a sack lunch on campus.
Middle-eastern man living in attic takes him to Pickle Barrel, and gets him a delicious sandwich.


Moral of Story: The person you thought would, didn't! The one you didn't think would, did! 

I have experienced this in my life with a couple friends. I only make it home once or twice a year to see my high school friends and when I got there I had plans to hang out with my best friends. I thought both of them would get together with me, neither of them did. The friends I hadn't even told I was coming home, I saw randomly and ended up having a great weekend with some old friends I didn't know I still had. 

Moral of Story: The people I thought would, didn't! The people I didn't think would, did!

Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, & the Tooth Fairy

 Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

"VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

I feel connected to this concept, just like we can make a rock sacred to our Mythology class we can make Santa Claus real. The rock doesn't appear different, it merely is because we believe it is. I saw a commercial for best buy today that made me think about this more. Santa came to a house to put presents in the stockings and the mom comes out, laughs, and says something like "looks like there's no room for your gifts!" I was horrified by the idea that a little kid was going to see that and possible be turned away from the belief in Santa Claus for Christmas. It tore me up because, though I know he, the one individual person, isn't real, doesn't mean I don't want to continue believing in the spirit of him. 

Similarly, I am amazed by the idea of most modern technology. I don't know how they put together a computer, or how making phone calls works. I have never taken the time to try and figure it out, and break it down, it probably wouldn't be as spectacular to me if I were to find out. I choose to stay oblivious to such details. Don't ask questions, just believe. :)

Exam Review

Calasso
pg. 209-212

• 4 stories that make up quarternity* Thinking- Zeus, Feeling-Dionysus, Sensation- Athena, Intuition-Demeter

• Terms of Space- Zeus=UP, Athena=OUT(polis,goddess of city), Dionysus=DOWN, Demeter= IN
• Persephone(Kore) getting abducted by Hades while picking a narcissis flower, narcissist= obsessed with them self.
• Triple Goddess= Mother, Maiden(daughter), & the crone

pg. 225-226

• Athena came from head of Zeus

pg. 224

• half has to do with mysteries of Ulysses, why Greeks respect Ulysses more than anything?

pg. 336

• How would you define Homeric theology? 

• Supremacy of the invisible
• All that you get is what you see
• When you can no longer see you have nothing(daylight and light)
• Ephigonal asks to look at light one last time "Stop and smell the roses" The Visible

pg. 359

• Why do we suffer?

• so we can take a course in mythology
• wouldnt have anything to sing about (write blues songs)
• sacrifice so we can be happy... thanks Quentin

pg. 383-391

• Precedent behind every action
• invasion of mind and body
• What did Cadmus give to Greece? Necklace

pg. 387

• What conclusions can we draw? 

• life without meaning or life with disaster? YOU BETTER CHOSE DISASTER!
• Cadmus, founder of city of Thebes
• Greatest disaster was flys feet (gift of mind, vowels, & consonants) 
• He gave the Alphabet!

Eliade

• The Eleusinian mysteries
• The Tarboleum (rights & rituals)
• The Dionysus material from Bachae

Great Pan's Dead
WB Yeats: The Second Coming

Student Questions

• What does spiritus mundi means?
• Spirit of World 
• At the marriage of Cadmus & Harmony, who was drawing the chariot?
• Boar & Lion
• What country are nacirema's from? 
• America(USA)
• Which of the three things, important of Eleusian Mysteries was the origin of Theater?
• Things done= drama= dromenon
• Things done, seen, & said
•  What is the study of soul, in mythology?
• Psychology, NOT THE STUDY OF MIND
• At birth(pg. 204), whose beauty was only appreciated by father? 
• Persephone
• What is the origin of our legal/ justice system? 
• Athena story
• acquits Orestes for killing his mother
•  Women's one free night of retaliation is called? 
• Tote Toge (Day of the Dead)
• What animal is associated with Taurboleum?
• Bull -sign of taurus
• What makes something sacred? 
• in class, making the stone sacred
• if you truly believe something is made sacred
• Who is the real hero, according to Sexson? 
• We are all heroic, ME, US all work for answers
• James Joyce novel... modeled on which hero? 
• Odysseus
• According to Irish poet, WB Yeats, in Second Coming, history is to cycle every 2000 years, which comes from visitation of a BLANK who impregnates a BLANK.
• Bird; Woman
• What is the greek image for soul? 
• Butterfly
• Zeus ate a goddes named BLANK, meaning wisdom?
• Metis
• Which word best typifies a space carved out in which sacred rituals are carried out?
• Temenos
• Who is the god of the double door? What does it mean?
• Dionysus (born 2x) of mother's womb(Semele) and father's thigh(Zeus)
• Dithyramb(os) will be part of question
•  Someone heard a divine voice at end of Pagaen world and they said BLANK & initiate religious age
• Great Pan's Dead
• Fundamental difference between gods and heroes? 
• Mortality
• Who has more fun gods or heroes? 
• Heroes- gods envy 
• When do the Furies arrive?
• When you kill a blood relative, Kill you mother
• What is the religious significance of Cupid & Psyche, according to instructor?
• The Psychological development of the feminine
• Which ritual came up multiple times in presentation?
• Australian Rain-making ritual
• What is the name of the girl that the king threw sandal at?
• Charila
• What Greek play, young woman buries brother even though forbidden, shows clash between tradition & state?
• Antigone
• From what term do we get our word Senator?
• Senex
• What is the definition of Archetype?
• Ancient or primordial image which is found universally in Mythology, fairytale, & fantasy
• Which Eleusian mystery pertains to fertility during certain month?
• Maypole - phallic symbolism
• Study hero pattern / 22 point formula(unsure of question) Might ask... Who covers most of 22 points?
• Oedipus- most, Jesus- not so many, Hercales- some
• In this class, what christian ritual did we discuss that had to deal with death and rebirth?
• Baptism
• Why was Demeter putting a baby in the fire?
• To make him immortal
• If you have someone in your family that is a "daddy's girl," Whose classical archetype is she modeling? 
• Athena

That should be the majority of what we talked about in review today. There were a few questions we didn't find that he will most likely put on the test so check blogs for important notes!

•  

Rituals of the Gods- Marraige of Cadmus & Harmony

A few rituals I noticed when reading Cadmus & Harmony...
"Their sham takes in the admirers of Sparta in other cities, who thus butcher their ears to imitate them, put leather bands around their legs, go to gymnasiums and wear short tunics, imagining that these are the keys to Sparta's supremacy among the Greeks."

"They put earrings on crocodiles. When they died they laid them out in huge subterranean vaults. Cities of the Crocodiles. When there was a fire, the only thing they worried about was saving the cats. And the cats, in turn, threw themselves into the fires."

"They had to respond to that invasion, and in so doing they chose their own way of communication with the gods: they would share the same victim, eating its blood and guts and leaving the smoke to the gods. That was the basis of the "Olympian sacrifice." That is why thyein, "to sacrifice," actually means "to fumigate": it was a slightly hypocritical homage to the divine."

"The most discreet and delicate way of having the gods understand the irreversible, scourge of all mortals, was the libation: you poured a noble liquid onto the ground and lost it forever. It was an act of homage, of course: the recognition of the presence and rights of an invisible power. But it was something else as well: an attempt to make conversation. As if men were saying to the gods, Whatever we do, we are this liquid poured away."

"First they helped Hera to bathe the statue like a bride in the river Asopus. Then they followed the chariot as far as a clearing topped by oaks on the summit of Mount Cithaeron. The goddess ordered them to build a big bonfire. She placed the statue with its torn veils in the middle. And all around, on the trunks forming the bonfire, the faithful heaped up their animals. the richest even offered cows and bulls. They poured on wine and incense. The the goddess set it alight. The statue was reduced to ashes while the shrieks of the animals being burned alive drowned  out the crackling of the flames. Many years later, in the same place, the ceremony was still being performed. Pausanias saw the pyre and said: I know of no fire so high, nor visible from so far off."

Happy Halloween Mythology!

"Two sovereign lines descend from Zeus: that of Dionysus and that of Apollo. Dionysus's line is more obscure than Apollo's; only rarely does it emerge from the shadow. Since he is both snake and bull, all history before Zeus is recalled in him and begins again with him. Apollo's line is more visible, yet even more secret than Dionysus's when it comes to Apollo's transgression against his father. Apollo is neither snake nor bull, but he who kills snake and bull, either loosing off the arrows himself, as with Python at Delphi, or sending his emissary, Theseus, to bury his sword in the Minotaur in Crete or capture the bull in Marathon."

At a bar in a small town of Fall River, WI there was a costume contest. First place was a minotaur! Awesome costume! Second has nothing to do with this but it was Alan from The Hangover, figured I'd throw that in. Last but not least, third place was Hercules (my boyfriend)! I got really excited when 2 of the 3 winners were mythological! I'm not really sure what to make of it but I thought there was a reason for it I just don't know about.

"Dionysus and Apollo: one is the weapon, the other uses the weapon."
Minotaur is the weapon, or the Dionysus... Hercules uses the weapon, or the Apollo... that's kind of what I was thinking.

Anyways, after the contest the prizes were given, and what better gift than a 1/4 barrel of beer (16 pitchers) for being Hercules for one evening:) So we proceeded to intoxicate ourselves as the gods would do.

Happy Halloween Mythology!