Mythos

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Change

The Inner Journey

I had, for a long while, been addicted to self development. It was like peeling onion layers; more were always waiting for you to deal with. But I was determined to recover from the effects of crippling emotional baggage I’d carried since childhood.

I’d felt an outsider most of my life, especially at school, even though there were times when I was popular. I rarely felt happy inside, even though I had a smile on my face much of the time. It started in early childhood. I wasn’t as bright as my older brother and younger sister; I wasn’t as pretty as my two younger sisters. Mum didn’t actually say the words, but when she talked, and she talked a lot, I read between the lines: ‘He’s a genius… she’s pretty…’ etc etc.

August 22, 2016 13 comments

Mythos Psychology

Are you afraid of Death?

When I was sixteen, a boyfriend said during one of our many debates on the existence or not of God: “What if we decided not to believe, and woke up one day to realise we were wrong all along. We’d feel a goon. Maybe we should hedge our bets just in case.” I tried to do that, but I was the original “Doubting Thomas“. I went through periods of believing in a higher being; then sometimes my belief would evaporate like the morning dew, just as quickly as it had appeared. Now I realise that “the truth” might be outside our limited human understanding. I like the introduction to the following trailer, but would take issue with it as it progresses. The conclusions are very depressing. It speaks to the head, and not to the heart, as it draws to its dark conclusions. It is not recommended that you watch the complete video, unless, of course, that you agree with its premises.

August 21, 2016 4 comments

Mythos Psychology

Things I fear …

Most people don’t admit to being afraid; this refers especially to men. That’s one of the reasons for the denial and stigmatising of mental illness. Showing vulnerable feelings is shameful in many people’s eyes. But everyone is fearful of something, and at certain times in life.

A friend once said: “Tell me what you are afraid of, and I will tell you who you are.” He was very good at knowing, being a psychic.

What are you afraid of?

Some people are afraid of dogs. Others are afraid of birds. My psychic friend said this latter fear represents a fear of the “other side”. This accords well with the arbitrary nature of many phobias, which are not linked to actual events in a person’s current or early life. Some of the members of my original family were extremely afraid of frogs. These harmless creatures were all around us on the farm, and they evoked extreme fear in the female members of the extended family, in spite of their never being known to hurt anyone. In literature, these creatures often represent sexuality. Carl Jung saw them as God’s first failed attempt to create a man.

For a long time I was afraid to show my writing to others. Like a lot of writers, who tend to be sensitive souls, I preferred to immerse myself in the written word, rather than “leading from the mouth”. One or two rejections or unkind words, were enough to stop me from trying to get published. Joining a writing group marked my first breakthrough moment. Members of this group—part of the Fellowship of Australian Writers—gave me the ability to give and receive feedback in a safe and supportive setting.

Fear of Getting Rejected

One day I asked how many of my group were writing in order to be published. I was surprised to learn that they all, without exception, wanted to be published.

They all agreed, of course, that the basic impetus for good writing is passion. That is, you write because you really want to, and love to, not because you want to get published. Otherwise, your writing will probably not be good enough to be published in any case.

And trying to be published has not always been easy for many of us. In order to get published you needed an agent, and in order to find an agent, you needed to be published in some form or other! It was a case of the ubiquitous vicious circle. That is why it’s an exciting time for writers today. A Strategic Book Publisher sums it up: “With ebooks and Kindle and m-books for mobile phones around the world, it’s a great time to be an author and a publisher. We hope to convey that enthusiasm to the world.”

Of course, quality needs to be maintained as well as publishing facility, and that’s where editors and reviewers come into the picture.

Early Genesis of Some Fears

Where does my extreme fear of rejection come from? I know I’m a good writer, so why have I not put myself out there in book published form? It is easier to avoid the discomfort of pushing through the fear, rather than to face up to it and expose yourself to rejection.

I think the answer to feelings of shame and fear of rejection, lies in past events, so long ago that many of us prefer to ignore them and to not go there.

Finding Surrogate Nurturers

I am reading a book now about mothers and daughters: the ubiquitous story of fraught mother/daughter relationships. We all need to feel that sense of being loved, and of being valued for who we are.

However, surely this security can come from surrogates, or even from oneself, if you have missed out on it a long way back.

In any case, somewhere therein lies my own story, and I owe it to myself, and to my writing, to find the strength to overcome this fear.

Read or listen to Guy Winch on early rejection and emotional problems.

August 20, 2016 0 comment

Mythos Nature Poetry

The Parable of the Twins

I came across this parable at the time my daughter was about to give birth to her first son and was enchanted by it. I had studied “The Republic” by Plato at Armidale Teachers’ College, and had learnt about a similar metaphor, that of The Cave, included in The Republic. Plato describes slaves imprisoned in a cave who are ignorant of the real world outside their prison. “The Parable of the Twins” expresses a similar idea of dislocation and ignorance linked to being expelled from the womb at the time of birth. My daughter has become avidly interested in the Cave Metaphor, even though she has never read “The Republic” by Plato, nor was ever willing to hear me talk about such things.

two-babies-womb

It goes something like this …

Once upon a time, twin boys were conceived in the womb. Seconds, minutes, hours passed as the two embryonic lives developed. The spark of life grew and each tiny brain began to take shape and form. With the development of their brain came feeling, and with feeling, perception—a perception of surroundings, of each other, and their own lives. They discovered that life was good and they laughed and rejoiced in their hearts.

One said to the other, “We are so lucky to have been conceived and to have this wonderful world.”

The other chimed in, “Yes, blessed be our mother who gave us life and each other.”

Each of the twins continued to grow and soon their arms and fingers, legs and toes began to take shape. They stretched their bodies and churned and turned in their little world. They explored it and found the life cord which gave them life from their mother’s blood. They were grateful for this new discovery and sang, “How great is the love of our mother – that she shares all she has with us!”

Weeks passed into months and with the advent of each new month, they noticed a change in each other and in themselves.

“We are changing,” one said. “What can it mean?”

“It means”, said the other, “that we are drawing near to birth.”

January 22, 2016 2 comments

Mythos Poetry Writing

An ancient mystic: Rumi

About Rumi

Born June 03, 1207in بلخ / Balkh, Afghanistan
Died August 20, 1273
From Wikipedia:

Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (Persian: مولانا جلال الدین محمد رومی), also known as Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Muhammad Balḫī (Persian: محمد بلخى) or Maulana Jalal al-Din Rumi, but known to the English-speaking world simply as Rumi, was a 13th century Persian (Tādjīk) poet, Islamic jurist, and theologian. Rumi is a descriptive name meaning “the Roman” since he lived most parts of his life in Anatolia which had been part of the Roman Empire until the Seljuq conquest two centuries earlier.

Rumi’s work are written in the new Persian Language. New Persian (also called Dari-Persian or Dari), a widely understood vernacular of Middle Persian, has its linguistic origin in the Fars Province of modern Iran. A Dari-Persian literary renaissance (In the 8th/9th century) started in regions of Sistan, Khorasan and Transoxiana and by the 10th/11th century, it overtook Arabic as the literary and cultural language in the Persian Islamic world. Although Rumi’s works were written in Persian, Rumi’s importance is considered to transcend national and ethnic borders. His original works are widely read in the original language across the Persian-speaking world. Translations of his works are very popular in South Asian, Turkic, Arab and Western countries. His poetry has influenced Persian literature as well as Urdu, Bengali and Turkish literatures. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world’s languages in various formats, and BBC News has described him as the “most popular poet in America”. (Wikipedia)

January 2, 2016 7 comments

Mythos Poetry Writing

Poets In Praise of Love

This beautiful poem fell upon my desk one morning
out of the world wide web :

I am your moon and your moonlight too
I am your flower garden and your water too
I have come all this way, eager for you
Without shoes or shawl
I want you to laugh
To kill all your worries
To love you
To nourish you
― Rumi

The Poet

Rumi

Rumi (1207 – 17 December 1273), was a Persian poet, theologian, and Sufi mystic.

His quotes on love are inspirational.

Rumi has been described as the “most popular poet” and is the best-selling poet in the United States.

His poems have been widely translated into many of the world’s languages and transposed into various formats.

This led me think of William Blake’s lovely poem
about a sick rose:

william-blake-by-thomas-phillips

O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

―William Blake

And I must include my favourite Shakespearean
Love Sonnet No. XCI

Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
Some in their wealth, some in their body’s force,
Some in their garments though new-fangled ill;
Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse;
And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure,
Wherein it finds a joy above the rest:
But these particulars are not my measure,
All these I better in one general best.
Thy love is better than high birth to me,
Richer than wealth, prouder than garments’ cost,
Of more delight than hawks and horses be;
And having thee, of all men’s pride I boast:
Wretched in this alone, that thou mayst take
All this away, and me most wretched make.

—William Shakespeare

young-shakespearian-man

December 12, 2015 0 comment

Mythos Poetry

Anthropos Rising

The Anthropos is rising!

The age-old, original man is coming to claim us
from our shadow imitations of manhood!

Patriarchal Man is dying!
You know him well – the one who feeds on dominance
over women and children –
The one who lords it over other men,
And who rapes even the earth itself in the godawful illusion
that he owns even Her.

Macho Man is a zombie –
a walking dead man who tries to keep himself alive
by worshipping fire power.
He stalks the earth with grotesque bravado,
threatening the life of everything that breathes,
unable to connect with anything except out of this Killer.

June 18, 2015 0 comment

Mythos Writing

The Hero’s Journey

Many writers on literary structure and theory present a linear figure to portray the format of a short story, the narrative arc, of a memoir or a novel.

Kal Bashir, however, represents structure in screen plays and in the above mentioned genres as circular. This fits in with the idea of the monostory by Joseph Campbell (The Hero With A Thousand Faces) and with Jung’s idea of archetypes. Basic to these ideas is the premise that all stories, even those told by cavemen of long ago, tell of a hero going on a journey, encountering adventures and returning to the starting point, renewed and invigorated in some profound way.

Kal Bashir states on his website: “The most successful movies and bestselling novels definitely, without doubt, indisputably follow the same story arc (there is really only one way to do it) – they all take their archetypes on a journey through a New World or State in a rigid process driven manner, where transformation and capacities result in resolution of the initial imperfection (and the result is not unoriginal).”

Do you agree or disagree with the idea that every successful story fits in with this architecture?

cover-of-campbell-book

May 23, 2015 1 comment

Emotions and Health Mythos

The New Kadampa Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism

Several years ago, a young Englishwoman donned a backpack, set out for Australia and rented premises in Bondi; she’d brought the New Kadampa Tradition to Sydney from the United Kingdom. The beautiful Manjushri Temple is in the Conishead Priory near the Lakes District. This temple was constructed by the faithful from the ruins of an old building, inspired by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, the well-loved leader of the group in the West.

The beliefs and teachings departed little from the Dali Lama’s philosophy, however one particular difference became grounds for political dispute at one stage, which is when I decided to leave the group. NKT followers are taught to worship a warrior deity from the ancient practices, Dorje Shugden, who is said to protect the purity of the Dharma—the practices that need to be performed and protected for a happy and peaceful life. In a photograph, Dorje Shugden is depicted on a ferocious lion’s back bearing a sword in his right hand. The Dali Lama distanced himself from the NKT practices by criticising the adherence to the warrior deity Dorje Shugden.

August 20, 2014 2 comments

Mythos Writing

Duality or Onenness: The Moon

I’ve always been fascinated by the moon. There is a strange beauty about the moon as viewed from Earth. It must have been a wonderful sight for the cosmonauts to view Earth from The Moon.

The moon is unique, which is why it is called The Moon. It makes me think and dream of onenness. By contrast, here on planet Earth, duality often seems to reign. Our planet’s surface is composed of water and land; parts of it are hot and others cold. And so it goes on: beautiful/ugly; war/peace; happy/sad; matter/energy; brain/mind; body/soul; physical/spiritual; love/hate.

my best shot of the moon

Sometimes, though, one can arrive at a sense of oneness, even if it is short-lived, even here on Earth. Many have experienced this at times of heightened emotions, especially during birth and death events. Near-death experiences have been related and recorded so many times that they have become accepted as the norm, for many of those who seek spiritual enlightenment. While I was pregnant with my first child, a daughter, who became very dear to me, I began meditating obsessively and exploring the spiritual through reading and writing, which started from the first movements of this child within. This great love all started in utero. When she was born, she was shining silver, like the moon. Wherever I am in the world, she is always there with me, even today, even though now, we are both adults/parents and grandparents.

Another means of arriving at this sense of onenness is through meditation. While meditating, one can imagine travelling through the Milky Way, passing via the planets of the Solar System in which we live. And sometimes, just sometimes, one can disconnect from the hold Earth has on one, and, momentarily, float in space, weightless and in touch with the universe and the divine.

Taken by Apollo 8 crewmember Bill Anders on December 24, 1968, showing the Earth seemingly rising above the lunar surface. Note that this phenomenon is only visible from someone in orbit around the Moon. Because of the Moon’s synchronous rotation about the Earth (i.e., the same side of the Moon is always facing the Earth), no Earthrise can be observed by a stationary observer on the surface of the Moon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Creation of the Universe: Astronomy Guide for Kids

May 13, 2014 0 comment