Myths to live by
p.62
And, at some stage , during the making of this book, I found myself thinking: -
If, as it seemed, the mathematics were the expressions of deeper principles at work in the Universe, then these principles might be also be found in Myths, the great stories of mankind in many traditions.
p. 63
Numbers and their associated shapes and principles represent the life-processes: how things come into being. Each figure has its own identity, and function, & a part to play in the cosmic drama. The Classic Myths elaborate on aspects of these universal themes as Gods and Goddesses
Myths to live by : Extract taken from ‘Myths to live by’ by Joseph Campbell.
Myths, according to Freud’s view, are of the psychological order of dream. Myths, so to say, are public dreams; dreams are private myths. Both, in his opinion, are symptomatic of repressions of infantile incest wishes, the only essential difference between a religion and a neurosis being that the former is the more public. The person with a neurosis feels ashamed, alone and isolated in his illness, whereas the gods are general projections onto a universal screen. They are equally manifestations of unconscious, compulsive fears and delusions. Moreover, all the arts, and particularly religious arts are, in Freud’s view, similarly pathological; likewise all philosophies.
Civilisation itself, in fact, is a pathological surrogate for unconscious infantile disappointments. And thus Freud, like Frazer, judged the worlds of myth, magic and religion negatively, as errors to be refuted, surpassed, and supplanted finally by science.
An altogether different approach is represented by Carl G. Jung, in whose view the imageries of mythology and religion serve positive life-furthering ends. According to his way of thinking all the organs of our bodies - not only those of sex and aggression - have their purposes and motives, some being subject to conscious control, others, however not.
Our outward orientated consciousness, addressed to the demands of the day, may lose touch with these inward forces; and the myths, states Jung, when correctly read, are the means to bring us back in touch. They are telling us in picture language of powers of the psyche to be recognised and integrated in our lives, powers that have been common to the human spirit forever, and which represent that wisdom of the species by which man has weathered the millenniums. Thus they have not been, and can never be, displaced by the findings of science, which relate rather to the outside world than to the depths the we enter in sleep.
Through a dialogue conducted with these inward forces through our dreams and through a study of myths, we can learn to know and come to terms with the greater horizon of our own deeper and wiser inward self.
…..the society that cherishes and keeps its myths alive, will be nourished from the soundest, richest strata of the human spirit.
Myths to live by.The Primal Division of Unity: the Fall from Paradise. And the significance of √3.
pp.64–65
In the previous two pages I have suggested that if the mathematical symbols were the expressions of deeper principals at work in the universe, then these principles might also be found in Myths: the great stories of mankind. So I have chosen three different myths: stories that match up with the mathematical symbols of √3,√2, φ.
For this double opening (on the left-hand side ) I have taken the Genesis story of the Fall from Paradise as described in the Bible. Adam eats of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and is banished; and God places Cherubim and a flaming sword to bar the way back.
The account is represented here symbolically with a drawing of the circle of Heaven - of Paradise: the garden of Eden; followed by the double circles where One becomes Two, as Adam leaves - or is expelled from - the unity of the garden. The drawing of the double circles beautifully captures the meaning: though Adam has departed, he still belongs - the line joining the centres of the circles unites and divides.
The significance of √3. In Christian iconography, there is a further meaning to be found. In the overlap of the two circles there is an almond-shaped pointed oval. If the line linking the two centres is 1 unit, the vertical line is √3. And √3 is also the diagonal of a cube, which represents the earthly realm of matter. In many cathedrals and churches in northern Europe, especially those built in the 12th and 13th centuries, Christ sits in this almond shape as being both God and man, belonging to, and holding together in his own person the realms of spirit and matter.
There are many interpretations of this story. For instance, the image of the circle could represent the Oneness of the quantum field, the sea of infinite possibilities from where a part-icle breaks away and becomes embodied: the particular - with an individual identity, yet still belonging to the whole.
In the central part of the texts, Joseph Campbell in his book ‘Myths to Live By’ explores the story in his own way, suggesting the word Paradise comes from the Persian words ‘pairi’ and ‘daeza’ a wall - a walled garden of delight set, he suggests, in the landscape of the soul. Campbell goes on to recount some of the details of the Genesis story: of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good an Evil, of the serpent, and the Fall from Paradise. He then continues to compare this account of the Biblical story with that of the Buddhist understanding. Though many elements in the story appear in both, they have different interpretations.
On the right-hand side of the page I have placed as a counterpart to the Genesis text, a deeply thoughtful poem by Edwin Muir.
The two texts are written out below.
The text from the book of Genesis in the Bible. Chapter 2
vs.9. ‘And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the of the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
v.16. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
v.17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Chapter 3
v .6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a treat be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit therefore, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her; and he did eat.
v. 23. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden.
v. 24. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life’.
One Foot in Eden by Edwin Muir.
One foot in Eden still, I stand
And look across the other land.
The world’s great day is growing late,
Yet strange these fields that we have planted
So long with crops of love and hate.
Time’s handiworks by time are haunted,
And nothing now can separate
The corn and tares compactly grown.
The armorial weed in stillness bound
About the stalk; these are our own.
Evil and good stand thick around
In fields of charity and sin
Where we shall lead our harvest in.
Yet still from Eden springs the root
As clean as on the starting day.
Time takes the foliage and the fruit
And burns the archetypal leaf
To shapes of terror and of grief
Scattered along the winter way.
But famished field and blackened tree
Bear flowers in Eden never known.
Blossoms of grief and charity
Bloom in these darkened fields alone.
What had Eden ever to say
Of hope and faith and pity and love
Until was buried all its day
And memory found its treasure trove?
Strange blessings never in Paradise
Fall from these beclouded skies.
Myths to live by: Death and Resurrection: the theme of the dying and rising God.
And the significance of √2.
p. 66-67
There are Death and Resurrection stories from all over the world in the myths of the dying and rising god: for instance Osiris, Krishna, Adonis, Quetzalcottl, Tammuz, Jesus, Marduk, Aleyn, These stories are found too in fables as in the phoenix that rises again from its own ashes.
The significance of √2. The Square Root of Two is the Root of Square Two. The line that divides the original square is the root - the foundation of the new growth. Psychologically the event that shatters the original mindset or worldview, doubt or self-questioning is itself the basis of new growth and a greater and wider psychological understanding and worldview. Crisis is opportunity.
This paradox is true also in Nature. The seed-case has to be destroyed in order to allow the new shoots to appear. The leaf falls and dies and creates compost for the renewal of the tree. The chrysalis dies so that the butterfly can live.
The information below was taken from a book called ‘ In the name of the Gods’ by David Elkington. At the end of the main columns there as an extract from a poem called ‘The flower’ by George Herbert
‘These are thy wonders, Lord of Power.
Killing and quickening, bringing down to hell
And up to heaven in an houre’.