Myth Matters

The cycle of material and psychic life is often encapsulated as life, death, and rebirth. This cycle is the mythological context of the solstice.

But in her formulation of the ancient triple goddess, Marija Gimbutas writes of life, death and regeneration.

Rebirth and regeneration are not quite the same, are they? 

This is the starting point of this episode, which includes the fairy tale  "The Handless Maiden" and reflections on the importance of a regeneration mindset as 2021 comes to an end.

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Part 2 of "Iron John," a fairy tale popularized by Robert Bly, and a meditation on outer riches, inner rewards, self-worth, and the quest to own your gold.

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The words "this wide, beautiful, crazy world of ours" have been part of my introduction for this podcast for years. In my experience, this is an accurate picture and yet the meaning and context for the descriptors: "wide," "beautiful," and "crazy,"--especially "crazy," ---has changed over time. Many things happen that surprise me. Developments in all areas of life that I didn't imagine, let alone predict. A level of chaos and uncertainty that I never expected to entertain in my lifetime. 

Among the pieces of good news, and there are many, is this: we're in the boat together my friend. Called to re-evaluate and re-imagine what has importance and value. Called to change. The company that you keep and the places that you look for guidance will determine how you feel about this present moment.

This line of thinking brought me to the story that I want to tell you today, a fairy tale called "Iron John," or "Iron Hans" if you look for the Grimm Brother’s version. This fairy tale resurfaced in the popular imagination in early the 1990s when Robert Bly shared it with men in need of story work. Bly also published a book under that title that you might find interesting. 

I'm going to tell the story in two parts over two episodes, so you and I both have some time to let the details and images of the story sink in. Time to imagine with and through it. This is part 1.  I'll tell the rest of "Iron John" in the next episode.

Now on with the story....

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A myth from the Aztec creation cycle, the mythology of bones, and what it might mean to be in service to life today.

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The Celtic story of Cerridwen and her cauldron calls to me as Halloween/Samhain approaches. She's a witch in search of a potion and yet, the tug of the story is deeper. Seasonal changes amplify the energies of betwixt and between that give rise to current challenges. This is a good time to examine your creative dreams. 

What do you long to bring into the world? Who are you willing to become in the process? Where will you turn for inspiration and guidance?

Your ideas and expectations about creativity, and the images of the process that you hold in mind, determine the way that it will unfold. Cerridwen's story has helped me shift my perspective and listen more carefully to messages from the imaginal realm, from soul.

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Personal transformation. 

Do we really want it? 

What can inspire that deep change, and how far are we willing to go in courting those powers?

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"He is a young god.
Mythologically obscure,
always just arriving

at some new place
to disrupt the status quo,
wearing the start of a smile."

--from Ann Carson' translation "The Bakkhai"

In the northern hemisphere we began our collective descent into winter's darkness, with the fall equinox on Wednesday September 22nd.

This is a good time to meditate on the most famous myth of the god Dionysus, intoxicating god of the night. It's a play written by Euripides in the 5th century BCE called "The Bacchae."

Athenians found the cautionary message of this play subversive. It disturbed their image of Greek reason, democracy, social order, and power. The women don't stay in their place. It ends on a gruesome note.

A few years after the play was performed, Athens fell to Sparta and their empire building was over. Euripides was in self-imposed exile, and perhaps he saw something that his fellow citizens could not...

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This episode is devoted to the Greek god Dionysus, whom Walter Otto aptly named “the epiphany god,” and his wife Ariadne.

Dionysus was called “the Loosener” or lysios in Greek, the loosener of limbs and of minds. The Greek word lysios comes from "lysis," which means “setting free" or "unraveling.” I want to pick up this thread to reflect a bit more on the nature of Dionysian loosening and epiphanies, by spending some time with the myth of Ariadne.

Who was Ariadne, to be partner to this god? Ariadne like Dionysus, is likely an older deity than the Olympians, one with much more significance than her place in Greek mythology suggests.

Thanks for listening.

"If the horizon hadn't swallowed you, I'd believe in it still,
let it hold me like a wall..." 
---Ioanna-Veronika Warwick  from "Ariadne Thanks Theseus for Abandoning Her" 

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What does the mythic relationship between Dionysus and the Titans suggest about our titanism and titanic culture, and ways to mitigate the destructive influence of titanic fantasies?

“Oh how lucky you are, how really lucky you are, if you know the gods from within…” Euripides, The Bacchae

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"Let Zeus, born in the open, awake to all under the sky, ever-watchful, ever-noticing, be exemplar for responding to all that the senses present with a richly elaborating imagination. Only well-shaped images fed by the senses can contain and differentiate our innate titanism."--James Hillman

 In this episode we consider today's battle with the titanic, the excess and pressure of the "unlimited" in Western culture, and the numbness and stress that it engenders in us. How can we participate effectively in the cultural dynamics and find a measure of health and happiness for ourselves?

"The mind that generalizes continually prevents itself from those experiences which would allow it to see and feel deeply." --- W.B. Yeats

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Email Catherine at [email protected]
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Learn how you can work with Catherine at https://mythicmojo.com
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