Myth Myth Myth

The Death of Pan Πᾶν :

According to the Greek historian Plutarch (in De defectu oraculorum, "The Obsolescence of Oracles"),^[24] Pan is the only Greek god (other thanAsclepius) who actually dies. During the reign of Tiberius (A.D. 14–37), the news of Pan's death came to one Thamus, a sailor on his way to Italy by way of the island of Paxi. A divine voice hailed him across the salt water, "Thamus, are you there? When you reach Palodes,^[25] take care to proclaim that the great god Pan is dead." Which Thamus did, and the news was greeted from shore with groans and laments.

Robert Graves (The Greek Myths) reported a suggestion that had been made by Salomon Reinach^[26] and expanded by James S. Van Teslaar^[27] that the hearers aboard the ship, including a supposed Egyptian, Thamus, apparently misheard Thamus Panmegas tethneke 'the all-great Tammuz is dead' for 'Thamus, Great Pan is dead!', Thamous, Pan ho megas tethneke. "In its true form the phrase would have probably carried no meaning to those on board who must have been unfamiliar with the worship of Tammuz which was a transplanted, and for those parts, therefore, an exotic custom."^[28]Certainly, when Pausanias toured Greece about a century after Plutarch, he found Pan's shrines, sacred caves and sacred mountains still very much frequented. Christian apologists, however, took Plutarch's notice to heart, and repeated and amplified it until the 18th century.^[29] It was interpreted withconcurrent meanings in all four modes of medieval exegesis: literally as historical fact, and allegorically as the death of the ancient order at the coming of the new. Eusebius of Caesarea in his Praeparatio Evangelica (book V) seems to have been the first Christian apologist to give Plutarch's anecdote, which he identifies as his source, pseudo-historical standing, which Eusebius buttressed with many invented passing details that lent verisimilitude.

The cry "Great Pan is dead" has appealed to poets, such as John Milton, in his ecstatic celebration of Christian peace, On the Morning of Christ's Nativity line 89,^[30] Elizabeth Barrett Browning,^[31] and the character Grover in the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan as he desperately searches the world for any sign that Pan might still be alive.^[32][33]

Being revealed: (The second coming)

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? 

The Black Stone

The Black Stone (called الحجر الأسود al-Hajr al-Aswad in Arabic) is a Muslim relic, which according to Islamic tradition dates back to the time of Adam and Eve. Historical research claims that the Black Stone marked the Kaaba as a place of worship during pre-Islamic pagan times.^[1][2] It is the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba, the ancient stone building towards which Muslims pray, in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.^[3] The Stone is a dark rock, polished smooth by the hands of millions of pilgrims, that has been broken into a number of fragments cemented into a silver frame in the side of the Kaaba. Although it has often been described as a meteorite, this hypothesis is still under consideration.^[4]

Muslim pilgrims circle the Kaaba as part of the Tawaf ritual of the Hajj. Many of them try, if possible, to stop and kiss the Black Stone, emulating the kiss that Islamic tradition records that it received from the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.^[5] If they cannot reach it, they point to it on each of their seven circuits around the Kaaba.

The mind has mountains:

No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,
More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring.
Comforter, where, where is your comforting?
Mary, mother of us, where is your relief?
My cries heave, herds-long; huddle in a main, a chief
Woe, world-sorrow; on an age-old anvil wince and sing —
Then lull, then leave off. Fury had shrieked ‘No ling-
ering! Let me be fell: force I must be brief’.

O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
May who ne’er hung there. Nor does long our small
Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep,
Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all
Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.

God's Grandeur

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;	5
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;	10
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

The Story of Psyche and ErosDr. C. George Boeree

---

The so-called psyche or butterfly is generated from caterpillars which grow on green leaves, chiefly leaves of theraphanus, which some call crambe or cabbage. At first it is less than a grain of millet; it then grows into a small grub; and in three days it is a tiny caterpillar. After this it grows on and on, and becomes quiescent and changes its shape, and is now called a chrysalis. The outer shell is hard,and the chrysalis moves if you touch it. It attaches itself by cobweb-like filaments, and is unfurnished with mouth or any other apparent organ. After a little while the outer covering bursts asunder, and out flies the winged creature that we call the psyche or butterfly.  (From Aristotle's History of Animals  551a.1)

---

Psyche was one of three sisters, princesses in a Grecian kingdom.  All three were beautiful, but Psyche was the most beautiful.  Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, heard about Psyche and her sisters and was jealous of all the attention people paid to Psyche.  So she summoned her son, Eros, and told him to put a spell on Psyche.Always obedient, Eros flew down to earth with two vials of potions.  Invisible, he sprinkled the sleeping Psyche with a potion that would make men avoid her when it came to marriage.  Accidentally, he pricked her with one of his arrows (which make someone fall in love instantly) and she startled awake.  Her beauty, in turn, startled Eros, and he accidentally pricked himself as well.  Feeling bad about what he had done, he then sprinkled her with the other potion, which would provide her with joy in her life.
Sure enough, Psyche, although still beautiful, could find no husband.  Her parents, afraid that they had offended the gods somehow, asked an oracle to reveal Psyche's future husband.  The oracle said that, while no man would have her, there was a creature on the top of a mountain that would marry her.
Surrendering to the inevitable, she headed for the mountain.  When she came within sight, she was lifted by a gentle wind and carried the rest of the way.  When she arrived, she saw that her new home was in fact a rich and beautiful palace.  Her new husband never permitted her to see him, but he proved to be a true and gentle lover.  He was, of course, Eros himself.
After some time, she grew lonely for her family, and she asked to be allowed to have her sisters for a visit.  When they saw how beautiful Psyche's new home was, they grew jealous.  They went to her and told her not to forget that her husband was some kind of monster, and that, no doubt, he was only fattening her up in order to eat her.  They suggested that she hide a lantern and a knife near her bed, so that the next time he visited her, she could look to see if he was indeed a monster, and cut off his head if it was so.

Her sisters convinced her this was best, so the next time her husband came to visit her, she had a lamp and a knife ready.  When she raised the lamp, she saw that her husband was not a monster but Eros!  Surprised, he ran to the window and flew off.  She jumped out after him, but fell the ground and lay there unconscious.
When she awoke, the palace had disappeared, and she found herself in a field near her old home.  She went to the temple of Aphrodite and prayed for help.  Aphrodite responded by giving her a series of tasks to do -- tasks that Aphrodite believed the girl would not be able to accomplish.
The first was a matter of sorting a huge pile of mixed grains into separate piles.  Psyche looked at the pile and despaired, but Eros secretly arranged for an army of ants to separate the piles.  Aphrodite, returning the following morning, accused Psyche of having had help, as indeed she had.
The next task involved getting a snippet of golden fleece from each one of a special herd of sheep that lived across a nearby river.  The god of the river advised Psyche to wait until the sheep sought shade from the midday sun.  Then they would be sleepy and not attack her.  When Psyche presented Aphrodite with the fleece, the goddess again accused her of having had help.
The third task Aphrodite set before Psyche was to get a cup of water from the river Styx, where it cascades down from an incredible height.  Psyche thought it was all over, until an eagle helped her by carrying the cup up the mountain and returning it full.  Aphrodite was livid, knowing full well that Psyche could never have done this alone!
Psyche's next task was to go into hell to ask Persephone, wife of Hades, for a box of magic makeup.  Thinking that she was doomed, she decided to end it all by jumping off a cliff.  But a voice told her not to, and gave her instructions on making her way to hell to get the box.  But, the voice warned, do not look inside the box under any circumstances!
Well, Psyche received the box from Persephone and made her way back home.  But, true to her nature, she was unable to restrain herself from peeking inside.  To her surprise, there was nothing inside but darkness, which put her into a deep sleep.  Eros could no longer restrain himself either and wakened her.  He told her to bring the box to Aphrodite, and that he would take care of the rest.
Eros went to the heavens and asked Zeus to intervene.  He spoke of his love for Psyche so eloquently that Zeus was moved to grant him his wish.  Eros brought Psyche to Zeus who gave her a cup of ambrosia, the drink of immortality.  Zeus then joined Psyche and Eros in eternal marriage.  They later had a daughter, who would be named Pleasure.

Phyche - Soul (Image of a butterfly) 

Great stories came from dreams

Rituals Cont... Halloween :)

Justin - Baby Dropping in India
Abby - Kurnai Australian Tribal Initiation  
Megan - Indian Stupa Story
Zach - Rain 
Jeremy Naab - Trick or Treat ;)
Juniper - "Est" Burial Custom

Antigone (Sophocles)   Ἀντιγόνη
            Expand on the Theban Legend Play.


HALLOWEEN! 
(All Hallow's Eve) - Celebration of all souls, including the demons and the devils.

"History

Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while "some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival ofSamhain, whose original spelling was Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)". The name of the festival historically kept by the Gaels and celts in the British Isles which is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end".

However, according to the Oxford Dictionary of English folk lore: "Certainly Samhain was a time for festive gatherings, and medieval Irish texts and later Irish, Welsh, and Scottish folklore use it as a setting for supernatural encounters, but there is no evidence that it was connected with the dead in pre-Christian times, or that pagan religious ceremonies were held." ^[4]

The Irish myths which mention Samhain were written in the 10th and 11th centuries by Christian monks. This is around 200 years after the Catholic church inaugurated All Saints Day and at least 400 years after Ireland became Christian. ^[4]

Snap-Apple Night (1832) by Daniel Maclise.
Depicts apple bobbing and divination games at a Halloween party in Blarney, Ireland.

Origin of name

The word Halloween is first attested in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even ("evening"), that is, the night before All Hallows Day.^[5] Although the phrase All Hallows is found in Old English (ealra hālgena mæssedæg, mass-day of all saints), All-Hallows-Even is itself not attested until 1556.^[5]

Symbols

Jack-o'-lanterns in Kobe, Japan

Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. For instance, the carving of jack-o'-lanterns springs from the souling custom of carving turnips into lanterns as a way of remembering the souls held in purgatory.^[6] The turnip has traditionally been used in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween,^[7][8] but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips.^[7] The American tradition of carving pumpkins is recorded in 1837^[9]and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.^[10]

The imagery of Halloween is derived from many sources, including national customs, works of Gothic and horror literature (such as the novelsFrankenstein and Dracula), and classic horror films (such as Frankenstein and The Mummy).^[11] Among the earliest works on the subject of Halloween is from Scottish poet John Mayne in 1780, who made note of pranks at Halloween; "What fearfu' pranks ensue!", as well as the supernatural associated with the night, "Bogies" (ghosts), influencing Robert Burns' Halloween 1785.^[12] Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, cornhusks, and scarecrows, are also prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween.

Halloween imagery includes themes of death, evil, the occult, or mythical monsters. Black and orange are the holiday's traditional colors."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween 

Kenosis ( κένωσις ) - Means an 'emptying out' 
            -tote tase (Plerosis) 
Nacirema - "Most cultures exhibit a particular configuration or style. A single value or pattern of perceiving the world often leaves its stamp on several institutions in the society. Examples are "machismo" in Spanish-influenced cultures, "face" in Japanese culture, and "pollution by females" in some highland New Guinea cultures. Here Horace Miner demonstrates that "attitudes about the body" have a pervasive influence on many institutions in Nacirema society."


Metamorphosis: from Greek μετά meta and μορφή morphē, meaning "changes of shape"




The Eleusinian Mysteries

The Eleusinian Mysteries, held annually in honor of Demeter and Persephone, were the most sacred and revered of all the ritual celebrations of ancient Greece. They were instituted in the city of Eleusis, some twenty-two kilometers west of Athens, possibly as far back as the early Mycenaean period, and continued for almost two thousand years. Large crowds of worshippers from all over Greece (and later, from throughout the Roman empire) would gather to make the holy pilgrimage between the two cities and and participate in the secret ceremonies, generally regarded as the high point of Greek religion. As Christianity began to spread, the Mysteries were condemned by the early Church fathers; yet the rites continued for hundreds of years more and exercised considerable influence on the formation of early Christian teachings and practices.
Our sources of information regarding the Eleusinian Mysteries include the ruins of the sanctuary there; numerous statues, bas reliefs, and pottery; reports from ancient writers such as Aeschylos, Sophokles, Herodotus, Aristophanes, Plutarch, and Pausanias--all of whom were initiates--as well as the accounts of Christian commentators like  Clement of Alexandria,  Hippolytus,  Tertullian, and Astorias. Yet for all this evidence, the true nature of the Mysteries remains shrouded in uncertainty because the participants did, with remarkable consistency, honor their pledge not to reveal what took place in theTelesterion, or inner sanctum of the Temple of Demeter. To violate that oath of secrecy was a capital offense. (Aeschylos, for example, once had to fear for his life on account of coming too close to revealing forbidden truths.) For these reasons, scholars today must make use of circumstantial evidence and inferences, with the result that there is still no consensus as to what did or did not take place. Hence, we shall sometimes be forced to engage in the tentative weighing of alternative hypotheses, without always reaching definite conclusions.

Rituals

My Ritual

Egyptian Mummification - The Process

"Before the Egyptian mummification process was introduced and then refined, the ancient Egyptians buried their dead in shallow pits in the sand. This actually mummified the bodies naturally; the hot sand dried the body of liquid very quickly, preserving it from decay.

This was the trend in the pre-dynastic period.

But they noticed that the bodies were vulnerable to exposure and wild animals, so they decided to experiment with man-made methods to mummify the dead.

Keep in mind, the reason they mummified was because they believed the body had to be preserved in order for the deceased to be reborn in the afterlife. If the body was lost, so was the soul.

So they started trying to preserve the bodies in large clay pots, animal skins, and reed trays with linen tightly wrapping the body.

But this proved counterproductive since the bodies were not exposed to the hot sand that dried and preserved them. They began to decay.

Only the skeletons remained. 

The Real Deal on Egyptian Mummification

After experimenting, the ancient Egyptians developed a two-step mummification process: Embalming and wrapping.

Embalming

The first step in Egyptian mummification is to lay out the body on an embalming table. The embalmers (some of which were priests) would wash the body with palm wine then make an opening on its left side to remove the internal organs.

The heart was left inside since it is needed on the journey through the underworld.

The organs would be washed and dried in natron salt. They were then wrapped in linen and placed in Canopic Jars.

The brain was also removed. The embalmers broke the top of the nose and inserted a hook which would pull out the brain in chunks.

Sometimes they would also pour a liquid into the brain through the nose to dissolve the remaining pieces. The dissolved brain would then be poured out of the nose.

The body cavities left by removing the insides were then washed with palm wine and spices, then dried and stuffed with linen or sawdust.

The incisions were sewn up and the body placed in natron salt which covered it completely for about 40 days.

After this, the body was washed once again, and then covered in oil to be ready for step two.

Wrapping

Now that the body is ready, the embalmers handed it over to a priest wearing an Anubis mask to start the second phase of the Egyptian mummification process.

This priest would start the process of wrapping (which took about 30 days and used up to 1312 square feet of linen) with the head and neck.

Then each finger and toe is wrapped separately... then the arms, legs and the rest of the body. The linen was painted with a liquid resin to hold it all together.

The priest chants or reads out spells, and places amulets in the wrapping to help the deceased in the long journey.

Sometimes funerary texts were written out on the linen. The Book of the Dead was sometimes placed between the wrapped-up hands of the deceased.

And for the grand finale, the wrapped body was wrapped once more in a large cloth. 

Time for a Proper Egyptian Burial

Now that the body is wrapped and ready, it is sent back to the family for burial. Along with the body, all the materials from the embalming were also given to the family.

Sometimes they would put clothes around the body.

The body is placed in a coffin, which is sometimes placed into a second coffin.

A most important ritual is performed on the mummy - the "opening of the mouth" ceremony. A funerary priest would hold up a ceremonial tool to the mouth of the mummy while chanting prayers.

This ceremony is meant to unite the Ba and the Ka (two important elements of the human soul) to form the Akh (the spirit of the deceased). Without an Akh, the deceased could not be transformed into an eternal being in the afterlife.

The coffin with the mummy is then placed inside a large sarcophagus, surrounded by the canopic jars with the preserved internal organs, and then placed in a tomb. The tomb would be packed with items that the deceased would need on the journey, such as food and drink.

Other items would also be placed, such as weapons or treasure.

Of course, only the very wealthy could afford all that, the poorer people would be lucky to half a mummification. "

http://www.experience-ancient-egypt.com/egyptian-mummification.html 

Rituals:

Eric C. Karamundi-Rain Making
Stefanie Herrera - Mourning Dead Cats (Egyptian)
Cortney Bury - Egyptian Mummification Ritual
Christine Balsley - Aztec New Fire Ceremony
Lucy K. - Smudging Ritual
Jerrod M. - Blood Initiation 
Sherwood Nyhart - Rain Making
Zachary Mayer - Bulktant gloves 
Matthew Smaglik - (Nacirama) Demincratic Ritual
Jason O. - Tavrobolium
Bailey G. Mayan Ritual/Human Sacrifice
Darrell Schwartz - Spartan Marine 
Jessica Thomas - Sepputza Japanes Ritual Suicide
Jenny - The Mary Month of May
Rosemary - Diadelos Muetos (Day of the Dead)
(Under the Volcano (John Huston))
Tori Porcella - Frozen Dead Guy Day
Jill Yoden - Eastern Star Ritual (Initiation Ritual)
Madison Cole - Rain Making
Parker Dunn - Bridger Whale
Sam M - Beowulf Funeral
Theresa Brown - Bear Ceremony
Andrew O. - Irish Wedding Ritual
Kevin Ebert - Phuket Vegitarian Festival
Wena T. - Chinese New Year
Ashley R. - Family Tradition/ Night before Christmas

My understanding of ritual is a set of actions made for a value of some sort. To achieve or destroy something they want to reach.

Temenos - "is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, a sanctuary, holy grove or holy precinct.

Eleusinian Mysteries - "were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance. It is acknowledged that their basis was an old agrarian cult which probably goes back to the Mycenaean period and it is believed that the cult of Demeter was established in 1500 B.C. The idea of immortality which appears in syncretistic religions of antiquity was introduced in late antiquity."

PEITHO “was the goddess or spirit (daimona) of persuasion, seduction and charming speech. In combination with force (bia) she also represented forceful inducement and rape (including bridal abduction). Peitho was a close companion of the goddess Aphrodite.

Pietho was usually depicted as a woman with her hand lifted in persuasion or fleeing from the scene of a rape. Her attributes sometimes included a white dove and ball of binding twine.”

Zeus and Athena don’t like circles, they like straight lines. Circles disturb them because they represent cycles.

Thonic – related to the underworld.

Furies -Three goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone (avenger of murder), Megaera (the jealous) and Alecto (constant anger). They were also called the Daughters of the Night, but were actally the daughters of Uranus and Gaea. Another name for them is the Erinyes. 

Without mercy, the Furies would punish all crime including the breaking of rules considering all aspects of society. They would strike the offenders with madness and never stopped following criminals. The worst of all crimes were patricide or matricide, and first and foremost, the Furies would punish this kind of crime. 

They would also be the guardians of the law when the state had not yet intervened or did not exist, or when the crime was a crime of ethics and not actual law . For example, they would protect beggars and strangers, punish those who stole the birds' young and even look out for the dogs.

Horrible to look at, the Furies had snakes for hair and blood dripping from their eyes. They changed into the Eumenides, protectors of the suppliant, after Athena had made them merciful sparing Orestes, whom they had stalked for a long time after the murder of his mother and her lover.
From these beings we have the words "furious" and "infuriated".

Metis - Titan generation, mother of Athena, goddess of wisdom. (Μῆτις, "wisdom," "skill," or "craft")

Origin of

Athena – Daddy’s girl.

Precedence behind every action.

Archetype – the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.

Matricide – killing your mother.

Senator comes from the word senex; the wise old man (also called senex, sage or sophos) is an archetype.