Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The end of the ends, oh my!

"cras amet qui numquam amavit
quique amavit cras amet" 

                                                                                                            The Magus

"All that is past, possess the present."  (311)

Masque - A form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished the 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intemedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). 

Pablo Picasso - [Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈpaβlo ˈrwiθ piˈkaso]; 25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century. He is widely known for co-founding the Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and Guernica (1937), a portrayal of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.
The enormous body of Picasso's work remains, and the legend lives on—a tribute to the vitality of the "disquieting" Spaniard with the "sombre…piercing" eyes who superstitiously believed that work would keep him alive. For nearly 80 of his 91 years Picasso devoted himself to an artistic production that contributed significantly to and paralleled the whole development of modern art in the 20th century.
Picasso's art from the time of the Demoiselles was radical in nature, virtually no 20th-century artist could escape his influence. Moreover, while other masters such as Matisse or Braque tended to stay within the bounds of a style they had developed in their youth, Picasso continued to be an innovator into the last decade of his life. This led to misunderstanding and criticism both in his lifetime and since, and it was only in the 1980s that his last paintings began to be appreciated both in themselves and for their profound influence on the rising generation of young painters. Since Picasso was able from the 1920s to sell works at very high prices, he could keep most of his oeuvre in his own collection. At the time of his death he owned some 50,000 works in various media from every period of his career, which passed into possession of the French state and his heirs. Their exhibition and publication has served to reinforce the highest estimates of Picasso's astonishing powers of invention and execution over a span of more than 80 years.]

Collective Unconscious - [Collective unconscious is a term of analytical psychologycoined by Carl Jung. It is proposed to be a part of the unconscious mind, expressed in humanity and all life forms with nervous systems, and describes how the structure of the psyche autonomously organizes experience. Jung distinguished the collective unconscious from the personal unconscious, in that the personal unconscious is a personal reservoir of experience unique to each individual, while the collective unconscious collects and organizes those personal experiences in a similar way with each member of a particular species.]
(great mythical baggage that you carry)
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There is a zone of your own conscious, that only you can create, invent, etc..
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Is that a gun in your pocket? Or are you just happy to see me? ;)

Mae West
  • She was a devouring female; she gives them a good time then she would devour them.



Did you know? 
  • That everyone is a character in their own little world, this world. We are apart of everything in this world. We are all connected. 
Ultimate reality - Every moment is connected as is apart of the sacred. Everything we say and do is sacred. 

Taoism - 天人相应 - Refers to a philosohpical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao (道), which is the mechanism of everything that exists. 

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Write a substantial paragraph with a passage out of the Magus.
Is there a passage that interests you that you would like to talk about. Engage with that passage.


Dreamchild - The story is told from the point of view of the elderly Alice (now Mrs. Hargreaves) as she travels to the United States from England to recieve an honorary degree from Columbia University.


Orpheus

by James Hunter
Orpheus was the son of Calliope and either Oeagrus or Apollo. He was the greatest musician and poet of Greek myth, whose songs could charm wild beasts and coax even rocks and trees into movement. He was one of the Argonauts, and when the Argo had to pass the island of the Sirens, it was Orpheus' music which prevented the crew from being lured to destruction.Orpheus
When Orpheus' wife, Eurydice, was killed by the bite of a serpent, he went down to the underworld to bring her back. His songs were so beautiful that Hades finally agreed to allow Eurydice to return to the world of the living. However, Orpheus had to meet one condition: he must not look back as he was conducting her to the surface. Just before the pair reached the upper world, Orpheus looked back, and Eurydice slipped back into the netherworld once again.
Orpheus was inconsolable at this second loss of his wife. He spurned the company of women and kept apart from ordinary human activities. A group of Ciconian Maenads, female devotees of Dionysus, came upon him one day as he sat singing beneath a tree. They attacked him, throwing rocks, branches, and anything else that came to hand. However, Orpheus' music was so beautiful that it charmed even inanimate objects, and the missiles refused to strike him. Finally, the Maenads' attacked him with their own hands, and tore him to pieces. Orpheus' head floated down the river, still singing, and came to rest on the isle of Lesbos.
Orpheus was also reputed to be the founder of the Orphic religious cult.


Eurydice

by Juliana Podd
Eurydice and Orpheus were young and in love. So deep was their love that they were practically inseparable. So dependent was their love that each felt they could not live without the other. These young lovers were very happy and spent their time frolicking through the meadows. One day Eurdice was gaily running through a meadow with Orpheus when she was bitten by a serpent. The poison of the sting killed her and she descended to Hades immediately.
Orpheus was son of the great Olympian god Apollo. In many ways Apollo was the god of music and Orpheus was blessed with musical talents. Orpheus was so sad about the loss of his love that he composed music to express the terrible emptiness which pervaded his every breath and movement. He was so desperate and found so little else meaningful, that he decided address Hades. As the overseer of the underworld, Hades heart had to be hard as steel, and so it was. Many approached Hades to beg for loved ones back and as many times were refused. But Orpheus' music was so sweet and so moving that it softened the steel hearted heart of Hades himself. Hades gave permission to Orpheus to bring Eurydice back to the surface of the earth to enjoy the light of day. There was only one condition--Orpheus was not to look back as he ascended. He was to trust that Eurydice was immediately behind him. It was a long way back up and just as Orpheus had almost finished that last part of the trek, he looked behind him to make sure Eurydice was still with him. At that very moment, she was snatched back because he did not trust that she was there. When you hear music which mourns lost love, it is Orpheus' spirit who guides the hand of the musicians who play it.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

grasshopper? ;D

Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest
(Dead Man - Johnny Depp - Neil Young Official Video) made in 1995.
Johnny's name is William Blake in this movie.

* Tabet book of the dead
- Going to the land of the dead

The Swerve
"Steven Greenback"

Death and the Intermediate State - From Primitives to Zen
"The Moment of Death"

Eschatology - Log (logos) - "a ground; proper use of thinking; creative ordering of reality"
Metempsychosis - Transmigration of the soul.
Parabola - (conic section) the intersection of a right circular point
Empedocles - From Primitives to Zen (on the transmigration of the soul)
Gesang ist dasein - Sonnets to Orpheus.
A god can do it. But tell me how a man can follow him through the narrow lyre. The human self is split; where two heartways cross, thereis no temple to Apollo. Song, as you teach it, is not desire, not a ....
The Ant and the Grasshopper

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Myth Review Quiz #2

Mythology Exam Notes!!! :)

What does chthonic mean? → of the underworld.

Calasso pages to go over: 209-212 (deals with the four stories that make up the quaternity/personality prof ile; myers briggs test which has to do with feeling, sensation intuition and
Stories of Zeus – thinking (everything up)
Stories of Athena – sensation (everything out) related to polis (politics/city)
Dionysus – feeling (down function, everything that is not thinking or not sensation or intuition, pure unadulterated feeling, incubus (demon possess a male’s body and impregnates a woman’s body)
Chthonic – of or pertaining to the underworld. Disassemble your social identity to get you in touch with feeling
Demeter – intuition (infunction)
Page 209 chapter 7: Persephone being abducted by Hades; narcissus flower(narcissist – obsessed with themselves)
Persephone – Kore (means maiden) ← this is what Hades calls Persephone
Triple goddess:
Mother, Daughter and the Crone.
Chapter 8 Page 225-226
Story of Athena – how Athena came to be
Chapter 8 Page 244
Has to do with the mysteries of Eleusis, why the Greeks respect Eleusis more than anything else.
Page 336
“how would you define Homeric theology?”
      • What we call Homeric theology is...supremacy of the visible.
      • Religion is that which we see; Greek
      • When you can no longer see you have nothing (daylight and light)
      • Ephigonal asks to look at the light one more time
Chapter 11 Page 359
    • Comes from the Odyssey;Zeus has prepared a woeful-destiny for us so that in the future we may be sung about the bards.. “why do we suffer?”
    • This is the work of the God’s – they brought about the ruin of … So that we may celebrate them later.
Chapter 12 Page 383-391
    • Definition of mythology: precedent behind every action (383)
    • Invasion of the mind and body
    • Cadmus gave to Greece – Necklace which is passed from hand to hand causing disaster.
    • What conclusions can we draw – Page 387
    • A life in which the God’s are not invited isn’t worth living..inviting them causes disaster
    • Why do we talk about Cadmus? Founder of the city of Thebes
    • Greatest disaster was fly’s feet (gift’s of the mind, vowels and consonant; the alphabet)

Eliade:
Great Pan’s Dead
WB Yeats: The Second Coming
The Eleuynian Material
The Tarboleum (Rites and Rituals)

Class Questions:

  1. What does spirtus mundi mean? (multiple choice) : spirit of the world/earth
  2. Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, who was drawing the chariot (two animals)? The Boar and the Lion.
  3. What country are the Nacirema tribe from? American’s
  4. Which of the three things important to the Eleusian mysteries was the origin of theater? The things seen, said or done...It was Done (Dromenon: things done)
  5. What is the study of the soul? Psychology.
  6. Who at birth, was her beauty only appreciated by her father (Calasso 204)? Persephone.
  7. What is the origin of our legal or judicial system? The Athena Story – where by she acquits Orestes for killing his mother; STORY OF ORESTES is at the origin of our judicial system.
  8. What is the term where women take over the night where they have free reign over the men; no retaliation from men? Tote toge (day of the dead)
  9. What is the animal that is associated with the tarboleum? The Bull.
  10. What makes something sacred? If you truly believe something is...made sacred, “doesn’t have to come that way,” make them sacred through ritual
  11. According to your instructor who is the real hero? Yourself, we are all heroic, not just people in stories
  12. James Joyce Novel...which talks about an ordinary person going about an ordinary day is modeled by what Greek story (Greek name of the hero)? Odysseus
  13. According to the Irish poet, WB Yeats, from the second coming...history is composed of two thousand year cycles; which comes from the visitation of a bird who impregnates a woman .
  14. What is the Greek image for soul? Butterfly
  15. What did Zeus ingest when he ate the mother of Athena ? Metus (wisdom)
  16. Which word best typifies a space carved out in which sacred rituals are carried out? Temenos
  17. Who is the God of the double door and what does it mean? Dionysus, born twice (born of the mother and a father; mother’s womb and fathers thigh)
  18. What was said to end the pagan world and initiate the religious age? Great Pan is Dead
  19. What is the fundamental difference between the God and the hero? Mortality; God’s don’t die.
  20. When do the furies arrive? Kill your mother (blood murder, don’t kill people in your blood line)
  21. What is the religious significance of Cupid and Psyche according to your instructor? The Psychological Development of the feminine.
  22. In the Ritual presentations, which ritual was duplicated (told by no more than four people)? The Australian Rain-Making Ritual.
  23. What is the name of the girl that the king threw a sandal at? Charila
  24. What Greek play shows the class between tradition and the state; religious? Antigone (play in which a young woman buries her brother even though its forbidden by the state, punishment by death)
  25. From what term do we get our word senator? Senex
  26. which of these definitions would define archetype? An ancient or primordial image which is found universally in mythology, fairy tale and fantasy
  27. Which Eleusian mystery pertains to fertility during a certain month? Maypole ** (phallic symbolism)
  28. 22 points of the hero formula? **Hero Pattern** - Who covers most of these more than anyone else? Oedipus, covers almost 21/22.
  29. In this class, which Christain fitual did we discuss that had to deal with death and rebirth?
    -Baptism
  30. Why did Demeter put the baby in the fire? To make him immortal
  31. What was the archetype of a daddy’s girl? Athena