Feminine Roles of Initiation

Feminine Roles of Initiation

There are many different roles women play in mythology, of initiation. In mythology most women betray and deceive men to get what they want. It happens in real life today too. “Woman betrayed man, and allows herself to be betrayed.” (Calasso pg.19) Calasso says that through betrayal, women cause men to face their inner demons and monsters like their pride and arrogance and absorption. When men slay monsters they are causing change and releasing people from bondage; and that’s what women do to men.

Women often use their feminine physique to seduce men and use that seduction to destroy a man, or even kill a man. Take the succubus for example; the succubus lours men, seducing them and then sucking the life right out of them. Now that is not the best way for a man to die, unless they feel that the pleasure is worth the risk. Women on one certain day of the year, have the opportunity to do whatever it is they’d like to their men or any man and the men can’t refuse the women. As a woman myself, I love this day. Although in this generation, women have more than just one day; we have the entire year to weasel our way into getting whatever we want because the men in this generation are susceptible to our every whimsical desire. They only wish to please our desires, in turn they want their desires of pleasure fulfilled too; hence, the succubus.

In the Magus, Lily Montgomery plays part in a feminine role of initiation because in the book she and Conchis had fallen in love and she began leading him to believe that he should volunteer for the army. Lily is using her womanly skills to convince Conchis to do what she says. Another woman who plays a role of feminine initiation in modern days is Chloe King of the the new T.V. Series “The Nine Lives of Chloe King.” There is so much myth in this series; Chloe King is a descendent from Set (Egyptian God) and her kind is called Mi. The Order is a human race out to get Chloe because she is the ‘Unite-r’ and she is supposed to save all the Mi only because the Order is scared that the Mi are a threat to the human race. As the ‘Unite-r’ Chloe has the special ability of a cat of having nine lives. Unfortunately, every time she dies the next death is more painful than the one before. In one episode it talks about how there is only one Mi for every Mi, in which in that episode a guy Mi does whatever Chloe asks of him. She has a role in the feminine initiation because she is able to ask the guy something and he does anything for her. Power to the woman! Yet, Chloe isn’t keen to the whole idea that she is the one to unite all the Mi, so she betrays her kind and wants out of the system but in the end she has to do what she has to do for the Mi because if she doesn’t she will be killed nine times by the Order. This coincides with Calasso’s say on pg. 69 that, “the heroic gesture of women is betrayal, the effects of woman’s betrayal are more subtle and less immediate”, “As a civilizing gesture woman’s betrayal is no less effective than man’s monster slaying.”

Perseus Hercules Theseus

Hero’s like Hercules, Theseus, and Perseus all deal with the slaying of monsters and accomplishing their goal yet all fall in love with a woman and in Hercules case, the woman betrayed Hercules and made him face his inner demon. In the Disney cartoon Hercules falls in love with Megara and little did he know that she was working for Hades in order to strip the rest of Hercules from his God-like powers. Finishing the job from when Hercules was a baby. Theseus also had intertwined himself with the Princess Ariadne. She helped Theseus defeat the Minotaur and save all the people from the Minotaur. Although in the end, after Theseus, the princess, and all the people go ashore, Theseus leaves Princess Ariadne ashore and him and the people sail off into the sunset. Perseus, fallen in love with Andromeda, set out on a quest to defeat Medusa in order to cut off her head and bring it back to turn the sea monster who was going to eat Andromeda (because she was the sacrifice) in order to save her.

All these stories involve slaying monsters and improving their status as a hero and getting the woman. And all these stories are metaphors for what women do to men when they want something from them. The succubus is like the hero in a way; they both slay the monster; except the man is the monster in the succubus story. Women have this psychological advantage over men almost like mind control, and we women can pretty much get whatever we want. In all, the feminine roles of initiation are in likeness to hero’s yet the woman ‘heroic’ gesture is betrayal and the effects of our womanly actions of betrayal are subtle yet very destructive. We women are destructive in our own way and so are men; we’re just more bad ass than men are.  

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 psychology, coined 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. 

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.
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.

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

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

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.