Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
Syncretic Electric: A Reflection on Mythology

Syncretic Electric: A Reflection on Mythology

Last updated on: December 6, 2013 at 8:00 am by Julian Betkowski

Syncretic Electric: A Reflection on Mythology 2013-12-05T16:43:27+00:00 Julian Betkowski

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Pandora, Odilon Redon, 1914

In my last article here, I reflected on the role that literature and fiction played on my spiritual development. Now, I turn my attention to mythology, and its potential uses and ramifications.

The action of Western culture has collapse mythology into the larger literary canon. However, unlike other literary works, mythology possesses a primarily spiritual character (in contrast to a focus on entertainment or pedagogy). The purpose, or intention, of those stories that we have come to describe as mythological is spiritual and often religious. Further, mythology, as we now possess it, stands a bit apart. “Myth operates by bringing a sacred (and hence essentially and paradoxically “timeless”) past to bear preemptively on the present and inferentially on the future (“as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be”)” (Puhvel, 1989, p. 2). As Jaan Puhvel explains, mythology steps outside of time. Myth represents past, present, and future simultaneously. Indeed, it could be said that myth seeks to render the timelessness of spirituality into the present moment.

Indeed, the way that mythology leads us to conceive of time is of the greatest importance:

In the rectilinear time frame imposed on occidental cultures by the Judeo-Christian traditions, the entire world drama fits within a straight path between these two poles, as a dynamic, unique cosmos and anthropohistorical process from start to finish, marked off by static, latent “time without end” on both sides. This contrasts with the cyclical time concept and worldview of many oriental and classical cultures, where not only the world but mankind at large is periodically rejuvenated and regenerated… (Puhvel, 1989, p. 21)

Mythology helps us shift our attention from the everyday to the eternal. It can lead us to see differently our relations to the world around us. When we consider time in the mythological frame, it forces us to reexamine our place and our time. Indeed, the cyclic time of mythology shows us the possibility that the truth of these stories may still be with us. Indeed, it may never have really departed at all.

Mythology connects us with a great expanse of spiritual experience. To the modern reader, these is something a bit alien to mythology. It is always preserved against time. It comes to us from a lost place, a strange survivor full of strange stories. These stories carry the spiritual understanding of a people otherwise lost to us. Indeed, “A myth in its pristine state is by definition specific to a given human environment” (Puhvel, 1989, p. 2). Mythology presents to us a chance to apprehend something long gone, and for those of us who see their spiritual power, to perhaps recover some of that lost understanding into our present. Mythology does not simply show us Gods, it shows us an understanding, a way of being in the world. Mythology can provide us with an orientation.

Mythology sits somewhere between poetry and literature. It takes a series of interpretations, and its meaning shifts through the poetic and the literary and, perhaps, takes us somewhere else. Mythology seems to inspire a poetic instinct, and this instinct may lead us to somewhere quite unexpected.

Whatever we may think about the nature of poetic creativity, and no matter how demonstrable or probable it is that many individual poets wrote and continue to write poetry around myth, it should be quite clear that all of this poetry from individuals has as its basic premise the existence of the world of myth; and that this original myth cannot, in turn, be explained away by that which we call “the poetic process.” When Wilamowitz demands, and rightly so, that our first premise must be, “The gods are there,” then this means, if we examine it more precisely, “The myth is there.” For if the gods “are,” if they are real, then they cannot fail to have distinctive characteristics. With this, however, we are already in the world of myth. And who will dare to decide beforehand how great a measure of diversity and emotion can be ascribed to the forms of deity in their first manifestation? (Otto, 1965, p. 15-16)

When we allow mythology to function as mythology, it takes us through time to the world of mythology. When we approach mythology, it takes us into itself, and allows us to apprehend something quite different from what we are used to. Indeed, “Myth must be understood as myth, not as history or metaphor or any other substitute” (Puhvel, 1989, p. 12). I do believe that it is important for us to come to mythology on its own terms, if we really seek to understand it, rather than forcing our own particular desires upon it.

Of course, mythology is not entirely sacrosanct. Each of us will come away from mythology with our understandings, and each of us will deploy that mythology in a way that suits us. However, it is important for us to make the effort to allow mythology to speak first to us, before we drown out its unique voice with our own.

References:

Otto, W. F. (1965). Dionysus: Myth and cult. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Puvel, J. (1989). Comparative mythology. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Syncretic Electric is published on alternate Fridays. Subscribe via RSS or e-mail!

Columns

Literature, Media, Film, Music

Previous Post

December 4, 2013

Druid Thoughts: Plastic Pagan Gurus

Next Post

December 7, 2013 Remembering Nelson Mandela: A Reflection by Selena Fox

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Lakeside Hearth Adventures in Wortcunning Alone In Her Presence Arts, Crafts & Cooking Birthing Hereditary Witchcraft Book of Blackbirds Book Reviews Born-Again Witch Cauldron, Sword, Spear, & Stone Cermony and Liturgy Columns Community Dandelion Seeds Dear Jasmine Druid Thoughts Editor's Picks Everyday Pagan Family & Household Practice Family Traditions Full Frontal Magic Gateway Goddess Guest Articles Happily Heathen Health and Wellness Hearth of Hellenism Heathen Woman Hills of the Horizon History Holidays Horse Goddesses Interfaith Interviews Irish-American Witchcraft Jewish Witch Lamp & Labyrinth Letters from Midgard Literature, Media, Film, Music Loop of Brighid Love, Sex & Relationships Magic or Magick Making Light Naturalistic Traditions Nature News Outside The Circle Pantheisticon Politics Prayers, Poems, Blessings & Stories Queer Femme Mystic Queer of Swords Recipes Ritual and Practice Science and Research Seekers and Guides Seeking the Grail Socially Responsible Magic Spear of Athena Star Made Witch Syncretic Electric Technology The Blooming Staff The Busy Witch The Cartomancer The Crow's Nest The Dance of Pagan Recovery The Hearth of Hellenism The Lady's Quill The Other Side of the Hedge The Path of She The Rantin' Raven The Witches Next Door The Zen Pagan Theology, Ethics, Philosophy Tree City Witch Urban Earthwitch Wayfaring Woman Witch on Fire Wyrd Words

Select a Month January 2026 March 2025 December 2024 June 2024 April 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 August 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who compared himself to a gentle lamb led to the slaughter?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Isaiah Jeremiah Job Ezekiel