Thursday, October 28, 2004

Nature's Tenor: Trees as Vehicle

Scott M. Potter
Nature’s Tenor: Trees as Vehicle

Trees play a significant symbolic role within diverse Mythologies, from Africa to South America, North America to Asia, Europe to Australia, and the Middle East to Island. In Myths of the Sacred Tree, Moyra Caldecott recognizes the continuous nature of such symbology; “The diversity of our use of the tree as meaningful metaphor and symbol knows no end” (18). This symbolism varies from the tree as benefactor of procreation, enlightenment, transformation, divination, wisdom, knowledge, good, evil, and redemption—these boons come to specific mythic characters at the cost of some sacrifice, and who are often identified with the trees themselves—to the tree as originator of the cosmos, the world, or humanity, or into which humanity or divinity transforms. Humanity associating or affiliating with trees or tree qualities appears (from oral traditions to literary ones) with amazing frequency, as does the personification and identification with trees as being humanlike. Such parallels make sense when considering that humans are the culmination of the animal kingdom, and trees, the culmination of the plant kingdom. In The Hero’s Journey, Joseph Campbell discusses Darwinism: “It’s inherent in protoplasm that it should differentiate, evolve. And he speaks of the two great lines of evolution, of the animal and the plant. And the culmination of the animal evolution is the human being. And the culmination of the plant is the tree” (168). Therefore, the saying: ‘Humans resemble trees,’ a simile, proves reasonable, for as Campbell says: “The other thing about nature is that your nature and nature’s nature are the same nature” (The Hero’s Journey 224). Moreover, when we transform that statement a step further: ‘Humans are trees,’ metaphorically, the import and significance of mythological arboreal motifs amplifies and intensifies. In this essay, I will present mythical and/or psychological connections between humans and trees, along with deities or semi-deities and trees, which then makes a causal link between divinity and humanity, with an arboreal vehicle. The concentration of this essay will be on illuminating the present-day connections to trees, with a focus on the Greek Myth of Daphne, through specific chosen connections with the arboreal, while recalling our working metaphor: humans are trees.

The vehicle is understood here as the trees; whereas the trees create the mythologies, it takes the humans to write them down on parts of the trees (albeit papyrus in some cultures)—a function of memory. Roland Bechamnn writes, in Trees and Man: “For ‘the memory of the tree is real and concrete; the tree registers in its flesh, in its concentric layers, all the events that affect its environment’” (Perlman 113). The memories of trees, then, within the concentric layers or rings, become the very fiber with which we record our memories to be shared.

What fleshes out of this simple exercise, proves profoundly everyday. Humans avail of themselves (trees), to construct our societies, and for the basic structure of architectures (n1), as well as to record the history of humanity (trees), including: mythologies, psychologies, theologies, philosophies, sociologies, science, technology, much of the arts, business, publishing, education, government (n2), and religion. These will be explored in detail during dissertation work.
1. The notion that architecture affects the human psyche, which I take to be real and obvious, explains also the attraction many have to wood elements in houses. These attractions point toward a need, often unconscious, to reconnect with ourselves as trees, or parts of them. It also explains part of the reason wood furniture, and especially antiques are psychologically so important to a large number of people; there is a rescue function going on here—to keep parts of ourselves safe, to restore them, to prevent them from being discarded or thrown away.
2. Government is commonly recognized as the biggest user of bits of processed humans-trees in the world.

With our current technological advancements, hemp, glass, metal, cement, concrete and plastic could easily replace all wood product needs, yet, the demand for wood products continues. In The Power of Trees: The Reforesting of the Human Soul, Michael Perlman writes: “Trees, like all beings, are themselves shaping powers of imagination. Not only do they stand for the human; human selves are symbols of trees” (40). I think this speaks to our psychological need to reconnect with our humanity that is personified in trees, more so than any other natural element.

Our language, particularly English and the way we describe one another, resonates with our metaphor that humans are trees. We speak of: limbs entwining limbs, taking root, remaining rooted, becoming grounded, growing and branching out, shaking or trembling like a leaf, our trunks, being gnarled, thick, or tall as a tree, skinny as a stick, finding or being the acorn and being the oak, and other imagery shared with languaging used to refer to trees (n3). Of course, whenever working a metaphor using analogies that connect and divide the vehicle (trees) from the metaphorical comparison (humans), the differences and the fact that humans really are not trees impact the approach utilized.
3. These ‘human-tree’ terms proliferate in biology and psychology books, and among countless others.

However, what holds, despite the intellectual reality that humans are not trees, is that the psychological identification with trees continues. Yet, when comparing humans to trees, mythically, mystically, organically and scientifically, even physical similarities return with convincing particularities. The scientific knowledge that humans and trees share identical waves and particles, and thus the same basic energy and ‘essence,’ even as we share these also with rocks and all other things universally, lends greater credence to our working metaphor: humans are trees, and trees are humans.

With the background provided and connection firmly in mind, it is time to briefly delve into some of the mythological importance of trees. The symbolic idea of the Tree of Life, Cosmic Tree, World Tree, and Universal Tree, among others, that unites sky to land, heavens to underworld, and provides humanity with the world as home pervades global cultures. Ernst and Johana Lehner, in Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees, delineate the far-reaching effect this idea has had on humanity (n4). Such an effect readily evidences when Campbell shows two reproductions in the Flight of the Wild Gander, from “Sumer, c. 2500 B.C.,” which relate to the cosmic tree, as “Lord of the Tree of Life,” and “The Lord and Lady of the Tree” (163-4). Thus, the reverence for trees as the ‘Tree of Life,’ including the titular: Lord and Lady, traces back to our early civilizations. Additionally, the pervasive nature of mythological trees, hearkens back to our treetop arboreal origins. In the interest of brevity, we shall focus our examination on the mythical trees in the Greek tradition found in the myths of Myrrha and Daphne, addressing Buddhist, Norse, and Christian connections in an appendix.
4. One of the oldest sacred tree symbols is the Assyrian Tree of Life, a stylized, ornamental expression of a non-existing tree, sometimes combining the lotus and the pine, two plants symbolizing immortality and fecundity. These symbols of the Tree of Life spread from ancient Assyria and Babylonia into Arabia, Egypt and Asia Minor, and through Central Asia into the Far East and Central America. Throughout the changing times the tree of life symbols were taken up by all beliefs and religions in the western and eastern world. They range from the oak and ash trees of the Teutons, Norsemen, Celts and Druids to the palm and cedars of the Hebrews and Christians; from the sycamores of the Egyptians to the cassia and bo trees of the Far East, including the cosmic, celestial and humanized trees of many lands.” (Lehner 15-17).

Accordingly, Greek Mythology abounds with mythological trees that humans or deities transform into, or from, with enough regularity to account for many species of trees (n5). Greek myth is also not lacking its version of the world tree, as Jane Gifford, in The Wisdom of Trees, writes: “In ancient Greek mythology the first tree created was the oak, from which sprang the entire human race” (67).
5. These include, but are not limited to myths that account for the derivation of: alder (Prote and Clymene), ash (Meliai), black poplar (Aigeiros), cherry (Kraneia), cypress (Cyparissus), elm (Ptelea), fig (Syke), fir (Pitys), hazel (Karya), laurel (Daphne), mulberry (Morea), myrrh (Myrrha), oak (Balanis, Dryas, Hamadryades, and Maenads), pine (Atys and Oreades), pomegranate (Dionysus), poplar (Dryope and Heliades), and white poplar (Leuce).

The emphasis in Greek tree myths, however, centers on transformation or metamorphoses. Ovid, in The Metamorphoses, offers the poignant story of how Pregnant Myrrha transforms into the myrrh tree, giving birth—“[…] At last the tree gave way; a boy was born […]” (Book X, 288)—to a most beautiful boy: “[…] Child of a tree, Adonis grew to boyhood—And lovelier than any man on earth” (Book X, 289). In Myrrha’s myth, her transformation into a tree to avoid death, which myrrh tree later gives birth to Adonis—who is rescued by Aphrodite and reared by Persephone, ending up spending one-third of his time in the underworld and two-thirds with Aphrodite—describes in part, the fecundity of nature, and the death inherent in it. Furthermore, that Adonis, born of a tree, should be the most beautiful man on earth, suggests, too, the memory and connection humans have with trees—our deeper roots.

Continuing the theme of transformation into tree, I would like to briefly explore Daphne’s myth, which I view as one of the most poignant of such Greek stories. The following summary rendition is based upon Ovid’s version. Apollo falls in love with the nymph Daphne, daughter of the river-god Peneus [or Ladon], through an argument with Cupid. As a result of Cupid’s arrows, Daphne instantly reviles Apollo, as Apollo loves Daphne. She flees his advances, eventually tiring and then requests her beauty be transformed so none find her alluring. Daphne then transforms into a laurel tree, as Apollo rushes to embrace her bark.

Daphne’s transformation also implies more than one sees at first glance, for instance the notion that humanity is bisexual, as many psychologists have noted. Carl Kerenyi, in The Gods of the Greeks, discusses the Daphne myth in the following; “A tree which, like most trees, is naturally bisexual, affords, of course, the most perfect example of the uniting of the two sexes” (141). Kerenyi’s suggestion of a uniting of the two sexes, in this form of the myth, points toward a reuniting of the sexes and harkens back to the myth of soul mates (n6). When one sees the process of transformation in the Daphne myth (n7) and the laurel tree as bisexual, then one understands a bit more of the parallels between the metaphor beneath the surface of the story, much like Daphne’s roots in the earth, and the process of individuation. Daphne, symbolic of the feminine aspect of the soul, becomes both sexes through transforming into Kerenyi’s ‘naturally bisexual’ tree. Apollo, however, which has not been explored to my knowledge in this context, in the wearing of the laurel wreath, garland, or sequestering of the bough, is symbolic of the awareness of the anima, not a complete unification or integration with it. The notion of inherent bisexuality teems beneath the surface of the myth, and only when one integrates this psychologically is the transformation to individuation possible. According to Carl Gustav Jung, in Alchemical Studies: “Trees have individuality” (194). Jung’s psychological description of trees mirrors the ‘trees are humans’ metaphor, for a tree to have individuality ties in closely with the individuality or uniqueness of humans. One sees in the idea of trees possessing individuality, a good lead-in to trees have individuation, one that Jung may have considered. Meredith Sabini, in The Earth has a Soul: […] describes a discussion between Jung and Progoff:
In 1952, Jung was interviewed by Ira Progoff, who asked if individuation didn’t always involve consciousness. Jung replied, ‘Oh, that is an overvaluation of consciousness’ and explained that individuation is the natural process by which a tree becomes a tree and a human a human; he said that consciousness can just as well interfere with the natural growth process as aid it (10).

Here, one sees that indeed, trees do individuate. Tree myths, of transformation into trees, like the Daphne or Myrrha myths, speak of metaphorical soul or psychological metamorphoses.
6. I mean the fictional Platonic myth whereby our two-headed, four-armed/legged selves were split by Zeus-bolts.
7. For further exploration of the Daphne Myth, and Ovid’s account of it, see the Appendix.


Another significant aspect of the Daphne myth arises out of scrutinizing passages about Apollo, since she does not speak long in any version. Campbell writes: “[…] Apollo holds […] in his left hand the laurel […]” (The Mythic Image 469). As the left hand is affiliated with the sign of divinity, to hold the laurel in his left hand proves significant. The significance is that the laurel is divine, and, therefore, Daphne is divine, and, by association, humanity is divine through the connection with our metaphorical trees.

Interestingly, Campbell addresses the laurel tree as being ‘apotropaic’: “On the left was a laurel tree, which is apotropaic; that is to say, it defends the threshold against evil presences. It has a sanctifying power as a threshold tree” (Transformations of Myth through Time 192). If we juxtapose this idea of the laurel tree defending against evil with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil of Christianity, then the way in which a culture views trees comes out with great clarity. The Greeks viewed trees as benefactors and as cause for reverence, while the Christians viewed them as both benefactors, providing good, and detractors, providing evil. Unfortunately, the concentration in Christianity revolves around evil and so Nature becomes only evil through time. The reverence for nature disappears within Christianity, for it refuses to see the metaphor for the literalization.

Additionally, Daphne’s transformation into the laurel tree symbolizes that trees contain the divine (or semi-divine, according to source (n8), or trees are divine. Returning to our ‘humans are trees’ metaphor, then, the importance heightens when one considers the relevance of the connection between Daphne as laurel tree (or human) and her transformation both into and from Moon Goddesses (n9). In this context, the connection between the divine and humanity, through the vehicle of the laurel tree, illuminates the fact that humans are divine, in addition to being trees; since trees are divine, and trees are human, humans are divine.
8. As some versions of the Daphne myth have her parents both divine and some only mention one divine parent, with no mention of the other parent. This is covered in some detail by Robert Graves in The Greek Myths.
9. Daphne has been shown by Robert Graves, in The Greek Myths, to have been formerly Daphoene, a bloody Moon Goddess, prior to the Olympian fixation, and then Pasiphae, a Cretan Moon Goddess, after the laurel transformation.


The fact that trees manufacture most of the oxygen that humans need to exist may have played an unconscious dynamic in the early cultures that developed the ancient mythologies. The more critical connection, however, was surely an identification with trees, as being the tall and majestic plants that connected humans to the sky-dwelling and underground divine, and therefore, trees as the caretakers and sometimes progenitors of humanity. Perlman writes: “Says one tropical biologist [Donald R. Perry]: ‘Tropical treetops were the womb and nursery of humankind. This arboreal phase, critical to our evolution, has left an indelible stamp on both our body design and the workings of the human mind’” (77). Human roots trace us back to treetops, and in such lofty positions, once on the ground, out of the trees, it proves easy to see why we would identify with being trees.

We have seen that the cosmic tree factors heavily in many mythology systems, while it plays more peripherally in Greek, and in other mythologies. Perhaps popular cultural observance of the metaphoric relevance of mythological trees, cosmic or not, awaits a time when trees truly mirror the state of humanity more closely, as in the fast-disappearing world forests impacting the diminishment of humanity. What remains for our examination, is the metaphorical import within such tree myths, as explored.

The significance of tree myths asks us to enter into communion with our psyche, as deep as such communion will allow, and ask vital questions of ourselves, as Perlman suggests:
The sequence of the myth, the transformation of human into tree (or return of tree spirit to tree), can be imagined as something that happens once and for all. […] In that case, the myth leads us to consider what goes on when we imagine ourselves in treelike terms. The mirroring […], in addition to being an instance of human-tree parallelism, a reflection of the treeness in us; in the ‘mirror’ of trees, we see the true trees of ourselves (91).

That humans and trees are not the same appears very true, when one stands underneath a towering oak. However, Perlman states: “But, conversely, that awareness of difference is itself never absolute; the multitudinous metaphoric analogies provided by root, branch, limb, leaf, shadow (and fallen tree or rotten log) touch us all, inform our lives and understandings” (3). Finding roots, woods of self-deception, low man on the totem pole, branching out, taking a stand, woodenness, fruitlessness, fruitful, fruity, ‘The apple never falls far from the tree’, rooted to a spot, etc., “[…] may be enactments of an evolutionary desire to return to trees” (The Power Of Trees 92). Jung, too, knew of this Nature connection, and writes: “According to ancient tradition men came from trees or plants. […] In the Gilbert Islands, men and gods come from the primordial tree” (337). Thus, it is no wonder “[…] we find stories in which trees think they’re human, as well as humans that think they’re trees” (Perlman 89). The stories reflect a psychological transformation that demands of us a recognition of the vitality of both our individuation and the trees’.

Trees provide much more than mythological import, as in time, humanity has learned to use trees for diverse applications from medicine to education, and transportation to shelter. Every house built requires more trees to lose their hold on the ground—and then to die. One need only recall the mighty forests of the ancient world, and near-distant past (in America and elsewhere), and see the minutiae of great forests enduring (n10), and the loss of tree worship foreshadows the building of a global community out of trees. Chris Maser, in Forest Primeval […], attests to the human-tree connection: “Creation is that which has, is, and will inexorably draw humanity and the ancient forest into the crucible of cosmic interrelatedness where the forest will mirror for humanity the consciousness of its own evolving self” (xv). I would add to Maser’s statement that the forest also mirrors human unconsciousness through all of humanity’s evolution.
10. There are only two World Forests left, one in Siberia and the other in South America, both of which are threatened by continuing deforestation practices.


As the forests go, so goes humanity, only it takes more time for humanity to be felled than it does a forest or tree with an axe or bulldozer, nonetheless, our civilizations will follow the destinies we map out for the trees—they allow us to breathe, and without breath there is no life but by machine. In The Wounded Body: Remembering the Markings of Flesh, Dennis Slattery discusses the way in which we live in the world as reflecting the particular embodiment and style with which we express our inner bodily-meaning; “In this way, the body can be imagined as the locus of both our individual and cultural mythologies. I understand the body to be both a location and a field for experience as well as for interpretation” (8). If we see the tree or tree-spirit as our inner being, and this is consistent with our inner body attunement—and by this I mean to say that if our physical tissue ‘feels’ like a tree embodied in human form—then the various cultural mythologies, especially arboreal-related myths, will inflect messages to the psyche that resonate and resound with arboreal imagery and affiliations in conscious and unconscious modes.
I have conveyed that trees are humans, metaphorically, and that trees link us with the divine, yet, there exists a deeper symbolism inherent within the tree mythologies. Campbell borrows from Durkheim, stating: “Symbols are only the vehicles of communication; they must not be mistaken for the final term, the tenor, of their reference” (The Hero with a Thousand Faces 236). As the metaphor that humans are trees divulges: trees are the vehicle. The tenor in this case is the divine in nature; the value within the mythologies illuminates nature. I see the deeper illumination as the same conclusion Campbell arrived at, mentioned earlier, that our nature is the same nature that resides in trees, or, symbolically as the tenor in this metaphor: the divine in Nature. Moreover, trees, through their linking humanity to the divine, both without and within, above and below, mirror the condition of humanity.

Appendix


Campbell, Joseph, Ovid and Scott Potter. Explication of Daphne, Buddhist, Norse, and Christian
Myth. April 11, 2004.




Works Cited


Caldecott, Moyra. Myths of the Sacred Tree. Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books, 1993.

Campbell, Joseph. Flight of the Wild Gander: Explorations in the Mythological Dimension;
Selected Essays 1944-1968. 1969. Novato, California: New World Library, 2002.

--. The Hero’s Journey. Ed. Phil Cousineau. Novato, California: New World Library, 2003.

--. The Hero With a Thousand Faces. 1949. Bollingen Series 17. 3rd Printing. Princeton:
Princeton UP, 1973.

--. The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion. 1986. Novato,
California: New World Library, 2002.

--. The Masks of God: Creative Mythology. 1968. New York: Arkana, 1991.

--. The Mythic Image. 1974. Bollingen Series C. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1990.

--. Transformations of Myth through Time. New York: Harper and Row, 1990.

Gifford, Jane. The Wisdom of Trees: Mysteries, Magic, and Medicine. 2000. New York: Sterling
Publishing Company, Inc., 2001.

Jung, Carl Gustav. Alchemical Studies. Trans. R.F.C. Hull. Bollingen Series 20: The Collected
Works of CG Jung: Vol. 13. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1983.

Kerenyi, Carl. The Gods of the Greeks. New York: Thames and Hudson Inc., 2000.

Lehner, Ernst and Johana. Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees. New York:
Tudor Publishing Company, 1960.

Maser, Chris. Forest Primeval: The Natural History of an Ancient Forest. San Francisco: Sierra
Club Books, 1989.

Ovid. The Metamorphoses. Trans. Horace Gregory. New York: New American Library, 2001.
Perlman, Michael. The Power of Trees: The Reforesting of the Soul. 1994. Woodstock,
Connecticut: Spring, 1997.

Sabini, Meredith. Editor. The Earth has a Soul: The Nature Writings of C.G. Jung. Berkley:
North Atlantic Books, 2002.

Slattery, Dennis Patrick. The Wounded Body: Remembering the Markings of Flesh. Albany:
State U of New York P, 2000.

Zimmer, Heinrich. Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization. 1946. Ed. Joseph
Campbell. Bollingen Mythos Series 6. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1992.



Explication of Daphne, Buddhist, Norse and Christian Myth


In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell psychologizes the Daphne myth, to my mind incorrectly, with the following:
“The girl [Daphne] had retreated to the image of her parent and there found protection […]. The literature of psychoanalysis abounds in examples of such desperate fixations. What they represent is an impotence to put off the infantile ego, with its sphere of emotional relationships and ideals” (62).

Yes, Daphne did seek and was granted protection, however, she did not remain a laurel tree for Apollo to draw his arms around and kiss affectionately its bark. No, Daphne spirited away to Crete, with the aid of her Mother, not Peneus, her Father, where she became Pasiphae the Moon Goddess.

If Campbell had researched the Daphne myth further, he would have found that these versions of the myth exist and this knowledge thereby would alter his concept of comparing Daphne to impotence. Indeed, if Campbell truly believes that “Willed introversion, in fact, is one of the classic implements of creative genius and can be employed as a deliberate device. It drives the psychic energies into depth and activates the lost continent of unconscious infantile and archetypal images.” (The Hero With a Thousand Faces 64), as stated, then a contradiction arises concerning the myth’s events and his own statements. For, Daphne willed the transformation that occurred to her body, she willed her beauty to change and to be transformed into a being that would not incur lust or passion. It worked, for Apollo did not in fact have sex with the laurel tree.

By removing the lens of seeing the myth through the wants and needs and psychic concerns of the hero only, a whole new world unfolds through the mist. What Daphne wanted and desired does not matter to the hero, who only seeks to conquer and penetrate. Yet, when this myth is explored along the lines of the soul’s passage through life, then it takes on a whole new flavor again. Daphne transforming into a laurel tree and then the moon goddess Pasiphae, is the soul transforming through an alchemical process that includes the body. Also, when we see the myth through the soul lens, Apollo, the sun god, god of consciousness, we must then see Daphne, who escapes him as the goddess of unconsciousness.

Therefore, we can turn our eye to what significance the soul’s movement through this myth has in relation to our own journeys. The soul has been historically split into two main separate realms, the conscious and unconscious, however, some, (Jung included) have begun to see that within each of these realms, part of the other realm coexists eternally. In other words, there is no separating them permanently. This means that the infantile and archetypal images that Campbell speaks of, along with a host of other psychological jargonese, operate within both realms, at least partially. How does this relate to Daphne and Apollo? Apollo commonly represents the conscious realm, and, Daphne, the unconscious realm in this myth. I suggest they symbolize a duality of the conscious/unconscious split. A split that illuminates although the soul transforms—one could argue that Daphne-soul has entered into an underworld journey, a creative illness, an alchemical descent or nekyia, yet, even as she does so, a bit of her stays behind—a bit of the soul, remains as a wreath around the head of consciousness: Apollo’s laurel wreath. Around the head of consciousness the unconscious wraps, encircles, tickles, pricks or rests.

Our unconscious selves are in our brains; they are our storehouses of memories, our forays into fantasy and imagination, etc. The consciousness is the realm of desire, passion and thinking, these being fueled by the unconscious. Love then arises out of the conscious, whereas revilement, in its loathsome form, comes from the intuition, from the unconscious. Much more can be derived from this myth by seeing through the lens of the universal soul, not a gender based argument, for such discussions that focus on gender lead to slinging insults and personalizing the injustices suffered upon women for millennia by patriarchy.

Furthermore, Campbell discusses the human nervous system, which discussion explains the two side nerves as being lunar and solar consciousness correlated to time. He writes: “[…] a side nerve […] ida […] lunar consciousness […] So it represents the power of life, energy, and consciousness to throw off death. […] is symbolic of life energy and consciousness engaged in the field of time, the field of death and birth.” And, on solar consciousness: “The other nerve is called pingala and represents solar consciousness. […] This is consciousness disengaged from the field of time” (Transformations of Myth Through Time 140). The solar consciousness is symbolic of Apollo, and in the Daphne myth, Apollo as solar consciousness is thwarted by Daphne as lunar consciousness, meaning that Apollo was too disengaged from the field of time, too conscious, and in need of a deeper engagement with the field of time. As solar consciousness tried to embrace lunar consciousness, it instead was forced to watch the death of one incarnation, Daphne, and the birth of another incarnation, the laurel tree, thus bringing the engagement of the field of time into the forefront. The awareness of the realization of one’s life energy and ability to be in the present moment, versus thinking only, would not be forgotten, as the laurel leaf then symbolically represented victory, which I would say is metaphorical for that unity of duality, transcending the duality of thinking and feeling.

Campbell, in The Hero With a Thousand Faces, relates Ovid’s version of the Daphne myth:
The same harrowing, mysterious voice was to be heard in the call of the Greek god Apollo to the fleeing maiden Daphne, daughter of the river Peneus, as he pursued her over the plain. ‘O nymph, O Peneus’ daughter, stay!’ the deity called to her […]; ‘I who pursue thee am no enemy. Thou knowest not whom thou fleest, and for that reason dost thou flee. Run with less speed, I pray, and hold thy flight. I, too, will follow with less speed. Nay, stop and ask who thy lover is.’ ‘He would have said more,’ the story goes, ‘but the maiden pursued her frightened way and left him with words unfinished, even in her desertion seeming fair. The winds laid bare her limbs, the opposing breezes set her garments aflutter as she ran, and a light air flung her locks streaming behind her. Her beauty was enhanced by flight. But the chase drew to an end, for the youthful god would not longer waste his time in coaxing words, and, urged on by love, he pursued at utmost speed. Just as when a Gallic hound has seen a hare in an open plain, and seeks his prey on flying feet, but the hare, safety; he, just about to fasten on her, now, even thinks he has her, and grazes her very heels with his outstretched muzzle; but she knows not whether or not she be already caught, and barely escapes from those sharp fangs and leaves behind the jaws just closing on her: so ran the god and maid, he sped by hope and she by fear. But he ran the more swiftly, borne on the wings of love, gave her no time to rest, hung over her fleeing shoulders and breathed on the hair that streamed over her neck. Now was her strength all gone, and, pale with fear and utterly overcome by the toil of her swift flight, seeing the waters of her father’s river near, she cried: ‘O father, help! If your waters hold divinity, change and destroy this beauty by which I pleased o’er well.’ Scarce had she thus prayed when a down-dragging numbness seized her limbs, and her soft sides were begirt with thin bark. Her hair was changed to leaves, her arms to branches. Her feet, but now so swift, grew fast in sluggish roots, and her head was now but a tree’s top. Her gleaming beauty alone remained’ (Ovid, Metamorphoses, I, 504-553). […] Apollo, the sun, the lord of time and ripeness, no longer pressed his frightening suit, but instead, simply named the laurel his favorite tree and ironically recommended its leaves to the fashioners of victory wreaths (60-2).

Here, another problem with interpreting myths arises…the lens worn determines whether or not Daphne escaping the unwanted loss of her virginity (RAPE), or, Apollo losing the object of his desire to its transforming into a laurel tree is dull. As discussed in an earlier paper, Daphne’s transformation teaches Apollo lessons concerning his evolution into a burgeoning awareness of himself. For, if the deities were susceptible to Cupid’s arrows, then they were not fully individuated (in the sense of Jung’s usage) beings, and as such, present as models for humanity. Not models to mirror or pattern our lives after, but from which to learn. However, as both Jung, and Giegerich following Jung, have suggested, the true message of the myths resonates within the paralleling of the deities as our human souls, and the action of the myth, and all that it entails to be the process of the soul moving through life.

Within Buddhism, the bo-tree and Buddha’s enlightenment underneath it are the main considerations; his mother’s grasping of the sal-tree, and its implications of more ancient goddess worship are often relegated to a brief mention, since not much survives of these rituals and mythologies. In The Mythic Image, Campbell relates the Queen Maya’s more ancient affiliation:
These dryads are depicted, then, in the act of rousing in this magical way the trees to which they are attached. And the fact that the Buddha’s mother giving birth is also represented in this pose signifies that in her the mothering power of nature (which has been represented from time out of mind in the tree and earth divinities of the popular imagination) became fruitful of its highest good; i.e., the golden fruit of the seed of Buddha-consciousness […] (Campbell 265) (n11).

The Buddha attained enlightenment underneath the bo-tree, and was born out of Queen Maya’s side as she grasped the branches of the sal-tree. Buddha sacrificed his immediate chance to ‘ascend,’ in order to compassionately enlighten all of humanity; after attaining his enlightenment underneath the bo-tree, he felt directed to stay and work toward the benefit of humanity.
It seems that the symbolism and metaphorical significance of both the bo-tree and sal-tree fade into obscurity when compared to the life of the Buddha, depicted as a mortal or human. In Transformations of Myth through Time, Joseph Campbell relates the tree directly to humanity, as being inside of us, as in humanity holds the tree within: “[…] there is the tree of life, under which the Buddha sat. And where is that tree? It’s right in every one of us” (142). Although cultures may favor certain aspects of their mythologies, for specific reasons, the psychological significance of humanity’s interdependence with nature, through the divine within each, or the tenor (of the symbol of the tree as human) is not lost. Therefore, over two millennia later, Campbell sees the tree within us. A pattern takes root here that will flutter and tremble throughout the rest of the mythological trees examined: transformation or metamorphoses, which activity is mystical and resonates with divine energy.
11. In Myths and Symbols […] Zimmer provides the potential source for Campbell’s comments: “Conspicuous among these figures are the voluptuous tree goddesses or dryads, generally represented in a characteristic posture: with one arm entwining the trunk of a tree and the other bending a branch down, the goddess gives the trunk, near the root, a gentle kick” (Zimmer 69).


A momentary look at Norse Mythology, via Odin and Yggdrasil, underscores the interconnection of humanity and Nature that unfolds in Greek Mythology. Campbell, in The Masks of God: Creative Mythology, writes: “[…] for the Germans there is the old runic script, developed from the Greek […]. Furthermore, there is the figure of Othin (Woden, Wotan), self-crucified on the World Ash as an offering to himself, to gain the occult wisdom of those runes, which is clearly a Hellenestic motif […]” (111). That the runes come from the tree, meaning human wisdom comes from the trees, does not seem to occupy the thoughts of Campbell, or others, much. In The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, Campbell declares Yggdrasil “organically intact,” suggesting that the Christian trees are splintered:
The axial tree of the universe, around which all revolves, that is to say, it’s still cut in two, as it was in Yahweh’s Eden of the two trees, one, of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the other, of the Knowledge of Eternal Life. Whereas in the unreformed, primeval archetype of the World Tree, such as appears in the Old Norse Yggdrasil [….], the life-giving roots […] are of a single, organically intact, mythological image (Campbell 76).

Campbell is not implying that Norse myth is to be preferred over Christian, but, rather, that the Christian insistence on dogma and doctrine has obscured the power of the metaphor. Odin hangs himself upon Yggdrasil for nine days, piercing himself in the side with his lance and forfeiting an eye to gain the wisdom of the runes. Odin sacrifices his two-eyed vision, for a wiser, one-eyed vision, along with the ascetic austerities of deprivation and ritualistic wounding. Odin—hanging on an actual ash tree, not a chopped down and planed tree to form crossbars, and, then replanted in the ground—and Norse myth demonstrate a deeper connection with Nature that the Nordic people lived and felt.

Meanwhile, the symbology of trees in Christian Mythology runs much deeper than most practicing the faith comprehend. In the Garden, with the two trees that are one, and the original couple eating the forbidden fruit of that tree, the fall requires redemption, and this redemption is provided by Christ who later dies on that same tree as a cross planted in Adam’s head (Golgotha). In The Hero’s Journey, Campbell correlates the symbolization of the Cross to Buddha’s 49-day trial:
In the Christian tradition Jesus has, as it were, gone through the gate and eaten of the tree and become the tree, which is the Crucifixion. That’s the sense off the crucifix. Yield. Let it go. Join into your mentality not this but the divine immortality, which is in you and in all things. And so Jesus hanging on the cross, which is the second tree in the Garden, is equivalent to the Buddha seated under the Tree of Immortal Life, the Bodhi tree. Bodhi means ‘the one who has waked up to the fact that he is that which he seeks to know.’ Namely the eternal being (171).

Christ sacrificed by giving his life for humanity’s betterment, with Garden trees that birthed his need, a lance wounding his side, and a tree that terminated his life, this cosmic tree provides a very deep metaphorical symbolization. The trees in the Garden were of threefold importance: good and evil—so that dualities gain prominence, and immortality—so that human mortality is contrasted to that of the divine, and we see the separation of humanity from the divine.

Furthermore, through separating humanity from its original coniunctio with the divine, via a tree, its fruit, and a serpent (blaming the woman here seen as cowardice), the Christian myth performs another greater disservice to nature. For, the tree, then, confers the original sin to humanity, and as humanity was separated from Nature (the Garden), that Fall (separation from divinity) is due to a tree, which then opens the notion of a complete justification for razing forests, chopping down trees, and industrial logging of trees, especially since the tree caused our sorrows and sufferings. Another interesting read of the metaphor of Christ crucified on a Cross, involves the construction industry itself, which now greedily consumes the world forests, transforming trees into either horizontal or vertical crossbars in varying combinations that form trusses and home framing. So that each home built with wood framing contains an element of the Cross, which serves as a reminder of our original sin and redemption through Christ’s sacrifice.

Life's Force,

Scott Michael Potter

Saturday, October 16, 2004

nightbreathesday

nightbreathesday
nightbreathesday,
originally uploaded by sopotter.
The sun factors prominently in Global Mythology...

arch1

arch1
arch1,
originally uploaded by sopotter.
The arch is a portal to timelessness...

chumashpaintedcave

chumashpaintedcave
chumashpaintedcave,
originally uploaded by sopotter.
The Chumash have painted numerous fanciful to spiritual renderings in caves throughout central California...

deityevolves

deityevolves
deityevolves,
originally uploaded by sopotter.
This imaginary Green Deity sees itself in four phases...

flowerpattern

flowerpattern
flowerpattern,
originally uploaded by sopotter.
Flowers provide numerous aromatic Mythological stories...

lochness

lochness
lochness,
originally uploaded by sopotter.
Lochness is an archaic vestige of other Mythological Water creatures, resurfacing in later historical times...

redwoodeve-copy

redwoodeve-copy
redwoodeve-copy,
originally uploaded by sopotter.
Trees are Mythological for many reasons...

warrior2005c

warrior2005c
warrior2005c,
originally uploaded by sopotter.
The Warrior is a Mythological Constant...

moon-art-1

moon-art-1
moon-art-1,
originally uploaded by sopotter.
A Cosmic Tree in the Moon...

holidayblessings

holidayblessings
holidayblessings,
originally uploaded by sopotter.

greetingcard4

greetingcard4
greetingcard4,
originally uploaded by sopotter.

cosmictreemeetskabbalah

cosmictreemeetskabbalah
cosmictreemeetskabbalah,
originally uploaded by sopotter.

GaiaBreathing

GaiaBreathing
GaiaBreathing,
originally uploaded by sopotter.

mouth-of-chaos

mouth-of-chaos
mouth-of-chaos,
originally uploaded by sopotter.

alchemartist2

alchemartist2
alchemartist2,
originally uploaded by sopotter.

GreenWoman

GreenWoman
GreenWoman,
originally uploaded by sopotter.

Poseidon-rising

Poseidon-rising
Poseidon-rising,
originally uploaded by sopotter.

greenman

greenman
greenman,
originally uploaded by sopotter.

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

darkerlinebeard

darkerlinebeard
darkerlinebeard,
originally uploaded by sopotter.
Blind without any lenses..

With or Without Spirit


Heart and mind
Body and soul
Of we find
One yet not whole

Render gender
Tale-thin tailspin
Inward in word
Rend her mend her
Pale twin gale-win
Not poor—what for?

Ween thoughts wean oughts
Spirituel gleans
What spirit well means—
When spiritus asper
Turns spiritus lenis
Whether rough and rasper
Churns ‘fortless then hushes—
Felled oughts tilled thoughts

Flamflim shamshim
Derange arrange
Outward out heard
Well him fill him
This range—is change
The store—full for….

Now heart and mind
Body and soul
Join with spirit
To form a whole
One big ear, it
Hears with
One big eye, it
Sees with
Hear, see and find

Tree Talk I


Once a tree jumped
And plumped itself in front of me,
As if to say that it had a right to the place it had been
Growing there in the woods in the middle of what I imagined would be
The perfect bedroom; for it was feng shui and perfectly arranged, with light enough
And oriented rightly so, and I decided that to assuage my guilt I would argue
The saliency of this point, right then and there, with that all high-and-mighty
Tree, so full of itself that it dared to trumpet its just cause to the ground
It had claimed as a seed and chartreuse seedling, growing
Form from the death on the forest floor, which now
Was mostly paved and roadways, highways
And bi-ways that this tree yet fought…

Trees, in a line, a puffy frilly line of attention and attention-getting,
Smite exhaustion with their exhalation and infuse me with great ponderances!

How is it these trees make joy manifest?
Stirring with the breezes my soul to flutter like leaves stutter in high winds
And bark shards, twists, flakes, peels, and chips, pitching to the ground?

Why do trees emit awe?…through their curvistically wending roots—
Engendering appreciation to love, brides and bridegrooms they wed high atop an airy perch
The dress and tuxedo seem like seagulls and crows convening for signals and chow—
Through their waxy to velvety, rubbery to coarse skin;
Through their spiny to serrated, smooth to geometric form;
Through their scratchy to squishy, hard to brittle husk;
Through their gray to brown, green to blue, black to white, red to yellow color;
Through their conical to spreading, giant to miniature, thick to scraggly shape;
The trees make us think, and fill us with emotion.

Whether seen in daylight or nightlight
Sunlight or moonlight, brightlight or darklight
Weathering, weathered and weatherless,
Trees are our progenitors, parents, ancestors, forebears
And stewards and at once our prodigies, progenies Children,
Lineage, and family; and that is why we call out our Family tree!
When once we said our Tree of life…
And even before then, our entrance into this world
Was owed to the trees…
Whereas now, they help house us and make us comfortable
While we kill them slowly off and us too….

Then that tree spoke again, and asked
If I had seen what this imagery meant, or if I still
Felt that I had the right to take a life of an elder by hundreds
Of years, and if in doing so, my bedroom now covering a rotting stump
Would I sleep better at night for knowing I had less pure oxygen to breathe
And less cool shade in the slow summer months and less protective insulation
From bitter wind in the wintertime to keep me comfortable, and I thought
A minute, put on some gloves…grabbed my grizzly chainsaw…
And cut off my legs at the ankles—red sap oozing out—
The last thing I heard was a loud rending crash

Peace Wades Strife


An ocean, a gulf of stirring waters
From within barnacles deposit
Layers form a reef topping waves
Reaching for the moon
Flying like Icarus
Toppling down edifices

The charging sheephead frazzled
Find seven to eight dazzled

Spirit-filled lagoon
Creatures sense clamorous
Stopping at precipices
Feathery shadows blurring voyageurs
One by one to beaks they do submit
Lest they rest in splash-blackened caves

None is the wiser
Than the wizened old crag
Jutting out over vast domains
Stretching past frenetic sea life
Yawning above the mawing grottos
For many suns, moons and stars alight

From birchbark canoes paddled
To lighthouse captains addled

How would a crag become fishwife
Other than through Poseidon’s pains
Doling fish with bent scrag
Incognito, the crag always knows
The crabby miser
From the oceanic plebiscite—

Unknown depths that trigger
Growth, change and fish to walk
Complex interweaving of seaweed
Marine life and brine
Arising mid-stroke man-o-war
Stings to kill unknown prey

Battleships, war embattled
Oft the crag, on them tattled

Oh, if the crag would talk
Of bubbling entwined
Of prices sailors pay
To man iron ships decked for war
Their life, red-slicks, sinks with their thought need
A floating outrigger

Ode to Sappho II


I will go on and
Continue
When you move on

In the moon painting oceans white
memories of you filter in

Daffodils, anemone, irises
Rhododendron, crocus, coleus,

When the plankton carry the red tide
On their green backs
And spread glowing turquoise embers
Across the black and silent ocean
Colors of memories of labors brush the heavy sky

Petunia, phlox, lantana
Toad lilies, beards tongue, fuscia

Tables with three empty seats
One setting and accoutrements
Lonely and alone I eat
The sun blinds glasses open
Yet memories kindle agreements
With splashes of more of shared digging

Peruvian lilies, heliopsis, campanula
Helianthus, hibiscus, Echinacea

The moon rides the tail of the sun
Here comes the salt of the work
It drips into my vision
Muses play harps in Lydian
Thoughts the chest does jerk
And here you follow the moon
Lyre constellation
In my dark night sky of unfolding

Monarda, marguerite, Montana
Chrysanthemum, pin cushion, lobelia

And as I turn, there is no image
There is no you
And what we were flowers again

A garden

Without a copse
Without a song
Without movement

No stag
No hunter
No forest

Moon Over Rapids


Tears motivate
seeing to other states
Rivers of sorrow stagnate
as melancholia dictates

No chains chain kisses
for kisses ring of passion and eros
whether they be salutations or errors
truly the point misses
and one would piss chance
into chains should kisses be askance
in their fear of acceptance

No kisses kiss soul
for souls embody everything
and just the act of willing kissing
requires the soul’s assent
Although a kiss may result in ascent
and is predicated by certain scents
that kiss solely doesn’t touch soul,
nay, the soul kissing touches soul

No souls soul chains
for chains have of themselves a whole
which wholeness does not wield wishes
nor hold remisses
rather, chains have soul
and cannot chain
or bind that not desiring such pain

Never did a defeat
learn the difference between grace and grief
for defeat learns to defeat
not to uplift

Meaning…defeat only happens to those defeated
Instead of accepting defeat and the feat thus feted
would not avoiding such ill-fated life-graffiti
instill more vigor and vitality?

Sowing seeds of love
is as important as sowing seeds of mythology
and one would trust these seeds of love and mythology
to be loving, compassionate, polytheistic and personal
For, to enjoin the personal with the cultural
is to overcome obstacles beyond the peaceful dove
And here we see the setting moon
the blushed light of a potent sun
flickering its candlelight on the rapids
through this light, waving goodbye, invapid
and rapidly changing from static to intrepid

Image on Loan


Challenges and obstacles bang sleep’s cupboard doors
Open and shut, flung wide and slammed hard
That cupboard still seems bare—even of the bard

Then an image reposes
It fills one shelf, and though all else is empty, it shrinks
The rest, so all that is seen is what flutters

It is when the cupboard door gently closes
For the day has entered looking for stragglers
That the image fades amid the closeness of links

Then for the day no thoughts open that door
Until returning and thinking again
When the image tatters heartstrings once more

Inside the Silence III


When my mind roars with the silence…
No more words swirling within
No more voices rushing in like the tide

~Here the stillness soothes a weary soul~

There’s no time to see the chances
Walking where I’ve been
Rousing importance inside

~Here’s the center our loophole
Waltzing through the din~

When your mind howls with new silence
Clarity sings like sirens
While the rain showers fall outside

~Now the calm changes everything~

Lasting looks on my face
Past haunts Thou used to grace
Happily, we sleepers dream simply

The din builds limply—
Discord chains races—
But not if your mind sings silence

~For here calm changes everything~

Great Art


Great art transcends
What a brief examination comprehends
Whatever reigns as cultural preference
What an individual audience
Brings to the equation
Regardless of the connection;
Speaking instead—
Not from the head
Of this great art
Or of the heart
Yet of spirit and of soul
So who hear it feel part whole—
To all as equally
And powerfully,
Not as intellectually
Or even eloquently
But more spiritually
And intuitionally.

Give for Giving


Tap into the unconscious
While you sleep I enter your head
Visions rush into your dreams
You follow the images I usher in
And the windows of the world church open
The graves spill their contents, nothing but dust
No cloud rising to heaven with a host of faithful within
Instead the green and those who remain true to earth
Dance thereon the eschaton of Nature reigning pure
From the land come Demeter and Ares
From the woods come Aphrodite and Artemis
From the sky come Zeus and Apollo
From the fire come Hephaestus and Prometheus
From the water come Poseidon and Oceanus
From under the land come Hades and Persephone
From the vine come Dionysus and Pan
A host of voices
Singing about hands in the air
Singing about a time for revolution
Singing about the place to rebel
All these things and more
A lasting depression we have not shaken
Chains and shackles about our limbs
Our minds have lost their limbs
The psyche rent in half
The landlord doesn’t offer rebates
Singing about reaching another level
Singing about altering the destiny
Singing about where that time may be
Many colors mentioned
Planets, suns and moons
Mushrooms and anointing oil
Sananda Christ and the liberty
Everywhere people rushing
Lots of bliss in the sky touching
Those who would plant their lips there
Kissing earth goodbye
Now more physical
Now more spiritual
The yin enters the yang
The yang enters the yin
There are no separate domains
Yet within niches remain
Stubborn fools who think they corner
This or that and in retrospect
One would have to suspect
Motives and the incessancy
Of greed in those encroached
For the unwavering is not real
Since change is the only constant
Is the energy that drives
Is the complacency evolver
In a circle of deep chaos
Arose a single ray of light
It was enough to bring darkness
As it once was
To an end
To stop formlessness
Through the energy of change
The world was rearranged
Green became
Silver begot green transformed into wine
The heaviness of the day heaped atop her head
Sleep said I am Hypnos and took her by the hand
I had not the time to say an official good night
Music rolled on like Harley in the stardust
Blessings surround and the air thins
Cold descends to drape skin
Breath clouds the cold to show its face
Ancient beings we know not
From light ships overhead
Penetrates the deep darkness
For darkness never ends
And where shades of gray
Form from light dancing with dark
We see the kindling of shapes
We see the primordial energy that transforms
Penetrating the brilliant lightness
For lightness never ends
Oh, so that the great spirit would find
My soul receptive and capable
Oh, so in mine ignorance still that bliss
Would dare enter, even as I sleep
And in that unconscious keep
Reels psyche in Selfless
Roles unrelated to the resonating
Of the great spirit filling me

Dark-Moist Winding Upwards


Shades drawn on cavern walls
Names etched on Mother’s womb
Spider spins glorious
~In liminality~
Iridescent cloaks
Underground rivers mist
Spray pirouettes rays
Similitude frenzies features
Surface reflects inward
Attentiveness impels life-force
Lumen and dark enter soles
Moist light and dark-moist
Pirouetting rays and spray
Hitched to cave-rivers
Driving upwards
Inward still driven
Racing chariots
Through veins and systems
Nervous flutters
Curdle into soothing belly
Soothsayers twice
Swan or song
Shifts into fecundity
Holding, supporting and nourishing

dreamer dreaming dreams or dreams dreaming dreamer


here and there
but between
where coaches flair
unto the sun
meets a place others beware
shouting whispers lush and lean
floating thoughts imagine pairs
breathless speeches conjure none

despondency relishes crowds
crowded relishes room
roomy relishes full
full relishes crowd
crowd relishes despondency

and on the dreaming dreamer dreams alone

not so despondent
but alone
in imaginal spaces
turned on themselves
so that arising from the ashes of imagination
logical thoughts can cuddle on cold nights
and so that arising from the ravages of thoughts
images can return to reinstill beautiful forms
or is it so that imagining thinking imagination thought
our thoughts now thoughtfully thought
imagine nothing but thought devoid of image
or is it that the image lurks behind the thought thoughts
or that the thought thoughts lurk behind the images
or could it be that thought thoughts and unthought thoughts
and even the occasional unthought unthought
do not exist if not for perceiving or imagining it
it is fire in any regard that burns bright
fiery thinking and fiery imagining
the ashes in spaces
and me alone
but not so despondent

and on dancer dreaming prancer

jollity savors pondering
pondering savors summoning
summon savors releasing
release savors ponderance
ponderance savors jollity

breathy silence breaks up sound
sinking impulse chains the pitch
quiet shrieking bare and bark
shirks nowhere lesser befound
away what dark
there ad-lib steer
and sandwich
there but here

and here the dreamer dreams dreamy dances dreaming

Daphne Transformed

As if in a transcendental state, I proudly call for swift justice from my relentless pursuer, a way to escape this infernal chase whose outcome desire or até for Eros’ revenge wins!

An answer draws me inward as outward closes in—all of life stands still, and moments mimic infinity…

Flushed blood thickens and crawls altering from Ba-bump-Ba-bump-Ba-bumping of sweet flesh memories to a constant and slowly creeping seeping; a quaternity surrounds, quieting…

Concurrently, a tingling sensation envelops as I float while sinking like an anchor, returning to the gently tossing waves of the womb of Earth….

Vision clouds as brightness nears, hearing transports from waves processed to waves felt and known reverberating through my hardening essence; everywhere joins within, dancing ceaselessly….

The zeal for hunting turns to an appeal for communing as I drink fully of the Earth from straws in my toes and suck the soaking sun—not vaingloriously—through waving veins of waxy jade capillaries. I sigh; my bows to the souls of those once captured now songs of tribute ‘tween wind and luxurious boughs.

Whence the culprit, who unconsciously fashioned my sudden transformation, approaches in stupefaction, in amazement, still drooling over my beauty, yet passionate and pushing hard for my woody new self, I frantically try squishing him, thrashing him with my branches, whipping him with my twigs.

However, all of this commotion he sees as divine rapture for his touch and embrace of my barked skin. He misperceives me bowing to him and pledges eternal vigilance and honor by wearing pieces of me about his abhorrent brow, which purpose gives instead an elemental dishonor unforeseeable by blind passion.

How could one be so blind—especially one who hounds awareness? Who desires their hair ripped from their head or from their body in plentiful handfuls?

What ignominious ignorance is this for one to think tearing me asunder would confer bliss!

Confess to Earth your transgressions against her daughter, her sister, your wrongs; nay do not stoop to snipping or ripping off my branches, twigs and leaves to further dignify reproachable heroes of violence!

Instead, revere me from afar as memories of youthful vigor keep in mental recesses. For, I would rather, like Persephone, fall into Earthly crevices than to have my name sullied by the sport of clashing egos!

Yin yang


When firstly the two commas,
One light the other heavy
(Each bearably part of the other enjoined in a many-dimensional helix),
Joined in mutual attraction,
Like two sperm [or eggs with hair if you prefer] of opposites,
The land paused to breathe in the aroma of conception.

A Beginner Mythologist’s Initial Definition of Myth

Scott M. Potter writes for
Dr. Christine Downing who teaches
Approaches to the Study of Myth MS 620
Fall Quarter 2002 at Pacifica Graduate Institute


A Beginner Mythologist’s Initial Definition of Myth


Well, well…writing a paper about the theory of myth, aye, well then, which aspects should one select? Should one determine what their definition of a myth is? Should one relate ancient myths to the present-day? Should one attempt to uncover what myth means within the “underworld of the soul” (Bettelheim 12), where the Psyche roams and dreams paint unconscious images to inform our waking Selves? Should one examine the concepts revolving around true stories—what mythology means at the root level—or those of the commonly accepted notion of myth today: a downright lie or something meant to encourage belief in something incorrect in order to accomplish an objective for say a political party?

Political parties regrettably reek of the hoi polloi’s employment of myth. Like the myth that one should vote Republican versus Democratic or vice versa—thus demarking this as an inappropriate approach for such a paper—or the common political suggestion that one should vote straight party tickets—even if one of the candidates is a known trickster, not just a trickster as in a slippery customer, a charlatan, fraud, con artist, cheat or swindler, but as in the archetypal trickster of the mythology realm, complete with cycles and a “state of affairs in which everything goes wrong and nothing intelligent happens except by mistake at the last moment […]” (Jung 267). We could focus on tricksters in the political arena, yet even the presence of such seemingly mythological archetypes conceals little of the stench of downright lies and deception with which politics teem.

Donna Rosenberg comments on myth in Folklore, Myth, and Legends: A World Perspective, focusing on the story and religious or mystery aspects of myth:
“A myth is a sacred story from the past. It may explain the origin of the universe and of life, or it may express its culture's moral values in human terms. Myths concern the powers who control the human world and the relationship between those powers and human beings. Although myths are religious in their origin and function, they may also be the earliest form of history, science, or philosophy. [...]” (pibburns.com).

In Donna’s description of myth, while mentioning the possibility for historical, scientific, or philosophical correlation, she directs us toward the sacred aspect of myths, to the religious, the mystery contained therein.

Christine Downing, in her September lecture, 2002, said, it is “important to recognize at the beginning that to call something a myth may mean that it’s a sacred very important truth OR that it’s obsolete or a falsehood.” This provides a delineation then that marks the direction to take in applying the terms of myth and the focus of a paper to write about the theory of myth. The focus in this paper shall center on the true aspect, the sacred occupation of myth, for in estimation, applying oneself in research concerning the sacred illuminates far more rewarding nuggets than in mining the profane or false. As such, we will avoid lingering on the falsehoods of myth much longer.

As Mircea Eliade surely must concur, even as it is important to understand the profane, the sacred layers our souls, our spirits, our selves, our minds and our wholes, that sacred being part and parcel: myth or related in some way to the mystery that resonates within myth. Kerenyi states a similar assessment—related more to the loss of a connection with myth—saying; “We have lost our immediate feeling for the great realities of the spirit—and to this world all true mythology belongs—lost it precisely because of our all-too-willing, helpful, and efficient science” (Jung and Kerenyi 1). Even still, with the present-day continuance of the study of myth, we dally in the “great realities of the spirit”, ensuring the enduring nature of these true stories lives.

Oh, to be sure, most of us enjoy good stories. Some of us even love them or are inhabited by them, linking our spirits with the shared spirit of myth. Within the auspicious limitless boundaries of myths, we explore the realm of the collective unconscious (but an aspect of the soul), seeing the analogous elements. In the same September lecture of abundance, Christine Downing states that she loves “stories—stories that take difficulty, violence, chaos, tragedy, death seriously—and also take seriously our longing that it be different.” and that stories “suggest some universality,” allowing “an expansion of self.” Mythologists accept that myths are stories. The following two quotes speak to the content of these stories: “Myths are stories, usually, about gods and other supernatural beings” (Frye pibburns.com). and “They are often stories of origins, how the world and everything in it came to be in illo tempore” (Eliade pibburns.com). However, passion for good or true stories does not translate to a complete grasp of myth. So we must investigate further what properties these true stories—that yet retain a bit of falsity within them through the countless retellings and removal from their original cultural bounds—display that connect them in a brother/sisterhood of the realm of mythology.

One could pursue the underlying foundations of mythologem, the units that myths build upon to erect meaningful structures such as stories, and uncover several archetypal images such as the Kore that resonate within many cultures’ myths. Should one ascertain exactly what these are and how they all interrelate between each myth from every culture, then one should have tapped into what makes the mystery mysterious, what makes the myth sacred, a daunting task indeed. What with the divisive nature of arguments for and against in this arena, this focus seems foolhardy until someone develops a computerized program that automatically scans and filters through hundreds of thousands of myths simultaneously, comparing and contrasting to arrive at a more ‘scientific’ and plausibly acceptable conclusion. For myths let slip organization within the story; “They are usually strongly structured and their meaning is only discerned by linguistic analysis” (Lévi-Strauss pibburns.com). But, suggesting, as Lévi-Strauss has, that linguistics provides the only discernible meaning clangs as experientially false. Through researching the original texts—particularly of the ‘ancient myths’—one could also arrive at multi-faceted comparative and contrastive results, but then would have to ignore the fact that the original texts are still not the original story as it was told orally for generations unknown before writing. Therefore, efforts to unveil the base roots, the foundations, the building blocks of myths shall never prove as fruitful as those who initiate the process could hope for; suggesting that we focus our attentions elsewhere. Apparently, to this undereducated myth student, such elemental ingredients as archetypes do exist within the structure of myths, for this certainly explains parallels present universally.

Understanding what an archetype actually is or is not also poses a dilemma to those not fully initiated in the study of psychology. Archetypes, considered psychic organs present in all of us (Jung and Kerenyi 79), form the basis for the construction of mythologies and the development of meaning in living life, of a purpose, of the reason for why we exist and continue to do so. Moreover, archetypical situations and experiences resonate with familiarity from millennia to millennia, thereby providing an abiding fiber for the weaving of mythical fabrics, in parallel, anti-parallel, past, present and future dimensions. Jung discusses “psychologem” briefly, while revealing what the trickster means to him, suggesting that the trickster is “[…] an archetypal psychic structure of extreme antiquity” (Jung 260). allowing for its widespread universality.

Examining simple parallels in myths of various cultures, such as the trickster, the abductor of women, the killer of children, the primal mother, or the killer of unsuspecting travelers—“Some of them are explanatory, being prescientific attempts to interpret the natural world” (Frazer pibburns.com). “As such, they are usually functional and are the science of primitive peoples” (Malinowski pibburns.com). These parallels uncover fabric weaves of similar types in desert, forest, mountain, coast or plains societies. This suggests that although the underlying direction of the various myths may share the aspect of showing future generations how to live their lives through rites—“Often, they are enacted in rituals” (Hooke pibburns.com). The manner in which these fabrics are woven depends partially on the environment in which these societies toil, play, live and die. This underscores the obvious current interdependence upon environmental surround.

Even with a global economy one survives and thrives based on the relative wealth of their land: desert cultures often contain hidden reserves of oil to export so that they may import what they desire, whereas forest cultures export crops and other products to import the oil, among other products, so that both can live an ‘equitable’ life. We would be rather ignorant to assume that similar effects, centered on the environment, did not play some part in the construction of myths. If we look a little closer at both the desert and forest cultures, we will see how the environment acts dynamically within the equation of myth-making, extending the mysterious and the sacred to the very earth we tread upon, wherever that might be.

Interestingly, desert cultures contain many myths that spin tales about jinn or djinn (genies in English), demons below the class of angels and devils that arise from the desert sand to bewilder unsuspecting travelers, often to their demise (Jones 248). If one considers that, “The mysterious nature of the Desert, with its unpredictability, challenge, and power, is reflected in or perhaps embodied by its demonic population of exotic djinn” (Mack and Mack 136). then one might see more clearly the environment as a factor in the equation of myth making. The present-day ironic correlation here, being to oil reserves buried in the sand that arise to fuel the pollutional troubles of the entire world; like a cross-cultural, economically-based transference of mythical demonic negative attributes being perpetrated upon the rest of the world via a regularly traded and even coveted commodity.

Whereas in forest cultures, many interwoven myths center on spirits that emanate from the dark and mysterious woods to consume children or weary travelers lost in the woods, or to rape unwary women. Pan of Greek lore arises from this woodland zeitgeist, as do the rakshasas of Hindu lore, the Windigo of Canadian lore, the Leshii of Russian lore and the Wood-Wives and Skoggra of German and Swedish lore. Analyzing whom else but the Wood-Wives illustrates the connection to the woods or environment. “So intricately connected to the woods are these spirits that it is said that if a branch is twisted until the bark comes off, one Wood-Wife dies in the forest” (Mack and Mack 104). The present-day peculiar association here, being to the stripping of forests and woods correlating to the death of old myths in cultures the world over, through providing a much-coveted commodity of wood and wood by-products that originally allowed us to sit at tables and write, as well as eat and commune with family or friends, leading to the near-elimination of huge forests.

In briefly observing but two of the diverse cultural societies, desert and forest, we can see that the environment does effect the development of myths and continues to dictate the manner in which those societies survive, suggesting further that future myth creation also will reflect changes rendered by the global economy. This leads to a shift in how people define the sacred, as subtle nuances replace and recycle antiquated ones. Yet there is danger in interpretation and explanation of myths, as Kerenyi puts it, “[…] that one does justice […] by letting it alone and allowing it to utter its own meaning” (Jung and Kerenyi 3). Myths afford more to those who read the myths than to those who have myths translated for them. Today we see some alterations of two main myths and their interpretations by those considered authorities within the designated cultures and observe them changing decade by decade, and arguably for the worse.

The Islamic and Christian cultures stand diametrically opposed to one another, in some circles—usually the fundamentalist movements within each culture—and since the confluence and polarization of these cultures in many nations, the formation of present-day myths revolves around either myth group (select members or those affiliated with it) being pegged as the modern version of Satan or evil. “Religious myths are sacred histories (Eliade pibburns.com), and distinguished from the profane” (Durkheim pibburns.com). As demarcated from the profane, to rely on another ‘authority’ in translation of that myth, one then risks deploying or tainting the sacred history with the present-day profane. This modern dichotomy illuminates the dangers inherent in allowing others to interpret myths for us.

To blindly accept another’s interpretation of a particular myth, equates to evading the work required in arriving at one’s own understanding of that myth and equals an abject surrender to whatever that definition might be. This sightless reception illustrates the major obstacle presenting future generations (most likely increasing the overall misery) in occupying themselves with myth and its influence upon their lives. For truly whether we realize it or not, myth effects us daily, it inhabits us. And as such, an unwillingness to delve deeper and discover the mystery that throbs within the myths, uncovering the meaning behind the sacrality, comprehending the sacred and seeing it reflected in their own self, echoes Oedipus’ inability to see the message in his personal myth as he lived it. What tools, besides our conscious thinking mind should we utilize in discovering the meaning of myth?

Myth finds itself mysterious, sacred, with universal parallels or building blocks of whatever classification: mythologem, psychologem or archetype, environmentally dependent to some degree, subject to interpretation, and informed through the fabric of stories woven with the above-mentioned threads and more. As Christine Downing quotes Doninger saying, “It is impossible to define myth, but cowardly not to try.” (Downing September Lecture). Now, more than earlier, we see that I am working my way toward a very personal definition of myth, one that inhabits me.

What else frolics within the realm of myth, as the list above appears at first glance to be somewhat comprehensive? One great missing component in this equation, as dissected, concentrates on the mostly unknown regions of the Psyche (societally, most of us spend little time toiling on the Self). For
“The psyche is the world’s pivot: not only is it the one great condition for the existence of a world at all, it is also an intervention in the existing natural order, and no one can say with certainty where this intervention will finally end. […] With all the more urgency, then, we must emphasize that the smallest alteration in the psychic factor, if it be an alteration of principle, is of the utmost significance as regards our knowledge of the world and the picture we make of it” (Jung 127).

In stating the above, Jung clarifies the importance and relevance of the psyche in examining myth. Understanding psyche as an interchangeable word for the soul is closer to the truth than many think. But what then is the psyche comprised of other than the I, or ego (as mistranslated), the it, or id (as mistranslated), and the above-I, or superego (again mistranslated), which is the conscious mental life and our unconscious life (Bettelheim 75)?

These—the it, I, and above-I—manifest in matters of the mind, in our mental capacities and functions—what we think, both consciously and unconsciously, that makes us do or act. Sciences and Math belong to this realm and therefore hold special thrift with educated and uneducated alike, because they resonate with logic, an easily seen and shared commodity. However, the boundaries of the mental—exhaustive and infinite—do not end the realm or reign of the self. For the self also resonates with mystery, myth, spirit and magic—equally, and even more so, infinite and exhaustive—that create their own actions in us, which correspond to no specific mental process and make no logical sense. The great Mysteries: myth, religion, spirituality and mystics emanate from this realm and since they are difficult to define and one must truly become an initiate to understand, they find disfavor for various reasons among the mass populace. Even those who profess some religious denomination will yet denounce other religions, mythologies, or mystics (even murdering them within the confines of their shared faith), thus failing to realize that all of these originate from similar (and even arguably shared) regions within the self. It would seem few pursuits resonate within both of these very different areas of the self, some pursuits like meditation, witchcraft, ritual or creating and performing art could be asserted as doing so, explaining partially the even greater difficulty the mass populace finds in accepting these, precisely those of foreign nature. Myth derives some power from its mystery and more from its commune with the psyche and soul of all in contact with it.

The psyche or soul, clearly, once one touches his or her own, exists. Riding the vehicle of meditation offers views, through those windows and one’s lenses employed, of one’s psyche or soul that may shake the foundations of belief systems. Nevertheless, the psyche, in being immeasurable, to date, depicts a certain murkiness or fogginess to those who know theirs not. Within the confines of the psychology realm, the psyche or soul is often observed and discussed in accordance and concordance with favored myths such as Eros or Amor and Psyche [“At the outset of every labor Psyche is overcome by a despair in which suicide seems to be the only solution” (Neumann 115). Could this archetypal imagery explain the large amount of suicides and suicidal people—due to unresolved psyche issues tormenting evermore to death?], or with Greek Tragedies such as Oedipus, or still for others in fairy tales such as Cinderella or Rapunzel. Hillman emphatically states his opinion on this matter; “The entire massive apparatus of counseling, social work, developmental psychology—therapy in every form—continues rehearsing the myth, practicing the play in its practices” (Kerenyi and Hillman 102). Owing to the clear investment of psyche or the human soul within these pieces, centering on universal struggles and epiphanies, archetypical situations and influences, widespread acceptance and employment of them appeals to the senses, to the familiar we search for. This unending search for the familiar echoes the Greek Myth of the Soul Mate, as I like to think of it. Whereby humans used to roll on four arms and legs and challenged the might of Olympus, with their strength and cunning, so Zeus rained down lightning bolts separating us all to look evermore for that one who completes us.

Searching for the familiar accompanies our souls as much as hoping to find the new or unexplained, within our complex selves resonate opposites and likes. To simply say our souls consist of the consciousness and unconsciousness and that alone, regardless of how one chooses to divide them, falls short of the mark. Just as a specific element of the soul or psyche evades fingerprinting, arbitrary or even studied approaches to classifying the soul or psyche and its contents yield theories and theoretical methods that serve as guides alone, not ultimate truth. Experience and what one experiences, particularly in the mines of the soul and especially in conjunction with connections to myth, end up only vaguely similar and familiar, the exact attributes identical only as fingerprints or eyes. So too, one could argue for other subdivisions of both consciousness and unconsciousness. Sections that more aptly allow for phenomenon such as “Remote Viewing,” ESP and a host of other more esoteric explorations or techniques that refuse to fit neatly into current classifications, but this would distract us from further applying the psyche or soul to myth and what myth means to the individual—namely me.

Just how does psyche affect and effect myth, one might query? The answer resides within each of us and quite simply put: the psyche is crucial, critical, and elemental and plays gigantic to miniscule parts, it is everything in relation to the formulation, reception, examination and appreciation of and interaction with myth. Our psyche wraps all of the concerns previously mentioned and any unmentioned: the mystery, sacred, mythologem, psychologem or archetype, environment, interpretation, and fabric of stories woven, in an overarching, ever-reaching, ambivalent and invested energy that allows the fabric knitting, that directs the weave woven, dyes, embellishes, infuses and foretells. Interlacing bits of all of us into each myth created and recreated, told and retold, written and rewritten, translated and retranslated. All one needs do is make a decision and the psyche has touched one, regardless of whether or not one wants to be touched thusly. Which explains why we connect with nearly every myth in some fashion or another, investments of the psyche or soul reveal themselves to any possessing or possessed by said psyche or soul.

This psychic investment and the level in which a specific writer excels at instilling it through word choices and conscious and unconscious scene shifts or character attributes divulged or concealed, grabs those meant to be grabbed and whiffs past those not in need of such lessons or warnings. The psyche or soul becomes the story, whether it be oration, writing, retelling, translation and as such is what inhabits us later and on into our futures. These psychic tidbits that present to many of us, as archetypes, mythologems, psychologems or other building blocks, whatever the name, truly know our souls, recognizing them upon the encounter. “They orient people to the metaphysical dimension, explain the origins and nature of the cosmos, validate social issues, and, on the psychological plane, address themselves to the innermost depths of the psyche” (Campbell pibburns.com). Through our unconscious and conscious minds working collaboratively, while under the spell of the myth, we attune naturally to the sacred, to the great truths of the myths—of the stories of humanity. We bow out of respect, even only internally, and tremble at the attempt to define what we experienced. What spoken about myths, what definition related, what written in Every (parallel, anti-parallel, past, present and future) book could adequately sum up the experience of the soul communing, convening with another soul, with all souls?

Suggesting that myths, as stories, depend partially upon the environment and interpretation or translation, share similar building blocks or archetypes, wield a sacred influence, an element of mystery and some ineffable power to inform our actions, affecting our psyche seems not wholly complete (as if any definition of myth could be). We have discussed some of the parameters of what or how myth is, only touching briefly upon how myth does the affecting. Joseph Campbell elucidates this very well in his series: The Masks of God, from Primitive through Creative Mythology. It is perhaps his explication of the Indian terms of “marga, meaning “path” or “way,” the path or way to discovering the universal, and desi…”of the region, local, or ethnic,” the peculiar, sectarian, or historical aspect of any cult, through which it constellates a folk, a nation, or a civilization.” combining these with Adolph Bastian’s “elementary ideas” and “ethnic ideas” that demonstrates clearly how myth works within and on us. Campbell suggests that myth, as the “way,” disconnects us from our surround through a transformation allowing us to experience the mysterious, the beyond words, and as an “ethnic idea,” myth secures us to our environmental, especially familial, “[…] sentiments, activities and beliefs […].” Therefore, myth effectuates a duality, serving to remove us from our surround while fastening us to it simultaneously, culturally. (Campbell 461-62) However, since myths resonate profoundly, culturally, we must consider how the power of the local, the familial, the societal transfers from one region to another continent, as peoples migrate bringing their distinctively different myths along.

Such a phenomenon of transference spotlights possible psychological trauma for people attempting to delve into and immerse themselves in myths and religious rites and practices far removed from their original culture and development. One obvious problem in adopting foreign myths deals with the symbols of a localized culture, as “They are symbolic and metaphorical” (Cassirer pibburns.com). causing the adoptee to hazard guesses and intuitions. Some cultures (desert) view rain as savior, whereas others (jungles) frequented by monsoons view it as a harbinger of life and death, pointing out inherent problems with translation in this example is but the stone to the mountain. Although one could suggest that links to the Collective Unconscious might enable one to avert some of the pratfalls and dangers inherent in adopting an unfamiliar myth, relying upon the Collective Unconscious to receive the appropriate information and assistance appears questionable or risky at best (especially since such messages are susceptible to personal translation by and motivation of the receiver). If myth does indeed appear in the form of dreams as Freud suggests, “Sometimes they are public dreams which, like private dreams, emerge from the unconscious mind” (Freud pibburns.com). then this points toward a definite link with the Collective Unconscious, which connection Jung points out; “Indeed, they often reveal the archetypes of the collective unconscious” (Jung pibburns.com). Nonetheless, a universal connection does not imply one should adopt any myth from any culture without expecting or preparing for potential harmful reactions. That psychological trauma could occur in those who practice nonnative myths, seems readily apparent. Therefore, before complete indoctrination in another culture’s myths or religions, it would be wise to ‘set one’s house in order’ first, healing old psychological wounds and readying oneself for such a powerful undertaking. Myths resonate and what vibrations emanate, originate from the energy of the spirit, soul or psyche that assisted in their creation.

After having explored many aspects of myth [Which exploration shall never be complete, even with an updated and amended Golden Boughs, so we shorten the exploring for the sake of length requirements.], we shall now explore my definition of myth, culled from a lifelong fascination with myths, participating in fantastic lectures by Christine Downing, reading source materials, online research and reflection upon this combined with meditation (and of whatever dreams availed themselves to me) upon it all. With humility, and the necessary acknowledgement of all who have come beforehand, giving freely of their wisdom, found in published books and materials, and the gratitude felt for their efforts, particularly those of Campbell, Downing, Freud, Hillman, Jung and Kerenyi, such a definition exudes from my soul. As Christine Downing so ably said, “Freud’s discovery of the living reality of myth really marks the beginning of psychoanalysis” (Downing December Lecture). Our current acceptance of this living reality allows the courage to venture forth with a living definition of myth. So, without further ado, Scott M. Potter’s definition of myth:

Myths, as living stories, free us from our surround while fastening us to it—depending partially upon the environment and interpretation or translation—usually center on deities or spirits—responsible for creation or the creation of mystery, tensions and change in our world, including natural and so-called unnatural phenomenon, and as such wield a sacred influence, an element of mystery and some ineffable power to inform our actions—share similar building blocks, incorporating archetypes; all of which affects our psyche; touching the unreachable and untouchable part of us—the entire Self—that compels us to react emotionally, physically, physiologically, spiritually and intellectually.


Should one question the validity of the latter part of the above definition, these last quotes should serve to dispel those doubts; “Mythology is psychological, because it inhabits us” (Downing November Lecture). and the following:
“[…] I became aware that the unconscious undergoes or produces change. […] I realize that the unconscious is a process, and that the psyche is transformed or developed by the relationship of the ego to the contents of the unconscious. […] In collective life it has left its deposit principally in the various religious systems and their changing symbols” (Jung 209).

Yet, whatever the accepted experts one chooses to cite, however one chooses to approach Mythography—for truly we know that our stance, the lens we wear, colors everything we see—wheneven the time one does so, moreoverorless the age or experiences one summons to the table, to define what myth or mythology means to oneself is to partly define oneself, and not to is to partly undefine oneself. And, even more importantly, to not revisit that definition and see how it changes through the years, is to leave oneself in a flux of shadows. I say that defining one’s own myth and one’s own epistemological understanding of mythology or mythography allows one to see with ears clear, to hear with eyes open to shut, to sing with the heart, to feel with the voice, to move throughout shadows and utter darkness with an inner light ever shining. I say that to re-collect, to re-imagine, to re-invent, to re-embrace this process continually is akin to living in the arbor philosophicum, or to seeing through the philosopher’s stone.



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