Sunday 30 November 2008

Our Gods, Our Monsters


Here it is - Mythology Synchroblog Five: Mythical Monsters and Otherworldly Entities, hosted by Mahud from Between Old and New Moons. It's slated for 1st December, but since I'll be at work tomorrow and probably -if recent trends continue - snowed under with coding, I've decided to nail my colours to this particular mast a day early.



I’m not sure that Anne’s fairies would appreciate being grouped with monsters – they’ll probably rhyme at you, if you should try. And then ask why. Well, by and by.

Stop it.


Fairies do fit into the category of Otherworldly Entities, however.
Whether we think of them as beings from another dimension or hallucinations, like gods and other monsters they exist.

By now I’ve come to the conclusion –and it seems a fair fit to experience – that there is nothing existent in this universe which we did not, collectively, create.

Whereas physics tends to construct the world in theory from the bottom up, imagining foundational particles and energy waves, I have more than a suspicion that it goes the other way.


When I say we I am talking about humans, vegetation, animals, minerals and subatomic particles as well. This is the collective known as Us, and together, as one, we created All. Including, of course, ourselves.
Ouroborous, anyone?

So it is that I see monsters: wights, dragons, basilisks, Godzilla; daimons: big black dogs, little people, ufos; and ghosts as more or less all of a piece. They’re usually less than material in that they may appear anywhere out of, apparently, nothing, and have a tendency, some of them, to disappear just as quickly.


However, this less tangible characteristic doesn’t detract from their reality.
I could point out that we’ve been creating monsters forever- Jehovah, Samael, Tiamat – and that their effect upon the physical world has been, and continues to be, all too real.


We create personal monsters, too. I recall vividly the fear attached to my very young self’s dream of a brontosaurus chasing me through an abandoned city (and that terminology just dates me, as I believe that they’re known as Apatosaurus these days)- and then there are my nightmare big cats, which instilled terror into my sleeping and waking until I realized what should have been obvious: that these are my creations, and the way to stop the fear is to take them back into the Self.
Hello, black panther.

The mechanism by which otherworldly entities become visible is less easily understood, at least by me, but could perhaps be pictured as the intersection of the collective, creative soul with its own creation. The fact that these so-called apparitions are frequently seen by more than one person at a time, by people separated by distance and/or time, and by nonhuman beings as well as human ones, to my mind rules out the explanation of personal wonky brain chemistry. Brain chemistry gone awry is unfortunately the most popular materialist explanation these days, but it doesn’t cut any ice (or hold any water) given the facts.

I am fascinated by all of Our creation in its myriad incarnations. When I get over my fear, I am faintly surprised to find that –behold!- all that lies behind them is an immeasurable, soul-suffusing ocean of that ultimate reality: Love.



And here are the other participants in this bunfight:








Khanya

Between Old and New Moons

Pic: I found it over at the Meta-Logic Cafe, but don't know its origin

9 comments:

  1. Pop over to http://mythology.ourgardenpath.com/
    and tell Mahud, Steve - I'm positive that the more the merrier!

    Love,
    Terri in Joburg

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  2. Have gone there, and added a note on my blog to encourage a few others to join -- interesting topic!

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  3. When I say we I am talking about humans,

    You know some humans? All I know is a bunch of monkeys evolving one step forward and two steps back. Some claim not to be monkeys so I assume that they are aliens.

    Or brainwashed christians, muslims, jews, etc.

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  4. I consider humans to be the worst monsters ever created. We destroy everything around us for the sheer joy of it, which I doubt any other species is capable of short of being rabid.

    Just the fact that we will crowd into a theatre to "enjoy" slasher movies I think says it all.

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  5. Our road carnage figures in December are astronomical.

    Goddess has to come up with unique ways of population and greed control hon. Just step back as far away from it as you can.

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  6. Pride ... nailed lucifer, and us the same.

    We are all US, as Aquila would say, the only difference is that humans think we're better than the rest.

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  7. Whether we think of them as beings from another dimension or hallucinations,

    You seem to have a lot of those, you must have some really good pot. Ha ha ha.

    I've never came face to face with any fairies, aliens, gods or any other such things, therefore they do not exist.

    Well, if I'm going to have a little wood heater in the camper by christmas I had better get started on making it. Hugs.

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  8. Hi, Terri and thanks for participating.

    I had a similar reoccurring childhood dream around the age of 5-6 (I'm guessing) of a universal horror style werewolf would chase my granddad and I through my school corridors.

    Regarding dinosaurs, again at a really young age I was fascinated with the 'mythic' battle between T-Rex and Triceratops, which was often illustrated various books about dinosaurs I had when younger. I always identified with herbivorous Triceratops, who, though of a seemingly gentler was strong enough to take on his carnivorous counterpart.

    Well, BC, I've certainly hallucinated little people climbing up the wall; a descending angel with a gigantic wingspan land on a neighbouring rooftop, as well as other translucent three dimensional people and animals that were more visualizations rather than entities. Admittedly I was on drugs at the time (not pot though cause it makes me paranoid, unless I smoke it in small doses, which I find helps me to concentrate and think about things in different ways.), although I would rather develop the ability to visualize in a more natural way. I no the ability is inside of me, and visualisation is an important aspect of some Paganisms, such as Wicca.

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