88. 8 April 2019
You are sitting in the black lounger facing west while looking out the north window at two lines of fifteen-foot evergreens (14 plus trees) on the hill. Carol is napping on the bed. You were both up earlier than usual. The semi-consistent roar of trucks flash by - seen a second or so on their way up or down I-71 north of the Polaris exit. Jadah's nuzzled in a new shoebox on the carpet near Carol's side of the bed. - Amorella
1036 hours. This seems a strange way to begin a first chapter after months of an "Introduction" to my personal spiritual mythology.
Miss Havisham is going to write the mythology. - Amorella
1041 hours. Oh.
Nothing more than "Oh"? You sound disappointed. - Amorella
1043 hours. I assumed you and I were going to write it.
Why? - Amorella
1044 hours. That's the way it's been for at least three decades, or so it seems. What am I going to do?
She's your soul, be her scribe. - Amorella
1045 hours. (Pause)
I'll be in black, she'll be in blue and you will be between the lines. (Pause) Cat got your tongue? - Amorella
1051 hours. Why should I be between the lines?
Because normally when you write your soul and sometimes heartanmind are between the lines. - Amorella
1053 hours. I don't think I trust my soul, oddly enough.
You have to let yourself go for this to work, boy. - Amorella
1056 hours. I have learned to trust you over the years.
Then trust me. She's been your soul for longer than you have known me. - Amorella
1057 hours. This is a pretend scenario, right?
Call this a plausible personal speculative fiction in context with EncountersinMind and EncountersinSpirit and the three original hardbound Merlyn trilogy books if you wish. - Amorella
1105 hours. Okay, I can accept that. (I don't want people to think I am out of my mind.)
How can you be out of your mind if it's your soul referencing your heartanmind and personal writings from your heartansoulanmind? We have personified her; she gave herself a name she likes. Let's give her an image. I'll choose and she'll clarify. - Amorella
1111 hours. This is going too fast, Amorella. I cannot imagine.
Let's pick out a suitable image. Then we'll call it a day if you wish. - Amorella
1116 hours. That sounds reasonable enough.
1152 hours. I saw nothing that struck me. I think she should remain invisible.
Let me choose an image. mh
1204 hours. What kind of image?
Something out of this world. mh
1214 hours. Speculative fiction will fit.
You found several pictures. I like this one best. mh
Miss Havisham, A Personification
1357 hours. I admire the blended rustic features, plus your face has a lingering sadness that fits with Dickens' fictional Miss Havisham.
You have been sitting at Shale Hollow Park after a Subway picnic lunch. You split a rotisserie chicken wrap, chips and drinks from home, with two cookies also from Subway. Carol walked while you downloaded the images. - Amorella
Let's follow some of the rules that Joseph Campbell set for a human soul's mythological story. I have run through your notes bolding what is important in this story's foundation. mh
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[This material is edited from Note 87.]
"Myth is an organization of symbolic forms, images, and narratives that are metaphoric of the possibilities of human experience and fulfillment of a given society at a given time."
- Joseph Campbell
- Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American Professor of Literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience.
Influences
Psychology and anthropology
The anthropologist Leo Frobenius and his disciple Adolf Ellegard Jensen were important to Campbell's view of cultural history. Campbell was also influenced by the psychological work of Abraham Maslow and Stanislav Grof.
Campbell's ideas regarding myth and its relation to the human psyche are dependent in part on the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud, but in particular on the work of Jung, whose studies of human psychology greatly influenced Campbell.
Campbell's conception of myth is closely related to the Jungian method of dream interpretation, which is heavily reliant on symbolic interpretation.
Comparative mythology and Campbell's theories
Monomyth
As a strong believer in the psychic unity of mankind and its poetic expression through mythology, Campbell made use of the concept to express the idea that the whole of the human race can be seen as engaged in the effort of making the world "transparent to transcendence" by showing that underneath the world of phenomena lies an eternal source which is constantly pouring its energies into this world of time, suffering, and ultimately death. To achieve this task one needs to speak about things that existed before and beyond words, a seemingly impossible task, the solution to which lies in the metaphors found in myths. These metaphors are statements that point beyond themselves into the transcendent.
These stages, as well as the symbols one encounters throughout the story, provide the necessary metaphors to express the spiritual truths the story is trying to convey. Metaphor for Campbell, in contrast with comparisons which make use of the word like, pretend to a literal interpretation of what they are referring to, as in the sentence "Jesus is the Son of God" rather than "the relationship of man to God is like that of a son to a father".
The Metaphysical Function
Awakening a sense of awe before the mystery of being
According to Campbell, the absolute mystery of life, what he called transcendent reality, cannot be captured directly in words or images. Symbols and mythic metaphors on the other hand point outside themselves and into that reality. They are what Campbell called "being statements" and their enactment through ritual can give to the participant a sense of that ultimate mystery as an experience. "Mythological symbols touch and exhilarate centers of life beyond the reach of reason and coercion.... The first function of mythology is to reconcile waking consciousness to the mysterium tremendum et fascinans of this universe as it is."
The Sociological Function
Validate and support the existing social order
Campbell often referred to these "conformity" myths as the "Right Hand Path" to reflect the brain's left hemisphere's abilities for logic, order and linearity. Together with these myths however, he observed the existence of the "Left Hand Path", mythic patterns like the "Hero's Journey" which are revolutionary in character in that they demand from the individual a surpassing of social norms and sometimes even of morality.
The Pedagogical Function
Guide the individual through the stages of life
As a person goes through life, many psychological challenges will be encountered. Myth may serve as a guide for successful passage through the stages of one's life.
The Way of Man
Medieval mythology, romantic love, and the birth of the modern spirit
Campbell describes the emergence of a new kind of erotic experience as a "person to person" affair, in contrast with the purely physical definition given to Eros in the ancient world and the communal agape found in the Christian religion. An archetypal story of this kind is the legend of Tristan and Isolde which, apart from its mystical function, shows the transition from an arranged-marriage society as practiced in the Middle Ages and sanctified by the church, into the form of marriage by "falling in love" with another person that we recognize today.
So what essentially started from a mythological theme, has since become a social reality, mainly due to a change in perception brought about by a new mythology—and represents a central foundational manifestation of Campbell's overriding interpretive message, "Follow your bliss."
Accordingly, Campbell believed the religions of the world to be the various culturally influenced "masks" of the same fundamental, transcendent truths.
All religions can bring one to an elevated awareness above and beyond a dualistic conception of reality, or idea of "pairs of opposites" such as being and non-being, or right and wrong.
Selected and edited from Wikipedia
** **
1452 hours. Will this be as a story or dialogue or both?
This will be your soul's story. mh
Evening. You are a bit anxious for Miss Havisham to begin, and you are concerned about consciously being left out of the story, that is, being left between the lines. - Amorella
2229 hour. I am.
Here is a sample. mh
Hello, dear Reader. I am Miss Havisham the personified soul of Mr. Orndorff. I have a very human story for you, and what makes it unusual are the spiritual connections of Mr. Orndorff's heart and soul and mind, his invisible human spirit. Mr. Orndorff is an old man with a lot of living experience just like other older people who also have their personal stories from their own heartsansoulsanminds. One's heartansoulanmind allows a sense of freedom and dignity to exist in one's physical self. When you physically die, only the spiritual, the heartansoulanmind continues.
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