What is Mythology
Myth comes from the Greek word mythos, its meaning has changed over time. Initially it meant speech, sound or words, which changed to narrative or a story with a plot. In modern times this also became a false story or tall tale! In psychological fields it is seen as a traditional tale, which refers to a secondary truth of collective importance.
Mythology talks to us at a deep level and the stories stir something in our unconscious. Jung called this the collective unconscious. All cultures have their myths, usually about Gods or heroes who rose above them to perform super human feats. This gives us metaphors by which we can better understand our own patterns of behaviour. They produce images in our imagination and flashes of recognition in our soul. The Greeks and other ancient cultures perceived this and put it down to a kind of compulsion coming from the Gods, activating the relevant emotional patterning. When they recognised the connection to the cycles of a certain planets position in the firmament, they named the body for the God or Goddess concerned.
Sara has loved mythology, in particular the stories from the Greek and Roman Gods, Goddesses and mythical characters, since early childhood. She also found the tales from Avalon and Camelot in Arthur’s Ancient Britain inspiring. She had always been enthralled by the stars in the sky, named from myth and carrying the energies associated with the archetypes they are named for! It was a natural progression for her to move onto including the asteroids named for other mythical characters from the pantheon.
Myth sits behind all the esoteric disciplines, its symbolism paving the way towards the meanings that are associated with various aspects of astrology, tarot, Kabbalah and palmistry, to name just a few.
It is thought that, particularly in the Middle Eastern and Southern European region, evolving civilizations adopted or syncretised their Gods or beliefs from those of older cultures. For example the Phoenician or Canaanite or Hebrew Goddess Astarte-Ashoreth, becoming Innana-Ishtar in Mesopotamia, to Aphrodite-Asteria in Greece, and Venus in Roman times.
Sara has tended to focus on the Greek version of mythology over the Roman one in most cases. She has also added many additional archetypes which resonated, when she was fortunate enough to visit the place of their origins, (as described in her Life Journey), in particular from the Egyptian and Minoan civilizations.
“Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth — penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words. Beyond images, beyond that bounding rim of the Buddhist Wheel of Becoming. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told.”
Joseph Campbell – “The Power of Myth”
“I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?”
John Lennon
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