After reading the Thursday Night Tarot, I’m finding that I understand Joseph Campell’s “Masks of God” and “Hero of a Thousand Faces” much better. Especially his proposal and understanding for the need of a new mythology to suplant the outdated, outmoded, and ultimately false religious mythologies so widespread today (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, all the ‘isms).
Anyways, it got me to thinking (always a dangerous circumstance), what context would I use if I were to create a modern mythology. One that actually “works” in this modern era, and would continue to “work” well into the future? Being an avid reader and researcher into philosophy, ancient traditions, science, and design, I immediately came up with four books that could provide a foundation upon which to build a modern mythos.
1. Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand
This is not a mythology book, but it highly recommends that people strive for the ideal. It provides a great framework for how one can lead a productive, reasonable, and guilt free life. It’s by far the best guide book I’ve found on how to navigate the physical universe by following a practical, useful philosophy.
2. The Age of Spiritual Machines (and the follow-up The Singularity is Near)
Kurzweil is visionary. And you need to have prophets in mythology 😀 His books are both interesting, prognosticating, and hopeful about the future of the human condition. All virtues of a forward looking mythos. And of course there’s the whole immortality promise as well, which is the stock and trade of all all religious myth.
This is a great book on how to approach the internal world of your mind and imagination. As opposed to the Objectivist philosophy which guides your life on a rational level, this book tries to address your spiritual, emotional, and intuitive nature – which has very little to do with “God” in the traditional sense, and much more to do with your personal Self which is your Mind. It lays out the path of self-discovery where your personal quest is to find that which makes living your life supremely enjoyable. It’s an incredibly self-directed treatise, which in turn allows it to work so well within the objectivist framework. Quite surprising actually, and wonderfully synergistic. So it provides the second “big hook” of traditional religion, eternal happiness.
4 Tradition & Ritual. I haven’t found a good “guide book” for this.
But traditions and rituals are central to all mythologies. Traditions like meeting every Sunday at the same place and time help foster a sense of community and connectedness. While rituals help to focus the mind and bring you back to the path of self redemption. There are many frameworks out there that appear to work; Enochian, Cabala, Tarot, ad infinitum. The “schools of magick” offer a nice framework that exists outside of most “religious” mythologies, but they’re somewhat tainted as well, so it’s difficult to choose what would might be a good fit for a modern mythology. Basically all of the various traditions are just providing foci for meditation. The various “schools” of “Magick” have some interesting and good rituals, but they’re not terribly accessible to “the public.”
Originally I had picked Aleister Crowley’s “Magick Without Tears” book, but it’s only got flashes of genius mixed in with a lot of hyperbole. It just seems very difficult to find pertinent rituals that don’t have a lot of mystical hocus-pocus baggage attached. Hmmm. I’ll have to think on that awhile…
I hope y’all remembered to wish your Mom a Happy Mother’s Day! And that your weekend has been amazing! Enjoy!
Campbell pushed me much further down the road to my current atheist position (which is sorta funny when you consider the degree I finished today). But coming up with a modern mythology is tricky; can one be deliberately created? Tolkien tried, but other than some awesome literature (and movies based on it that don’t totally suck), does anyone think of it as mythology rather than “stuff Tolkien made up”? To me, mythology doesn’t have a known author; it’s stories that just are.
Mythology shouldn’t be “made up” in the way you’re talking about. Fantasy worlds like Tolkein or even George Lucas. I mean something more along the lines of a philosophy, or a way of life. But it would need to be called a mythology in order to shoe-horn in all of the stuff we don’t know about, or have a solid scientific foundation to explain – like dreams, subconscious, emotions, etc. All things we experience, but have a hard time describing. Like the famous lines from Contact; “Did you love your father? Yes. Prove it.”
BTW, I do consider myself and atheist and an objectivist, but I’ve found Objectivism (with a big “O”) rather anemic when it comes to dealing with purely psychological or “in the mind” phenomena like the subjects listed above; dreams, wishful thinking, emotional states of mind, fun, being spiritual in an atheistic, non-mystical way – which I think is possible. etc.
It should actually be a system of thought that pulls things together – esp. subjects that have up until now really only been the purvue of religious thought and philosophy. It needs to be brought into a non-mystical framework, while mainaining an air of reverance and awe.
Growing up in a fundamentalist household, I’ve developed an allergy to capital letters (Objectivism, Libertarian, etc).
I used Tolkein as an example because of some of his notes that have been published by his son; the story grew out of something much larger. I don’t know if I would call it philosophy; hence the term mythology. Or I’m just reading too much into it.
But I guess I’m very skeptical of creating any sort of framework (philosophical, mythological, etc.) that would gain any sort of traction. Maybe I’m just jaded at this point in my life. I definitely see the need for it, I’m just not sure how it would happen other than by happy accident or force.
All of which brings up the question of Special Creation vs. Evolution. Mythology arises via evolution, I would sigure. Perhaps it might start with a created kernel, but it needs all those encrustations that grow over the years as it evolves into itself.
Exactly. Look at all the encrustations wrapped around a poor itinerant teacher in 1st century Palestine who spouted Jewish midrash and the then-popular kingdom preaching, and enjoyed sticking political leaders in the eye with a sharp stick.
The question is can that kernel be created through deliberate effort, or is it an accident of history? Or some combination of the two? Such as opportunistic pitchmen exploiting the teachings of said poor itinerant teacher by turning them into something they never were intended to be.
That’s why I picked the term mythology and not religion. Probably an even better term would be framework. I hesitate to use the word philosophy, since it has almost as much baggage as the term religion. And (IMHO) many philosophies really miss the mark on human psychology.
I envision a melding of ideas from the schools of Rand, Jung, and Campbell. I think it would be a fruitful and fascinating project. Maybe when I find some of that spare time I keep hearing folks talk about, but I’ve yet to experience 😀 hehe.
That would certainly be interesting. And yea, what to call it that doesn’t immediately send everyone screaming for the exits. 😉
I’m due to re-read all three of those anyway; especially Jung which I haven’t really gotten into since I started college in 1982.
OK; new book for the list that I grabbed off the library’s new-book shelf to read on the plane: Larry the Penguin Searches for the Meaning of Life. Don’t look for it yet; my wife is reading it before we take it back. Hysterical.