What is your Myth?

by Victor_E 5 Replies latest jw friends

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  Victor_E

  I asked myself, What is the myth you are living? and found that I did not know. So .I took it upon myself to get to know my myth, and I regarded this as the task of tasks..I simply had to know what unconscious or preconscious myth was forming me. C. G. Jung

  The Portable Jung

  I was born and raised as a child in Mexico, a country steeped in mythology. My Catholic upbringing filled me with superstitions that would impact important life changing decisions like joining the Watchtower. I was drawn by the logical explanation of some of my fundamental questions about life. At that time, being an adolescent I lacked the maturity and factual information now readily available on the web. In due time I came to recognize that I had traded my Catholic mythology for that of the Watchtower.

  The Watchtower mythology had formed me into a walking path -o- logical library of lies created by the Watchtower leadership. Upon reading the factual writings of Franz and others I was able to discard the entire silly set of doctrinal myths. Many ex JWs like myself will never trust much less join another organized religion based on the betrayal of our trust and the dire consequences of divorcing ourselves from the Watchtower.

  Reaching my forty-fifth birthday, I once again had to do some introspection and find out what myths were forming me. Much to my dismay I again found I had filled that void with other myths. As a researcher and a practitioner in the human development field, I now find it very interesting to access in others their mythology and see the generative effect it has in their life.

  We should be ready to revise any belief, we should change a belief where there is compelling reason to change it, and we should not change a belief wantonly without some good reason. The first point needs intellectual courage, the second, intellectual honesty, and the third, wise restraint. Do not believe anything but question only what is worth questioning. I invite you to do your own exploration of what myth is forming you in either aiding or limiting you from evolving to your own bliss.

  We should know what our convictions are, and stand for them. Upon ones own philosophy, conscious or unconscious, depends ones ultimate interpretation of facts. Therefore it is wise to be as clear as possible about ones subjective principles. As the man is so will be his ultimate truth. C Jung

  Victor Escalante
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  SixofNine

  We should be ready to revise any belief, we should change a belief where there is compelling reason to change it, and we should not change a belief wantonly without some good reason.

  I happen to agree with you, but I think many, if not most, people do not. I see evidence of this when people pass along what is obviously untrue, in the form of urban legends, and then, when called on it (they did believe to be true) say, "well, I don't care if it is true, it makes me feel good, gives me hope".

  I see evidence in this when people leave the darkness of the lies woven into JW mythology, and yet cling firmly to the teats of the mythology that JWism was founded upon. It feels a bit better, and they may not be hurt by it anymore, or not as much, but it is still the spawning place of worthless, hurtful religions.

  People seem to forget that myths are lies. People seem to not care that during the time the myth was fresh, no one considered it a myth, they considered it the "truth".

  I believe that ultimately, there is no bliss to be found in mythology. I believe in only one spiritual concept, for that matter; the concept of light vs dark. Truth is light, and untruth, even untruth that seems harmless, is darkness. It obscures, it covers over, and if it isn't hurting you right now, it is hurting someone, somewhere.
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  Bang

  A WALKING PATHOLOGICAL LIBRARY OF LIES.

  I like that. Very apt.

  Light and dark is my kind of thing too. I find that "is and is not" makes me ponder too. "and Without Him was nothing made that Was made"

  bang
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  SixofNine

  "and Without Him was nothing made that Was made"

  "is" that a statement of fact, or just more myth? Just more for the library, IMO.
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  Carmel

  I once read a monograph written by a contemporary mathematician/philosopher who when commenting on mythology stated that the age of reason essentially represented humans collectively and individually leaving behind myth making as the primary pardigm of life and have taken up "model making" which is the essence of the scientific process. Thinking that we have totally abandoned myth making, though, is a myth itself. We have yet to extricate ourselves from the ingrained tendancy to conjure up irrational cognitions and the source of this is primarily the religions of the world that have long sense lost their original purity and elan and replaced it with ideas of demons, devils, unctions and clerical leadership having any direct connection with the divine. He cautioned not to go to the opposite extreme of thinking that reason alone is the be-all end-all in our intellectual/spiritual evolution, that there are pitfalls in taking materialism and humanism to its logical extreme leaving us with a condition equally as deleterious as dependending upon myths for our foundational paradigm.

  I guess my myth that I am always dealing with is the conception of divinity that is personalized, which satisfies the ego but doesn't seem to have any basis in my reality.

  the caveman
• 

  Kingpawn

  SixofNine,

  People seem to forget that myths are lies. People seem to not care that during the time the myth was fresh, no one considered it a myth, they considered it the "truth".

  Pandora's box is a myth, but one that may be based on a corrupted account of Adam and Eve's fall from grace. Some parallels include:

  1. The placing of another person's property (a chest) inside Pandora's (and hubby's) residence.

  2. As I recall, they were asked not to open it (partaking of the knowledge of what was inside). Similar to the reasoning behind human's not being allowed to eat of a particular tree.

  3. Time period was seven years, I think, before the owner would return--seven is mentioned in Scripture as God's number (OK, that came from the WBTS, but still....).

  4. Once Pandora's curiosity motivated her to open it, all the evils contained therein escaped into the world.

  Some differences:

  1. Pandora wasn't egged on by anyone, if I remember right.

  2. Hubby had nothing to do with it, unlike Adam.

  3. There was no "Depart ye hence" from their home.

  I remember reading the story as a kid, but that's been decades a while ago.