Myth, Religion, and Social Development: A series by Marmalade

Myth, Religion, and Social Development

Posted on Apr 7th, 2008 by Marmalade I've been reading several authors recently that are related.

I just finished The Gospel & the Zodiac by Bill Darlison.  I'm now reading Christianity: the Origins of a Pagan Religion by Philippe Walter.  I've also been perusing two of Joseph Campbell's works: Thou Art That and The Flight of the Wild Gander, and Alexander Eliot's The Universal Myths.

They all are related(in my mind).  First, they're all about mythology.  Second, they all speak about Christianity.

There are 5 mythic/archetyapl characters that fit closely together.  There is the Trickster, the Primal Man, the Titan/Giant, the Hero, and the Savior.  The Hero and the Savior are obviously related as Jesus fits fairly well into the Hero's Journey.  The Primal Man is known as Adam in Christianity and Jesus is known as the Second Adam, one causes death and the other conquers it.  The cause of death is normally an element of the Trickster which is closely related to the Primal Man.  Loki connects the Titan/Giant with the Trickster, and Prometheus fairly well brings together the different categories.

In Walter's book, he theorizes about a European pagan mythology that was incorporated into Christianity of the Middle Ages.  He sees at the center of this was a Giant and also related was the class of Birdwomen.  Birds have been related to shaman's and their visions for as long as man has been thinking about such things.  He mentions the difference between myth and ritual, and how rituals are more reliable evidence of ancient religions because rituals are more stable and unchanging even as the explanations(stories) surrounding them change.

Campbell writes about the differences betweem visions and rituals in reference to what he calls the 'Titan-shaman'.  He also details how this can be understood through looking at the differences of hunter societies and planting societies.  This relates to paganism and Christianity and the development of religion in general, and Campbell also mentions the differences of religions that emphasize the individual vs the collective.  All of this fits into the insights from Spiral Dynamics.  I also thinks this relates to Jasper's notion of the Axial Age.

Furthermore, I've been thinking about the distinction between symbol and sign, connotation and denotation.  And also what Campbell was saying about tender-minded vs tough-minded.

I plan to go into more detail, but I wanted to do an intro blog to set out the ideas I've been pondering.

Re: Myth, Religion, and Social Development: A series by Marmalade

Thank you so much for posting this. It is becoming a really special and enriching aspect of this group that the beauty, creativity and insight of gaians and their blogs is an integral part of its content. And better that people post their blogs here themselves, IMO, than I lift them on their behalf…

Love and light,

Nicole

Re: Myth, Religion, and Social Development: A series by Marmalade

Myth, Religion, and Social Development: Part II

I want to bring together the evolutionary causes at work behind myth and religion.  I mentioned these earlier: Campbell's view on the transition from hunter to planter societies, Philippe's ideas about the paganism incorporated into Christianity, Spiral Dynamics, and the Axial Age.

To this I want to add Paul Shepard's theory about Pleistocene man.  Shepard believes that the transition between hunters and planters was the most important shift in social development… or disruption rather.  This shift was world-wide and is comparable to the Axial Age.

Add this all up, and it gives us 2 major shifts connecting 3 major eras.  Its Spiral Dynamics that allows us to map this out.  (It goes without saying that this is all tentative.)

First Era: Prior to the post-Pleistocene shift, we have the vmemes of beige and purple.  It seems that Campbell and Shepard are treating these two inseparably.  As we know very little about the myths of beige, we don't need to worry about it.  Still, its beige that Shepard is somewhat romanticizing.  In addition, I think the individualistic focus of red vmeme gets mixed in because the myths were written down during the development of the blue vmeme, and red came to represent all of the past.  There is the theory that the vmemes switch between a focus on the individual and a focus on the collective, and it makes sense to me.  So, beige and red would be individualistic which isn't to say the individual has yet fully developed.

Anyways, to simplify, this first era is the Age of the Shaman… Campbell's Shamanistic Titan seeking personal power through personal sacrifice.  But the Shaman isn't a monk… the Shaman is also the Warrior and the Hunter.  Visions have power.

Also, this was the time when the divine man-animal was worshipped, the prototype of all later dying/ressurection gods.  Here is a quote from a review of a book by Paul Shepard(along with Barry Sanders) titled The Sacred Paw:

They give a really good argument for the shifting of the emphasis of the myths from the Bear Mother to the adventures of her sons, who eventually become purely human heroes. The Underworld and Rebirth themes of the Bear Mother are slowly stripped form her until she is nothing but a memory.

Post-Pleistocene(or rather post-hunter/gatherer) shift: The cause of this is explained variously.  Did the Ice Age traumatize the collective psyche of the human species?  Or, according to Shepard, did the shift occur from within… for some unknown reason man falling out of alignment with his environment?  Or was it some kind of Telos(God?) that propelled social evolution?  And was this shift a good thing(an evolugionary advantage) or a bad thing(Shepard's collective madness)?  For our purposes, answering these questions isn't necessary.  All we need to know is that a major shift happened.

As for Spiral Dynamics, my guess is that this shift was red vmeme and also red shifting into blue.  This shift probably occurred over a very long period of time.

Second Era: This is the beginnings of civilization proper: agriculture and city-states, and the great Matriarchies… this is very early blue vmeme which isn't blue as we know it now.  This era was blue in a more pure form, not adulterated by orange and green as found in the Third Era.

At this time, society became hierarchical and the caste system came about… and with it the division of labor.  Life was extremely organized including religion… the visions of the shaman became the oracles that served the priesthood, and the myths became complex rituals.  Life revolved around the seasons and the seasonal celebrations.  This was where we got our celebrations of the Equinxes and Solstices as Solar symbolism was the focus.

(A shift within the Second Era)  In the later part of this era, the Matriarchies lost power and written history began.  But the Patriarchies were also blue and they retained the hierarchical structure even if a different gender was on top.  The primary difference was that orange was beginning to develop with a reemergence of individualism, meaning the hierarchy was not quite as strict as previously.  The shift between Matriarchy and Patriarchy is significant, but it isn't my focus for the moment.  The development of Patriarchy was a disatisfaction with the old ways.  One explanation(that Jeremy Taylor brings up) is that the precession of the equinoxes altered the timing by which the Matriarchies had planted and harvested.  This led to priesthood no longer being able to predict the seasons and so social unrest followed.  This disatisfaction with the prior Goddess worship can be felt in the myth of Gilgamesh.

Axial Age: (Karl Jaspers first wrote about this, and Karen Armstrong wrote a whole book about it.)  This is when first arose all of the world religions that we know today.  Or, in the case of Hinduism and Judaism, when previous religions were revisioned.  The Old Testament was written down for the first time during this time.  Christianity and Islam were later manifestations of this Age.

Blue is still in power, but orange has developed enough to allow some incisive questioning of tradition.  Also, green is first showing itself to any significant degree.  So we have the development of rationality and self-inquiry along with a sense of social equality and justice.  Liberation was the spiritual response and democracy was the political response.

Mythologically, we have the development of the savior stories as we know them today.  Jesus doesn't change the world by conquering nations.  He changes the world by confronting himself, challenging the human condition.  The prophets of this age tended to turn inward.

The agricultural city-states were being forced to develop new modes of politics.  The Greeks developed democracy and philosophy.  The great myths were being written down and questioned which meant man was no longer controlled by the gods, but could choose their own destiny.  The heroes of this time often challenged the gods.  Man could save himself, man was coming of age.

Third Era: The age of empires… symbolized in the West by the Romans and the later Catholic Church.  Blue is still very much the dominating paradigm, but orange has become established.  However, the green that showed itself in the Axial Age is squelched back out of existence not to be seen again until the Rennaisance.

Religion becomes more ritualized and homogenized than it had ever before.  Using the Roman Empire as its structure, the Catholic Church destroys and/or incorporates every religion it comes into contact with.  And this is why we have such a strange mix of mythologies in Christianity today.  But also this paved the way for us moderns to see the universal truths behind all myths.  (Buddhism did something similar for the East.)

During this time, Jesus the prophet and savior becomes the Ruler of the World.

To be continued…

Re: Myth, Religion, and Social Development: A series by Marmalade

By the way, if anyone has any info to add, I'd be glad to hear it.  Specifically, I'm interested in anything about the relationship between comparative mythology and Spiral Dynamics.  I know of various theories about the development of myth, but I've never come across a Spiral Dynamics analysis.

I've always wondered why comparative mythology doesn't get much inclusion in integral discussions.  I know Julian has blogged about comparative mythology and has blogged about Spiral Dynamics, but I don't know that he has blogged about their possible connections.

I've done thorough searches about this on the web, and have yet to come up with that many leads.  There is only one that comes to mind is James Whitlark who wrote about Jungian archetypes of individuation in the context of Spiral Dynamics.  However, Whitlark wasn't looking at myth in terms of social development.

Re: Myth, Religion, and Social Development: A series by Marmalade

I just started a thread about comparative mythology over at the Integral Post-metaphysical Spirituality pod.  And I linked back to this thread.  Hopefully, that'll get some discussion going.

Re: Myth, Religion, and Social Development: A series by Marmalade

So cool! Yes, excellent idea, Marmalade.

Light and joy,

Nicole

Re: Myth, Religion, and Social Development: A series by Marmalade

At the suggestion of Nicole, I'll post something here that I posted in the comments from the first blog entry.

While I'm here in the comments, let me add two other related archetypes.  I was reading the chapter about the Trickster in Jeremy Taylor's book The Living Labyrinth.  He mentions how the Divine Child and the Shadow are polar opposite faces of the Trickster.  As an example, the child who points out the king is wearing no clothes is simultaneously playing both roles.  Also, two well known examples of the Divine Child Trickster are Hermes and Krishna.  As for the Shadow, I'd think the Trickster archetype would be inseparable from it.

Actually, the archetypal angle is what interests me the most.  I'd be happy just to discuss archetypes.  I was introduced to comparative mythology through Jung's perspective and so its my primary lense.

Re: Myth, Religion, and Social Development: A series by Marmalade

fascinating stuff M!  wish i had more to add, but i've had only tertiary exposure to these ideas. just an interested bystander in this one :D

Re: Myth, Religion, and Social Development: A series by Marmalade

Marmalade, I'm baffled. Distinctly remember posting a reply but guess it got eaten by the gaia monster. I will try to reconstruct: I agree completely about the Shadow and the Trickster being inseparable. Also, I can't think of any examples of Trickster - favourites of mine are Coyote, Anansi, Brer Rabbit, and Loki - without full integration of the Divine Child. Tricksters are always pure in their rejection of “adult” complexities and stand laughing freely just as the child you mentioned, looking at the naked emperor with clear gaze, calling out the truth as it is, without fear or confusion.

Light and peace,

Nicole

Re: Myth, Religion, and Social Development: A series by Marmalade

Its nice to know there is an audience.  I wasn't expecting a big discussion anyways.  I'm just posting all of this for my own interest at the moment.  I like writing down my thoughts because it helps me to organize them.

Re: Myth, Religion, and Social Development: A series by Marmalade

M, I feel that we're all very interconnected.
Your thoughts, musings, become entwined with mine.
It's very enlightening. It's like we have all been here before?
At least from my perspective.

Re: Myth, Religion, and Social Development: A series by Marmalade

Oh, wonderful! it is not only I who have that feeling, FastDart…

light and joy,

nicole

Re: Myth, Religion, and Social Development: A series by Marmalade

Hi there FastDart!

Welcome to my humble thread. 

Interconnected and entwined is a good thing… most of the time. 

Blessings,
Marmalade