The two reeds

Good Books About Myth and Culture

Ginette Paris: Wisdom of the Psyche: Depth Psychology after Neuroscience
Paris provides a wonderful explanation of the intersection between personal life story and collective myths and the way myth shapes perspective.
James Hillman: We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy--And the World's Getting Worse
Hillman is a central figure in the field of archetypal psychology, which provides a theoretical base for work on cultural mythologies that I find very useful. This collaboration with Michael Ventura is an accessible and stimulating introduction to some of Hillman's ideas.
Michael Meade: The World Behind the World
"The world," Meade writes, "despite it's disasters, tragedies and villainies, can't end unless it runs out of stories." Useful reflections on these changing and frightening times--I especially like the story of the Old Woman, the black dog, and the loose thread.
Carl G. Jung: The Undiscovered Self (Mentor)
C.G. Jung and Sigmund Freud first articulated the existence of the unconscious (which became depth psychology) and understood the ongoing relationship between human meaning and myth. In this book, Jung discusses the moral obligation to become self aware.
Joseph Campbell: The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Bollingen Series)
Campbell writes, "It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation." An important and influential book that links the mythic narrative of "the hero's journey," found across cultures, to contemporary life.
Barry Mills, editor: Kali's Kites: Essays From The Mythological Imagination
This book is both a beautiful and provocative collection of essays about myth, soul and the depths of the imagination. Each author is a graduate of Pacifica Graduate Institute, a unique institution dedicated to animae mundi colendae gratia (for the sake of tending soul in and of the world). Two of my essays are included: "Euripides' Women: The Role of the Feminine Other," and "The Myth of Actaion: Archetypal Image of Buddhist Enlightenment."
Theodore Roszak, editor: Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind
This anthology is a good introduction to some of the themes and thinkers in the field of ecopsychology, which involves the intersection of human ideas about self and world, and the natural, biological, and ecological. Given the current environmental crisis and modern alienation from the natural world, including our own bodies, it is crucial that we deepen our understanding of the cultural myths that govern these relations.
Dennis Patrick Slattery: A Limbo of Shards: Essays on Memory Myth and Metaphor
In this collection of essays, Slattery explores the related themes of memory, myth, and metaphor, drawing material from literature, poetry, and current events. In "The True Terror of Terrorism," he suggests that the loss of Trust, necessary to maintain "civilized space," may be the greatest loss. "Trust is a virtue," he writes, "security its pale shadow."

February 06, 2010

A lament went up over the land. Word of Dumuzi's fate spread from city to city, from town to town, and the people grieved for their king. Among them was the goddess Inanna. Inanna was distraught at the loss of her husband. She missed him terribly and wept bitterly. "Gone is my husband," she cried, "Gone is my sweet love, my honey man, my beloved. The wild bull is no more. He has been taken away before I could wrap him in a proper shroud. I can no longer serve him food and drink, I can no longer lie down beside him. The jackal lies down in his bed."

Sirtur, Dumuzi's mother, was also distraught. She went to the steppes, to the grasslands where he used to wander, playing his reed pipe and tending his flocks. "Oh my son," she said, "how I would love to hear your voice, how I long to hear your songs. Now there is only the wind in the reeds." Sirtur went weeping to the sheepfold, the place where Dumuzi was captured by the galla. She looked at the slain wild bull and stroked his face. "My son," she said, "the face is yours, but the spirit is gone."

The goddess Inanna met Geshtinanna in the streets of Uruk. The sister was crying out in grief. "Where is my brother? I would comfort him. Where is Dumuzi? I would go to him. I would share his fate. My brother, the day that dawns for you will also dawn for me." Inanna was moved by Geshtinanna's deep feelings. She wrapped her arms around the sister and said, "Geshtinanna, your brother is dead, his house is no more. I would take you to him if I could, but I do not know the place."

Then a fly appeared. It buzzed around the two women. It flew close to Inanna's ear. "What will you give me," said the fly, "if I tell you where you can find Dumuzi?"

Inanna said, "Fly, if you will tell me where to find Dumuzi, I will let you buzz around the beer halls and taverns, I will let you frequent the temples, and you will hear the words of all the wise ones."

The fly told Inanna and Geshtinanna to go back to Arali on the edge of the steppe, the place where Dumuzi first hid from the galla. The two women went. There they found Dumuzi, weeping. Inanna took her husband by the hand. She said, "You have been chosen for the underworld, but you will only go for half of the year. Geshtinanna will go for the other half, as she has pledged to share your fate. On the day that you are called, you will be taken. On the day that she is called, you will be set free."

Then Inanna placed Dumuzi into the hands of the eternal.

Praise be to holy Ereshkigal, through whom everything is realized!

(Thanks again to Diane Wolkenstien and Samuel Noah Kramer for the lovely book, Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth which is my source material for this and other postings of Inanna's mythology).

Scorpions and Rosette c.3300 B.C. Mesopotamia. The eight-pointed star, a symbol of Inanna, between the pincers of two scorpions. This image and others I have posted are available through the anthropology dept at SUNY Buffalo.

Posted at 07:41 PM in Inanna | Permalink

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Then a fly appeared. It buzzed around the two women. It flew close to Inanna's ear. "What will you give me," said the fly, "if I tell you where you can find Dumuzi?"

Then Inanna placed Dumuzi into the hands of the eternal.

Praise be to holy Ereshkigal, through whom everything is realized!

(Thanks again to Diane Wolkenstien and Samuel Noah Kramer for the lovely book, Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth which is my source material for this and other postings of Inanna's mythology).