Cultural Mythology: Myth, culture, and consciousness

High Desert Mythological RoundTable® Group

Tuesday August 28th, 7-9PM Red Arrow Gallery in Joshua Tree

"Frog Prince: The Musical"

This fairy tale was the first told by the Brother's Grimm. Like many fairy tales, it has been reworked, revised, and sanitized over the years. If you've never heard the original, the story might surprise you. "Frog Prince: The Musical" draws on the Grimm's version and combines old-fashioned oral storytelling with original music. It is a joint project of mine (Catherine Svehla) and singer-songwriter Phillip Rosenberg that we developed for the upcoming symposium for the Study of Myth. We are excited to preview it at the the High Desert Mythological Roundtable. Come join the fun!

The High Desert Mythological RoundTable meets the last Tuesday of every month at the Red Arrow Gallery. All open-minded adults who enjoy a good story are welcome to join our thought-provoking conversation. Bring cookies or other goodies to share. Donations for the storyteller and the Joseph Campbell Foundation are much appreciated. 

(Image is The Frog Prince by Paul Meyerheim, 1889. Note: Mythological RoundTable® is a registered trademark of Joseph Campbell® Foundation).

High Desert Mythological RoundTable (R) Group

Tuesday April 24th, 7-9PM Red Arrow Gallery in Joshua Tree

More Tales of the Trickster- Words More Powerful Than the Sword

Last month we heard the story of how tiny Anansi the Spider managed to capture three more powerful persons and thus become the keeper of all the stories in the world. This month we'll expand our discussion of the clever Trickster by looking at one of Anansi's American relatives--- Br'er Rabbit.

The High Desert Mythological RoundTable meets the last Tuesday of every month at the Red Arrow Gallery. All open-minded adults who enjoy a good story are welcome to join our thought-provoking conversation. Bring cookies or other goodies to share. Donations for the storyteller and the Joseph Campbell Foundation are much appreciated.

(Image is Br'er Rabbit and the tar baby by Jerry Pinkney. Mythological RoundTable® is a registered trademark of Joseph Campbell® Foundation.)

High Desert Mythological RoundTable (R) Group

Tuesday March 27th, 7-9PM Red Arrow Gallery in Joshua Tree

Tales of the Trickster- Words More Powerful Than the Sword

I'm teaching a weekly class on the Trickster at CSUSB in Palm Desert and have to share some of these stories at this month's roundtable. Tricksters are the gods of lanaguage and lies, of stories that deceive and tell the truth. Anything is possible but we'll probably hear from Anansi the Spider and Br'er Rabbit (better known today as Bugs Bunny).

The High Desert Mythological RoundTable meets the last Tuesday of every month at the Red Arrow Gallery. All open-minded adults who enjoy a good story are welcome to join our thought-provoking conversation. Bring cookies or other goodies to share. Donations for the storyteller and the Joseph Campbell Foundation are much appreciated.

(Image is Br'er Rabbit by Barry Moser. Mythological RoundTable®  is a registered trademark of Joseph Campbell® Foundation).

 

High Desert Mythological RoundTable (R) Group

Tuesday Nov 22nd, 7-9PM Red Arrow Gallery in Joshua Tree

"The Old Thief and the Magic Plum Seed"

 The High Desert Mythological RoundTable meets the last Tuesday of every month at the Red Arrow Gallery. All open-minded adults who enjoy a good story are welcome to join our thought-provoking conversation. Bring cookies or other goodies to share. Donations for the storyteller and the Joseph Campbell Foundation are much appreciated.

Carrying our own oats

We've been reflecting on stories about the mysterious relationship between love for an Other, and the inner union of masculine and feminine energies that fuels our personal development. For example, when Psyche and Eros were separated she was not presented with tasks that tested her love for him or proved her devotion. She had to learn the value of discrimination, strategy, and single-minded focus. In Valemon the White Bear King, the youngest princess must save the white bear who possesses the golden wreath that she cannot live without. That is, her highest Self is realized through participation in their mutual adventure of transformation. After adversity and challenges, comes the happily ever after.

Have you ever fallen into a magical love with your perfect soul mate? In the beginning there is nothing and no one else in the world but the beloved. But that cocoon ultimately becomes a crucible, and we understand that we are first and foremost, in relationship with our self. We don't get to this stage in every love affair, but if we're lucky we climb the glass mountain at least once.

The funny thing is, we take the journey to discover what was always present. Like the horse in the Hirshfield poem I posted last week, we carry the oats we will eat on our own back. We don't find our Self in relationship because the beloved has something essential that we lack. We can complete ourselves in relationship because loving calls forth from within us, what is required for our own realization.

"Briefly, briefly, we see it, and forget" Hirshfield writes, "As if the spell were too powerful to hold on the tongue." Thank goodness for the poetry and stories that help us remember, and wake up.

The glass mountain

The Norwegian fairy tale of Valemon the White Bear King is only one of many analogues to the ancient Greek story of Eros and Psyche, which was handed down to us by the Roman Apuleius almost two thousand years ago. I wonder if this longevity is testimony to the compelling nature of the theme, which I'll label the task of individual development while in relationship to an Other, or more poetically, how we are made by and through love. Although we can't be sure what these stories meant to the folks who told and listened to them in centuries past, they likely meditated on something similar. Tales that endure have an archetypal core. They are built on psychic patterns that carry the collective experience of being human, and the insight that we have gained about that experience. They are our true heritage, which is why they appear across cultures and across time.

That said, there are cultural variations. People express these psychic patterns in familiar terms that are drawn from their own community and place in history, and from the land they inhabit. When I was on the island of Mykonos, for example, and stood in the strong ocean winds, I gained a new appreciation for the plight of Odysseus, whose ship was repeatedly blown off course.

One intriguing detail in the story of Valemon is the glass mountain. What the heck is that? Well, how about "Glitterind," the seond highest mountain in Norway, with a glacier at its peak?  The name is derived from the word "to sparkle or glitter."

Many thanks to the reader who shared this mountain and association with me. Here's one more "real life" image that I have to share because it is to beautiful, and in Valemon's story, so deadly. Remember the trap door and the Troll-Hag bridal procession that tumbled down into the crevasse? The Troll Wall in Norway is the tallest vertical rock face in Europe.

"Old tales I remember of men long ago.
I remember yet the giants of yore,
Who gave me bread in the days gone by."

(taken from the Poetic Edda, the Norwegian epic poem that describes the creation of the world).

The meaning of three

Many things come in "threes" in fairy tales. In Valemon, for example, the king has three daughters and later three babies are born and spirited away by the white bear. The king's daughter finds three cottages with three crones and three little girls in her travels through the forest, and they give her three gifts (scissors, flask, and cloth). Once she arrives at the Troll-Hag's castle, everything again proceeds by threes: displaying the power of the gifts, negotiations with the Troll-Hag, and nights with Valemon. The third time is the charm as we say, because on the third night King Valemon is awake.

The number three has a long and complex history. It's a potent cross-cultural symbol that points to an archetypal energy that we can feel, even if we can't fully articulate it. There is a common belief that if something happens once it is an accident. If it happens twice it is a coincidence, and if it happens three times, it is intentional, significant. The third time is the charm. Three is a trinity, which expresses the multifacted, and not merely oppositional, face of something.

Three is the union of One and duality (two), and contains what is beyond both. This is the ultimate paradox of consciousness, yes, and the challenge? That we be aware that everything is differentiated and all One at the same time? Three is associated with change, growth, and the dynamism of this system.

In the words of the Tao te Ching, "Out of the one comes two, out of the two comes three, out of three come all things."

 

Troll-hag

We've reach the happy ending in the tale of Valmeon the White Bear King but the story has left us with many things to puzzle over and meditate upon. I'll start with something the story evoked in me.

A curious thing happened when I told the story at the High Desert Mythological RoundTable this summer. Somehow the Troll-Hag in my telling had a weird hillbilly-ish accent. I later referred to her as "bad," revealing an unrecognized prejudice towards this character in the story that members of the roundtable brought to my attention. I've been thinking about my relationship to the Troll-Hag ever since.

What is a Troll-Hag? A female troll. Trolls are important figures in Norse and Scandinavian mythology. They're generally big (often giants), strong, and ugly, sometimes slow-witted, or violent, and rarely helpful. They are also, like the Greek Titans, very old beings associated with the elemental forces of nature. The painting above, by Theodor Kittelsen, depicts a troll who resembles a forested mountain. Another important characteristic, displayed by the Troll-Hag in Valemon, is appetite. Trolls consume. So we have a big, all-devouring feminine force, one who is close to the ground/matter/mater/mother. It's likely that she survived the fall through the trap door in one form or another. This kind of energy can't be destroyed. She's a necessary part of our world. Robert Bly and others who tell the story of Valemon evoke the Great Mother-Destroyer Kali, the Hindu goddess who is both womb and tomb.

The Troll-Hag in Valemon doesn't come off very well because she bewitches the king and stands in the way of his marriage to the king's daughter. I think this falls squarely into the "unhelpful" category of activity if you take the side of either of the two human beings, but she's entitled to her agenda. She's a force to be reckoned with and maybe that's the point. We don't know why she turned the king into a bear, but we do know that she made him some kind of a deal. He had a way out. That's why he found the princess, and maybe why he had the golden wreath. The Troll-Hag also negotiated with the princess. She didn't crush her, chase her away, or just snatch the golden scissors, flask, and cloth. She bargained for them. In A Branch From the Lightning Tree, Martin Shaw reads this as clue that the story is about initiation, and I agree.

To think that the Troll-Hag plays a part in this story that echoes the role filled by the glorious goddess Aphrodite in Eros and Psyche. Wow. I really like Shaw's handling of the story (and his book in general), so I'll conclude with another borrowed insight: to meet the Hag is to begin articulating real desire. What you want for yourself, not what everyone else wants for you or from you. No apologies. You have the metal claws required to climb up to the top of that glass mountain.

Life is the most wonderful fairy tale of all. ~Hans Christian Andersen~

The wedding day

The princess managed to negotiate with the Troll-hag for two nights with Valemon, through the skillful use of the golden scissors and the flask. But to little use. Both nights the white bear king was in a deep,drugged sleep. But she had one card left to play, and her luck was about to change.

The next day the king's daughter sat outside the window again. When it was dinner time she said," Cloth, spread thyself and deck thyself with every good dish!" Suddenly there was enough food for a hundred men. When the Troll-hag laid her eyes on that feast, she wanted to buy the cloth. “How much do you want for that cloth?” she asked. “They cook and bake around the clock but there are too many mouths to feed.” “The cloth is not for sale for money,” answered the king’s daughter,” but I will trade it for one more night with your sweetheart.” “Is that all,” said the troll-hag laughing. “Sure, sure you can stay with him tonight. Come to the castle at 8PM.”

The Troll-hag went to Valemon at 7PM but this time he was on his guard. When she handed him the potion he said “Oh look, what is that out the window?” and poured the potion onto the rug when she turned to look. Valemon feigned sleep. But the Troll-hag didn't trust him any further than she could throw him. She took a darning needle and stuck it through his arm, to see if he was sleeping soundly enough. This really hurt but he didn't move or make a sound.

When the king's daughter came that night he was wide awake. They had a fine reunion. But they had to get rid of the Troll-hag before he would be free. This was the appointed wedding day. Now, before the wedding a grand procession was planned and according to custom the bride would ride first. The procession crossed a bridge over a steep deep chasm and Valemon got the carpenters to make a trap door on this bridge that the bridal procession was to cross. When the Troll-hag started across with all her Troll-hag bridesmaids, the planks under them dropped open and they fell through. Down, down, down.

King Valemon and the princess and all the wedding guests ran back to the castle. They took as much of the Troll-hag's wealth as they could carry and rushed back to his country to hold the real wedding. On the way, they stopped at the three cottages and fetched the three little girls, who were their children. Now the king's daughter knew why the white bear had taken them--so that they could help her find her him.

Back in their castle again, they all lived happily ever after.

the carpenters

So Valemon was to marry the Troll-hag in just three days. Not good news for the king’s daughter but she was not ready to give up yet. “May I talk with the Troll-hag?” she asked. Not likely! Impossible, in fact, the workers said. The princess looked up at the castle. Then she sat down under a window and got out the golden scissors. Snip, snip, snip and soon the ground around her was covered with fine garments. Silken clothing flew around her like a snow flurry. The Troll-hag was upstairs. She looked out of the window and saw this.

“How much do you want for those scissors?” she asked. “My tailors and seamstresses are working round the clock but there are just too many to be clothed.” “The scissors are not for sale for money,” answered the king’s daughter,” but I will trade them for one night with your sweetheart.” “Is that all?,” said the Troll-hag. “You can stay with him tonight. Come to the castle at 8PM.” But the Troll-hag went to Valemon at 7PM. “You better get your rest before our wedding night my sweet prince” she said, and gave him a sleeping potion.

That night Valemon could not be roused no matter how the king’s daughter shouted. “I’m here, I’m here,” she cried, but he did not hear her.

The next day the king's daughter sat outside the window again and started pouring from the flask. It flowed like a brook, both beer and wine, and never ran dry. When the Troll-hag laid eyes on that, she wanted to buy it. “How much do you want for that flask?” she asked. “They toil at the brewing and distilling around the clock but there are too many who need to drink.” “The flask is not for sale for money,” answered the king’s daughter,” but I will trade it for one more night with your sweetheart.” “Is that all?,” said the Troll-hag. “Sure, you can stay with him tonight. Come to the castle at 8PM.”

But again the Troll-hag went to Valemon at 7PM. “Our wedding night will be here soon my sweet prince” she said, “better get your strength up, heh heh heh,” and gave him a sleeping potion again. So the princess had no better luck that night either. Valemon could not be roused no matter how loudly she shouted and cried. He did not hear her.

That night however, a group of carpenters was working in the room next door. They heard her crying and the next day they told the prince. “We heard a woman weeping in your room last night sir,” they said. “Strange, strange,” he replied and wondered, could it be, that the princess was near? She must have come, the king's daughter who was to have freed him.