Cultural Mythology: Myth, culture, and consciousness

Saturday on Myth in the Mojave: Myth, Music, and Oya (She who Rides With the Wind)

This week's show is inspired by the Joshua Tree Music Festival, a super-cool, totally delicious, annual event that is happening this weekend in my hometown--yahoo! I love this description on the JTMF website that describes the heart and vibe behind the event: "The festivals are produced by a family of friends and funsters convinced that music is the soul of life, and that art enriches and saves lives." Amen. Now you know why I was inspired to provide a little of the rich mythological context for music. Thank you to the Muses, the Hindu goddess Vac, and the Yoruban orisha Oya for their generous assistance.

Tune in to radiofree joshua tree 24/7 here: radiofreejt.com

And here is the complete Radiofree Joshua Tree Show Schedule

Sunday Evening Variety Show Sundays 5-7 pm, repeat 8-10 pm, repeat Mondays 12 noon-2pm
HD Underground Mondays 10-11 pm, repeat Saturdays 11pm-Midnight
Tiki Time Fridays 5-6 pm, repeat Sundays 3-4pm
Mojave Kitchen Dance Diaries Fridays 10-11 pm, repeat Sat Midnight-Sun 1AM, Wed 4PM
Kitten Time Fridays 11pm-12 m, repeat Saturdays 10-11pm
In the Pit Fridays Midnight - Saturdays 1am, repeat Sundays 11pm -Midnight
Other Desert Stories Saturdays 4-5pm, repeat Sundays 7-8pm
Roadside Rex Saturdays 5-6pm, repeat Sundays 4-5pm
New Wave Dave Saturdays 6-7pm, repeat Wednesdays 5-6pm
Down The Memory Hole Fridays 8-9pm, repeat Saturdays 12 noon-1pm, Tuesday 5-6pm
Indie Lion Fridays 9-10pm
Myth In The Mojave Saturdays 3-3:30pm
Sound Medicine Sundays 2-2:30pm
Sonido Cubano Sundays 2:30-3pm

Archived shows will be available at radiofreejt.com and here on Cultural Mythology. Thanks for listening!

(Image is Oya as Lady of the Storms.)

Emissaries of Olodumare: An Introduction to the Yoruban Orishas

Friday April 20th 7-9PM, Room 102 Copper Mt College

The Yoruban spiritual tradition revolves around a pantheon of deities called  “orishas,” manifestations of divine energies that interact with human beings. This system is part of Candomble, Santeria, Vodun, and other religions practiced by millions of people around the world. In this class we will talk about the orishas and consider the similarities and differences with the more familiar Greek Olympians, to understand West African culture and the importance mythology plays in shaping our worldview.

This will be my last lecture a CMC for the foreseeable future so I hope you can join me!   $10. Download the full class schedule and mail-in registration form at CMCC.

Winter/Spring Myth and Story Lectures

 Friday February 10th 7-9PM,Room 102 Copper Mt College

"Trickster Makes the World"

The archetypal trickster is a liar who tells the truth, a wanderer between the realms, and a cunning shape shifter who gets caught in his own traps. Some of his best-known faces include Coyote, Raven, Eshu, Hermes, Loki, and Krishna. We will examine this creative mythological figure, drawing on a range of myths and stories from different traditions, in this thought-provoking lecture.

$10. Download the full class schedule and mail-in registration form at CMCC.

 

Native American Coyote Stories, Thursday Feb 16th 7-8PM
Black Rock Canyon Campground Visitor Center
9800 Black Rock Canyon, Yucca Valley JTNP

The Great Spirit told Coyote that he would be wise and foolish, a chief and a clown. Coyote shapes a world hospitable to humans through the gifts that he gives and his exploits contain important lessons. We learn from his successes and most often, his failures. Mythological stories of Old Man Coyote have special resonance here in the desert. Come hear “Coyote Keeps His Name,” based on a version told by the Okanagon people of the Pacific Northwest, and “Coyote Brings Fire to the People,” based on a version told by the Karok people from Mt. Shasta, CA. FREE.

Part of the Black Rock Lecture Series brought to you by the Desert Institute at Joshua Tree National Park.

 

Friday March 23rd 7-9PM, Room 102 Copper Mt College

C.G. Jung’s Red Book

In 1913, at age 38, C.G. Jung experienced a life-altering crisis. His response was the Red Book, a personal journal of amazing images and dream material that chronicle his “confrontation with the unconscious.” Published for the first time in the fall of 2010, the Red Book is a fascinating voyage into the psyche of the man who founded analytical psychology. If you know Jung’s work—and if you don’t—come explore the contents of this amazing book.

$10. Download the full class schedule and mail-in registration form at CMCC.

 

Friday April 20th 7-9PM, Room 102 Copper Mt College

Emissaries of Olodumare: An Introduction to the Yoruban Orishas

The Yoruban spiritual tradition revolves around a pantheon of deities called  “orishas,” manifestations of divine energies that interact with human beings. This system is part of Candomble, Santeria, Vodun, and other religions practiced by millions of people around the world. In this class we will talk about the orishas and consider the similarities and differences with the more familiar Greek Olympians, to understand West African culture and the importance mythology plays in shaping our worldview.

$10. Download the full class schedule and mail-in registration form at CMCC.

 

 

 

 

Eshu's cap

I’ve been thinking about the current health care debate, Obama’s push for bi-partisanship and unity, and Eshu’s cap. I’m frustrated and saddened by the hostility and lying but I’m not in favor of papering over differences either. I wonder if Eshu has a hand in all of the turmoil.

Eshu’s black and red cap symbolizes the crossroads. It also reminds us that there is more then one side to any issue, that truth is a matter of perspective. Which side of the road you stand on determines what you see. The first step toward learning Eshu’s lesson is the recognition that we rarely occupy neutral ground, and that our perspective usually prevents us from seeing the whole picture. We have to be willing to move, to cross the road.

But there is a deeper message in this story and Eshu’s action. Eshu teaches us that agreement begins with the recognition of difference. The two friends had an illusion of unity. But we humans are not one being with one heart and mind, with one set of eyes and a common perspective. As the story shows, that kind of unity is a delusion that is easily punctured by the appearance of a contradiction or a mystery, and leads to fighting and greater confusion.

The two friends understood their situation when they saw that the cap was both black and red. What unified them in the end was the experience of being caught up in their respective truths, and the appearance of the solution (seeing both sides of Eshu’s cap) that rendered them both “right” and also wrong. Agreement is not a matter of convincing someone that black is red or red is black. Agreement, unity, springs from a third option that encompasses both views. This often seems impossible and I don’t envy Obama the task. But the black cap and the red cap were, after all, two sides of one hat.

Eshu and the black/red hat

This is one of the most famous stories about Eshu. I'll be surprised if, after you've read it, you can't think of at least one instance in which you've met this Trickster...

Once there were two men, fine friends who lived in the same village. They had known each other since boyhood and loved each other like brothers. They lived next door to each other. They eat their meals together. They even kept fields in close proximity to each other; one farmed the land on the south side of the road that led out of the village and the other farmed the north side. These two were inseparable. Every morning, the two men met outside with their lunch and tools in hand and walked up the road together. All morning long one would hoe and chop in one field and the other would hoe and chop in the field just across the road and at lunchtime they would stop and come together under a big tree and eat lunch together. After lunch, and maybe a nap, they would go back to work until the end of the day and walk back home together. The people in the village were so used to seeing them like this that they could barely think of one man without thinking of the other.

One day, Eshu came to the village. And he saw the two men greet each other in the morning and he saw how close they were and he decided to have a little bit of fun with them. That day the two friends, who loved each other like brothers, walked up the road as always and one man went into the field on the south side of the road and the other went into the field on the north side of the road. They chopped and they hoed and they chopped and they hoed and it was a really hot day, so at one point they both paused to wipe the sweat from their brow.

A stranger was coming down the road. It was a really nice looking man on a horse. The man was wearing a cap. Now there was not a lot of traffic on this road, the village was small and not many people had their fields out that direction. So the passing of this stranger was kind of an event. Both of the men stopped and noticed the man and he waved at them and they waved back.

When it was time to stop for lunch the two friends, who loved each other like brothers, met under the tree and opened up their lunch and started talking about their morning. The man with the field on the south side of the road said, “My dear friend, did you see that fine looking man come by on the horse?” and the man with the field on the north side of the road said, “I certainly did. He was a fine looking man on a fine horse, and I really liked his black cap.” His friend looked at him and said, “I liked the cap too brother, but it wasn’t black, it was red.” And his friend who loved him like a brother  said, “No, the cap was black.” And the other man, who had never disagreed with his friend before insisted, “I tell you, the cap was red.” “Black.” “Red.” “Black.” “Red.” “It was a black cap and you know it, why are you being obstinate?” “It was a red cap and why are you being stubborn?” “Black, and you must be a fool.” “Red, and you must be blind.” The two men got quite angry and before you know it they were cuffing each other and rolling around in the dirt yelling and insulting each other at the top of their lungs.

People way down in the village heard them and came running up the road to see what was going on. They were shocked to find these two friends, who loved each other like brothers, fighting in this way. They jumped into the fray and pulled the men apart to find out what was the trouble. The man with the field on the south side of the road said, “A man on a horse came by in a fine red cap and this fool insist that the cap was black.” The man with the field on the north side of the road said, “Well, this idiot needs to do something about his eyes because the cap was black.”

The people stood around scratching their heads and they weren’t sure which was more confusing, the bit about the cap or the sight of these two dear friends fighting. In the midst of the confusion, up rides Eshu, wearing his cap. The two men saw him and said, “There he is, there is the man.” Eshu waved at them and they waved back. Then Eshu slowly turned his head to the right and he slowly turned his head to the left. The two men were dumbfounded. The cap was red on one side and black on the other. They got down on their knees in front of Eshu and asked, “Eshu, why did you mess with us like that?”

Eshu replied, “Causing discord is my greatest joy.” He rode away.

Feeding the gods

In a world made of stories, past, present, and future are threads woven into the same plot. In a world made of stories, like this one....

One time, long ago, the gods were hungry. None of them had enough and all sixteen felt the constant grumble in their bellies. Their wandering children on the earth, the humans, neglected them. They made little sacrifice and did not feed the gods enough. Some of the gods tried hunting and fishing. They caught one antelope and one fish and these did not last long. Tempers got short. The gods wondered how they might get sustenance from the humans again.

Shango the god of thunder sent down lightening bolts and pelted the earth with meteorites and the humans were afraid but they did not turn to the gods. They rebuilt their houses, some moved to caves. They did not make sacrifices of meat or fish, they did not pour out oil or palm wine, they did not leave feathers or beads or cowrie shells.

Next Olokun, god of the sea, caused great tidal waves and storms. Iku, god of death, came down and took many people. The human children suffered but they still did not remember the gods. They did not make sacrifices of roasted goat and fowl and yams, they did not leave sweets, they did not pour out palm wine.

The situation in heaven was getting desperate. Yemoja, the great mother, went to Eshu and asked him to get involved. "This is a problem that only you can solve," she said, and Eshu agreed. He traveled all around, up and down between heaven and earth every day, and he knew many things because he could talk to everyone. Yemoja told him, "Threatening them doesn't seem to work. We've pounded and pelted them and killed quite a few but they still don't sacrifice. You have to give human beings something good, something really good."

Eshu had an idea but he needed help. He went to his friend Ifa, god of wisdom. Ifa said, "I know why you're here. We need to give something good to the humans and I know just the thing. We can make it from sixteen palm nuts. You have to go to Orungan's garden and get them. Get the nuts and their meaning."

Orungan was a powerful god and his palm trees were full of monkeys, who jealously guarded the nuts. Eshu thought about climbing up into the trees but the trunks were too smooth. So he sat down on the ground and yelled up at them, "Hey you nit-picking airheads, you mindless chatterers," and other insulting things and the angry monkeys threw a few nuts down at him. But monkeys are clever too and they soon stopped. Eshu switched to cajoling and flattery and we don't know what all he said, but the monkeys eventually gave him all sixteen of the desired nuts, though not without a grudge. "You got these nuts through guile Eshu, "the monkeys told him, "so we won't tell you what they mean. We will give you a piece of advice though. Consult with each of the sixteen gods."

Eshu had half of the big, great gift for humankind. Now he had to get the rest.

Eshu took the sixteen palm nuts and he went to each of the sixteen gods. He asked each one to tell him the meaning of each of the sixteen nuts. Some of the gods were reluctant to share all they knew but Eshu was persistent and they were hungry. When Eshu was done he had 256 sayings (that's 16 times 16), a lot of divine wisdom. He took the nuts and their meanings to Ifa, and Ifa came up with the system of divination that bears his name.

Eshu went down to earth and explained Ifa's system, the nuts and their meanings, to the humans. "Now you can know the will of the gods," he told them, "and act on your own behalf. You can see evil coming and avoid it. You can call on the gods for help. But in exchange for these powers, you must sacrifice to the gods, you must feed them." The humans thought this was a great deal. The commerce between heaven and earth now moved along a two-way street and the humans were happy to sacrifice once again. They roasted goat and fowl and fish and yams, they left sweets, they gladly poured oil and shared feathers and beads and cowrie shells. They poured big glasses of palm wine.

The sixteen gods were fed. Everyone was satisfied. As for Eshu, he receives the first portion of every sacrifice because he solved the problems of heaven and earth.

This is a paraphrase of a version of the story told by Lewis Hyde in Trickster Makes This World.