Organization: Arizona State University
Date: Wednesday, 12 Aug 1992 11:49:55 MST
From: <IDJDE@ASUACAD.BITNET>
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology,alt.mythology
Subject: Re: The creation of Eve
 <1992Aug10.214804.11322@athena.mit.edu>

BEGIN
As "Kyee" has been so gracious as to offer a critique of my article, i would
like to take the opportunity to present the following mammoth response:
the basis for a comparative approach to mythology lies in the fundamental dis-
tinction first put forth by german anthropologist adolf bastian, between "eth-
nic ideas" on the one hand, and "elementary ideas" on the other. ethnic ideas
are local, cultural inflections of basic elementary ideas which have their seat
in the human imagination, and are thus common to the race. the idea of a holy
power, for instance, is a universal, or elementary theme found in every culture
although each culture will have inflected the idea with certain connotations
which have relevance and meaning for that culture alone. what the hindus mean b
by atman, for example, is not what we mean by soul, nor what the egyptians
meant by kha. however, all three ideas are variations of one basic idea,
namely, that man, though temporal in body, yet somehow partakes of eternity.
this, i would say, is THE basic theme to ALL mythology; that is, that the
individual is immortal in some mysterious sense that transcends rational
cogitation, and it is the primary function of myth to guide the individual--as
hermes guides souls to the underworld in quest of the knowledge of their own
immortal being--to this primordial knowledge of his own metaphysical unity
with the world. Perhaps an analogy will serve to illustrate: a virus invades
the body, and in order to protect itself, the body produces an anti-virus.
We may think of death, or the fear of it, as the virus, and myth as the anti-
virus sent up spontaneously by the organs of the body. We know that the earl-
iest evidence for religious practices is associated with grave burials amongst
the neanderthals, and we also know that the cranial capacity of the neander-
thals was larger even than that of modern man. Oswald Spengler, in his master-
work, The Decline of the West, puts the matter thus: "That we do not merely
live but KNOW about 'living' is a consequence of our bodily existence in the
light. But the beast knows only life, not death...But animals, even though they
hear the death-cry, see the dead body, and scent putrefaction, behold death
without comprehending it...in the knowledge of death is originated that world-
outlook which we possess as being men, and not beasts." So much then for the
function of myth, and the basis for comparing the myths of disparate cultures
in order to find a common ground.
(For the foregoing, I am greatly indebted to the works of Joseph Campbell, any
of whose books will greatly elucidate this, for those interested.)
     As regards whether further material may be furnished for the Hebrew over-
throw of the nature religions, we must first be clear on the basis of disting-
uishing between them and the religions of the hebrews. The "nature religions"
arose primarily during the agricultural revolution, which made it possible for
the first time in history for peoples to live in one spot for long periods of
time, rooted plant-like to the soil. Indeed, we may say that the first truly
"plant-like" populations came into being, and such populations have an intimate
relationship to Mother Earth. The earth's magic is the same as that of the
female's, which brings forth life. Spengler again says: "The feminine stands
closer to the Cosmic. It is rooted deeper in the earth and it is immediately
involved in the grand cyclic rhythms of Nature. The masculine is freer, more
animal, more mobile. . ." The key word here is 'mobility.' The Aryan and
Semitic populations were hunting and gathering people, nomadic, rootless, and
fierce. Their primary deities were thunder-hurlers, from whomwe inherit Zeus
and Thor. These tribes, therefore, were essentially masculine in  nature,
as the male provided most of the food by means of the hunt.  They began in-
vading the peaceful, settled populations, whose main religions were the Mother
Goddess cults, about 4000 BC or so for the Aryans, and 1500 or so for the
Semites.They overthrew the Mother Goddess cults, particularly those peoples
who were invaded by the Semites, and put in their place masculine thunder
hurler deities. Now, when we turn to the Cain and Abel story, there it all is.
Abel, the herdsman, is favored by God, overCain, the agriculturalist. Didn't
anybody ever wonder why this was so? In a variant of this same story in the
Sumerian tradition, we find the roles reversed. There, the deity is a Goddess,
and she favors the agriculturalist over the herdsman.
     Indeed, metaphysical insights are 'lacking' in the judeo-christian ortho-d
oxy. Just consider: Christ was crucified for saying, "I and the Father are one.
" The Gnostics (see Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels) were saying the same
thing, and their texts had to be hidden from the orthodoxy.In the Gospel
according to Thomas we find this strictly heretical saying of Jesus: "The
Kingdom of Heaven will not come by expectation. Nor will men say, see here
see there. For the Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth and men do not
see it." The Kingdom of Heaven is Brahman, and it is here within us all. The
Sufi mystic Hallaj said the same thing in the ninth century and was crucified
for it. Giordano Bruno said it in the sixteenth century as well, and was
burned at the stake for it.
     Finally, as to the question of how we might then interpret the two trees
in the garden in terms of the mysticism of the nature religions, I will suggest
the following: Adam and Eve eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil. For this, they are cast out from the garden. Likewise, when each
of us is born into this world, we are cast out of the bliss of the mother womb,
which is timeless, and into the world of opposites: light/dark, male/female,
good/evil etc. But there is a second Tree, that of Immortal Life. This is a
symbol for the center of our Being that is within us, the point at which the
energies of eternity come flowing into time, the point at which we are one
with the universe. The way back to this second tree is through Christ, who
hanging from the cross, is the incarnation in time of the tree of immortal
life. We need only turn our eyes from our own selfish preoccupations and
contemplate the sufferring Christ pinned like Ixion to the tree of the world,
pointing the way back into the depths of our own inmost being, wherein, once
realized, we may say with Christ, that indeed, "I and the Father ARE one."
--JDE
mesa, az