THE SECOND TRANSFORMATION

MYTH MAKING

The idea of myth is an interesting one indeed.  To many people, myth merely means something that is untrue, made up.  Even Webster's lists as one of its definitions for myth, "a fiction or half-truth...".  This sells myth short, for it is too important of a human experience to cast off so easily.  Without myths our lives would be meaningless and without direction.

Consider for a moment the "Birthday Myth".  Each year, friends and family gather together to celebrate your birthday.  Certain symbolic rituals are carried out with special symbolic elements whose sole function is to be part of a birthday celebration. 

There is, first, a Birthday Cake.  It is usually round, to symbolize the earth of which we are a part and the ongoing passage of the seasons which have no beginning or end, but are continuous; the equality which we share; and the oneness of life.  The cake is covered with a sweet frosting and birthday wishes are written on the cake with the same, sweet frosting.  This symbolizes the manner in which you "sweeten" the life of those around you.

The cake is topped with candles that are set aflame to symbolize the warmth and brightness of your life to those with whom you celebrate.  The candles usually number the same as the number of years you have lived to symbolize that your life gets even brighter with each passing year.

A song is sung by everyone as the blazing cake is brought forward and set before you.  Through the song, those who have gathered to pay homage to you and wish you the best and a long life.  This song is reserved only for birthdays, and IS SUNG ON NO OTHER OCCASION!.

Upon the completion of the song, you, as the birthday person, make a wish and attempt to blow out the candles in a single breath so that the wish will come true.

The well wishers then shower you with gifts to express their love and care for you.

Most of us perform these rituals with little thought to the meaning of the symbols and rites involved.  Deep in our subconscious, however, the meanings are there and the birthday ritual serves as a way for us to express those things which would be inexpressible in any other way.

Myths, then, are part of the symbolic world of our psyches and souls.  Myths give language to those deepest truths of our existence that mere words fail to define or explain.

Joseph Campbell, the scholar and philosopher whose work in the area of myth has been so insightful says that myth serves four primary functions in our lives:

            1.         Instilling and maintaining a sense of awe and mystery before the                         world;

            2.         providing and image for explaining the world;

            3.         upholding the social order; and,

            4.         guiding individuals through the stages of life.

                        This fourth stage Campbell later characterized as:

                        "How to live a human lifetime under any circumstances".

                        (Robert A. Segal, Joseph Campbell:  An Introduction,

                         (1987, Robert A. Segal), pg 239).

All of these things are contained within the three greatest myths that we as Christians have, the Myth of God as conveyed to us in Scripture; the Myth of the Christian Community, primarily as contained in the myths of the heroes and heroins who have gone before us; and, the Myth of Self, our own personal journey of faith.  We are entrusted with the stewardship of these myths.  Their ability to be effective in accomplishing the four functions that Campbell has describe is directly related to the care with which we handle them.

The Second Vatican Council charged the Church to, "read the signs of the times and interpret them in the light of the Gospel".  We are called to interpret the meaning of our lives in light of the myths by which we live.

In their book, Method in Ministry, James and Evelyn Eaton Whitehead describe a method of theological reflection - a method for interpreting myths - that uses the same three categories of myths described above.  The name them, "Gospel", "Tradition" and "Experience", but they mean the same.  From these three classes of myth they create a triangle in which each of the classes of myth is informed by the other two.  This is the task of the myth-maker.

THE MAKING OF MYTHS

Making myths is a three-step process. 

The first step is to know what the primary myths are.  These means the we must immerse ourselves in the Word of God, familiarize ourselves with Christian history and tradition - not just the tradition in which we may have been raised,  but the vast array of Christian tradition in all of its varied expressions.  We must also truly get to know our own story - discover who we are.  (This step in the process is more fully described in the Tradition called, "Garden Tending").

The second step is to create "intersections", points at which the Myth of God, the Myth of the Christian (or the Jewish, or Hindu, or Buddhist, etc.) Community, and the Myth of Self come together, cross, and are tools for interpretation of one's life and experience.  In other words, we must "read the signs of our life and interpret them in the light of the Gospel and the Tradition", to paraphrase an earlier quote.  We must interpret our personal mythology.

Finally, real Myth Makers create new myths.

What these means is to give new meaning to existing mythology. 

When Jesus gathered his disciples together for the Last Supper he took an existing myth and gave new meaning to it, thus creating a new myth.  The occasion was the Passover Seder.  He took the imagery of Pascal Lamb which is primary to the Passover, and applied it to himself.  He took the basic elements of bread and wine, which are part of all Jewish festival celebrations, and told his followers that it was his body, broken for them, and his blood spilled on their behalf.  The Exodus liberation mythology was replaced with a "new liberation" mythology, a death/resurrection mythology.  Jesus was a Myth Maker.  He was bringing together the Myth of God, the Myth of his (Jewish) Community, and the Myth of his own life; allowing each to inform the other, and as a result, giving new meaning to his life and experience.

Students of scripture will say over and over that no matter how many times they read a particular passage of the Bible it never fails to provide a new meaning.  Myth becomes layered on top of myth.

The Myth Maker must be a student of mythology, in touch with his or her own life story, and creative enough to make new meaning out of that story in light of the mythology.

THE MYTH MAKING GUIDE

The guide regarding Myth Making is quite simple:

Be sensitive, open, and courageous enough to create new interpretations of your life and experience based upon the existing mythology.