All that is past possesses our present

"All that is past possesses our present", The Magus, pg 311

This simple quotation explains an extreme truth in that everybody is made up of their past.  Without our past, we would not know who we really are or where we are going in life.  When I think of my own past, I think of where I've lived, the friends I've made, my family, all my personal and heartfelt experiences I've had either good or bad, and how all of these have had a deep impact on my life and how it has lead me down the path to where I am today.  Without these elements in my life, I would be a completely different person: I would lose the traits that I have gained such as being outgoing, humorous, caring or even respectful. I am extremely thankful for everything that has occurred in my past fore it has made me the smiling and caring friend, son, nephew and student that I currently am.  Of course I have made my share of questionable decisions which may not have been the smartest, but I am not afraid to admit that I regret nothing, I wouldn't change anything about my past for the world.  'All that is past possesses our present' is the perfect explanation of how we have become.  It is not terrible to recollect the memories of our younger days, but it is extremely harmful to dwell on the decisions we have made. Suffering over the past does not allow for further development, it prevents us from growing and ties us down to that moment of time.  If one were to learn any lesson from this, it would be that a person carries their past around with them all of the time, but they must only focus on the present and the future.

Final Exam Notes

Group 1: How many versions of myth are there? -infinite

Group 2: Who was oprah compared to? -Zeus

Group 3: Where did group 3 get their title of their presentation, The Shameful Truth? -the title of the magus' silent film

Group 4: What was the saying that ended group 4's presentation? -"Thats all folks!"

Group 5: What was the song called that played during group 5's credits? -White Wedding by: Billy Idol

Group 6: What were the different characters in group 6's presentations? -Pirate, Irish, Viking, Cowboy, Egyptian and Chinese

Every answer is a form of death

When a young person dies, it is an occasion to mourn. 

The Ritual of Adonis

• The story of the Ritual of Adonis can be found at this website: http://www.bartleby.com/196/79.html

• Logos= the peoples Word
• the creative word
• Fiction= to make
• Sacri= sacred
• HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN?
• We end where we begin

• Chapter 45, page. 311 The Magus
• "All that is past possesses our present"
• The precedent is behind every action = All that is past possesses our present
• A person carries their past around with them all of the time they must only focus on the present and the future

• Masque
•  certain type of theatre- plays put on in peoples houses
• Quotidian
• usual, customary, everyday, ordinary
• Collective Unconscious
•  the collective is collective, impersonal; collects and organizes personal experiences in a similar way that each member of a particular species collects their experiences
• pass from a personal unconscious to the collective unconscious
• Taoism
• the mechanism that everything exists; the word Tao means way, path or principle

• Eliade 
• Speculations on Man and God: The Ultimate Reality - Chung Tzu and the Butterfly
• 
  • "Once upon a time, Chuang Chou dreamed that he was a butterfly, a butterfly fluttering about, enjoying itself. It did not know that it was Chuang Chou. Suddenly he awoke with a start and he was Chuang Chou again. But he did not know whether he was Chuang Chou who had dreamed that he was a butterfly, or whether he was a butterfly dreaming that he was Chuang Chou. Between Chuang Chou and the butterfly there must be some distinction. This is what is called the transformation of things.
  • 
    • In the god game, everything is fiction.
    • Orpheus and Eurydice- Eurydice and Orpheus get married. Soon after Eurydice steps on a snake and dies. Orpheus goes to the land of the dead, he plays his guitar and convinces Hades to give him back his wife. Hades says yes but on one condition Orpheus cant look back to see if his wife is following him. Of course right before he is out of the underworld Orpheus looks back and sees his wife but she returns to the underworld forever.
    • 
    • Discovering the Truth About Santa: I can't remember when I learned the truth about Santa. I just remember asking my parents if he was real and they told me that if I believe in him then he is, and if I don't then he is not. This made me mad because I wanted a real answer. Every year we still get presents from Santa and I like that because it keeps the myth alive.

    
    

    • The Bhagavada Gita
    • I am reading this for one of my other classes that I'm taking. The situation that started the war was over which son got the throne when their father died. The king of the land was getting old so his oldest son was supposed to take over the kingdom but he was blind, so the younger son took the throne. The blind older son was upset about this and tried to take back the throne by trying to kill his brothers family. He succeeded in getting the kingdom, but not in killing his brother. Both families fought and tried to out smart the other. At one point a member of each family gambled. The person that lost would have to go into the woods with their family and live in exile for 15 years. The youngest son's family lost and was sent to the woods. After 15 years they were supposed to get the kingdom back but when the time came the blind older brother would not give up the throne. Then the war began. Arjuna (the warrior in that video we watched in class) is the son of the youngest son. This family is know as the good family and the other family is evil. Arjuna is a great warrior and Krishna (God) is telling him that he has to fight in the war. Arjuna does not want to fight because he does not want to kill his own family members. Krishna tells him that he is supposed to fight because that is his duty as a warrior. Also, that when a person dies only their body dies, there soul lives on. Death is only a part of life. Throughout the Gita Krishna make many arguments to make Arjuna change his mind about fighting. This ends up to be a pointless act because Krishna is God and he is the one that decides who lives and who dies. Arjuna eventually ends up fighting in the war and his family wins the battle.

The Labyrinth and the Minotaur of the Mind

The Labyrinth and Minotaur of the Mind

     Throughout all of mythology, there is a message or lesson to be learned from every imaginable story; one such myth pertaining to an extreme self-conquering lesson is that of the myth of the labyrinth. As Don Williams, Jr. has said, “The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”  The idea of the labyrinth pertains to multiple ideas or settings; In Greek mythology it is the setting of Theseus’ journey to slay the Minotaur, Nicholas Urfe’s labyrinth within The Magus is a realm in which he must conquer himself and unveil his mask of uncertainty, but for all it is a maze created through the minds restrictions offering a journey that must be accepted in order to defeat their demons and overcome the fear of the unknown. 

     After the death of King Minos’ son Androgeus at the hands of the Pallantides in Athens, Minos demanded that King Aegeus of Athens hand over his son’s assassins, but not knowing who they were the town is quickly handed over and an order is given in which every Great Year, the seven most courageous youths and the seven most beautiful maidens were to be sent to Crete as a sacrifice to be devoured by the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull that lived in the Labyrinth created by Daedalus.  Theseus, feeling enraged against the ruling of the sacrifice of these unfortunate victims, volunteers to take the place of one of the youths so that he may travel to Crete and slay the Minotaur;  When he returns he shall switch his sails from black to white as long as he is successful. On his arrival to Crete, King Minos’ daughter Ariadne falls deeply in love with Theseus and offers to help by giving him a ball of thread so that he may complete his objective and exit the Labyrinth without getting lost; if successful, he promises to take Ariadne back to Athens and marry her.  Once inside, Theseus follows Daedalus’ instructions given to Ariadne which is to go forward, always down and never left or right.  He then arrives at the heart of the Labyrinth waking the sleeping beast and after a tremendous struggle, he successfully slays the Minotaur.   After decapitating the monster, he uses the string to escape the Labyrinth along with the young Athenians, as well as Ariadne and her sister Phaedra, but while leaving early the next morning Theseus realizes he has forgotten Ariadne on the beach on becomes extremely stricken with distress.  “Returning from Crete, Theseus forgets to lower the black sails, and Aegeus kills himself by leaping from the Acropolis.  It’s the last footnote to the displacement of the sacrifice,” (Calasso 21,22).  Throughout the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, there are several lessons to be learned.  The involvement of Ariadne was extremely important in that Theseus would not have made his way out of the Labyrinth without her which shows that if one cannot do something on their own it is never a bad thing to ask for help.  Daedalus’ instructions offer a deeper meaning of always keeping ones eye on the prize; continue down the path of the journey and avoid any unnecessary distractions which may lead them astray. One final message to be considered is portrayed through the death of Theseus’ father on his return from Crete sailing with the wrong color sails;  even though one may be successful on their journey, they must not become forgetful or so full of their self because it will come back to harm them in the end.  For Theseus, the Labyrinth offered a journey which provided him with many lessons to be learned, a journey which is equally significant to Nicholas Urfe.

     Introduced at the beginning of The Magus is a lonely and indecisive character by the name of Nicholas Urfe who is marked with several personal troubles while living in London.  After relations with his girlfriend become increasingly serious, he decides to abandon her in by accepting a post-teaching job on the Greek island of Phraxos only to become even more bored, depressed and disillusioned.  Struggling with loneliness and suicidal thoughts, he is eventually drawn to the mysterious Maurice Conchis who in return offers his paradoxical views on life and presents Nicholas with multiple psychological games, slowly pulling him into his ‘godgame’, a labyrinth in which Nicholas must journey to the center of his psyche and defeat his own Minotaur.   “The smallest hope, a bare continuing to exist, is enough for the anti-hero’s future; leave him, says our age, leave him where mankind is in its history, at a crossroads, in a dilemma, with all to lose and only more of the same to win; let him survive, but give him no direction, no reward; because we too are waiting, in our solitary rooms where the telephone never rings, waiting for this girl, this truth, this crystal of humanity, this reality lost though imagination, to return; and to say she return is a lie” (Fowles 645). The representation of Nicholas’ Labyrinth and Minotaur are different from that of Theseus’ in that they are portrayed as a psychological demon that he must journey through in order to overcome.  To truly understand the meaning of this, one must break down what these obstacles really are.  The labyrinth is a maze created through the mind’s restrictions, representing confusion, feeling of being lost, indecision and fear itself.  In a maze, there are no sign posts so one does not know which direction to go, relating to the inability of knowing the uncertainty of the future.  Rather than following the current path, one must lead with their inner sensation that is urging for change to better itself and proceed through a difficult journey of the unknown for the result of the soul’s perfection, supreme satisfaction. The Labyrinth is essentially a part of life, requiring one to become unafraid to make their journey in order to conquer their fears.  The Minotaur represents the beast within, the side that is uncertain, fearful, that which destroys hopes and dreams.  It is the ultimate obstacle that must be confronted, the obstructer of the minds full potential.  This could be represented through all of society, by those who are depressed, never see a way out, feel despair for their lives and depression, even those fearful for what the future has to offer.  Nicholas was successful in his journey through his realm, losing his mentality of being fearful and indecisive and gaining an eye-opening sensation of self-confidence, as well as the ability to make his own decisions for what is best for him. 
     The idea of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur is the ultimate test for ones inner strength and personal will-power; it provides the mind with an extremely difficult journey that when conquered, offers a reawakening of the self.  One final lesson is provided by Fowles on page 645, “But the maze has no centre.  An ending is no more than a point in sequence, a snip of the cutting shears.” Life is made up of countless journeys each resulting in a new lesson to be learned, but the most important message to be remembered is that it does not matter where the destination is, but rather the journey in which it took to get there; as soon as one journey is thought to be over, the next is just around the corner.

Realization of Life and Mythology

As the group presentations have come to an end, it appears that the entire class has gained a valuable interpretation of how mythology has taken its place in the worlds past, present and ultimate future.  On the first day of class, I found myself a little weary on the understanding of mythologies role in the world, thinking of it more as a religion rather than inspiration, but through the knowledge I have gained thanks to Mr. Sexson my eyes have been opened to the reality that most successful novels, films, and TV shows actually relate their themes, characters and actions depicted to mythological characters and their stories.  I originally believed that this would be a daunting process in relating an everyday story to previous mythological stories until I was presented with the task of creating my own short story depicting the actions of the hero Jason and altering his stories to that of a believable journey presented in todays world.  Although my new story did not seem as magical or inspiring, the transformation between the two was rather easy and seemed much more believable.  It was simply a connection of proceeding on a quest to achieve a certain purpose which inevitably introduces new characters and objectives which alter the story, this being a common trait in almost all mythological stories.  After such an assignment, I find it much easier to distinguish the similarities between epic mythological stories to the lives presented in my everyday life providing me with an ultimate truth: life is mythological and is bound to continue for an eternity.