The year fourteen hundred and ninety two is a year that few Americans are not aware of. Ask any young school children and they will tell you what happened in that fateful year. Christopher Columbus, the great sailor, set out on a voyage to prove to the rest of Europe that the world was round. Though the voyage was wrought with hardship, Columbus eventually came upon a distant land. Columbus had not only proved his point, but he had discovered a new world ripe for exploration . . . at least, this is how I was taught this particular tale of the discovery of the Americas when I was a child. It is strange now to think that it was not until high school that I learned a more accurate version of this story; that Columbus believed he had landed near the East Indies where he could trade with the rich culture of the Orient, that most of Europe already knew that the earth was round, and that the "new world" was already inhabited by its indigenous population of various native American tribes. Even these stories do not give mention of the true horror of the arrival of the Spanish in the Americas: the rapes and bloody massacres perpetuated by the almost bestial conquistadors that followed Columbus. Why would our society bother to maintain such a grand deception? For if Columbus is not in fact the hero which I learned about when I was little, then why should I have been taught to believe so? Some might argue that the true story of the "Discovery of America" is not exactly children's fare; being full of rape, murder, and horrifying torture. But it is much more likely that we feel obligated to defend Columbus because of what he represents: a culture that is exceedingly more concerned with acquiring wealth and power than preserving any kind of harmonious balance between themselves and nature, or even other humans. To condemn Columbus we must first condemn ourselves. For we are the inheritors of the Spanish brutality that killed millions, free to do what we will with that infamous legacy.
The familiar story of Columbus' voyage to the New World is quite possibly one of our culture's most popular myths. They are quite reminiscent of the tall tales surrounding the founding fathers, such as George Washington and his cherry tree. Myths like these often surround figures which have grown to embody our own culture's beliefs and values. This is understandable. People want their heroes to not only be good men, but great men, free from fault or blame. There are not, for example, too many patriots which know that among the Native Americans our beloved George Washington was known as the "Village Burner." This resulted from his harsh measures against Indian settlements along the border of the colonies, in retaliation for their allegiance to the British forces during the Revolutionary War. These details are often selectively forgotten by educators or parents when children are taught about the "great men" of America, because they're conflicting. We assume that children won't understand how a murderer could also be a hero, and maybe we can't understand it either. So we pack it away, hide it from view. The more obscure it becomes, the greater the character of the icon grows to mammoth proportions. Columbus is such a giant.
But every Goliath must at one point or another confront their occasional David. One such critic of Columbus and the system he had a hand in establishing is Howard Zinn, a well known author who has attempted to present the views of the neglected classes of society: "Indigenous Americans, the black slaves, the women, the working people, whether native or immigrant." Zinn, in an article entitled Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress, illustrates his disgust for the famous cultural icon: "Yes he was concerned about God. But more about Gold. Just one additional letter. His was a limited alphabet." And from where, one might ask, did Zinn arrive to this conclusion? Why, from Columbus himself, or at least from his well kept journal of the events which took place during his exploration of the islands which he believed to be the East Indies. This day to day account of his relations to the people which he found there reveal much about Columbus' motivations. His first impression of the natives of these small islands contains strange contradictions. Columbus comments on their beauty and intelligence, but continues on to mention that "(T)hey should be good servants . . ." Additionally he makes constant reference to their generous nature, their lack of a concept of private property, and their generally friendly disposition towards them. Despite all of this, however, all that drives Columbus on is the prospect of finding the source of the small amount of gold which some of the Indians adorn themselves with. All of the natural beauty which surrounds him can only be converted into its worth as raw materials to build forts and towns, the people only regarded in their value as slaves to Spanish masters.
This, in itself, illustrates the key differences between the natives which Christopher Columbus encountered and the Europeans who destroyed them. The Native Americans who had lived in a state of balance with the natural world, who seemed so submissive and without creed, easily fell victim to the ways of the Europeans. Had the Indians been just as concerned as the Spanish were with the "civilized" concepts of possession, exploitation, and relative value then perhaps they might have survived this clash of cultures. That which ultimately drove the Spanish on was progress, for what else would one do when presented with such an opportunity as they had? A lush and fertile land waiting to be taken, colonized, raped and plundered to increase the power which Spain would have over the rest of the world. And once the other European powers such as Portugal, France, England, the Dutch and others realized that they might be left behind they jumped into the act as well. What did the Native Americans want? Nothing. They saw no golden chance to "civilize" themselves, to use the superior European technology to enslave their own neighbors. Their own ways had served them well for centuries, there was no reason why they should be changed. The greatest tragedy which marks these events is the fact that the reason the Native Americans were destroyed is because they were friendly and welcoming, and by that the time they saw what monsters the Europeans were, it was too late.
Bartolome de Las Casas, one of Columbusís contemporaries, paints a vivid picture of the atrocity of the Spanish. Las Casas tells of how the Conquistadors and their soldiers, upon arrival in the Americas, began to act like vicious animals among the natives. He tells of mass slaughters, entire populations five hundred thousand strong being put to the sword and flame, the Spanish cutting apart children, or senselessly throwing babies into rivers to drown. Those not immediately killed were slowly tortured in the most hideous of ways, often made to roast over fires or be torn apart by wild animals. All of these things he reveals to us with the utmost sense of horror, as a man who actually witnessed such events. And Las Casas also points out that the reason that these people were so cruelly butchered was mainly for material reasons. "Their reason for killing and destroying such an infinite number of souls is that the Christians have an ultimate aim, which is to acquire gold, and to swell themselves with riches in a very brief time and thus rise to a high estate disproportionate to their merits." Like Zinn, Las Casas believes little in the idea that the Spanish came to "convert" the Native Americans.
And what of the attempts to bring the Native Americans into the folds of the Roman Catholic Church? To Columbus, at least, it seemed as though this would be an easy process. In his letter to the Spanish Court of 1493, in which he is basically petitioning for a return voyage in an attempt to find the mainland of China, Columbus describes these "new people" as having no particular religious affiliation. "They know nothing of idolatry; on the contrary they confidently believe that all might, all power, all good things, in fact, are in the heavens." Later, Christopher mentions also that all of them are "alike," and that they all speak the same language. His conclusion is that this will make it easier to convert them all to Christianity. But, considering how well Columbus truly understood the people whom he came into contact with, we can fairly safely assume that this was not true. The natives of these lands were not "all the same" or "without gods." Just the contrary, the Native American cultures were all as vastly different from each other as we might regard England and France. There was a great difference between the peaceful Arawaks which Columbus first came into contact with and the cannibalistic warrior Caribs, who ironically gave the Caribbean its name. In regards to religion, though it is true that some of the smaller tribes which lived among the West Indies possessed less organized traditions, larger cultures such as the Aztecs and the Maya possessed complex beliefs with numerous deities. In some cases the only way to "convert" the indigenous population of America would be to kill them, much the same way in which the Spanish were "converting" the Jews and Muslims of their own country in the Spanish Inquisition.
In many cases we can only imagine how the Native Americans felt about these foreign invaders, who had seemingly come to their lands only to kill and maim their culture and people. It is only very rarely that we hear the natives own words, as these have been for the most part destroyed or were never recorded in the first place. The few that were, however, for the most part tell us an interesting story. These people were not docile, and certainly not willing to pass away from this world without a fight. In the speech of Chibcha Tundama called "I Reject Peace" we hear the words of a proud man who is effectively thumbing his nose in the face of those ultimately more powerful than he. Delivered in response to a demand to surrender himself and his people to a Spanish conquistador, it is considered one of the more eloquent speeches of those who resisted the European encroachment. In its course he bluntly tells the Spanish that he does not believe that their requests for a settlement of their differences are anything but peaceful. He has learned from past experience that the Europeans have brought ruin and destruction on all before them, betraying those that trust them and behaving more cruelly than even the most barbarous of the Native Americans. Even in defiance, however, Tundama attempts to rationalize his behavior to the Spanish. "You well know that my people were bred with no fewer natural privileges than yours. We now know that you are not descended from the sun. Since your people refuse tax and tyranny you cannot be surprised that mine do, with determination." What Tundama seems to be saying is merely that we are all human, all of us equal, an idea that seems strangely ahead of its time in the sixteenth century.
No, Columbus did not understand the people whom he helped to destroy. He did not understand them, the Spanish conquistadors did not understand them, just as we still do not understand their way of life. We, as Americans, continue to believe in "progress." We believe in the rape of the natural world. We understand that there must be a human cost if we are to make any capital gain. America, "the nation conceived in liberty," has a history full of slavery and genocide. We are the descendants of the conquistadors, the heirs of the empire which they murdered to procure. And when we see what Columbus truly is, merely a man in search of his own personal glory, it shakes our world apart. For these echoes from the past are not meaningless, but strike at the core of our society, our entire way of life. To defame him, to bring our false god off of his pedestal makes us realize how hollow we ourselves are. Perhaps one day we will be ready to see ourselves as we truly are, and use that knowledge to change the course upon which we are traveling.
Until then we will continue to try and conceal our hands, still stained with the ancient blood of those who died so that we might flourish.
Monday, November 4, 1996
Wednesday, October 16, 1996
1492
"In Fourteen Hundred and Ninety Two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue," the teacher said to her class.
"What happened next?" one of the students asked, eyes wide, lips trembling with anticipation.
"Well, Columbus sailed along in his three ships-"
"Four ships," interrupted by a voice from the back of the room.
"Three ships," the teacher said, louder, and staring intently at the student at the back of the room. "The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Then, one day, one of his lookouts spotted land ahead; it was the New World!"
"Yay!" the children cried.
The teacher smiled broadly. "Well, Columbus went down to the shore and what should he see but a group of Indians approaching him on their knees with trinkets to offer him."
The voice at the back of the room lifted itself from hiding. "Then Columbus enslaved the friendly people who he regarded as savages, in hope that they would 'bring' him more trinkets which he could ship back to Spain."
The room was extremely quiet. A single bead of sweat ran down the teacher's waxy face as she furiously pressed a small button on the top of her desk. "When Columbus returned to Spain with a few of the natives as guests-"
"Slaves!" The voice corrected.
"Examples," the teacher decided upon. "When he returned with his examples the Spanish court was amazed. They had discovered a new world, and a new people to bring into the folds of Christianity!"
"Yay!" the children chimed.
The owner of the voice at the back of the room leapt from his chair. "When are you ever going to learn?! Dear god, when will this ever end?"
"It will end with you in detention, young man!" The teacher glanced at a heavy-set man standing by the door, having finally arrived from the main office. The owner of the voice looked into the teacher's eyes for a moment before he moved into the man's rough grasp.
"Well class," the teacher said as she directed her attention back to the children in front of her. "What have you learned today?"
As one voice they shrieked out, their conjoined voices high pitched and bestial: "IN FOURTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY TWO, COLUMBUS SAILED THE OCEAN BLUE!"
"Good class! You all get stars on the chart!"
"Yay!" the class howled.
Outside, the owner of the troublesome voice was shot in front of a gloriously wind-swept flag. Seeing this through the window, one of the children began to cry.
"Oh! Don't cry!" The teacher bustled to the window and began to close the blinds. "We need only draw the shades. Don't worry . . . you don't have to see it, dear. You don't need to see it."
"What happened next?" one of the students asked, eyes wide, lips trembling with anticipation.
"Well, Columbus sailed along in his three ships-"
"Four ships," interrupted by a voice from the back of the room.
"Three ships," the teacher said, louder, and staring intently at the student at the back of the room. "The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Then, one day, one of his lookouts spotted land ahead; it was the New World!"
"Yay!" the children cried.
The teacher smiled broadly. "Well, Columbus went down to the shore and what should he see but a group of Indians approaching him on their knees with trinkets to offer him."
The voice at the back of the room lifted itself from hiding. "Then Columbus enslaved the friendly people who he regarded as savages, in hope that they would 'bring' him more trinkets which he could ship back to Spain."
The room was extremely quiet. A single bead of sweat ran down the teacher's waxy face as she furiously pressed a small button on the top of her desk. "When Columbus returned to Spain with a few of the natives as guests-"
"Slaves!" The voice corrected.
"Examples," the teacher decided upon. "When he returned with his examples the Spanish court was amazed. They had discovered a new world, and a new people to bring into the folds of Christianity!"
"Yay!" the children chimed.
The owner of the voice at the back of the room leapt from his chair. "When are you ever going to learn?! Dear god, when will this ever end?"
"It will end with you in detention, young man!" The teacher glanced at a heavy-set man standing by the door, having finally arrived from the main office. The owner of the voice looked into the teacher's eyes for a moment before he moved into the man's rough grasp.
"Well class," the teacher said as she directed her attention back to the children in front of her. "What have you learned today?"
As one voice they shrieked out, their conjoined voices high pitched and bestial: "IN FOURTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY TWO, COLUMBUS SAILED THE OCEAN BLUE!"
"Good class! You all get stars on the chart!"
"Yay!" the class howled.
Outside, the owner of the troublesome voice was shot in front of a gloriously wind-swept flag. Seeing this through the window, one of the children began to cry.
"Oh! Don't cry!" The teacher bustled to the window and began to close the blinds. "We need only draw the shades. Don't worry . . . you don't have to see it, dear. You don't need to see it."
Monday, October 7, 1996
The Quest For Origins: Popol Vuh, The Divinity Of Man
According to the Mayan people, when the first true humans walked the earth they were invested with the ability to see the entire world. They had no cause to move about, for there was no obstruction of their vision, all was apparent to them. When the Mayan Gods saw that their creations were perhaps too perfect, that they might become as the gods themselves were, they fogged their sight. "They were blinded as the face of a mirror is breathed upon. Their vision flickered. Now it was only from close up that they could see what was there with any clarity." Thus were the humans finally made according to the design which the Mayan Gods had wished for them; well fashioned and respectful of their creators, as well as curtailed in their greatness. The Mayan people also believe that there is a device by which one may overcome the limitations of being human, and this is their holy text, the Popol Vuh. Comparable in importance to the story of Genesis of the Judeo Christian religion, the Popol Vuh is the story of how the world was created by their Gods and how it was made safe for the coming of mankind. Unlike Genesis, however, the Popol Vuh reveals the vast differences between the two cultures which influenced these writings. The Gods which inhabit the Popol Vuh are flawed, much different than the perfection of The Lord of Genesis. Far beyond the polytheistic view of the Mayans is the total absence of the fall from grace which is so prominent in Genesisís tale of the garden of Eden. For while both the Judeo Christian God and the Mayan deities seem to concur that those who challenge their authority should be destroyed, the Popol Vuh Gods seem to do so out of fear of their creations and God out of a fatherly retribution for disrespect. Indeed, while Genesis may be a tale of how man became alienated from his God and nature itself, the Popol Vuh glorifies the human race's connection with the divine.
Taking into account the fact that many readers will know little of the details of the Popol Vuh, we will try to summarize its key events. To begin, it is important to understand that the Mayans believed in many gods. Additionally, there was no god in command of the others. However, the Popol Vuh does stress the importance of two main gods and their constituents as the main players in the cosmos. These deities were Sovereign Plumed Serpent, as well as Heart of Sky and his sons Newborn Thunderbolt and Sudden Thunderbolt. It is these beings who create the world, and attempt to fill it with creations which please them (ie: humans.) Much like the God of Genesis, the Mayan gods expect their creations to respect their creator(s), and to show their thanks through some form of ritual. However, these gods are not exactly perfect, and it takes many tries to succeed in crafting the beings which they seek. So, throughout much of the Popol Vuh, the earth is uninhabited by humans due to the Gods' mistakes. Already we can see a key difference between the story of Genesis and that of the Popol Vuh. The God of the Judeo-Christians, the sole creative power in the universe, is thought to be so perfect that he is beyond error. While his creations may fail, it is more because of a human flaw which God seemingly ignored. The gods of the Popol Vuh, on the other hand, not only make mistakes but admit that they did so. After having made the animals, who were unable to praise them simply because they could not speak, the Gods bemoan their failure. "'It hasn't turned out well, they haven't spoken,' they said among themselves. 'It hasn't turned out that our names have been named. Since we are their mason and sculptor, this will not do.'" This surprisingly human trait displays the way in which Mayan deities were brought to a very human level, one that was more understandable than the lofty God of the Judeo-Christians.
But the gods of the Popol Vuh are very persistent, and unwilling to give up on their failed project. They are willing to try again and again until their perfect vision is achieved. It is interesting to note that, on his first attempt, the Lord of Genesis is able to create a perfect world which he is unable or unwilling to sustain. The Mayan gods, subsequently, are not able to begin with perfection but work their way up to it before it is accomplished. In fact, to the Maya, their paradise was the world in which they still lived. There is no account in the Popol Vuh of a fall from grace, the Maya are never cast out from their perfect world. The bible, on the other hand, is clear on the point that nature itself is a spoiled thing. From the point that Adam and Eve were cast from Eden, God made men understand that "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, 'you shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you" Joseph Campbell, in his acclaimed book The Power Of Myth, offers an excellent explanation for this condemnation of nature. "...(T)he biblical tradition is a socially oriented mythology. Nature is condemned... When nature is thought of as evil, you don't put yourself into accord with it, you control it, or try to, and hence the tension, the anxiety, the cutting down of forests, the annihilation of native people . . ." This is not the nature of the Maya. Their culture, like many Native American civilizations, is steeped in the belief that nature is something which is revered as sacred. To the ancient authors of the Popol Vuh humans were not separate from the earth, but instead were a very important part of it. To many Native American cultures the place in which they currently lived was their homeland, their place of origin. Andrew O. Wiget, in his essay on Native American Oral Literatures, expresses the common Native American belief that "(T)he proper relation between people and the earth should be one of familial and personal respect, a relation honorable because of kinship derived from a common beginning."
But what similarities did these texts share? To illustrate one connection we will move on to the story of the third attempt made by the Mayan gods to create good beings to live on earth. After a short lived experiment to make men out of mud, that fails miserably, the gods fashion manikins out of wood which resemble men. So the world is filled with walking manikins, who command the power of speech. The gods are hopeful, but they soon realize that they have failed again. For while the manikins have the abilities that true humans lay claim to, they have no hearts, and they are disrespectful of the things that they possess. They abuse their animals and household tools, and give no thanks to the gods. They did not do what the gods had intended for them, to praise them and remember their names. So these creations also are destroyed like the men of mud before them. Oddly, there are certain striking resemblances between the flood of Genesis and the destruction which eliminates the Mayan Gods' third attempt at creating humans, the wooden manikins: "The manikins, woodcarvings were killed when the Heart of Sky devised a flood for them. A great flood was made; it came down on the heads of the manikins" Compare with Genesis 7:11-21: "...(T)he fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened... And all flesh died that moved on the earth." In both cases the creations of the gods are being punished for acting contrary to the design of their creators. One might even say that the "evil" which the first humans of the bible take part in (which is loosely defined by Genesis) is very similar to the heartless and thankless behavior of the manikins. The wrath that falls upon both of these failed experiments is merely to clear them away so that, one day, the true humans will live without the impediment of their predecessors' mistakes.
But, if there is nothing else that the respective gods of Genesis can agree on, it is that any challenge to their authority is a serious crime. In the example of Adam and Eve, after having been reprimanded sharply for having eaten of the forbidden tree, the mother and father of humanity are further punished by their creator. God says: "See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and live forever." The duo are then exiled from Eden forever. This seems to suggest that God is somewhat concerned that his creations have reached his level, at least in the fact that they are no longer ignorant of the capabilities which they possess. He fears that they now will additionally become immortal as he is, and possibly rival him in some sense. In the Popol Vuh, when the first true humans have their vision limited to their immediate surroundings, the gods' motives are the same as those of the lord of Genesis. They both limit their creations so they do not challenge their creators. From the tale of the Tower of Babel on, even in later chapter in which men again are foiled in their attempts to reach god's level, the old testament is abound with the message that any who even claim to be on god's level will be harshly dealt with. The Popol Vuh also has a somewhat similar tale. We are told of a semi-divine being named Seven Macaw who proclaims himself both the sun and moon, for his bright plumage and the jewels on his body illuminate the world in which the manikins live. This is somewhat fitting, for just as the manikins were not truly people Seven Macaw is not truly a god. Never the less, the actual creators of the world and humanity are angered by the false god's impudence. To suggest that one was as high as the gods is what the Popol Vuh calls "self magnification." So Seven Macaw, as well as his two sons who are also guilty of this crime, are foiled and consequently killed by two servants of the Mayan gods: The hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
Nowhere in Genesis is there anything even close to the exploits of the cunning Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who effectively spend their time outsmarting numerous powerful beings; from their own scornful brothers to the dark lords of the Mayan underworld. The further tales of these two hero twins fill at least half of the text of the Popol Vuh. The reason that so much time is spent examining the feats of these twins is simple to explain. These culture heroes of the Mayan people effectively clear the world of its dangerous beings in anticipation of the creation of humanity. It becomes apparent in the text that, until the pseudo divine creatures like Seven Macaw are removed from power, the goal that Sovereign Plumed Serpent and Heart of Sky have quested after cannot be accomplished. The two twins, discussing their plan to kill Seven Macaw, make a direct connection between the false god's existence and the fact that "(I)t's no good without life, without people here on the face of the earth." Things must be set right before that day will come, and these two twins adventures are the story of how the Maya were finally created. With the passing of the false gods and the false humans, the manikins, we come to the dawn of the true men. They are at last fashioned; made out of corn and water which had been gathered by representatives from the animals, who can be seen as brothers to the humans, ground by the gods' own hands. They are perfect, flawed only by their subsequent lack of vision. This ends the efforts of the gods, their work is finally done. Once again the severe discrepancy between the two holy texts comes out very strongly. Genesis is a story full of division, and the Popol Vuh is one of unification. The bible begins with all of creation being one cosmic force but breaks that unity apart. Genesis makes dualities out of everything; light and dark, man and woman, nature and man, and so on until even individual humans are seen as all separate from each other (let alone their god). The Popol Vuh does just the opposite. It begins with a separation between the heavens and the sea, the respective lords of which come together to create the world. In each of their experiments with humanity their creations become more and more godlike, until they are finally so close to their creators that Sovereign Plumed Serpent and Heart of Sky are afraid of them. So while the Judeo Christians see their god as a very distant figure the Maya believe that all it takes to become as great as the original humans once were is to consult the Popol Vuh. For to recapture that perfect sight that they had possessed so long ago, if only for a short time, is to understand the story of their ancestors and of how the Maya first came to this world.
Taking into account the fact that many readers will know little of the details of the Popol Vuh, we will try to summarize its key events. To begin, it is important to understand that the Mayans believed in many gods. Additionally, there was no god in command of the others. However, the Popol Vuh does stress the importance of two main gods and their constituents as the main players in the cosmos. These deities were Sovereign Plumed Serpent, as well as Heart of Sky and his sons Newborn Thunderbolt and Sudden Thunderbolt. It is these beings who create the world, and attempt to fill it with creations which please them (ie: humans.) Much like the God of Genesis, the Mayan gods expect their creations to respect their creator(s), and to show their thanks through some form of ritual. However, these gods are not exactly perfect, and it takes many tries to succeed in crafting the beings which they seek. So, throughout much of the Popol Vuh, the earth is uninhabited by humans due to the Gods' mistakes. Already we can see a key difference between the story of Genesis and that of the Popol Vuh. The God of the Judeo-Christians, the sole creative power in the universe, is thought to be so perfect that he is beyond error. While his creations may fail, it is more because of a human flaw which God seemingly ignored. The gods of the Popol Vuh, on the other hand, not only make mistakes but admit that they did so. After having made the animals, who were unable to praise them simply because they could not speak, the Gods bemoan their failure. "'It hasn't turned out well, they haven't spoken,' they said among themselves. 'It hasn't turned out that our names have been named. Since we are their mason and sculptor, this will not do.'" This surprisingly human trait displays the way in which Mayan deities were brought to a very human level, one that was more understandable than the lofty God of the Judeo-Christians.
But the gods of the Popol Vuh are very persistent, and unwilling to give up on their failed project. They are willing to try again and again until their perfect vision is achieved. It is interesting to note that, on his first attempt, the Lord of Genesis is able to create a perfect world which he is unable or unwilling to sustain. The Mayan gods, subsequently, are not able to begin with perfection but work their way up to it before it is accomplished. In fact, to the Maya, their paradise was the world in which they still lived. There is no account in the Popol Vuh of a fall from grace, the Maya are never cast out from their perfect world. The bible, on the other hand, is clear on the point that nature itself is a spoiled thing. From the point that Adam and Eve were cast from Eden, God made men understand that "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, 'you shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you" Joseph Campbell, in his acclaimed book The Power Of Myth, offers an excellent explanation for this condemnation of nature. "...(T)he biblical tradition is a socially oriented mythology. Nature is condemned... When nature is thought of as evil, you don't put yourself into accord with it, you control it, or try to, and hence the tension, the anxiety, the cutting down of forests, the annihilation of native people . . ." This is not the nature of the Maya. Their culture, like many Native American civilizations, is steeped in the belief that nature is something which is revered as sacred. To the ancient authors of the Popol Vuh humans were not separate from the earth, but instead were a very important part of it. To many Native American cultures the place in which they currently lived was their homeland, their place of origin. Andrew O. Wiget, in his essay on Native American Oral Literatures, expresses the common Native American belief that "(T)he proper relation between people and the earth should be one of familial and personal respect, a relation honorable because of kinship derived from a common beginning."
But what similarities did these texts share? To illustrate one connection we will move on to the story of the third attempt made by the Mayan gods to create good beings to live on earth. After a short lived experiment to make men out of mud, that fails miserably, the gods fashion manikins out of wood which resemble men. So the world is filled with walking manikins, who command the power of speech. The gods are hopeful, but they soon realize that they have failed again. For while the manikins have the abilities that true humans lay claim to, they have no hearts, and they are disrespectful of the things that they possess. They abuse their animals and household tools, and give no thanks to the gods. They did not do what the gods had intended for them, to praise them and remember their names. So these creations also are destroyed like the men of mud before them. Oddly, there are certain striking resemblances between the flood of Genesis and the destruction which eliminates the Mayan Gods' third attempt at creating humans, the wooden manikins: "The manikins, woodcarvings were killed when the Heart of Sky devised a flood for them. A great flood was made; it came down on the heads of the manikins" Compare with Genesis 7:11-21: "...(T)he fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened... And all flesh died that moved on the earth." In both cases the creations of the gods are being punished for acting contrary to the design of their creators. One might even say that the "evil" which the first humans of the bible take part in (which is loosely defined by Genesis) is very similar to the heartless and thankless behavior of the manikins. The wrath that falls upon both of these failed experiments is merely to clear them away so that, one day, the true humans will live without the impediment of their predecessors' mistakes.
But, if there is nothing else that the respective gods of Genesis can agree on, it is that any challenge to their authority is a serious crime. In the example of Adam and Eve, after having been reprimanded sharply for having eaten of the forbidden tree, the mother and father of humanity are further punished by their creator. God says: "See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and live forever." The duo are then exiled from Eden forever. This seems to suggest that God is somewhat concerned that his creations have reached his level, at least in the fact that they are no longer ignorant of the capabilities which they possess. He fears that they now will additionally become immortal as he is, and possibly rival him in some sense. In the Popol Vuh, when the first true humans have their vision limited to their immediate surroundings, the gods' motives are the same as those of the lord of Genesis. They both limit their creations so they do not challenge their creators. From the tale of the Tower of Babel on, even in later chapter in which men again are foiled in their attempts to reach god's level, the old testament is abound with the message that any who even claim to be on god's level will be harshly dealt with. The Popol Vuh also has a somewhat similar tale. We are told of a semi-divine being named Seven Macaw who proclaims himself both the sun and moon, for his bright plumage and the jewels on his body illuminate the world in which the manikins live. This is somewhat fitting, for just as the manikins were not truly people Seven Macaw is not truly a god. Never the less, the actual creators of the world and humanity are angered by the false god's impudence. To suggest that one was as high as the gods is what the Popol Vuh calls "self magnification." So Seven Macaw, as well as his two sons who are also guilty of this crime, are foiled and consequently killed by two servants of the Mayan gods: The hero twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
Nowhere in Genesis is there anything even close to the exploits of the cunning Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who effectively spend their time outsmarting numerous powerful beings; from their own scornful brothers to the dark lords of the Mayan underworld. The further tales of these two hero twins fill at least half of the text of the Popol Vuh. The reason that so much time is spent examining the feats of these twins is simple to explain. These culture heroes of the Mayan people effectively clear the world of its dangerous beings in anticipation of the creation of humanity. It becomes apparent in the text that, until the pseudo divine creatures like Seven Macaw are removed from power, the goal that Sovereign Plumed Serpent and Heart of Sky have quested after cannot be accomplished. The two twins, discussing their plan to kill Seven Macaw, make a direct connection between the false god's existence and the fact that "(I)t's no good without life, without people here on the face of the earth." Things must be set right before that day will come, and these two twins adventures are the story of how the Maya were finally created. With the passing of the false gods and the false humans, the manikins, we come to the dawn of the true men. They are at last fashioned; made out of corn and water which had been gathered by representatives from the animals, who can be seen as brothers to the humans, ground by the gods' own hands. They are perfect, flawed only by their subsequent lack of vision. This ends the efforts of the gods, their work is finally done. Once again the severe discrepancy between the two holy texts comes out very strongly. Genesis is a story full of division, and the Popol Vuh is one of unification. The bible begins with all of creation being one cosmic force but breaks that unity apart. Genesis makes dualities out of everything; light and dark, man and woman, nature and man, and so on until even individual humans are seen as all separate from each other (let alone their god). The Popol Vuh does just the opposite. It begins with a separation between the heavens and the sea, the respective lords of which come together to create the world. In each of their experiments with humanity their creations become more and more godlike, until they are finally so close to their creators that Sovereign Plumed Serpent and Heart of Sky are afraid of them. So while the Judeo Christians see their god as a very distant figure the Maya believe that all it takes to become as great as the original humans once were is to consult the Popol Vuh. For to recapture that perfect sight that they had possessed so long ago, if only for a short time, is to understand the story of their ancestors and of how the Maya first came to this world.
Tuesday, September 17, 1996
The Quest For Origins: Genesis, The Fall From Grace
In the world according to Genesis, man and woman existed together in perfect harmony. Before their exile they lived in the paradise which God had created for them: Eden. They had no knowledge of good or evil, no roles in society to act out, and apparently no understanding of sex and procreation. They were close to God in this state, and indeed had a potential to attain immortality. They were truly innocent, living in the perfect order which god had formed out of the chaos of the universe. It has been pointed out that at this point the two were without consciousness, having no understanding of their surrounding and no desire to question their existence. But after their fall from grace, though they had found a higher sense of what it was to be alive and human, they lived in a world of suffering and want. But what was the significance of this separation from Eden? And more importantly, what does it say about the people who wrote it? What does the creation story of the Judeo-Christian religion teach us about their culture? For while Genesis is an explanation of how the universe was originally created, it is also a guide to how the Judeo-Christians perceived the world in which they lived.
To answer these questions one must understand that when the authors of the bible wrote of their mythical ancestors they used them as moralistic figures. These events and characters are the teaching tools of the Judeo Christian world. Thus, their first purpose was to rationalize the behavior of the culture that followed its tenets.
To further explain, let us examine the circumstances of Adam and Eve's fall from grace and subsequent expulsion from the Garden of Eden. After eating the fruit of knowledge, and their punishment by God, they lived under what we understand to be the reality of the world in ancient times. They had become wise, comprehending what was good and what was evil, aware of the differences between them. Adam became the laborer to procure food, while Eve dealt with children. They knew of how a man and woman might bear children, and there was an understanding that in return for Eve's "greater sin" she would be the lesser of the two. A level of authority, with man in control, had come to be. They were mortal, could die, and were greatly separated from their parental figure (God) just as we all are.
While all of this might explain why these things came about one can look deeper into the issue. If we see Adam and Eve as children in the beginning we can compare their journey to the archetypical process of growing that we all go through. In our unborn state we are as much without consciousness and untroubled by the ways of the world as Adam and Eve were. Our forced exile separates us from our parents, and throws us into a world of cold and pain. Joseph Campbell, in his acclaimed book The Power Of Myth, explains that in the first stage of birth we experience terror when we realize ourselves as living individuals. We have achieved the first state of division from our parents, the most important one by far. And as childhood continues we exist in another version of Eden, the innocent life of a youngster our normal environment. Throughout life we experience further hurts, further separation from our parents, greater understanding of the world around us. Eventually we have reached adulthood, and live in what people think of as the real world.
Despite the rudimentary nature of this occurrence, it displays that when we achieve higher levels of experience and knowledge it usually comes about through a change of our surroundings and through pain. This perhaps is the other main lesson of the story of The Fall, that it is our search for that which is beyond what ourselves that hurts us. It is the desire for more than what has been allotted to us that makes us unhappy. We do not suffer because we are denied televisions or sex- we suffer because we desire them. Thus, what kept Adam and Eve from maintaining happiness in Eden was desire.
Eve also experiences yet another stage of separation. Not only is she punished by God, but seemingly by Adam who willingly accepts his role as master. It is Genesis's teachings which are fundamental to why women have been treated as the lesser partner between the sexes. In their duality Adam and Eve have been unequally placed. We certainly know that in the ancient world a womanís place was a lesser one than that of man, and Genesis is a justification for this state of being.
Perhaps the tale of Genesis is an allegorical tale of how women fell from their formerly high status in ancient society. Larry Gonick is his Cartoon History Of The Universe explains how, before primitive men understood that sex and procreation were linked, women held important positions as clan leaders. This was because: "clan membership passed through the women. That is, the children belonged to their mother's clan- NOT their father's." But after having becoming herdsmen men could not help (through their close association with the animals) notice that sexual intercourse and reproduction were tied together. Thus, a man saw his children as his own property, and had to be more careful of being sure who his son's were. A woman thus became a prisoner under a man to ensure her faithfulness, more a piece of property than a partner from that point on.
If return to the fall of mankind, we can extrapolate that this event was the first blemish of God's perfect Order. During God's punishment of the guilty trio of snake, Eve, and Adam he states (To Adam): "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, 'you shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you." God has not only punished mankind but the Earth itself. Why? Joseph Campbell offers his own explanation: "...(T)he biblical tradition is a socially oriented mythology. Nature is condemned . . . when nature is thought of as evil, you don't put yourself into accord with it, you control it, or try to, and hence the tension, the anxiety, the cutting down of forests, the annihilation of native people."
The next lesson of Genesis, the fable of Cain and Abel, concerns the two sons which Adam and Eve conceive after their exile from Eden. Cain and Abel represent the two ways of life that have often clashed throughout the history of human civilization. Cain is a farmer, who must settle down in one place to survive, one who must live hand in hand with nature. Abel is a herdsman, a nomad who moves with his flock, one who is not tied to the land. When they both offer a sacrifice of the fruits of their labor it is Abel who is favored. The reason? Campbell says that the Judeo Christian belief is one that is centered around the group in which you exist, a nomadic way of thinking. The Judeo-Christian religion was one of a wandering people without a homeland, it is natural that their God should lean towards that particular lifestyle. In this sense we can see that Judeo-Christians believed themselves separated from nature itself.
Coexistence between these two groups of people has always been troubled, and the result of Cain's jealousy is violence. The bible's first death, it is the fundamental lesson that killing your fellow man is inherently wrong. However, it also displays the initial separation between these two ways of life which remained a problem throughout history.
At this point we may sit back and notice that Genesis has been mainly composed of two basic dualities. In the beginning there is a pure formless chaos, followed by the perfect order which God creates. Then the smallest inkling of a return to chaos with The Fall, followed by another reordering of the world once again. There is another shake up with Abel's death, and God's intervention once again makes things right. Yet, which each subsequent event, we watch as the presence of God is slowly removed from the lives of his creations. God, once a passing visitor in the Garden of Eden, now is a mere distant figure who appears to have slowly faded. It is not surprising that after many generations had lived and died that man might have forgotten about their creator, and that he might feel compelled to act.
The story of the deluge is not only a warning to mankind about what might occur if God's laws are not properly respected, but also of a reunification with that lost parental figure. Noah and his family will be saved for he alone has not succumbed to the evils that walk hand in hand with culture and society. Not wishing to completely destroy his work, God commands Noah to build an ark with which he save enough of the animals of the world to repopulate it when the coming flood recedes. The flood is a return to the primal chaos which existed before the world was created, blemished only by Noah's ark. The cycle of Order and Chaos continues.
Shortly after the biblical flood waters disappeared from the face of the Earth, and life flourished on its face once more, God reflected on what he had done. "I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done." The union between God and man is once again renewed as Noah and his descendants face another ordered world in which man is the flawed master. Forever carrying the burden of Adam and Eve's Fall they finally seem to enter a world in which a reality without God's intervention is possible. Man is, as God says, evil inherently. Because of his removal from Godís presence, his separation from nature, his connection to the chaos which God made into order, mankind is now flawed by his own doing.
And God himself somewhat removes himself from the lives of men. He acts in an indirect manner from this point on, letting his will be known through signs, miracles, disasters and dreams. Man is slowly becoming independent of their Lord, having to rely on their own actions to carry out God's will. This independence of man even leads to occasional acts against God, such as the construction of the Tower Of Babel in defiance of the Lordís mightiness.
The parental figures of the bible shift towards the patriarchs such as Noah and Abraham. These men now hand out the curses which separate mankind from each other. Ham's punishment, for example, for having seen Noah naked in his tent once again shakes up the new order into another chaos in which the sons of Noah spread out across the ancient world. The authors of Genesis at this point seem to pick up on specific details of the lives of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph. We are concerned less with the acts of God than we are with the actions of these men and their families.
The question which we might ask ourselves at this point is: Why do we continue to separate ourselves from our parents, from those who showed us the way into the real world? Is it because there is some force in human nature that instills in us a wanderlust which drags us away from our families and home? Or is it because we choose to give up the simpler pleasures of life in exchange for the knowledge we receive from living in the "real world?" The ancient writers of the old testament would seem to argue that man basically has no choice in the matter, that it was merely the whim of God that they might one day exist as we do now. They would say that we were destined to be separated from God and one another. I on the other hand, would disagree. To stay with my parents in my comfortable home would be to forever remain a child in the Garden of Eden. The outside world, despite its many hurts, will also enrich my experience of life. If Genesis teaches us anything it is that to be human is to constantly strive for something beyond that which we know, to reach beyond ourselves.
In Frank Herbert's Dune, the Duke Leto Atrietes warns that: "Without change something sleeps inside, and seldom awakens."
"The sleeper must awaken."
To answer these questions one must understand that when the authors of the bible wrote of their mythical ancestors they used them as moralistic figures. These events and characters are the teaching tools of the Judeo Christian world. Thus, their first purpose was to rationalize the behavior of the culture that followed its tenets.
To further explain, let us examine the circumstances of Adam and Eve's fall from grace and subsequent expulsion from the Garden of Eden. After eating the fruit of knowledge, and their punishment by God, they lived under what we understand to be the reality of the world in ancient times. They had become wise, comprehending what was good and what was evil, aware of the differences between them. Adam became the laborer to procure food, while Eve dealt with children. They knew of how a man and woman might bear children, and there was an understanding that in return for Eve's "greater sin" she would be the lesser of the two. A level of authority, with man in control, had come to be. They were mortal, could die, and were greatly separated from their parental figure (God) just as we all are.
While all of this might explain why these things came about one can look deeper into the issue. If we see Adam and Eve as children in the beginning we can compare their journey to the archetypical process of growing that we all go through. In our unborn state we are as much without consciousness and untroubled by the ways of the world as Adam and Eve were. Our forced exile separates us from our parents, and throws us into a world of cold and pain. Joseph Campbell, in his acclaimed book The Power Of Myth, explains that in the first stage of birth we experience terror when we realize ourselves as living individuals. We have achieved the first state of division from our parents, the most important one by far. And as childhood continues we exist in another version of Eden, the innocent life of a youngster our normal environment. Throughout life we experience further hurts, further separation from our parents, greater understanding of the world around us. Eventually we have reached adulthood, and live in what people think of as the real world.
Despite the rudimentary nature of this occurrence, it displays that when we achieve higher levels of experience and knowledge it usually comes about through a change of our surroundings and through pain. This perhaps is the other main lesson of the story of The Fall, that it is our search for that which is beyond what ourselves that hurts us. It is the desire for more than what has been allotted to us that makes us unhappy. We do not suffer because we are denied televisions or sex- we suffer because we desire them. Thus, what kept Adam and Eve from maintaining happiness in Eden was desire.
Eve also experiences yet another stage of separation. Not only is she punished by God, but seemingly by Adam who willingly accepts his role as master. It is Genesis's teachings which are fundamental to why women have been treated as the lesser partner between the sexes. In their duality Adam and Eve have been unequally placed. We certainly know that in the ancient world a womanís place was a lesser one than that of man, and Genesis is a justification for this state of being.
Perhaps the tale of Genesis is an allegorical tale of how women fell from their formerly high status in ancient society. Larry Gonick is his Cartoon History Of The Universe explains how, before primitive men understood that sex and procreation were linked, women held important positions as clan leaders. This was because: "clan membership passed through the women. That is, the children belonged to their mother's clan- NOT their father's." But after having becoming herdsmen men could not help (through their close association with the animals) notice that sexual intercourse and reproduction were tied together. Thus, a man saw his children as his own property, and had to be more careful of being sure who his son's were. A woman thus became a prisoner under a man to ensure her faithfulness, more a piece of property than a partner from that point on.
If return to the fall of mankind, we can extrapolate that this event was the first blemish of God's perfect Order. During God's punishment of the guilty trio of snake, Eve, and Adam he states (To Adam): "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, 'you shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you." God has not only punished mankind but the Earth itself. Why? Joseph Campbell offers his own explanation: "...(T)he biblical tradition is a socially oriented mythology. Nature is condemned . . . when nature is thought of as evil, you don't put yourself into accord with it, you control it, or try to, and hence the tension, the anxiety, the cutting down of forests, the annihilation of native people."
The next lesson of Genesis, the fable of Cain and Abel, concerns the two sons which Adam and Eve conceive after their exile from Eden. Cain and Abel represent the two ways of life that have often clashed throughout the history of human civilization. Cain is a farmer, who must settle down in one place to survive, one who must live hand in hand with nature. Abel is a herdsman, a nomad who moves with his flock, one who is not tied to the land. When they both offer a sacrifice of the fruits of their labor it is Abel who is favored. The reason? Campbell says that the Judeo Christian belief is one that is centered around the group in which you exist, a nomadic way of thinking. The Judeo-Christian religion was one of a wandering people without a homeland, it is natural that their God should lean towards that particular lifestyle. In this sense we can see that Judeo-Christians believed themselves separated from nature itself.
Coexistence between these two groups of people has always been troubled, and the result of Cain's jealousy is violence. The bible's first death, it is the fundamental lesson that killing your fellow man is inherently wrong. However, it also displays the initial separation between these two ways of life which remained a problem throughout history.
At this point we may sit back and notice that Genesis has been mainly composed of two basic dualities. In the beginning there is a pure formless chaos, followed by the perfect order which God creates. Then the smallest inkling of a return to chaos with The Fall, followed by another reordering of the world once again. There is another shake up with Abel's death, and God's intervention once again makes things right. Yet, which each subsequent event, we watch as the presence of God is slowly removed from the lives of his creations. God, once a passing visitor in the Garden of Eden, now is a mere distant figure who appears to have slowly faded. It is not surprising that after many generations had lived and died that man might have forgotten about their creator, and that he might feel compelled to act.
The story of the deluge is not only a warning to mankind about what might occur if God's laws are not properly respected, but also of a reunification with that lost parental figure. Noah and his family will be saved for he alone has not succumbed to the evils that walk hand in hand with culture and society. Not wishing to completely destroy his work, God commands Noah to build an ark with which he save enough of the animals of the world to repopulate it when the coming flood recedes. The flood is a return to the primal chaos which existed before the world was created, blemished only by Noah's ark. The cycle of Order and Chaos continues.
Shortly after the biblical flood waters disappeared from the face of the Earth, and life flourished on its face once more, God reflected on what he had done. "I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done." The union between God and man is once again renewed as Noah and his descendants face another ordered world in which man is the flawed master. Forever carrying the burden of Adam and Eve's Fall they finally seem to enter a world in which a reality without God's intervention is possible. Man is, as God says, evil inherently. Because of his removal from Godís presence, his separation from nature, his connection to the chaos which God made into order, mankind is now flawed by his own doing.
And God himself somewhat removes himself from the lives of men. He acts in an indirect manner from this point on, letting his will be known through signs, miracles, disasters and dreams. Man is slowly becoming independent of their Lord, having to rely on their own actions to carry out God's will. This independence of man even leads to occasional acts against God, such as the construction of the Tower Of Babel in defiance of the Lordís mightiness.
The parental figures of the bible shift towards the patriarchs such as Noah and Abraham. These men now hand out the curses which separate mankind from each other. Ham's punishment, for example, for having seen Noah naked in his tent once again shakes up the new order into another chaos in which the sons of Noah spread out across the ancient world. The authors of Genesis at this point seem to pick up on specific details of the lives of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph. We are concerned less with the acts of God than we are with the actions of these men and their families.
The question which we might ask ourselves at this point is: Why do we continue to separate ourselves from our parents, from those who showed us the way into the real world? Is it because there is some force in human nature that instills in us a wanderlust which drags us away from our families and home? Or is it because we choose to give up the simpler pleasures of life in exchange for the knowledge we receive from living in the "real world?" The ancient writers of the old testament would seem to argue that man basically has no choice in the matter, that it was merely the whim of God that they might one day exist as we do now. They would say that we were destined to be separated from God and one another. I on the other hand, would disagree. To stay with my parents in my comfortable home would be to forever remain a child in the Garden of Eden. The outside world, despite its many hurts, will also enrich my experience of life. If Genesis teaches us anything it is that to be human is to constantly strive for something beyond that which we know, to reach beyond ourselves.
In Frank Herbert's Dune, the Duke Leto Atrietes warns that: "Without change something sleeps inside, and seldom awakens."
"The sleeper must awaken."
Monday, August 12, 1996
The Quest For Origins
When ancient humans looked up at the sky and started asking what we consider to be some of the most fundamental questions that mankind has asked throughout history, it is important to understand that the answers they supplied came from somewhere within the human consciousness. The myths and legends which explained where our world came from did not merely come into being, they were thought up by human beings, people perhaps no different from you or I. Take away my education and knowledge of science and I also might take as unquestionable that the world was made when a great giant was killed and his body became the earth that I live on.
But myths are inventions of humans, and while they might give us simple answers to complex questions, they are also the building blocks of human experience. They taught their cultures how to exist in their own lives. Take the bible's example, showing us that we are basically unable to trust even those whom we love the most, for will not temptation lead Eve and Adam to taste of something forbidden? Is the message merely that it is our constant yearning for something which has been denied to us that makes us discontent, that has forever expelled us from our own personal Garden of Eden? And does it not also say that when we have finally achieved the object of our desires that it is not what we expected at all?
Greek myths teach us a different lesson. The young will always rebel and overthrow the old, yet it is their curse that they shall be overthrown by their own children, and so forth until the end of time. This is displayed in the fall of Father Sky by his son the Titan Cronos, and Cronos' usurpation by Zeus. It also bespeaks of the danger of revenge, for there will always be further sons and brothers to revenge the death of a family member, and thus no side can ever truly win a dispute by attempting to settle the score.
There will always be myths of a sort, though we may now see them as movies, novels, comic books and so forth. I do not believe that we will ever lack mythology, but rather I wonder if the messages we are being taught are not the right ones. Is our world, and our country in particular, losing meaningful mythology? What is our new creation tale? Not one of men, or their times, but of the great unfeeling Big Bang. A great and majestic universe with nothing behind it but a great sense of uncertainty and random whim. Man cries out into the darkness, looking for meaning and light, and is answered merely by the sound of his own breath. What does this teach us about ourselves? Merely that we are alone and without purpose?
We need Origins to give us a sense of direction, to know how we stand. For if we do not know that, what difference does the rest make?
But myths are inventions of humans, and while they might give us simple answers to complex questions, they are also the building blocks of human experience. They taught their cultures how to exist in their own lives. Take the bible's example, showing us that we are basically unable to trust even those whom we love the most, for will not temptation lead Eve and Adam to taste of something forbidden? Is the message merely that it is our constant yearning for something which has been denied to us that makes us discontent, that has forever expelled us from our own personal Garden of Eden? And does it not also say that when we have finally achieved the object of our desires that it is not what we expected at all?
Greek myths teach us a different lesson. The young will always rebel and overthrow the old, yet it is their curse that they shall be overthrown by their own children, and so forth until the end of time. This is displayed in the fall of Father Sky by his son the Titan Cronos, and Cronos' usurpation by Zeus. It also bespeaks of the danger of revenge, for there will always be further sons and brothers to revenge the death of a family member, and thus no side can ever truly win a dispute by attempting to settle the score.
There will always be myths of a sort, though we may now see them as movies, novels, comic books and so forth. I do not believe that we will ever lack mythology, but rather I wonder if the messages we are being taught are not the right ones. Is our world, and our country in particular, losing meaningful mythology? What is our new creation tale? Not one of men, or their times, but of the great unfeeling Big Bang. A great and majestic universe with nothing behind it but a great sense of uncertainty and random whim. Man cries out into the darkness, looking for meaning and light, and is answered merely by the sound of his own breath. What does this teach us about ourselves? Merely that we are alone and without purpose?
We need Origins to give us a sense of direction, to know how we stand. For if we do not know that, what difference does the rest make?
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