Cosmos & Logos

Cosmos & Logos Journal of Myth, Religion, and Folklore Volume I, August 2015 C&L Press Academic Publishing Pleasant Grove, UT August 2015 Copyright ©2015, C&L Press Academic Publishing PO Box 634, Pleasant Grove, Utah 84062 ISBN-13: 978-0692492307 (C&L Press) ISBN-10: 0692492305 The individual authors of each essay contained within this journal retain copyright ownership of their respective work. Authors may be contacted through the web site www.cosmosandlogos.com. Any reproduction or distribution of any essay or portion of any essay without prior written permission from its author is strictly prohibited. Cover image by Lisa Brinkman Book design and Introduction by John K. Lundwall, PhD Editors: John Lundwall, Susan Paidhrin, Janet Bubar Rich Table of Contents Soul Bird ................................................................................................. iv Cover Image by Lisa Brinkman Introduction ............................................................................................ vi Resurrection and the Feminine Divine .................................................. 1 By John Knight Lundwall, PhD —This paper tracks the influence of the Mother Goddess from prehistoric times to the Christian era. Unlike other essays of the Goddess, this paper focuses on the heaven-earth relationships within the Goddess symbolism with special attention to the liturgical mysteries of Egypt, Greece, and early Christianity. The diminishment of the Goddess in modern religion is a product of complex, historical processes. Mary and the Midwives ........................................................................ 30 A Mother’s Love .................................................................................... 31 By Lynde Mott—“Mary and the Midwives” and “A Mother’s Love” are two modern artistic portrayals of the divine feminine. Mythic Threads: Art, Healing, and Magic in Bali .............................. 33 By Pam Bjork, PhD — Pam weaves connections through her passion for global cultures, love of the arts, story, and image. A former award- winning restaurateur, she holds a BFA in textile design from the University of Kansas, and an MA and PhD in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She exhibits her photography and textile collection in tandem with invited lectures to accompany the exhibitions. Poets Lie: Ovid as Bodhi-Trickster in The Metamorphosis ............... 49 By Anita Doyle—The Roman poet Ovid was a master of his craft and an incomparable storyteller. His role as a de-mythologizer and an entertaining slayer of sacred cows is also recognized and it is a role he exhibits nowhere more explicitly than in The Metamorphoses. The present essay examines the possibility that the narrative structure of that poem as a whole reveals a deep insight on Ovid’s part into the nature of mind and reality that may underlie the poet’s compulsion to topple the gods from their thrones. i Tolkien and Buddhist Influences: Thoughts and Perspectives ......... 60 By Brad Eden, PhD—Dr. Eden explores the unusual connections between Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Buddhism. While Christian imagery is normally addressed in Tolkien’s work, Dr. Eden suggests that Tolkien himself was influenced by Eastern philosophy and imparted some of this wisdom within his famous text. Anatomy of a Buddha ........................................................................... 75 Buddha Ganesh ..................................................................................... 78 By Lisa Brinkman—Stylized portrayals of the Buddha in multi- medium art. Music of the Gods and Noah and His Amazing Ark........................... 80 By Rev. Lynn Hubbard—These short reflections are an attempt to demonstrate the poetic nature of religious propositions. They will briefly examine the relationship between religion and language and suggest an aesthetic alternative to the tyranny of religious fundamentalism. Medusa Madness ................................................................................... 92 Janet Bubar Rich, PhD—This paper explores the ancient Greek gorgon Medusa and her impact on pop culture. In a quest to grasp who she is and her meaning for us today, it investigates how she weaves her way into the psyches of such luminaries as fashion-designer Versace and singer superstar Sir Elton John. A case is made that Medusa, the snake- haired gorgon from ancient Greece, lives on in our culture as she permeates our everyday lives. Alchemy’s Lunar Light ...................................................................... 104 Susan Paidhrin, PhD—Since the eighteenth-century, the solar spotlight has taken the form of scientific materialism, while the more intuitive ways of knowing have fallen into the lunar light. Alchemy is one such lunar system of consciousness. This essay outlines some of Alchemy’s contours showing its differences from the dominant paradigm’s linear and abstract view with an eye towards creating a model that brings a new synthesis of both. Woman Dreaming ............................................................................... 125 One Way to Ride ................................................................................. 126 ii The Message ......................................................................................... 127 Basket of Eggs ...................................................................................... 129 By Libby Hoagland—Mythological paintings exploring themes of myth, self, and soul through modern art. Flicker: Personal Reflections .............................................................. 130 By Libby Hoagland—An autobiographical reflection of art and life. Author Biographies ............................................................................. 136 iii Soul Bird 30" X 30", Oil on Canvas By Lisa Brinkman I have always felt that image making is fundamental to being human. Coming from a family that valued art and creativity, I have found the transformational nature of making art to be renewing and healing. To start, I am stimulated by whatever medium I am working with. There is a kind of alchemy in the creative process in which the materials and medium seem to dictate a response. Imagery then springs iv to my mind from a dream or perhaps symbolic themes I might observe in life. My art is inspired by a life-long fascination and study of archetypal images, symbols, and patterns. For example, ladders are a symbol I use often in my art to represent ascendency, a bridge between realms like the biblical Jacob’s ladder. “Soul Bird” is an oil painting that underwent many evolutions, morphing from red to blue, and involving much scraping and repainting. A supernatural world emerged representing the Venus-Sun occultation of 2012. Venus is shown as a mandala-like flower resonating into a garden witnessed by a central soul bird. v ✥ Introduction To start something new is one thing, but to start something worthy requires initiation into the mysterium tremendum. A revolution in thought is always the product of a revelation from mystery. There is absolutely no way to predict how such a revelation might come, for gnosis cannot be controlled, managed, or designed. One can only prepare an open mind and broken heart ready to receive. This takes moral courage and indomitable will, or, in other words, authentic discipleship. Here is the paradox of gnosis, for to be its disciple one’s courage and will cannot be oriented on the self. “Easy is the way” we are told in the Christian idiom, but only if one is willing to “take up one’s own cross.” In a world dominated by the ego, to take up one’s own cross is akin to cultural suicide. You might as well ask a person with no hands and feet to scale Mount Everest. An utterly impossible task, to be sure, unless this person is willing to be carried upon the hands and shoulders of a different kind of will. The ego will have none of it, and the history of the world has shown that instead of the transcendence inspired by the gnosis of individuation, those crippled of soul seek to scale a different mountain altogether, one they mount upon the backs of slaves, upon the profits of a connived commerce, or upon the taxes exacted from a grieved and wanton populace. In order to make this switch palatable, the ego must erase from the mind the very notion of an Everest to be climbed. Despite the towering mountain standing on the distant horizon, the ego-world seduces all vi with the potholes of power, popularity, glory, and wealth as the design of existence. In such a world, rhetoric replaces truth, fundamentalism replaces faith, power replaces principle, as the ego replaces the true self. The more grandiose the world carnival becomes in this regard, the greater a nervousness resonates throughout consciousness. Everywhere a spiritual listlessness pervades a free-for-all culture that worships the self at the expense of the soul. A deep-seated anxiety is the result, and we live in a very anxious age. There are times when gnosis reveals itself without being called. Perhaps there are nodal points in our conscious continuum where the fiat lux of life arises independent from the time line of the ego. There is a story, for example, that describes the very beginnings of ancient Rome. Its beginning was a product of a revelation, hand-delivered, to the last provincial king of the land. Tom Holland, in his readable interpretation Rubicon, begins his narrative of Rome by recounting this very old myth: In the beginning, before the Republic, Rome was ruled by

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