“I’ve come to the conclusion that mythology is really a form of archaeological psychology. Mythology gives you a sense of what a people believes, what they fear.” -George Lucas
I’m still over here trying to figure out what I believe. Once you really start thinking about it, everything begins to become a question. And maybe that’s the point: to keep asking, to keep searching. Well, I haven’t stopped. I have had to learn to pace myself, though. I learned that it is the search that’s the fun part and we don’t need to know everything now. It’s developing a deep and profound internal relationship that others may never understand. The thing is that when you take your time, you don’t really need everyone to understand. I guess that’s what I believe.
Mythology is interesting like that. It tells us a story, and as individuals we get to decide whether that story will strike our fear or our curiosity. We can add it to our belief system. Heck, we can put it aside for later when we may understand it better. Or we can completely ignore it altogether. Which leads me to the following questions.
Could we really look at a myth as a guide to a people’s inner workings? I think we could use mythology as a guide to a group of people’s beliefs. On an individual level, not so much. Myths become so commonplace among groups that people don’t know why they choose the behaviors they choose anymore. Their mom taught them, and their mom taught her, and so on. That’s just the way they do things. This causes the disconnect on an individual level. At the same time, I do believe myths can guide us to the workings of a group of people without taking each individual psyche into account. If we looked at it as a collective fear, a collective desire, or maybe even a universal idea, yes, I’d totally agree.
What do you think?
Jayne.press 