Author: Luke

Mythic Lecture

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It’s rare for an hour-long academic lecture to capture my attention and hold me mesmerized till the very end.  But such is the case repeatedly when watching Joseph Campbell’s Mythos lecture series, filmed between 1982 and 1985.  The series originally aired on PBS in the mid-90s under the title “Transformations of Myth Through Time” which was also published in book form.  Many Americans are familiar with the PBS series Campbell did with Bill Moyers in the late 1980s called The Power of Myth, but the Mythos series is longer and contains significantly more detail concerning world mythology.

In Mythos, Campbell delivers a primer for approaching all of the world’s major mythologies.  There are a total of 15 lectures, broken into 3 parts.  In part 1, Campbell begins with a definition of myth and its relationship to human psychology – especially dream – and society.  He delivers a very detailed interpretation of a Navajo story through its mythic symbolism as well as the familiar story of Isis and Osiris.  Part 1 ends with an explanation of the symbolism attached to the ancient Greek Mystery Schools.

Part II is dedicated entirely to the mythic systems of the Orient.  The lectures selected here focus primarily on Buddhist and Hindu mythic symbol including a detailed discussion of Kundalini yoga and the Tibetan Book of the Dead.  Campbell clarifies the timeline for the development of these two major traditions.  He also relates a metaphor passed on to him by Heinrich Zimmer from many years prior explaining the difference between Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism – a distinction commonly overlooked or misunderstood.

Part III moves into Medieval and contemporary mythology in the West.  Campbell discusses the Arthurian romance of Tristan and Isolde and presents an illuminating and fascinating interpretation of Parzival and the Grail, stemming from the work of Wolfram von Eschenbach.  Campbell stresses the significance of the grail stories as the synthesis of an authentic European worldview with its emphasis on individuality with the deeply legalistic and authoritarian Roman Christian overlay.  What was produced as a result of this mixture was the symbol of the Grail as the highest individual achievement – achieved by choosing to listen to the inner authentic voice rather than conforming to social propriety.  Part III ends with lectures on the bridging of eastern and western symbolism through the writings of men like Schopenhauer as well as discussions on the modern mythographers Thomas Mann and James Joyce.

Throughout the series, Campbell reiterates that the images being presented at one time and one location through the costumes of one culture’s unique art, architecture, and story are symbolic of that which all cultures at all times share.  This common reference is the mystery that can’t be fully explained by any set of symbols.  The symbols can only refer to a Reality that is beyond words and thoughts.

The Dimensions of Paradise

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Dimensions of paradise

It’s unfortunate that in recent years the ‘Da Vinci Code phenomenon’ has sensationalized and thereby trivialized the reality of multiple levels of information in ancient texts.  Such levels exist.  But they are not the sensationalized “code” of national bestsellers or Hollywood scripts.  The Dimensions of Paradise by John Michell is a work about the underlying information in the biblical book of Revelation, specifically the 21st chapter and the measurements of The New Jerusalem.  It follows along lines of ancient cosmology and language, not modern superstitions about the end of the world.

Unlike the mistaken way most interpreters grapple with Revelation, i.e. as if it were written to foretell the future, Michell approaches the text with something of the mind of the ancient Hellenistic world.  As a student of Platonic philosophy and the religious spirit of that time, he doesn’t make the mistake of reading a text concerned with eternal principles as if it were concerned with mere historical prediction.  He doesn’t approach the text as if it were written for the modern mind.

Michell’s interpretation of the symbols in Revelation begins with the ancient alpha-numeric science called “gematria.”  Many ancient languages, including the Greek in which Revelation is written, contain alphabets whose characters function not only as phonetic symbol, but numeric value as well.  In Greek, for example, there is no separate system of numeration.  If an ancient Greek writer wanted to short-hand a numeric value, he would string together a group of appropriate letters.  Because of this phenomenon then, every word in the language equates to a number value.  This word-number correlation gave rise to a system of encoding information through names, words, and phrases in a text that isn’t visible through the surface story, and is lost entirely in translation.  Michell understands this ancient method and uses it to unravel key information from the text.  He explains each step as he goes along.

Michell’s major contention is that the measurements of the New Jerusalem reflect a standard set of dimensions applied to numerous physical sites around the world, such as Stonehenge, as well as other mythical sites such as Plato’s imagined city of Magnesia.  This standard set of dimensions he terms the “Greek number canon.”  He dedicates an entire chapter to the major numbers of this canon and what they symbolize.  This canonization of number and proportion was intended to radiate into every aspect of society: art, education, architecture, and law.  If followed without deviation, civilization could expect continued health and prosperity.

This book will be more enjoyable for English readers who can read some ancient Greek.  It’s not written exclusively for those folks, however, as Michell translates the Greek words and phrase appearing in his book.  It’s written for anyone interested in the subjects of ancient cosmology, Greek number science, and biblical symbolism.

Unmasking Egyptian Religion

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The Kemetic Tree of Life

My fascination with ancient Egypt goes back as far as I can remember.  Sculpture, temple ruins, pyramids, animal headed gods, and walls filled with hieroglyphs have always remained a fascination.  But it’s been my experience that most books on ancient Egypt scratch only a little below the surface of its cultural remains or long-held conventional conclusions.

The Kemetic Tree of Life is for the serious seeker after the symbolism and mysticism of ancient Egypt.  It is an exploration of the oldest of the several major religious systems to come out of ancient Egyptian culture.  These several systems were in no way opposed to each other.  Rather, each one focused on a different aspect of the Egyptians’ concept of Immanent Reality.  The Kemetic Tree discusses the tradition that arose in the city of Anu, or the “Anunian Theurgy.”

“Kemetic” is an anglicized form of the ancient Egyptians’ term for their own country, the land of Khem.

Popular nonfiction works on ancient Egypt tend to be academically guarded and unwilling to offer conclusive specifics concerning Egypt’s spiritual systems, or they talk about Egyptian spirituality with constant reminders – subtle or otherwise – about its superstitious and primitive nature.  The latter is simply modern arrogance.  Dr. Ashby’s depth is refreshingly different.  He doesn’t approach the remnants of ancient Egypt as an academic, but as a practitioner of its spiritual science.  He appears to have a command of hieroglyphic symbol and the ancient Egyptian language.  His text incorporates approximations of the Egyptian vocabulary – key words and phrases relevant to an understanding of the Anunian Theurgy specifically and Egyptian spirituality generally.  I had to start a file to keep them straight.  In this way, his book parallels many Western works on Eastern philosophy and religion, e.g. Hinduism, where ancient Sanskrit terms are incorporated throughout.  He also does not use the classic Hellenized names for Egypt’s gods – Osiris, Isis, Horus, Anubis, etc., but instead retains the Egyptian approximations – Asar, Aset, Heru, Anpu, etc.  The Kemetic Tree also includes many figures of hieroglyphic images and mythological scenes.  Essentially, the book is intended to initiate the reader into living this spiritual science.  Its chapters include lectures, questions and answers, and sections to promote meditative journaling.

A drawback to the text is that it’s poorly proofread, if at all.  The author writes in a very conversational style which often sets an enjoyable pace for reading.  But it lends itself to run-on sentences, strange phrasings, and numerous grammatical errors that can grind that enjoyable pace to a halt.  Since Dr. Ashby is in something of a class by himself in presenting such profound and sophisticated teachings in an easily readable and digestible way, I wish the text’s final grammatical form were in pristine condition.  It would make The Kemetic Tree even more enjoyable.

Even though the style of writing is non-academic, as a seeker I enjoy seeing sources for the information presented, especially when an author makes claims and presents information very few others have offered.  The information Ashby presents is in no way outlandish, although it may certainly seem so to someone reading him without the proper background in ancient religious systems and symbols – the very different mentality of antiquity relative to the present day.  But nonetheless, the boldness and intricacy of Ashby’s statements seems to demand numerous and varied sources for credibility.  Unfortunately, he does not offer many sources outside his own writings.  He’s written prolifically; and The Kemetic Tree is not the first book he’s written.  Perhaps sources outside his own research and intuitive recognition are given in some of his other works.