The functions of mythology are to:
1. Reconcile the consciousness to the realities (and horrors) of life
2. Present an image of the cosmos that explains our experiences
3. Validate and maintain a certain sociological system
4. Psychologically carry us through the stages of life, from birth to maturity to senility and death.
There are 3 orders of mythology:
1. Affirmative: They embrace life on its own terms (early mythologies)
2. Negative: They renounce reality and seek escape, (e.g. Jainism around 8 BC)
3. Ameliorative: They seek to reshape life in the desired image, (starting with Zoroastrianism in 11 BC) - "You affirm the world on condition that it follows your notion of what the world should be."
Unlike all other creatures, humans are born too soon, and go through a very long period (15-20 years) of dependency. We are conditioned from birth to be dependent on authority, and have automatic responses that seek authority. However, at a certain point, society requires us to become responsible, to grow up in a hurry. In primitive societies, puberty rites effect a powerful psychological transformation that stamps the individual into the mold of society. In contrast, modern Western society seeks to develop critical thinking individuals.
A person who is torn between the attitudes of dependency and responsibility is a neurotic.
The old Indian ritual of the wife throwing herself on her husband's funeral pyre is called sati, from the Sanskrit word sat, "to be". A woman performing this act is affirming her identity as a wife, in the context of her society. Those who disobey are known as asat, a "no thing". This view is precisely the opposite in the West, where someone who only lives by authority is called a square, "nobody there".
Ancient societies handle aging and senility by granting elders the position of wise advisers. This worked because their world changed slowly, in contrast to the modern world.
Barnum and Bailey's Circus once had a problem of people not wanting to leave the freak show tent, so they simply changed the exit sign to say "To the Grand Egress", which everyone went for.
Myths are like the kangaroo's pouch to our psyches, a second womb, that carries us through birth to maturity. Modern rational thinking has shredded this pouch, removing our psychological protection.
Myths are "other people's religion", and religion is misunderstood mythology. The misunderstanding comes from trying to interpret mythological symbols as historic facts.
Freud saw sex as the main driving force in people, whereas Alfred Adler believed it is the will to power. Jung integrated these two ideas and says we have both introverted (power) and extroverted (sex) drives.
When a person's primary drive fails or is insufficient, they have to depend on the secondary drive. Jung calls this reversal enantiodromia (running in the opposite direction).
If you lost everything, what would keep you going?
Maslow's five values (survival, security, personal relationships, prestige, and self development) are the values for which people live when they have nothing [greater] to live for. Nothing has seized them, nothing has caught them. They are bores.
"A bore is one who deprives us of our solitude without providing companionship." -- Ortega y Gasset.
Two things pull people together: Aspiration and terror.
A ritual is the dramatic or visual representation of a myth. You engage in the myth by participating, provided that you are caught up in the image.
Images don't "mean" anything, they just are. They talk to some kernel in you that just is.
On the Nagasaki memorial: That which you think happened to you, you brought about. That which you did to others, happened to you.
Birth into the world is crucifiction of the spirit, and thecrucifiction of the body releases the spirit back into eternity.