Care for a drink?

SUMMARY: Vampires have permeated our myths for thousands of years. Today, these demons are portrayed as glamorous beings starring in major film, such as the recent cult film Twilight. But vampire legends date back over 4,000 years. The earliest account of these creatures of the night derives from Mesopotamia. Lamatsu was a serpent demon who reportedly stole children from their homes and devoured them. Lamatsu was also responsible for infants who were found dead in their cradles. Lamatsu was one of the variations of Lilith, who you can read more about in my post "In The Beginning, there was Lilith". But Lamatsu was not alone. Vampire-like monsters have existed in almost every culture, from China to Eastern Europe. Even Mexico has the legend of the Chupacabra, a demon who feeds on the blood of goats every night! There are countless vampire stereotypes, most of which have no connection to the true vampire myths. For instance, the notion about sunlight being deadly to vampires is only about 400 years old. And this myth predates the major use of the Crucifix by 2,000 years, so it obviously has no effect on vampires.
     This video addresses the interesting matter of the scientific background of vampires. Scientists believe that vampires do not exist due to the theory of exponential growth (The authors argue that with vampires feeding on people who turn into vampires who are feeding on people who turn into vampires that it will only take 3 years for everyone on Earth to become a vampire). This, however, does not mean that vampires are completely fictional. Porphyria, for example, is a rare disease that has sunlight cause enzymes to be released in your body, enzymes which cause rapid skin cell deterioration. The video also addresses a recent vampire movement, saying that there are thousands of people around the world who believe themselves vampires, feeding on anything from human blood to psychic energies.

ANALYSIS: Vampires are one of the oldest myths around the world. They have roots in cultures on almost every continent, and have scientific explanations. Today, people believe themselves vampires, and vampires have become a mere shadow of their once omnipotent demonic selves.

REFLECTON QUESTION: Do vampires exist, or could they? How is it possible that there were myths of vampires in the Americas, Eurasia, Africa, AND Australia thousands of years before they all had contact?

CITATION: Galaxy Garden (2010, August 18). Real Vampires are All Around You! The Truth about Psychic Energy Suckers. Retrieved March 11, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIgzc_jrzTM&feature=related 

Mother Dearest

SUMMARY: "Most of us sense that the Earth is more than a sphere of rock with a thin layer of air, ocean, and life covering the surface. We feel that we belong here, as if this planet were indeed our home. Long ago, the Greeks, thinking this way, gave to the Earth the name of Gaia."--James Lovelock, THE AGES OF GAIA.

     Earth. Many believe it to be the sole location of life in the Universe. It used to be thought of as the center of creation. Ancient civilizations worshipped its very existence, even creating the Earth Goddess, Gaia, to represent all of Earths eternal glory. But Gaia is not the typical portrayal of sweet Mother Nature. She is the omnipotent Mother Goddess, and a real dura mater to boot. According to Greek Mythology, she was responsible for her husband Uranus' demise, and did this by pressuring her son Kronos to destroy him. She was the first Goddess to rise out of Khaos (the time before creation), and sleeps until she can return the world to its void.
     That is not to say, however, that Gaia was viewed as an evil goddess. On the contrary, she was revered and spanned more cultures than almost any other deity.


Stautes of Gaia such as this one were very common around the ancient world. Image from the Elohim Centre

     Followers of the Gaia Hypothesis believe that Earth is indeed a living, breathing organism, as can be seen in this quote:

      " All the entities [of the Earth] interact as a whole,
like organelles in a cell. Only when [the scientist]
separates them or observes them individually for a short
time, do they assume different properties including life and
death. Long term, in congress, the entities appear to sense
and communicate, thereby sustaining the optimum environment
for their cell's life. (Cohen, HOW NATURE WORKS, p. 78.)

Biologist and author Lewis Thomas (THE LIVES OF A CELL) suggests that the atmosphere is the Earth cell's membrane wall as it regulates precise amounts of energy capture, storage, and release.

Life means holding out against equilibrium--banking against entropy by using membranes. The Earth has its own membrane, the atmosphere, to constrain the effects of the sun. In Lovelock's words,

The biota--the sum of all living things, including
plants, animals, and micro-organisms--not only profoundly
affects the Earth's environment, but acts to maintain and
enhance life on the planet. (GAIA: A NEW LOOK AT LIFE) "

ANALYSIS:  We are learning that Gaia may be resilient, but we also see that we are changing nature, permanently. Increasingly, acts of nature are not "acts of God," but of humanity--or, we might say, in-humanity. Nature is no longer an independent and autonomous force, and it's no longer true that "everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." We are, in fact, doing much about it; for instance, recent storms which have ripped into the Caribbean and southeastern U.S. coasts, and across Asian islands and continents, are increasing in intensity as a direct result of the oceans' warming. As the band of warm water in which such storms incubate widens and deepens, the size of the storms increases, and the power of the wind increases geometrically. It is probably not coincidence but rather human intervention which has brought us, in the last 15 years many of the most destructive tropical storms ever recorded.

REFLECTION QUESTION: Do you believe that Earth is a living creature? Do you believe that it deserves to be treated like one, and do you believe we currently are?

CITATION:

Beversluis, Joel. "The Gaia Hypothesis." A SourceBook for Earth's Community of Religion. 1995: 212-214. SIRS Renaissance. Web. 04 Mar 2012.



Creatures of the Deep

          SUMMARY:To continue on with a theme of worldwide myth, I must look at the world itself. Earth's surface is more than 70% covered in water. All major civilizations had some form of contact with a large body of water. It was seen as the key to life. It's sheer size, and mysterious properties, contributed to the fact that water was regarded as an extremely magical substance, and home to many magical creatures. Mermaids and sea serpents dominated many a sailors tales. Even today, sightings of "Nessie" in Loch Ness , "Tessie" in Lake Tahoe and "Champy" in Lake Champlain are regular occurances. But where did these myths come from?

                                                                             

     "Imagine that you're an uneducated sailor aboard a creaking wooden sailing ship in mid-ocean. You're on watch when, suddenly--what's that!? Off the starboard bow, you see a huge thing leap into the air and crash back into the water. You've never seen a whale breach before. You're startled and scared. How do you describe what you saw? It's easy to understand how such a sight could grow into a tale about a monster. Scientists think that the bowhead whale was behind a lot of 'sea monster' sightings. The whale grows to be 60 feet long. Its strangely shaped mouth has hundreds of long, thin plates called baleen. (It uses the baleen to strain tiny animals out of the seawater for food.) As European sailors searched for a sea route across northern Canada, they encountered the Arctic-dwelling bowhead and mistook it for a monster." (Lanier '98)
     The mermaid myth has been around since Greek times. Many sailors even EXPECTED to see the creatures. So when they saw the dugong, relatives of manatees, in the distance, they did not question the stories. Dugong are slow- moving and gentle, with rounded bodies and notched tails that resemble "mermaid" tails.
        But that still leaves us with modern-day legends like Nessie. Many people think Nessie is a pleiosaur, a long-extinct sea-dwelling reptile. Could a dinosaur survive in the 23-mile- long, 700-foot-deep Loch Ness? This can only be determined by future investigation.

          ANALYSIS: There are many fantastical and extraordinary creatures residing within our waters. Whether they are magical, we may never know. But we can't give up hope. Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the globe. Of that, only about 5 percent has been explored. Who knows legendary beings reside in its depths?

          REFLECTION QUESTION: Dr. Stuart Vyse, professor of psychology at Connecticut College in New London, says "Humans are good at making things up. People like telling stories!" He uses this to explain how these myths originate. Do you think that humans are prone to convincing themselves false truths for the sake of imagination?

          CITATION: Lanier, Kristina. "Legends of the Sea." Christian Science Monitor. Sept. 8 1998: n.p. SIRS Renaissance. Web. 26 Feb 2012.

In The Beginning, there was Lilith

         If I truly am to look at relations between myths, what is a better place to start than the beginning? After all, myths have been around for thousands of years. And there is one myth, 4,000 years old, that many people still believe today. The myth of the demon seductress, Lilith.



Lilith - John Collier, 1887 

                                                                            

         One could wonder why I am starting with this myth. There are two answers. One, most people reading this are familiar with the tale of Adam and Eve, in which Lilith makes an appearance. Having prior knowledge of a subject will increase your interest. And two, every culture has had a version of this evil witch.
          The poem "Lilith" by Dante Rossetti,1868, refers to her as the beautiful, yet evil, witch Adam was married to before Eve. This is how many people remember her today.But we must look to her origns. The earliest surviving mention of Lilith's name appears in Gilgamesh and the Huluppu-Tree, a Sumerian epic poem found on a tablet at Ur and dating from approximately 2000 B.C.E. In one episode, "after heaven and earth had separated and man had been created," Gilgamesh rushes to assist Inanna, goddess of love and war. In her garden near the Euphrates River, Inanna lovingly tends a willow tree. However, Inanna's plans are nearly thwarted, however, when three demons possess the tree. One of them is Lilith: "Inanna, to her chagrin, found herself unable to realize her hopes. For in the meantime a dragon had set up its nest at the base of the tree, the Zu-bird had placed his young in its crown, and in its midst the demoness Lilith had built her house." Amulets and incantations were used to counter the dark powers of this spirit who preyed on pregnant women and infants.
          Lilith next migrated to the world of the ancient Hittites, Egyptians, Israelites and Greeks. She makes a solitary appearance in the Bible, as a wilderness demon shunned by the prophet Isaiah. In the Renaissance, Michelangelo portrayed Lilith as a half-woman, half-serpent, coiled around the Tree of Knowledge. Today, feminists celebrate her bold struggle for independence from Adam. This overview of literary and religious interpretations of the Lilith figure traces "her journey from Babylonian mythology, through the Bible, to medieval lore and modern literature.", and makes her an ideal figure to start the journey of mythological connections.

          ANALYSIS: Lilith was a figure created to represent chaos, seduction and ungodliness. Her feud with Adam shows the neverending battle of the sexes. These immortal values caried her form through millenia, whether it was winged or scaled.

          REFLECTION QUESTION: Why was the message of chaos and seduction so important to have the exact same entity, down to the name Lilith itself, last for over 4,000 years?

For more information you can read http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SFL2086-0-4692&artno=0000144364&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=Mythology&title=Lilith%3A%20Seductress%2C%20Heroine%20or%20Murderer%3F&res=N&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=Y&ic=N#citation.

CITATION: Gaines, Janet Howe. "Lilith: Seductress, Heroine or Murderer?." Bible Review. Oct. 2001: 12+. SIRS Renaissance. Web. 18 Feb 2012.

The Ancient Tales...

• I chose the topic of mythology because it truly is the foundation of all worldly beliefs, and the heart of all good stories. Who knows? Perhaps there's some truth to them after all! 

• The essential question that I will try to answer through this blog is: "Why do some myths relate to myths from completely different time periods and/or regions?"