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[ I hope this meta makes sense...the words they are sticking like gum in the brain tonight. Also a lot of the upfront info is from memory, I may be off factually in some places - it's been a while since I studied this stuff. ]
Back in the 1980s, when I was studying mythology, specifically ancient mythology - specifically the mythology of ancient cultures, many that dated long before Hebrew or Christian religions, such as Mesopotamian and Babylonian, as well as Egyptian and Greek and Hebrew...I stumbled upon an emerging pattern - which astonished me at the time. Not so much now. What I discovered is a recurring thematic in all our stories, whether they be a literary work of art such as James Joyce's Ulysess or Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Electra, or a cult modern story such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A theme about fathers, sons, and mothers...and the often neglected daughter that lies at the center of many religious mythologies and theologies as well as our folk tales, fairy tales, and oral narratives, that is so deeply rooted in our collective consciousness that when it is tweaked we often will react to it, often with irrational passion, and without realizing it.
In the ancient Druidic tradition, practiced in pre-Christian Ireland, England, France, and a good portion of Northen Europe, which at that time was inhabited by the Celts - before William the Conqueror, and prior to Julius Cesear - the religion was focused on the Goddess, or Mother, the earth, with the Moon her consort. This religion was actually fairly monothesist in that there was one god or rather goddess, Mab, and she had consorts. This may explain why it was easier to merge the Celtic Pagan Tradition with the Roman Christian Tradition.
Northern Europe was tree lined, and water ridden, with primeval forests, and mountains, deep valleys, glaciers, and pits. The moon ruled the tides. Water flooded land. The Sun was a friend, yet rarely seen, since the sky darkened early, and stayed dark long, and the primeval forest blocked it out. And the oceans separated regions. Earth was God, not sky. The life-giver and devourer. She had a mouth and it had teeth. If you didn't give her your blood, she would not provide you with her life. Yet she was beautiful in her bounty, spurting forth flowers and fruit if you loved her. The ancients, much like we do today, had their rituals. Which an outsider may well view as barbarbic. But in most cases...they were no different the rituals we practice now, mere pagentry, not actual. At least not in most cases. Humans weren't really sacrificed. Any more than Christians really eat the body and blood.
The Mabinogi Legends of Wales, as well as the Arthurian Tradition (which is actually part of those legends, by the way) - speak of these rituals. Fantasy writers, Guy Gaverial Kay wrote about them in The Fionavar Tapestry, as did Pamela Dean in Tam Lin, and of course, Hans Christian Anderson in the marvelous fairy tale entitled The Snow Queen - about a girl traveling to the snowy reaches of the North to save her beloved friend from the Winter Queen who whisked him away. Each is a tale about the devoted son and his lover/mother, with the unknowable father far above, and the maid/sister coming to rescue him or dying with him, their love magic bringing forth a new year on earth. How he dies as they mate. In the Snow Queen - she whisks him away to her cold dark realm, and he is rescued by her daughter, Summer. For the Celt tradition - the mother had many aspects, she was the maid, the mother, the crone. And in stories from The Iron Dragon's Daughter to Keat's Collected Fairy Tales...this strange dance is replayed.
But that is only one side of the mythos, the part that comes from the places of the moon, where the desert is made of water, and the blood moon rules its tides. The sun in contrast providing nothing but warmth and comfort, the earth sanctuary from the water's monsterous moods. The other part of the mythos...comes from the lands of the sun, where the desert is made of earth and sand, and water is a comfort that few can find, the moon a calming eddy. In the lands of the sun, God is the sky. Always visible and merciless. Providing searing heat, and at times cooling rain. Here God is male, not female. And his fury is felt with dust storms, and wind, and lightening. In the places of olive trees, sand, and sun - it is the unknowable, unseen, yet always watching father Sun that rules the day.
In these lands, the mythos that rose up, is not unsimilar to the places of the moon. The son still sacrifices himself to save the land, to save the people. But he is sent by the father, who impregnates a human mother, who gives birth to a son, who is summarily killed by his own people...to save the world. We see this happening in Egyptian myth with Osiris. And in Greek with Hercules, the son of Zeus and the daughter of a human mother that Zeus impregnated. We see it in Roman and in the land of the Hebrews - with Abraham sacrificing Jacob, or the Prophet Jesus. And we finally see it in Christianity with the tale of Jesus who is born of Mary, and dies brutally on the cross, crucified, by the people he wishes to save. (Please do not misunderstand. I'm not saying that story of Jesus is not true or that I do not believe in it, necessarily, I'm just saying it is striking that it is a story that has in other ways, been told before. Or rather a portion of it has. That does not mean it is any less true. Just because the story has been told in another way, by another person, in the distant past. Doesn't mean it can't be true or is invalid.)
In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Joss Whedon plays with the same mythos. The son, the mother, the daughter, the unknowable father. It's perhaps the most universal of themes and therefor the most effective. We all have parents after all. And as a result of that fact, we all have mommy and daddy issues. It is the one thing that we have in common. Some of us may have children. Some may have spouses. But everyone has parents. So as a result our stories sooner or later focus on them.
( The theme of the devoted son, the unknowable and unattainable father, and the mother/daughter in Buffy the Vampire Slayer - spoilers for the comics and the tv series. )
Back in the 1980s, when I was studying mythology, specifically ancient mythology - specifically the mythology of ancient cultures, many that dated long before Hebrew or Christian religions, such as Mesopotamian and Babylonian, as well as Egyptian and Greek and Hebrew...I stumbled upon an emerging pattern - which astonished me at the time. Not so much now. What I discovered is a recurring thematic in all our stories, whether they be a literary work of art such as James Joyce's Ulysess or Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Electra, or a cult modern story such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A theme about fathers, sons, and mothers...and the often neglected daughter that lies at the center of many religious mythologies and theologies as well as our folk tales, fairy tales, and oral narratives, that is so deeply rooted in our collective consciousness that when it is tweaked we often will react to it, often with irrational passion, and without realizing it.
In the ancient Druidic tradition, practiced in pre-Christian Ireland, England, France, and a good portion of Northen Europe, which at that time was inhabited by the Celts - before William the Conqueror, and prior to Julius Cesear - the religion was focused on the Goddess, or Mother, the earth, with the Moon her consort. This religion was actually fairly monothesist in that there was one god or rather goddess, Mab, and she had consorts. This may explain why it was easier to merge the Celtic Pagan Tradition with the Roman Christian Tradition.
Northern Europe was tree lined, and water ridden, with primeval forests, and mountains, deep valleys, glaciers, and pits. The moon ruled the tides. Water flooded land. The Sun was a friend, yet rarely seen, since the sky darkened early, and stayed dark long, and the primeval forest blocked it out. And the oceans separated regions. Earth was God, not sky. The life-giver and devourer. She had a mouth and it had teeth. If you didn't give her your blood, she would not provide you with her life. Yet she was beautiful in her bounty, spurting forth flowers and fruit if you loved her. The ancients, much like we do today, had their rituals. Which an outsider may well view as barbarbic. But in most cases...they were no different the rituals we practice now, mere pagentry, not actual. At least not in most cases. Humans weren't really sacrificed. Any more than Christians really eat the body and blood.
The Mabinogi Legends of Wales, as well as the Arthurian Tradition (which is actually part of those legends, by the way) - speak of these rituals. Fantasy writers, Guy Gaverial Kay wrote about them in The Fionavar Tapestry, as did Pamela Dean in Tam Lin, and of course, Hans Christian Anderson in the marvelous fairy tale entitled The Snow Queen - about a girl traveling to the snowy reaches of the North to save her beloved friend from the Winter Queen who whisked him away. Each is a tale about the devoted son and his lover/mother, with the unknowable father far above, and the maid/sister coming to rescue him or dying with him, their love magic bringing forth a new year on earth. How he dies as they mate. In the Snow Queen - she whisks him away to her cold dark realm, and he is rescued by her daughter, Summer. For the Celt tradition - the mother had many aspects, she was the maid, the mother, the crone. And in stories from The Iron Dragon's Daughter to Keat's Collected Fairy Tales...this strange dance is replayed.
But that is only one side of the mythos, the part that comes from the places of the moon, where the desert is made of water, and the blood moon rules its tides. The sun in contrast providing nothing but warmth and comfort, the earth sanctuary from the water's monsterous moods. The other part of the mythos...comes from the lands of the sun, where the desert is made of earth and sand, and water is a comfort that few can find, the moon a calming eddy. In the lands of the sun, God is the sky. Always visible and merciless. Providing searing heat, and at times cooling rain. Here God is male, not female. And his fury is felt with dust storms, and wind, and lightening. In the places of olive trees, sand, and sun - it is the unknowable, unseen, yet always watching father Sun that rules the day.
In these lands, the mythos that rose up, is not unsimilar to the places of the moon. The son still sacrifices himself to save the land, to save the people. But he is sent by the father, who impregnates a human mother, who gives birth to a son, who is summarily killed by his own people...to save the world. We see this happening in Egyptian myth with Osiris. And in Greek with Hercules, the son of Zeus and the daughter of a human mother that Zeus impregnated. We see it in Roman and in the land of the Hebrews - with Abraham sacrificing Jacob, or the Prophet Jesus. And we finally see it in Christianity with the tale of Jesus who is born of Mary, and dies brutally on the cross, crucified, by the people he wishes to save. (Please do not misunderstand. I'm not saying that story of Jesus is not true or that I do not believe in it, necessarily, I'm just saying it is striking that it is a story that has in other ways, been told before. Or rather a portion of it has. That does not mean it is any less true. Just because the story has been told in another way, by another person, in the distant past. Doesn't mean it can't be true or is invalid.)
In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Joss Whedon plays with the same mythos. The son, the mother, the daughter, the unknowable father. It's perhaps the most universal of themes and therefor the most effective. We all have parents after all. And as a result of that fact, we all have mommy and daddy issues. It is the one thing that we have in common. Some of us may have children. Some may have spouses. But everyone has parents. So as a result our stories sooner or later focus on them.
( The theme of the devoted son, the unknowable and unattainable father, and the mother/daughter in Buffy the Vampire Slayer - spoilers for the comics and the tv series. )
