Were you ever taught about the symbols of mythology?

Question

For instance the Moon and the snake both represent the throwing off of the old to be born again. As the snake sheds it's skin and the Moon sheds it's light to bring on new life and new light. This is birth and death or relative reality, the never ending circle, also told as a picture or symbol as the snake with it's tail in it's mouth. There is so much more. *sip*

If you care to know more check out the many books written by Joseph Campbell. "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" might be a good book to start.

Answer 1

Of course I have...

Answer 2

Symbols of mythology...no, I had a public school education back in the 70's, so something interesting like that would never have been broached.

The world is, of course, replete with examples of symbolism, and most of our modern religions have taken those symbols and hijacked them over the years...thus, there is no mistaking why, for some reason, Christmas and Easter fall on important days in ancient symbology. So much easier to convert people when you can keep the holidays relatively the same.

Symbolism is co-opted all the time. for example, the fish that many claim as the symbol for Jesus was in fact long in existance before the birth of christ. Same with the cross. Symbolism is an extremely powerful tool in human existence.

Answer 3

In Tibetan practices a student will attend a Wonkur which is a permission; initiation ceremony to do the practices of Buddhism. The Wonkur will be about one of the many deities, either male or female.

Vajrayogini for instance is a red female figure dancing on a corpse..reminding us that death awaits us all and now is the time to practice well.
She brandishes a scythe in one hand and wears a necklace of 108 skulls. The scythe used to symbolically cut off the 108 different mind states.
She has a skull in the other hand filled with blood which is raised to her lips to symbolise the 'passionate drinking of life'.Her hair is flaming red... red the color of action...and so on.

Much beloved White Tara has eyes in the soles of her feet, her hands and her third eye which represent an all seeing being( one who sees all suffering) and her posture is seated but one foot sometimes slightly extended to represent the willingness with which she is ready to help others. White is the color of purity and softness. It also encompasses all the colors of the rainbow.

Answer 4

Your life is a mythology. All of life is an allegory, a allusion rather than an illusion. We construct hard reality and give its concreteness, however this concreteness is our interpretations of vibrations, frequencies. This means that everything is an interpretation, a apparent reflection and represent a specific vibration of thought. This is easily seen true with respect to our dreams, what we see in its form and characteristic from one perspective is what it is because it represents a specific vibration within consciousness, or an aspect. What we see in the universe is reflective to our own minds and what our minds is constituted of. Also since this is an reflective reality, the outer things not only illustrate the inner but also can be analogous to spiritual cyclic patterns, however since the microcosm is the macrocosm these patterns are within us as well on a smaller scale.

So all of life is an mythology and this would be seeing the spirit of life, is it anymore reason that the greatest of all mystics in days passed wrote scriptures by applying the physical/sensory sense in order to relate esoteric mystical things about ones one innate natures?

Anyways the a moon is often symbolic for understanding the feminine force, just as the sun is for understanding the masculine force and their relationship and roles between one another, if one is so inclined to see. I, for one, know that this is relative to our inner world, as well as what we see in pattern in our daily lives. I know the mythology of the scriptures well.

Answer 5

"I'm a small student of the symbols"

Small example:
4 Directions - North, South, East, West (The cross maybe?)
4 Seasons - Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter
4 Elements - Earth, Fire, Water, Air (The nails maybe?)
4 Archangels - Gabriel, Michael, Israfel, Israel

Are they somehow intertwined?
Do these also form a circle (of life)?
Are these also clues for a human being on a quest?

This is a meal fit for a ((((coyote)))).
Check these out and indeed enjoy that *sip* of tea!

Answer 6

The symbols I have studied are from the Sanskrit Sutras, and are represented in Reiki and the forms of the most traditional of martial arts (my style was Juai Kung Karbo (meaning Mastery through Movement), based on Shaolin-style Kung Fu and Tai-Chi). They, too, are about balance, harmony, yin and yang, and many of the symbols are representative of some of the most prevalent religious movements known to humankind.

I welcome knowledge in any form, and recognize the sameness of much of what I have learned. Many paths; same ending.

((((Coyote)))) . . . Joseph Campbell!!

Answer 7

No.
Those were for "Indiana Jones with Raiders of the lost Ark"
Who were quite busy in digging up graveyards of failures and horrors of the past.
Luke. 9.60
Just blindly learn and mastered our creator's universal communication system in one new universal language and one speech in living words that was lost with time.
The blunders and slip-ups with human errors in blindly throwing away our creaor's universal gifts of life without being aware of the mess out there.
Luke 11.46,52
The gifts of life that were suppose to be given to each and every living human kind vital for the survival and advancement of living human kind on planet earth was lost with time.

Answer 8

I was fascinated by mythology growing up and I still am. Old stories and tales reveal so much about how our ancestors processed their world. I love ancient mythology, I find a beauty in it.

Answer 9

There are a lot.

I believe in Archetypes-- themes that appear (often in the form of gods and spirits) throughout humanity and cultures, themes like that.

Answer 10

1

Answer 11

not in any kind of real way. I have learned about it but that was me seeking the answers. my family still t hinks bunnies and eggs represent jesus at easter time lol.