Comparative Mythologies

[Tamrin]

As a rule the myth is no explanation of the origin of the ritual
to any one who does not believe it to be a narrative of real occurrences,
and the boldest mythologist will not believe that.
William Robertson Smith

Perhaps some of the readers of this Masonic forum may like to explore the field of comparative mythology, of which the late Professor Joseph Campbell is now the best know exponent. I lead off with the following consideration:

Myth and Ritual Debate:

As generations of myth critics have fielded interpretive schemes, the theme of the relationship between thought and action, creed and deed, story and ceremony has shaped itself into the myth and ritual debate. Some thinkers argue that no special connections exist between myth and ritual. The myth-ritualists do see a bond, but dispute the nature of that union. Ritual precedes myth, argued the pioneer William Robertson Smith. Myth and ritual arise simultaneously, claimed James Frazer. The two work in dialectical opposition, proposed Claude Lévy-Strauss.

Book Review: Robert Ackerman’s, The Myth and Ritual School: J.G. Frazer & the Cambridge Ritualists, Garland Press, 1990.

Given our immersion in both ritual and myth, I would be interested in exploring various Masonic perspectives.

[Tamrin]

Not everything may be properly subjected to verbal explanation and comparison:

Joseph Campbell wrote (Myths to Live By, p.130):

There is a favorite story, frequently told by Zen masters, of the Buddha, preaching: of how he held up a single lotus, that simple gesture being his whole sermon. Only one member of his audience, however, caught the message, a monk named Kasyapa, who is regarded now as the founder of the Zen sect. And the Buddha noticing, gave him a knowing nod, then preached a verbal sermon for the rest: a sermon for those who required meaning, still entrapped in the net of ideas; yet pointing beyond, to escape from the net and the way that some of them, one day or another, might find.

[Tamrin]

The search for meaning will ever lead us elsewhere,
led by signs that point from one thing to another,
for such is the nature of signs and such is the meaning of meaning.



What is the nature of reality? Reality is what is!
What is the meaning of life? Life!

[Tamrin]

The most fundamental mysteries simply are as they are!
There is nothing beyond subject to penetration: One has arrived!
To go beyond in such cases leads one away from that which IS.

Once Isis has unveiled Herself, it is folly to seek to strip away her flesh by continuing one's search.