10/11/11

“For all variegated multiplicity of its forms, the practice of sacrifice can be reduced to just two gestures: expulsion (purification) and assimilation (communion). These two gestures have only one element in common: destruction. In each case the victim is killed or devoured, or abandoned to a certain death. We kill to eat, to assimilate; and we kill to separate, to expel. In every other respect the two gestures are different” (pg. 291-292 Cadmus).

Sacrifice is a very strange thing. I feel like it is a pretty selfish act. A person kills a virgin or an animal to get something out of it, nothing else. The person or animal being sacrificed has no choice if it or they want to be sacrificed. For example, Iphigenia was scarified only because an oracle told her father that if he wanted to fight the trojans he had to sacrifice a virgin to sail over there. Agamemnon wanted to fight the trojans more than he wanted to keep his innocent daughter alive, so he killed her.

Class Notes:

• Immortality- gods dont die
• Saddness- part of the middles

The Hero Pattern

This pattern is based upon The Hero: A study in Tradition, Myth and Dreams by Lord Raglan

Incidents which occur with regularity in hero-myths of all cultures:

1. Hero's mother is a royal virgin;
2. His father is a king, and
3. Often a near relative of his mother, but
4. The circumstances of his conception are unusual, and
5. He is also reputed to be the son of a god.
6. At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grand father to kill him, but
7. he is spirited away, and
8. Reared by foster -parents in a far country.
9. We are told nothing of his childhood, but
10. On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future Kingdom.
11. After a victory over the king and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast,
12. He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor and
13. And becomes king.
14. For a time he reigns uneventfully and
15. Prescribes laws, but
16. Later he loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and
17. Is driven from the throne and city, after which
18. He meets with a mysterious death,
19. Often at the top of a hill,
20. His children, if any do not succeed him.
21. His body is not buried, but nevertheless
22. He has one or more holy sepulchers. 

• Oedipus is the closest to earning all 22 hero points
• Some other heros are superman, sigfred and luke skywalker
• The real hero or any story, is you!
• Middle:
• the story of heros
• the muddle- you don’t know who you are or where you are going
• labyrinth
• significant but dont know what it is 
• INITIATION

• Assignment due on October 20^th
• tell a ritual or initiation story (formulaic, structured and repeated) to the class

• A ritual is something we do, they are very organized and precise, things that are done, rid of sin
• to see
• to say
• to do
• DO- it is every human beings biggest challenge

• “What am I supposed to do?”
• People can relate to stories better when they are told in the first person
• The Tarbolium #150 in Eliade book
• Taurus- bull
• Dromenon- things that are done (Drama)
• Jessica’s Rituals that she does before leaving the house every day
• Brush cat 
• check all doors and windows to make sure they are locked
• check in rear view window five times to make sure the garage door is closed
• Baptism- imitation of death and coming back to life
• hold down underwater until the person squirms
• Assignment: write on blog what kinds of rituals we do
• Every morning I wake up, take a shower, get dressed, pack my lunch, put everything in my backpack that I will need that day (double check that I have my bike lock), eat breakfast, leave my house, lock the door, make sure the door is locked and then I ride my bike to school. That is how things usually go in the mornings before school, but not always.
• “Have you been washed in the blood of the lamb?”
• purified
• devotion to faith
• Imitation of what you want to be done- homeopathy- James G Frazier