10/25/11

"' My dear Nicolas, man has been saying what you have just said for the last ten thousand years. And one common feature of all the gods he has said it to is that not one of them has ever returned an answer'" (pg. 185 The Magus).

Nicolas had just watched the performance that was put on by Apollo and a goddess that kills a satyr because it is chasing a girl through the forest. He asks Conchis the meaning behind the play and of course Conchis doesn't answer the question. Like Nicolas, I also don't understand what that event means or if it was real or what was going on. I am starting to get into the book but it is confusing in parts.

Class Notes:
Ritual stories continued:

• Justin- Baby drop in India
• Abby- Kurnai Australian Initiation 
• Megan- Indian Stupa Story
• Zach- Rain Making
• Jeremy- Trick or treat
• Juniper- Strange Burial Ritual

• you need to do the thing exactly as prescribed or else the world will be disturbed; terrors will reign down upon you
• things will be very bad if you dont perform ritual and do them correctly
• hero burials and other burials have to be perfect
• Antigone- buries her brother by pouring some dust on his body, she was not supposed to do this because he was a traitor. He was her brother so she thought it was her duty as a family member to bury her brother no matter what. The king thought otherwise so lots of bad things happened to her for going against what the king had said. There is a collision between two things that need to be done; a collision of rituals

• Rites of Kenosis- empty out the evil; clean out, get everything bad out
• Tote Tage- day of the dead
• anything goes, no rules applied
• Plerosis- fullness or fulfilling
• Liberation from the rules
• the return of the world to chaos

• Nacirema- the house and the bathroom
• americans spend to much time in front of the mirror in the bathroom, changing a persons face or appearance
• everyone performs rituals

• Initiation
• you were once and now you have become that
• a journey from A to B changed you a lot and it was probably a painful process
• metamorphosis
• Metamorphosis of Gregor Samsa
• transformed into a giant insect-like creature

• Eleusinian Mysteries
• death and rebirth
• failure of nerve
• you want to live somewhere else and to get away from the difficult life with pain and suffering
• Pan- god of nature- Sader- dance and play flute
• happy is the person who performs a ritual

• Assignment: Read all of Chapter 4: Death, Afterlife, Eschatology section in Primitives to Zen Book