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Myth: A Once and Future Map to the Inner Landscape
THEOSOPHY AND THE ARTS PROGRAM - 6 WEEKS
Music, Dance, and Theosophy - Juliana Cesano & Dan Smolla
Myth: A Once and Future Map to the Inner Landscape - John Algeo
Theosophy’s Influence on Visual Artists - Pam Lowrie
Mystical Poetry and Theosophy - Dan Smolla
Creating a Personal Mandala - Pam Lowrie
Theosophical Principles in the Healing Art of Therapeutic Touch - Marilyn Johnston
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Myth: A Once and Future Map to the Inner Landscape - John Algeo
“Life is an opportunity to experience through personality. Personality has value proportional to the amount with which it can experience Higher Self,” John Algeo explains. Myth, or spiritual narratives, are especially helpful in showing us, viscerally, how every day life can help us access our Higher Self and how the Higher Self can help us to transform our surroundings as we travel on our learning adventures. There is something inherent in the human condition; perhaps one might even say that part of us which makes us most human, which responds at a deep level to spiritual teaching embedded in a profound story. “Myth,” John Algeo summarizes, “is something that never happened but is always true.” This program touches on some of the major spiritual narratives and how they reveal the always true.
(Dr. Algeo's lecture is available at our Media Library).
Download handout Myth a Once and Future Map to the Inner Landscape
Discussion questions
(For general discussion questions on Theosophy and the Arts click here)
1) Why do you think we so enjoy learning from stories? How would you describe the difference between learning from a story and learning from an essay?
2) In what ways can you benefit from looking at your life as a heroic quest?
3) Do you think the Theosophical Organization is on a group quest? How would YOU describe that group quest?
4) As you journey on your personal quest, how do you decide that you are traveling on the correct or incorrect path?
5) Do you have a favorite quest story? Do you think it has subtly affected your life decisions?
Proposed activities
1- Free-writing rewrite of classical spiritual narratives. Take a spiritual narrative that you feel most familiar with, for example, the Bhagavad-Gita or The New Testament, and rewrite the story in a brief, timed 10 min. free-writing session. When you free-write you try to never stop writing, always keep your pen moving, even if it means writing, “I'm not sure what to write now,” repeatedly. Also, the key is not to retell the story to accurately reflect the incidents of the model spiritual narrative you are using, but to get the spirit of the story and transform it in any way you choose in your own words and images. After 10 minutes, cross out the gibberish and/or filler, and then, read the narratives out loud to each other. (You might find that your retelling sheds new light on the sacred story for yourself and others, although don’t make this your conscious goal.)
2- Narrative, storytelling, may well be the most important learning tool human beings have because stories seem to appeal at such a powerful, deep level. Why do you think so many major religions are based on a personality and a central story? What is it about stories that reaches us on such a deep level?
3- A key aspect of many great stories is that we feel a strong attraction or aversion to a specific character, to their personality. It can be spiritually helpful to remind ourselves that just as we are not ultimately our emotions or body or thoughts we are also not, ultimately, merely our personality. However, John Algeo said, “Life is an opportunity to experience through personality. Personality has value proportional to the amount with which it can experience Higher Self.” Thus personality can be a strong spiritual component if used and viewed correctly. Meditate for a few moments on a character in a narrative or a person you have known who wisely used personality to experience Higher Self. Share with the group and try to describe how they used personality as part of their spiritual process.
4- “Myth,” John Algeo summarizes, “is something that never happened but is always true.” Meditate for a couple minutes on a spiritual narrative—either from a formal religion or a novel—in which you feel “the always true” is revealed. Share the name of the narrative and a very brief summary with the group and then tell what you feel the “always true” was.
Resources:
- Books, audio and videorecordings on Myths and Symbolism
- Dr. Algeo's lecture Myth: A Once and Future Map to the Inner Landscape
Music, Dance, and Theosophy - Juliana Cesano & Dan Smolla
Myth: A Once and Future Map to the Inner Landscape - John Algeo
Theosophy’s Influence on Visual Artists - Pam Lowrie
Mystical Poetry and Theosophy - Dan Smolla
Creating a Personal Mandala - Pam Lowrie
Theosophical Principles in the Healing Art of Therapeutic Touch - Marilyn Johnston
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Myth: A Once and Future Map to the Inner Landscape - John Algeo
“Life is an opportunity to experience through personality. Personality has value proportional to the amount with which it can experience Higher Self,” John Algeo explains. Myth, or spiritual narratives, are especially helpful in showing us, viscerally, how every day life can help us access our Higher Self and how the Higher Self can help us to transform our surroundings as we travel on our learning adventures. There is something inherent in the human condition; perhaps one might even say that part of us which makes us most human, which responds at a deep level to spiritual teaching embedded in a profound story. “Myth,” John Algeo summarizes, “is something that never happened but is always true.” This program touches on some of the major spiritual narratives and how they reveal the always true.
(Dr. Algeo's lecture is available at our Media Library).
Download handout Myth a Once and Future Map to the Inner Landscape
Discussion questions
(For general discussion questions on Theosophy and the Arts click here)
1) Why do you think we so enjoy learning from stories? How would you describe the difference between learning from a story and learning from an essay?
2) In what ways can you benefit from looking at your life as a heroic quest?
3) Do you think the Theosophical Organization is on a group quest? How would YOU describe that group quest?
4) As you journey on your personal quest, how do you decide that you are traveling on the correct or incorrect path?
5) Do you have a favorite quest story? Do you think it has subtly affected your life decisions?
Proposed activities
1- Free-writing rewrite of classical spiritual narratives. Take a spiritual narrative that you feel most familiar with, for example, the Bhagavad-Gita or The New Testament, and rewrite the story in a brief, timed 10 min. free-writing session. When you free-write you try to never stop writing, always keep your pen moving, even if it means writing, “I'm not sure what to write now,” repeatedly. Also, the key is not to retell the story to accurately reflect the incidents of the model spiritual narrative you are using, but to get the spirit of the story and transform it in any way you choose in your own words and images. After 10 minutes, cross out the gibberish and/or filler, and then, read the narratives out loud to each other. (You might find that your retelling sheds new light on the sacred story for yourself and others, although don’t make this your conscious goal.)
2- Narrative, storytelling, may well be the most important learning tool human beings have because stories seem to appeal at such a powerful, deep level. Why do you think so many major religions are based on a personality and a central story? What is it about stories that reaches us on such a deep level?
3- A key aspect of many great stories is that we feel a strong attraction or aversion to a specific character, to their personality. It can be spiritually helpful to remind ourselves that just as we are not ultimately our emotions or body or thoughts we are also not, ultimately, merely our personality. However, John Algeo said, “Life is an opportunity to experience through personality. Personality has value proportional to the amount with which it can experience Higher Self.” Thus personality can be a strong spiritual component if used and viewed correctly. Meditate for a few moments on a character in a narrative or a person you have known who wisely used personality to experience Higher Self. Share with the group and try to describe how they used personality as part of their spiritual process.
4- “Myth,” John Algeo summarizes, “is something that never happened but is always true.” Meditate for a couple minutes on a spiritual narrative—either from a formal religion or a novel—in which you feel “the always true” is revealed. Share the name of the narrative and a very brief summary with the group and then tell what you feel the “always true” was.
Resources:
- Books, audio and videorecordings on Myths and Symbolism
- Dr. Algeo's lecture Myth: A Once and Future Map to the Inner Landscape
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