QUEST FOR MEANING
by Aubrey Cole Odhner|

Genesis Myths

  (From Ed. Council course on Genesis with Bruce and Prescott Rogers.Summer 1979)

            To refer to the “myths” of Genesis will offend most Newchurchmen unless they accept Homer’s and my definition of myth as “the telling of truth.” We are told in the Writings that Moses took the first eleven chapters of Genesis from the Ancient Word, “from the lips of the ancients.” It is our thesis that structural comparisons with other ancient literature will increase our understanding of the Word; for it is not the literal sense but the understanding of the Word which makes the church. Mythology  ”Structuralists “ talk of  motifs, themes, and deep or basic structures. I propose to use  some of their technical methods for enlarging our understanding of some of the Genesis ‘myths.”

          What are the Genesis Myths? They include: Creation Myths, Paradise, Flood , Tree , and Serpent Myths. In analyzing them let us consider motif, theme, and plot. We can first flit from motif to motif, observing the clustering of certain motifs, but we must dig deeper. What does a “continuous internal sense mean?  Let us work back from fragments to meanings, not piecing together doctrines but confirming revealed doctrines, trying to get some perception of real, interior meaning. Let us look beneath the anatomical parts to the physiology.

Genesis Myth I:  Paradise and Fall .  (Discussion of a Film Strip of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice:)

            This is the story of Orpheus who charms all living creatures with his songs; he weds the beautiful Eurydice and they dwell together in a paradisal world until one day she is bit in the foot by a serpent and is abruptly taken to Hades. In order to rescue her Orpheus makes the tortuous journey into Hades and has almost lead her out when he breaks the command and looks back and she is hurtled back into Hades. He spends the rest of his life mourning her as he sings his sad  songs. 

Motif: serpent, heel. Mythologists would call this the "vulnerable spot" motif. Consider Achilles’ heel, Siegfried’s shoulder, Odysseus’ scar, Balder’s wound from a mistletoe arrow and Sleeping Beauty’s wound from a spindle; consider  legends of the Fisher King’s and the Lord’s wounds in the thigh; all leading to death, banishment, or enchantment. The first prophecy of the Lord’s Coming is that of the curse on the Serpent: “the Man child shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

THEME and deeper structure: journey to the underworld in order to redeem oneself, to regain life or otherwise achieve a desired goal. Adam and Eve are cast out and must labor to regain lost paradise. Persephone must remain in Hades for part of the year because she ate pomegranate seeds, Odhin rides Eight footed horse, Sleipner, from Asgaard to “Hela’s Realm” to bring back  Balder, Venus orders Psyche to travel to Hades to regain paradisal life with Cupid, Ishtar descends through seven degrees to regain life. Apollo journeys to the nether land of the three Fates who are about to cut the lifeline of Admetus. There is always a curse, a dream a command or one or many tasks or obstacles to overcome.

We are reminded of the command to Lot that he should not look back  as he was leaving Sodom. The Heavenly Dotrines tell us this has to do with lingering or returning to truth rather than moving forward to good-to life.

Lord Raglan gives examples of the “clustering “ of motifs.1 They are clues. just clues, symbols, not the truth itself. The common denominator for instance, is not a serpent’s sting, nor that of a poisoned arrow, or thorn, or spear, or hot wax but a sharp thing that pierces our vulnerable spot , which is the lowest and pervertable degree of the human mind, the sensual, and also the place where the Lord was tempted. This is why the serpent and the heel both represent the sensual-they are the lowest things to the ground, the most external.

            What hints do we get from related myths to develop our understanding of our Primary Myths. To the “forbidden fruit” motif in the Pandora myth is added the suggestion that it is wrong to be curious. Is the emphasis here on sensual knowledge? Surely it is not wrong to be curious about spiritual knowledge. In one myth the serpent guards the apples. Why is there a guard on a certain kind of knowledge? There is a myth about a serpent wanting immortality for himself. Is this the sensual trying to gain dominion over the Lord's Domain?

Genesis Myth II. Flood Myths. ( Discussion of the Film Strip of the Phrygian Myth of Baucis and Philemon.)

. There are several Greek flood myths. This one is rich with motifs, symbols, archetypes, and deep themes.

THEME:  Mythologists say that the deep and essential theme of a flood myth is that of the destruction by flood or fire of the evil people and the saving of  the only good man and his wife who then  start a new civilization.

            MOTIFS: Two gods travel the earth in disguise to test whether the mortals are good or evil; only the good will be saved. In many ancient stories fairies or others are often disguised in order to test mortals. Two angels appeared to Lot to warn him of the destruction of Sodom. Mythologist say that destruction by water or by fire have the same significance. The Writings, however, make a finer distinction. Destruction by fire, as in Sodom, represents the destruction of evil, whereas the destruction by water represents the destruction of falsity, as when the Egyptians (knowledges) were destroyed in the Red Sea. Both events are said to represent the end of the Ancient Church in their respective locales, first Sodom and later Egypt.

              This story also contains the “porridge pot” motif, the magic vessel which continues non- stop to provide food or  drink, the Holy Grail the Celtic Cauldron where heroes are eternally renewed, all providing the gift of immortality. Perhaps the most beautiful image in this story of Baucis and Philemon is that of the two trees intertwined forever, the gift of the gods for their hospitality was to grant the wish that the man and wife should always remain together. Here, Conjugial love is so beautifully intertwined with immortality. This also suggests to me that deep within this remnant story which is related to a Genesis flood story,  and certainly a fragment from the  Ancient Word, is a plain teaching that is rarely found elsewhere so obviously in the Old and New Testaments the  later Revelations, until the Writings, that is the relationship of Conjugial Love with Life Everlasting. If only for such perspectives I believe it is important to search for the Ancient Word. 

Genesis Myth III: Myths of the Center.

Mythologists recognize a classification of myths and motifs which dramatize and symbolize more than tell about the idea of the Unity and Center of the Universe: the Cross, the Axis Mundi, the Tree of Life in the Middle of the Garden, the Walled Garden itself, the ancient picture of the serpent twined around the Tree, the Unicorn Tapestry with the One Horned beast surrounded, encircled, by a fence, Brunhilde surrounded/ protected within a wall of flame. The Holy City New Jerusalem surrounded, protected by walls-all archetypal images of  a unity to which we unconsciously respond. Consider the Cretan Bull mystery within the spiraled maze, the Lord of the Four Quarters, and the lovely idea of thee Lord being present, walking in the Garden.”

Genesis myths. IV. The Two Hands of God.  This is the title of a book by Alan Watts about Duality Myths, and the inner unity of opposites.2

We have Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau; night and day, right and left, Yin and Yang, mother and father, Prometheus and Epimetheus. Literature is filled with significant pairs of opposites who are at the same time complementary, for instance Jack and Jill, Hamlet and Orestes.. The oldest known Egyptian myth is called the Story of the Two Brothers. Scholars say we tend to sort out our thinking with “binary discrimination.” Structuralists say that, because of the wholeness of the human mind our myths have a way of pulling themselves together, they call it the “ mediation of opposites.” Iranian Mythology is a dualistic mythology, polarizing the god of good and the god of evil. But they are part of one system, or brothers of one family, interdependent opposites. References to right and left in myth have precise meanings: Odhin lost his right eye to the Well of Wisdom, clearly, according to the correspondences set out in the Writings, the “old will” Surely there is a message here about the Divine Love and Wisdom and their unity in the Lord; consider the separation of the Will and Understanding at the time of the Fall of the Most Ancient Church. Does the necessity of that separation give rise to the evil depicted in the incest myths as seen in the Arthur legends and Amlodhi (Hamlet) myth?3

Genesis Myth V: The Trickster.

Assuming that the various gods and goddesses represented various Attributes of the One God, I was always puzzled about the naughty god of the Northmen, Loki, and the sly, but clever Cayote god, whose significance puzzles some scholars. When I learned that the Trickster is sometimes Satan and sometimes the Serpent I realized that the Trickster must represent the Sensual which can turn either way, the lowest part of our minds which can be perverted, and the only part of the Lord that was tempted DLW239, TCR 38:3. The Lord is sometimes called the Great Serpent. The Dragon represented something good to the Orientals. This tradition traveled Westward in the Scythian curvilinear art, North to the mastheads of the Viking ships, and South to the decorated manuscripts of the Irish monks. Note that King Arthur’s family name was Pendragon, "the Head of the Dragon."

Conclusion:  In these few fragments and clusters from myths, Paradise, Fall, Flood, Center, Duality and Trickster we can easily see them in the first chapters of Genesis and assume their presence back beyond them, to their origins in the Ancient Word. Having been spun out throughout the ancient world as cosmic remnants, they challenge us to gather them up carefully and piece them together under the light of the Meanings provided by the Heavenly Doctrines; this for the sake of confirmation and greater understanding of truth beneath the surface of literal and cultural obscurity.  


CONFUSING FOOTNOTES LINKS////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

1 Raglan. The Hero. A study in Tradition, Myth, and Drama Oxford Univ. Press New York, 1937. p.192

2 Watts, Alan W. The Two Hands of God, The Myths of Polarity Macmillan Co. Canada. Printed in USA.

3 de Santillana, Giorgio. Hamlet's Mill, Essay on myth and the frame of time.. Godine Boston. p.33f.