“The ‘Key to All Mythologies’ has become a byword for the mind-numbingly recondite and is typically thought of as a scene of arid and misguided pendantry.”–The World of Mr. Casaubon: Britain’s Wars of Mythography 1700-1870 by Colin Kidd
Arid and Misguided Pendantry
I’ve never read George Eliot’s Middlemarch, in which Rev. Edward Casaubon toils away on his “Key to All Mythologies,” but earlier this year, I loved listening to the audiobook of Jonathan Franzen’s latest 787-page novel, Crossroads (Key to All Mythologies, 1). If the arid and misguided pedantry of Middlemarch is anywhere near as entertaining, sign me up. In the meantime, why not try some misguided pedantry of my own and attempt to pick the lock myself?
Only Two Keys
The Goenka retreat schedule I followed for my non-duality retreat included a 7:00-8:15 p.m. slot for Teacher’s Discourse. I chose to re-watch the PBS series The Power of Myth with Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. For Campbell, there were two possible explanations for how myths of such startling similarity arose in various guises all over the world before the invention of the printing press or mass media.
One: these archetypal ideas are manifestations of the organs of the body and their powers. This accounts for similarities. Their differences can be chalked up to habitat.
Two: myths spread through diffusion. Similarities: as techniques for hunting and agriculture spread across the globe, the big-picture stories of why they worked went with them. Differences: these stories changed in the telling from generation to generation, not unlike a game of telephone.
The Case for Organs: Tear Ducts and Hearts
During the meditation session where my Default Mode Network was diminished, A fist tightened at the level of my heart chakra, chest, or sternum. If I kept that fist tight enough, maybe the foreign sensations would bounce off without penetrating my consciousness. This strategy was zero percent effective.
When the session ended, I got up and returned to the dining room table command center to record my observations. I interpreted the fist as, “Trying to get it right. Trying to control what others think of me.Trying to control things I can’t control.”
Later… I started weeping in waves. It was reading as tears of compassion for that poor little fist at my heart chakra so desperately trying to be in control of circumstances beyond its control. The waves of tears continued to wash up and erode the clenched fist like ocean waves wearing down a rock. But I still wasn’t done. I realized we’re all carrying one of those fists at the level of our hearts. So I soaked my sleep mask for another thirty minutes of compassionate fist erosion.
A woman whose interview was featured in the video, “Hopkins Griffiths/Richards Protocol for Psilocybin with Meditation for Enduring Benefits“, interpreted her experience this way.
I re-experienced my father’s death. I was transported back to that time and I just grieved my father’s death, which I don’t think I really did at the time. I was just a sobbing mess during this session. Sobbing. And I experienced it as waterfalls. My body, I was a waterfall. It was just flowing. It was like my heart cracked. My heart cracked open.
She later experienced an image of Jesus dragging the cross. And right when he got close to me his face just turned up and said, “Forgive them Lord, they know not what they do.”
The Case for Diffusion: Intentions and Headphones
We had gone into our session with different intentions.
Mine: I’m exploring the Anatta practice of recognizing that the “self” appears in consciousness and only in consciousness and is no different than any other sensory phenomena.
Hers: I want to see the divine.
We had gone into our sessions with similar intentions shaped by the diffusion of different religious traditions.
Also, I opted out of the playlist she listened to because it included requiems, masses, and spirituals, any one of which could have cued up a replay of her father’s funeral.
When it comes to people trying to control things they cannot control, Jesus said it better than I did.
Key to All Mythologies
According to Joseph Campbell: Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck to its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.
You must understand that each religion is a kind of software that has its own set of signals and will work. If a person is really involved in a religion and really building his life on it, he better stay with the software that he has got. But a chap like myself, who likes to play with the software—well, I can run around, but I probably will never have an experience comparable to that of a saint.
A Word Beyond Words
I’m curious what Joseph Campbell’s experience of psilocybin would have been, but I think I know what he would have said. In an essay on creativity, Campbell wrote: In one of the Upanishads it says, when the glow of a sunset holds you and you say ‘Aha,’ that is the recognition of the divinity. And when you say ‘Aha’ to an art object, that is a recognition of divinity. And what divinity is it? It is your divinity, which is the only divinity there is. We are all phenomenal manifestations of a divine will to live, and that will and the consciousness of life is one in all of us, and that is what artwork expresses.
Is it possible that the Key to All Mythologies is: Aha?
