I'm switching up my style here. I've recently finished reading the book "The Power of Myth" by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers. The entire book is an interview between Moyers and Campbell. Joseph Campbell was a very enlightening mythologist. I found this book itself to be very enlightening. It is packed with mythological and religious stories. Most of my post for the remainder of the summer will probably deal with the mythological ideas and stories. This one is the concept of rebirth.
Whoa! Do you come back to life? Not quite. Rebirth in a metaphorical sense shall be touched upon. Every human being goes through a metamorphisis, a rebirth. Most commonly it takes place during the adolescent years. To better explain this topic, I will include two stories. These summaries will be quite short and probably not nearly as forceful as the actual book; so, I recommend you read the book. First, there is Siddhartha Guatama (pardon me for spelling) who was a wealthy Hindu prince. Throughout his youth, Siddhartha had been shielded by his father of the horrible tragedies that haunt our world, sickness, age, and death. When Siddhartha had finally been exposed to the tragedies, he ran away into a dark forest. After undergoing meditation and various obstacles, Siddhartha left the forest as the Buddha, the Enlightened One. Now, keep in mind the idea of going into a dark place as a youth and exiting as someone greater.
The second story is the classic "Dante's Inferno". Dante is is traveling through a dark forest and encounters a lion, panther, and she-wolf (I think they represent pride, desire, and fear). To escape, he follows Virgil, and Virgil then leads Dante through the 9 circles of Hell. Not only does "The Divine Comedy" provide an allegory for "your actions have consequences", but there was more to the story. Upon exiting the Inferno, Dante is left out of the forest staring into the stars of the night sky, knowing that he has learned/changed.
The whole idea of this is to metaphorically show that by traveling through "a dark place", whether be a dark forest or Hell, which represents the death of the previous character (Siddhartha the prince or Dante cornered by pride, desire, and fear), a new enlightened character emerges. This concept is found in other stories as well. Jesus died on the cross, descended to Hell, rose three days later, and new life emerges (Christianity). The Great Flood which lasted for 40 days and 40 nights wiped out great sin. The Flood was no picnic; so, the Flood can be looked at as the "dark place". Out of that came land cleansed of sin.
There are even more practical examples of this (when I say practical I mean a myth that explains a real world phenomenon, not a practical myth). I forget where this story originated from, but it was from a Native American tribe. A man approaches a boy everyday in the same place, and the man challenges the boy to wrestle with him everyday. One day, the man tells the boy once they are finished wrestling to kill the man and bury his body. The boy does so, and buries the body. Out of the spot where the boy buried the man arises maize, corn. This is believed to be the origin of corn. The philosophy in this is out of death comes life. Out of the death of the man comes life of the tribe because they now have maize to eat. It has been a while since I last read that story; so, there mmay be a few details off, but that is basically the concept.
Ok, ok. How does this apply to us modern-day? Well, the most common place for the biggest metamorphisis to occur is in adolescence. Those raging hormones take a toll on the teenager and can make a relatively mediocre obstacle seem like the world's coming to an end. The teenage years still can be tough no matter what environment. In essence, we die as teenagers (the end of our childhood), and we are reborn as adults. Out of every single tragic event, we can become that much stronger (Dragon Ball Z philosophy), for every tragic event or major instance of suffering is a dark forest. We can fight through the Inferno or forest or whatever and find the new light or life that we may embrace. Why should we learn this through mythology? So we know that when we go through that dark forest that there is a light waiting for us, but it is still up to us to find that light. When my biology teacher died, and I sat crying in his class, I promised him that I would never give up at my dreams, and that I dedicate my life of physics to him. Out of his death, sprung my true ambition to live for what I dream.
These are my views and opinions, and I wish not to be judged upon for them. Some parts of these stories may be incorrect, but that is because I'm doing this from memory, and I can make mistakes. I hope this has made somewhat of an impact in at least one person. 'Till next time.
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