The Marriage of Myth and Values

Happy Monday to You!

It’s the beginning of a new week and the Mother Earth continues to be willing to give herself to us as our sandbox of creative play and self-expression.

I had a great time in my garden this weekend creating art out of my stones and being present with all the amazing creatures I meet out there. We’ve had a couple visits from a very large coyote lately too.

Penny woke up the other day and thought someone was coming to the door only to find a big coyote (she says was so big it looked like a wolf!) standing at the front door!

The hawks continue to put on amazing areal displays and the crows have been flocking in droves. The other day, a massive flock of them flew over and all the sudden, the smell of garbage overwhelmed us. They must have been hanging out at a local garbage dump.

I’ve been busy in my kitchen creating my herbal medicine of late. Thank you again to Cathy and Donal Carr for the lovely apron – it is really special and I love wearing it when I’m working with the elements of the medicine.

Sean Croxton sent Vidya, Penny and I each one of his new organic Just Eat Real Food (JERF) shirts.They feel great to wear. Thanks Sean!

I’m grateful that Sean and many of my other students are out there making tangible, positive changes in their own lives and sharing their experiences with the world. That is the only way true change comes about.

Next week, Tuesday Dec 18th, I’ll be a guest again on Sean’s Underground Wellness Radio show at 5pm PDT. I love doing the show because I can connect with a lot of people who can benefit from my knowledge and wisdom.

My Buddy Rory Mullin was passing through LA Saturday so he drove down to see us Saturday afternoon and spent the night with us at the house. It’s always great to see my buddy.

Rory is a beautiful soul and it’s always a blessing to spend time in the garden with him. Great to see you Bud!

Angie Lustrick sent me this beautiful piece of art she drew recently.

I love seeing all the beautiful art my students and friends create. Angie and I did a piece of art together this weekend too and enjoyed a few hours together in the rock garden.

She is in an advanced training program to complete her studies as a shaman and one of the development exercises she has been given is to grind rocks by hand.

As I created a new rock sculpture, Angie ground away. After a while, I began having visions of native women grinding grains. The perpetual sound of rocks grinding became a white noise that triggered a deep meditative state in me.

It reminds me of the Buddhist saying, “Wash your bowl and rake some leaves”!

Myths are symbolic tales of the distant past (often primordial times) that concern cosmogony and cosmology (the origin and nature of the universe. Myths are often connected to belief systems or rituals, and may serve to direct social action and values.

In his excellent audio series, “Mythology Of The Individual”, Joseph Campbell explains that our mythology bridges our conscious world with our unconscious world.

This is an important distinction that often goes unnoticed by the masses of people that have been (unconsciously) indoctrinated into their parent’s (family) myth.

Most of the myths we live by today are of religious origin. The myth of each religion symbolically explains the story of human origins and our relationship to the cosmos.

The myths you believe have a significant impact on how you view the world and your life. If your myth is one of heaven and hell, and the possibility for eternal damnation, the only way to feel safe is to live out the values that are congruent with that myth.

Joseph Campbell says that “myth and values are opposites”, like the two sides of a coin.

While your myth expresses your unconscious world and all it represents within you, your values represent your conscious world and all that you represent within it.

Above, you can see photos of two boys.

One exemplifies the typical western child who is steeped in intellectual pursuit long before his brain hemispheres are naturally integrated; the result is typically dangerous adherence to ideas as gospel, yet not having adequately developed the right-brain faculties of sensing, feeling and perceiving wholeness.

This boy is likely to grow up with the opinion that mythology is ridiculous story telling, while at the same time experiencing the guilt and shame that most westerners have from being read Bible stories while their brains were unable to differentiate myth from reality.

On that note, Joseph Campbell beautifully states, “Religion is misunderstood poetry”.

The other boy represents someone that is probably living a life that is much more congruent to his tribal mythology.

This boy is far more likely to have been told the stories of his people by his elders, but is very unlikely to have ever been expected to write them down or be tested on them.

For such people, life and how you life it is the test.

YOUR LIFE IS YOUR TEST OF MYTH VS. REALITY!

In my opinion, your myth equates to what you believe life is about, and what happens when you die.

While myths in general can’t be scientifically validated as fact, they are often the basis of why people do the things they do.

For example, if your myth is one in which the world ends with a series of plagues and violent destruction, and only those that have not sinned will escape the throws of hell, you are not likely to have much concern for the earth; this is just a “weigh station” for you.

Therefore, your values are likely to be quite materialistic; why bother caring for the planet when you will be leaving soon anyway!

If your mythology is one in which the Earth is the Mother of humanity and that we are here to care for Her and each other, as is the case with the Aboriginals of Australia, your values are likely to be quite different. Being kind to the earth and having a healthy love and respect for all life becomes congruent with being at peace with your afterlife.

If we have no myth, the world is likely to become a very tiring, boring place to be. You will know what you have to do to survive each day, but you are likely to lack any deep sense of conviction as to why.

In my experience, this leads to a tremendous amount of fatigue, illness and disease. Much of the illness from living this way is mental. Neither the ideas, not the experiences being lived cultivate any sense of connection or wholeness.

Arnold Patent teaches that your means (myth) and ends (values/actions) are the same.

If your myth is intact, and your values reflect congruence with your own personal mythology, you are likely to feel connected to the whole of yourself.

You are much more likely to have a sense of direction and inner-peace. This doesn’t mean that everyone will agree with your mythology, or your values. It just means that you won’t be split as a person.

For such a person, the challenges of life are no different than the challenges of creating any dream. The challenges are merely a labor of love.

CONCLUSION

After a lifetime of coaching people from all walks of life with all sorts of myths, and a lack thereof, I’ve come to see that it isn’t the myth, nor the values that makes a person whole.

It is living a life in which your values and your myth are congruent. This is the only way one can be free of unnecessary self-judgment.

The world has forever been a place where humans both loved each other and nature, and hated and killed each other and nature. Those with myth clashes often found it within their value structure to eradicate their antagonists.

To die this way, yet be congruent with your myth is to die with honor and the respect of both your people, and your God or gods.

To be confused as to what your own myth is means to be confused about what your values ultimately represent. Therefore, it is probable that you are unsure of who your are or what your represent in the world.

Such a person is unlikely to sleep well, or live well.

If you are living out someone else’s myth and the values attributed to it are strangling your creative self-expression, you are very likely to find yourself dealing with fatigue, illness, and a feeling of perpetual emptiness.

It is not uncommon for such people to experience dreams or nightmares that don’t make any sense, yet leave them feeling unrested and insecure within themselves. This is no way to go through life.

The beauty of it all is that if GOD is GOD, then GOD can only be Unconditional Love. That means that you can choose your own mythology and create your own values to live by.

Regardless of what your myth or values are, if you are living in a way that is life affirmative, you will feel safe and rewarded within yourself.

You will feel that the universe is on your side.

You will experience a reverence for life and your death will be the completion of this edition of your story.

Your myth will take you home into the universe from there and there will be no fear, for you will be at peace with who, and what you are.

If you are in pain, feel isolated and alone, and/or life lacks a sense of meaning for you, why not see the blessing in your experience.

Pain and emptiness are usually indications that your beliefs and actions are incongruent, and possibly incongruent with the natural flow of life.

Just as pain and disease caused by eating too much can’t be effectively addressed until you eat less, pain from living someone else’s story can’t be alleviated until you’ve become brave enough to create your own and live it.

To begin the process of creating your own myth and core values to support the experience of living congruently, feel free to complete PPS Success Mastery Lesson 1. How To Find and Live Your Legacy.

Love and chi,
Paul Chek