Somehow I could not help thinking all day about the G-20 Summit....OK, I'll be honest, I could not sleep last night very well, because I was worrying and during some of those awake moments, it occurred to me that the Summit is REALLY,REALLY, a BIG THING!!!
photo veronica tennant romeo plus my doodles
To me it seems almost mythic, you'll see what I am getting at below.
Now some of you know from my earliest posts I was blessed with a fine friend & mentor Chrisitane Corbat who was an internationally renowned sculptor & who was a student
of Joseph Campbell.
Similarly, you know, he wrote the "The Hero with a
Thousand Faces","The Masks of God", and "Creative Mythology".
And he influenced a number of artists and musicians including the Bob Dylan and George Lukas,to name a few. George Lucas has been noted to credit Campbell regarding the stories of the Star Wars films.
So what does this all have to do with the G-20 ???I know you thought I drifted off the subject, ((having been all sleep deprived,w-r-o-n-g! :).
You see, I had this image in my sleepy mind's eye of the Summit in London which, in the wee hours of the morning , reminded me of a Star Wars' scene
{ frankly, I am not that well versed in this double trilogy}
So what scene was it?
It involved Princess Leah and the cast of leaders from strange universes sitting in a circle discussing strategies to solve HUGE problems. Yes, you are right, Yoda was there too, looking wise- and naturally a candidate for Botox...,just joking! Come to think of it did not the King Arthur and his knights sit at the Round Table???
All of this musing surfaced because I have been worried about the world affairs as so many of us have, economic meltdowns, wars, changes in the environment...Right, I have to lay off the news Internet sites. but, really these concerns pressed on until I grasped that this is our modern day myth!!
each nation may have their own hero,but, nonetheless there are all the element of the hero's quest !
"We have not even to face the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time, have gone before us: the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god, and where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence, and where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the World." (Chapter one, ending.) Joseph Campbell
Oddly enough, I found a mythical image from a meeting in Florence, Italy in 2007 called"Images and Myths of Europe: the Western and the Eastern perspectives"
Romualdo Del Bianco Foundationand here was their accompanying program image
It appears to me as though the foundation or pillars had fallen under the weight of a Bull, (Wall Street icon of course.) And above this powerful and stubborn animal is the injured winged lady receiving support from another female with a halo. Are the female images depicting humanity's intuitive or spiritual side in effect opposing the base instinct of greed & misused power?
Note this was conference in 2007 !
Now back to Chrisitiane work with another Dancing Doc and good friend, Colleen Cavenaugh,MD.who choreographed this piece.
They worked together to create the Global Heart Installation performance.
Below are some still shots . I believe Christiane created these castings to portray that though our bodies are different we are all intimately connected and jointly responsible. Note how different each hearts light is....she began this piece in 2003 just before Bush waged war in Iraq.
"As we are told in the Vedas: 'Truth is one, the sages speak of it by many names,'
" (Third edition, page VII)
Joseph Campbell
There are of course differences between the numerous mythologies and religions of mankind, but this is a book about similarities; and once they are understood the differences will be found to be much less great than is popularly (and politically) supposed. My hope is that a comparative elucidation may contribute to the perhaps not-quite disparate causes of those forces that are working in the present world for unification, not in the name of some ecclesiastical or political empire, but in the sense of human mutual understanding" (Third edition, page VIII)
Joseph Campbell here shares a perspective with Obama and Brown,
that the solutions to the tests or quests facing the world are indeed found in our similarities not our differences.
Lastly, what are your personal myths, what is the archetype you find yourself returning to ?
There is perhaps,something comforting in knowing this.
photo anatomical man tres rich duc du barry
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