Classical
“May I do to other as I would that they do unto me.”
Paganism
—Plato
Judaism
“What is hateful to you; do not to your fellow man. This is the law: all the rest is commentary.”
—Talmud, Shabbat 31a
Christianity
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
—Matthew 7:12 (King James Version)
Islam
“None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”
—Number 13 of Imam Al-Nawawi’s Forty Hadiths
Native
“Do not wrong or hate your neighbor. For it is not he who you wrong, but yourself.”
America
—Pima proverb
Spirituality
All of these examples are written in different styles with varying complexities and originating in unique languages. Apart from all of these differences, there is a unified message of empathic reciprocity. Considering what the archaeological record shows about possible diffusion, migration, trade, and expansion, it still does not fully explain the consistency in the underlying message. When stripped of cultural identity, the message remains the same. Are we to believe that the “Golden Rule” is instinctual? Is it an innate principal? If so, where does it originate?
Jung believed that we experience the unconscious through symbols. This includes the products of all art, music, and language, both written and oral. Given the astounding consistency in the underlying themes of these symbols, perhaps there is a collective memory being transmitted, evocative of the Memes in Greek mythology, universally expressed through the creations of humans.
Archetypal symbols are mysteriously transmitted throughout history and modernity. Nevertheless, it is not a question of specific inherited images as much as it is one of a unified conscious experience. The interaction between our individual perceptions, universal consciousness, and symbolism enriches life and promotes personal development and growth.
Going back to my analogy of cloud computing, imagine that there is a universal consciousness filled with infinite data. All organisms, unique in design and function, are wired in such a way that they can tap into this “Cosmic Cloud” to send and retrieve data. Likewise, we can communicate with each other, but to do so requires an interface or the use of symbols. Which symbols we use depends on a number of factors unique to our individual abilities and limitations. However, as in the example of the “Golden Rule,” a unified message of mysterious origin can still be found underneath the symbols. Core messages seem consistent and enduring, even after the death of an individual or entire civilization. The information does not die along with the computing device or organism. Just as if your laptop were to no longer function, you can be sure that there are still people accessing their e-mail and streaming media online somewhere else in the world.
People do travel, communicate, and spread ideas and symbols. This is an indisputable fact. It can be proven in the archaeological record as well as in numerous other fields of study. Likewise, our smartphone can sync with tablets and our tablets can sync with desktop computers, and so on. The transmission of this data can appear to be purely physical. If someone were to observe the sharing of data between two smartphones and not know or understand the unseen details behind that process, it would appear that the two devices simply independently communicated with each other because they were of similar design and function, and in close proximity. This is essentially what we do when we focus solely on the physical or material evidence left behind by ancient cultures. We interpret out of the artifacts, rather than looking in.
These perspectives are not mutually exclusive. Like modern computing devices, we can and do physically share information when we are in close proximity. However, it is my belief that there are also unseen, immaterial factors, as suggested in the research and theories of Rene Descartes, Carl Jung, and Rupert Sheldrake. The question of how ancient people seemed to rapidly transmit themes in art, myth, and religion, regardless of geographic or technological restrictions, can only be answered if we view the universe as greater than ourselves.
Heather Lynn, PhD, is a writer, researcher, speaker, and archeologist with a PhD in comparative religion. She is president and founder of the Society for Truth in Archeological Research and a member of the World Archeological Congress. Her latest book is Anthrotheology: Searching For God in Man, and she researches and speaks widely on hidden history, mythology, esotericism, and the origin of consciousness. Her Website is www.drheatherlynn.com.
Prologue
A Perception of Ancient Symbolism From an Adventurous Egyptologist by John R. Ward
During the past few years I have been privileged to be part of research, which has identified a growing need to further understand the significance of ancient symbolism as it continues to accompany us in these modern times. This symbolism plays at the core of what makes us human beings, and comprises an integral part in the creation, development, and sustainment of our collective psyche.
As human beings we have surrounded ourselves with belief systems, and their accompanying guidelines-to-living. We have done this to offer guidance, to answer questions we perceive as unanswerable, and to bring us peace of mind when we can no longer rationalize the situations our world presents us. The human race has seen itself become organized into a diverse and complex social caste structure, disciplined into an attempt to bring order to our environment in which we have no control over. Due to this contradictory nature of the structure of our existence, we find ourselves curious to push the boundaries of our conscious awareness of our surroundings.
During this interplay we, as human beings, have developed a structured system of ICONS and IMAGES to which we can all relate as a human race, no matter where we are or what we call ourselves. This imagery encodes the fundamentals within either the society to which we are directly connected, or to a more UNIVERSAL CULTURAL SETTING.
The symbols we find ourselves surrounded by are used as a tool of interaction with one another on a non-verbal level, which requires no personal conscious thought process. Our conditioned mindsets interpret the symbolism on an individual basis through a series of stages of emotional, psychological responses. The symbolism corresponds to pictorial units, which do not necessarily have any natural resemblance. A single image may range from symbolizing a minor cultural aspect to a fully developed, global ideology. The symbols trigger an IMMEDIATE AND OUTSTANDING SUBLIMINAL REACTION when we are confronted by receiving their communicated message.
The very use of symbolism to communicate a message to one another has been inherent in our social structure and has evolved with us. However, throughout time, the FUNDAMENTAL IMAGERY HAS NOT DIFFERED THAT MUCH. (The use of geometric configurations and straight recognizable lines of reference have been passed on to us through several generations.) Even without realizing it, we still recognize and affiliate ourselves with cave etchings and drawings thousands of years old. Their influence over us continued even as their origins and early appearances disappeared. However, the subliminal interaction and acceptance lies within us constantly, dormant but ever-present.
Modern-day Egypt holds an abundance of the world’s ancient archaeological remains, which has shaped in one way or another the Western world’s perception of esoteric and hermetic teachings; yet approximately 90 percent of ancient Egypt still remains hidden beneath the sands of time. Imagine the wealth of knowledge and wisdom that remains undiscovered and what this cache of ancient understanding could bring to our own belief systems. What we can see today, though, is a veritable feast upon the eyes, stimulating our senses and emotions, and in some cases transcending us on a journey through history, as if we were somehow an integral part of something much larger.
The hieroglyphs, architectural elements, and stunning divine iconography all blend into one cacophony of s
ymbolism, an orchestrated movement, which stirs the inner soul. We are aroused by this experience and taken to various levels of pleasure that for some feels alien and awkward, but intriguing and sensual at the same time.
There are many questions that arise from such a mystical appraisal; were the ancient Egyptians aware of the intent that they had placed within their art and architectural forms? Was it their aim to place within these elements a message that could be conveyed and read by those who were not necessarily initiated into the Hermetic wisdom texts of the God Thoth?
Egyptian symbolism has long captivated the minds of philosophers and academicians alike, attempting in vain to re-capture the esoteric essence that lies within the ruins of Egypt. Secret societies, cults, religions, and industrial families had all adopted the ancient Egyptian craft as if it holds at its core the very material building blocks of life itself. Pyramids, sphinxes, lotus-budded columns and architraves, ankhs and serpentine crowns have all adorned our upper echelons of society, emulating the grandeur and spectacle of a great and magnificent lost civilization, but again in a vain attempt to invoke a certain transition of emotional and extra sensory perception as if a game of power play is at hand. Many a conspiracy theorist would agree!
Having explored the four corners of Egypt and retraced the footsteps of those that once dared to carve a route out of the inhospitable deserts, I have been privileged to observe firsthand the migration and development of ancient symbolic representations. As the caravan routes expanded so did the wisdom and knowledge contained within the pre-existing temple cities that lined the banks of the Grand River Nile.
Established state symbolism, combined with new and superstitious attributes of the fresh surroundings, began to emerge. The merger of old and new symbols held a certain charge that was readily identifiable by those who gazed upon them, understanding and deciphering the code within. It was travelers, tradesmen, armed garrisons, and migrant workers who carried this recently modified alchemistical symbolism with them, integrating them within their own stories of bravery and survival; articulating and passing on further to others their knowledge as the trade routes expanded over to mainland Europe. Europeans then assimilated and integrated this wealth of knowledge and myth within their own tales and belief systems.
So how could symbolism have affected the common man? Was it merely the size of the monumental structures looming in the distance, the home of the Pharaoh, fear of death, punishment, reward, and sacrifice? Was it the fear of the unknown, one of the greatest power plays by man upon man, to instill within him a fear or dread of the darkness that inhabits a soulless body, the Afterlife? Or was it unapproachable artistic symbolism, controlled by the state that kept the common Egyptian from understanding his role in the universe? Are we so different today?
Lest we forget, today we surround ourselves with similar symbolism; in fact, our entire lives are dedicated to symbolism in one way or another. There is little difference between the ancient Egyptians and us. They too were surrounded by symbolism; each and every component of day-to-day living was represented by a symbol or a collection of: Gods, deities, divine apparatus, attributes, spells, magic, religion (state or public), shrines, temples, statues, decrees, stelae, monumental scarabs erected in town squares declaring the voice of the living God, and the Pharaoh. Maybe it is just the interpretation of said symbols that separates us.
Interpretation is the key: While we give something one meaning, someone else will most definitely read it as something else. Personal upbringing, conditioning or cultural and religious effects all make us individuals and play integral parts in our process of interpretation. It goes without saying that the ancient Egyptian life was one of toil and hard work, surviving in a land that was harsh, cruel, and unforgiving. Life expectancies were far lower. For them their time on earth was a preparation for death, the next true life. Death was eternal, and the preparation was paramount to survive and navigate the Underworld. Symbolism, therefore, played an important role, if not pivotal, in the overall undertaking. We have lost the concept of appreciation; we take life for granted, require everything in the here and now and to be served upon a plate to us, and yet we require the rewards for service and obedience in the next world. How can we therefore even begin to compare our modern symbolic world to that of the ancient Egyptian with all of his relevant symbolism? Theirs was truly Ma’at—harmony, truth, and justice—while we dwell in the chaos.
Dr John R. Ward is an archaeologist, anthropologist, explorer, author, public speaker, and radio host from Hereford, England. His new book is The Exodus Reality: Unearthing the Real History of Moses, Identifying the Pharaohs, and Examining the Exodus From Egypt with Scott A. Roberts. Currently, John is a member of the Gebel el Silsila Survey Project team working at the largest ancient sand stone quarries in Egypt, the source for many of the ancient upper Egyptian temples and shrines. John lives on the West bank of Luxor, the former location of ancient Thebes, famous today for its ancient historical sites and tombs, with his partner and their menagerie of animals.
Introduction
Going Viral
It’s impossible to go online to any social networking site without running across something that has not gone “viral.” Not in the sense of disease, like the Ebola virus or avian flu, but instead a transmission of information in the form of words or images that spreads like a virus all across the world via the Web. And like the most virulent and contagious of viruses, this information makes its way into the minds and hearts of people from all walks of life, should they but click on a particular link or watch a particular video. Then, they pass that information on to their friends and family, who pass it along to theirs, and so on and so on and so on.
Within hours, 15 million people can be made privy to a video of a man lustily eating French fries, or a cat that plays piano, or a talented toddler singing the National Anthem in Aramaic while juggling, blindfolded.
Information today is passed from person to person at a speed that boggles the mind, and would have been thought of as magic during ancient times. Yet even then, somehow information managed to get around, from civilization to civilization, sometimes crossing oceans and vast bodies of land, even uninhabited land, despite the lack of technology to help that spread. No planes, trains, and automobiles...no Pony Express...no mail service...no phones...and certainly no computers and Internet access.
Ancient civilizations had no discernable means of passing their knowledge and history on in a viral sense. Or did they?
Imagine having no computer or phone. Imagine having some information you wanted to get from your neck of the woods to a town a thousand miles away. How would you do that? And what if there was no guarantee anyone would even see it in your lifetime? How could that information be embedded so that someday, someone would see it?
The key would be to embed and transmit that information using the means you had available at the time, of course. Writing, stories, myth, art, architecture, symbolism, even music. Any form of communication would do, as long as there was the promise of it reaching beyond the confines of your own small place in the world. The tools of the past, as crude as they may appear to those of us addicted to our gadgets, included methods and means of embedding knowledge, even scientific and historical information, within fairy tales and cosmogenesis stories, religious parables and stories, myths and folklore, art and buildings, sacred edifices and esoteric objects. Think about the Greek and Roman myths we learned in school. What we have come to know as story often contains more fact than we ever imagined. But that fact is often hidden behind a beginning, a middle, and an end, with a message or a theme, and images describing events that there was no sophisticated verbiage for at the time. Myths and stories are meant to impart information even as it continues a legacy of a people from generation to generation.
This book examines the way stories, myths, and folklore show how even the most primitive cultures understood the world around them far more than we give them credit for. Joseph Campbell’s The Masks of God
proposes that ancient literature, including mythology, actually contained significant scientific concepts and understanding, and are examples of “monomyth,” the common structures found in all myth and ancient stories. This literature of ancient times was meant to tell us something. It was information in the form of oral and written tradition. It was meant to go viral, only much slower because the spread was from mouth to ear, or page to eye.
In addition, Viral Mythology looks at “archeoenigmas,” intriguing common themes and elements in ancient myth, stories, and even art, architecture, iconography, and symbolism. Stories were often told in pictures, and the images used all over the world to describe various natural phenomena, and even potentially supernatural phenomena, were often similar to one another, suggesting that certain themes were archetypal. Why did so many diverse civilizations, separated by thousands of miles, with no real means or methods of communication, all tell the same stories, and use the same symbolic imagery, with only slight regionally influenced variations? Was there some outside influence spreading these common themes, or were these cultures tapping into a field of ideas and information that existed in the collective subconscious?
Do fairytales and folkloric stories contain real, hard science, or descriptions of real historical events hidden within the tall-tale telling, as understood and interpreted by the authors who wrote them and the cultures that spread them? Often, the story format served to describe the process of birth, life, and death, especially of the natural world, as documented in anthropologist Sir James Frazier’s The Golden Bough, a massive tome filled with stories of fertility rites, magic, human sacrifice, and nature worship. Frazier’s amazing book combined both scientific thought with religious perspectives to present an examination of rituals and symbolism throughout the 20th century, progressing from beliefs in magic to religion to science.
Viral Mythology Page 2
