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You have entered the realm of my mind where words play with the fabric of our existence. This is the map of my imagination: the very foundations of inspiration, musing, and thought splayed for your wandering eyes. Dive deep into the tides of these forces and experience my reality, my fantasy, my world; and if you should be so inclined, share your words with this land.

Peace and Love!

J Hart F

Monday, February 1, 2010

I Stand Beyond the Trinity.

A realization came to me today. Its affect startled me; sent me on an unsettling journey of distinctions of my upbringing, my faith, and how these affect my ability to interpret and understand literature. These realizations seem significantly symbolic in my life currently, given I have found a new means for expressing my own writing and have become inherently passionate about the process. However, this may simply be an opportunity presenting itself in a way that I will unquestioningly understand.

To the point: I am a witch, a Wiccan, living and learning in a Christian centric, Western society. The canon for which I prescribe is Western Literature and therefore has many Jewish, Christian and Biblical allusions and themes. Raised in a household whose views aren't alligned with the majority of churches in American society, I rarely, if not never, went to church. Thus, I have very little knowledge of the Judaic, Christian, and Islamic mythos. Know I fear this sets me back, pushes me into a subset of literature connoisseurs who lack the complete historical knowledge which can be referenced throughout the canon.

Today we talked about T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, and not even the entire poem. We focused merely on the title. Three words. Three very distinctly, meaningfully, provocative words full of allusions, symbols and imagery. Let me list the process by which we talked about The Waste Land:

Wasteland vs. Waste Land
Waste Land is an unfertile land, unused
Waste Land could mean possible potential
Some knowledge the poem references The Grail Mythos; Percival and the Fisher King
Waste Land means in between/boundary lands: River, Mountain, Desert
God Speaks to you in boundary lands: Mountaintop
Moses: leads his people to a Waste Land
Waste Land means Transition/Transitional/Transcendence
Fisher King represents Cyclical timing in Pagan Mythos
the Grail a Pagan or Christian symbol?
Sangraal/St. Graal/Sang Raal
Talked about Christian occasions/ceremonies and how they mirror pagan ceremonies

This conversation took the entire class period, in which time I learned quite a bit about this allusion to Percival and the Fisher King. But my view of The Waste Land is only partially complete because of my knowledge of the importance of Christian inferences in the piece and how they furthers the meaning of the work as a whole.

Herein lies the challenge: to learn through many methods the ideology, mythology and popular symbolism used from Christianity, Judaism and Islam. If it must come to studying Christianity in depth, then let it be. I don't want to feel or seem ignorant and uneducated about a significant portion of Western Civilization because I don't believe as most westerners believe.

3 comments:

  1. As a sociologist, I can understand the predicament you find yourself in. I think it's wonderful that you've decided to study the unfamiliar. Regardless of anyone's background, it's incredibly important to have some sort of desire to understand others. You don't have to agree with them, just an attempt to understand a different perspective is admirable. So yeah. Kudos to you, my friend :)

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  2. While you are still in school take an intro religion course. It's the best way to get an overview of the main themes (which coincidentally are pretty similar between the three biggies). Or you can simply attend a church service with a friend as an observer. But don't forget a key rule of writing: write about what you know! All of us boring Protestants would much rather read about *your* upbringing :) Thanks for pointing me to your blog!

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  3. Although I am not Christian I do believe it is very difficult to understand American culture in a deep way without an understanding of Christianity. The best way to learn about it would be to study the development and history of the church. And if you were to do that you would know more than most Christians (no insult intended). Of course I would also argue that you know more than you think you do. It is impossible to not pick up a lot just by growing up here.

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