Reply To: The Fires of Love-Death, with Mythologist Norland Téllez
Hello,
Wow
Great Myth Blast.
Great rabbit hole.
It’s been awhile since I’ve read up on Melanesian myth and ritual.
I would recommend everyone do a refresher google search Jstor has some great articles. The explicit sexual symbolism is fascinating. I was looking for symbolism of the puberty rites ritual. There are also some informative you tube videos.
Is the procession of boys a reenactment of the generational procession of the ancestors through the female ? Are the heavy logs symbolic of vegetation fertility ? The tree of life ? The ancestors? Totems representing the pair ? Human life is a portion , the log is cut , has a beginning and end , birth and death . The sacrificial pair represent the current living generation . They are an enactment of the mundane truth of life and death. All have the log hanging over, a memento mori. “When the bough breaks the cradle will fall…”. The Cross is constructed ,through carpentry , of two logs. Symbolic of the vertical transcendent and the horizontal temporal with all the quadrant associations of time and space.
It is an honor to die becoming one with the ancestors.
May we all be food for future generation of the species. May they receive sustenance from our successes and failure.
May our boys become men and our girls become women .
It is all the ancestors could hope fore.
May we procreate wisely in flesh mind and spirit.
May we make them proud
May they give us wisdom .
There is a thinly veiled veneer between us and them. Gossamer …
Do you think Love is a western projection on their ritual ?
“INELUCTABLE MODALITY OF THE VISIBLE: AT LEAST THAT IF NO MORE”
“diaphane in. Why in? Diaphane, adiaphane. If you can put your five fingers through it, it is a gate, if not a door. Shut your eyes and see.”
I enjoy the ethos of the cargo cult. How it has been used in pop literature. Who is John Frum ?
“INELUCTABLE MODALITY OF THE VISIBLE: AT LEAST THAT IF NO MORE”
“diaphane in. Why in? Diaphane, adiaphane. If you can put your five fingers through it, it is a gate, if not a door. Shut your eyes and see.”
It is a great photo. Isn’t it? With so many narratives behind it of the sacred and profane. Visual perception inception conception … Primordial Nobility !!!
R³