[SidianMSJones]

I wrote a blog post yesterday about this topic and would be interested to hear any thoughts on it or how it might be improved. However I also don’t know the policies here about linking to other sites. Could someone advise?

[Stephen Gerringer]

If you click on Guidelines & FAQ at the top of the page, you’ll find forum posting guidelines the first entry – always a good idea to check those out. Number 8 is the one that addresses your question (in general the answer is no, but there is an exception):

8. Refrain from Self-Promotion
Announcements linking to your new blog post, book, workshop, video clip, etc., will be deleted, unless they are demonstrably part of the greater conversation. The only exception is the Share-Your-Work Gallery, a subforum within The Conversation with a Thousand Faces. If you have art, poetry, writing, or links to music and other work you would like to share, do so here.

[jamesn.]

I see that Stephen has responded to your question and as you decide what you want to do I will leave a link to the JCF YouTube channel which has a huge cache of clips with Joseph addressing a large number topics throughout his work. This is a clip on Jung and the Left-Hand Path of the Hero which specifically addresses Personal Myth. The link to the channel is included within the clip logo below the screen.

[SidianMSJones]

Noted Stephen, I’ll refrain from posting such things here.

[Stephen Gerringer]

I’d actually suggest either posting a link (or the entire blog post) in the Share Your Work Gallery (link is in my previous comment), or, if it’s not too much work and is relevant to the discussion, copy-and-paste portions of your blog entry here, customizing it a touch.

The main idea behind that guideline is to encourage discussion, not “canned” material prepared for another venue (you would be surprised how many people would pop on and drop a quick hit-and-run post pointing people to their page, without actually every participating in the conversations here). However, you are already participating, rather than trying to build followers.

I will note that it’s not self-promotion if I share your website, which is http://MyMythos.org
🙂

[jamesn.]

Also I did some searching last night about Personal Mythology on the internet and came across this wonderful Wikipedia listing that goes quite indepth on this topic and mentions both your mentor; Dr. Krippner; and also Sam Keen who together with Joseph gave workshops at Esalen Institute for many years until just before he passed. Keen’s book; “Your Mythic Journey” was inspired by these workshops; which the Foundation still continues on Joseph’s birthday every Spring. (You may have contributed to this listing and if so it’s extremely well done.) Also it was nice to see Joseph’s biographer; Stephen Larson; “Fire in the Mind”; mentioned along with his terrific book: “The Mythic Image” listed as well.

[SidianMSJones]

Haha yes well played 🙂 and thank you! You must have googled me then?

After looking at the post again I think it would come across as a big advertisement here because the “answer” I’m proposing to the meaning crisis is not just Personal Mythology but MyMythos’s version of it.

I think I’ll have to find another post that is more relevant for these forums.

[SidianMSJones]

I watched this just recently :). Great stuff.

[jamesn.]

Sidian; if I may call you that; would you consider a collaboration from all of us from scratch?; say something like: “What is your interpretation of a Personal Myth and how does it give you meaning looking ahead?”; or something like that. I’m still not quite sure what you are trying to address. The thing is; at least to me anyway; is there is a need to talk about this kind of thing. I think a lot of people are going through this dilemma right now because there are so many different issues folks have to deal with; and Joseph’s work addresses this very point. Anyway; whatever you want to do is fine; it’s just a suggestion.

[jamesn.]

Sidian; you have seen the JCF YouTube channel‘s huge stash of clips; right? Dozens and dozens of separate clips to draw from. Just curious

[SidianMSJones]

Well here’s most the text of the post but then afterward it goes into how I believe MyMythos (my personal mythology project) is one of the potential solutions, so I’m leaving that out so as not to self promote.

We are gluttonously consuming information, facts, and data, but we are starved of a working world view, spiritual meaning, life purpose. John Vervaeke calls this “the meaning crisis” and many are inclined to agree with him, as am I.

Cultural traditions have long been a provider of such things, but probably the biggest provider has been religion. For instance: the reasons why you work, why you marry, why you don’t do bad things, or even why you ‘practice’ the sexuality that you do!

But traditions have gone and religion is in decline every single year. So then what?

We have the “rise of the nones”, those who have no religious affiliation. But the curious thing about this rise is not that they are atheist; no, they are rather more often “spiritual but not religious”. So what spirituality is it? Where do its laws and practices come from? Everywhere. They utilize Christian prayer, Babylonian astrology, Yogic stretches, Shamanic sage smudging, Celtic hand fasting, science based theory (entanglement supporting “oneness”) Hindu greetings (Namaste), the list is infinite.

So here we are in the middle of an entire shift on what it means to practice spirituality. The freedom is limitless and yet it also leaves us somewhat disconnected. She celebrate Ostara, but he celebrates Easter; he doesn’t eat meat but she does; he marries because it was prearranged and she did out of love. At the end of the day there are few overlapping traditions, meanings, and values to commune, celebrate, or calibrate with one another.

The paradigm has been shifting for a few decades now, that personal meaning will be the way forward. The question among all this individuation is “Where/when do we reconnect?”.

I believe the answers are slowly being created and built. We will find a new level at which to connect and a new understanding of how to connect with others BASED on the celebration of our uniqueness. This will happen culturally but it will also happen in technology, and become increasingly easier for it.

[SidianMSJones]

Surprisingly no! Thank you for the link!

[jamesn.]

Sidian; this is terrific. Now I have a much clearer idea of where you are going with this. Btw; did you see a very long post of mine earlier? Right now it’s being held for moderation; but the site has been behaving strangely today. We’ve had “WordPress” security softeware problems in the past that seem to have resurfaced. First as you probably know there were sign-in issues; plus internet connection problems for some of us. Now it seems an old entry problem has resurfaced with the security sometimes asking for checking off pictures to gain access. It’s a familiar security ID protection a lot of websites use since hacking is such a major concern. At any rate a moderator or technical support person usually has to adjust something to get everything running smoothly again . My “very” long post may have triggered something because of the large amount of text and adding a link; (who knows). at any rate I think your material is super; and if you want to go further and expand on this I’m sure everyone else will too.

Did my request about approaching this from multiple viewpoints make sense? And if so is that something that you would be interested in pursuing for an approach for your subject? That way everyone can give their point of view on the subject without feeling like they would be offending anyone; (if that makes sense). This is just a suggestion that might enlarge the approach; but you may have other thoughts in mind about this; so no problem there if that’s the case. This is your thread; so no worries.

Thanks again for responding back with all this rich material; this clears things up a lot because I was a little unclear about what you were asking; and people have so many “different ideas” about what a “personal” myth actually is as I’m sure you’ve experienced.

[jamesn.]

You are certainly welcome concerning the link. The long post has been removed and I’ll post something else later. Stephen and I discussed this and there were some unforeseen issues that prevented posting it. No worries as I already have something else in mind that work better anyway. I’ve mentioned your new update to the others so some feedback on how you want to proceed will help to get us started. Again; thanks for the update; this helps a lot.

[SidianMSJones]

You mean a separate post where we all discuss what Personal Mythology means to us? Yes I think that would be great and I agree it is something needed among these times of the ‘meaning crisis’.

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