Why
Mythology
My
book, from the beginning, has not been merely an interaction of costumed
people, with things, in places. It has been heavily laden with my personal life
and philosophies, but twisted, like many of my dreams, to hold the meaning
without being literal. It has also built itself naturally, without me forcing
it into existence. Everyone in it represents someone I have known, but pushed
further, and made into a symbol, an archetype. Even before I had a workable
plot, I had these pieces of ideas, many times inspired from my own dreams, that
became part of my reasoning with existence in this mortal world. In reality,
there is a rhythm of exciting and mundane, catharsis and boredome. I found that
the best times are very hard to record, or even remember accurately, but my
stories and pictures could return me to those creative, emotionally lively and
meaning laden places.
I love
mythology. Not to replace true beliefs or faith, but to supplement my way of
expressing the complex nature and interactive meanings of life. I have an
artist’s view of living, even if I am too impatient to make great looking art.
I think most people have a scaled down version of personal mythology, in which
they are putting a map of their life together, to help them understand the
weird, confusing and sublime. I am just more deliberate at making or recording
mine. There is a power to collecting dreams, and evaluating their meaning. It’s
those underneath layers where the symbols lie, where meaning is found, where
legend and myth connect with purpose and passion.
Example
The
two rooms near the beginning, before Uendyr jumps through the portal, represent
Chaos and Order. When I was a teen, I was constantly drawing and writing, then
finding myself surrounded by the mess that happened by being disorganized about
those writings.
Radalus
is a guide for order, and Chaos has no guide . . . imagine that. Chaos is a
full, dangerous, confusing and dark place, inspired by my grandmother’s
basement, which you have to work through to find the history, the
understanding, the practicality and the order. It’s full of potential, needing
development. I see the same in the mess of ideas I collected for years for this
book. That Chaos place comes first, and provides the material and the mystery
for the order that comes later.
The
White room of order is like a museum, where the strange things are given a
space to be evaluated, one at a time, and changed from a puzzle to a complete
picture. Radalus helps Uendyr understand what is happening, a voice of reason
necessary for order. He is like the curator to the museum of the mind. He is
also the imagination that sees the potential and the whimsical purpose that
comes from all of that raw material.
Then
he gives Uendyr choices. Uendyr’s reason for choosing to jump is fear – the
first, from the gut reason. Not the best reason, but still leading to the next
step. He will find further, better reasons later, but it’s good to see why you
do things, and recognize your motivation. I identify quite a lot with Uendyr in
his decisions. I wasn’t very deliberate in the beginning either.
There
is an example of my personal mythology. I used it throughout this book.
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