Spirituality

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A Short History of Myth, part 3

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This darkly pessimistic view on goddesses is most exemplified in Armstrong’s version of the myths of Inanna. I’ve had the pleasure of reading some rather good translations of these myths, translations which scholars themselves laud. Inanna, the Queen of Heaven and Earth, Love and War, is clearly a goddess of life, death, and rebirth, moving…

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A Short History of Myth, part 2

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Blatant and inaccurate double standards As I’ve previously noted, I was not happy with how the second chapter was progressing. To my increasing dismay, things only got worse: we are introduced to the so-called original “High God” or “Sky God” of the “ancient Mesopotamians, Vedic Indians, Greeks and Canaanites,” which is a “primitive monotheism” Armstrong…

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A Short History of Myth, part 1

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The first book by Karen Armstrong which I read was A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It was absolutely amazing to me — chock-full of new ideas, fascinating religious philosophy, and beautiful writing. Since then I have read a few others as well by Armstrong, and I was delighted…

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Magic in “Flight of the Valkyries”

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(another of the very short papers for the class on the spirituality of creativity) I know of several works of art with a mythic element which I find inspiring — I even created some of them. For this assignment, however, I picked the one I’ve known and loved the longest: Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries….

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James Lord’s “A Giacometti Portrait”

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This was a quick one-page paper written for one of my classes, which has a wonderful name: “Tree of Brilliant Fruit: Finding Spiritual Wisdom Through the Arts.” I’m sharing the paper here because the book was interesting, I’m open to other folks’ interpretations, it’s fun, and I like sharing writing. I can probably come up…

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Sunshiny ramblings, part 2

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Not being much for pranks, I’m cheerfully indulging myself in yet more gorgeous weather and pleasant mental ramblings: I think I’ve discovered the three things which help me stay happiest with my life. Curiously, I’d not previously mentally verbalized them, and it wasn’t until I read someone else speaking of them that I realized this…

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Sunshiny rambling, part 1

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The weather is absolutely gorgeous today! I am so pleased to have sunshine and warmth now, instead of constantly gray and rainy days. Consequently, here are some more quietly happy random thoughts… of no particular seriousness or order. :) ———- My hair is growing longer! When I let it down, the longest ends now brush…

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Spring Break

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It is the first day of my Spring Break as I write this — wheeeee! Of course, being the Wild Child I am, I’ll likely happily spend it curled up on the couch with my textbooks and laptop, working on midterms in front of a crackling fire as I sip a mug of hot tea…

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A new year’s midrash of “I Am Eve”

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Wowzers. This has been an extremely momentous holiday season for my household and myself. I’m very excited at successfully registering for my first quarter of classes for the PhD — both on-line and face-to-face classes, it looks like. I’ve not done on-line classes before; nifty! I’m being careful for the first quarter and not taking…