Why, in so many of the predominant creation myths is woman seen to be troublesome or a punishment to man. Are we really that irritating and useless?It makes me sad, but these stories also show the power in creation and birth anew that is apparently both a blessing and a curse. According to ancient histories and art, many of the first communities were matriarchal... but time bore a stiff backlash.The 'weaker sex' was blamed for evil in the world... restrained in some areas, contrained in others, 'second citizens' in still more. SOME images of the divine are seen to be jealous, male, and vindictive, and their lesser companions petty and vengeful.Why can't we all get along?I have some ideas, but I think we could try a whole lot harder.... and the only way seems to me to be to work on the one being we have a chance with - ourselves, Hard enough to get that in line before tackling world societies. And if we don't do that first, woe continues to betide us. The story of Pandora is particularly fascinating to me as she was made to be a companion and fashioned with curiosity as a punishment to man. This sounds so familiar to us, but how could there possibly be fault in it. She was made that way, conditioned to be that way, wasn't shown a different model. http://greek-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_myth_of_pandoras_box The story of the first man, refitted later in history when many cultures turned vehemently patriarchal, held that the first woman was made second to man, in some cases from of a small piece of him - to assuage the fact that women were an important part of the creation and birth cycle - and loosed evil on the world. A vehicle as it were. The gods' gifts were complicated... a reflection of the complex ways that humans understood and projected their limited understanding on the world around them. How can we understand the divine to be more than we understand about ourselves? Mysterious ways still sound a lot like the mysterious development of the human spirit through time.Why is there war, illness, disagreement when all is human free will? We still have trouble with these questions, and so there are made to be answers... often at the fault of the feminine. Less often at the hand of the masculine. If you have not read the Dostoyevsky chapter entitled, "The Grand Inquistor," it is well worth your time. A twist worth mulling over. What would happen if that situation and time were actual? The author of "The Brothers Karamazov's" rendition... or some other? http://www.bookrags.com/The_Grand_Inquisitor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grand_InquisitorIt is curious to me in the extreme, that among all the 'gifts in Pandora's jar/box/what have you... that Hope was placed in there too. Was it an afterthought... or a sense of guilt through all-seeing eyes, or a deliberate experiment to see if it would be enough to keep these 'inferior' creations alive in a difficult world? Without Hope, all is lost, I feel that in myself, deep inside.
At first, when all evils were loosed on the world, hope was the only thing that was caught alone - last in the box. Finally it was released as a conscious decision to assuage the damage done.
I really don't know where I'm going here... but it makes me upset that modern 'stories,' kept from the past, still blame women first and foremost. It is easy to blame them as they are mothers and sisters and daughters, holding the fabric of family and culture together in important, but often subservient ways, but bound to that work as a result - deer caught in the headlights sometimes. I see it all over.... using the same arguments culture uses to blame themselves.
I know I've been imprinted with blame, from the moment I was born - call it original sin or something else. There is another story out there, and we need to find it or create it once more in order to survive as a species, I believe. Eve is cast as the gullible bringer of sin into the world; Pandora as the releaser of human trouble, save Hope.
I am so tired... but I know balance is the only way out of OUR diseased state of affairs. The coin of unity has two sides. The first split in the cosmic egg.I am not saying ANYONE is at fault - just that a villain had to be collectively found for what was wrong in people's everyday lives... easy pickins were used, jealousy was involved, and balance must be found. This makes many people mad - both men and women... conditioned from birth to accept their roles. It drives some men to war against 'enemies' and domestic violence to climb ever higher. It drives some women to other crimes.
We must all get to a solution fast. People are being murdered every day, all over the globe, in the name of that most high, cast as only human projection can, to be jealous and angry, among other qualities. It really has always made me sad, as I have felt those shackles, as well as the freedom from them at times, swirl and plait through my life and days.
Which brings me back to hope. When the box is closed, and all seems lost... That is what we have to work with. It can change the course of history, but the hour is getting late... and as the hour is late whilst I write this too... I fret and worry. Doesn't help. Hard to hold on to the small voice that still whispers constantly in my ear to keep me moored to life to the best extent I can manage.
I know this is not a well-written or cogent piece, and I am not proud of it. I just don't know what to do... Perhaps I will think a while on the Lakota tribe's spider woman, who is still weaving our tale.
Hate abounds, and I really don't want it directed at me, but I woke up VERY early with this adamant concern.Whatever will be will be, and our spirits will move on - maybe here or maybe not, but no amount of fretting will change that - only action and acceptance of what we are able and unable to do as a species NOW, for that is the only time that truly exists... ever.
Men have their own burdens too, and I feel for them, just as deeply. It's most likely that I don't understand what individuals create and sell to the world. All I know is that I have questions and concerns, and little energy or understanding to DO at this moment... anything. I do see people gathering and trying, more than at almost any time in MY life.
Sad. Tired. Hopeful? All I've done is try to express deep-seated observations and questions.
Painting: "Pandora (1896)" by John William Waterhouse