Living Stories: On Mythic Truth
This talk will approach myth as a source and foundation for the practice of astral magic through an investigation of the unique nature of truth arrived at through myth. Neither unchanging consistent textual truth nor scientific objectivity, what myth offers us is a living conversation with reality itself – the world talking to us. Within myth we find ourselves implicated, living in and through the very stories we experience. It will be seen how a close investigation of the nature of planetary and astral myths presents living traditions that survive through variation, innovation, and a woven tapestry of echoing without stringent rules of consistency such as would present a singular reality reducible to one Truth. From particular attention paid to the oral origin and nature of myth, we will move on to investigate how the model of mythic truth transforms into the distinctive approach to sources and traditional authorities found in medieval Judaic, Christian, and Islamic intellectual practices – most particularly those found in texts such as the Picatrix and the Three Books of Occult Philosophy of Agrippa. Finally, we will consider the connection between so-called Unverified Personal Gnosis and mythic truth.
This talk will approach myth as a source and foundation for the practice of astral magic through an investigation of the unique nature of truth arrived at through myth. Neither unchanging consistent textual truth nor scientific objectivity, what myth offers us is a living conversation with reality itself – the world talking to us. Within myth we find ourselves implicated, living in and through the very stories we experience. It will be seen how a close investigation of the nature of planetary and astral myths presents living traditions that survive through variation, innovation, and a woven tapestry of echoing without stringent rules of consistency such as would present a singular reality reducible to one Truth. From particular attention paid to the oral origin and nature of myth, we will move on to investigate how the model of mythic truth transforms into the distinctive approach to sources and traditional authorities found in medieval Judaic, Christian, and Islamic intellectual practices – most particularly those found in texts such as the Picatrix and the Three Books of Occult Philosophy of Agrippa. Finally, we will consider the connection between so-called Unverified Personal Gnosis and mythic truth.
This talk will approach myth as a source and foundation for the practice of astral magic through an investigation of the unique nature of truth arrived at through myth. Neither unchanging consistent textual truth nor scientific objectivity, what myth offers us is a living conversation with reality itself – the world talking to us. Within myth we find ourselves implicated, living in and through the very stories we experience. It will be seen how a close investigation of the nature of planetary and astral myths presents living traditions that survive through variation, innovation, and a woven tapestry of echoing without stringent rules of consistency such as would present a singular reality reducible to one Truth. From particular attention paid to the oral origin and nature of myth, we will move on to investigate how the model of mythic truth transforms into the distinctive approach to sources and traditional authorities found in medieval Judaic, Christian, and Islamic intellectual practices – most particularly those found in texts such as the Picatrix and the Three Books of Occult Philosophy of Agrippa. Finally, we will consider the connection between so-called Unverified Personal Gnosis and mythic truth.