[Here is another essay by a student of ELZ@S6K who teaches a course in Mythology.]
Every individual is born as a part or a member of a society. That society will dictate what he will believe and the culture that he will carry. However, the time will come that what he believes and already knows will be challenged. That time is when he enters school. Here are three mythological knowledge that really disturbed or surprised me: all societies have myths; myths can enhance humanity; and myth became a part of Christian worship.
At first, what I know is that myth only belongs to the primitive society, but I was wrong because the truth is, all societies have myths. Thus, all countries of the world have their own precious myths: the vampires of Europe, Zeus of Greece who became Jupiter of Rome and Osiris of Egypt. Even we, Filipinos, also have our own myths. We have the aswang, the tikbalang, and all sorts. Furthermore, even modern society is filled with myths. We can see people practicing fengshui and even astrology, such as the horoscope. Most of our buildings are designed with mythological symbols with the phalynx in the White House grounds and St. Peter’s Square, to cite a few.
As a modern man, I viewed myth as a disturbance or hindrance to progress. The reason is that I often see families who became poor because of ancestor worship. However, myth doesn’t really stop there. The truth is, it can enhance humanity. One of the good things it can do is that it promotes unity among families and community. In countries of Oceania, in Korea and in China, marriage is not only a simple union of the couple but of the whole family; thus, members of both families help each other to make the union a success. Through myth, nature can also be preserved. African and Oceanian people are animistic; thus, they revere everything. As a result of their belief, mountains, rivers and trees are protected. Most of all, through myth, we can achieve peace. Hindus believe in karma, wherein it says that you will reap what you sow. This belief in karma can prevent people from doing what is bad. One more belief that can promote peace is what we call reincarnation. Once a person believes in reincarnation, he will not do anything that is unpleasant for fear that he will turn into the lowest form of life like a cockroach, in the next life.
Myth becoming a part of Christian worship is the mythological knowledge that really disturbed me most. I really thought that Christian worship is purely Christian and not a mixture of different myths, but again I was wrong. Christmas, the most celebrated date of the year, known as the birthday of the Messiah Jesus Christ was actually a pagan day. It is actually the birthday of the sun god, Sol. Furthermore, farmers cannot go out to their farm at that time because it is winter. Thus, the actual birth month of the Messiah is August. We also have a lot of Christian festivals that are not actual Christian at all; one of which is Easter. It is actually copied from Mesopotamia and their goddess Ishtar and was only modified in Europe. They just added bunnies and eggs. One more festival is the SantaCruzan, dedicated to the mother of Constantine, Elena. Constantine wasn’t a Christian; he was a pagan in the Mithra worship of the sun. Most of all, the so-called Trinity . . . all myths have trinity; we have Seth, Isis and Horus for Egypt. Moreover, how could there be three gods when in fact there is only One, Yahweh. Most of what we believe as pure are actually mixture of different myths, that’s what made it beautiful.
The knowledge that we already have about this world is not as solid as diamond. Through learning, we can prove that all societies have myths and not only the primitive ones, myths can actual enhance humanity, and sometimes Christian worship is not Christian at all. As to these facts, as humans created with rational reasoning, we should be open to everything. We must take not that there is no single means of probing the truth. Thus, we should not settle on what we already know, and keep on probing the things that bother us. The answers to those questions are floating in the open air.
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