Notes

Action Comics. The first superhero punch expanding into imaginary mindspace in an evercontinuing fracturing and expanding explosion of superhuman force.

The ripples of epic violence shattering through the minds of humanity. A spear thrust straight through the serpent end of alpha male ego.

Straight through to a kid punching a bully. Action Comics #1 rolled up on the ground.

Man of Tomorrow. Scheduling Superman.

Superman as a superexample of how a man should be.

Man of Steel. Supermechanics.

Superman repairs the damage his battles cause.

Last Son of Krypton. Superhumanity.

How can they be so human? Why can't they see?

The Flash.
Speed Force. The impulse of the universe. Spark of humanity. Divine thunderbolt. Quicksilver. Mercury. Primordial energy. Velocital center.

The Universe ended. Infinite Crisis. Company versus the people. Batman is our inside man. The pull upwards of our gods forces our consciousness to expand to heights we would not reach otherwise.

Barry Allen was prepared to exist on a higher plane: the Speed Force. It was here that he was able to examine the problems of the DC Universe, or the force that guides it, it's wavelength if you will.

Examining the heroic ideal. Perfecting humanity. The scientist looking at the patterns and making connections.

Hal Jordan. He doesn't exist. But his will makes it so. So malleable was the matter of his world that he was able to remanifest himself. Order. Form. Structure.

Flame. The torch in the darkness. Giving shape by the casting of the light from the Lantern. The first tool against the unknown.

Brave and the Bold.

Hypertime x Speedforce = existence

Enjoying every instance of existence. Nirvana in slo-mo.
Time to think. Time to plan. Eternity adrift.

Power pulsating, emanating from within, down your arm, up into your fist, and fired from your ring. The Green of creation.

The Trial. A cop crosses the line. His record tarnished. He had no choice. It was all determined before he was born. It was the stuff of lightning striking.

The Sun. You unleash on your friends. You destroy your entire life. Everything that made you a hero instantly negating your entire existence. Does reigniting the dark make good?

Justice League.
Superman's reality shattering raw power. Batman's mind focusing the beam. Wonder Woman tempering it with ruthless mercy. The Flash keeping the world spinning generating a containing force. Green Lantern forges the form upon the river of hypertime.

Green Arrow shoots straight. Black Canary shows how the chicks bring it.

The Atom drops it down a notch. Martian Manhunter helps out with a hand. Hawkman barges in and demands. Aquaman acts like it doesn't matter.

Plastic Man. He needs a job.

Mercury University.
Wally West needs to settle down. Wife Linda, and supersped siblings Jai and Iris, have to act like a family. A professor position? Seems being a superhuman since you were ten gets you a little far in today's economy. What do you mean DC 1,000,000? What do you mean by 853,000 BC? The end of the Universe? On the planet Merecury? Where a school exists with a dark secret that is keeping the entire DC Universe from plunging into the final moments of entropy of the human mind?

Wow, that's a lot of info. Good thing you have such good teachers such as Coach John Fox who jogs on the cosmic treadmill before breakfast each morning. Or Dr. Jesse Chambers who teaches abstract mathematics, philosophical physics, thirteen languages (including Interlac), as well as business ethics. Professor Chunk's lecture may be agonizingly slow, but every word out of his mouth on the subject of metaphysical mechanics will blow your mind.

Wally's all set to instruct the younger generation, the hyperactive kids he's always had a bond with. Didn't he? The joke's gotten old and now it's time to grow up Wally. You got two kids after all. Jai and Iris try to make friends but with their family legacy they're either made fun of or ignored. Each copes in their own way. As does Linda. A 21st Century gal (extra-dimensional/temporally displaced mother of two) living in a superspeeding society that blurs around her like a strobelit social club.

Bart Allen. Loner. Rebel. Longhaired slowpoke. He doesn't run anymore haven't you heard? Grew up too fast that poor boy. Only lived a handful of years and look how grown up he is. He's the traitor to the bloodline. He wants to be an Allen. All he can ever hope to be is not a Thawne. Anything but that.

But at least he's got Turtle. He moves slow despite being the son of the great Flash of the 38th Century. A King of the Multiverse. All is perfection under his rule. All are content. An embarassment who can not run.

Xs at least brings in some cheer. She won't let either of these two brood for very long. She hides her heartache but racing past it all and keeping pace are not that far apart.

Max Mercury will not let him get away with this. His body may not even be his anymore, but his mind, that spark, that eventual existential moment where what you are pulses through each beat, that's where he'll hide until the moment is right. Then he'll strike.

The Rival may be the bizarro Zoom, energy altering my flesh, and Eobard may have the passion to drive this plan, and Hunter can think he's in charge. But they're all pawns.

It's Savitar. That sonofabitch. I know it's him. He thinks he's god and of course he'd find a way here. Scheme his way, play us all, just so he could get what he wanted: to peer out upon the final moment of existence and withhold the entire world from unexisting.

It's not the natural way though. And not even those thugs, mercurial mercenaries all, the Rogues, could stop the natural order from taking place. The countdown must begin. The very end of everything must begin.

Kid Eternity! is going to die. And Kid Eternity! shall live. Two opposing forces collide in this explosion of intense energy! Superhero power. Mystical heroism. Timeless travels. He might have to guide your soul to Valhalla, or perhaps unite conflicting ideals, forge concepts into functional form. Wisdom from lives lived. The ideal of that person. Memory layered over fiction, human pressed upon power, igniting the spectacle. The spark of eternal creation. The grindstone of superpowers. The rock of eternity. The flint of form.

Marvel Family. Rock. Eternity.

Superman Family. Mineral. Force.

Batman Family. Body. Discipline.

Flash Family. Knowledge. Energy.

Wonder Woman. Spirit. Mercy.

Green Lanterns. Space. Willpower.

Aquaman. Government. Tranquility.

Evolution of Language Notes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language

http://wiki.cotch.net/index.php/Linguistic_evolution

On Language: Descent From the Tower of Babel
Rod Mengham

http://library.thinkquest.org/C004367/la1.shtml

Introduction
Humans are the only species that has evolved an advanced system of communication between individuals. Whereas other species communicate through ritualized and repetitious songs, calls, or gestures, humans have developed linguistic systems that can express a literally infinite variety of separate and distinct thoughts. This incredible evolutionary leap is what distinguished humans from all other organisms on earth.

The Evolution of Language
Language first appeared between 30,000 and 100,000 years ago in the species Homo sapiens. But how did language evolve? Currently, there are two rival answers to this question: the first and more common explanation is that language was an adaptation of some sort; the second (chiefly espoused by Stephen Jay Gould) is that language is a spandrel, a nonadaptive element arising as a byproduct of other processes. We will consider these explanations in reverse order.

Language as a Spandrel
Some people, Stephen Jay Gould most prominent among them, believe language to be the byproduct of other evolutionary processes, not a special adaptation that arose by ordinary natural selection acting on mutations. As Gould puts it, "Natural selection made the human brain big, but most of our mental properties and potentials may be spandrels - that is, nonadaptive side consequences of building a device with such structural complexity" (The Pleasures of Pluralism , p.11). In other words, our ancestors encountered environments which required the type of advanced reasoning only provided by a larger brain; however, language capability was not one of those functions for which the brain was selected. Instead, language is a result of exapting neural structures formerly used for other functions: "Many, if not most, universal behaviors [including language] are probably spandrels, often co-opted later in human history for important secondary functions" (Ibid).

This view has been reinforced by the famous linguist Noam Chomsky, who argues that the brain's language capability cannot be explained in terms of natural selection. He attempts to explain the brain not through biology or engineering principles, but instead through the effects of physical laws. According to Chomsky, there may be unexpected emergent physical properties associated with the specific structure of the brain that explain language.

Language as an Adaptation
The mainstream view is that language is an adaptation, evolved in response to some selection pressure toward improved communication between humans. This explanation is associated with many speculative possibilities and proposals for the adaptive function of language, and some (such as Steven Pinker) postulate "mental modules" that compartmentalize linguistic functions.

There are many different possible "adaptationist" explanations for the evolution of language. For instance, perhaps there was a need for improved communication between hunters at some point in the history of Homo sapiens, and oral expressions were simply the optimal way to solve the problem. More plausibly (or at least more importantly), sharing information between individuals probably conferred an extremely major advantage: groups of humans with language, or even "proto-language", could share a wealth of information about local hunting conditions, food supplies, poisonous plants, or the weather. It would be extremely beneficial to the survival of all members of the tribe if only one had to encounter a poisonous plant, rather than each member having to rediscover the fact for himself!

It is also simple to imagine a series of "oral gestures", perhaps indicating the presence of an animal to another person by imitating the animal's cries. Steven Pinker suggests in his book The Language Instinct, "Perhaps a set of quasi-referential calls . . . came under the voluntary control of the cerebral cortex [which controls language], and came to be produced in combination for complicated events; the ability to analyze combinations of calls was then applied to the parts of each call" (p. 352).

Another possible source of selection pressure towards better linguistic abilities is the social group. Social interactions between people with widely divergent or conflicting interests "make formidable and ever-escalating demands on cognition" (Ibid, p.368). Increasing cognitive ability could easily have focused on the improvement of language as well, since so many social interactions depend on effective persuasion.

Language Evolution and Memes
It is possible to imagine numerous potential scenarios by which language might have evolved as a purely biological adaptation. However, in her book The Meme Machine, Susan Blackmore reveals a different theory of language evolution: she proposes that it evolved for the sake of memes, not as an adaptation for the benefit of genes.

Blackmore explains that memes first came into existence with the advent of true imitation in humans, which allowed memes to spread through populations. Recalling that fecundity, or proudction of new copies, is essential to a replicator, she proposes that language came into existence as a mechanism for improving the fecundity of memes. Sound transmission has many advantages for the purpose - sounds can be heard by multiple listeners and can be used even at night. After sound transmission (proto-language) came into existence, the "digitalization" of language into discrete words arose as a mechanism for ensuring meme fidelity, or lack of errors in the new copies. She explains that those alterations that produce the most copies of the highest fidelity will be those that predominate, thus improving the language.

Blackmore goes on to suggest that grammar was an adaptation to improve the fecundity and fidelity of existing memes; its recursive structure then provided the framework for the development of more complex memes, which then favored the existence of more complex grammar, etc. in a self-sustaining process. Furthermore, language then began to exert pressure on the genes, creating a selection pressure toward bigger brains that are better at language. If people prefer to mate with those possessing the best or most memes, then the genes that allowed those people to be good meme-spreaders will be differentially transmitted into the next generation. This process again leads to a self-catalytic process of brain evolution that places a strong survival and reproductive advantage on those most capable of meme transmission.

Finally, Blackmore believes that language is an unavoidable result of the existence of memes, which follow naturally from the ability to imitate (an ability that is, surprisingly, realized in very few species). She states, "verbal language is almost an inevitable result of memetic selection. First, sounds are a good candidate for high-fecundity transmission of behaviour. Second, words are an obvious way to digitise the the process and so increase its fidelity. Third, grammar is a next step for increasing fidelity and fecundity yet again, and all of these will aid memorability and hence longevity" (p.105).

Looking Further: Links and References
The following links and references are useful in the study of the evolution of language.

Books
The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker
How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker
Words and Rules by Steven Pinker
The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life by Daniel C. Dennett (see ch. 13)
Websites
Evolution: The Pleasures of Pluralism by Stephen Jay Gould (also available here)
'Darwinian Fundamentalism': An Exchange - discussion between Daniel C. Dennett, Robert Wright, and Stephen Jay Gould
Evolutionary Psychology: An Exchange - discussion between Stephen Jay Gould and Steven Pinker
The Gestural Origins of Language by Michael C. Corballis (from American Scientist)

Superheroes - Modern Mythology Notes

Yet the medium from which they spring - the 6x9in, 4-color comic book - continues to be a marginalized channel of communication held by many to be an irredeemably corrupt and corrupting form of discourse, or else suitable only for children and the semi-literate.

June 1938 - Superman 'Action Comics #1'
Golden Age late 1940's
World War II
Shift to crime, western, and horror comics

Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Frederic Wertham
1954 Congressional Hearings
EC Comics 'Tales From the Crypt', 'Vault of Horror'
Comics code - self-censoring ban by the publishers themselves on violence, explicit sex, gratuitous gore and the triumph of evil or antisocial behavior.

Silver Age
Flash (1956)
Green Lantern (1959)
Supergirl (1959)
JLA (1960)

Fantastic Four (1961)
Spider-Man (1963)
X-Men (1964)

Superhero Genre
Lost Parents
*the hero is marked out from society. He often reaches maturity without having a relationship with his parents

The man-god
*at least some of the superheroes will be earthbound gods in their level of powers. Other superheroes of lesser powers will consort easily with these earthbound deities.

Justice
*the hero's devotion to justice overrides even his devotion to the law.

The normal and the superpowered
*the extraordinary nature of the superhero will be contrasted with the
ordinariness of his surroundings.

The secret identity
*likewise, the extraordinary nature of the hero will be contrasted with the mundane nature of his alter-ego. Certain taboos will govern the actions of these alter-egos.

Superpowers and politics
*although ultimately above the law, superheroes can be capable of considerable patriotism and moral loyalty to the state, though not necessarily to theletter of its laws.

Science as magic
*the stories are mythical and use science and magic indiscriminately to create a sense of wonder.

Superman and the superhero emerged at the end of the Great Depression and during the run-up to the outbreak of the European war.

A new kind of popular hero had emerged: the self-reliant individualist who stands aloof from many of the humdrum concerns of society, yet is able to operate according to his own code of honor, to take on the world on his own terms, and win.

For Americans, the historical path from Munich to Pearl Harbor coincides with the emergence of Superman and Captain America - solitary but socialized heroes, who engage in battle from time to time as proxies of US foreign policy. A darker side of the Lone Wolf hero is embodied by the Batman, a hero whose motivations and emotions are turned inward against the evils within society, and even the social and psychological roots of crime itself. The tension between these two veins in the superhero tradition remains to the present day.

The mythologizing of the dangers of scientific knowledge is one of the mainstream currents of science fiction, from Frankenstein through to the famous Spock/McCoy reason/conscience conflict in Star Trek (a conflict which is spuriously resolved by the deus ex machina of Kirk's
overarching 'humanity', which embraces such contradictions and thereby resolves them.)

Langue & Parole

Superhero costumes are either sexless, denying the humanity of the hero within, or garments of great erotic significance.

Good girl art (Wonder Woman) takes the signs of pornographic discourse and integrates them into the context of non-pornographic story structures. In this way, the sign of pornography (never explicitly delivered) comes to stand in for an entire pornographic subtext, a series of blanks which readers remain free to fill in for themselves. And it is within the neo-pornographic texts of Good Girl art that the distinctions between costumed heroes and villains can first be seen to break down, a change that influenced mainstream comics.

Costume creates a community between its wearers.

All Star Comics #3 (1940)
Justice Society of America

Intertextuality forms the Marvel & DC Universes.

Serial continuity
The back-story

Hierarchical continuity
A beats B
C defeated by B
A bests C
The pressure of combat also forces from heroes the quality which sums up the moral nature of the superhero: the 'extra effort'.

Structural continuity
Serial (diachronic 'over time')
Hierarchical (synchronic 'in the moment')
Combines to produce the entire contents of the Marvel & DC Universes.
Metatext.

T.S. Eliot's 'Tradition and the Individual Talent'
"what happens when a new work of art is created is something that happens simultaneously to all the works of art which preceded it. The existing monuments form an ideal order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction of the new (the really new) work of art among them. The existing order to persist after the supervention of novelty, the whole existing order must be, if ever so slightly, altered..."

Clearly, intertextual and metatextual continuity create a subsidiary world in which the process of time can be kept under control.

Continuity, and above all metatextual structural continuity, is the strategy through which superhero texts most clearly operate as myths. Continuity provides the interaction with the audience which characterizes mythological discourse: myths...{are} 'machines for the
suppression of time', the contemplation of the unity being more important than any suspense engendered over the outcome.

Return of Barry Allen Notes

Costume differences
Power differences
Protecting mob boss to prevent a crime war
Amusement Park
Mirror Maze
Wally smashes through
"I prefer to get where I'm going as directly as possible"
"Putting the spirit of Barry Allen to rest was a long and painful
process. Your death left a wound that never healed."
"Once upon a time, Barry Allen sacrificed his life to save the universe.
In tribute I took his name and identity...but not his courage. That was
his alone. Now he's back...and whatever tomorrow may bring, one thing is
certain. He's the greatest hero I've ever known...and I'm proud to
follow in his footsteps."

Train derailed towards a school full of kids, speed powerless, Barry
shows to save the day. All three Flashes use vibrations to slow the
train. Using speed to stop speed. Kids ask Barry for his autograph.
"Like I'm not even there. Even I'm astounded at the attention he
commands."
"I owe everything to Uncle Barry! My powers...my identity...everything!
The man is like a god to me!"
Moving away, changing superhero identity.
"I'm the Flash. Stay used to it."
Barry returns to the scene of his ressurrection.
The Combine. High-tech crime.
Wally gets taken out, Barry snaps when the criminals say they took down
the Flash, Wally's costume rips at the top, revealing his hair ala Kid
Flash costume. "I'm the Flash!"

Origin. 10 years old. Similar costume. "Barry Allen took me under his
wing. He gave me a purpose...a direction...an identity that would
totally define my life. It was the greatest gift I ever received."
" I wanted to honor his memory...so I tried to fill his boots. Itook up
the mantle of the Flash, and did my best to further his heritage."
Johnny Quick. CEO. Max Mercury.
Shrinking force field trap.
Subway booth attendant. Max. Jay's hero.
Wally's vibrations with Barry's allows Barry to escape. "Help you? Why?
You stole my name! You tried to replace me...tried to make the world
forget about Barry Allen!"
"Forget Barry. Forget the fear. Forget everything..." "everything I do
now...who is it for?"
Press conference, Flash is dead.

"When I was a kid, I looked up to him with stars in my eyes. I thought
he was perfect...but I was just blinded by hero worship."
"How could I hold my own against the man who taught me everything I
know? He's stronger than me. He's faster than me. He's better than me.
For the first time since I was a kid, I'm just Wally West. I'm not a
hero anymore."
Construction site. Foundation. Jay hero discussion.
Jay, Max, Johnny.
Out trick him. Barry vs Max. Original superspeedster. Agility.
Wally Alley Book.
Reveals Barry's true identity.
Construction site destroyed as Barry grabs helmet.

Lessons from Johnny, mathematical formula, describing a
fourth-dimensional construct. 3x2(9YZ)4A
Draws speed from time. Positive thinking.
Max. Zen of speed.
Overthinking speed. Force Wally to confront what he doesn't want to.
Fear.
"No one can tell me that I'm afraid of speed! I love what I can do!"
"but you love your uncle Barry even more. That's why you took his name
and scotume, isn't it? In a sense, you did it so the world wouldn't
forget him...or his heroism. You keep saying you don't want to replace
Barry, but the moment you become as fast as him...that's exactly what
you'll have done."
Jay. Heart. Faith.
Wally plan trick.
Releases prisoners. Anti-Barry. Cop.
Doubt. Museum. Rubble.
Bird's eye shot, Wally small on huge symbol.
Cosmic treadmill.
Jay fights off Barry's mask. Revealing identity.
Rips off symbol. Breaks his leg.
"One true Flash!"
Eobard Thawne. Reverse Flash. Suit.

Recall in slo-mo. Origin. 25th Century. Technology has wiped out crime.
No heroes. Nostalgic for 20th Century. Heroic Age. "His was a soul pure
and noble. He, of all heroes, deserved in recompense for his sacrifice a
long and prosperous life. The tragedy of his plight had always moved me.
I worshipped him. And no matter that he'd been dead five hundred
years...I grieved for him. He was my hero. He was my friend."
Plastomorph surgery, cosmic treadmill pawn shop, fortune spent on
painful treatment giving powers.
Museum, taking in Barry's life as Flash, studying his enemies.
"We both wanted the same thing out of life, Wally...a chance to fill
Barry Allen's boots. Think about it. We're a lot alike. You might even
call us brothers."
Escape. Threatens Linda.
Acceptance. "Since Barry's death, my speed has waxed and waned. I never
thought the electric power that sparked it could ever be recaptured. I
was wrong. The power is within me. It always was."
Lightning gives edge.
Threatens to go to Thawne's childhood and terrorize him tricking him to
go back to the future.
"The ghost of Barry Allen...the one I've kept alive all these years...is
finally at rest. He no longer dominates my life...but he'll always watch
over me."
His future in the book, tosses it into water.

Superheroes: A Modern Mythology

Atonement with the Father: Superman
The roots of a superhero career - the all-important 'origin story' - go back to adolescence, and the character's development as a superhero must encompass evolving relationships with parents or substitute parental figures.

Approval by the father is witheld time and again by the absence or unavailability of the father-figure.

Sky - male, Earth - the female.

"Small events in the child's life which make him feel dissatisfied afford him provocation for beginning to criticize his parents, and for using, in order to support his critical attitude, the knowledge which he has acquired that other parents are in some respects preferable to them...the child's imagination becomes engaged in the task of getting free from the parents of whom he now has a low opinion and of replacing them by others, who, as a rule, are of a higher social standing."
Freud

Living in the new Middle Ages
A key ideological myth of the superhero comic is that the normal and everday enshrines positive values that must be defended through heroic action - and defended over and over again almost without respite against an endless battery of menaces determined to remake the world for the benefit of aliens, mutants, criminals, or sub-aqua beings from Atlantis. The normal is valuable and is constantly under attack, which means that almost by definition the superhero is battling on behalf of the status quo.

Jospeh Campbell - The Keys

The mythological hero, setting forth from his commonday hut or castle, is lured, carried away, or else voluntarily proceeds, to the threshold of adventure. There he encounters a shadow presence that guards the passage. The hero may defeat or conciliate this power and go alive into the kingdom of the dark (brother-battle, dragon-battle; offering, charm), or be slain by the opponent and descend in death (dismemberment, crucifixion). Beyond the threshold, then, the hero journeys through a world of unfamiliar yet strangely intimate forces, some of which severely threaten him (tests), some of which give magical aid (helpers). When he arrives at the nadir of the mythological round, he undergoes a supreme ordeal and gains his reward. The triumph may be represented as the hero's sexual union with the goddess-mother of the world (sacred marriage), his recognition by the father-creator (father atonement), his own divinization (apotheosis), or again - if the powers have remained unfriendly to him - his theft of the boon he came to gain (bride-theft, fire-theft); intrinsically it is an expansion of consciousness and therewith of being (illumination, transfiguration, freedom). The final work is that of the return. If the powers have blessed the hero, he now sets forth under their protection (emissary); if not, he flees and is pursued (transformation flight, obstacle flight). At the return threshold the transcendental powers must remain behind; the hero re-emerges from the kingdom of dread (return, resurrection). The boon that he brings restores the world (elixir).

The outlines of myths and tales are subject to damage and obscuration. Archaic traits are generally eliminated or subdued. Imported materials are revised to fit local landscape, custom, or belief, and always suffer in the process. Furthermore, in the inumerable retellings of a traditional story, accidental or intentional dislocations are inevitable. To account for elements that have become, for one reason or another, meaningless, secondary interpretations are invented, often with considerable skill.

When a civilization has passed from a mythological to a secular point of view, the older images are no longer felt or quite approved. The myths were read as superhuman romances.

Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed. The living images become only remote facts of a distant time or sky.

Joseph Campbell - the Return Part 2

The Crossing of the Return Threshold
The two worlds, the divine and the human, can be pictured only as distinct from each other - different as life and death, as day and night. The hero adventures out of the land we know into darkness; there he accomplishes his adventure, or again is simply lost to us, imprisoned, or in danger; and his return is described as a coming back out of that yonder zone. Nevertheless - and here is a great key to the understanding of myth and symbol - the two kingdoms are actually one. The realm of the gods is a forgotten dimension of the world we know. And the exploration of that dimension, either willingly or unwillingly, is the whole sense of the deed of the hero. The values and distinctions that in normal life seem important disappear with the terrifying assimilation of the self into what formerly was only otherness.

How teach again, however, what has been taught correctly and incorrectly learned a thousand thousand times, throughout the milleniums of mankind's prudent folly?

The first problem of the returning hero is to accept as real, after an experience of soul-satisfying vision of fulfillment, the passing joys and sorrows, banalities and noisy obscenities of life. Why re-enter such a world? Why attempt to make plausible, or even interesting, to men and women consumed with passion, the experience of transcendental bliss?

The equating of a single year in Paradise to one hundred of earthly existence is a motif well known to myth.

Master of the Two Worlds
Freedom to pass back and forth across the world division, from the perspective of the apparitions of time to that of the causal deep and back - not contaminating the principles of the one with those of the other - is the talent of the master.

Symbols are only the vehicles of communication; they must not be mistaken for the final term, the tenor, of their reference.

The individual, through prolonged psychological disciplines, gives up completely all attachment to his personal limitations, idiosyncrasies, hopes and fears, no longer resists the self-annihilation that is prerequisite to rebirth in the realization of truth, and so becomes ripe, at last, for the great at-one-ment. His personal ambitions being totally dissolved, he no longer tries to live bt willingly relaxes to whatever may come to pass in him.

Freedom to Live.
The battlefield is symbolic of the field of life, where every creature lives on the death of another. A realization of the inevitable guilt of life may so sicken the heart that...one may refuse to go on with it. On the other hand, like most of the rest of us, one may invent a false, finally unjustified, image of oneself as an exceptional phenomenon in the world, not guilty as others are, but justified in one's inevitable sinning because one represents the good. Such self-righteousness leads to a misunderstanding, not only of oneself but of the nature of both man and the cosmos. The goal of the myth is to dispel the need for such life ignorance by effecting a reconciliation of the individual consciousness with the universal will. And this is effected through a realization of the true relationship of the passing phenomena of time to the imperishable life that lives and dies in all.

Man in the world of action loses his centering in the principle of eternity if he is anxious for the outcome of his deeds, but resting them and their fruits on the knees of the Living God he is released by them, as by a sacrifice, from the bondages of the sea of death.