term paper

Oranda Davis

LIT 438

            Throughout history the status of sacred and secular literatures has constantly fluctuated.  The older sacred myths become secular as they are replaced by the new with the passing of time and the shifting of cultural values.  Traits belonging to the ancient gods are projected onto the new as the older stories are absorbed into, and then subsumed by the contemporary.  What once was considered to be sacred scripture becomes popular folklore, the mythology of savages who have been conquered by a more enlightened civilization: but to banish the old ways completely would be a spectacular, if not impossible feat.  The proof of this statement exists in the fact that folktales and ancient mythologies of long dead civilizations are not only still studied by scholars, but are also relatively well-known and loved by the general populations of the world today.  The stories, both sacred and secular, are retold in contemporary novels as well as movies and song lyrics.  They are intimately entwined by several thematic threads pulled from that great abyss which is the human psyche.  This paper will focus on the topic of rejuvenation, a literary motif which promotes the balance of masculine and feminine symbology in secular literature, but is manipulated to disrupt this equilibrium in sacred Biblical scripture.              

            In The Secular Scripture Northrop Frye describes the key distinctions between the two most commonly operative categories of creation myths: 

“If we look down, we see the cycle of animal and plant life, and creation myths suggested by this would most naturally be sexual ones, focusing eventually on some kind of earth-mother, the womb and tomb of all living things.  If we look up, we see, not different forms of life emerging, but the same sun rising in the east.  The cycle of the same, in Plato’s phrase, suggests rather an artificial creation myth, a world made, not born, and made by a conscious and planning intelligence.  Such a myth tends to be associated with a sky-father, who goes about his mysterious business without nursing his children” (112).

For whatever reason our culture has come to be dominated by a sky-father religion, and thus its monotheistic creation myth of artificial design has enjoyed a status of sacrosanct prestige for thousands of years; but echoes of a more ancient symbology resonant from beneath the foliage of God’s perfect garden.  Representations of rejuvenation and feminine power can be found lurking in the patriarchal atrium from which Adam and Eve are said to have fallen.  The archetype of the garden itself is almost certainly an exclusively feminine symbol, for it is merely a smaller version of the ubiquitous representation of earth as maternal.  The theme of rejuvenation is intrinsically contained within the feminine symbology of the garden archetype because a garden’s inherent purpose is to bear fruit for harvest within a naturally occurring cycle of rebirth.  Of course a garden cannot fertilize itself, just as women cannot bring forth life without men.  Just as this is common knowledge today, it was also common knowledge to our ancient ancestors; it is also the threshold where the banal crosses into the sacred, for the vulgar act of sexual intercourse is also the wellspring from which the human life cycle commences.  The masculine, the feminine, and their combined power to create new life are the cornerstones of the trifecta which symbolizes the great and holy mystery of life on Earth.  The essence of the masculine should not dominate over the feminine, nor should the feminine overshadow the masculine; the perfect equilibrium of the two forces is what creates the indelible experience that is the mystery of life, for one cannot exist without the other.

            However, to assume that the feminine garden’s counterpart of the Biblical creation myth is God himself would be remiss; rather, the masculine component is more aptly represented by the briefly mentioned image of a mist which comes naturally from the earth before God creates rain:  “…for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.  But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground” (Genesis 2:6).  The implications here are that the more novel concept of an artificial creation myth has been superimposed over an older sexual creation myth which was probably more proportionate in its original symbology.  The mist in the garden seems almost arbitrary to the story, as its masculine imagery has been replaced first by God, and later by Adam.  The feminine symbology of the garden is replaced by Eve, who is artificially made out of Adam’s rib; and with this calculated stroke of an unnatural image of man giving birth, the harmonious equilibrium of masculine and feminine that represents the sacred symbology of everyday life is usurped by God, divine dictator that He is.  The masculine is effectively stripped of its capacity to fertilize, while the feminine is denied its inherent ability to bring forth new life.  To quote Heinrich Zimmer:  “Really a grotesque old myth!” (Footnote 259).  The natural cycles of rejuvenation and renewal are replaced by synthetic stagnation, which discourages not only spontaneous creativity, but also suppresses self-revelation. 

            However, Biblical indoctrination is subverted when we look beyond its stories of seemingly sacred truth, and notice that it shares symbology with secular literatures. The masculine symbol of a fountain can be found in the old romances of Arthurian lore, notably in Zimmer’s retelling of Owain’s battle with the Black Knight.  Owain was not the first of the host of The Round Table to encounter this powerful warrior and his dream-like realm which lies beyond a beautiful tree and mysterious fountain.  Acting upon stories of past adventures related to him by his older brethren, Owain seeks out the fountain beneath the tree of life and commences the bizarre ritual of casting a bowl of water upon a marble slab which stands beside the fountain.  This act produces a great storm which strips the tree of its foliage, but is then followed by a multitude of birds landing upon the bare branches and singing a glorious melody.  The consequence of this deed is an ensuing battle with a fearsome knight clad all in black, who appears to avenge the destruction of his kingdom wrought by Owain’s reckless act of ignorance.  The Black Knight is dealt a mortal wound by Owain and flees to his kingdom with Owain following close behind.  Upon the death of the Black Knight, Owain takes his place:  “For thus, apparently, was the law that prevailed at the Castle of the Fountain:  whosoever slew the guardian became himself the guardian, the Black Knight, the lord and consort of the Lady of the Fountain” (Zimmer 104).  The story is far more complicated than what is related here, but the central theme of masculine rejuvenation is powerfully conveyed through the imagery of the fountain and the eternal renewal of a male protectorate for the tree of life and the kingdom over which it presides.

            Themes of feminine rejuvenation from this literary era are more well-known to our popular culture today, the most prevalent of which is the female trinity of the maiden, the mother, and the crone.  Indeed, this trifecta seems to be the driving force of the renewed interest in earth-mother deities today.  Like the phases of the feminine moon, this motif represents the sacred life cycle of women and the distinctive powers contained within each stage:  the young maiden with her unique potential to bear new life; the matronly mother who nurtures her offspring, and the wisdom of the crone who passes her life-learned secrets on to the next generation of life-givers.  The story of Gawain’s marriage to the ugly hag, Dame Ragnell, is as inherently subtle in its conveyance of feminine mystique as the power of femininity itself.  For it is a lesson to men that the real beauty of women lays not in their physical countenance, but in their fathomless capacity to guide, love, and nurture throughout the joys and hardships that inevitably come with this life on Earth.  Gawain is not rewarded for blind loyalty to Arthur, but for his commitment to his wife in his promise of the preservation of her autonomy as woman.  In the story Ragnell tells Arthur, “There is one thing in all our fantasy, and that now shall ye know:  We desire of men, above all manner of thing, to have the sovereignty” (Zimmer 91).  This should not be misread to mean that women desire dominance over men, rather it is the desire of women not to be subjugated by men.  Ragnell’s transformation from ugly hag to beautiful maiden comes when Gawain gives her the freedom to choose her own destiny in their marriage, rather than deciding it for her.  The end of this story is the beginning of their life’s romance together as an equal partnership, thus preserving the sacred trinity of masculine, feminine, and renewal of life.           In our modern times the Bible’s patriarchal disposition is becoming ever more disenchanting as contemporary popular belief systems are beginning to reject its sanctions as exclusive, archaic, and oppressive rather than sacred.  The motif of rejuvenation, that unending cycle of death and new life can be found not only in stories of popular pagan lore, but also hidden deep beneath the preponderance of patriarchal Biblical Scripture which has upset the natural balance of human existence on Earth.  The Bible’s authoritative sway on the mysteries of life and death are beginning to wane, as many people have begun to look deeper, beyond the pages of a scripture which preaches a static place, available only to an exclusive few, in a kingdom so far beyond the realm of human experience that the truth of its existence rings false to earthly ears.