This past week, my Ritual Studies class participated in a ritual “experiment” wherein we each brought a significant item to the class and constructed a mythic experience around the objects we each brought. It was a fantastic experiement, and one I might replicate for my RoundTable.
One of my cohorts, however, parted companies with her item on her journey to class. The item was her sorority pen, which traditionally is passed from sister to sister, and had seen quite a history. I cannot help but wonder whether the item is indeed “lost”, or if it was time for my friend to symbollicaly “let it go” and move on with her myth.
I hold the belief that when we lose something that is not easily found, then the aid/guidance/comfort offered by that particular object is no longer applicable. I, too, have often parted ways with various significant objects. Some make it back to me years after I have long forgotten their significance. Others I never see again. The culture that surrounds me, and - I dare presume - my cohort as well is one of rapid symbol movement. We travel from myth to myth faster than teenager girls go through seasonal fashions. I attribute this movement to the fact that we have more exposure to a wide variety of mythic experiences, and many of us believe that we have to try them all out and see which one fits.
I don’t support the idea that a mythology is a shoe. It will either fit, or it won’t fit, and you’ll know before you engage in it whether or not it is right. Myth is magical like that.