Someone Asked A Good Question Yesterday That Got Me Thinking: Why Are Some Mythologies Moremainstream

Someone asked a good question yesterday that got me thinking: why are some mythologies more “mainstream” than others? Where I’m from, everyone knows at least a couple things about the Egyptian, Norse, and Greek (and sometimes Roman) pantheons, but no one’s ever discussed those of East Asia, or South America, for example. 

My theory: Eurocentrism and colonialism.

Egypt, Greece, and Rome all have some relevant proximity to the history of Christianity. Egypt features prominently in the Exodus, and Greece and Rome were important cultural shapers in the time of Jesus and Paul. When Christianity spread and gained the force of empire through Constantine and others and spread up through Europe, it dominated nearly all the local traditions in its wake. This domination continued through the European colonization of the Americas, Africa, India, and others -- history is written by the colonizers, so it makes sense that the prominent revival pantheons among European-descended pagans aren’t those of the conquered people but those of their own people (Norse) and those that are “necessary” to provide historical weight to Christianity.

Completely conjecture, but this was interesting to think about today.

Guanyin (Kuan Yin, Guan Yin), the bodhisvatta and Goddess of compassion. 

“One of the several stories surrounding Quan Yin is that she was a Buddhist who through great love and sacrifice during life, had earned the right to enter Nirvana after death. However, like Avlokiteshvara, while standing before the gates of Paradise she heard a cry of anguish from the earth below. Turning back to earth, she renounced her reward of bliss eternal but in its place found immortality in the hearts of the suffering.” 

http://www.holymtn.com/gods/kuanyin.htm

Like Jesus, Guanyin literally gave up heaven to help the suffering reach God. If that’s not beautiful, I don’t know what is. I can only try to emulate this heart of compassion and allow my selfishness to fall away so that my life will become a tome of service and love.

When my heart is faint, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Psalm 61:2

That’s really interesting and something I hadn’t thought of; pagan traditions based on the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Norse pantheons really are solely revival traditions. It seems strange to me that those traditions that are still in practice would be the ones to be overlooked. I mean, there are LIVING PEOPLE that we can learn from and we (by we I mean a lot of European-descended people, myself included) choose the religions that have been in dormancy for centuries... it’s like we needed one more way to assert colonial dominance: not letting people of color be the experts or owners of any of our religions....

That went a little into rant territory, but your point is very well taken.

Someone asked a good question yesterday that got me thinking: why are some mythologies more “mainstream” than others? Where I’m from, everyone knows at least a couple things about the Egyptian, Norse, and Greek (and sometimes Roman) pantheons, but no one’s ever discussed those of East Asia, or South America, for example. 

My theory: Eurocentrism and colonialism.

Egypt, Greece, and Rome all have some relevant proximity to the history of Christianity. Egypt features prominently in the Exodus, and Greece and Rome were important cultural shapers in the time of Jesus and Paul. When Christianity spread and gained the force of empire through Constantine and others and spread up through Europe, it dominated nearly all the local traditions in its wake. This domination continued through the European colonization of the Americas, Africa, India, and others – history is written by the colonizers, so it makes sense that the prominent revival pantheons among European-descended pagans aren’t those of the conquered people but those of their own people (Norse) and those that are “necessary” to provide historical weight to Christianity.

Completely conjecture, but this was interesting to think about today.

Home is somewhere out there Somewhere you’ll be safe Sleep my child and dream of that new land

Avatar, “New Land”

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument; Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Rumi