Sunday, February 17, 2013

The Forbidden Fruit

So awhile back in class we discussed Adam and Eve and the Forbidden Fruit. Like most kids growing up I had heard this story numerous times. The story I was told went something like the following: God created man and from man he created woman. He placed man and woman in a garden and told them they may eat and do whatever they like EXCEPT eat the fruit from the tree in which the snake lived. Eve was walking in the garden one day and she came across the tree with the snake. And with some cunning words of encouragement from the snake Eve ate of the Forbidden Fruit. She then gave some to Adam and well God found out he wasn't all to happy. The original sin had been made and we now live in the world today. 

So I did a little looking and found an interesting YouTube video that has an alternate theory about how the event actually played out.


Anyways the entire point of this blog was to tell you all about my recent experience with my own version of the Forbidden Fruit. So recently I quite smoking, which to most people it doesn't seem like that big of a deal. Its not like being addicted to some hardcore drugs of even alcohol in most peoples eyes, but unless you've been there you really don't know. Even I don't have a right to say that because unlike most people who smoke, I didn't smoke right. How you may ask? Easy I didn't inhale right. Instead of inhaling into my lungs I kept the smoke in my mouth like you would a cigar. Which is what I had originally smoked before smoking cigarettes. So I didn't get the big nicotine buzz that most people do when they smoke. But enough about inhaling right, I'll get to my point. When I stopped smoking I felt like a little kid who had gotten her toy taken away, it was in sight but out of reach. I compared it to the Forbidden Fruit something I wanted but got told I couldn't have. 

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Sedna (Inuit Creation Story)


This is the Version I couldn't tell in class


As the legend goes, Sedna was a beautiful Inuit girl who lived with her father. She was very vain and thought she was too beautiful to marry just anyone. Time and time again she turned down hunters who came to her camp wishing to marry her. Finally one day her father said to her "Sedna, we have no food and we will go hungry soon. You need a husband to take care of you, so the next hunter who comes to ask your hand in marriage, you must marry him." Sedna ignored her father and kept brushing her hair as she looked at her reflection in the water.


 Soon her father saw another hunter approaching their camp. The man was dressed elegantly in furs and appeared to be well-to-do even though his face was hidden. Sedna's father spoke to the man. "If you wish to seek a wife I have a beautiful daughter . She can cook and sew and I know she will make a good wife." Under great protest, Sedna was placed aboard of the hunters kayak and journeyed to her new home. Soon they arrived at an island. Sedna looked around. She could see nothing. No sod hut, no tent, just bare rocks and a cliff. The hunter stood before Sedna and as he pulled down his hood, he let out and evil laugh. Sedna's husband was not a man as she had thought but a raven in disguise. She screamed and tried to run, but the bird dragged her to a clearing on the cliff. Sedna's new home was a few tufts of animal hair and feathers strewn about on the hard, cold rock. The only food she had to eat was fish. Her husband, the raven, brought raw fish to her after a day of flying off in search of food.
Sedna was very unhappy and miserable. She cried and cried and called her father's name. Through the howling arctic winds Sedna's father could hear his daughter's cries. He felt guilty for what he had done as he knew she was sad. Sedna's father decided it was time to rescue his daughter. He loaded up his kayak and paddled for days through the frigid arctic waters to his Sedna's home. When he arrived Sedna was standing on the shore. Sedna hugged her father then quickly climbed into his kayak and paddled away. After many hours of travel Sedna turned and saw a black speck far off into the distance. She felt the fear well up inside of her for she knew the speck was her angry husband flying in search of her.

The big black raven swooped down upon the kayak bobbing on the ocean. Sedna's father took his paddle and struck at the raven but missed as the bird continued to harass them. Finally the raven swooped down near the kayak and flapped his wing upon the ocean. A vicious storm began to brew. The calm arctic ocean soon became a raging torrent tossing the tiny kayak to and fro. Sedna's father became very frightened. He grabbed Sedna and threw her over the side of the kayak into the ocean. "Here, he screamed, here is your precious wife, please do not hurt me, take her."

Sedna screamed and struggled as her body began go numb in the icy arctic waters. She swam to the kayak and reached up, her fingers grasping the side of the boat. Her father, terrified by the raging storm, thought only of himself as he grabbed the paddle and began to pound against Sedna's fingers. Sedna screamed for her father to stop but to no avail. Her frozen fingers cracked and fell into the ocean. Affected by her ghastly husbands powers, Sedna's fingers while sinking to the bottom, turned into seals. Sedna attempted again to swim and cling to her father's kayak. Again he grabbed the paddle and began beating at her hands. Again Sedna's hands, frozen by the arctic sea again cracked off. The stumps began to drift to the bottom of the sea, this time turned into the whales and other large mammals. Sedna could fight no more and began to sink herself.

Sedna, tourmented and raging with anger for what had happened to her, did not perish. She became, and still is today, the goddess of the sea. Sedna's companions are the seals, and the whales that sit with her at the bottom on the ocean. Her anger and fury against man is what drums up the violent seas and storms . Hunters have a great respect for her. Legend has it that they must treat her with respect. Shaman's from the world above must swim down to her to comb her long black tangled hair. This calms Sedna down. Once this is done, she releases her mammals to allow the Inuit to eat from the bounty of the sea. It is for this reason in the north that after a hunter catches a seal he drops water into the mouth of the mammal, a gesture to thank Sedna for her kindness in allowing him to feed his family.




This is the legend of Sedna.

Here is a video of the Story teller David Heathfield telling another version of this myth
(If you can't watch it the link to the video is the second one under Sources.)


Class notes 23-30, 2013

Jan. 23, 2013



  • Everything you need is in your back yard 
    • Apollo and Daphne 
      • Bernini
      • Forgotten
    • Cave of Dreams (movie) WATCH!
    • William Shakespeare 
      • Sonnet 73
        • old
        • twilight - sun goes down
        • autumn
        • fire
      • Lycidas
        • John Milton
      • Apollo & Daphne
        • Cupids Arrow
        • pursued & pursuer 
        • she fled
          • she became more beautiful as she fled
        • turned into a tree
          • Laurel tree
        • Laure- leaf placed on the head of winners
      • Etiology
        • study of causation or origins understanding of myth as an explanation of the origins of cult practices 
      • The Hero with a Thousand Faces 
      • Iliad 
        • ex nihilo (nothing)
          • by though or feeling
        • Earth diver
        • Dividing in two 
          • Heaven & Earth
        • creation of dismembering a being (deities)

      Jan 25, 2013

      • sacred accounts
        • found in nearly all religions
        • at that time
        • in illo tempor
      • Tao Te Ching
      • ex nihilo
        •  through though, word dream or bodily secretion of divine being
      • earth diver
        • mostly Indian
      • etiological
      • Babylonian Creation Myth
        • Enuma Elish
          • When on High
        • Marduk (hero)
          • cuts body into two
        • Axis Mundi
          • cosmic axis, world axis
        • age of speech
          • creation of memory
        • Forbidden Fruit

      Jan. 28, 2013
      • Boshongo Creation Myth
      • Salish Creation Myth
      • Finish Creation Myth
      • Zulu Creation Myth
      • Greek Persian Creation Myth
      • Maori Creation Myth
      • Thompson Indian Creation Myth
      • Slavic Creation Myth
      • Persian Creation Myth
      • Isaac Esma Book Last Questrian
      • Grovant Indian Creation Myth
      Jan. 30, 2013
      • Inca Creation Myth
      • Celtic Creation Myth
      • Inuit Creation Myth
      • Cherokee Creation Myth
      • Ancient Egyptian Myth
      • Norse Creation Myth
      • Hungarian Creation Myth
      • Upanishads Creation Myth
      • Korean Creation Myth
      • Aboriginal (Australian) Creation Myth
      • Aztec Creation Myth
      • Egyptian (Atem) Creation Myth
      • Egyptian Creation Myth
      • Raven Creation Myth (North Western)
      • Mayan Creation Myth
      • Mongolian Creation Myth