• Draug
• Fairies in heaven
• Elysium
• Figurative ways and means
• Giant
• Fables
• Hybris
• Metaphors
• Monopoly - the danger of hybrids
• Having many names and appellatives
• Hornet's Nest of Troubles
• Hulder (wood siren)
• Insignia
• Jumping about
• Krishna
• Makara
• Miscellaneous
• Peacock
• Norse
• Ocean
• Salmon
• Sheep
• Vegetarian life-style
• Vishnu
• Wolf

A Compilation

We cannot all find protection in shallow waters. Some myths go deep.

A special navel is described in ancient myths: All the world grows from it. [Example]

Now, there are visual representations and verbal ones. At the back of many common words are images, and many words combine to form word-images too. Abstract terms may contain concrete building-blocks, or be "lifted up" through metaphor-making and so on. There are words and pictures that serve as symbols also - and symbols abound in art, including artistic use of a language, and dreams.

Knowing the general meaning of symbols and finer imagery, we may get a clue about many metaphorical expressions. Further, the languages of certain artists may or may not contain symbols. If one knows of common ways to interpret them, the chances of understanding paintings and word-paintings could increase. [see Dis; Ids]

Exactly how concretely a "thing" is to be understood, depends. For example, a fairy tale may speak of elves. An encyclopaedia and dictionary may go for "explanations of terms like elf" by telling about the quite common agreements over generations: For example: An elf (plural elves) is a being, a white being and one of a race of divine or semi-divine ones - some good, some not so good. Older and more recent descriptions differ a whole lot (See WP, "Elf"].

Draug

The draug in folklore is the foreboding sign of imminent death at sea. The draug is a spectre in a half-boat, appearing right before someone's death, or presaging death in wider ways and contexts.

Fairies in heaven

We read in Autobiography of a Yogi that the long gone Yukteswar communicated to the author one day:

The ordinary astral universe [it translate to one of the heavenly realms] ... is peopled with ... myriads of fairies, mermaids, fishes ... goblins, gnomes, demigods and spirits." [Au 355].

There is no specific mention of elves in the quote, but many say fairies and mean elves, and the other way round. May this insight be what is meant by Elf-Realisation? And when you do it yourself, is it Self-Realisation of what elves might be, and where to find them? Maybe not, but it is a free world in many places still.

An elf (plural elves) in folklore is a being endowed with magical powers that can be used for the benefit and the injury of mankind. In medieval Norse mythology, they were divided into light elves and dark elves; the Light Elves were brighter than the sun, and crossbreeding was possible between elves and humans in the Old Norse belief. The elves could be seen dancing over meadows at night and on misty mornings. If a human watched the dance of the elves, he would discover that even though only a few hours seemed to have passed, many years had passed in the real world.

The elf made many appearances in ballads of English and Scottish origin, as well as folk tales. Elves of English folktales were often portrayed as children with "cocktail party tendencies", that is Williams syndrome, and were sometimes said to be invisible. In this tradition, elves became similar to fairies. Successively, the word elf, and the literary term fairy, evolved to spirits like the English and Scots brownie, the Northumbrian English hob and so forth.

William Shakespeare imagined elves as little people. He apparently considered elves and fairies to be the same race, and some there are who believe Yogananda had been Shakespeare in a former life, because Yogananda had told so. Is it that easy to get an American following?

19th-century Romanticism wanted to depict elves as very young, and pretty.

In early modern and modern folklore elves become associated with the fairies of Romance folklore. In the Western world, children's folklore of Santa Claus typically includes elves. They are green-clad elves with pointy ears, long noses, and pointy hats, make toys in a workshop on the North Pole.

Are fairies fed by Light within or not? There are books and CDs published at ◦Findhorn Press in Scotland about many invisible beings, including a garden pea angel who conversed with the Findhorn co-founder Dorothy Maclean.

[WP, "Elf"]

Elysium

Name history: Elysium comes from Latin Elysium, from Greek Elysion, short for Elysion pedion, Elysian fields, the ancient Greek heaven. The name of the famous avenue in Paris, the Champs-�lys�es, means "Elysian Fields."

Figurative ways and means

In India, a bird is cherished as a token and totem of highest status. It is a swan, a goose, a duck, writes Pargiter in a note.

Figurative ways can be utterly economic. Looking to animals and finally arriving at being human is a theme Yogananda rallied for too. [Link]

Giant

My giant goes with me wherever I go. [Emerson, in Self-Reliance]

Even Ulysses encountered a giant of a sort, a Cyclope. In Greek mythology, Cyclopes were giants with one round eye.

Fables

In sound fables animals talk and show how base humans can be.

Greek fables and other fables from ancient Egypt and northern Africa have influenced Western culture considerably.

Fables from India (Panchatantra) and elsewhere (See Aesop) can give budding forewarnings or prepare for plots etc. There are many sorts of fables. The fairy tale collection Panchatantra is a rich source of how to handle delicate management stuff. [Pan]

Incorporated in proverbs and other parts of folklore are standardised templets. On top of them a fox is clever; a master wolf is hungry and seeking pray; the lion can be bossy, often gruesome and terrorising; and children learn to expect certain deeds by memory-aided suggestions over and over.

What we can arrive at on top of suggestive evidence, is corresponding, suggestive recounting that fits in in very many cultural contexts - and that can be good more often than not.

Special tacks can give good mastery help to children, and we have a child inside, the Child that Dr. Eric Berne considers part of man's personality. "Become like little children ..." [Hom; Gyl]

Delicious fables may suggest or indicate in quite typified and tactful ways, and minors today are able to benefit from them. [FABLES OF AESOP]

Guru

Guru is Sanskrit for teacher and Master. 'Teacher' is not the essential meaning of it, but something like "up-lifter" from darkness into Light.

Jagadguru: World-guru, from Sanskrit jagad, world, and guru.

Gurudev and gurudeva: Divine guru.

[More: WP, "Guru"]

Hybris

The Greek view of hybris is linked to the Indo-European notion of justice: It holds that each being has a fate (moira) assigned to him and marked clearly by boundaries that should never be crossed by inventing a lot to ease one's lot in life.

A regular beer drinker who goes vegetarian - will it be overstepping that low deal of fate a lot?

Metaphors

From Aesop's typified animal portrayal: The fox is clever; the wolf is hungry and seeking prey, no matter what, most often; the lion can be bossy, often gruesome and terrorising; the donkey can be a jerk; and children learn to expect certain deeds by memory-aided, typified suggestions over and over. Not all of them fit the real animals, though.

To speak to minors on top of reasonable conclusions by metaphors, is quite an art. Dr. Rudolf Steiner's Waldorf education is very much for it. Waldorf schools are a world-wide movement. What stands out is that carefully timed and properly fostered alluding figures can give much help to later, cognitive growth. That is one of the basic principles of Waldorf or Steiner schools.

Maybe fit and staunch figuratively expressions and talking animals help little ones to consider things quite free from fear of authority figures. And if so, it is related to sound distance-making.

Monopoly - the danger of hybrids

A profitable farm is for the leaders or owners to use.

A well-run farm with monastics in control, will it work for long? That depends in part on who owns the seeds. It is a big issue. Lots of lands requre lots of seeds. Seeds are either had from former productons or bought from firms that have grown hybrids that cannot produce a harvest more than once. Then new seeds must be bought, over and over, with formerly independent farmers becoming dependent in an unforeseen way.

Do monopolising agents destroy democracy in the long run? Hybrid corn, pesticides over and over and GMO food - should all be classified as bad in the long run, because so much gets controlled by big business, and the bait deals function so as to undermine the independence of farmers? To monopolise seed distribution may have wide, social implications in the long run, apart from costing farmers a lot.

"Decent animal food": Mishmash and hodgepodge from various sources.

Having many names and appellatives

Sri Krishna has many other names in Indian literature, experts like Professor Tuxen informs us [see Wy]. There are many names that are used to describe feats or features of Krishna. In the Siva Purana [Si] there are over a thousand names of Shiva, and in the ancient Markandeya Purana [Ma] the Divine Mother is given a thousand different names. That part has been taken out and published as a separate book as well. [Dm]

Hornet's Nest of Troubles

'Organisation'. There are many kinds of organisations, as Douglas McGregor and many others have indicated. Much depends on the boss, the climate he is able to set up, and the results. So there is not just one sort of organisation.

Yogananda started an organisation but regretted it. He wrote, "I have committed a great blunder by starting an organization."

Hulder (wood siren)

A bewitching female that is not solid and good enough to have and ride in the long run, after all. Alluring siren of Nordic folklore. Greek sirens have snake legs, but not the Scandinavian ones. The Finnish hulder is slim like a needle. The Norwegian one is hollow, and with a cow's tail. The back isn't there at all. This suggests she's not substantial enough inside for farm life and its menial work over and over, and that marriages with her often end. However, the "art" of hulders includes to hide the tail from suitors and being sly. She can get more wealth than others.

So much for the Norwegian one. The Danish "elverpige" is also a sort of elf maid, young and seductive like the Norwegian counterpart. Her back is hollow, too. She's fond of dancing in graceful ways over the meadows, in fairy ways. She could be more like a regular fairy than the Norwegian hulder that is more bodily or stout in general due to the impressions we have got - but there is room for difference of opinion here. (See Dao 157-9]

Insignia

An insignia is a distinguishing mark or sign. In India various animals have token value, and "swan" (hansa) and "greatest swan", have old roots and firm values inside Hindu classifications, Gods and goddesses have a tendency to mingle and confuse, the all-Hindu pantheon is not easy to understand. Nor are the vehicles and insignia and other tokens of respect, might or prowess. They include birds, mammals and so on.

A brave and good look at figurative terms presupposes tall functions of mind first of all.

Jumping about

Ramakrishna tells the conduct of some people who experience a giant awakening, is like that of jumping monkeys.

"Once a sadhu of Hrishikesh came here. He said to me: 'There are five kinds of samadhi [union]. I find you have experienced them all. In [one of] these samadhis one feels the movement of the spiritual current to be like that of ... a monkey.'" [Goa 400]

Krishna

Krishna tales have incorporated elements in myths of Indra. Krishna is someone that many children love to hear of.

'Hare', the first part of Hare (Hari) Krishna is an ancient god of Aryans. That god (Hare) once saved the world from drowning in the sea, by taking shape as a boar, diving deep and getting it up by use of his tusks. It is an old myth. Claims of many suggestive, old myths may not match the world we sense so very much. [cf. Clh].

Makara

In the Bhagavad Gita, the saying in 10:31 is "I'm Makar(a)." It is a fancied creature. This makarah or makara is a fable monster, half dolphin, half crocodile, Professor Paul Tuxen explains in his Danish translation (See Wy). Some see it that way. However, descriptions vary. Makara is:

a sea-creature in Hindu culture. It is generally depicted as half terrestrial animal in the frontal part (stag, deer or elephant) and half aquatic animal in the hind part (usually a fish or seal tail, snake tail though sometimes a peacock or even a floral tail is depicted). . . . In Hindu astrology, Makara is equivalent to the Zodiac sign Capricorn. (WP, Makara [Hindu mythology])

Also:

Makara . . . also frequently appears as a Gargoyle or as a spout attached to a natural spring. . .

And:

Makara is a Sanskrit word which means "sea dragon" or "water-monster". [Or:] Makara is based on dugong instead . . . The South Asian river dolphin may also have contributed to the image of the makara.

And so on. (Ibid.)

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneus means "of various types or from different sources." Here we go:

Basic harmony with solid fair play comes first, not attachment to base or cramped servility.

"The sausage is heavy; God only knows what is inside it."

There are many steps to master in a climb.

What seems scraggy or outré may at times amount to entertain us.

Jesus was called a fish, and "big fish eat little fish," is a proverb.

Peacock

The peacock is India's national bird and associated with such as Krishna in Hindu iconography.

Norse

In some Norse myths - often poetic - God Thor fights and fishes a nasty snake, the Midtgardsormen, the offspring of a hollow sort of "giant", Loke. Implied: Thor often fought against the nasty offspring of figurative hollowness for the sake of decency - well, survival, eventually. (See Ng].

Ocean

In many ancient and more recent Hindu scriptures, divine states of mind are compared to an ocean. Ramakrishna:

I . . . seized [a sword] when suddenly . . . [t]he buildings with their different parts, the temple and everything else vanished from my sight, leaving no trace whatever, and in their stead I saw a limitless, infinite, effulgent Ocean of Bliss. As far as the eye could see, the shining billows were madly rushing at me from all sides with a terrific noise, to swallow me up. I was panting for breath. I was caught in the rush and collapsed". [Goa 19-20]

[Ramakrishna:] "Suppose a man has seen the ocean, and somebody asks him, "Well, what is the ocean like?" The first man opens his mouth as wide as he can and says: "What a sight! What tremendous waves and sounds!" The description of Brahman in the sacred books is like that. It is said in the Vedas that Brahman is of the nature of Bliss; It is Satchidananda [Being-Consciousness-Joy (Bliss)]". [Goa 153]

"Never believe the bed of the ocean bare of pearls
If in the first few dives you fail." - Ramakrishna, singing, referring to contemplation [Goa 179-81].

"Mind, dive deep in the ocean of God's beauty". - Ramakrishna singing [Goa 215].

Salmon

Let us say your salmon may grow if all goes well and you are not caught or trapped - the giant inner "salmon":

• MIND SOUL, GOD-LORD: The literature spells out many stages to become aware of. A good overview is made by Dr Daniel Goleman of Harvard University. (See Yy]
• HEART: The middle section is your interior heart and the seat of art and confluent thinking and these outlets. "Art is of a heart" and "To preserve one's heart is an art."
• SPIRIT: The salmon's tail is the divine side - die G�ttlichkeit of many German mystics, it is maintained for here and now.

The various levels of refinements are further spelled out by Goleman. they are very much identical with those made use of in Rae radionics, and may come close to the general parts of refined nature or mind according to such as ancient Pythagoras and Pythagoreans as well. [Salmon thinking]

Sheep

Sheep in the free are shy like small children, and not very easy to get close to all at once. The ram is not all docile either - and in the Book of Revelation the lamb stands for all right wisdom.

In the Old Testament Jehova addresses his said, chosen people as sheep, and himself as their shepherd [in some Psalms too] -

Teachers or Christs may be expected to work for the good of lambs. Do they? Swindles are not all uncommon.

Vegetarian life-style

A well balanced vegetarian diet contains enough of all the essential amino acids (which the body cannot make itself), and all the needed minerals and natural vitamins for body growth and upkeep, and some fiber for the intestines to work on.

Also worth knowing is that there are differences among humans, different health conditions and corresponding, diifferent food needs too. The size of inner organs varies widely, and how they work varies too. With age some organs do not yield as well either. So there is quite a lot to take into account if one cannot sense what is needed through peculiar cravings for certain foods. Books for vegetarians give alternative-minded ones many pieces of information.

But the English - as the philosopher Emerson observed in his essay Ability - revel in beer and fleshpots - perhaps as a result of a low destiny; perhaps not. It could be worse, for example having little or nothing to eat.

To have a good plan

that could help a lot
away from the fleshpot
or maybe not.

Vishnu

Most Hindus today regard Sri Krishna as an incarnation (embodiment) of the God Vishnu. It is said of the blessed protector-god that he sleeps on a serpent in the ocean of milk in the cosmic water. [Clh 60-62, 66]:

He exists both with and without characteristics that one form is [described as] beyond description and that the wise see it as white . . . Being both far and near [He] is said to be indifferent to possessions. The color, shape and other attributes of this first form [of Vishnu] are not without existence, but they exist in imagination." [Clh 66]

Wolf

An endearing song begins with "Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?" But a wolf is dangerous and may be hungry: "Ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognise them ... a bad tree bears bad fruit." - Matthew 7;15-17.