A modelling clay figure of Cosmic Bear.
These are the kind of figures and deep ideas I presented in my art show in 2004. I don't really expect others to get the same meaning and realizations out of them as I do. Perhaps they will see something else in the symbols. The worst fears I had at expressing these mythological ideas is that they are not in line with 'religious' ideas. There were those people I knew who couldn't see the difference between talking about these creatures in a mythological sense and believing in them religiously. I feel these 'spirits' or personifications have nothing to do with religion - it is much closer to psychology and examining the very nature of human thought.
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'Cosmic Bear and Fox': These are two 'archetype' characters developed from my automatic drawings. I was drawing and forming Cosmic bear for almost a year before I realized that his story was partially a mythologized version my own history.
Cosmic Bear is brought into the world by Fox, a half-seen spirit who, by her curiosity, created the World Tree out of the dust and dreams of a Sleeping Dragon. The dragon sleeps forever, although not peacefully, and the world grows on his back. If he wakes, the world will be shaken off.
Fox is wise and at the same time irresponsible. She is in possession of Great Knowledge, but never keeps her mind on one thing long enough. She is always whirling, toying with humans and other spirits. She's actually always trying to help, but is often leaving things undone in a Chaotic state.
Cosmic Bear is just one of the things she created. She forms him out of a leaf growing out of herself. She sings to him and tells him all of the great knowledge she has, but he is too young to understand. He is a child, playing and amazed at being alive. Then, she is gone - and he is plunged into a despair. Finally he brings himself out of the cave he was born in and sees the Silver Forest - part of the base of the World Tree that Fox accidently created. He goes to the Silver Forest where he goes through many trials and adventures.
There are several 'myths' I had written that involve Cosmic Bear. Some of them he is a child learning, others he is the advisor or the doer of great things (such as bringing the stars into the sky). He grows to be a great Protector and a 'Wise One' himself. He remembers more and more bits of the Song Fox had sung, and they make even more sense to him as he discovers other things. Then he comes to understand the nature of Fox and takes new perspective on both his creation and childhood and what he has done since.
I see the Cosmic Bear archetype and the Fox archetype in myself. It is by seeing those archetypes we can take their good points of their personality and take warning from their bad ones. Eerily, I can also see elements of my childhood re-expressed through the Cosmic Bear creation myth.
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Another figure. A bit more strange and needing more explanation. This 'creature' is not a representation of an actual living object - but of an internal process. The idea portrayed is that there is something within all of us that brings knowledge from somewhere subconscious, or spiritual.
The bird is a symbol of the messenger or bridge between that other source of knowledge and our conscious selves. There are many myths where the bird is a messenger between the Spirit World and our own world.
This figure has a piece of yarn stretched through the top of the head (knowledge) through the beak of the "inner bird" mask and out the mouth of a human mask which represents the exterior, what others see and what we choose to show them. It represents the receiving, channeling and expressing of deep thoughts, philosophy and myth to bring greater understanding.
This figure is my expression of how the complex and strange exploration of dreams, psychology and myth can feel almost like a temporary transformation. The yarn is the message received and interpreted.
Other articles:
Pre-socratic philosophy
The Hero with a Thousand Faces book by Joseph Campbell
Use of masks for transformation and mythological retelling
The concept of the myth and psychocultural evolution
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