Awakening My Memories

"If homoeopathic or imitative magic, working by means of images, has commonly been practised for the spiteful purpose of putting obnoxious people out of the world, it has also, though far more rarely, been employed with the benevolent intention of helping others into it.  In other words, it has been used to facilitate childbirth and to procure offspring for barren women".   (Frazer 10)



   I missed class on Thursday and was unable to hear everyones creation stories.  I therefore feel obliged to tell my creation story.  According to the Hmong tradition, the Earth was covered in water. On that water floated a yellow drum with a brother and a sister trapped inside.  The King above drained the water, freeing the siblings.  The brother wished to marry his sister in order to procreate, but the sister refused.  The brother made a deal with his sister, " If we both roll stones down this hill and they stack on top of eachother at the bottom, then you shall marry me."  The sister reluctantly agreed and they both pushed their stones.  The brother wanted to marry her so badly, that he ran ahead of the stones and stacked them when the stones got to him.  The sister married her brother and a year later they gave birth to a baby.  This baby was born without arms and legs, and was in the shape of a pumpkin.  The husband cut the pumpkin shaped baby into many pieces and where the pieces landed became a clan.  Each clan was named according to where they landed.  The Hmong use creation stories to explain how things came to be and are very fascinating in that aspect.  In agreeance with Eliade on ch.7 of Myth and Reality, memory plays a key role in storytelling (myth).  His analysis of Indian symbolism reminded me of the book Siddhartha (Herman Hesse).     If some of you are not familiar with Siddhartha; its about a man that started off following Buddha and then slowly goes through the trials of life.  Without the help of a teacher or master, Siddhartha finds the true meaning of life in a river.  This is story is a great example of how selfish thinking and ignorance can blind us from our memory(mnemne), and recollection(anamnesis) can 'awaken' us from our sleep.