To Europeans, myth is false, illusion, unreal and make-believe. Myth is used to tell an imaginative story that promotes theoretical philosophies, values and culture but which do not exist in past or present practice.
In other words, what a myth means, depends on your worldview (your context, your utamawazo).
Know The Myth Of Yourself
“African Mythology is not falsehood, it is a way to allegorically represent that which is true.” (Charles Finch, Esoteric Wisdom)This means then, that myth is what metaphor is. The root of Spirit implores Africans to not ignore the logical use of metaphor; therefore not ignore the logical use of myth.
African myths help us understand truths of life, existence and of what has been created, thus what each of us are here for. “Our Ancestors used analogy, allegory and mythological story to cloak scientific principles in both the spiritual and physical portions of reality.” (Kamene: African Cosmology) “African spiritual philosophy expresses itself in myth. African myths are the highest statements of truth for Africans. African Psychology must use African Mythology to reveal the workings of the African mind. We must use African Mythology to discover what is natural for us, what is healthy for us, what is sanity for us. African Mythology presents to us, in a systematic way, the symbols which reveal African truth. This is a multi-dimensional truth. African myths give us models for understanding the complexities of human existence and the relationships between humans and the Divine.” (From UC#748 & UC#749) “Myth reveals the ultimate nature of existence. In this sense, myths are “true.” Myths explain what Life is all about beyond the concerns of everyday living. Properly read, myths bring us into accord with the eternal mysteries of being. Properly read” means to understand that myth represents the symbol, metaphor and model of truth. Myth is not to be understood as the literal story being true. The messages and meanings are true across multiple dimensions. The actual events in the literal sense sometimes did not occur partially or completely, but the truths did occur and still apply right now. The truth of myth is verified through experience (self) and the experience of other humans and other creations (all else).” Know the myth of self and know the myth of all else. (Martin, p. 86 paraphrased with additions)
Dogon View Of Myth
“The myth is real history. It is so tanie, ”astonishing word.” Myth is a way to explain something. A myth is a consciously composed lore of master ideas which may not be placed within reach of just anyone at any time. A myth presents itself in layers like the shells of a seed. A myth is a form of 'slight knowledge.' A myth conceals clear statements and coherent systems reserved for Initiates, who have access to this 'deep knowledge.' This deep knowledge belongs to the universal body of knowledge; however, this deeper sacred knowledge is covered and concealed from the profane mind. (Griaule, p. 60-61/pdf 34, paraphrased)Closing
The use of myth to lead us through progressions of truth is of higher-ordered intelligence. Myth used this way, assists in the process of becoming one with the Creator.The use of myth to lead us through false impressions is of lower-ordered intelligence. Myth used this way, leads to mutation and stagnation which feeds the Destroyer. African myth exists to teach us things other people can't figure out. Therefore we should not put what others teach us above our own ability to teach each other, be self-taught and understand through multiple ways of knowing. Do not allow people who are estranged from their Africanness, their human beingness, keep you from the messages meant for you through myth Stop believing things through the myths of others and start knowing things through African myth. We must switch our logic back over from the myth of religion to African myths of African spiritual traditions. We must. The myth we trust is the God we trust. As we continue to recalibrate and optimize, our genetic potential has no other choice but to reveal the truth in African myth.
Thus, reveal the truth in self and more and more of the truth in all else. “Myth helps us reconcile past and present experiences with African spiritual and cosmic reality. Reconciliation is important because “experiences are symbolic statements of universal cosmic truth.” Striving to understand experiences through the lens of the broader cosmic reality, establishes Maat by bringing physical reality and spiritual reality together in our consciousness; therefore the physical and spiritual remain one in our actions.
Myth also helps us heal. The myths of African cultures contain deeper mysteries of Life and cosmic reality. Through story and symbol, myths explain how to negotiate the relationships and rhythms of Life.” (Martin, p. 85, paraphrased) Martin, Denise, Ph.D. "African Mythic Science or Vodou Methodology," The Journal of Pan African Studies, (2012, June), vol.5, no.4. Griaule, Marcel and Dieterlen, Germaine, “The Pale Fox,” Originally published in French as Le Renard Pâle, (l'Institu d'Ethnologie: Paris, 1965), First English Edition by Stephen C. Infantino, Ph.D., (Continuum Foundation, 1986) Note: “The extensive mythic archive of Kemet for all practical purposes was quite dormant among African people for millennia until the twentieth century when it was activated by both intellectual and social communities.” (Martin, p. 86) “Intellectually, Stolen Legacy by George G.M. James and Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire by Drusila Dunjee Houston (Black Classic Press) and later Cheikh Anta Diop’s African Origin of Civilization prepared the foundation for African people to live the myths of Egypt by providing alternatives to views of Egypt based on Christianity. Socially, Egyptian myth was known within the Black Freemason and Moorish Science Temple communities, as well as the esoteric teachings of the Nation of Islam. The Ausar Auset Society, founded in 1973, is devoted exclusively to living the mythic knowledge of Egypt.” (Martin, p. 97)
Update 9/17/16
“The Greeks could not master the system of Egyptian mythology and the hieroglyphics were to them the dead letter of a dead language.” (pdf. 31)“They [the Greeks], as their writers allege, had inherited their mythology, and the names of the divinities, without knowing their origin or meaning. They supplied their own free versions to stories of which they never possessed the key. Whenever they met with anything they did not understand, they turned it the more effectively to their own account.” (pdf. 31)
“In his Commentary on Plato's Politics, Proclus, speaking of the symbolism of the ancients, and their sacerdotal system, says truly that from this mythology Plato himself derived or established many of his peculiar dogmas.
The utterly misleading way in which Egyptian physics were converted by Plato and his followers into Greek metaphysics, makes Platonism only another name for imposture.” (pdf. 31) “Philo complains that the Greeks had brought a mist upon learning which made it impossible to discover the truth. The same charge may be substantialized on other grounds against his own countrymen. In India the myths have been vaporized.” (pdf. 32)
“The decadence of mythology is to be found in the Greek poetizing, Hebrew euhemerizing, and Vedic vagueness. What the myths have to tell us depends on their having preserved the earliest shape ; they have reached their decay when made to speak falsely through the interfusion of later thought.” (pdf. 32) “Myths and allegories whose significance was once unfolded to initiates in the mysteries have been adopted in ignorance and re-issued as real truths directly and divinely vouchsafed to mankind for the first and only time! The earlier religions had their myths interpreted. We have ours mis-interpreted. And a great deal of what has been imposed on us as God's own true and sole revelation to man is a mass of inverted myth, under the shadow of which we have been cowering as timorously as birds in the stubble when an artificial kite in the shape of a hawk is hovering overhead.” (pdf. 36 )
“Misinterpreted mythology has so profoundly infected religion, poetry, art, and criticism, that it has created a cult of the unreal.” (pdf. 37 )
“All who have ever suffered mentally from the misinterpretation of ancient myths in the name of Theology, and felt its brand of degradation in the very soul, ought to sympathize with the treatment of the ass, for it is a fellow-victim who has likewise undergone unmerited punishment, and had its fall, and still awaits its redemption.” (pdf. 70) “Moreover, Myth and Logos are interchangeable in Greek; and one sense of the word Logos is a true narration; as it is said in the Georgias, the fable differs from Aéyoc, because the latter is true. Thus the Logos or myth is identical with the Ma-Khent or “True Word " of the Egyptian Theosophy,...” (pdf. 160 ) Massey, Gerald, “The Natural Genesis: Or, Second Part of A Book of the Beginnings, Containing an Attempt to Recover and Reconstitute the Lost Origins of the Myths and Mysteries, Types and Symbols, Religion and Language, with Egypt for the Mouthpiece and Africa as the Birthplace,”, (Williams and Norgate, 1883) Volume I.
