Haley Conroy - Exploratory Essay Beliefs/Thoughts

The overarching main theme that is explored in my exploratory essay is that myth can be translated or understood as truth. A part of our prompt and study in this course expands on this notion fully by stating, “what flows into you from the myth is not truth but reality (truth is always about something, but reality is that about which truth is), and therefore, every myth becomes the father of the innumerable truths on the abstract level. Myth is the mountain whence all the different streams arise which become truths down here in the valley” (C.S Lewis). I believe the overarching belief that Lewis is attempting to portray is that we live in a natural world that is framed by the stories we tell. Myths can be categorized as a type of construct of imagination that is projected on the environment in the ways in which we tell stories and as a way society or living beings explain how things come to be which is very interesting. Myths are a very explored and informative topic. Specifically, origin myths don’t always have to be stories that society might find improbable or untrue. The term origin myth explains the origin of an aspect of the world. These myths are typically rich with moral knowledge. Origin myths are the catalyst for myths in most cultures, explaining how a story becomes. As a result, the origin myth also plays a role in defining the aspect as a whole. An additional factor is that origin myths can be divided into three categories: cosmogonic, etiological, and foundational. Specifically honing in on a cosmogonic myth, it tells the creation of a story which is why the word mythos relates to a story. Cosmology refers to the study of the order of the universe as a whole and it is important to point out that each culture has its own mythic cosmology. Mythos is creative based on the way that the words are created. It is interesting to acknowledge that there are just as many myths in the world as there are cultures. Many myths present in society depict the creation of our universe as a result of a monumental event. A main theme we covered in class last week is that what flows into you from myth is not truth, but reality. Reality can be considered more continuous since it is in a constant state of renewal, while truth could be considered an abstraction since it is always about something. Now to acknowledge two very important terms from our course studies including, habitat and habitus. The term habitat refers to one’s place of dwelling, whereas habitus refers to one’s way of dwelling. This differentiation explores how individuals see the world in particular ways and make up conceptualizations differently. Additionally, this relates to how the conceptualization of a theory/any idea can be deconstructed and evaluated on many levels.