Green Psychology by Ralph Metzner

Author:Ralph Metzner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company

I would question here only the metaphor of “symbiosis,” since it refers to a mutually supportive relationship between two different species. The more appropriate ecological metaphor for the Indo-European takeover would seem to be predation or colonization; it was an aggressive invasion, in which the interests of the agricultural societies of Old Europe were completely subordinated to the interests of the invading Indo-Germanic pastoral warrior societies, at least at first. In time, of course, accommodation must have taken place, as well as assimilation, so that a coherent social order developed with hierarchically organized castes or classes. Hybrid myths were created, with their associated artistic and ritual forms, expressing the strengths and values of both cultures. I like to imagine the situation as analogous to a palimpsest, with the deeper, older strata of religious imagery detectable in fragments through the dominant, later overlay.

When we look at classical mythology, both of the Mediterranean areas and of northern Europe, there are three mythic complexes that clearly reflect this clashing of cultures and blending of mythologies. There is a group of myths that justify invasion and domination, the self-justifying stories of the Indo-European or other pastoralist invaders. There is a second group of myths of resistance and retaliation, in which the popular resistance to the Aryan takeover is expressed, what one might also call “the revenge of the goddess.” And, third, there is a group of myths of compromise and reconciliation, which express the harmonizing and accommodation that presumably was reached by the people, who had found a way to reconcile their differences.

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