Podcast Benomtad

The Carnation is the Prince: The carnation the heroine burns at the beginning of the story IS the prince at the end.  He requires her to speak, but she freezes up, so he has to go into a stone... So she has to go through trials until she can freely express.  But he is always there when she is ready to speak.

(Discussion on “The Carnation Youth;” A Clip from the Episode “Perfectionism, Tragedy, and Creative Blocks”)

Thank you fo...

The Echo of Orpheus: Narcissus' repulse of Echo reminds me of another vain god, Orpheus, master of music.  Both end up being served by poetic justice.

We see perfectionism in this, and in the refusal to join in, to dance in life, leads to destruction.

(A Clip from the Episode “The Myth of Narcissus: Seeing Only Oneself”)

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Audio episode:

https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/the-myth-of-nar...

We read and discuss the Spanish Folktale “The Carnation Youth,” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s tragedy both in life and in “The Great Gatsby,” and Ian’s struggles with the creative writing process.  

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

00:12 Reading of “The Carnation Youth”

10:05 Letting the Perfect be the Enemy of the Good

14:25 Why Does She Burn the Carnation in the Fire?

24:33 The Carnation is the Prince

29:10 The Carnation Girl’s Sec...

This pool is a metaphor for the mind.  But there is a "healthy narcissism" that is developmentally-appropriate.

(A Clip from the Episode “The Myth of Narcissus: Seeing Only Oneself”)

Thank you for watching!  Please check out:

Audio episode:

https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/the-myth-of-narcissus-seeing-only-oneself/

The Podcast Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqfEOVgfclRgZNXO4boyP3T

The Episode Pla...

When you lack a feeling of substance, you need to be propped up by others.

(A Clip from the Episode “The Myth of Narcissus: Seeing Only Oneself”)

Thank you for watching!  Please check out:

Audio episode:

https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/the-myth-of-narcissus-seeing-only-oneself/

The Podcast Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIlJwXEK2vqfEOVgfclRgZNXO4boyP3T

The Episode Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playli...

Echo was cursed to only repeat what others had said, and fell in love with Narcissus, who shunned her.  She wasn’t the only one Narcissus treated coldly.  He found himself in a grove with a pool of water, and, falling deeply in love with what he saw when he bent over it, he was mesmerized until he died.

We discuss this myth, using Bulfinch’s version, and go on to discuss psychology, philosophy and spirituality against the backgro...

A father had seven sons, but no daughters, and wished for and finally got one.  His sons went to get water for the Christening, but dropped the bucket into it.  They did not know what to do, so they stayed out, and the father in his frustration wished them to become ravens, and so they did, and flew away.  Now the daughter grew to be healthy and beautiful, and did not know of her brothers.  But one day in town she heard others talk...

When you've  got your basic needs met, like the father does when he takes shelter in Beast's castle, one looks for transcendence, including beauty.

This is another story of the emptiness of the palace symbol.

(A Clip from the Episode “Beauty and the Beast: The Need for Beauty”)

Thank you for watching!  Please check out:

The full video episode:

https://youtu.be/G3AhWHN4Gyc?si=kJxXDtlQT7Q3rv0c

Audio episode:

https://benomta...

A rich merchant with three sons and three daughters– the eldest daughters hold out on marriage to a Duke or Earl, but the youngest, aptly-named Beauty, does so to stay with her father a few more years.  The merchant falls in his fortunes, and they have to move to the country.  The men apply themselves to husbandry and tillage, and Beauty to housework, but the eldest stay lazy.

One day, the merchant gets a letter about a ship arri...

Hans, beset from childhood with violence from his parents, finally makes it in life, and is to be the king of his wife’s town.  However, the people riot when the learn he is blind, and he and the princess are banished.  Only when they come to a stream and learn from a blind mouse how to cure his sightlessness do they return to fanfare.  

Are the people right?  They did not want a king who could not see.

(A Clip from the Episode...

VonSchönwerth’s “The Knight’s Sash” is a story about an intrepid son without a father, who continually does his duty, eventually wins love and devotion.  We summarize and then discuss the story.

A hunter’s widow and her son, Hans, were always wandering around, but they espied a castle in the forest, and the giant living there eventually married his mother.  He loved hunting, and one day he saw a tree with no branches, and a knight’...

LL and I do a short breathing meditation, then a zoom out contemplation.  After checking in about recent challenges, we discuss Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, Book 12, Entry 36, the last in the book, seemingly shortly before his own death, which discusses one’s place in the cosmos and the relation to death.  

Man, thou hast been a citizen in this great state [the world];121 what difference does it make to thee whether for five ye...

The Gold Child goes into the dangerous forest full of thieves and conceals his skin with a bearskin, and passes through unmolested.The Gold Child goes into the dangerous forest, full of thieves, and conceals his skin with a bearskin, and passes through unmolested.

In life, in spiritual development, it is a mystery what will happen next. 

Sometimes we are saved by the feminine.  Goldchild’s wife talks to her father to save her husba...

A fisherman catches a gold fish, which makes a deal with him: he’ll have a nice big house if he lets the fish go, on the condition he tell no one how he got the house.  The man objects: and what’ll I have to eat?  The fish says the cupboards will be full.

Back home, his wife, decked out in finery, itches with curiosity, and he eventually tells her, and their house disappears.  This happens once more, but on the third time, the fi...

In the fairy tale time logic, the fisherman's son practically becomes a priest after he is born, and after he leaves the house he doesn't see his parents again.  But he is not done with the watery bargain he is doomed within from birth.  

When he makes it to the castle, he is shown in royal garment, signalling he is ready to be the heir to the kingdom.  But he is still not united with the feminine--either of his wife, the princess,...

“Little Red Cap:” A little girl, beloved by her grandmother and known for her red cap, is sent by her mother to bring her grandmother a meal.  Little Cap assures her mother she’ll follow all directions, and goes off on the trail.  

She is not afraid of the wolf when she sees him, and he peppers her with questions, learning of her destination, where he’ll get two victims.  They walk together and he points out the natural life arou...

The mermaid's deal with the fisherman: she gives him an abundant catch without telling him, and then takes it away unless he'll agree to her demand.  In order to get his livelihood back he must sacrifice his child to her.  He appeals to a higher authority in a Christian society, and this forstalls the child offering.  These complexities and moral ambiguities remind me of great power negotiations, which, unlike those within a countr...

Why Dionysus May Be the Patron of Theater: A well-told story will shake you and has the power of psychological transformation.  A death to your former self.  A communal experience with a large part of those you grew up with and knew well, seeing a story that you knew deeply, with the reflection of your reactions in the chorus on stage.  It seems that Greek theater could be a transformative religious experience. 

(A Clip from the...

A fisherman employed by a Count that paid him well for how big his catches were suddenly stopped catching fish and was let go.  Sat out on water, weeping.  Mermaid came to him and said she was the one who gave him all the fish and then took them away, and that if he wanted more he’d have to give her something he didn’t know he had.  He agreed and caught a large load.

Went home and shocked his wife with the news– she told him she...