Articles Tagged

Mythology

Today, we’re going to be exploring an extension of my Theory of Everything in the context of the nature of the universe, time, creation, and destruction.

August 30, 2022

Garrett Dailey

The FourGames Deck: Creating a Handy Oracle Card Game

It’s taken very nearly two years, but I’ve gotten the final invoice from our manufacturer at last, and the FourGames Deck is complete. What is the FourGames Deck, you might be asking? FourGame Dynamics, or FourGames for short, is a set of mental models created by Jamie Combs, founder of Natural Balance Foods. Jamie tasked me with creating a standard 52 card deck using FourGames that works both as a normal set of playing cards as well as an oracle deck, which is a general name for decks like Tarot or Lenormand that have symbolic meanings for the cards. Today, I’m going to give you a walkthrough of the last two years of this project from ideation, design, prototyping, and manufacturing.

April 30, 2019

Garrett Dailey

Not Today: Thanos, The Night King, and Cultural Nihilism

Today I’m going to be looking at two of the most fascinating examples of nihilism in the culture- Thanos from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and The Night King (and more broadly, the White Walkers and Wights) from Game of Thrones. It’s going to be beneficial to have read The Desert of Nihilism and the Throne of God before this one. Along the way, we’re going to touch on how the Avengers are the new Greek pantheon, the fact that the Lord of Light (R’hllor) represents the force of life, and that both shows are notable for being centered around fighting nihilism as the core theme.

February 10, 2019

Garrett Dailey

The Desert of Nihilism and the Throne of God

Despite much of MasterSelf being inherently built on the opposition to Nihilism, I don’t think I’ve directly touched on the concept until The Burden of Existence, II. Beyond all other issues, the black and bleeding heart of the ills of the world is rooted in the philosophy of Nihilism. This belief (or perhaps unbelief) system is so widespread and commonplace that most people are wholly unaware that their own lives are ruled, or at the very least, influenced by it. Today, we explore the Desert of Nihilism and the Throne of God to understand the horror and responsibility that it represents.

January 3, 2019

Garrett Dailey

All Hail: The Archetype of the King and the Burden of Command

Today, we’re going to be taking a look at the supreme masculine archetype, the King. This article is somewhat complementary to the issue of contemporary masculinity I laid out in the second half of Syzygy, so it may be beneficial to read that first. The issue, as far as I can see it, arises from the inherent relationship between masculinity and responsibility (or, in today’s case, the lack thereof). What better, then, to examine such a burden, than to look at the archetype of the King?

January 2, 2019

Garrett Dailey

Syzygy II: Bearing the Fruit of the Divine Union

I had been meaning to write the second half of my syzygy article for a long time, but I hadn’t yet come to a complete conclusion as to what the process looked like. However, somewhat recently I realized that the fundamental flaw in prior approaches (like that of Jung): the creation of the syzygy is not the goal. Instead, we must bear the fruit of the divine union. This, as far as I can see it, is the reason for the extreme sense of division and frustration between men and women in our day and age, and I’ll get into that as we go.

December 16, 2018

Garrett Dailey

Myth and Meaning II: To Kill the Demiurge Within

Today we’re going to be looking at what I consider to be the most fascinating mythology (that isn’t Norse mythology, because Ragnarok is completely badass)- Gnosticism, and how it relates to the Self. While there are a number of fatal objections I have with the Gnostic philosophies, it has a number of really fascinating ideas and gorgeous imagery that can be taken away and turned into something useful. The name Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge,” and the religion is based around the attainment of the true gnosis, which we’ll explore in more detail. First, however, we need to start with the Gnostic creation story.

October 14, 2018

Garrett Dailey

Myth and Meaning I: Parents, Serpents, and Innocence

This will be the first part of an infrequent series that I’ll be calling Myth and Meaning. We’re going to start off by exploring the story of the Garden of Eden. Now, as with any sort of biblical exegesis that I do on this site, we’re not going to be commenting on the religious component of the stories, instead we’re looking for deeper mythic and psychological themes (and serpents- lots of serpents).

August 9, 2018

Garrett Dailey

The Carnivore Diet, Cain, Abel, and JBP (Carnivore Challenge, Ch. III)

Hello again, friends, it has now been two weeks of meat on the Carnivore diet- halfway there. I don’t have too terribly much to report this time (still feeling great, getting up early, and full of energy), so this week I figured I would talk about something that’s been stuck in my head since last week.

July 29, 2018

Garrett Dailey

Syzygy, Part I: The Emergence of the Modern Myth

There exists a mythological, archetypal symbol that is present in essentially every culture, but somehow this concept remains largely unknown. This archetype is known as the Syzygy, or the united opposites. You have certainly seen this symbol before in the Yin-Yang or the Star of David:

Articles Tagged

Mythology

Lux Æterna: Singularity and the Sea of Light

The FourGames Deck: Creating a Handy Oracle Card Game

Not Today: Thanos, The Night King, and Cultural Nihilism

The Desert of Nihilism and the Throne of God

All Hail: The Archetype of the King and the Burden of Command

Syzygy II: Bearing the Fruit of the Divine Union

Myth and Meaning II: To Kill the Demiurge Within

Myth and Meaning I: Parents, Serpents, and Innocence

The Carnivore Diet, Cain, Abel, and JBP (Carnivore Challenge, Ch. III)

Syzygy, Part I: The Emergence of the Modern Myth