# Myths phenomenology list

Modern thinking leans a bit heavily on [science](science.md). The natural downside of [logic](logic.md)-heavy [cultures](people-culture.md) is that they'll often dismiss folktales and myths as being "stuff for kids".

While [stories](stories.md) are frequently fun, they contain compelling [patterns](symbols.md) that transcend time, even though the claimed weapons against mythological beings are typically silly. No matter where you look, everyone across the [lens of history](history-eras.md) tells the same stories, with the only anthropological differences coming from constraints like geography, neighboring cultures' [influence](power-influence.md), and shared communal [experiences](understanding.md).

If we connect those patterns, many universals will represent in common with all aspects of the human experience, specifically with [how things *ought* to be](imagination.md). The myths are frequently a product of societies who were less [educated](education.md) (but by no means less qualified) and trying to [pass on their understanding](legacy.md) to their children who were even less educated than *them*. In particular, the [fear-based](mind-feelings-fear.md) themes are direct symbolism to real-life threats.

Most modern vernacular runs on the same [mythology](religion-answers.md) (e.g., "witchcraft" becomes "pharmaceuticals") even while the faces have changed.

## Genres

Drama and comedy are a portrayal of the difficult and enjoyable parts of the [good life](goodlife.md), respectively

Fantasy, science fiction, and horror are based on how we [imagine](imagination.md), but as a [hypothetical](paradoxes.md) into the future.

- Historical fiction are thought experiments for the audience to imagine themselves in that past period of time.
- Alternate histories are heavily curated thought experiments, often with [political](people-conflicts-war.md) predictions involved.

## Themes

Water always symbolizes [the unknown](unknown.md), which closely connects with the risks of dying, and the unbounded opportunities that come with traveling on bodies of water. At the same time, running water represents life, which is why it's a popular deterrent against certain monsters like vampires.

The woods, by contrast to water, also symbolize the unknown, but with more [trauma](hardship-ptsd.md) and less [death](hardship-death.md).

Any games of luck or chance represent the [unknown](unknown.md) and [uncertainty](understanding-certainty.md) that arises within [reality](reality.md).

Using gold or silver to ward off monsters is symbolic of how [money and wealth](power-types.md) can cure most problems.

Calling out the name of a monster to control it symbolizes how we assign [values](values.md) (and therefore gain [power](power.md) through [understanding](understanding.md)) through identifying what a thing is with [language](language.md).

- At the same time, calling out the name of a monster risking its presence symbolizes how the [values](values.md) we interpret can also control us through [fear](mind-feelings-fear.md).

Repelling evil with salt comes from how salt symbolizes preservation of food (and therefore ensuring survival), and was once highly valuable for that reason.

- The imagery of *being* salt (such as in Christianity) is the innate power [humanity](humanity.md) has to be an agent of [change](people-changes.md) in their environment.

An object of unbelievably extreme power (e.g., magic lamp, Holy Grail) is our imagination of a [technological](technology.md) (i.e., human-controlled) means of controlling the forces of nature directly.

Multiple doors or pathways are the raw representation of [decisions and choice](people-decisions.md).

The human body, especially when contrasted with a much larger environment or with death, represents how we are [finite and mortal](mind-feelings-fear.md).

Depictions of heaven and hell (as well as any other variations, including Nirvana) are [moral balancing](morality.md) for the [unfair situations](morality-evil.md) we often find ourselves exposed to in this life. It's inescapably connected to some form of [judging authority](people-rules.md), though the rules move around a *lot* based on [implementation](religion-answers.md).

Any version of the "shadow self" (e.g., Mr. Hyde) is a depiction of our unspoken [subconscious desires](mind-feelings.md) and [limited control over them](people-decisions.md).

[Intelligent](understanding.md) beings are often seen as [contenders](people-conflicts.md) with the gods, and often as villains.

## Beings/Races

Often, monsters represented fantastic versions of real-life animals:

- Dragons and drakes are simply dinosaurs, but with fire.
  - Wyrms and wyverns are snakes, but often with limbs, flying, and fire-breathing.
- Basilisks/cockatrices are hybrids of snakes and chickens, with the [fear](mind-feelings-fear.md) element ratcheted up heavily by making them absurdly dangerous to even [perceive](image.md).
- There is some historical precedent in ancient myths that some type of dragons may have existed.

Most grandiose stories of giants (e.g., Titans, Paul Bunyan) are simple explanations of how incredibly large, naturally occurring things came into existence. They often merge their phenomenology with the natural disasters surrounding where they purportedly reside.

- There is historical precedent that some form of giants may exist, however.

Any depiction of a predator (e.g., sharks, wolves, snakes) are representative of people who [exploit others](power.md) in various ways (e.g., relentlessly, cleverly, sneakily).

Commonplace animals represent certain aspects of society:

- Cows connect to the means of acquiring prosperity and wealth, as well as [safety](safety.md) connected to available food.
- Pigs represent excess and waste because, even though they're *very* efficient farming, they run risks to the environment in the process.

Birds, and flying in general, represent transcending a current state of existence, which can mean new freedom or the afterlife.

Many monsters represent natural disasters:

- Trolls (especially mountain trolls) represent mountain risks (e.g., landslides, earthquakes). They vary quite dramatically because geological formations have been interpreted by different [cultures](people-culture.md) as various forms of [strength](power.md), [danger](unknown.md), adventure, and refuge.
- The Kraken represents the dangers in the open sea, especially storms and hurricanes. The Loch Ness monster is a bit of a smaller version over large lakes.

Quite a few creatures represent females and femininity:

- Elves and Asian fox spirits, even when male, represent feminine characteristics (e.g., clever, elegant, flighty).
- Sirens represent the deceit of beautiful women.
- Witches represent the [technological brilliance](technology.md) and deceit of an older matriarch. Her witch's brew symbolizes her means to influence society in subtle ways, and the broom represents the custodial work that came with homemaking.
- Nymphs represent the wispy and (from [males' perspective](gender.md)) disjointed connections inherent to females.
- An old crone typically represents the convergence of the [unknown](unknown.md) with the wisdom from [experience](understanding.md).

Other creatures represent males and masculinity:

- Dwarves, even when female, represent masculine characteristics (e.g., strong, rugged).

A few directly represent extremes of mental illness:

- Werewolves represent [rageaholics](mind-feelings-anger.md) who abuse people during their fits of rage.
- Vampires represent narcissists who [selfishly](morality-evil.md) steal life and [meaning](meaning.md) from others.
- Ogres and orcs are deformed humans, often representing physical manifestations of [evil](morality-evil.md) people.
  - Mutants in science fiction represent the capacity for [technology](technology.md) to turn us [evil](morality-evil.md)

A golem is the symbol of [technologically](technology.md) creating automation that reproduces human behavior. This includes Frankenstein's monster, and goes all the way to its modern implementation of [artificial intelligence](computers-ai.md).

Some beings simply depict the [unknown](unknown.md):

- Chupacabra is the random set of mysterious events that may happen to livestock.
- The Hydra represents how we interpret problems, where killing one "head" brings about 2 others, carrying on in a parade of endless issues that [we never adequately accomplish](habits.md).

The phoenix is an optimistic take on how we see [death](mind-feelings-fear.md), with the implication that life necessarily exists after it and that death is simply a part of moving to the next life. From another angle, it also represents [self-improvement](success-1_why.md) as our old self "dies" from our [changes](people-changes.md).

Many of them are complex mix-and-match elements of multiple things:

- Zombies, a product of [modern society](jobs-specialization.md), represent crowds of people mindlessly [set in their ways](habits.md), with our [fear of death](mind-feelings-fear.md) and the [uncertainty](understanding-certainty.md) of the afterlife mixed into it.
- Killer robots are a combination of the [technical idiots](https://gainedin.site/idiot/) of [modern society](jobs-specialization.md), mixed with the [fear of the unknown](unknown.md) regarding [modern technology](technology.md).
- Unicorns' representation of purity and virginity comes from combining associations of the color white and purity, mixed with aspects of virility with the horn.

## Characters

Most gods and deities are named depictions of concepts we understand, and there are several popular ones that keep cropping up:

- Sun god (e.g., Ra), who often mixes closely with a creator god (i.e., the bringer of life)
- Weather god (e.g., Thor, Nimbus), which tends to be the bringer of [change](people-changes.md)
- The chaos and the [unknown](unknown.md), often named (e.g., Loki, Anansi), and often takes on an antagonistic form (e.g., Satan)
- Fertility gods/goddesses that express the uncertainty around [child-bearing](people-family.md)

When gods start making fickle [decisions](people-decisions.md), they can also represent powerful [political figures](politics-conservativeliberal.md) who influence our lives.

Christmas has created a few repetitions:

- Santa Claus represents our latent desire for everyone to [be good](morality.md), with a moral justification in this life for it by receiving presents.
- Krampus is the counter to Santa Claus, with bad children receiving severe punishment or eternal hell.

Multiple characters represent man's relationship with the divine or desired relationship with the divine:

- Thor is a central character because lightning is a major convergence between celestial objects and earth.
- Anytime there's a religious prophet (e.g., Muhammad, Joseph Smith), they are either the messenger or pathway to mankind's meaning and salvation for after this life.
- The farthest version of this is [Jesus](jesus-gospel.md), representing God directly with a personal relationship with humanity.

## Specific Stories

Fair folk and gnomes are the masculine and feminine forms of the "little things", where taking care of them will manage the big things. When they were once considered hostile in old folklore, it represented how little things can cause big problems (e.g., not fixing a squeaky wagon wheel means getting stuck on the side of a road). The Elves and the Shoemaker story's moral is basically "little by little goes a long way".

The Minotaur's labyrinth story represents the mentally strong Daedalus (i.e., intelligent person) ruling over the physically strong but mentally weak Minotaur (i.e., working class) using clever tricks to keep him contained.

The story of the spiritual and physical realms temporarily merging or cross (e.g., Night Parade of 100 Demons, the Wild Hunt, Walpurgisnacht) represents the cyclical nature of seasonal change and how new [trends](trends.md) arise after a "reset".

Fair folk were once regarded as volatile or hostile beings who would sometimes capture humans as a type of pet, but that story is now representative of personal development through a [coming-of-age story](maturity.md). Most of these tie to how we interpret our relationship with [God](religion-answers.md).

Many stories have a flood or some sort of early near-apocalypse. Beside the possibility that it may have happened, they symbolize [hope](imagination.md) despite the utter destruction.

Every apocalypse story is the same thing: termination of everything we understand as our existence, with final judgment on humanity. We all know [evil](morality-evil.md) ought to be repaid, and that there's something waiting after this life.

- The apocalypse stories of mainstream monotheistic religions (e.g., Islam, Christianity) is the final connection between man and God before God has no more distance from us.
- Ragnarök is a final battle for all great warriors, which indicates the pinnacle of life is [war](people-conflicts-war.md).