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Comment
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BranEcne
Registered User
(6/5/05 8:26 pm)
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Myths Over Miami
Has anyone here read the article "Myths Over Miami"?
www.miaminewtimes.com/iss...ature.html
The article deals with the stories of homeless children in Miami. It describes a complex mythology where God has fled from a heaven overrun by demon, Satan and the fierce and deadly Bloody Mary walk the streets, and one of the children's few allies is the Blue Lady, who brings in the rain from the sea, not to mention taking on gangbangers and demons with a pistol.
But is this article accurate? The tales told seem to me to be too coherent to be true. I contacted Bill Ellis, a folklorist mentioned in the article, and he thought that some of the article was exaggerated.
So has anyone come across any similar articles or stories? What drives children to make their own myths? Children are prone to making myths, especially at camps with ghost and monster stories. Back when I was in primary school we went to a camp where a ghost story started circulated and then blew up in scale, getting out of control. It caused a kind of mass hysteria - kids were crying in the hallways, scared of malevolent spirits emerging from mirrors and prophecies of doom on the bus ride home the next day. Do any of you have any similar stories?
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KathieRose
Unregistered User
(6/5/05 9:50 pm)
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Myths Over Miami
I read this article when it first came out and found it fascinating. Since in my work as a Jungian therapist, I often see dreams that come up with alternative/darker sides of figures like the Virgin Mary, that this 'myth' rose up among homeless kids didn't surprise me and seemed quite believable. One of my students and also a friend each had dreams about a howling Mary-- very dramatic and traumatizing to them both. I think some myth at least must be influenced by and perhaps even evolve from dreams..........
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Veronica
Schanoes
Registered User
(6/6/05 3:17 am)
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children's myths
I don't have any evidence or clinical training to back this up, but if I were to make a guess as to what it is that drives children in general to make myths, I would say it was their extreme powerlessness. Kids are, as a class, the single most disenfranchised group in the world, I'd say, and it doesn't surprise me at all that they would create myths as explanations for things beyond their control, which includes almost everything, or myths as a way of creating secret knowledge which makes them secretly powerful.
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(6/6/05 8:59 am)
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Re: children's myths
There was some discussion about this article a few months ago which
you can find here (bless you, Heidi, for your archives!): www.surlalunefairytales.com/boardarchives/2005/apr2005/homelesschildren.html
Best,
Alice
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(6/6/05 9:37 am)
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Re: children's myths
It's was discussed even earlier than that, too, starting back in 2000.
Abandonment
Teaching
Fairy Tales
Heidi
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BranEcne
Registered User
(6/6/05 9:48 am)
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Mary, Mary...
The stories of Bloody Mary are very common. One might also wonder if sleep paralysis (or visits from the Old Hag) has something to do with it. The word nightmare itself may be related to sleep paralysis. Mares (or maras) were beings from Scandinavian folklore that were supposed to sit on the chests of hapless sleepers. These were supposed to be women who had been cursed to attack others in mara form as they slept. Apparently to get rid of the curse one had to say "You are a mara" three times to the woman - similar to the familiar tale of summoning Bloody Mary by repeating her name thrice in front of a mirror.
Now how this ties in with the Christian Mary is hard to say. Bloody Mary does indeed seem to be the Jungian "shadow" of the Virgin Mary. Is the similarity between the names of mara and Mary coincidence, an example of combination of Christian and pagan beliefs of times past, or something else? Were your friend or student who had the "dark Mary" dreams Catholic, just out of interest?
I also find the Blue Lady to be fascinating - equivalents of this story seem to be a lot less common in modern folklore. I wonder where she came from?
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BranEcne
Registered User
(6/6/05 10:00 am)
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Powerlessness
I see where you are coming from. With such a view the reason that the homeless children's stories are so vivid is to be expected. Children at camp are also in a strange situation where they have arguably less power then usual, and therefore also generate stories.
I wonder if there are stages to the building of these myths. Do the troubles, dangers and worries assaulting the children become personified in myths first? Does this lead to the development of "heroes" to fight the tide of evil or power given enough time?
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