Parabola (magazine)

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Parabola
Parabolavol5no4nov80.jpg
Woman Vol. V, No. 4
Publisher and editorJeff Zaleski
CategoriesReligious and cultural traditions
FrequencyQuarterly
PublisherSociety for the Study of Myth and Tradition
FounderDorothea M. Dooling
Founded1976
CountryU.S.
Based in New York City
LanguageEnglish
Website www.parabola.org
ISSN 0362-1596

Parabola, also known as Parabola: The Search for Meaning, is a Manhattan-based quarterly magazine on the subjects of mythology and the world's religious and cultural traditions. Founder and editor Dorothea M. Dooling began publishing in 1976. [1] It is published by The Society for the Study of Myth and Tradition, a not-for-profit organization.

Contents

Title etymology

The name of the magazine is explained by the editors as follows:

The parabola represents the epitome of a quest. It is the metaphorical journey to a particular point, and then back home, along a similar path perhaps, but in a different direction, after which the traveler is essentially, irrevocably changed.

Subtitle changes

The magazine's subtitle has changed over the years. In its first years, it was Parabola: Myth and the Quest for Meaning, then Parabola: The Magazine of Myth and Tradition, later Parabola: Myth, Tradition, and the Search for Meaning, Parabola: Myth, Tradition, and the Search for Meaning, Parabola: Where Spiritual Traditions Meet, and its current title as of October 2019, Parabola: The Search for Meaning.

Issues and subjects

Each issue focuses on a particular subject, with each article related to the main subject. [2] The subjects of the first five years' issues included creation, relationships, death, magic and hero mythology. [3]

Authors contributing articles to Parabola are listed as contributing editors, and include Joseph Campbell, [4] Ursula K. Le Guin, Mircea Eliade, Jacob Needleman, Thomas Moore, Christmas Humphries, William Irwin Thompson, Isaac Bashevis Singer, David Rosenberg, P. L. Travers, Jane Yolen, Robert Lawlor, Pablo Neruda, Keith Critchlow, Elaine Pagels, James Hillman, Robert Bly, Gary Snyder, David Abram, Howard Schwartz, Italo Calvino, [5] David Rothenberg, [6] John Anthony West, [7] and many others in the fields of Jungian psychology, spirituality, ecology and the aforementioned subjects. The journal also publishes interviews with many of the same figures, as well as reviews of books in these fields. [8]

In addition to the journal, Parabola at one time also produced books, recordings and videos, including And There Was Light, by Jacques Lusseyran; [9] Sons of the Wind: the Sacred Stories of the Lakota; I Become Part of It: the Sacred Dimensions in Native American Life, edited by D. M. Dooling and Paul Jordan-Smith; The Bestiary of Christ by Louis Charbonneau-Lassay and D. M. Dooling; A Way of Working, edited by D. M. Dooling; as well as the extended video The Power of Myth , Bill Moyers's interview with Joseph Campbell.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian mythology</span> Body of myths associated with Christianity

Christian mythology is the body of myths associated with Christianity. The term encompasses a broad variety of legends and narratives, especially those considered sacred narratives. Mythological themes and elements occur throughout Christian literature, including recurring myths such as ascending a mountain, the axis mundi, myths of combat, descent into the Underworld, accounts of a dying-and-rising god, a flood myth, stories about the founding of a tribe or city, and myths about great heroes of the past, paradises, and self-sacrifice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holy Grail</span> Cup, dish, or stone with miraculous powers, important motif in Arthurian literature

The Holy Grail is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenance in infinite abundance, often guarded in the custody of the Fisher King and located in the hidden Grail castle. By analogy, any elusive object or goal of great significance may be perceived as a "holy grail" by those seeking such.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Campbell</span> American mythologist, writer, and lecturer (1904–1987)

Joseph John Campbell was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's best-known work is his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), in which he discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero shared by world mythologies, termed the monomyth.

Religion and mythology differ in scope but have overlapping aspects. Both are systems of concepts that are of high importance to a certain community, making statements concerning the supernatural or sacred. Generally, mythology is considered one component or aspect of religion. Religion is the broader term: besides mythological aspects, it includes aspects of ritual, morality, theology, and mystical experience. A given mythology is almost always associated with a certain religion such as Greek mythology with Ancient Greek religion. Disconnected from its religious system, a myth may lose its immediate relevance to the community and evolve—away from sacred importance—into a legend or folktale.

<i>The Golden Bough</i> 1890 book by James Frazer

The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by the Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer. The Golden Bough was first published in two volumes in 1890; in three volumes in 1900; and in twelve volumes in the third edition, published 1906–1915. It has also been published in several different one-volume abridgments. The work was for a wide literate audience raised on tales as told in such publications as Thomas Bulfinch's The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes (1855). The influence of The Golden Bough on contemporary European literature and thought was substantial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hindu mythology</span>

Hindu mythology is the body of myths attributed to, and espoused by, the adherents of the Hindu religion, found in Hindu texts such as the Vedas, the itihasa the Puranas, and mythological stories specific to a particular ethnolinguistic group like the Tamil Periya Puranam and Divya Prabandham, and the Mangal Kavya of Bengal. Hindu myths are also found in widely translated popular texts such as the fables of the Panchatantra and the Hitopadesha, as well as in Southeast Asian texts.

In many historical societies, the position of kingship carries a sacral meaning; that is, it is identical with that of a high priest and judge. The concept of theocracy is related, although a sacred king does not need to necessarily rule through his religious authority; rather, the temporal position itself has a religious significance behind it.

<i>The Hero with a Thousand Faces</i> 1949 book on comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell

The Hero with a Thousand Faces is a work of comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell, in which the author discusses his theory of the mythological structure of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world myths.

<i>The Power of Myth</i> Book based on the 1988 PBS documentary about Joseph Campbell

The Power of Myth is a book based on the 1988 PBS documentary Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. The documentary was originally broadcast as six one-hour conversations between mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) and journalist Bill Moyers. It remains one of the most popular series in the history of American public television.

Mythopoeia, or mythopoesis, is a narrative genre in modern literature and film where an artificial or fictionalized mythology is created by the writer of prose, poetry, or other literary forms. The concept, which long preexisted him, was widely popularised by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 1930s. The authors in this genre integrate traditional mythological themes and archetypes into fiction. Mythopoeia is also the act of creating a mythology.

<i>The Gentlemans Magazine</i> London periodical

The Gentleman's Magazine was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term magazine for a periodical. Samuel Johnson's first regular employment as a writer was with The Gentleman's Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy Doniger</span> American Indologist (born 1940)

Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty is an American Indologist whose professional career has spanned five decades. A scholar of Sanskrit and Indian textual traditions, her major works include The Hindus: An Alternative History; Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva; Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook; The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology; Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts; and The Rig Veda: An Anthology, 108 Hymns Translated from the Sanskrit. She is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of History of Religions at the University of Chicago, and has taught there since 1978. She served as president of the Association for Asian Studies in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinrich Zimmer</span> German Indologist and linguist (1890–1943)

Heinrich Robert Zimmer was a German Indologist and linguist, as well as a historian of South Asian art, most known for his works, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization and Philosophies of India. He was the most important German scholar in Indian Philology after Max Müller (1823–1900).

Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics. Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used the relationships between different myths to trace the development of religions and cultures, to propose common origins for myths from different cultures, and to support various psychoanalytical theories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Language of the birds</span> Mythical communication of divine knowledge through birds to humans

In Abrahamic and European mythology, medieval literature and occultism, the language of the birds is postulated as a mystical, perfect divine language, Adamic language, Enochian, angelic language or a mythical or magical language used by birds to communicate with the initiated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trickster</span> Literary archetype

In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwise disobey normal rules and defy conventional behavior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greek mythology</span>

Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories concern the ancient Greek religion's view of the origin and nature of the world; the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures; and the origins and significance of the ancient Greeks' cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece, and to better understand the nature of myth-making itself.

Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the veracity of a myth is not a defining criterion.

Personal mythology refers to an individual's fundamental stories for making sense and meaning of the world. According to Dr. David Feinstein and Dr. Stanley Krippner, "A personal myth is a constellation of beliefs, feelings, images, and rules—operating largely outside of conscious awareness—that interprets sensations, constructs new explanations, and directs behavior. ...Personal myths speak to the broad concerns of identity, direction, and purpose. For an internal system of images, narratives, and emotions to be called a personal myth, it must address at least one of the core concerns of human existence."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rank–Raglan mythotype</span> Hero archetype

In narratology and comparative mythology, the Rank–Raglan mythotype is a set of narrative patterns proposed by psychoanalyst Otto Rank and later on amateur anthropologist Lord Raglan that lists different cross-cultural traits often found in the accounts of heroes, including mythical heroes.

References

  1. "Dorothea Dooling, 80, Founder of Magazine". The New York Times. 7 October 1991. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  2. "Topical Index and Table of Contents, 1976-2017" (PDF). Parabola. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2018.
  3. "D. M. Dooling".
  4. "Elders and Guides: A Conversation with Joseph Campbell". Michael McKnight. Vol. V, No. 1 (1980)
  5. Vol. V, No. 4 (with index of back issue contents)
  6. "Codhill Press - Authors". Archived from the original on 2009-02-15. Retrieved 2009-04-29.
  7. "Inaugural Lines: Sacred geometry at St. John the Divine", Vol. VIII, No. 1, Spring 1983
  8. The Doctrine of Awakening: The Attainment of Self-Mastery According to the Earliest Buddhist Texts, by Julius Evola, translated by H. E. Musson. Reviewed by Richard Smoley. Vol. XXIII, No.4 (Nov. 1998) pp.94-96
  9. "And There Was Light by Jacques Lusseyran; translated by Elizabeth R. Cameron". Los Angeles Times . 1987-07-19. Retrieved 2019-10-16.

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