The Hindu elephant headed God Ganesha shares some interesting features with the Egyptian God Thoth, and Thoth’s Greek counterpart, Hermes.

Like Thoth, he is the inventor of writing; as the story goes, the Hindu Epic Poem the Mahabharata was dictated to Ganesha, who broke off one of his tusks to serve as a quill. Also like Thoth, he is zoomorphic – while he has the head of an elephant, Thoth has the head of an ibis, a bird native to Africa and Australia; his other form is that of a baboon.

Like Thoth’s Greek version Hermes (in turn the Roman Mercury), he is a trickster. From the fact that his sacred animal steed is a mouse, to his fabulously round belly, his appearance belies his powers – he is both the placer and the remover of obstacles.

Few practicing Hindus would start a venture, or an adventure, without seeking the…

Jessica Davidson has an inspired and ever-timely post about Active Hope and the Spiral Transformation that I’m really happy to share with you.

When I hear the word hope, I always think of the great writer, statesman, dissident, and transformative leader Václav Havel s insight about hope:

Václav Havel (1936-2011). Václav Havel Library Collection.

“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”

In her post on Active Hope and the Spiral of Transformation, Jessica writes:

“Last time we introduced the idea of Active hope and the stories that shape our society. The old myths are failing and the new ones are still being shaped, so we find ourselves poised between worlds – lost, confused, and a little freaked out. It’s hard to keep up…

A little more Greek mythology for you.

The other day, I wrote about the Furies, and as usual I initially confused them a little with the Fates.

Sisyphus, one of the few souls whose transgressions in life were judged to be heinous enough to condemn him to eternity in the deepest darkest recess of the Greco-Roman underworld: Tartarus. Sisyphus spends his days laboring, pushing a giant heavy boulder up a singular incline, only to reach the top and have it roll back down again. Many of us know the despair that comes hand in hand with a futile task, and it made me think of the popular internet adage that defines insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result (this quote is most often attributed to Albert Einstein, although no-one seems to be able to provide a citation that provides any evidence to support this, so I’m going to attribute it anonymously).  At what point did Sisyphus realize the futility of his task? The first time the boulder rolled back?…