Category Archives: V
Vanir
Vanir
At the earlier stages of their mythic development, these Scandinavian gods were constantly at war with the Aesir, who in turn were lead by Odin.
Despite this fact, the Vanir were regarded as the peace-loving branch of the Scandinavian pantheon, just as in contemporary politics many see Canada, America and the United Kingdom as “peace-loving” countries which nonetheless engage in war when deemed necessary for the greater good.
The Vanir originally were fertility gods connected with the earth and waters.
Later they became more specialized gods of the weather, crops and business.
This is similar to the Hindu pantheon, where deities also demonstrate increased specialization over centuries of social, historical and mythic development.
Further to Hindu myth, David L. Miller says that the noted mythographer Georges Dumézil believed that the Vanir corresponded to the Indian “Asvin or Nasatya” (Review: Light from the North, Journal of Bible and Religion, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Jan., 1966: 25-28), p. 26).
The best known Vanir are Frey and his sister Freya, both children of the sea-god Njord and stepchildren of the she-giant Skadi, who prevailed over the mountains and became Njord’s wife.
Ember notes that Skadi’s status us Frey and Freya’s stepmother
is made fairly clear in the Lore by the fact that the three of them, Njordh, Freyr, and Freya come to the Vanir as hostages, such that Njordh was available in Asgard when the time came for Skadhi to choose a husband. » See in context
The Vanir inhabited an underground lair called Vanaheim.
Eventually the Vanir began to intermarry with the Aesir, this culminating in their integration as a unified but not entirely homogenous pantheon.
After merging with the Aesir, the Vanir for the most part dwelled in the sky region of Asgard but, according to David Leeming, still spent time in their former home of Vanaheim.†
» Ragnarok
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† David Leeming, Oxford Companion to World Mythology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 392).
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Vulcan
Vulcan
In earliest Roman mythology, Vulcan was the god of destructive fire, particularly that of a volcano.
His temple was usually at the outskirts of a city, attended to by a priest (flamen). And his festival, Volcanalia, was celebrated on August 23.
When the Volcanalia also paid homage to the Nymphs and other deities, live fish were thrown into a fire as a sacrificial offering to Vulcan.
In the Greece during the classical period Vulcan became Hephaestus the master blacksmith.
In his giant forge at Mount Olympus he fashioned the armor and shield of Achilles, as well as Cupid‘s arrows and Jupiter‘s thunderbolts.
He was depicted lame and his offspring were usually ugly.
In the American TV and film productions of Star Trek, Vulcan is the home planet and the alien race to which Mr. Spock belongs.
Originally a highly savage and barbaric race, Vulcans almost destroyed themselves in the ancient past. They overcame global disaster by repressing all emotion in favor of highly developed logic.
Star Trek Vulcans have supra-human strength and intellect but are less adept at creative, intuitive problem solving.
In keeping with Carl Jung‘s idea that mythic symbols represent and evoke the numinous, spiritual aspects of the unconscious mind, it seems likely that Star Trek creators chose the mythic name of Vulcan, hoping it would resonate with Western viewers and the archetypal images they’re familiar with.
In this larger sense, then, Mr. Spock and his people may be regarded as a continuation of the original Roman myth.
» Romulans, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: The Original Series, T’Pol
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Voodoo
Voodoo
Vodun originated in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the West African kingdom of Dahomey.
Spanish slave traders brought inhabitants of Dahomey to North America and the majority of these people ended up in Haiti.
While Haiti is predominantly Roman Catholic, a hybrid form of Catholic Voodoo continues today.
Voodooists believe in a variety of spiritual beings as well as two human souls. One soul, the gros bon ange is free at night to wander.
Like the ancient Chinese, Voodooists believe that the dreamer will die if this soul does not return to the body before waking.
The other soul, the petite bon ange, may stay near its corpse after death for a relatively short while or may transform itself into an inanimate object or animal, such as a snake.
Voodoo also involves rhythmic dancing and divination.
Voodoo mythology emphasizes themes of sex and death, which David Leeming says parallels the West Indian trickster Gede.
Like most tricksters, Gede shakes the cage of the conventional psyche, allowing individuals to penetrate hidden layers of the unconscious and beyond.¹
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¹ David Leeming, The Oxford Companion to World Mythology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 398.
» Ancestor Cults, Hendrix (Jimi), Zombie
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Voltaire
Voltaire (1694-1778)
Psuedonym of French satirist François-Marie Arouet, regarded as the harbinger of the Enlightenment.
His work Candide sharply criticizes the philosopher Leibniz‘s view that God created the best of all possible worlds.
In that work the character Dr. Pangloss is a mouthpiece for the Leibnizian view; Pangloss clings to this positive philosophical outlook despite horrendous personal sufferings.
Voltaire himself was a deist, believing in God but only in terms of natural, observable laws. He once said “heaven is where I am.”
He deplored fanaticism, especially that of the masses. In fact, he writes at length about the merits of polite society in contrast to the laboring classes.
There is always, within a nation, a people that has no contact with polite society, which does not belong to the age, which is inaccessible to the progress of reason and over whom fanaticism maintains its atrocious hold…It is not the laborer one should educate, but the good bourgeois, the tradesman.¹
Although Voltaire distrusted the notion of democracy, favoring rule of the enlightened monarch, his satirical political letters earned him a beating and imprisonment for eleven months in the Bastille.
Finding favor, however, with Mme de Pompadour he became historiographer to Louis XV and continued to write voluminously to several notables, rising to become one of the most prominent figures in Europe.
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¹ Cited in Norman Hampson, The Enlightenment (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976, p. 160).
» Candide, Deism, Juvenal, Gottfried, Wilhelm, Parallel Universes
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Vocal Prayer
Vocal Prayer
In Catholic terminology a form of prayer that is vocalized, often but not exclusively in public groups such as the Eucharistic celebration (i.e. Holy Mass).
In personal, private practice, vocal prayer may be standardized or impromptu.
Vocal and mental prayer may alternate and overlap. And both forms of prayer are generally directed towards personal petitions, seeking forgiveness or for purposes of intercession.
Many Catholic and non-Catholic advocates of vocal prayer seem to misunderstand the efficacy of mental prayer, especially in its contemplative-intercessory form.
Great saints like St. Faustina Kowalska say that even a brief but sincere inner, contemplative prayer from the heart is far more effective and pleasing to God than the endless and superficial repetitions characteristic of much vocal prayer.
» Catholicism, Contemplation, Meditation
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Vivekananda, Swami
Vivekananda, Swami (1863-1902)
Hindu holy man – originally Narendranath Datta – who advocated worldly action to overcome the severe poverty of India.
He was the favored disciple of the Hindu saint Ramakrishna.
Vivekananda complained about the “emaciated” populace in India, a nation which he believed had become falsely proud and hypocritical.
As such, he downplayed parapsychology and siddhis (spiritual powers) in favor of what he regarded as practical development, emphasizing the basic building blocks of food, uncontaminated water and personal hygiene.
He founded the Ramakrishna Mission and was the first Hindu to be received by major audiences in the West.
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Visistadvaita
Visistadvaita
Visistadvaita is a school of Indian philosophy founded by the Indian sage and philosopher Ramanuja (1017-1137 CE).
Ramanuja challenged Sankara’s claim that only the Brahman is real and individuality is illusory (maya).
For Ramanuja the Brahman is real and beyond pain and suffering but individual souls (jivas) emerging from and ultimately resting within the Brahman are also real.
While the Brahman is beyond the law of karma, the individual soul (jiva) is not.
As a result, the jiva experiences the pleasure and pain of earthly life.
Liberation from samsara, the round of rebirth due to karma, is gained through individual effort as well as the grace of God (Vishnu).
» Self, Suffering
Further reading:
- P. D. Devanandan, The Concept of Maya, London: Lutterworth Press, 1950.
On the World Wide Web:
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† JSTOR may be accessed from university and many public libraries. It’s also an application at Facebook.
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Vishnu
Vishnu
In Hinduism Vishnu is the second deity of the Hindu Trimurti (i.e. triad) of Brahma, Visnu, and Siva.
He rides the great eagle Garuda with his consort, the goddess of prosperity and good fortune, Lakshmi, at his side.
Hindus believe that the universe passes through endless cycles of creation and destruction.
While Brahma is seen as the creator of the universe, Vishnu is the benevolent preserver and Siva is at times regarded as the cosmic destroyer.
Vishnu is said to have had nine incarnations (avatars) on Earth, including Krishna. The tenth avatar, Kalki, is yet to come and will ride on a white horse.
It is believed that Kalki will reestablish dharma in our present age of alleged moral decline, the Kali-yuga.
On the World Wide Web
- The incarnations of Visnu at http://www.sanatansociety.org/hindu_gods_and_goddesses/vishnu.htm
» AUM , Avatar, Underworld, Visistadvaita, Yuga
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Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality
The use of computer hardware and software to create an artificial (i.e. ‘virtual’) environment.
The user normally enters the environment by wearing a headset that blocks normal vision. The environment is manipulated with an electronic glove – or a similar device – connecting the user to the computer.
The term has been traced back to the brilliant French playwrite Antonin Artaud who believed that the internal world of so-called fantasy and the imagination was just as real as the outside world.
This view parallels to some degree C. G. Jung’s reflections on the art of alchemy, where relationships with matter and particularly with other people are viewed as something analogous to chemical interactions. And the hypothesized Jungian dynamics of transference, counter-transference and especially syntonic counter-transference point in a similar direction.
Artaud’s understanding of virtual reality also touches on the notion articulated by John Donne that no man is an island–that is, neither distance nor even death entirely separates one individual from another.
No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
Virtual reality is having a significant impact on business, medicine and the entertainment industry, where virtual users enjoy, relax or express violent and sexual impulses in socially acceptable ways.
But not everyone sees it this way. Some say that violent virtual reality games should be reexamined in the event that they may promote rather than prevent actual violence.
This is a relatively familiar debate stemming back to the days before home computers. Before the PC the effects of violent TV shows, especially on children, were studied by researchers and public health officials.
Scientific and consumer watchdog concerns about public safety, however, have not deterred virtual reality from taking off. There’s always money to be made through the commodification of sex and violence and definite laws must be passed to regulate the process.
The idea of virtual reality also figures prominently in science fiction TV (e.g. Star Trek‘s holodeck) and movies like Total Recall (1990) and The Matrix (1999) where users enter computer generated worlds indistinguishable from day to day life.
Given the fact of today’s microchip implant technologies, these fantastic scenarios seem probable for the not too distant future.
» Burrows (William S.), Gould (Glenn), McLuhan (Marshall Herbert)
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Virgo
Virgo ( August 22-September 22)
The sixth and a summer sign of the zodiac, symbolized by the idea of the Virgin and associated with the planetary ruler of Mercury.
Its element is Earth.
The Latin term virgo means “maid,” “maiden,” “virgin,” “girl” and also refers to the constellation Virgo as well as an aqueduct near Rome.
Astrologers claim that Virgo is not a stereotypically prudish virgin, but rather a highly refined, unmarried sensual being who enjoys privacy and solitude.
From Mercury Virgo is said to obtain a thirst for knowledge.
Prominent Virgos are Sean Connery, Michael Jackson and Stephen King.
» Astrology
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