Mandorla Rising

5781 Hebrew. The year equivalent to 2020-2021 in the Gregorian calendar.

Adaptive Mythos The set of beliefs or assumptions that when one encounters something or someone new, innovative or ‘other’ that it be taken in and shaped to conform the cultural norms of its adaptor, be it a person or society. This prevalent approach in dominant Western cultures can include adaptation without attribution, severance of a person, artifact, thought or process from its original source and history,  denial or invisibilizing of origins. Such adaptivity leads to assimilation, cultural appropriation, unaware micro-aggressions, mono-culture. Even when attribution is given, such as when ‘spoils of war’ or conquest are displayed, the artifact (or person) is considered to belong to the culture that captured it. (Examples include slavery and the Rapa Nui/Easter Island Hoa Hakananai’a statue and the Greek Elgin Marbles  held in the collection of the British Museum).

Adoptive Mythos The set of beliefs or assumptions that when one encounters something or someone new,  innovative or ‘other’ that the person or cultural artifact thought or process be welcomed in on its own terms, as is, and kept in tact without being adapted or made to conform to the cultural norms of the adoptor. Deardorff teaches about adoptive vs. adaptive mythos in this talk about The Other Within.

Associative mythology Eschewing comparative mythologist’s tendency to reinforce rigid or hierarchical thinking and assert superiority of a dominant culture over others, Deardorff championed associativity. Martin Shaw writes, ‘Deardorff’s inheritance is that he takes the established notion of comparative mythology and makes it associative. He breaks open laboured comparisons between cultures and beliefs and calls forth a wider frame.’

Axis Mundi Latin. The Center of the world, where the three zones of the cosmos intersect – the heavens, earth and the underworld. The axis mundi is often represented in myth by the sacred tree that bridges the three worlds, also referred to in Deardorff’s The Other Within as the World Tree and Yggdrasill (Norse).*

Black, white and red The three phases in the transformational process of alchemy, also known as Negredo, Albedo and Rubedo.

Geis (pronounced gesh or gaysh) Irish. Welsh. A pronouncement that is put upon one as a destiny that one must fulfill. This can be a curse or a blessing and often contains aspects of both. No matter how treacherous or challenging, it must be fulfilled.

Genius of Deformity One of Deardorff’s names for a diety or essence that weilds ‘“trickster wisdom:” a disruptive, transgressive, innovative force that breaks through dogma, conventionality, and prejudice.’ (Deardorff, The Other Within). He based this idea on Gaston Bachelard’s work with de-forming images as well his own awareness of deformities of all kinds, be they physical, structural, attitudinal or imaginal. Bachelard demonstrated ways to awaken awareness and deepen encounter with the image and poetics of all that surrounds us; Deardorff showed how encounters with ‘otherness’ could similarly dissolve denial’s stupor and awaken the soul.

Heirophany Literally, sacred manifestation (heir: sacred, phany: manifestation).*

Heirophany of Betrayal Finding the gift in the wound.

Horizontality A consciousness connected to awareness of linear time, landscape and the movement from past through present to future (and back again). This is the ‘mortal realm,’ the time most actively centered in Western civilization. It is temporal as opposed to eternal. Horizontality denotes the ability to remain in rapport with the past, present and future simultaneously, yet sometimes to one’s detriment, if severed from the sacred and the awareness and rapport of above and below. (See Verticality).

Implicate Identity Identity before and beyond identification; the deep identity that cannot be known or explained but can be experienced through implication (i. e. glimpsed through ritual and the expressive arts opposite of the imposed identity.)* Deardorff based his ideas of implicate identity upon Bohm’s theory.

Implicate Order From David Bohm’s theory (also called the holomovement) which asserts that the totality of reality is unknowable but can be perceived by implication. The greater reality of creation, unexplainable, vast, in constant flux, and underlying everything; as opposed to the explicate order.*

Inter-personal Relations between oneself and other people. (From Howard Gardner’s theory of the multiple intelligences.)*

Intra-personal Relations and dynamics within oneself; interiority. (From Howard Gardner’s theory of the multiple intelligences.)*

Kaleidoscopic consciousness A multi-perspectival consciousness, which includes unconscious, instinct, inspiration, and gnosis as essential.*

Katabasis The drop or journey downwards, the fall from grace.*

Ken Y’hi Ratzon Hebrew. May it be so.

Liminality The primary, sacred condition, existing before and after structure and order; the condition of being between states or having no status; existing in the invisible or dark territory of the threshold as ‘other’ or ‘outsider.’*

Malchut sheb’Netzach Hebrew, meaning Sovereignty within Endurance. The forty-fifth day of Counting the Omer. The forty-nine day Jewish mystical tradition of Counting the Omer, is considered to be a time for focus on inner growth and transformation. Each of seven weeks are associated with one of the seven lower sefirot (sephirot) or emanations of qualities or attributions from the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. It is customary among some observers to expand awareness of the attributes by focusing creative and artistic expression on each day’s themes. Judith-Kate’s poem in Mandorla Rising is one in a series of her Omer poems (2016-present).

Mandorla The zone of two circles, an almond-shaped form used to represent the paradoxical union of two worlds; ‘neither-this-nor-that’ as well as ‘both this and that.’ Also referred to as Vesica pisci. *

Mossy Rock The name of the land upon which Daniel Deardorff built his home. The place where Judith-Kate Friedman now lives.

Mother Tongue One’s native language, especially referred not be immigrants or those whose language has been suppressed, stolen or eliminated. In Yiddish, Mama Loshen or Di Ma-me(h) Loshen, often said with a tone of great affection, even longing.

Mythopoesis Myth-making; participation in the ongoing process of making myth, which is a trans-generational creation.*

Oral Tradition The first and still most widespread form of human communication and transmission of cultural knowledge, history and lifeways passed down through generations. Spoken (and sung and gesticulated) speech rather than written or literary instruction. Also called Orality. ‘Far more than “just talking,” oral tradition refers to a dynamic and highly diverse oral-aural medium for evolving, storing, and transmitting knowledge, art, and ideas.’ (Brittanica, 2021).

Puh, puh, puh The sound of spitting on the ground to ward off the evil eye. This is practiced in many cultures including the Sicilian (per Gioia Timpanelli) and the Jewish (from elder Ashkenazi friends) traditions.

Ratataskr Norse, meaning ‘Drilltooth.’ The squirrel of Norse mythology who delivers messages (insults) between the eagle and serpent living at opposite ends of the world tree Yggdrassil.

Shehekhiyanu prayer Hebrew. The prayer of first fruits, thanking the Creator for bringing us through ‘everything we have lived through to come to this time and taste the fruits of this new season.’ It is said at any occasion that one celebrates the appearance of first things, be they tangible or experiential, with the stipulation that one only says this prayer for happenings that one hopes will happen again.

Tatewari Huichol God of Fire, also known as Grandfather Fire and patron of all shamans. His actions include burning fields to prepare for the planting of crops. The old stories about the calling in of Grandfather teach about the fragility and sacredness of sparks and how one must call, handle and tend these life-bringing and life-sustaining energies properly as they simultaneous hold the potential for great destruction and death.

Trickster Wisdom The wisdom held and wielded by Trickster figures in myth including Coyote, Raven, Legba, Loki, Tokwaj and other ‘many named, shape-shifting, gender shape-bending, ambi-valent adventuring dieties. (Deardorff, The Other Within).’ This wisdom—a key function of Trickster—often involves holding paradox and what Deardorff called the ‘generative tension’ between opposing forces or polarities.

Verticality A consciousness connected to the Axis Mundi, denoting the ability to remain in rapport with the above and the below simultaneously.*

World tree See Axis Mundi.*

Yahrzeit Hebrew. The anniversary of the death of a loved one, traditionally marked by the burning of a memorial candle.

Yggdrasill The divine ash tree of Nordic mythology, which has an eagle at the top, the primordial würm or serpent gnawing its roots and a squirrel leaping up and down the trunk, carrying messages (insults) between the extremes. Also see Axis Mundi.*

Z”l Anglicization of the Hebrew ז״ל (shorthand for ‘Zichrono/ah l’vrachah’) meaning ‘of blesséd memory’ or ‘may their memory be for a blessing.’ Customarily included to give honor to the deceased and acknowledge their having become an ancestor.

Zohar A foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah.

The above terms, symbols and principles are either explicitly named in, or implicitly informed the creation of, Judith-Kate Friedman’s Mandorla Rising texts, music and artworks.

Glossary entries marked with an asterisk (*) are quoted from The Other Within, 2nd edn. (2009, North Atlantic books), compiled by Piper Drake Deardorff in consultation with Daniel Deardorff and based upon definitions he referenced in the book and in his teaching.