In the movie The Fountain, the female character whom is progressively dying, presents symbolism in the book that she writes. The book contains the concept of abolition of concrete and past time, which is the ending of profane time and beginning of sacred time, as describes by Eliade in Myth of the Eternal Return. This is shown because the female character is progressively dying due to a brain tumor, giving her pain or profane time. In the book that she writes, she symbolizes her death with a new beginning in which she is taken up to a nebula or star representative of the tree of life and sacred time as believed by the Mayan. Ultimately, the female character's profane time ends, and her sacred time begins as she loses to cancer and takes up the belief in sacred time after death.

Regeneration of Time

In Lambchop's music video "Is a Woman," the path that the leaf, and ultimately other leaves, take part in to their destination of the tree, is direct symbolism relating to Eliade's concept of the "Road to the Center." The leaves journey to the tree, their center or home, where creation was established and where they all unite; as Eliade enforces in The Myth of the Eternal Return, "at the center of the universe, close to the miraculous tree (kien-mu), at the meeting place of the three cosmic zones: heaven, earth, and hell" (14). In the music video, this concept is established which represents one's journey to their origin, or center.

My Center; Meaning of Edgar

Part I: My Center

There is a place that I visit a few times a year that is isolated from the city. This is a place not often visited by others, where I can relax and feel free. It is a place of nature, with only minor alterations by man. It is called the Hot Springs, for the exact reason that it contains natural jacuzzi-like pools. The Hot Springs is located an hour East of Bakersfield, through a canyon and right off of the Kern River. I visit this place with my friends to come closer to nature, to go hiking, and enjoy the hot springs in the utmost state of which we came into this world, nude. There are other visitors that do the same; all with the purpose of getting closer to nature. This place allows me to come closer to my primitive, instinctive ways, by running through the trees, mountains, rocks, and water; it has meaning to me because it lets me be free from conformity and the stresses of life.   

Part II: Meaning of Edgar

According to most sources, my name, Edgar, is an English/French/Polish name. The meaning of my name comes from From the Anglo-Saxon 'eád' or German 'ôt' - 'good, property, inheritance' and 'gar' or 'ger' meaning 'spear'. It combines in the meaning 'spear of prosperity', 'protector of the good (with the spear)'. According to my mother, who chose my name, she chose 'Edgar' for the sole reason that she liked the name thus decided to give it to me.

The Forest

Settings that contain Forests:

Movies- Apocalypto, Avatar, The Rundown, The Shrine.

Historically Significant Events/Places- Adventure of Lewis and Clark to Louisiana Territory, Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park.

Fairy tales- The Little Red Riding Hood, Pocahontas, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

The Forest may represent: mystery, origin of life, regeneration, isolation, nature, beauty, primitiveness, magic, and adventure.

Ariadne's Clue (36-60)

A part of the reading I found that particularly fit with the lecture was where Stevens explains that, "The oldest most sophisticated division between masculine and feminine principles, conceived as an everlasting struggle to achieve balance in relation to one another, is that of the ancient Chinese Taoists, with their concepts of Yin and Yang, those fundamental forces held to permeate all reality and to be present and active in both men and women" (49). This passage relates to the anima and animus associated with males and females. Ultimately, they are each other's opposing forces, but need one another to be complete.

Ariadne's Clue (3-35)

Interesting Quote:
"An object, such as a bone, would be broken into two halves and each given seperately to two people (for example, members of the same sect or secret society) who could then identify each other by producing both halves and checking that they fitted together. Each tally-holder knew his own half to be genuine. If perfect fit occurred between the two halves of the symbolon, a Gestalt was suddenly created out of the familiar (known) and the strange (unknown) parts and the bona fides of each individual was established as sharing the same allegiance (12)."

- This quote was quite interesting because it is a clear analogy of what a symbol is. A symbol Having one known and direct meaning, like a dove (one half of the bone), and a second meaning like freedom (the second half of the bone).

 Confusing Quote:
"That one symbol can express so many different meanings must be because the sinuous, slithery schema is susceptible to contamination by other archetypal schemata - for example, those concerned with, sex, evil, healing, etc."

- This quote, along with the explanation before and after it, confused me because the explanation was not thorough enough for me. Perhaps a re-phrasal would help.

Top 10 Favorite Songs Playlist

# - Song title - artist 1. So You Can Cry - Ne-Yo 2. Viva la Vida - Coldplay 3. Cinema (remix) - Skrillex 4. Pursuit of Happiness (remix) - Steve Aoki 5. Lean on Me - Al Green 6. Papers - Usher 7. Dream - Ne-Yo 8. Miss me - Drake 9. Bleed it out - Linkin Park 10. Eso y Mas - Joan Sebastian *not in order of preference*