فصلنامه ادبیات عرفانی و اسطوره شناختی
سال سیزدهم شماره 47 (تابستان 1396)

Commenting on the universe and its beginning are the most important issues in myths. Myths of creation reflect the mentality of primitive man, they often have a purposeful structure and their goal is to remove ambiguity from the pre-creation stage. By eliminating ambiguity from unknowns and expressing the process of creation, myths attempt to convey man to the infinite time. The aim of present article is to identify the similarities and differences among myths and the influence of geographic environment on myths. To achieve this aim, myths were chosen from all continents. By examining the status of pre-creation in myths, the similarities and differences among myths were identified. Despite geographical diversities, the study shows that myths are very similar to each other. These similarities show that humans have common concerns. The most important common features of myths are as follows: the beginning darkness, the existence of water and its significance in all parts of the world, the infinity of time and the existence of the beginning chaos. Although myths are influenced by their environment, the impact of the environment on the beginning stage of myths is less than that of other parts.

Muslim mystics and Jung have similar teachings and views. Jungian archetypes, especially the archetypes of shadow and persona, are close to the ideas of Muslim mystics. Features of the shadow are close to the features that Islamic mystics express for soul, and the worship and asceticism that mystics do to refining soul are somewhat like Jungian archetype of persona. Of course, due to the difference in goals and the epistemic foundations of Muslim mystics and Jung, there are differences in their methods. The present article seeks to compare these two Jungian archetypes with the teachings of Abu Saeed Abu al-Kheir. The author has tried to explain the similarities and differences of these two epistemological approaches with a comparative look, and to show the presentations of shadow in Abu Saeed's thoughts. Also, the attempt is made to find the types of persona in his ideas and express their positive and negative role. The result of the research shows that Jung's goal is to adapt man to his society and providing individuality for him in this society, but the goal of Abu Saeed is to bring man to Truth.

Magic and rituals has always been considered by man in various aspects. We can see this subject in literary masterpieces, such as Shahnāmeh. The aim of present article is to study magic and magical rituals in the story of Rostam and Esfandiar. For this purpose, we try to analysis the spells mentioned in the story and their related rituals (like shamanistic rites, magic therapy, magical weapon, invulnerability, breaking the spell) and to compare them with the myths of other nations. Then, we consider the reasons of man’s inclination to magic and the effect of magic powers on immortality or mortality of the owners of these powers. As a result, there are many common features between the magic and magical rites of the story of Rostam and Esfandiar and Iranian ancient society; also there are some similarities between the myths of the story and the myths of other nations. As an another result, one of the main reasons of man’s inclination to magic, magical powers and creation of mythical heroes is overcoming of his weakness to confront the suffering and hardships of life and achieving his greatest wish, immortality. Despite having magic powers and being immortal, it is not possible for man to achieve this wish and eventually he will be defeated and dead.

The source of many of Rumi’s literary methods and principles of thought should be found in Sanai’s poetry. The existence of some surrealistic elements in Rumi's poems can also be analyzed as impact of Sanai. It can be said that surrealistic or pseudo-surrealist thoughts exist, more or less, in the poetry of both poets. In the present article, by using descriptive-analytic method, two surrealistic ghazals from Sanai and Rumi are considered and differences and similarities between two ghazals are shown. The results of the research show that both ghazals have common surrealistic features such as absolute mentality, the elimination of time and place, the expression of wonderful things, automatic writing, mystical drunkenness, imagination and dream, spiritual manifestation, belief in incompleteness of language, love and freedom. But, we can point out the differences as follows: Rumi uses more automatic writing; his mystical drunkenness is more than Sanai; and his language is more visual and exciting than him, as if the flame of Rumi's language is like fire and the flame of the Sanai’s is like a candle.

The concept of invulnerability has a long history; it expresses the long-term desire of mankind to achieve immortality, and has been presented in various ways among the myths of various nations. The three myths of invulnerability, namely, Achilles, Esfandiyar, and Siegfried, have a widespread frequency comparing other myths, and the concept of invulnerability as an archetype can be studied in all three myths. Since many scholars have considered the similarities between these three myths as a result of Jungian archetype theory, the present article attempts to check the issue. The method used is descriptive and library research. With the aim of identifying the roots of these myths and based on the theory of archetype, the research reviews the common and uncommon points of the three myths; it studies three myths, Achilles, Esfandiyar, and Siegfried with comparative method and answers these questions: what common and distinctive roots can be found in the study of these three myths, and to what extent the similarities between these three myths can be justified by the theory of archetype. One of the most important results of the research is reinforce of the theory of influence of Ferdosi from Homer in the creation of Esfandiar's mythology.

Individual or collective worldview includes individual or a group attitudes about the universe, the creator of the universe and mankind. The significance of the worldview comes from the fact that the actions of human beings are based on their worldview. In the book Maqalat-e Shams-e Tabrizi (Discourse of Shams-e Tabrizi), as the remnants of Shams-e Tabrizi, there are many points and issues that help us to know his worldview. The purpose of this article is to explain Shams’ view about humanity as one of the foundations of his worldview. In order to obtain a precise result, all the parts of Maqalat have been examined, and all arguments have been based on his words in the book. The mystics focus on man in three areas of "man and self, man and God, and man and his fellow men", so this research includes the important words of Shams in the three above-mentioned fields. In this article, the prominent position of man in the thoughts of Shams has been shown, the position which is based on his view about ‘unity of Being’. Also, his serious and responsible attention to all human beings (and not just the perfect man) has been considered.

Chelleh-neshini (worshipping for a forty days period), as one of the special rituals for connection with the Unique Truth (God), has emerged with common and different aspects in the cultures and schools of thought in Iran and parts of Europe and East Asia. The aim of this research is to re-examine chelleh-neshini in Eastern mysticism and especially Islamic mysticism; in this regard, the attention has been paid to its social and historical resources and its individual and organizational structures. Chelleh-neshini should be considered as a religious and mystical ritual that pursues these goals: conquesting the supernatural, retreating in a secluded space, purifying the soul from impurities, acquiring high attributes, purifying the soul in order to harmonize with the spirit of creation and attaining the true perfection and the pure truth. Accordingly, the concept of chelleh-neshini is presented at two levels: general and specific. As a general concept, it refers to seclusion of the mystics based on their mystical, religious and belief foundations. By this way, we can distinguish chelleh-neshini from other methods of suluk (mystical journey). As a specific concept, it refers to sitting at a specific time in Sufi monastery (khanqah) in order to achieve the Truth. This research, by using historical and descriptive method, is based on library resources and written sources.

Garshāsb-Nāmeh, composed by Hakim Asadi Tusi, is anepic poem about Garshāsb’s arrogance and warfare. Garshasb is one of the most famous Iranian heroes; some of important parts of the Iranian mythical and epic literature describe his and his children (Narimān, Sām, Zāl, Rustam, Farāmarz, etc.) actions and behaviors. The features of an epic story are as follows: it must be a work of fiction, it must describe heroes, it must be a national book, and it has to speak about fantastic and extraordinary affairs; these features make a story an epic one. The strength and weakness of each of these features has a significant effect on the prominence and reputation of an epic work. The findings of the research show that although Garshāsb-Nāmeh is a powerful fictional book and describes powerfully the fantastic and extraordinary affairs, but as a national book it is a weak one and can’t describe the heroes and heroic events well. So, these weaknesses have caused that the epic has not been widely accepted among the Iranian people.

In ancient myths, often common names have the same destiny and are influenced by the same eternal pattern and archetype. The examples of these names are abundant in Iranian myths and national epics. Among the most popular names that are mythical, ritualistic and epic, we find the name of " Bahrām" that in Aryan culture and ancient Iranian history has his own functions such as god of war, god of victory, the promised, the savior, king and armed, trooper and victorious. By using descriptive and analytical method, the present research attempts to identify and analyze the personality of the famous Bahrāms in Iranian mythology and national epic, and to prove that the examples of this name in Iranian mythology and history of Iran have almost same feature, function and destiny.

One of the main contexts for the reproduction of myths is cultural-belief schools, the schools which are based on religion and modern culture. In these new cultural schools, the reproduction of the myth is sometimes conscious and sometimes unconscious; it is sometimes directly and sometimes by alteration and in various forms that take shelter in the deeper layers of modern culture in order to survive. By using comparative-analytical method, the present research tries to show how Mithraic myth of creation is transformed and reproduced in Iranian-Islamic mysticism. It seems that Mithraic myth of creation has manifested in Iranian-Islamic mysticism through the hidden cultural layers and continues its own life in the new form of killing ‘cow of body’ and ‘cow of soul’.