Welcome to the Land of Meaning! Each part of this map represents a different experience, behaviour or way of thinking that commonly appears in myths. Let's go through all the landmarks, shall we? Use the arrow button on the right to advance.
People at the base of this mountain look up and recognize their current limitations. But they also see that the first few steps of the staircase are within their reach and how climbing them would improve their lives.
When people (and lobsters) decide that something is desirable, all the members of society array themselves according to their capacity to achieve that thing. Climbing the mountain is very tough; many are dragged down by the waters and very few can be found on the higher peaks.
After reaching the top, one is tempted to just relax and reap the rewards. But it is important to always pay attention to the ever changing surroundings. Failing to notice changes and adapt is fatal.
The one who arrives at this castle will rule the whole kingdom and therefore will be targeted by those who want to change the balance of power. It is also from here that one can reach beyond the wall and face the Unknown.
This wall represents the traditions and systems built by those who came before. It encircles everything that men know and protects them from the Unknown. When it works properly it gives structure to life while allowing space for its creative aspects to grow.
The land here is becoming too dry for crops to grow and the wall is preventing people from getting what they need the most. Fortunately, no matter how thick the wall is, life always finds a way.
These are layers upon layers of protection that were successively attached to the Culture Wall, to the point where it became too rigid to cradle any life. This colossal structure now oppresses those it was meant to protect.
Some of the people at the top enjoy giving orders to those below and being obeyed all the time. They start believing that they must know what they are doing, and want to make sure it stays that way. So they transition through this walkway to a place that prevents everyone else from raising to their level. Others do the same but without ever going through the top of the mountain.
The purpose of this tower is to exert control over the whole of creation, by destroying everything that is disobedient or unpredictable, even God himself. Nature, which already had a hard time growing, is hunted down and burned. The Tower deconstructs the Culture Wall and incorporates the bricks that it finds useful.
People that arrive here find themselves between a painful climb (with no guarantee of success) to the North, burning evil to the East, drowning evil to the West and oblivion to the South. With options like that, what is the point of going anywhere?
People in the abyss are convinced that the world is a flawed and perverse invention. Some even conclude that the ultimate way of demonstrating this is by doing as much harm as possible before destroying themselves. They think that if they can dig a hole far enough into the darkness, it will prove that light does not exist.
People in this lake look at the idealized top of the Competence Mountain and see no value in their own achievements. If they stay here instead of trying new ways to climb, they might become part of the Resentment Whirlpool.
People here believe that all the misfortune in their life was caused by those in positions of power, so they made the whirlpool to take them down. As the Arrogance Tower crashes everything that is below, the Resentment Whirlpool sinks everything above. The whirlpool destroys the Culture Wall completely and builds a new one.
By sins of omission, culture has crumbled down. Mankind forgot the meaning of their old traditions, so an empty shell is all that remains.
Terrible Nature is flooding over the neglected parts of the Culture Wall. There are no human values here, only inclement wilderness. This tragedy was not explicitly man's doing, but maybe a strong wall could have prevented it.
The hero's life finds true meaning when he has one foot in the Known and one in the Unknown. They are exposed to terrible dangers here, but there are also great rewards to be found.
The worst thing you can find in the darkness, inside or outside yourself. People who try to get as far away as possible from a dragon can end up being manipulated by it on the opposite end of the map. The only way to defeat a dragon is face to face confrontation.
Even in the most infertile of lands, a seed of life can still appear.
As the hero goes through the process of fighting the dragons in the Underworld, he can find something natural and pure that couldn't be manifested, and then set it free.
Deep in the belly of the beast the hero might find his father, whose wisdom was unjustly cast out. The hero can revindicate it before it disappears forever.
Even in the deepest wilderness, a trace of humanity can still be found.
The heroes that go through the dragons find out that their tails reach high up into this Heaven. This place is much more harmonious than the one the hero departed from. All manifestations of nature have their corresponding place here, in balance with the magnificent constructions.
From up here one can see beyond all things. This knowledge comes with responsibility, though; those who were being protected by their ignorance will become aware of their own limitations and will be forced leave this place. Others will climb down voluntarily, compelled to share what they've learnt with those that stayed behind.
This place is entered by those who have mastered the rules that govern the set of all possible games. Here is where the rules are spoken out and brought to light, not arbitrarily, but to achieve peace using the wisdom of the past.
Tour is over, bucko! Or is it? See how the crown and eye where we ended are similar to the crown and eye at the top of Competence Mountain?
There is some fractal deal going on here, so maybe that whole journey just prepared you for your next adventure into a new Unknown.
The elder gods rule the world and make noise.
They behave improperly and upset their progenitors, Tiamat and Apsu, who conspire to get rid of them.
The elder gods preemptively kill Apsu and inhabit his corpse.
This makes Tiamat furious so she wants to destroy the world.
The elder gods try candidates to fight Tiamat.
Marduk, last born of the gods, comes forth.
He has four eyes and four ears.
He is proclaimed king of the gods.
He fights Tiamat.
Creates the earth and sky.
Osiris is the king of Egypt.
Set kills Osiris to take the throne.
Osiris' body is cut into pieces and spread throughout the world.
Isis searches for Osiris’ body parts.
Isis is impregnated by Osiris' restored body and conceives Horus.
Horus is a falcon with superior eyesight.
He faces Set and loses his left eye in the fight.
Horus rescues Osiris from the underworld.
Horus gains transcendental vision.
Horus and Osiris establish a revivified kingdom.
Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden not caring about being nude.
They eat from the Tree of Knowledge, become aware of their vulnerability and get casted away.
They have two sons; Cain and Abel.
Abel’s sacrifices are accepted.
Cain’s sacrifices are rejected and he kills Abel.
Cain’s descendants degenerate and a catastrophe is coming.
Noah, who was righteous and walked with God, is instructed to gather animals and plants to save them from the flood.
The flood kills everyone outside Noah's ark.
Life springs again from Noah’s ark survivors.
Noah’s descendants prosper.
But they become arrogant and start building the Tower of Babel to replace God.
A seer predicts that Prince Siddhartha Gautama will either become a great king or a great spiritual leader. So to prevent Siddhartha from developing spiritual concerns, the King makes sure Siddhartha grows up surrounded by luxuries and pleasure.
Despite these precautions, Siddhartha experiences the tragedies of life; he sees sickness, aging and death.
The protective illusion under which Siddhartha grew up is broken and can't be restored.
Siddhartha leaves the castle and sets out on a quest to find an explanation to mankind's suffering.
His lifestyle of luxury and pleasure offered no tools to deal with his existential troubles.
Siddhartha starts practicing the religious traditions of his culture.
He becomes a master ascetic and puts his body and mind under extreme austerity regimes.
As his practices still don't provide the solution he is looking for, Siddartha deprives himself even further, rejecting all food and water.
As he reaches the brink of starvation, he accepts a food offering. Siddhartha's followers think he has given up and abandon him.
Siddhartha realises that the path towards spiritual liberation is not in extreme self-indulgence or extreme self-mortification, but in the Middle Way.
He resolves to sit under the Bodhi tree and not to stop meditating until he had reached enlightenment.
The demon Mara appears and tries to make Siddhartha desist from his quest.
Mara tries to seduce Siddhartha with his daughters. When this fails, Mara threatens to attack Siddhartha with his legions of monsters. But Siddhartha remains immutable.
Mara disappears and Siddhartha breaks free from his material attachments.
Siddhartha becomes Gautama Buddha and has the option to enter Nirvana.
Instead, he chooses to go back to the material world and share his teachings with the rest of humanity.
Jesus is the word that God uses to create the world.
The Holy Spirit conceives Jesus in the womb of Mary, a virgin.
Mary and Joseph travel from to Bethlehem to register in the roman census. Jesus is born and placed in a manger because there is no other place left for them.
King Herod wants to prevent Jesus from becoming the new king, according to the prophecy, so he orders all the male infants in Bethlehem to be killed.
Mary and Joseph escape with Jesus to Egypt.
Mary and Joseph learn about Herod's death so they go from Egypt back to Galilee.
John the Baptist preaches in the wilderness about repentance from sins and the upcoming judgement. Jesus is baptised by John and the Holy Spirit descends on him.
The Holy Spirit leads Jesus to the desert. Satan tries to tempt Jesus into renouncing God, but is refused.
Jesus starts traveling, teaching, gathering disciples and performing miracles.
Jesus goes to Jerusalem for Passover and is received triumphantly by crowds of people that believe in him.
The priests, assisted by Judas, get Jesus arrested and ask the Roman governor to condemn him for claiming to be the King of the Jews.
Jesus knows that he is going to be betrayed but does not try to escape the arrest or deny the accusations. He willfully accepts his sacrifice.
The priests persuade the crowds to refuse the Roman governor's offer to release Jesus. They choose to release a murderer instead.
Jesus is betrayed, mocked, forced to wear a crown of thorns and carry his cross. Then he is crucified and dies.
Three days later Jesus appears to his disciples and proves his divine nature.
Jesus ascends to Heaven and is reunited with God.
The king was very ill, and it is said that only the Water of Life can cure him. His three sons of the king decide to go out looking for that magic water.
While on theur quest, the two older sons ride meet a dwarf who asks them where they are going. The brothers are disgusted by the creature, tell him to mind his own business and call him names.
The dwarf casts a spell on the brothers and they get stuck in the ravines of a mountain along the way.
The youngest prince meets the same dwarf and also is asked where he is going. The prince says that he is searching fot the Water of Life and asks the dwarf if he knows where to find it.
The dwarf indeed knew where to find it. He gives the prince the directions to a certain enchanted castle and some items that he will need on his quest.
The prince arrives to the castle and opens the door by knocking it thrice with the iron rod that the dwarf gave him.
Inside the castle are two guardian lions that feed on intruders, but the prince gives them two loaves of bread that he also got from the dwarf and is able to get past them.
The prince finds some loot, new loaves of bread a sword and a princess. The princess tells him that if he returned within the year, they will get married and the enchanted kingdom will be his.
The prince arrives to a beautiful garden and stops to rest, unaware that it is almost midnight, at which time he will be trapped in the castle forever.
The prince suddenly becomes aware that the time is running out, fetches the Water of Life from the well and gets out just in time.
The prince meets the dwarf again and begs him to save the life his two elder brothers. The dwarf reluctantly sets them free.
On his way back, the prince takes on additional adventures.
He saves neighbouring kingdoms from destruction by repelling invaders with his new magic sword.
And also saves the people from starvation with the magic bread.
The older brothers start to feel that the young prince's victories is making them look bad, so they steal the Water of Life from him and replace it with reagular sea water.
The young prince fails to notice the swap and gives the sea water to the king, making his condition even worse.
The older brothers give the king the real Water of Life and take all the credit and tell the king that their younger brother purposefully tried to poison him. The king orders the huntsman to shoot the prince next time they go hunting.
The huntsman sees something in the prince that prevents him from following the order. Instead, he confesses the plan to the prince.
The prince gives his royal clothes to the huntsman and escapes deeper into the forest, disguised with regular clothes.
The prince spends almost one year in exile, not knowing that the king forgave him after the news arrived about the prince's victories at the neighboring kingdoms.
The princess at the promised kingdom ordered a road of solid gold to be built leading to her castle and says that only the prince that rides it straight will be her future husband.
The two older brothers ride to the castle to claim the princess' hand.
Neither of them wants to damage the precious gold, so they ride on the side of the road and therefore are not allowed in the castle.
The young prince is concentrated on the princess and does not mind the gold on the road, he rides straight on it.
The prince and princess get married. The prince learns that he was forgiven by the king and that his evil bothers have escaped the land, never to return.
Bilbo lives comfortably in the Shire, but he is no hero, or even a burglar.
Gandalf introduces him to a bunch of homeless dwarves and learns about how their home was taken by a dragon.
Bilbo wants to fulfill Gandalf’s expectations and agrees to join the party as a burglar.
During the expedition some of the dwarves get captured by trolls who plan to eat them.
The trolls get tricked into debating how to cook dwarves until the sun rises.
Exposure to sunlight turns the trolls into stone.
The company arrives to Rivendell where elf King Elrond looks at the map under the moonlight and the secret passage into Lonely Mountain becomes visible.
They set out to cross the Misty Mountains
They get captured by goblins and taken into their dark tunnels. Gandalf kills the Great Goblin and they fight their way out.
Bilbo gets lost in the tunnels and finds a magic ring that makes him invisible and exchanges riddles with Gollum.
Just as they were surrounded by goblins and wargs, the giant eagles rescue them fly them over the Misty Mountains.
They stay at Beorn’s home, a place where intelligent animals live in harmony.
Before leaving the company, Gandalf and Beorn leave warn them that there is no food in Mirkwood Forest, that they should not touch the black water and should not deviate from the path.
One dwarf accidentally falls in the black water and is enchanted into sleep.
They deviate from the path looking for food and get captured by giant spiders. Bilbo fights them off with his sword.
They get captured again by Wood Elves. Bilbo was able to escape by putting on the magic ring, he spends days in the shadow realm looking for a way to set the dwarves free.
They end up escaping inside empty barrels of wine that the elves send downstream to Lake-town.
The humans give them a warm welcome, as the prophecy says that the dwarf descending from the King in the mountain will free Lake-town from the menace of the dragon.
They set out to Lonely mountain to face Smaug and to claim the place of King under the Mountain.
The moonlight again makes visible the door that leads into the tunnels of Lonely Mountain.
Bilbo puts on the invisibility ring and enters the dragon's lair. He is able to notice the weak point in Smaug's melted treasure armour.
The enraged dragon flies out and destroys the secret passage, trapping the dwarves inside the mountain, then sets fire to Lake-town.
A little bird who overheard Bilbo describing Smaug's weak point passes on the secret to Bard, who is defending Lake-town. Bard aims at the spot and hits it with an arrow, killing the dragon.
The town people wants to crown Bard as king for saving them.
Bard does not take the title, but leads a group of humans to take the treasure from the mountain, assuming that the dwarves were killed by Smaug.
The Wood-elves send help to Lake-town and also to get some of the treasure.
The dwarves at the mountain and refuse to give anybody any treasure, so the humans and the elves set up a siege.
Bilbo, who had found the Arkenstone, secretly gives it to the humans and elves so that they can negotiate.
Thorin agrees to share some of the treasure in exchange for the stone, which is the most valuable jewel for him.
Before the treasure is delivered, Thorin's cousin arrives with reinforcements and attacks the human and elf armies.
Two more armies of goblins and wargs arrive. The humans, elves and dwarves join forces and they fight the Battle of the Five Armies.
The eagles and Beorn arrive to help and the goblins and wargs are finally defeated, but Thorin, Kili and Fili die in the battle.
Thorin's cousin becomes the King under the Mountain and shares part of the treasures with the humans, elves and even the hobbit, who turned out to be more than meets the eye.
Pinocchio wants to go to school and to be a normal boy.
Instead, he gets tricked by Cat and Fox and becomes an actor.
Pinocchio is exploited by Stromboli.
The Blue Fairy teaches that lies have ramifications and liberates Pinocchio.
Cat and Fox catch Pinocchio on his way home and convince him that he needs to take a vacation.
Pinocchio arrives to Pleasure Island, where all the boys rebel against authority and engage in illicit activities.
Pinocchio realises he is losing his humanity by becoming a donkey, so he escapes the island.
Pinocchio finds Geppetto’s house empty and starts searching for him.
Inside the giant whale Monstro, starving Geppetto finds fish and Pinocchio finds Geppetto.
Geppetto can't figure out how to escape from Monstro, but Pinocchio takes the initiative.
He uses fire to fight Monstro.
Pinocchio sacrifices himself to save Geppetto.
For proving himself brave, truthful and unselfish, Pinocchio becomes a real boy.
In a faraway land, long ago, lived a King and his fair Queen.
They think they can get away with not inviting Maleficent to Aurora’s christening.
Maleficent retaliates with black magic.
The King orders all the spinning wheels in the kingdom to be burned to protect Aurora.
Aurora grows up in isolation.
Despite all the precautions, she meets Phillip.
Aurora and Phillip fall in love and have intentions of being together.
Maleficent makes Aurora prick her finger and then kidnaps Phillip.
Phillip escapes and fights hordes of minions.
The kingdom gets covered by thorns.
Phillip makes his way to the castle to rescue Aurora.
Maleficent turns into a dragon and fights Phillip.
Phillip kills Maleficent and awakes Aurora.
The kingdom is revivified by a new union.
Belle lives in a rigid society that does not allow her to pursue her non-girly interests. She is harassed by Gaston, the town's toxic alpha male.
She needs to go in rescue of her father, who is not the most reliable of patriarchal figures.
Belle's father is trapped a cursed castle deprived from humanity, but some traces still remain.
Belle teaches Beast how to behave in a civilized manner again.
A spark of love appears in a seemingly hopeless situation.
The now encultured Beast shows Belle the magic mirror, through which they see Belle's father is was imprisoned in an insane asylum.
Belle is released by Beast and she reveals the truth about the Beast in the cursed castle in order to save her father.
Belle and father get locked up for defending the Beast, but they escape shortly after.
Deceived by Gaston, the town people attack the castle.
Beast is about to be killed by Gaston, but fights back after seeing Belle came back for him. Beast defeats Gaston but gets mortally wounded in the process.
The inhabitants of the cursed castle fend off the attackers.
Belle expresses her love for the dying Beast. The curse is broken, an improved kingdom comes to life, as the humanity within the inhabitants of the castle is restored.
Simba can't wait to be king.
He wants to prove his bravery by going into the Elephant Graveyard.
Simba is attacked by the hyenas and discovers that he can't take care of himself.
Scar gives a populist speech to get the support of the hungry hyenas.
Scar uses Simba as bait and kills Mufasa with the help of the hyenas.
Scar blames Simba for Mufasa's death.
Simba runs into the desert and almost lets himself die.
Simba is rescued by Timon and Pumba, and taken to an oasis.
Simba grows up in the oasis escaping the memories from his past.
Nala, Rafiki and the ghost of Mufasa make Simba remember who he is, and so he leaves his hedonistic life in the jungle.
Simba returns to his kingdom and finds it in ruins.
Simba sneaks into Pride Rock to assume his responsibility.
Scar blames his subjects for his failures, would rather have the kingdom destroyed than accepting his errors and still thinks he is better than Mufasa.
Simba faces Scar's accusations and reveals the truth about Mufasa's death.
Scar is defeated and the rightful ruler creates a new harmonious kingdom.
People get rewarded naturally for their competence and that motivates them to improve.
People at the bottom, who can not rise by themselves, should be assisted.
Nature is benevolent and it is being undermined by our systems.
All forms of authority are oppression and we have get rid of them.
If we remove all imposed constraints, everything would be fine.
There are endless interpretations and all equally worthless. It is all just a power struggle.
Being is a perverse creation, it would be better if there was nothing at all.
We have to preserve the systems that have been working so far.
The opposers of authority are ungrateful and destructive. They need to be suppressed by force.
Nature is merciless and our systems might fail to protect us. We must be prepared for a catastrophe.
Evil exists and we will only reach safety after destroying it.
Everything is fine, just follow your bliss.
Read the story behind this project.
My following project, the Land of Meaning Explorer takes things a step further. It's a deeper, more precise, representation of JBP's first Book. Check it out!
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