Unfold Your Own Myth

Rumi never titled his poems, but the one we call, Unfold your own Myth is one of his most popular poems. Everyone likes the verse that gave the poem its title, as the concept of finding the epic greatness within your self is something everyone desires. But the buildup from the previous verses add a bit more depth. Perhaps we can list out his mythic references and possibly his purpose for including them…

Who gets up early
to discover the moment light begins?
Who finds us here circling, bewildered, like atoms?
Who comes to a spring thirsty
and sees the moon reflected in it?
Who, like Jacob blind with grief and age,
smells the shirt of his lost son
and can see again?
Who lets a bucket down and brings up
a flowing prophet?
Or like Moses goes for fire
and finds what burns inside the sunrise?

Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies,
and opens a door to the other world.
Soloman cuts open a fish, and there's a gold ring.
Omar storms in to kill the prophet
and leaves with blessings.
Chase a deer and end up everywhere!
An oyster opens his mouth to swallow on drop.
Now there's a pearl.
A vagrant wanders empty ruins.
Suddenly he's wealthy.

But don't be satisfied with stories, how things
have gone with others. Unfold
your own myth, without complicated explanation,
so everyone will understand the passage,
We have opened you.

Start walking toward Shams. Your legs will get heavy
and tired. Then comes a moment
of feeling the wings you've grown,
lifting.

(Taken from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks)

Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?
From Rumi's perspective, this is obviously God, who created light in the beginning. He is also the one that notices us lost in our lives. But also, Rumi's God did not create the world for everyone to be lost in it. Each variation of Pandora's box has a gift inside.

Who comes to a spring thirsty / and sees the moon reflected in it?
Most spiritual traditions have the this metaphor that you can't drink the truth if you aren't thirsty enough to seek for the spring in the desert. But in Rumi's illustration, the water that you seek is "just a finger pointing to the moon"… pointing to something greater. So, what we originally seek, isn't our destination, but a stone to step on.

Rumi then lists a number of mythic stories of people who did just that. They were seeking "something", but the "something" they found was really a pointer.

Jacob blind with grief and age / smells the shirt of his lost son / and can see again?
This reference is from the Biblical story of "Joseph in Egypt" and I believe Rumi's point here is that grief and suffering can also be one of these pointers to something greater. It certainly was with the Buddha, Job, and the Christian martyrs.

Who lets a bucket down and brings up / a flowing prophet?
This is another reference to the same Biblical story of Joseph, who's brothers dropped him into a well in order to exile him. A caravan traveling to Egypt finds him and takes him there, selling him off as a slave.

Or like Moses goes for fire / and finds what burns inside the sunrise?
Love this image of Moses, who going out for firewood, runs across the famous burning bush.

Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies, / and opens a door to the other world.
I'm not sure what Rumi is referring to in this line. It may be an apocryphal story told in Muslim circles.

Soloman cuts open a fish, and there's a gold ring.
The story of Solomon and his magic ring (that had the seal of God engraved on it), while not part of the Bible per se is part of Jewish folklore. Solomon was given the ring to command the demons to work in building the temple. In a fit of pompousness, he lost the ring, and his kingdom. After repenting of his sins, he found the ring in a fish (read the entire story). According to Rumi, just as grief can be a pointer, so too can repenting from sin.

Omar storms in to kill the prophet / and leaves with blessings.
This is from Islamic history, where Omar was a Meccan local who was upset with Muhammad's command to renounce idols. He went to kill the prophet, but became converted. While there were many attempts on the life of Muhammad at the beginning, this story is mentioned primarily because Omar was actually trying to do the right thing… he was just mislead. Rumi's point in mentioning this story is that even seeking incorrectly is better than not seeking at all.

Of course, I don't personally agree with that perspective, but…

Chase a deer and end up everywhere!
I'm not that familiar with Islamic mythology to know the origin of this story, but it is quite prevalent in European stories. The hero chases the deer deeper into the woods, and eventually into the thicket, only to find something greater. In C.S. Lewis' book, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe , our heroes actually return from their mythic journey by following the deer into the thicket.

Start walking toward Shams.
Shams was Rumi's … er, mentor of sorts. He once said of him, "You are either the light of God or God," and followed him around until he disappeared. Rumi described his search for Shams as the search of his own identity… the search for the internal pointer.

Now let's look at the famous line: Don't be satisfied with stories, how things / have gone with others. / Unfold your own myth… The one thing that is clear with each of the stories is that the hero, in looking for something, but ends up finding-- what word should we use here to describe the transcendent ultimate? Let's just use the word it So each person finds it differently… and so should we.

Of course, he may assume that his reader has already found it, and his advice is to just unfold or reveal this plainly to the world, so that others will understand that it is personal. Eh, that's my 2{c|}.

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