External Soul

Stories collected by Sir James Frazer, one of the inspirations for T. S. Eliot, author of every high schooler’s nightmare assignment (“Write an explication of The Waste Land), include those about an “external soul.” Among the stories is one about Thossakan or Ravanna, the king of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Seems that the king, to protect himself when he went to war, left his soul in a box at home (679). * The idea of an external soul ran in other cultures, and often with a detrimental consequence. Frazer recounts the myth of Meleager, whose mother was told that he would die when a burning brand in the fireplace finally snuffed out. She hid the brand in a box, but removed it when she grew angry over his killing her brothers. Removing it from the box, she thus killed him. Remind you of Voodoo? Yeah. External soul, affected by others when it’s outside the body.


Now ask. Is there any analog in social media housing the details, opinions, and emotions of people? Putting intimate details, opinions, and emotions on social media exposes a person’s essence to others. And via the internet, “others” means everyone, everywhere, all the time. Maybe the best advice is to follow the model of Thossakan and leave at least something of who your are  in the box a home.


How much of your soul are you willing to place outside yourself?




*Frazer, Sir James.  The New Golden Bough. Ed. by Dr. Theodor H. Laster. New York. A Mentor Book. 1959. Frazer’s book is a compilation of hundreds of pages filled with myths, accounts, and beliefs from cultures both ancient and modern.