Well, I can't say you didn't try to give me a complete answer!I think the bigger question is simply the lack of literacy in the modern world and the loss of culture. For instance, your story of Sir Gawaine marrying the enchanted woman can certainly be seen as allegorical. I believe Gawaine had dealings with the Green Knight and his wife, too - something about stolen kisses or something. And Gawaine was responsible for getting Lancelot in trouble with Arthur over Guinnevere, thus bringing down the final end of the round table. These too can be seen as allegories.But what purpose do allegories serve in a society that isn't literate enough to understand them - a society that pays lip service to education but revels it the person who made it big without having done well and coming up through the system as it were?Interestingly, recent studies show othat women are succeeding in ways previously unheard when it comes to education. Too long to cite everything, but google"failing our boys"for a quick overview. This is further compunded by the fact that schools were concerned about"fairness to girls"just a few years before that.Sorry - lost track of it there, but I'll leave it up - what I was TRYING to get at here is that in a literate society, metaphor is part of the common language, the gold coin in the currency of words. But we're no longer on the gold standard in the West, and appealing to men/women/people to seek out these paradigms is a message that falls mostly on deaf ears. I think that pop culture books like"Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"(or whatever its called) assume to start from a position of equality in gender relationships and discusses strengths and weaknesses of both in a humourous way. But to assume that men are in self denial as to their feelings or their possibilty of having a feminine side is to assume a similar and not altogether different mirrored reality for women, too.In conclusion, it seems to me that in the modern world, we need to make sure that people are literate before we ask them to self analyse, or else we're just exchanging one blind way of thinkng with another.Greatgawda'mighty - all over the place this AM - sorry - I usually stay out of the culture section - not my strong point as it were. But I'll look some of that stuff up you mentioed - only recently, a friend of mine said something about becoming a Tantric Priest, which I didn't pursue inconversation because I was still trying trying to figure out whern the temples to the 42 pieces of the Goddess were located in the Middle and Far East - another story for another time.TTFN,Sk. : http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/07/13/190203.php#comment-611033