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Before I went to Phoenix, I finished Sean Kane's "Wisdom of the Mythtellers".
Basically, it's an examination of the structure and style of the story telling of pre-literate/pre-agricultural societies.
Among the interesting things I learned while reading it;
That is a very flip summary of a very thoughtful book. You might want to read it yourself.
Basically, it's an examination of the structure and style of the story telling of pre-literate/pre-agricultural societies.
Among the interesting things I learned while reading it;
- When a culutre establishes agriculture, and begins to domesticate animals, the animlas in their stories stop talking.
- "Branwen" is Welsh for ""White Raven". A little looking online suggests that "brandu" is black raven, and "branrhudd" is crimson raven.
- I need to find myself a good, readble (by which I mean, a story, not a text book) version of the Mabinogion (prolly spelt wrong), the Cattle Raid at Cooley, and the Ulster Cycle.
- Before agriculture brings feudalism, the gods aren't lords over men - they live in thier own different world.
- It's all about the boundaries.
- Raven would never do that!
- The author suggests that one of the uses of the rituals of the mythtellers was to cross-pollinate betwen the conscious mind and the unconscious mind, exchanign across that boundary, so that the conscious mind could access some of the perceptions of the data the unconscious is aware of, and to alter the direction of the unconscious to affect conscious behaviour. This is, in a sense, how I have been thinking about my own spiritual experimentation.
That is a very flip summary of a very thoughtful book. You might want to read it yourself.
