It is my belief that we must restore the relevance of deep story, the way of the song filled tongues and the sacred cauldron of the grail. Nowadays the hearth has been replaced by the TV which all too often tells aborted and abbreviated stores. This may be one of the reasons that so many of us are so bored to tears and find life meaningless. But every now and then, something bubbles up into consciousness restoring us once again to the state of true believers. Case in point – look at the buzz generated at the release of Harry Potter, at the return of the epic tales Lord of the Rings and Narnia – deeply mythic and timeless stories that continue to shake and quake to this day.
Great Story lures us with the passion and promise contained in the narrative adventure. But unlike trivial entertainment where escapism is the only goal, mythic story uses the sugar coating as a part of the dance - not as an end in itself. It engages all manner of human function (all modalities of the triune brain) and as a result is a far more effective vehicle for transformation then volumes of theoretical material. If you were to say ----Now this is the way you change your brain---- and so on, one superficial level of you learns a lot of techniques. But unless you engage with these techniques and live them experientially like you do with a great story you will not activate the deep connecting patterns that make it a life lesson instead of a head lesson. Human growth is much deeper and more enduring if it is storied with the great plots and patterns that already live in our psyches.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Monday, May 01, 2006
Great Story Continues
By great story I mean archetypal story, mytho-poetic story – story with patterns of connections, story filled with that most ancient of brain patterns, symbol and metaphor. It is the power of the imaginal, of the symbol, that propels us beyond the personal particular focus of our little local lives toward the realm that I call the personal –universal. Through the symbolic dramas of Psyche, Prometheus, Parsifal, Antigone, Oedipus, Ix Chel, Isis, Rumi, Jesus, Buddha, Faust, and Jaguar, we can discover the broad patterns of our own lives, finding ourselves charged and changed in the process.
Unlike conceptual theory which only touches the intellectual faculties, Mythic Story is both prime and primal. It touches not only the mind but also the imagination, the emotions, and the unconscious depths of a person. Engaging it produces an intense force which in turn produces a mutation in consciousness, both at the personal level and the universal - bubbles within bubbles within bubbles.
At those times when we are open to a sense of our own deeper story coincidences multiply; suddenly there is energy for even tedious tasks, everything glows with meaning. That is the pattern that connects, that is the transformational tales with which my publishing company Mystecha chooses to engage. Mystecha is dedicated to promoting the old bardic concept of mythic fiction, the idea of great story as transformative cauldron of possibility – a means “through which” something charged and momentous like the House of the Jaguar can be coaxed out of the liminal realm and brought into time.
Unlike conceptual theory which only touches the intellectual faculties, Mythic Story is both prime and primal. It touches not only the mind but also the imagination, the emotions, and the unconscious depths of a person. Engaging it produces an intense force which in turn produces a mutation in consciousness, both at the personal level and the universal - bubbles within bubbles within bubbles.
At those times when we are open to a sense of our own deeper story coincidences multiply; suddenly there is energy for even tedious tasks, everything glows with meaning. That is the pattern that connects, that is the transformational tales with which my publishing company Mystecha chooses to engage. Mystecha is dedicated to promoting the old bardic concept of mythic fiction, the idea of great story as transformative cauldron of possibility – a means “through which” something charged and momentous like the House of the Jaguar can be coaxed out of the liminal realm and brought into time.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Great Story
Life is a treasure hunt for story. We’re constantly searching for symbolic dramas that are relevant to our own, ones that run parallel and fill in the missing gaps of our adventures. We are the story tellers of the world. Human connections are deeply natured in the field of story.
Story plays upon our mind like a symphony activating different feeling tones and fancies from both within time and without. When we join Great Story we align our lives with evolutionary forces that carry us beyond old agendas and into new ways of being. We hitch ourselves to the coat tales of the truly great and in turn are carried along by the rhythm of that greatness.
Story is a time release capsule. It works deep within us as a potent structuring force. It is the oldest form of teaching and the basic vehicle of transmission of culture from one generation to the next. Before the invention of writing all human knowledge was conveyed from generation to generation by storytellers who were the sacred minstrels and wise ones of the people.
Unfortunately today, many have lost this knowledge of deep meaningful stories. Our stories have become too small – they are not big enough to provide opportunity for growth into the full potential of our becoming. As a result we are wedded to tales of trivia. Sometimes in moments of despair or grief our stories seem empty of meaning, unable to carry us through our times of deepest need. If we can remember to surround ourselves with great vessels of transformative story then its grace will carry us through our wounded moments gifting us with a deeper journey filled with patterns of connection and meaningful engagements.
Story plays upon our mind like a symphony activating different feeling tones and fancies from both within time and without. When we join Great Story we align our lives with evolutionary forces that carry us beyond old agendas and into new ways of being. We hitch ourselves to the coat tales of the truly great and in turn are carried along by the rhythm of that greatness.
Story is a time release capsule. It works deep within us as a potent structuring force. It is the oldest form of teaching and the basic vehicle of transmission of culture from one generation to the next. Before the invention of writing all human knowledge was conveyed from generation to generation by storytellers who were the sacred minstrels and wise ones of the people.
Unfortunately today, many have lost this knowledge of deep meaningful stories. Our stories have become too small – they are not big enough to provide opportunity for growth into the full potential of our becoming. As a result we are wedded to tales of trivia. Sometimes in moments of despair or grief our stories seem empty of meaning, unable to carry us through our times of deepest need. If we can remember to surround ourselves with great vessels of transformative story then its grace will carry us through our wounded moments gifting us with a deeper journey filled with patterns of connection and meaningful engagements.
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