The British mythic storyteller Martin Shaw says the stories we most need now are here; they arrived right on schedule, three thousand years ago. These mythic stories remind us of our reciprocity with the whole of life and help us to imagine a more accurate role for ourselves. Stories of human frailty and creativity, of our humility and daring, wickedness and perseverance show us in robust context, rather than, as our current story holds, as the exceptional species in charge of everything.
The word “myth” is not used here in the devalued sense of fantasy or make-believe, but rather of archetypal wisdom and guidance. Of patterns gleaned from engaging directly with the strangeness and wonder of the other-than-human world. Continue reading
