Here is a blog that I wrote for the League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling. It centers on Nature Myths, the topic for my workshop at their annual storytelling conference: Sharing the Fire.
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| Boston's Arnold Arboretum at Summer Twilight |
A MEDITATION ON NATURE MYTHS
You don’t often hear, ‘Wow, I heard a really cool nature myth today!’
You probably won’t hear, ‘Did I tell you the one about how the Evergreens came to be?’ at the neighborhood bar. They may not be the most popular narratives these days but I say that
Nature Myths* are the most sorely missed. So much missed that we have
forgotten what they once taught us to know.
One thing they taught us is that we belong to the land, as much if
not more than it belongs to us. One of the reasons we have lost that sense is that, over the years, the old stories
that rooted our imaginations in the landscape have been shredded by
assimilation and modernization. We have continued to travel further and
further from that Eden, from the feeling that we are in a unified place.
We are faced more and more with things we do not know how to process,
in terms that are alien to our soul. Mythology, revisited and
reinvigorated, can still be a deeply orienting narrative. Myths speak in
the archetypal language of dreams and meaning, encouraging us to
suspend disbelief and to wonder as a child does at the marvel that is
our world.
I've worked with nature mythology for all of my life as a
storyteller, plumbing its depths for Seasonal Celebrations, Stories in
the Landscape, explorations of specific natural elements like trees and
flowers and more. What I find is that these old stories always challenge
me to think more deeply about a creature or plant or celestial body.
When I am outdoors, those tales accompany me – encouraging meditative
thoughts on the natural world and revealing each plant or insect in a
new way. Sometimes I feel as though surrounding a natural element with a
myth is like gifting it with a new perfume!
For me now, these old stories clothe the world, drawing my
imagination closely to it. Truth be known, that is why I began the
search. Feeling alienated from the natural world when I grew up and
stopped building forts and running through the pastureland and became a
responsible adult, I wanted more than ever to find a way and a reason to
have nature still be my constant companion. Exploring nature myths has
been a ‘way’ for me and my wish is to bring my discoveries to others.
Whenever someone says to me after hearing a myth on roses, “I will
never see a rose in the same way again.” I know the right chord has
sounded. What they mean when they say ‘see’ is ‘experience.’
The Australian Aborigines call the time of myth the Dreamtime. One of
their tribes has a beautiful saying: “It’s true that we need the earth,
but that is not the whole story. The earth needs us. It needs to hear
the laughter of our children. It needs to hear the pounding of feet to
the rhythm of the dance and it needs to hear the old stories told in a
sacred manner.”
Does the earth need to hear the ancient stories? I say YES, it needs
to hear them and so do we need to be tied back to them as we were “in
the beginning time.”
We are such an important element of nature. Better weavers than the
spiders. Our myths were designed to weave our intangible imagination
into the fabric in such a way that we ourselves could be caught in
delight, suspended in wonder and meaning.
Can you imagine that?
* By Nature Myths I am referring to ancient stories of origin that
tell how elements in nature came to be, including Nature Mythologies
where natural forces are personified.
Read the other LANES blogs on a variety of storytelling topics!
