O Poder do Mito Episódio 03- Os Primeiros Contadores de Histórias
Résumé
TLDREste vídeo explora a relación entre os humanos e os animais a través das mitoloxías e rituais das sociedades primitivas. Nestes grupos, os animais eran vistos como seres sagrados, e a súa morte era respectada mediante diversos rituais que buscaban honrar a súa existencia e asegurar a súa continuidade. A conversa introduce a Joseph Campbell, un estudoso das mitoloxías, quen reflexiona sobre como estas historias e rituais servían para conectar a mente humana co corpo, guiando aos individuos a través de transformacións vitais e para celebrar a vida e a morte. A falta de mitoloxías na sociedade moderna está a afectar negativamente aos mozos, xa que lles falta a orientación proporcionada por estas historias e rituales, que axudaban a forxar a identidade e a conexión co mundo. Campbell subliña a importancia de entender e preservar estas tradicións para manter un sentido de continuidade cultural e espiritual.
A retenir
- 🐻 Historias primitivas conectan co espiritualidade e a natureza.
- ✨ As mitoloxías son guías para a vida espiritual.
- 🦌 O respecto polos animais era fundamental en culturas antigas.
- 🌌 A falta de rituais está a afectar negativamente aos mozos de hoxe.
- 🔮 Os xamanes eran guías espirituais que conectaban co mundo invisible.
- 🌱 Os mitos e rituais axudaban á transición de neno a adulto.
- 🕊️ A relación entre humanos e animais é sagrada e simbiótica.
- 🌄 As pinturas en cuevas son expresións artísticas de conexión espiritual.
- 📖 As mitoloxías evolucionan co ambiente e a cultura.
- ❗ Os rituais modernos están a perder o seu significado profundo.
Chronologie
- 00:00:00 - 00:05:00
A narración refírese á conexión entre os animais e os seres humanos, discutindo como a relación mudou ao longo do tempo. Menciona que os humanos xa non están en contacto directo coas bestas salvaxes, senón que conviven con outros humanos, competindo por recursos. Refírese á historia evolutiva e a importancia dos animais na formación dos nosos corpos e mentes.
- 00:05:00 - 00:10:00
Os recordos dos nosos antepasados cazadores, que dependeron da natureza, aínda están presentes en nós. Esta conexión pódese despertar mediante a natureza e as pinturas en cuevas. A narrativa explora a escura experiencia interna dos xamáns e o simbolismo das prácticas rituales nas culturas primordiais, subliñando a conexión entre a vida e a morte.
- 00:10:00 - 00:15:00
A arte rupestre dos nosos ancestros captura a relación entre os cazadores e a natureza, mostrando como os cazadores contaban historias e realizaban rituais en honra aos animais que sacrificaban. Joseph Campbell, especializado en mitos, expón que estes relatos non eran só entretemento, senón guías poderosas para a vida espiritual.
- 00:15:00 - 00:20:00
Campbell compartiu a súa perspectiva sobre como os mitos axudan a harmonizar a mente e o corpo. A transición da infancia á madurez require autoconfianza, e os mitos facilitan esta adaptación ao aceptar a natureza, actuando como mensaxes dunha experiencia compartida anteriormente.
- 00:20:00 - 00:25:00
O proceso de envelhecimento presenta o desafío de conectar a conciencia coa realidade do corpo decaente, e Campbell comparte como os mitos lle axudaron a aceptar este proceso, destacando a importancia de identificar a esencia eterna detrás do corporal. Menciona o uso de mitos como guías espirituais na vida dos xente.
- 00:25:00 - 00:30:00
A idea de que o mito e a morte son íntimamente interrelacionados é discutida, explicando como os primeiros seres humanos comezaron a pensar sobre a vida e a morte a través de prácticas funerarias e rituales de sepultación, mostrando un paso primitivo cara á espiritualidade.
- 00:30:00 - 00:35:00
O troco das prácticas de sepultación suxire unha conciencia sobre a vida despois da morte, subliñando a transición entre o visible e o invisible, onde o mito juega un papel importante en comprender esta dualidade existencial.
- 00:35:00 - 00:40:00
Refírese á conexión dos humanos co mundo animal, onde os cazadores establecen un pacto cos animais a través de rituais, mostrando respectoun a vida dos animais, que se ven como mensaxeiros do poder divino. A morte animal ten, por tanto, un carácter sagrado, reclamando a responsabilidade do cazador.
- 00:40:00 - 00:45:00
Examinan as cerimonias e rituais como elementos fundamentais para expresar gratitude aos animais que proporcionan alimento, resaltando a interdependencia entre as especies e enfatizando a importancia do ritual na vida dos cazadores primitivos para rendir homenaxe á sacrificio dos animais.
- 00:45:00 - 00:50:00
A narración engade un relato sobre a vida dos nativos americanos e a súa relación cos búfalos, subliñando que a matanza de búfalos por colonos brancos foi un sacrilexio que destruiu tanto a vida animal como a espiritualidade da comunidade indígena.
- 00:50:00 - 00:56:49
Discutindo sobre a arte rupestre, Campbell describe a poderosa conexión emocional que os humanos senten ao ver as pinturas de animais nas grutas, reflexionando sobre a importancia destes lugares como lugares de ritual e a experiencia transcendente asociada con eles.
Carte mentale
Vidéo Q&R
Que papel xoga a mitoloxía na vida humana?
A mitoloxía serve como unha guía espiritual e cultural, axudando á humanidade a conectarse co seu pasado e a comprender a súa conexión coa natureza.
Como se relacionaban os antigos pobos cos animais?
Os antigos pobos consideraban aos animais como seres sagrados e realizaban rituais para honrar e agradecer aos animais que proporcionaban alimento.
Que pasou co significado dos rituais na sociedade moderna?
Os rituais perderon a súa profundidade espiritual e agora son a miúdo reducidos a meras formalidades, sen a conexión orixinal co que representan.
Cales son os efectos da falta de mitoloxía nos mozos de hoxe?
A falta de mitoloxía contribúe á confusión e ao comportamento antisocial, xa que moitos mozos carecen de orientación e rituais que lles axuden a comprender o seu papel na sociedade.
Quen eran os xamanes na antigüidade?
Os xamanes eran portadores de sabedoría espiritual que vivían experiencias trascendentes e ajudaban á súa comunidade a conectar co mundo espiritual.
Voir plus de résumés vidéo
- 00:00:10the animal in voice of the unseen power
- 00:00:14no longer serve as in primeval times to
- 00:00:18teach and to guide mankind
- 00:00:21[Music]
- 00:00:28bears lions elephants and gazelles and
- 00:00:32cages neh zoos
- 00:00:36man is no longer the newcomer in a world
- 00:00:39of unexplored Plains and forests and our
- 00:00:43immediate neighbors are not wild beasts
- 00:00:46but other human beings contending for
- 00:00:48goods and space on a planet that is
- 00:00:51whirling without end around the fireball
- 00:00:54of a star neither in body nor in mind to
- 00:00:57inhabit the world of those hunting races
- 00:01:00of the Paleolithic millennia to whose
- 00:01:02lives and life ways we nevertheless owed
- 00:01:05the very forms of our bodies and
- 00:01:07structures of our minds
- 00:01:09[Music]
- 00:01:11memories of their animal envoy's still
- 00:01:14must sleep somehow within us for they
- 00:01:17wake a little in stir when we venture
- 00:01:19into wilderness they wake in terror to
- 00:01:23thunder
- 00:01:24and again they wake with a sense of
- 00:01:26recognition when we enter any one of
- 00:01:29those great painted caves
- 00:01:32[Music]
- 00:01:38whatever the inward darkness may have
- 00:01:40been to which the shamans of those caves
- 00:01:42descended in their trances the same must
- 00:01:46lie within ourselves nightly visited in
- 00:01:49sleep
- 00:01:51[Music]
- 00:02:20when we look at the Magnificent cave
- 00:02:23paintings left by our primal ancestors
- 00:02:25we realize how the hunters of those
- 00:02:27early tribes were influenced by their
- 00:02:29natural surroundings and by their
- 00:02:31feelings toward the animals they
- 00:02:32depended on for food religious feelings
- 00:02:35they told stories to themselves about
- 00:02:37the animals and about the supernatural
- 00:02:39world to which the animals seemed to go
- 00:02:42when they died and the hunters performed
- 00:02:44rituals of atonement to the departed
- 00:02:46spirits of the animals hoping to coax
- 00:02:48them back to be sacrificed again Joseph
- 00:02:51Campbell devoted his life to the study
- 00:02:53of these myths and rituals for him
- 00:02:55mythic stories were not simply
- 00:02:57entertaining tales to be told for
- 00:02:59amusement around ancient campfires they
- 00:03:02were powerful guides to the life of the
- 00:03:05Spirit Campbell's Odyssey as scholar and
- 00:03:08teacher led him from the exhibits at the
- 00:03:10American Museum of Natural History which
- 00:03:12impressed him as a boy to cultures all
- 00:03:14over the world in his words whether we
- 00:03:17listened with aloof amusement to the
- 00:03:19mumbo-jumbo of some witch doctor of the
- 00:03:21Congo or read with cultivated rapture
- 00:03:24translations from sonnets of loud say or
- 00:03:27now and again crack the hard nutshell of
- 00:03:29an argument of Thomas Aquinas our catch
- 00:03:32suddenly the shining meaning of a
- 00:03:34bizarre Eskimo fairy tale we're hearing
- 00:03:37echoes of the first story in this hour
- 00:03:40one of the many I taped with Joseph
- 00:03:42Campbell during the last two years of
- 00:03:44his life we talked about our
- 00:03:45relationship to the first stories and to
- 00:03:48the people who told them like them we to
- 00:03:51perform rituals to enact what we believe
- 00:03:53about the world beyond this one and we
- 00:03:56try to bring our mind into harmony with
- 00:03:58questions of immortality and our body
- 00:04:00with its destiny of death
- 00:04:07what do you think our souls Oh two
- 00:04:09ancient myths well the ancient myths
- 00:04:13were designed to put the mind the mental
- 00:04:18system into a cord with this body system
- 00:04:23with this inheritance or harming the
- 00:04:24body to harmonize the mind can ramble
- 00:04:27off in strange ways and want things that
- 00:04:31the body does not want and the myths and
- 00:04:36rights were means to put the mind in
- 00:04:40accord with the body and the way of life
- 00:04:43in accord with the way that nature
- 00:04:45dictates so in a way these old stories
- 00:04:49live in us they do indeed and the stages
- 00:04:55of a human development are the same
- 00:04:58today as they were in the ancient times
- 00:05:00and the problem of a child brought up in
- 00:05:04a world of discipline of obedience and
- 00:05:10of his dependency on others has to be
- 00:05:14transcended when one comes to maturity
- 00:05:16so that you are living now not in
- 00:05:18dependency but with self responsible
- 00:05:21Authority and the problem of the
- 00:05:24transition from childhood to maturity
- 00:05:27and then from maturity and full capacity
- 00:05:30to losing those powers and acquiescing
- 00:05:33in the natural course of you might say
- 00:05:37the autumn time of life and the passage
- 00:05:39away myths are there to help us go with
- 00:05:43it
- 00:05:43accept nature's way and not hold to
- 00:05:46something else
- 00:05:47the stories are sort of to me like
- 00:05:50messages in a bottle from shore someone
- 00:05:53else is visited first yes and you're
- 00:05:55visiting those shores now and these
- 00:05:58myths tell me how others have made the
- 00:06:01passage and how I can make them and and
- 00:06:04also what the beauties are of the way I
- 00:06:09feel this now moving into my own last
- 00:06:12year's you know the the myths help me to
- 00:06:15go with it what kind of myth give me a
- 00:06:17one that has actually helped you
- 00:06:19well the tradition in India for instance
- 00:06:25of actually changing your whole way of
- 00:06:28dress even changing your name as you
- 00:06:32pass from one stage to another when I
- 00:06:37retired from teaching I knew that I had
- 00:06:41to create a new life a new way of life
- 00:06:43and I changed my manner of thinking
- 00:06:48about my life just in terms of that
- 00:06:53notion of moving out of the sphere of
- 00:06:57achievement into the sphere of enjoyment
- 00:06:59and appreciation and relaxing into the
- 00:07:04wonder of it all and then there is that
- 00:07:06final passage through the dark gate that
- 00:07:09well that's no problem at all
- 00:07:11the problem in middle life when the body
- 00:07:15has reached its climax of power and
- 00:07:18begins to lose it is to identify
- 00:07:21yourself not with the body which is
- 00:07:24falling away but with the consciousness
- 00:07:26of which it is a vehicle and when you
- 00:07:29can do that and this is something I
- 00:07:31learned from my myths
- 00:07:33what am I am I the the bulb that carries
- 00:07:37the light or am I the light of which the
- 00:07:39bulb is a vehicle and this body is a
- 00:07:42vehicle of consciousness and if you can
- 00:07:44identify with the consciousness you can
- 00:07:46watch this thing go like an old car
- 00:07:49there goes the fender there goes this
- 00:07:52but that's expectable you know and then
- 00:07:55gradually the whole thing drops off and
- 00:07:59consciousness rejoins consciousness I
- 00:08:01mean that's it's no longer in this
- 00:08:03particular environment and the myths the
- 00:08:06stories have have brought this
- 00:08:08consciousness well I love with these
- 00:08:11myths and they tell me to do this all
- 00:08:13the time and this is the problem which
- 00:08:16can be then metaphorically understood as
- 00:08:19identifying with the Christ in you and
- 00:08:22the Christ in you doesn't die the Christ
- 00:08:25in you survives death and resurrects or
- 00:08:28it can be with Shiva
- 00:08:30she Ruffin I
- 00:08:31Seba and this is the great meditation of
- 00:08:34the of the the Yogi's in the Himalayas
- 00:08:37and one doesn't have even to have a
- 00:08:41metaphorical image like that if one has
- 00:08:45a mind that's willing to just relax and
- 00:08:49identify itself with that which moves it
- 00:08:52you say that the image of death is the
- 00:08:56beginning of mythology
- 00:08:58what do you mean how does that well all
- 00:09:01I can say to that is that the earliest
- 00:09:04evidence we have of anything like
- 00:09:06mythological thinking is associated with
- 00:09:10grave burials and they suggest what that
- 00:09:14men women saw life and then they didn't
- 00:09:17see it and they wondered about it it
- 00:09:20must have been I mean one has only to
- 00:09:23you know imagine what one's own
- 00:09:25experience would be the person was alive
- 00:09:28and warmed before you and talking to you
- 00:09:32he's now lying there getting cold
- 00:09:35beginning to rot something was there
- 00:09:39that isn't there and where is it now
- 00:09:43animals have this experience certainly
- 00:09:46of their companions dying and so forth
- 00:09:49but there's no evidence that they've had
- 00:09:52any further thoughts about it also
- 00:09:55before the time of Neanderthal man it's
- 00:09:58in his period that the first barriers
- 00:10:00appeared that of which we have evidence
- 00:10:02the people were dying and they're just
- 00:10:04thrown away but here there's a concern
- 00:10:11have you ever visited any of these
- 00:10:13burial sites I've been to the Moose ta
- 00:10:15that was one of the earliest burial
- 00:10:19caves that were found and you find there
- 00:10:21what they buried with the data yes these
- 00:10:25grave burials with grave gear that is to
- 00:10:30say weapons and sacrifices round about
- 00:10:34certainly suggest the idea of they
- 00:10:36continued life beyond the
- 00:10:38visible one first one there was
- 00:10:41discovered person was put down is
- 00:10:43resting so asleep a young boy with the
- 00:10:46beautiful hand acts beside him now at
- 00:10:49the same time we have evidence of
- 00:10:52shrines devoted to animals that have
- 00:10:56been killed the shrine specifically are
- 00:11:00in the Alps very high caves and they are
- 00:11:04of cave bear skulls and there is one
- 00:11:08very interesting one with the long bones
- 00:11:11of the cave bear in the cave s ja what
- 00:11:16does it say to me burials my friend has
- 00:11:19died and he survives the animals that
- 00:11:22I've killed must also survive I must
- 00:11:25make some kind of atonement relationship
- 00:11:28to them the indication is of the notion
- 00:11:32of a plane of being that's behind the
- 00:11:35visible plane and which is somehow
- 00:11:37supportive of the visible one to which
- 00:11:40we have to relate I would say that's the
- 00:11:42basic theme of all mythology that there
- 00:11:45is a world that there is a visible plant
- 00:11:47an invisible plane supporting the
- 00:11:50visible one and whether it is thought of
- 00:11:52as a world or simply as the energy that
- 00:11:57differs from time and time and place to
- 00:11:59place what we don't know supports what
- 00:12:02we do know that's right
- 00:12:17the basic hunting myth I would say is of
- 00:12:22a kind of covenant between the animal
- 00:12:24world and the human world where the
- 00:12:28animal gives its life willingly they are
- 00:12:36regarded generally as willing victims
- 00:12:38with the understanding that their life
- 00:12:40which transcends their physical entity
- 00:12:44there will be returned to the soil or to
- 00:12:47the mother through some ritual of
- 00:12:51restoration and visible rituals for
- 00:12:55instance and the principle divinities
- 00:12:57are associated with the main hunting
- 00:12:59animal the animal who is the master
- 00:13:03animal and sends that flux to be killed
- 00:13:06you know the Indians of the American
- 00:13:10Plains was the Buffalo you go to the
- 00:13:12north west coast
- 00:13:13it's the salmon the great festivals have
- 00:13:17to do with the run of salmon coming in
- 00:13:19when you go to South Africa the eland
- 00:13:22the big magnificent antelope is the
- 00:13:25principal animal to the Bushman for
- 00:13:26example and the principal animal is the
- 00:13:31food so there there grew up between
- 00:13:34human beings and animals a bonding as
- 00:13:38you say which required one to be
- 00:13:40consumed by the other that's the way
- 00:13:42life is do you think this troubled early
- 00:13:47that's why you have the rights because
- 00:13:50it did trouble what kind of rights
- 00:13:52rituals of appeasement to the animals of
- 00:13:55thanks to the animal very interesting
- 00:14:03aspect here is the identity of the
- 00:14:05hunter with the animal you mean after
- 00:14:07the animal has been killed the hunter
- 00:14:10then has to fulfill certain rights in
- 00:14:14the kind of party Sebastiaan mystique a
- 00:14:16mystic participation with the animals
- 00:14:18death he has brought about and whose
- 00:14:20meat is to become his life
- 00:14:22so the tilling is not simply slaughtered
- 00:14:25any right it's a ritual act it's a
- 00:14:29recognition of your dependency and of
- 00:14:31the voluntary giving of this food to you
- 00:14:35by the animal commence giving it it's a
- 00:14:38beautiful thing it trans life into it
- 00:14:41and mythological experience the hut
- 00:14:44becomes what it becomes a ritual the
- 00:14:49hunt is ritual expressing a hope of
- 00:14:51Resurrection that the animal was food
- 00:14:53and you needed the animal to return and
- 00:14:55some kind of respect for the animal that
- 00:14:57was killed that's the thing that gets me
- 00:14:59all the time in this hunting ceremonial
- 00:15:04system respect the respect for the
- 00:15:06animal and more than respect I mean that
- 00:15:08animal becomes a messenger of divine
- 00:15:11power you see and you wind up as the
- 00:15:14hunter killing the messenger me but God
- 00:15:16what does this do could does it does it
- 00:15:18cause guilt does it cause guiltless
- 00:15:21waters wiped out by the myth it is
- 00:15:25there's not a personal act you are
- 00:15:27performing the work of nature for
- 00:15:32example in Japan and Hokkaido dogs in
- 00:15:35Japan among the the Ainu people whose
- 00:15:38principal mountain deity is the bear
- 00:15:43when it is killed there was a ceremony
- 00:15:45of feeding the bear a feast of its own
- 00:15:48flesh as though he were present and he
- 00:15:53is present he served his own meat for
- 00:15:57dinner and there's a conversation
- 00:15:59between the mountain god the bear and
- 00:16:01the people they say if you will give us
- 00:16:05the privilege of entertaining you again
- 00:16:08we'll give you the privilege of another
- 00:16:11bear sacrifice
- 00:16:15if the cave bear were not appeased the
- 00:16:18animals wouldn't appear and these
- 00:16:21primitive hunters would starve to death
- 00:16:22so they began to perceive some kind of
- 00:16:25power in which they were dependent
- 00:16:27greater than their own and that's the
- 00:16:29power of the animal master now when we
- 00:16:32sit down to meal we thank God you know
- 00:16:37our idea of God for having given us this
- 00:16:41these people thanked the animal and is
- 00:16:44this the first evidence we have of an
- 00:16:47act of worship yes of the power superior
- 00:16:49demand yeah and and the animal was
- 00:16:52superior because the animal provided
- 00:16:53food well now in contrast to our
- 00:16:56relationship to animals so we see
- 00:16:58animals as a lower form of life and then
- 00:17:00the Bible we're told you know where the
- 00:17:02Masters and so forth are only hunting
- 00:17:05people don't have that relationship to
- 00:17:06the animal the animal is in many ways
- 00:17:08superior he has powers that the human
- 00:17:13being doesn't have and then certain
- 00:17:15animals take on a persona don't they the
- 00:17:17Buffalo the Raven all the eagle very
- 00:17:20strongly well I was up in the northwest
- 00:17:23coast back in 1932 there were wonderful
- 00:17:26trip and the Indians said along the way
- 00:17:30we're still having totem poles the
- 00:17:32villagers had new totem poles still and
- 00:17:36there we saw the Ravens and we saw the
- 00:17:39Eagles and we saw the animals that
- 00:17:41played roles in the myths and they had
- 00:17:44the character the quality of these
- 00:17:46animals there's a very intimate
- 00:17:48knowledge and and friendly neighborly
- 00:17:52relationship to these creatures and then
- 00:17:54they killed some of them you see
- 00:18:00the animal had something to do with the
- 00:18:03shaping of the myths of those people
- 00:18:05just as the Buffalo for the Indians of
- 00:18:07the plains pregnant enormous role
- 00:18:11they're the ones that bring the tobacco
- 00:18:14of gift the mystical pipe and all this
- 00:18:17kind of thing it comes from a bottle and
- 00:18:21when the animal becomes the giver of
- 00:18:24ritual and so forth
- 00:18:25they do ask the animal for advice and
- 00:18:28the animal becomes the model for how to
- 00:18:29live you remember the story of the
- 00:18:32buffalos wife that's a basic legend of
- 00:18:36the of the Blackfoot tribe and is the
- 00:18:39origin legend of their Buffalo dance
- 00:18:42rituals which had by which they invoked
- 00:18:46the cooperation of the animals in this
- 00:18:50play of life wouldn't you realize the
- 00:18:55size of some of these tribal groups to
- 00:18:57feed them require a good deal of meat
- 00:19:00and one way of acquiring meat for the
- 00:19:04winter would be to drive a buffalo herd
- 00:19:07to Stampede it over a rocks cliff
- 00:19:12well this story is of a Blackfoot tribe
- 00:19:15long long ago and they couldn't get the
- 00:19:20Buffalo to go over the cliff the Buffalo
- 00:19:23would approach the cliff and then turn
- 00:19:25the side so it looked as though they
- 00:19:26weren't going to have any meat for that
- 00:19:28winter well the daughter of one of the
- 00:19:32houses getting up early in the morning
- 00:19:34to draw the water for the family and so
- 00:19:36forth looks up and they're right above
- 00:19:39the cliff where the Buffalo and she said
- 00:19:43oh if you only come over I'd marry one
- 00:19:46of you and to her surprise they all
- 00:19:49began coming over that was surprise
- 00:19:52number one surprise number two was when
- 00:19:55one of the old Buffalo was the shaman of
- 00:19:57the herd comes and says all right girlie
- 00:20:00off we go oh no she says oh yes he said
- 00:20:04you've made your promise we've kept our
- 00:20:06side of the bargain
- 00:20:07look at all my relatives here dead off
- 00:20:10we go well the family gets up in the
- 00:20:13morning and in the parameter where's
- 00:20:14Minnie ha ha you know but the father you
- 00:20:17know how Indians are he looked around he
- 00:20:19said she's run off with a buffalo he
- 00:20:22could see about the footsteps so he says
- 00:20:25I'm gonna get her back so boots on is
- 00:20:29walking market moccasins over an hour
- 00:20:31and so forth and goes out over the
- 00:20:33plains he's gone quite a distance when
- 00:20:36he he feels
- 00:20:39he'd better sit down a rest and he comes
- 00:20:41to a place that's called a Buffalo
- 00:20:42wallow where the Buffalo like to come
- 00:20:44and roll around and get the lice off and
- 00:20:46roll around in the mud so he sits down
- 00:20:49there and is thinking what he should do
- 00:20:52now when along comes a magpie that's a
- 00:20:54beautiful flashing bird and it's one of
- 00:20:57those clever birds that has shamanic
- 00:20:59qualities magical magical and the man
- 00:21:03says to him Oh beautiful Bird said my
- 00:21:06daughter ran away with a buffalo have
- 00:21:09you seen when you hunt around see if you
- 00:21:12can find her out on the plane somewhere
- 00:21:13and the magpie says well there's a
- 00:21:16lovely girl with the Buffaloes right now
- 00:21:18over there just a bit away well they
- 00:21:21said the man would you go tell her there
- 00:21:23daddy's here her father's here at the
- 00:21:25Buffalo wallow magpie flies over and the
- 00:21:30girl is there among the Buffalo they
- 00:21:32were all asleep I don't know what she's
- 00:21:35doing
- 00:21:36living or something's kind and the
- 00:21:38magpie comes over roaster and he says
- 00:21:41your father's over at a Wawa
- 00:21:43waiting for you oh this is terrible this
- 00:21:47is dangerous I mean these Buffalo would
- 00:21:49kill us you tell him to wait I'll be
- 00:21:51over I'll try to break this out
- 00:21:53so her Buffalo husbands behind her and
- 00:21:56he wakes up and takes off a horn he says
- 00:22:00go to the wallow and get me a drink
- 00:22:02so she takes the horn and goes over and
- 00:22:06there's her father he graduate by the
- 00:22:07army says come see no no no this is real
- 00:22:10danger the whole herd then we right
- 00:22:11after his I have to wait this thing on
- 00:22:13now let me just go back so she gets the
- 00:22:16water and goes back and he see fie fo
- 00:22:19fum I smell the blood of an Indian you
- 00:22:21know that sort of thing and she says no
- 00:22:23nothing of the kind he says yes indeed
- 00:22:26so he gives a buffalo bellow and they
- 00:22:29all get up they all do a slow buffalo
- 00:22:32dance with their tails race and they go
- 00:22:34over they trample that poor man to death
- 00:22:37so that he disappears entirely he's just
- 00:22:40all broken up to pieces in Hong Kong
- 00:22:42that girls crying and her Buffalo
- 00:22:47husband says so you're crying this is my
- 00:22:51daddy you said yeah but what about us
- 00:22:54they're our children wives our parents
- 00:22:58and you crying about your daddy well
- 00:23:04apparently he was a kind of sympathetic
- 00:23:06compassionate buffalo and he said well
- 00:23:09I'll tell you if you can bring your
- 00:23:10daddy back to life again
- 00:23:12I'll let you go
- 00:23:14so she turns to the magpie and says see
- 00:23:18Peck around a little bit to see if you
- 00:23:20can find a bit of daddy and the night
- 00:23:22guy does so and he comes up finally with
- 00:23:25a vertebra just one little bone and
- 00:23:28it'll go says that that's plenty now
- 00:23:31that we put this down on the ground and
- 00:23:33she puts her blanket over it and she
- 00:23:35sings a revivifying song a magical song
- 00:23:38with great power and presently yes
- 00:23:41there's a man under the blanket she
- 00:23:43looks daddy all right but he's not
- 00:23:45breathing yet a few more stanzas of
- 00:23:49whatever the song was and he stands up
- 00:23:52and the Buffalo are amazed they say well
- 00:23:55why don't you do this for us we'll teach
- 00:24:00you now our Buffalo dance and when you
- 00:24:03will have killed our families you do
- 00:24:06this dance and sing this song and we'll
- 00:24:09all be back life again that's the basic
- 00:24:12idea that through the ritual that
- 00:24:16dimension is struck which transcends
- 00:24:19temporality and out of which life comes
- 00:24:21and back into which it goes and it goes
- 00:24:23back to this whole idea of death burial
- 00:24:26and resurrection not only for human
- 00:24:28beings so they're animals too so the
- 00:24:31story of the Buffalo is why that was
- 00:24:33told to confirm the reverence I think
- 00:24:36what happened when the white man came
- 00:24:39and slaughtered this animal of reverence
- 00:24:41that was a sacramental violation I mean
- 00:24:45they in the 80s when the buffalo hunt
- 00:24:48was undertaken and so forth when I was a
- 00:24:54boy whenever we were in for sleigh rides
- 00:24:56we had Buffalo Road buffalo buffalo
- 00:24:59buffalo robes all over the place this
- 00:25:03was a sacred animal Dominion
- 00:25:06these others go out with repeating
- 00:25:10rifles and shoot down the whole hood and
- 00:25:14leave it there but take the skin to sell
- 00:25:16and the bodies left to rot this is a
- 00:25:20sacrilege and it really is a sacrilege
- 00:25:23it turned me it turned the Buffalo from
- 00:25:26a vow to a nip the Indians addressed the
- 00:25:32Buffalo is now an object of reverence
- 00:25:34the Indians addressed life as it now
- 00:25:36I mean trees stones everything else you
- 00:25:40can address anything is that thou and
- 00:25:42you can feel the change in your
- 00:25:43psychology as you do it the ego that
- 00:25:49sees thou is not the same ego that sees
- 00:25:53and it your whole psychology changes
- 00:25:57when you address things isn't it well
- 00:26:01it's when you go to war with the people
- 00:26:03the problem of the newspapers is to turn
- 00:26:06those people into its so that they're
- 00:26:09not douse that was an incredible moment
- 00:26:12in in the evolution of American society
- 00:26:14when the Buffalo was slaughtered that
- 00:26:16was the final exclamation for it behind
- 00:26:18the destruction of the Indian
- 00:26:19civilization because you were destroying
- 00:26:21can you imagine what this experience
- 00:26:24must have been for our people within ten
- 00:26:27years to lose their environment to lose
- 00:26:32their food supply to lose the object of
- 00:26:36the central object of their ritual life
- 00:26:40so it is in your belief that that it was
- 00:26:46in this period of hunting man and woman
- 00:26:48the time of hunting man that the human
- 00:26:52beings began to sense a stirring of the
- 00:26:55mythic imagination the wonder of things
- 00:26:58that they didn't know there is this
- 00:27:00burst of magnificent art and all the
- 00:27:05evidence you need of a mythic
- 00:27:08imagination in full career
- 00:27:11you visited some of the great painted
- 00:27:14caves oh yeah tell me what you remember
- 00:27:16when first you looked upon those well
- 00:27:19you didn't want to leave here you come
- 00:27:22into an enormous chamber like a great
- 00:27:28Cathedral with these animals painted and
- 00:27:32they're painted with the life's light
- 00:27:34the life of a ink on silk in the
- 00:27:37Japanese painting and when you realize
- 00:27:41the darkness is inconceivable we're
- 00:27:45there with electric lights but in a
- 00:27:47couple of instances the concierge the
- 00:27:49man who was showing us through turned
- 00:27:51off the lights and you were never in
- 00:27:53darker darkness in your life it's like a
- 00:27:55I don't know just a complete knockout of
- 00:27:58you don't know where you are whether
- 00:28:01you're looking north south east or west
- 00:28:03all orientation is gone and you're in a
- 00:28:06darkness that never saw the Sun then
- 00:28:08they turn the lights on again you see
- 00:28:10these gloriously painted animals a bull
- 00:28:13that will be twenty feet long and
- 00:28:17painted so that their haunches
- 00:28:21will be represented by a swelling in the
- 00:28:24rock you know they take account of the
- 00:28:26whole thing it's incredible do you ever
- 00:28:29look at these primitive art objects and
- 00:28:32think not of the art but of the man or
- 00:28:35woman standing there painting or
- 00:28:37creating I find that's where I speculate
- 00:28:40oh this is what hits you when you go
- 00:28:42into those caves I can tell you that
- 00:28:45what was in their mind when they were
- 00:28:47doing that and that's not an easy thing
- 00:28:49to do and how did they get up there and
- 00:28:51how did they see anything and what kind
- 00:28:53of light that they have little flashing
- 00:28:56torches throwing flickering things and
- 00:28:58then to get something of that grace and
- 00:29:00perfection and with respect to the
- 00:29:02permanent beauty is this beauty intended
- 00:29:05or is it something that is the natural
- 00:29:07expression of a beautiful spirit you
- 00:29:11know what I mean when you hear a bird
- 00:29:13sing the beauty of the bird song is this
- 00:29:16intentional in what sense is it
- 00:29:18intentional
- 00:29:19but it's the expression of the bird the
- 00:29:21beauty of the bird spirit you might
- 00:29:23almost say and I think that way very
- 00:29:26often about this odd to what degree was
- 00:29:30the intention of the artist what we
- 00:29:32would call aesthetic or in what to what
- 00:29:34degree expressive you know and to what
- 00:29:37degree something that they simply had
- 00:29:40learned to do that way it's it's a data
- 00:29:44point when a spider makes a beautiful
- 00:29:46web the beauty comes out of the spiders
- 00:29:49nature you know it's instinctive beauty
- 00:29:52and how much of the beauty of our own
- 00:29:54lives is of our the beauty of being
- 00:29:56alive and how much of us is conscious
- 00:30:00intentional that's big question you call
- 00:30:04them temple cave why why tipple the
- 00:30:07temple with images and stained glass
- 00:30:10windows cathedrals a landscape of the
- 00:30:17soul you move into a world of spiritual
- 00:30:20images that's what this is when Jean and
- 00:30:24I my wife and I drove down from Paris to
- 00:30:28this part of France we stopped off at
- 00:30:31Chartres Cathedral there is a Cathedral
- 00:30:35when you walk into the Cathedral it's
- 00:30:37the mother womb of your spiritual life
- 00:30:41mother church all the forms around are
- 00:30:46significant of spiritual values and the
- 00:30:51imagery is in anthropomorphic form God
- 00:30:55and Jesus and the Saints and all in
- 00:30:58human form human form then we went down
- 00:31:01the last go the images were in animal
- 00:31:04form the form is secondary
- 00:31:07the message is what's important as a
- 00:31:09message of the cave the message of the
- 00:31:11cave is of a relationship of time to
- 00:31:17eternal powers that is somehow to be
- 00:31:22experienced in that place
- 00:31:24now I've tell you when you're down in
- 00:31:26those caves it's a it's a strange
- 00:31:29transformation of consciousness you have
- 00:31:31you feel this is the the room this is
- 00:31:36the place from which life comes and that
- 00:31:39world up there in the Sun with all those
- 00:31:41that's a secondary world this is primary
- 00:31:44I mean this just overcomes you you had
- 00:31:46that feeling like I had it every time
- 00:31:48now what would these caves used for the
- 00:31:52speculations that are most common of
- 00:31:56scholars interested in this is that they
- 00:31:58had to do with the initiation of boys
- 00:32:00into the hunt you go in there it's
- 00:32:04dangerous it's very dangerous it's
- 00:32:07completely dark it's cold and dank
- 00:32:10you're banging your head on projections
- 00:32:13all the time and it was a place of fear
- 00:32:15and the boys were to overcome all that
- 00:32:18and go into the womb of the earth and
- 00:32:22the shimano whoever it was that would be
- 00:32:25helping you through would not be making
- 00:32:28it easy and then there was a release
- 00:32:30once you got into that vast torch-lit
- 00:32:32chamber down there what was the tribe
- 00:32:35what was the tradition trying to say to
- 00:32:37the boy that is the womb land from which
- 00:32:40all the animals come and the rituals
- 00:32:43down there have to do with the
- 00:32:45generation of a situation that will be
- 00:32:48propitious for the hunt and the boys
- 00:32:51were to learn not only to hunt but how
- 00:32:54to respect the animals and what rituals
- 00:32:57to perform and how in their own lives no
- 00:33:01longer to be little boys but to be men
- 00:33:04because those hunts were very very
- 00:33:06dangerous hunts believe me
- 00:33:08and that these are the original men's
- 00:33:13right sanctuaries where the boys became
- 00:33:18no longer their mother's sons but their
- 00:33:20fathers sons but you wonder what effect
- 00:33:25this had on a or a boy well you can you
- 00:33:29can go through it today actually and in
- 00:33:31cultures that are still having the
- 00:33:34initiations of young boys they give them
- 00:33:36an ordeal a terrifying ordeal that the
- 00:33:39youngster has to survive makes a man who
- 00:33:42do you know what would happen to me as a
- 00:33:45child if I went through one of these
- 00:33:46rites
- 00:33:47that's four well we know what they do in
- 00:33:48Australia and when the boy gets to be
- 00:33:51you know a little bit on governor bull
- 00:33:57one fine day the men come in and then
- 00:34:01they get except for stripes of white
- 00:34:05down that have been stuck on their
- 00:34:08bodies and stripes with their men's
- 00:34:09blood they use their own blood for glues
- 00:34:11gluing this on and they're swinging the
- 00:34:14bull roars which are the voice of the
- 00:34:16spirits and they come as spirits the boy
- 00:34:20will try to take refuge with his mother
- 00:34:22she'll pretend to try to protect him the
- 00:34:26men just take him away mothers no good
- 00:34:28from their nan you see he's no longer a
- 00:34:31little boy he's in the men's group and
- 00:34:34then they put him really serving ordeal
- 00:34:37these are the rights you know a
- 00:34:39circumcision sub incision and the whole
- 00:34:42purpose is to turn him into a member of
- 00:34:45the tribe and a hunter and a hunter
- 00:34:48because that was the way of life yeah
- 00:34:50but most important is to live according
- 00:34:53to the needs and values of that tribe he
- 00:34:59is initiated in a short period of time
- 00:35:03into the whole culture context of his
- 00:35:06people
- 00:35:08[Music]
- 00:35:10so myth relates directly to ceremony and
- 00:35:14tribal ritual and the absence of myth
- 00:35:17can mean the end of ritual a ritual is
- 00:35:20the enactment of a myth by participating
- 00:35:23in a ritual you are participating in a
- 00:35:26myth what does it mean you think two
- 00:35:29young boys today that we've absent these
- 00:35:31myths
- 00:35:32well the confirmation ritual is the
- 00:35:35counterpart today of these rights as a
- 00:35:41little Catholic boy you choose your
- 00:35:44confirmed name the name you're gonna be
- 00:35:47confirmed by it and you go up but
- 00:35:50instead of having them scarify you knock
- 00:35:54your teeth out nor the the bishop gives
- 00:35:57you a mild slap on the cheek it's been
- 00:35:59reduced to that nothing's happened to
- 00:36:01you the the Jewish counterpart is the
- 00:36:04bar mitzvah and whether it works
- 00:36:08actually to effect the psychological
- 00:36:10transformation I suppose will depend on
- 00:36:12the individual case there's no problem
- 00:36:15in these old days the boy came out with
- 00:36:18a different body and he draws through
- 00:36:21something what about what about the
- 00:36:23female I mean it did most of the figures
- 00:36:25in the key in the temple caves or our
- 00:36:27male was there yeah was this a kind of
- 00:36:30secret society for males it wasn't a
- 00:36:32secret society wasn't the boys had to go
- 00:36:34through it now but the we don't know
- 00:36:37exactly what happens with the female and
- 00:36:40in this period because we have very
- 00:36:42little evidence to tell us in primary
- 00:36:45cultures today the girl becomes a woman
- 00:36:48with her first menstruation it happens
- 00:36:52to her I mean nature does it to her and
- 00:36:55so she has undergone the transformation
- 00:36:58and what is her initiation typically it
- 00:37:03is to sit in a little Hut for a certain
- 00:37:06number of days and realized what she is
- 00:37:10how does she do that she said that she's
- 00:37:14now a woman and what is a woman a woman
- 00:37:19is the vehicle of life and life has
- 00:37:22overtaken her as she is a vehicle now of
- 00:37:25life woman's what it's all about the the
- 00:37:29the the giving of birth and the giving
- 00:37:31of nourishment
- 00:37:32she's identical with the earth goddess
- 00:37:35and her powers and she's got to realize
- 00:37:37that about herself the boy does not have
- 00:37:40a happening of that time he has to be
- 00:37:44turned into a man and voluntarily become
- 00:37:47a servant of something greater than
- 00:37:49himself the woman becomes the vehicle of
- 00:37:53nature the man becomes a vehicle of the
- 00:37:55society and the social order and the
- 00:37:57social purpose so what happens when a
- 00:38:00society no longer embraces powerful
- 00:38:03mythology what we've got on our hands
- 00:38:08that I say if you want to find what it
- 00:38:11means not to have it to have a society
- 00:38:14without any rituals read the New York
- 00:38:16Times and you'd find well the news of
- 00:38:20the day young people young people who
- 00:38:24don't know how to behave in a civilized
- 00:38:26society after imagine 50% of the crime
- 00:38:31is by young people in their 20s and
- 00:38:33early 30s that just behave like
- 00:38:35barbarians Society has provided them no
- 00:38:38rituals and not which they become
- 00:38:40members there's been a reduction or
- 00:38:41reduction reduction of ritual we're even
- 00:38:44in the Roman Catholic Church my god
- 00:38:46they've translated the mass out of the
- 00:38:49ritual language into a language that has
- 00:38:51a lot of domestic associations so that I
- 00:38:55mean every time now that I read the
- 00:39:01Latin of and the mass I get that pitch
- 00:39:07again that it's supposed to give a
- 00:39:08language that throws you out of the
- 00:39:11field of your domesticity you know the
- 00:39:13altar was turned so that the priest is
- 00:39:15Bacchus to you and with him you address
- 00:39:17yourself outward like that now they've
- 00:39:19turned the altar around looks like
- 00:39:21junior child
- 00:39:22to the child giving a demonstration and
- 00:39:25under homey and cozy and they play
- 00:39:27guitar they play guitar listen they've
- 00:39:30gotten what what the function of a
- 00:39:32ritual is is to pitch you out not to rap
- 00:39:37you back in where you have been all the
- 00:39:39time so ritual that once conveyed an
- 00:39:43inner reality is now merely form and
- 00:39:47that's true in in in in the rituals of
- 00:39:50society there and the personal rituals
- 00:39:51of marriage and religion well with
- 00:39:54respect to ritual it must be kept alive
- 00:39:57and so much of our ritual is dead it's
- 00:40:02extremely interesting to read of the
- 00:40:05primitive elementary cultures how the
- 00:40:10folktales the myths they are
- 00:40:13transforming all the time in terms of
- 00:40:16the circumstances of those people people
- 00:40:19move from an area well let's say the
- 00:40:24vegetation is the main support out into
- 00:40:29the plains
- 00:40:29most of our Plains Indians in the period
- 00:40:33of the horse-riding Indians you know had
- 00:40:36originally been of the Mississippian
- 00:40:37culture along the Mississippi in settled
- 00:40:41dwelling towns and I culturally based
- 00:40:47villages and then they received a horse
- 00:40:50from the Spaniards and it makes it
- 00:40:52possible then to venture out and the
- 00:40:54plains and handle the great hunt of the
- 00:40:57the buffalo herds you see and the
- 00:41:00mythology transforms from vegetation to
- 00:41:03Buffalo and you can see the structure of
- 00:41:08the earlier vegetation mythologies
- 00:41:11under the mythologies of the the Dakota
- 00:41:14Indians and the Pawnee Indians and the
- 00:41:17Kiowa and so forth
- 00:41:19you're saying that the environment
- 00:41:20shapes the story they respond to it
- 00:41:23do you see but we have a tradition that
- 00:41:27comes from the 1st millennium BC
- 00:41:30somewhere else and we are handling that
- 00:41:32it has not turned over and
- 00:41:34assimilated the qualities of our culture
- 00:41:38and the new things that are possible and
- 00:41:40the new vision of the universe it must
- 00:41:42be kept alive the only people that can
- 00:41:45keep it alive are artists of our day
- 00:41:47time to another that the artist is his
- 00:41:50function is the mythologize ation of the
- 00:41:54environment and the world artist being
- 00:41:56the poet the musician author exactly
- 00:41:59writer yes I think we've had a couple of
- 00:42:03greats in the recent times I think of
- 00:42:06James Joyce's as such a revealer of the
- 00:42:11mysteries of growing up and becoming a
- 00:42:13human being and for me he and Thomas
- 00:42:18Mann were my my principal gurus who
- 00:42:21might say as I was trying to shape my
- 00:42:23own life I think in the visual arts
- 00:42:26there were two men whose work seemed to
- 00:42:29me to handle mythological themes in a
- 00:42:31marvelous way and one was Paul clay and
- 00:42:33the other Picasso these two men really
- 00:42:37knew what they were doing all the way I
- 00:42:38think and had a great versatility in
- 00:42:41their revelations you know artists are
- 00:42:45the mythmakers of our day the myths
- 00:42:49makers in earlier days over the counter
- 00:42:51parts of our artists they do the
- 00:42:53paintings on the walls to form the
- 00:42:55rituals there's an old romantic idea in
- 00:42:59German does folk dish that I'd say that
- 00:43:02the poetry of the traditional cultures
- 00:43:06and the ideas come out of the folk they
- 00:43:08do not they come out of an elite
- 00:43:10experience the experience of people
- 00:43:13particularly gifted whose is open to the
- 00:43:16song of the universe and that they speak
- 00:43:19to the folk and there is their answer
- 00:43:22from the folk which is then received
- 00:43:23there's an interaction but the first
- 00:43:25impulse comes from above not from below
- 00:43:28in the shaping of folk traditions so who
- 00:43:31would have been in these early
- 00:43:33elementary cultures as you call them the
- 00:43:35equivalent of the poet's today the
- 00:43:37shamans the shaman is the person who has
- 00:43:40been his late childhood early
- 00:43:43you could be male or female had a
- 00:43:47overwhelming psychological experience
- 00:43:49that turns them totally inward the whole
- 00:43:54unconscious has opened up and they've
- 00:43:56fallen into it and it's been described
- 00:43:59many many times and it occurs all the
- 00:44:01way from Siberia right through the
- 00:44:05Americas down to Tierra del Fuego it's a
- 00:44:08kind of schizophrenic crack-up the
- 00:44:09shaman experience what kind of
- 00:44:11experience dying and resurrecting you
- 00:44:15know being on the brink of death and
- 00:44:18coming back and actually experience the
- 00:44:19death experience people who have very
- 00:44:22deep dreams dream is a great source of
- 00:44:25the spirit and then people who in the
- 00:44:29woods have had mystical encounters let
- 00:44:32me let me try to be specific about it
- 00:44:34the shaman becomes some person in in a
- 00:44:37society who is drawn by experience from
- 00:44:40the normal world into the world of the
- 00:44:42gifted that's right
- 00:44:44most of us think of shaman as a magician
- 00:44:46but they play a much more important role
- 00:44:48than simply being up oh no they play the
- 00:44:50role that the priesthood plays in are
- 00:44:52these are the priests the world that
- 00:44:55does a major difference as I see it
- 00:44:57between a shaman and a priest a priest
- 00:45:00is a functionary of a social sort the
- 00:45:05society worships certain deities in a
- 00:45:09certain way and the priest becomes
- 00:45:10ordained as a functionary to carry on
- 00:45:13that ritual and the deity that to whom
- 00:45:17he is devoted there's a deity that was
- 00:45:19there before he came along the shamans
- 00:45:22powers are symbolized in familiars
- 00:45:26deities of his own personal experience
- 00:45:28and his authority comes out of a
- 00:45:32psychological experience not a social
- 00:45:35ordination do you understand what I mean
- 00:45:37and the one who had this psychological
- 00:45:39experience this traumatic experience
- 00:45:41this ecstasy would become the
- 00:45:44interpreter for others of things not
- 00:45:46seen
- 00:45:46he would become the interpreters of a
- 00:45:48heritage of mythological
- 00:45:51life you might say yes and ecstasy was a
- 00:45:54part of it very often there's no money
- 00:45:56it is the trance dance for example in
- 00:45:59the in in the Bushmen society now this
- 00:46:02there's a fantastic example of something
- 00:46:06the little Bushmen groups the whole life
- 00:46:10is one of great great tension the male
- 00:46:13and female sexes are gonna be saying in
- 00:46:17a disciplined way separate the the men
- 00:46:20have a certain field of concerns their
- 00:46:22weapons and the poisons of the hunt and
- 00:46:24all that and the women have a certain
- 00:46:26field of concern the bringing up the
- 00:46:28children the nourishing of the children
- 00:46:29so forth and so on
- 00:46:31only in the dance did the two come
- 00:46:33together and they come together this way
- 00:46:36the witness sit in a circle or a little
- 00:46:39group and they then become the center
- 00:46:42around which the men danced and they
- 00:46:44controlled the dance and what goes on
- 00:46:46with the men through their own singing
- 00:46:48and beating of the thighs what's the
- 00:46:51significance of that that the woman is
- 00:46:53controlling the dead well the woman is
- 00:46:55life and the man is the servant of life
- 00:46:57and and during the course of this
- 00:47:01certainly circling it's a very tense
- 00:47:03style of movement the men have as
- 00:47:05assembly that one of the mill pass out
- 00:47:09he's in trance now and this is a
- 00:47:12description of an experience
- 00:47:16when people sing I dance I enter the
- 00:47:21earth I go in at a place like a place
- 00:47:23where people drink water I travel a long
- 00:47:26way very far when I emerge I'm already
- 00:47:29climbing I'm climbing threads I climb
- 00:47:32one and leave it then I climb another
- 00:47:35one then I leave it and I climb another
- 00:47:38when you arrive at God's place you make
- 00:47:42yourself small you come in small to
- 00:47:45God's place you do what you have to do
- 00:47:48there then you return to where everyone
- 00:47:50is you come and tongue and tongue and
- 00:47:53finally you enter your body again all
- 00:47:55the people who have stayed behind are
- 00:47:57waiting for you they fear you you enter
- 00:48:00into the earth and you return to enter
- 00:48:03the skin of your body and you say that
- 00:48:07is the sound of your return to your body
- 00:48:09then you begin to sing the tune masters
- 00:48:15are there around they take hold of your
- 00:48:17head and blow about the sides of your
- 00:48:19face this is how you manage to be alive
- 00:48:21again friends if they don't do that to
- 00:48:25you you die you just die on our dead
- 00:48:28friends this is what it does this and
- 00:48:30poom that I do listen to them hear that
- 00:48:33I dance
- 00:48:35[Music]
- 00:48:41this is an actual experience of transit
- 00:48:44from the earth to through the realm of
- 00:48:46mythological images to to God or to the
- 00:48:51seat of the of power it becomes
- 00:48:55something of the other mind of us it is
- 00:48:57exactly the other mind and and the way
- 00:49:00God is imaged God is transcendent of
- 00:49:03finally of anything like a name of God
- 00:49:06as the Hindus say beyond names and forms
- 00:49:10beyond a Maru pond beyond names and
- 00:49:12forms no tongue has soiled it no word
- 00:49:17has reached it but Joe can can
- 00:49:20Westerners grasp this kind of mystical
- 00:49:23trance theological experience it does
- 00:49:26transcend theology at least theology
- 00:49:28behind I mean if you're locked to the
- 00:49:30image of God in a culture where a
- 00:49:32science determines your perceptions of
- 00:49:35reality how can you experience this
- 00:49:37ultimate ground that the shamans talk
- 00:49:40about the best example I know in our
- 00:49:45literature is that beautiful book by
- 00:49:47John Neihart called Black Elk speaks
- 00:49:49Black Elk was lack out was a young soo
- 00:49:54or decoders are also called
- 00:49:56boy around nine years old before the
- 00:50:02American cavalry had encountered the
- 00:50:04Sioux they were the great people of the
- 00:50:06plains and this boy became sick his
- 00:50:11psychologically sick his family I'm
- 00:50:15telling the typical shaman story the
- 00:50:19child begins to tremble and is
- 00:50:22immobilized and the family is terribly
- 00:50:25concerned about it and they send for a
- 00:50:28shaman who had had the expression his
- 00:50:30own you to come as a psychoanalyst you
- 00:50:33might say and pull the youngster out of
- 00:50:35but instead of relieving him of the
- 00:50:39deities he is adapting him to the
- 00:50:43deities and the deities to himself you
- 00:50:45might say this it's a different problem
- 00:50:48from that of psychoanalysis
- 00:50:50well you remember I think this Nietzsche
- 00:50:54who said be careful less than casting
- 00:50:56out your devil you cast out the best
- 00:50:58thing that's in you here the deities who
- 00:51:02have been encountered the powers let's
- 00:51:04call them are retained the connection is
- 00:51:09retained it's not broken and and these
- 00:51:13men then become the spiritual advisors
- 00:51:16and gift givers of their people well
- 00:51:18what happened with this young boy he was
- 00:51:21about nine years old was he had a vision
- 00:51:24and the vision is described and it's a
- 00:51:26vision prophetic of the terrible future
- 00:51:29that his tribe was to have but it also
- 00:51:32spoke of the possible positive aspects
- 00:51:35of it it was a vision of what he called
- 00:51:38the hoop of his nation realizing that it
- 00:51:41was one of many hoops which is something
- 00:51:45that we have it all learned well enough
- 00:51:47yet and the cooperation of all the hoops
- 00:51:50of all the nations and grand processions
- 00:51:53and so forth but more than that it was a
- 00:51:55experience of himself as going through
- 00:51:59the realms of spiritual imagery that
- 00:52:03were of his culture and assimilating
- 00:52:06their import and it comes to one great
- 00:52:09statement which for me is a key
- 00:52:11statement to the understanding of myth
- 00:52:13and symbols he says I saw myself on the
- 00:52:17central mountain of the world the
- 00:52:20highest place and I had a vision because
- 00:52:24I was seeing in a sacred manner of the
- 00:52:27world and the sacred central mountain
- 00:52:33was Harney Peak in South Dakota and then
- 00:52:38he says but the central mountain is
- 00:52:40everywhere that is a real mythological
- 00:52:44realization why
- 00:52:47it distinguishes between the local cult
- 00:52:51image
- 00:52:52Hani peak and it's connotation the
- 00:52:58center of the world the center of that
- 00:53:01of the world is the hub of the universe
- 00:53:03Axis Mundi you know the central part
- 00:53:06pole star around which all revolves the
- 00:53:09central point of the world is the point
- 00:53:12where stillness and movement are
- 00:53:14together movement is time stillness is
- 00:53:17eternity realizing the relationship of
- 00:53:20the temporal moment to the eternal that
- 00:53:24moment but forever is the sense of life
- 00:53:28realizing how there was this moment in
- 00:53:31your life is actually a moment of
- 00:53:34eternity and the experience of the
- 00:53:36eternal aspect of what you're doing in
- 00:53:39the temporal experience is the
- 00:53:43mythological experience and he had it so
- 00:53:46that is the central mountain of the
- 00:53:48world Jerusalem Rome Banaras Lhasa
- 00:53:53Mexico City you know Mexico City
- 00:53:58Jerusalem is symbolic of a spiritual
- 00:54:01principle as the center of the world
- 00:54:04so this little Indian was saying there
- 00:54:10is a shining point where all lines
- 00:54:12intersect that's exactly what he said he
- 00:54:15was saying God has no circumference God
- 00:54:19is an intelligible sphere than say a
- 00:54:23sphere known to the mind
- 00:54:25not to the senses whose centre is
- 00:54:29everywhere and circumference nowhere and
- 00:54:32the center bill is right where you're
- 00:54:35sitting and the other one is right where
- 00:54:38I'm sitting and each of us is a
- 00:54:41manifestation of that mystery
- 00:54:49[Music]
- 00:56:32this program was made possible by a
- 00:56:34grant from the Corporation for Public
- 00:56:36Broadcasting and by this station and
- 00:56:39other public television stations
- 00:56:42additional funding was provided by the
- 00:56:44John D and Catherine T MacArthur
- 00:56:46Foundation
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