Every Bard Mythologies Event or Program always begins with a Mythic Story. It is told in the time honoured oral tradition by one of the Bard team or indeed a guest Bard. In doing so we are honouring the practice of Oral Myth Telling as a way in which a culture’s wisdom and traditions can be passed on from generation to generation. In doing so we are remembering that Ireland came to writing some thousand years later than the rest of Europe. And in doing so we are reminded by the insights of anthropologists that an oral story is invariably heard in terms of what it means to today.
Myth telling then is less a history lesson and more an excellent way in which a society can be reflective, individually and collectively reflective. Why this is such an important activity is embodied in an insight of that great scholar of media and modernity, Marshall McLuhan – “the one thing about which the fish knows nothing, is water”. And so it is that we become so embedded in a culture (the water) that we are unaware. Until, that is, we hear our cultures myths. What this does, so powerfully, is to give us a familiar yet different imaginary world from which we can reflect on our own.
Given that a culture’s myth stories are a capturing in a narrative form of the deepest longings, wishes and hopes of the people along with their deepest fears, antipathies, and shame this encounter is important, really important. Rather than being lived by a mythology which is what happens when these myths are latent and unconscious this holds out the possibility of an individual/culture choosing the myths (and associated archetypes) that they live by.
The blogs and articles offered here are largely a collection of the reflections, insights, analysis of the participants in the Bard Mythologies events. They are captured by the Bard team at the events. These are often discussions in small break out groups or comments shared in the larger group. The blog posts should subsequently give an opportunity for participants and others who have heard the mythic telling to share their own reflections etc. by posting in the comments section of the Blog.
Other blogs, posts and articles may be about one of the Guest Talks from our Bard friends who we have asked to share their work. We will share their retellings be it through art, poetry, story or inputs on ‘thinkers’ whose work seems in tune with the core values, principles, or ‘geasa’ of the world of stories.
