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"Myths derive from the visions of people searching their own
most inward world.
Out of myths cultures are founded."
Joseph Campbell,
Thou Art That: Transforming
Religious Metaphor
I read Gilgamesh, contemporary with the oldest parts of the Hebrew
bible, and The Journey to the East by Hermann Hesse. Reading
both along with Joseph Campbell's Thou Art That, a collection of
essays and lectures on myths, provided me to appreciate more on the inner
journey.
In Gilgamesh there
were three birds freed after the Great Flood. First, a dove. A dove returned
because it could not find a place to land. A swallow was freed after a dove
returned, it also returned after a while. Finally, a raven was freed. It never
returned. That was the sign that there was a dry land somewhere on earth. That
was when all the birds in the ark was freed, scattering to the wind. A raven
was the bird that found a dry land.
Three quotes
from The Journey to the East:
"[One]
who travels far will often see things
Far
removed from what [one] believed was Truth."
"The
whole of world history often seems to me nothing more than a picture book which
portrays humanity's most powerful and senseless desire – the desire to
forget."
"Next
to the hunger to experience a thing, [people] have perhaps no stronger hunger
than to forget."
It's good to
consciously take time to reflect. What a gift I have received.
Journey of a
soul, my inner being, carried partly through my physical body, is something I
am pondering in my sabbatical.
I have been
reading and organizing for my upcoming trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. How much
do I want to experience while I am there? This is a difficult question. There
are so many events I could be part of while I am there. Balancing, finding
harmony, between reflection in solitude and reflection with people in Santa Fe
area is something I am struggling with at this point.
Like anything
in life, each choice provides a challenge and an opportunity. I am conscious of
the inner journey in relation to my physical journey in my sojourn in Santa Fe,
New Mexico – a place of pueblos, a place where the culture of the indigenous
folks is still very visible.
“I am
seeking” may be an apt way to describe my hope in this journey. How I
am open to the challenges and opportunities will shape my experience of this
part of my sabbatical journey.
