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"Mythology, in other words, is psychology misread as biography, history and cosmology. The modern psychologist can translate it back to its proper denotations and thus rescue for the contemporary world a rich and eloquent document of the profoundest depths of human character."
Joseph Campbell
Creation Myths have long been foundational sacred narratives of traditional cultures, passed down through centuries and millennia. They describe the relationship between the gods, the world, animals and humans. In many places the stories were enacted as rituals of renewal every year.
"Yes, metaphor. that is how the whole fabric of mental interconnections holds together. Metaphor is right at the bottom of being alive."
Gregory Bateson
Careful study of Sacred Narratives from around the world begins to show patterns in the myths.
Emergence... Differentiation.... Organizing... Union.. Birth.. Conflict.. Transformation.. Renewal...
It is possible that these stories are also maps of consciousness. In describing how the gods entered and created the world, they may be describing how consciousness reconnects with the world.
Creation myths describe the succession that consciousness follows as it explore and aligns with its source and origin. It is a symbolic narrative which strives to evoke the systemic wisdom of native people focused on local ecology and human growth.
If we read creation myth forwards we see the movement of consciousness entering into or emerging in the world. If we read them backwards they are stories that trace the path of awakening to the sacred, to transpersonal experiences.
"The trance-susceptible shaman and the initiated antelope priest are not unsophisticated in the wisdom of the world, nor unskilled in the principles of communication by analogy. the metaphors by which they live, and through which they operate, have been brooded upon, searched, and discussed for centuries-even millenium; they have served whole societies, furthermore, as the mainstays of thought and life."
Joseph Campbell
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