ART: UNKNOWN
“We are living at the end of an era. The stories of this era were written when the earth was still flat, when our planet was thought to be at the center of creation, and before the Hubble space telescope showed us that we are one in a billion galaxies in the sky. The old myths have exhausted themselves.
“We are in need of new life-giving myths that can sustain us and our children for the next thousand years. These myths are beginning to appear. They are stories of sustainability, of stewardship of the Earth of everything around us being alive.”
“…Most important, I believe that we have to discover a new personal and collective mythology and begin telling empowering stories about ourselves and our epic journeys through life.”
“I was then a young anthropologist investigating the healing practices of the shamans of the rainforest, and I decided to use myself as a subject…During one healing ceremony the shaman explained to me that like everyone, I can either have what I want or the reasons why I can’t. ‘Your are too enamored of your story,’ the old man said. ‘Until you dare to dream a different dream, all you will have is the nightmare.'”
“That evening I learned how to craft a different story for myself, my family, our students, and the Earth. I do this with other dreamers, who come and gather around a holy fire in the Dreamtime. Each of us brings a small piece to the dream, and when we share it, suddenly we can taste it, feel it, sense it—and occasionally we see it.”
~ Alberto Villoldo in Awakening to the Spirit World: The Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation
by Sandra Ingerman & Hank Wesselman
Yes! Thank you for sharing this. My friend told me about this post and you blog over dinner last night. It struck me because I had been thinking the exact same thing the last few days. I have been watching friends fall for cultish ideals and others join weird “women’s empowerment circles” that are actually pyramid schemes, and it made me think “If people can buy these stories, and fall for these mythologies, what positive, life enforcing mythologies can we create?”
I majored in Religious Studies in college and Hank Wesselman was one of my teachers; thank you for pointing me toward his book. And thanks for this fabulous post!
Amber
Thanks Amber! I hear you. How wonderful you had him as your professor! I majored in Religious Studies too ;) ?
I liked the excerpt with Albert Villoldo speaking, “That evening I learned how to craft a different story for myself… I do this with other dreamers, who come and gather around a holy fire… Each of us brings a small piece to the dream, and when we share it, suddenly we can taste it, feel it, sense it…” Thank you!