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On Storytelling and Nature Mythology...

Sacred Stories of Nature
by Diane Edgecomb
(C) 1997 (Published in the Museletter- the storytelling newsletter of the League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling)

A few years ago, while exploring the Northern Coast of California, I happened upon one of the last wild rivers - the Klamath. As a group of us gathered near the turbulent place where river meets sea, the Park Ranger spoke to us of the natural history of the area. The area was RICH. Osprey spiraled overhead and then dove into the fish-full waters. Seals and pelicans sunned and hunted from the rocks. And because this was the end of August, King Salmon was returning to the Klamath to spawn. The Ranger spoke of the Yurok Indians who were fishing from the banks of the wide river. Spoke of how unusual and wonderful it was that they still lived and fished on their ancestral lands. And then to my delight, the Ranger began a story.

"In the long ago times, there were no Salmon on the Klamath and the people were often hungry. So it was that one of the Sacred Ancestors helped them. That Ancestor Called to Sea Lion to come and help; and it was Sea Lion who brought the Salmon chasing them before him. Do you see that rock?" He gestured to an immense rock as tall as a giant. It looked like a brooding hooded figure facing out to sea from the mouth of the river.

"The Ancestor has taken the form of that Rock. And from there, every year, he calls Sea Lion to bring the Salmon to the river."

We took in that immensity of stone and then looked out to where the foam of the sea waves fought the current of the Klamath. There, riding the crest of the waves, were gigantic brown Sea Lions harrying King Salmon towards the Klamath River. It felt like heaven on earth, for in that sparkling moment Story had tuned us so completely to the landscape that Spirit and Nature were one.

A story is a threshold, a doorway, a key, if you will, to a way of understanding. And these stories, linked to the landscape and to the myths of origins, help us to experience the world as Sacred Space. It is an area demarcated not by temple walls but by sea and rock and tale. While the spell lasts we can breathe a different reality. We can feel our connections to spiritual truths crafted into story long ago.

All ancient mythologies were birthed and came of age within a context, within a landscape. The sacred experience of the land breathed its truth into Story and Story helped us to remember how holy is the land and its inhabitants. In the Australian mythology we often hear about the dream time. This was the time when the sacred ancestors (many of them animals and birds) molded the landscape with the stories they lived. The marks of their adventures delineate the land. So close is the weave of surroundings and myth on this island-home that the storyteller becomes a guardian for only a small portion of tales within his particular tribal area. While he tells the story of the ancestors he makes a drawing, a glorious and colorful design, and this picture, we discover, is a MAP of his landscape. Story equals map equals landscape equals events in the dreamtime-the sacred times of origins. How sad it is for us that when we come upon collections of Australian aboriginal tales they have been stripped of picture and landscape. In fact: 'only those stories which easily fit in with European plot structures and resolved endings need apply at all - thank you very much!' (Recently I did find a wonderful Australian aboriginal collection complete with maps and odd tales. The title is Tjarany Roughtale by Gracie Greene, Joe Tramacchi and Lucille Gill).

Story is a mysterious vessel. It can hold a medium - a sacred, linking, web-spinning resonance - that can connect the visible and the invisible worlds. Old cultures used this linking power of story to connect themselves not only with the landscape, but with the sacred time of creation. They did this by telling tales of what happened 'in the beginning time'. Creation stories were told at the consecration of a building, at the founding of a city, at the birth of a child. These were critical times when the link between this new person or place and the ancient originating forces needed to be established. A true blessing would then possible.

Another interesting (and often misunderstood) source of sacred nature legends are the stories of the origins of plants, animals and other phenomena. These tales of origin were believed to have the power to renew; to restore the being NAMED within the tale. At times of stress or harvest, the story of its origin rightly told would keep that particular element healthy and whole and abundant. These stories and rites often brought the people into direct relationship with questions of life and death. They were the basis of religious practices world -wide.

When we look at the Demeter and Persephone myth we see how a myth of origin functions as a religion and a spiritual metaphor The divine maiden - Persephone - is forcibly taken from this earth to the underworld and held several months. Her mother, Demeter (associated with the earth), withholds all yield from the earth until her daughter is returned. Persephone's story is the myth of the grain dead in the ground and then arisen with new life in the spring. It became the basis of the most powerful mystery religion of Greece; the Eleusinian mysteries. During the rites the story was not only told, it was enacted. In that way holy story became ritual. Torch bearing initiates fasted and walked the land like the bereft Demeter till their journey ended with secret rituals in tomblike underground temples. Not only was the holiness of the grain exalted, but the miracle of re-birth was related to the human condition as well. As the ancient writer Cicero testified: "We have been given a reason not only to live in joy but also to die with better hope.". We may think: "How odd that the greatest Greecian mystery religion was based on a litttle 'pourquoi tale' about the grain!" Then we may realize how far we have come from understanding and differentiating between pourquoi tales told to amuse and instruct and sacred tales of origins.

We are faced with generalized 'multi-cultural' collections such as "Star Tales", "Plant Legends" etc.., often with no source notes to guide us. Not all of these stories are sacred tales but some are Buried within these collections of how and why legends are tales of power and beauty with a long history of service to their culture. Let us try to re-discover their linking power and their resonance with deep spiritual truths. They may show us the whole and holy essence within every aspect of nature. In that way we can keep help keep living mythology alive.

I recently spoke to a friend of mine, an Indonesian Silat Master, about the calling to be a teller. These were his words:

"Storytelling comes from the time long ago when the spirits came into the world and could be whatever they wanted to be."

"Tell stories and believe the world is alive. This society believes that the world is dead. We think the world is dead and people are dead too. Now comes a time of change. We are no longer happy with making this beautiful earth dead. Tell the story - from when the rock is alive. Rock can change. Throw down a stick - the stick turns into a snake. You did not turn the stick into the snake, the stick remembers it is alive. It can change. You are talking about magic. Children believe - they can be transported. Go to the river - to the stone. Believe they are alive and they will tell you their story."