Song for Ishtar

Good Books About Myth and Culture

Ginette Paris: Wisdom of the Psyche: Depth Psychology after Neuroscience
Paris provides a wonderful explanation of the intersection between personal life story and collective myths and the way myth shapes perspective.
James Hillman: We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy--And the World's Getting Worse
Hillman is a central figure in the field of archetypal psychology, which provides a theoretical base for work on cultural mythologies that I find very useful. This collaboration with Michael Ventura is an accessible and stimulating introduction to some of Hillman's ideas.
Michael Meade: The World Behind the World
"The world," Meade writes, "despite it's disasters, tragedies and villainies, can't end unless it runs out of stories." Useful reflections on these changing and frightening times--I especially like the story of the Old Woman, the black dog, and the loose thread.
Carl G. Jung: The Undiscovered Self (Mentor)
C.G. Jung and Sigmund Freud first articulated the existence of the unconscious (which became depth psychology) and understood the ongoing relationship between human meaning and myth. In this book, Jung discusses the moral obligation to become self aware.
Joseph Campbell: The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Bollingen Series)
Campbell writes, "It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation." An important and influential book that links the mythic narrative of "the hero's journey," found across cultures, to contemporary life.
Barry Mills, editor: Kali's Kites: Essays From The Mythological Imagination
This book is both a beautiful and provocative collection of essays about myth, soul and the depths of the imagination. Each author is a graduate of Pacifica Graduate Institute, a unique institution dedicated to animae mundi colendae gratia (for the sake of tending soul in and of the world). Two of my essays are included: "Euripides' Women: The Role of the Feminine Other," and "The Myth of Actaion: Archetypal Image of Buddhist Enlightenment."
Theodore Roszak, editor: Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind
This anthology is a good introduction to some of the themes and thinkers in the field of ecopsychology, which involves the intersection of human ideas about self and world, and the natural, biological, and ecological. Given the current environmental crisis and modern alienation from the natural world, including our own bodies, it is crucial that we deepen our understanding of the cultural myths that govern these relations.
Dennis Patrick Slattery: A Limbo of Shards: Essays on Memory Myth and Metaphor
In this collection of essays, Slattery explores the related themes of memory, myth, and metaphor, drawing material from literature, poetry, and current events. In "The True Terror of Terrorism," he suggests that the loss of Trust, necessary to maintain "civilized space," may be the greatest loss. "Trust is a virtue," he writes, "security its pale shadow."

November 12, 2008

I'm posting this week's poem a couple of days early because tonight (Thursday) is the November full moon. This is the Hunter's Moon, also known as the Sanguine (Blood red) Moon, the Beaver Moon, or the Frost Moon. Look for this full moon to rise shortly after sunset---the extended period of light created by this early rising is one aspect of the name--it's easier to hunt (or finish the harvest) with the extra bit of light.

In the midst of all the talk about political and economic change and endings and new directions, a few minutes with the moon reminds me that we are part of much bigger, and steadier cycles. When I look up into the night sky and feel the ground solid beneath my feet, I know that I am supported and carried by forces far greater than any we can put in motion. It's a moment to revel in what my friend J. and I call "puny glory."

(The image is a painting of mine, "New Mexico Moon").

Song for Ishtar

The moon is a sow
and grunts in my throat
Her great shining shines
through me
so the mud of my hollows
gleams
and breaks in silver bubbles

She is a sow
and I a pig and a poet

When she opens her white
lips to devour me I bit back
and laughter rocks the moon

In the black of desire
we rock and grunt, grunt and
shine

---Denise Levertov from O Taste and See (NY: New Directions, 1964)

Posted on November 12, 2008 at 01:33 PM in Poetry | Permalink

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Song for Ishtar

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