Courting the Wild Twin

Myth is a wild way of telling the truth; ‘An Earth that Thinks in Myth’ is a personal reflection and an outstretched hand as a guide on how to hear a myth deeply and draw our attention to the trembling edge of our vision to root a deeper life and nourish our own wild ideas and practical action.

When a civilisation is in crisis the antidotes do not come from the centre, they come from the edge. Our extraordinary feats as humanity have nevertheless blinded us, be it for a pregnant moment, to our senses of the greater whole and the interdependencies of the web of life. We are caught in a form of hypnosis and we cannot see what is at the quivering edge of our vision that is trying to prod us into a deeper life. Like Narcissus, our gazed is caught in our own rhapsody while the bounty and diversity of life diminishes around us. We know of no other life. In striding for power we bury our heart under a tree we can no longer find. Language is wealth, with myth, story and symbol being our way to sing into that darkness to find that buried heart. Earth thinks in myth and if we are not conversant in myth our ear is out of tune.

This book is about attuning our ear and touching the wild afresh to inspire us and to stir us once again to higher things and better possibilities. As such ‘An earth that Thinks in Myth’ is the first in the Wild Ideas and Practical Action Series. In this book, and in each of the books to follow in the series, are the myths and stories the authors sing into the darkness shedding light and direction through ideas and actions nurtured into being through collaborations and wise intent. The book is penned by the internationally renowned Devonian mythologist and storyteller who for the past twenty years has been a wildness rites of passage guide, working with at-risk youth, the sick, returning veterans and many women and men seeking a deeper life. As author Jay Griffiths has commented, Martin’s work “combines a magnificence of soul with a deft acuity of intellect, portraying a quintessential comprehension of the human spirit in its mythic path”.

Through the use of ancient myths, personal reflection and twenty years as a wilderness rites-of-passage guide, Dr. Martin Shaw makes the case for addressing a new way that we speak about the times we’re in. That there’s a primordial freshness an image possesses that a concept can’t grasp. That when humans utilise their imagination they think in story. But could there be stories that are more than us talking about the earth, but have the earth speaking through them? This for thousands of years has been the focus on vision quests and wilderness vigils the world over, to commingle with an imagination that is more than human. That our myths actually carry the perfume of such a marriage.