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To support the development of this site and the work of soul friendship you are invited to express your appreciation through the spiritual practice of Dana
--------------- Some great telling of wonder tales are featured below
In Beyond the Mist psychologist Peter O'Connor shows how Irish mythology can be used to understand the universal themes and conflicts that have beset human beings throughout time.
From gods and goddesses such as Dagda and Morrigan, to the Fenian and Ulster Cycles and the wonder tale of Cu Chulainn, O'Connor explores the world of Irish mythology and its relevance today.
Full of fascinating insights, Beyond the Mist introduces the reader to all the richness and magic of Irish mythology, and shows how it can be mined for the wisdom it provides for contemporary life. -----------
Wonder tales, though they were originally folk tales told to adults, have been a key part of childhood for centuries and remain popular today. The deeper meaning of these wonder tales, however, has been lost. Rudolf Meyer explores key themes and images of such stories as the prince, animals, the tailor or enchantment, in well-known wonder tales. He shows how characters such as Snow White and Cinderella represent particular aspects of our own nature and how there is a deep wisdom to be found in these stories and tales of wonder. This book will be fascinating and insightful reading for anyone who wants to understand the power of wonder tales to heal the sense of separateness from Love --------------
Here is some great storytelling from a master storyteller. This is the modern day soul friend D C.
This is one of this Irish storyteller's favorite books. Easy to read but no less powerful for that. |
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The Healing Properties of Wonder Tales
Take me for a trip Upon your magic Swirling ship. from Mr. Tambourine Man by
Bob Dylan
An Anam cara loves songs and stories. These are not just any songs and stories. These are the kind of stories that invite geancannach - love-talk. These are stories full of myth and magic. They invite the heart into a sense of wonder. Such stories are rightly referred to as wonder tales. Many wonder tales include riddles and are full of paradox. They invite you into the experience of the holistic rather than the mere rational (ratio meaning - part).
Myth as defined by the New Oxford Dictionary of English defines mythology in this way: -
“a set of stories or beliefs about a particular person, exaggerated or fictitious.”
The Bards and storytellers (séanachie) of old did not spend some twenty plus years at wisdom schools in order to tell fictitious tales for entertainment purposes only. They learned through such storytelling to be initiates. They learned to be walkers between the two worlds of time and the timeless. In doing this they brought back the treasure at the heart of human existence.
Myths invite you into a deep understanding of who you are. Modern storytellers such as Bob Dylan invite this understanding through poem songs. This invitation also comes through the old myths of Irish Mythology. The great Irish poet W. B. Yeats tells us this in his poem entitled Under Ben Bulben
Many times man lives and dies Between his two eternities, That of race and that of soul, And ancient Ireland knew it all.
While ancient Ireland might know it all, J.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, George Lucas (Star Wars) and Joseph Campbell (Hero with a Thousand Faces) are telling new stories. We also have modern poet storytellers such as Robert Bly, David Whyte and Deepak Chopra - The Way of the Wizard.
The stories that are told in the series of eCourses entitled The Anamcara Experience - Ready to Radiate are stories about threshold places featured in Irish wonder tales. They are stories about what happens when your soul invites you to expand in Love and what happens when you resist such an invitation.
Such stories cover the stages of the journey on the way to living a sense of wonder. This is the invitation that the Anamcara invites you into. It is the journey taken by heroes and heroines. It is your unique journey. It has been told in stories as old as The Twelve Labors of Hercules. It has been told in stories as familiar as Beauty and the Beast and its modern equivalent King Kong.
Your story has been told in such movies as the Star Wars Trilogy, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the Matrix. It has been told in classic literature such as Dracula, Jenkell and Hyde and Tom Sawyer. It has been sung about in old Irish folk songs such as She Moved through the Fair and By Lagan Streams.
It has been sung about in modern folk songs such as Homeward Bound by Paul Simon and Mr. Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan. It has been told in poems such as The Song of Wandering Angues by W. B. Yeats and Love after Love by Derek Walcott.
Is all this, as the New Oxford Dictionary of English, tells us
“a set of stories or beliefs about a particular person, exaggerated or fictitious.”
or is there something more? Are all these invitations to wonder and magic the real story and the life you think you lead the real fictitious image. Mystics of all time and persuasion will tell you that who you are is wondrous beyond measure.
They will tell you that your idea of yourself as a person living in time and space and form is what is exaggerated. They will go even further and tell you that this idea of a separate life from the One life is really what is fictitious. Not only this but they will tell you that the more exaggerated this fiction becomes the greater will be the suffering that you will experience.
This writer, however, thinks it does not help to tell people their sense of themselves is fictitious. They tend to think you are the one who is living the fiction. If their life involves suffering (as most lives do) this tends to invoke a sense of anger. All wisdom teachers will assure you that this invitation to wonder means giving up attachment to the core wound of separateness.
Wonder tales are invitations to transcend the core idea of separateness from Love that is engendered from the ego – the sense of “my life.” These wonder tales speak a different language. It is a language understood by children. Children feel the connection to these stories whereas adults tend to analyze and conceptualize the symbols they contain. They lock their meaning away in the ivory tower of rationalization and then allow their beauty within themselves to go to sleep.
The
wonder tale called the Ugly Ducking is not about some poor little
duck lost in the farmyard. It is about YOU. The
Twelve Labors of Hercules are not about some old Greek Hero.
The Twelve labors of Hercules are a map for the journey of
the Soul. Mr.
Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan is a song about part of your journey.
It is the invitation to answer the Call and go on a magic
adventure. The poem
Love after Love by Derek Walcott, about the return to your real
beauty is certainly about you.
When
you get to listen to wonder tales told by a storyteller who is in
love with these invitations you enter that state which allows the words to
by pass the inner critic. This
is the invitation in the lines from the Bob Dylan folk song Mr.
Tambourine Man.
"cast your dancing spell my way I’m ready to go under it."
Are you ready to feel spell bound by a sense of wonder at the true wonder of who you are and the potential you have been given. Then you are ready for the call to the Anamcara Experience. This is not fictitious. This is not exaggerated. This is a story worth telling. More than this it is a story worth living. It is your story.
Most of the time we play small. Most of the time we avoid living the invitation of our soul. We don’t want to grow. We want to be comfortable. Nothing wrong with a bit of comfort but comfort is always moving toward discomfort. This is the movement of duality in form. There is a third way beyond opposites and beyond opposition. It is a way of wonder telling. It is to tell and live the wonder of who you are in this moment.
Are you ready to be taken for a magic swirling ship that will give you a true sense of direction? Are you ready for your senses to move into the sensational? Are you ready to move beyond the everyday farmyard and fairground where you are told you are never enough? Are you ready to claim the grace and beauty that is the true reflection of who you are and how you are created?
Then you ready for the invitation that is the Anamcara Experience. ©
Tony Cuckson 2008
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