Myth is Metaphor
Mary K. Greer’s 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card is an amazing book. Every time I dip into it, I am amazed all over again. Because I’m thinking a lot about myth right now, I read some of what Mary writes about myth and tarot.
Read more about the book HERE
She quotes Joseph Campbell: “A myth is a public dream; a dream is a private myth.” Then she goes on:
Myth is metaphor. If you believe the myth is literally true, you’ll miss the deeper truth buried within the story. The many dimensions of a tarot card help reveal that deeper truth.
Likewise by examining a myth or story for a querent, you can:
See where in the story the querent is right now.
Predict what the next step or stage might be.
Suggest, if the querent seems stuck, something from the myth that could unblock the querent to move (or find another story with similar elements that offers other options).
Explore the querent’s relationship and how these people impact the querent’s life.
Give meaning and purpose to the experience (since most myths culminate in transformation and renewal).
Roberto Calasso, who has retold many of the world myths, says in The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony that when we take risks we enter the mythical realm, for “myth is the enchantment we generate in ourselves at such moments.” Thus in a reading, as you define and redefine your metaphors, you enchant yourself; you attract a new personal myth or new twists on old ones. To create change, you don’t have to change life directly, only what you tell yourself about it. This allows you to imagine yourself in new ways and revision your possibilities. By drawing your awareness to things previously unnoticed, it generates the magic Jung called “synchronicity” – an acausal principle in which everything that happens at a single moment in time is related in a meaningful way.
