Culture is the gateway to the kingdom of the psyche.
It is the delicate but dynamic interplay between past and present, between
perceptions and imagination, resulting in a mysterious and mystical concoction
we call art. By means of both language and images, by means of storytelling, mythology
springs from the cavern of the past into the field of the immediate present,
from the unconscious into the conscious mind. Mythology remains dormant in our
subconscious minds. Mythology is the very fabric and foundation of our cultural
consciousness. And mythology must tell its stories over and over again in
various forms. This is vital for our psychological and emotional health.
Much
of the violence in our society today is the result of the psychic blockage that
prevents these stories from being told. By psychic blockage I mean that our
contemporary culture is not serving its function in a healthy way. Instead of
allowing for the flow of this energy from ancient mythology into the present
culture, our social conditioning has strangled it at the root and replaced it
with sensationalism.
Our so-called contemporary literature, for example,
is governed by the spirit of the times rather than by the laws that have
historically made these forms immutable. They have been given shape and
substance long ago, in the traditions of storytelling which were forged like
swords and plowshares that became the tools of our understanding and our means
of passing on knowledge from one generation to another.
Words, images, and sounds
are the means by which all artists everywhere and in every era must tell the
stories that have taken possession of them. This process is fixed and
unchangeable, and, for convenience, we might describe it with the term Absolute
Culture.
So much of our culture today is not Absolute
Culture. It is temporary. Remove the “con” from the word “contemporary” and
what you have left is “temporary.” Absolute Culture is anything but temporary.
It is timeless.
