Myths across the world use an assortment of images, symbols and visual references to build lasting metaphors. Their power lies not only in the thought, the philosophy or the event that resides in them but also in the tools deployed to get the point across. Like the breadcrumbs used by Hansel in the well known German fairy tale or like the ball of string that Theseus used to find the minotaur, myths are a map of the real and the imaginary worlds that our ancestors built.
Myth speaks in a common tongue to a diverse audience. It reflects an innocent and yet complex engagement with the world around us and the world within us. It is metaphoric in form and structure; its meaning is layered in spirals that could take us an entire lifetime to climb but, it is so direct in its intent that a child can grasp at the colour and iconography that it dresses itself up in.
Poet and a great believer in the Vedas, W B Yeats once said: “I cannot now think symbols less than the greatest of all powers whether they are used consciously by the masters of magic, or half unconsciously by their successors, the poet, the musician and the artist”(W B Yeats in an essay called Magic in Essays and Introduction, Macmillan.) Yeats believed that the artist, the writer and the musician were inheritors of the legacy of magic and hence understood the potency of the symbols used in magic. His use of the word magic is similar to that of Frazer who describes the different kinds of magic that led to the development of religion. And it is this language of symbols and icons that myths have inherited or as some would believe, even created.
The language of myth is independent of religion and hence it appeals across faiths. It aims to challenge the human mind and is meant to evoke awe and shock and provoke further explorations of thought and philosophy. At the same time, it is deliberately wrapped in religious iconography and explicit imagery so that the stories and their messages leave a lasting imprint on the human mind.
As we leave behind a year riddled in bullets, we need to let this language speak to us. We need to understand the many tongues that roll in many different ways to speak the same truths and denounce the same lies. From the eye of Hathor to the third eye of Shiv, from the rage of Sekhmet to the rampage of Kali and from the ark of Noah to the boat of Manu -- we need to understand the signs and symbols that speak to us through the ages.
Image: A sculpture outside the monastery at Bylakuppe, a Tibetan settlement in Karnataka India
Picture by Rajrishi Singhal
