In the last century, authors and psychologists like Robert Graves,
Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell reminded us that folklore is often
full of deep symbolic truths, truths that the 'folk' themselves are
usually unaware of. And they also taught us - just as Plato did,
2400 years ago -- that myth and folklore constitute a
'philosophical' language, where images (as in dreams, holy icons,
and symbolic poetry) can carry a great burden of meaning. Few seem
to realize, however, that certain works of art conventionally
considered to be unconscious products of the 'folk imagination'
were quite consciously and deliberately constructed, by
highly-informed individuals, to transmit specific items of
spiritual lore. Among these 'few' was Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, who
said: The content of folklore is metaphysical. Our failure to
recognize this is primarily due to our own abysmal ignorance of
metaphysics and of its technical terms.. The true folklorist must
be not so much a psychologist as a theologian and metaphysician, if
he is to 'understand his material'.. Traditional man lived in a
natural environment he could read like a book - a book written in
primordial symbols of Divine Reality (the Sun, the Rain, the
Mountain, the Eagle) - as well as in a man-made environment that
was in large part deliberately constructed to remind him of that
Reality, and teach him the nature of it (just as our own human
world, with its 'weapons of mass distraction', seems ingeniously
contrived to make us forget it). Through song, dance, gesture,
poetry, architecture, proverbs, jokes, riddles, stories, games,
toys, medicine, painting, sculpture, weapons, tools, scriptures,
sacred rites, and the traditional forms and rhythms of daily life,
we were always in the presence of reminders of the Sacred; all
fingers (or almost all) pointed to the Moon. That
deliberately-constructed sacred environment is now largely a thing
of the past. Dedicated artists may work to keep traditional arts
and crafts alive, but the cultural context that could reveal their
relevance and tap their spiritual power is usually missing; even
the 'folk memory' itself has now largely been replaced by the
Internet. However, it is still possible to approach ancient
artistic constructions, like the traditional ballads which are the
subject of this book, in spiritually fruitful ways. The great
myths, such as are transmitted by certain 'folk' songs, were
received in the Age of Revelation -- now, however, we live in the
Age of Exegesis. As the profound meanings of these songs are
unwrapped, they escape from our hands like freed birds, back to the
Source they came from. And they challenge us to follow them.
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