On transmuting problems through mythic imagination...

Often, when we face our densest problems, there is a tunnel vision that forms that we cannot maneuver our way around. Yet, this is the time when it is most important to engage with the mythic—not as an escape but as a method of working straight through our issues, or as an outlet for developing perspective.

It makes sense that when we are in survival mode, it is difficult to enter imaginal realms. Years ago, when I worked with children who were homeless, I was struck by how little their imaginations were nurtured. Like all children, they were making sense of the world around them, but the sense of wonder that is considered innate in children was often stifled by their families’ desperate need for pragmatism.

I don’t mean to imply that none of the children with were capable of imagination—of course they were capable. It just wasn’t encouraged. One child was actually mocked by a parent for the magical story that she had written with my support. I had encouraged her to use her imagination and substitute typical for unusual objects or events. This was something that didn’t come easily to her—yet, she had been proud of her tale.

In play-acting, the children would set up a pretend “thrift store” which would then go out of business, the business owner running away with the cash. We all recycle the themes that we are offered by our lived experience; it’s possible that by mythologizing the ordinary, the children were approaching the tangible limitations in their lives with curiosity and a sense of humor. Yet, time after time when I would visit and see the same game being played out, I feared that their circumstance was breeding the sort of tunnel vision that blocks the transcendence of limitations.

While the children I speak of were homeless, most of us are born into societies in which mythic consciousness has been fractured. The umbrella of collective consciousness is more influenced by reality TV than by stories that ignite the imagination. In strengthening our ability to view our problems with a mythic lens, we help pave a collective path toward healing and inspiration. This may sound intangible, but it is absolutely tangible once discovered; I have seen it play out in many forms for different people. For me, it is a lived experience that I have to remind myself to come back to in times when I find myself mired in the underbelly of personal or global pain.