| Description
| Mythic texts provide us clues to their own orally-transmitted antecedents and, though showing us humans have always been humans, suggest a qualitatively different way of perceiving reality than is currently the norm. We will examine mythic texts from the most ancient times--the Descent of Inanna, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Popul Vuh--alongside more modern works--the poems of Saint John of the Cross, the Great Vision of Black Elk, Beelzebub`s Tales to his Grandson--through an anthropological lens provided in part by theorists Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Victor Turner and Jean Gebser. We will trace back to their roots both poetry and its close relation divination, and show how the artistic impulse in humanity, though varying much according to history, culture and environment, still has echoes in the music, poetry and novels of modern times—just witness the great blues tradition; contemporary poetry by Nathanial Mackey, Nathaniel Braithwaite and Cecilia Vicuna; and fiction by Jack Londo
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