In ancient times, in the "time of inspiration." the poet flew from
one world to another, "riding on dragons," as the Chinese said.
Isaiah rode on those dragons, so did Li Po and Pindar. They
dragged behind them long tails of dragon smoke. Some of that
dragon smoke still boils out of Beowulf. ...This dragon smoke
means that a leap has taken place in the poem.
The associative paths... allow us to leap from one part of the brain
to another and lay out their contraries. Moreover it's possible that
what we call "mythology" deals precisely with these abrupt juxtapositions...
using what Joseph Campbell called "mythological thinking,"
it moves the energy along a spectrum - either up or down.
It can awaken the "lost music," walk on the sea, cross the
river from instinct to spirit.
It is in the interval of the leap that "so much happens when no one is watching" and this is related to Richard Schechner's idea that certain rituals require "selective inattention." He says: "Selective inattention allows patterns of the whole to be visible, patterns that otherwise would be burned out of the consciousness by a too intense concentration.
Robert Bly, In This World
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