[sunbug]

My apologies Shaahayda,

Have been dealing with “stinging usurpers,” that have been buzzing inside my house…(hornets eee) another side of nature heh heh. Just a wee bit distracting…

BUT to get back to your other question about childhood…it’s hard to say.
I loved Mother’s paintings and loved colors (still do!—the green or autumn of a forest never ceases to amaze and inspire and mesmerize.)

But for me, memories and people are what held my attention the most.

As far as those traditional rituals, which surround someone as a child, I came to know them more through the people who spoke of them, such as the woman Methodist minister, Clarice Bowman, (who in fact was the one who introduced my Mom to the works of Joe Campbell!)

Clarice was a loving, strong, passionate person with infinite grace and presence, but was not strict or judgmental.
But she was passionate about fairness and justice in the world.
Unforgettable.

Yet I also sensed the stricter views, which surrounded her. She definitely challenged the grain!
Not easy, but she remained determined!

My tap mentor Beale Fletcher,  was a vaudevillian from back in the day. His wife Peggy was originally from Scotland. The two of them toured the country doing ballroom and a dance act together.
They were a huge call to adventure for me in the land of dance!  Again two unforgettable people!

And I think, it was only later when I discovered Campbell through the Power of Myth and reading the books, that THEN the symbols became keys to a new way of seeing! It definitely meant more to me!

I’m lucky to have friends of all different backgrounds from Methodist/Presbyterian to Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist and even one Cherokee Elder storyteller…. And friends with scientific backgrounds (Bernd-my naturalist friend in Maine)
So I love that!

Yet also realize there is so much I don’t know…each road can split off into several diverging views about one belief/philosophy. It can become so complicated… impossible to remember all the litanies of one perspective, that sometimes I long for the sacred non-judgemental simplicity that Clarice Bowman shared with my family and me. (Rounding down to love and caring about people.)

And I long for the Joe Campbell take.

I loved what Stephen wrote to you above. Perfect! He nailed it in my opinion! The Trickster energy!

If there was no harm/hurt caused to others and a joyous life has/is being lived (the yea! As Joe Campbell and Stephen are saying) then this “concretization” of what was or wasn’t true definitely seems the (trickster energy.)

And what a creative way of saying that Stephen! Love it! Does not pin down or judge the occurrence…

I sensed a potential “guilt/guilting issue”  but “Trickster” opens it up in a healthier way I think!

Ok…so one more thing, but more to do with “literalism,” than trickster…

I see a beautiful rainbow and see it at a time that symbolically means something to me.

Now I am a scientist’s daughter and know how a rainbow literally is formed but it does not take away the feeling of seeing the rainbow in that sacred moment.

Why should I tell anyone, who reads a personal, spiritual transcendence in a phenomenal event that they are wrong?      That the rainbow had nothing to do with them?  Or the butterfly had nothing to do with the soul of departed loved ones?

Experiencing a special personal meaning is not the same as forcing a “special meaning” on others.

(i.e. stricter religious/philosophical tenets ”Thou Shalt or else!” Or go to Hell!)

That’s why I love the Spell of the Sensuous! (Yes thanks Stephen too for the recommendation that Shaahayda passed on to me!)