The Nature of Myths

The meaning of the word ‘myth’ in current parlance has become exactly the reverse of its true estate. When a falsehood is too readily accepted by the credulous, it is called a myth. The word ‘myth’ is generally used as synonymous with an untruth. It may be attractive or entertaining but is essentially false.

This is not the meaning of myth that we are using here. The great teachers of humanity have always used myth, allegory, fable and tale to present truths that are so profound and all-embracing that no simple scientific or dogmatic presentation of their essence would suffice.

Plato referred to the myths of the Orphic teachers and of Homer, and also devised some profound myths and allegories of his own. The myths of the Norse, the Ancient Greeks and the Egyptians remain well known even today because of their great beauty. As the writer Fiona McLeod said, “Their beauty is the most unforgettable thing in the world”. They have not been forgotten, for generation by generation they have the power to enthral and inspire. These myths embody in their overall structure and also their many details, aspects of that Hermetic Lore and universal tradition that is the birthright of humanity. We may imagine, and imagine correctly, that those who first devised these extraordinary stories knew that they were entrusting truths to future generations when faith and vision might well have been lost and the essential teachings concerning the nature, origin and destiny of mankind had become hidden or discarded.

The great myths are not designed to obscure the truth, but they do tend to veil it so that it is revealed bit by bit; the stories remain a well that can be revisited again and again for there are always further insights that may be discovered. Myths appeal to the spiritual intuition. Children rightly sense that the stories are true in a way that is beyond explanation.

The adult mind may be more sceptical but the beauty and universality of the themes presented in the great mythoi can, and should, awaken the spiritual vision. This is the faculty that sees within and behind the pictures of the stor,y to the luminous realities that lie beyond. Myths are not self-evident and logical demonstrations of truth. Rather they are paradoxical and allegorical, suggesting deeper and deeper meanings. They can be valuable in awakening faculties long dormant in the human constitution. These faculties in turn may penetrate the essential meaning indicated in the myth.