Red, Black, White
I’ve been skirting around the work of Martin Shaw for many years now. While reading this book, I was also rereading Bill Poltkin’s Nature and the Human Soul — a different way of engaging some of the same inquiries. They both deal with the descent into soul and the return to community. Shaw sums this up as the “red, black, white” process, which might be summed up as passion, moving into darkness, maturing into integration. I’m also currently reading Lord of the Rings; to get a sense of initiation, take a look and the transformation of Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White (although we don’t get a strong sense of the red in Tolkien’s telling).
Where Plotkin’s approach towards soul and the wild is through depth psychology, Shaw comes at the inquiry through myth.
Akin to the Benedictine Midnight Mass I attend on Christmas Eve, Shaw is as a cleric, reciting passages from the Bible followed by interpretations of the metaphors therein.
Having spent just a little time reading through collections of myths from my ancestors, the question I’m left with is,
How do we begin to gain a competence in…
