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Month: September 2018

The Great Myths

The Great Myths #47: Sacred Language & the Limitation of Words (Taoism)

18 Sep 2018

Two chapters from the Tao Te Ching, and each in three different translations, on the limitations of even the best words: Tao Te Ching #70 My sayings are very easy to recognize, and very easy to apply. But no one in the world can recognize them, and no one can apply them. Sayings have a source, events have a leader. […]

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Recent Work

New Essay at The Wisdom Daily: “The Loneliness of Isidore of Seville”

17 Sep 2018

Thanks to the editors of The Wisdom Daily for publishing my essay on the Isidore of Seville, the seventh century Church Father, polymath, and compiler of an ur-Wikipedia. You can read it here.

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The Great Myths

The Great Myths #46: Sacred Language & Homer’s Poets (Greek)

13 Sep 2018

Here are two passages from Homer’s Odyssey featuring the common household bard of prehistoric Greece. The first poet, the description of which probably lent to the legend that Homer himself was blind, performs stories of the Trojan war before a disguised Odysseus, bringing him to tears. The second is the bard at Odysseus’ own home in Ithaca. Following the slaughter […]

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The Great Myths

The Great Myths #45: Sacred Language Creates the World (Jewish)

7 Sep 2018

Four stories from the great Jewish tradition of the sacredness of the Torah, of Hebrew, and of the letters of the alphabet themselves: Creation by Word In the beginning a word was spoken by the mouth of God, and the heavens and the earth came into being, as it is said, By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made […]

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The Great Myths

The Great Myths #44: Sacred Language & Two Hymns to Speech (Hindu)

3 Sep 2018

Rig Veda 10:71: The Origins of Sacred Speech Bṛhaspati! When they set in motion the first beginning of speech, giving names, their most pure and perfectly guarded secret was revealed through love.       When the wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve, then friends recognized their friendships. A good sign was […]

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Books

To the House of the Sun: A Poem

Bone Antler Stone: Poems

Hymns & Lamentations

The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old: Stories

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Top Posts & Pages

  • Classic Jam Hits
  • Young Krishna & the Universe in His Mouth
  • Heaney’s Bog Poems
  • The Great Myths #28: Odysseus Outsmarts the Cyclops
  • Conrad Aiken, "Preludes for Memnon"
  • Albert Camus, Notebooks (Favorite Passages)
  • The Great Myths #55: An Island is Cut Away & the Prose Edda Begins (Norse)
  • Ted Hughes: 2 War Poems
  • The Great Myths #63: Ragnarok (Norse)
  • Edward Hopper

Recent Posts

  • The Great Myths #63: Ragnarok (Norse)
  • Seamus Heaney, from "Squarings"
  • Seamus Heaney, from "Crossings"
  • Seamus Heaney, from "Settings"
  • Seamus Heaney, from "Lightenings"

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