WHY AND HOW CAN BE THE BASQUE
MYTHOLOGY A TOOL FOR LIFE?
(from a response in another blog, if it is of interest to someone)
Mythology is an anthropomorphic description of the actors, variables
and processes of existence. We have this heritage, gently, thanks to a number of unknown thinkers who, through
different generations and cultures, have reflected on the keys of the life and
have put their worldview in representative figures and histories.
Mythologize your life involves assuming this, and act on the issues
that you think will make you a better player and person. And the reasons that make it desirable are directly inferred: you can take
advantage of, and you may, in fact, actualize or update in your own, the
ancient wisdom heritage of the Humanity.
In my case, after serious existential crisis in adolescence, involving
acute feeligs of deep absurd, I started looking for answers in all the
philosophies of the planet I could recur. After years of searching, I found
that the worldview of my country, the Basque Country, had a very satisfactory
'map of the life' and, furthermore, very convincing explanations of the sources
of the existence.
In Basque Mythology, presumably of Paleolithic or at least Neolithic
origins, Land or Earth is a metaphor of the world and, without male Gods or
heroes like in Indo-European mythologies, the Dame of the Land is its original
source. Our Dame acts in the world and life through different mythological
figures, also mainly female; and following a strict ethics where, for example,
the sincerity and force of the words and promises given is critical. Those
principles permeate also different aspects of Basque culture, such as euskara
or Basque language, social structures, toponymy, dances, etc.
At one point of my intellectual and existential search,
I began to understand and feel the Dame, and act according to Basque
mythology´s and culture´s principles. Moreover, I realized that, as Basque
person, had actually began to follow them since childhood, thanks to the
conduct of life and ethics of my parents and social environment. I think that
to make aware this legacy, and to try to sharpen my feelings and acts with it,
makes me better understand the existence and be a better actor in it.