Most Alaskans are familiar with the Tlingit tale about how Raven brings the sun, moon, and stars. I keep returning to it, and have placed metal garden symbols around our deck to embrace that space with its reality.

Myth seems intangible to the modern mind. When the mind tries to grasp myth, it attempts to turn it into a mental belief, because that’s how the mind works. However, to connect with the living essence of myth, we need to transcend the workings of the ordinary mind. The ordinary mind cannot grasp myth. Rather, the mind must be swallowed by myth (by becoming still and being open).

When we touch the reality of myth, it can bring us to our knees. It fills us with awe. When we are able to allow this to happen, we become embraced by a world far more expansive than we would ever have imagined and we become alive in a whole new way.

There is no need to create a quarrel between science and myth. Science is a mental process and myth is a soul process. That said, I believe that the two are at times able to concur.