The Ritual of Storytelling

What if stories and myths are neither literal nor allegorical? Traditional storytelling was an art wherein the orator reconstructed a scene or plot to make it feel as real as possible. The stories were entertaining and ‘magical’; the best stories delivered in such a way to charm and seduce the audience into the ‘story-space’ – where they became involved as integrated participants and not separate observers. This all happens in the real time of the story which is experienced and has no time for analysis. What we are alluding to here is the ritual.

Rituals are re-enactments of traditional fables passed down from generation to generation. Neither fact (past) nor fiction (future) can relate to the ritual because the ritual integrates the audience in real time into the ‘story-space’. In the ritual one is as a child, absorbing the unfolding drama without interpretation. Only the educated man attempts to put a meaning on the stories that he hears.

Posted in: Esoteric