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.