Thomas Doty – Storyteller

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From Dreamtime to Mythtime and Back Again

As I wake each morning before dawn I remember that I am a storyteller. In that moment between moon-and-starlight and the first flicker of sunrise, the sleepy stroll between the stuff of dreams and the stuff of stories is a short one.

The Old Ones made little distinction between Dreamtime and Mythtime. I knew this intuitively as a child. As I rediscover this wisdom as an adult, it is a revelation that approaches magic. As a child I was a daydreamer. As an adult, as I dream up stories, the Great Mystery of my childhood returns.

The universe is a great mythology. My walks from dreams to stories and back again mimic the cyclic journeys of the sun, moon and stars. These wondering wanderings are astral mixtures of memories and discoveries. On my most creative days, I live inside metaphors and barely notice "real-world" events. When I pause to have a look around -- usually during that transitional time between stories and dreams -- I find myself in the midst of the muted light of an old wise saying, "Dreams are private myths, and myths are public dreams."

Each night, in moon-and-starlight, as I drift toward sleep, I carry my stories of the day into a story-like night of dreaming.

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