The mysterious dramas recounted in the
Mabinogion and other old Welsh sources are
so opaque from our perspective, that it is
impossible to prove conclusively what any
of them mean. You can read into them more
or less whatever you wish, within the bounds
of your imagination.
The study of the interpretation of such texts
is a subject in its own right, and it is called
hermeneutics.
Hermeneutics means ' the interpretation of
texts'. It's root is Hermes, the Greek messenger
of the gods.
Many aspects of human endeavour are
centred upon certain important texts.
Examples are Charles Darwin's great work,
'The Origin of Species', or the Koran, or
Plato's 'Republic'.
People have interpreted these books in rather
different ways, so it has been important to
look very closely at what was actually said.
Such study is called hermeneutics.
The word was first used in the seventeenth
century to mean biblical exegesis.
The Protestant Reformation created a need to
interpret the scriptures without the aid of
church authority, and with the plurality of
possible interpretations for any biblical text,
a need arose to establish the principles of
correct interpretation.
The Jewish Rabbis believe in four ways of
interpreting the Bible: Pshat, the plain meaning
of the text; Remez, hints of alternative implied
meanings; Drash, a homiletic ( i.e. sacred rhetoric
or moralizing discourse ) meaning; and finally
Sod, the esoteric hidden meaning.
And of course, the fathers of the Christian
church, St. Augustine for example, interpreted
the Bible very differently.
The scope of hermeneutics was broadened
significantly in the nineteenth century through
the philosophers Friedrich Schleiermacher and
Wilhelm Dilthey, who moved the focus of
hermeneutical understanding from texts to
all human productions - verbal and nonverbal,
historical and current.
It has since been developed further by
philosophers such as Heidegger, Gadamer,
Rorty, etc.
Thinking about hermeneutics and interpretation
opens up some massive topics. For example,
the primary problem, throughout the ages, faced
by emperors, kings, generals, dictators, and other
leaders, has been how to control what their
followers and subordinates believe. That is, the
interpretation of events and circumstances that
the masses accept.
If they think that you are a loser, a weak and
cowardly fraud, a frivolous dandy who is
leading them to disaster, then they are not
likely to remain loyal for very long.
It doesn't matter if you lose a battle, provided
that you can convince the masses that the
ignominious and pitiful defeat you just suffered,
should actually be interpreted as a tremendous
victory and crushing blow against the enemy.
In other words, the trick is, to shape people's
reality for them.
Ordinary people are capable of incredible acts
- Mao's ' Long March ', the Holocaust against the
Jews, the Children's Crusade - just so long as
they stay locked in to a particular belief-system.
Which requires that every event be interpreted
in such a way as to reinforce the required
beliefs.
' You can fool some of the people, some of
the time, etc.,... '
Interpretation is political. Whether it takes
place in the family, the office, the tribe, or the
state, the interpretation is what defines the
reality, the matrix, within which the individuals
conceive of themselves, their identities and
roles.
We operate within and from our personal
mindsets, where we hold a model of the world
and our interests in it. Our worldview. This is
our own reality. It is structured, constructed,
adapted and modified, according to our
interpretations.
To be serious about understanding one's self
means paying intense attention to the many
perceptions which enter our beings, and taking
great care as to how we interpret them.
In the ancient worldview, this would have been
called listening to Hermes, Mercury, Thoth,
the messenger of the gods.
In a very busy life, when the day is filled
with many social contacts, when the world
is constantly trying to grab our attention from
every direction, it is very easy to become
desensitized, confused, overwhelmed by the
cacophony. The Way of the Tao, of Zen, is to
sit and to do zazen. This is like letting a bowl
of muddy water settle, so that the water
becomes clear.
To reach Nothingness, is like a fall of snow.
Everything is changed, overlaid with pure
whiteness, clean, new, fresh, immaculate,
absolute perfection.
When a hunter goes out early on such a
morning, he knows that nothing has passed,
nothing has left an imprint.
When the messenger of the gods arrives, the
track is clear and easily seen, just as the
hunter can read the tracks made by the
feet of birds, and the marks made by their
wing feathers.
The bewildered, the noisy, busy ones, cannot
read the signs, do not even notice them, as
their turbulent egos trample and turn the
snow into mud. But the skilled hunter knows
that the undisturbed surface, the absence of
marks, itself carries deepest meaning.
Nothing has arrived. Nothing has left.
That is good to know.
TOP. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NEXT.
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