I used to think that if something was a myth it could not be true.
‘That’s just a myth!’
Myths were in the realm of fairies in the back garden.

But I gradually came to see that myths are powerful stories that influence us. Their ‘Truth’ is of another kind than factual ‘scientific truth’. They are more in the realm of poetry; and they are created all the time. In these days of competitive consumerism, myths are particularly central in the realm of Marketing. We tend to be influenced by the myths generated to promote certain brands – ‘I’m a Holden man’ …or… ‘I’m a Ford man’. These days we also have ‘influencers’ who use social media to gather millions of ‘followers’.

A couple of examples from Politics come to mind.
‘The Liberals are better at managing the Australian economy than Labour’.
‘The Labour Party is for the ‘Workers’.
‘In America, anyone who works hard enough can succeed.’
‘Australia is the land of the Fair Go.’

The most classic example of the power of myth, was that promulgated by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany, leading to the Second World War. Here’s a chilling summation from Wikipedia:

The Nazi theorist Alfred Rosenberg believed that the “Nordic race” was descended from Proto-Indo-Europeans, who he believed had pre-historically dwelt on the North German Plain and may have ultimately originated on the lost island of Atlantis.^[3] The Nazis declared that the Aryans were superior to all other races, and believed they were entitled to expand territorially.

The Slavs, Roma, and Jews were defined as being racially inferior and non-Aryan “Untermenschen“, and were thus considered to be a danger to the Aryan or Germanic master race.^[5] According to the Nazi secret Hunger Planand Generalplan Ost, the Slavic population was to be removed from Central Europe through expulsion, enslavement, starvation, and extermination,^[6]except for a small percentage who were deemed to be non-Slavic descendants of Germanic settlers, and thus suitable for Germanisation.^[7]

We can see elements of this myth being reflected in the appeal of Donald Trump ‘making America Great Again’.
And we also see how Benjamin Netanyahu is using the myths of the Hebrew Scriptures to justify his brutal assaults on Gaza, The West Bank and Lebanon. After all, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, God promised the land of Canaan (Palestine) to Abraham and his descendants – the Jews of today. This myth particularly arises in the stories of Moses and the Exodus from the land of Egypt (when the Egyptians, trying to prevent the loss of their slaves, are drowned in the Red Sea); then by Joshua, who takes up Moses’ commission to ‘possess’ the so-called ‘Promised Land’ and slaughter all its indigenous inhabitants.

In fact, this ‘possession’ has been going on in more recent times, as the Israeli Government assists new ‘Jewish Settlements’ (against International Law). Palestinians are systematically evicted and their houses bulldozed. Sandy and I actually heard a Minister of the Israeli Government promulgate this strategy to a large gathering of visiting American Jews at the King David Hotel in 1974.

All myths are the fruit of human imagination and give rise to creativity of one form or another.

So, as an exercise, I thought I might have a go at imagining and creating a new myth as a kind of alternative to the Judeo-Christian Creation Story found in the Book of Genesis (Beginnings), which was written way back in history to ‘explain’ where everything came from and the human place in it. And maybe, in time, I could add to the myth I am creating with mythic stories.

Let me know what you think.

In the beginning was Imagination. 
Imagination created all that is, the whole cosmos. 
In particular, Imagination created humans to embody Imagination’s being of delight and creativity. 
But Imagination was free, beyond human comprehension and control. 
Human imagination could never fully grasp Imagination but shared a relationship with Imagination and Imagination’s care for the creation.

As time passed, it became clearer that Imagination’s nature was fluid and adaptive rather than limited and controlling; and that the creation had an inherent, power to adapt and evolve, reflecting Imagination’s nature. Expanding diversity came to be seen as a valued aspect of Imagination’s being. The propensity for adaptive change and surprising diversity that seemed to delight Imagination was embedded in every living being.

And humans imagined explanations for their existence, reflecting their realities, including their understanding of Imagination, creating stories that offered meaning and a sense of cohesion across the diversity of the creation.

And it came to pass that humans began to glory in their own creations, considering Imagination as superfluous to human existence. They could not see that the Imagination was intrinsically at work in their own imagination and creativity. 

So humans imagined they were independent of Imagination and ignored the stories that offered meaning, social cohesion and boundaries that protected creation.

Self-interest and protection of self-interest were imagined by humans and Fear was born.