Myth in THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS By Roland D. Yeomans

Myth in THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS

Roland D. Yeomans

 

Charles Reed has graciously allowed me to slip in through the back door of this cyber domain to talk a bit about the hero of “3GOLDILOCKS & THE BEAR” and my Native American Lord of the Rings, THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS.

    Or rather about the meld of the world's myths that makes for the world of Hibbs, the bear with two shadows.  Why two shadows?

    Isn't there a duality of natures in all of us - a white wolf and a black wolf, both contesting for control of our spirit, the Lakota would say.  And the one who wins?  The one we feed.

    Ancient cultures were defined by their mythology, shaping the sacred stories to show their values, beliefs, and concerns.  Those myths expressed the spiritual and intellectual life of the people of those cultures.

    Those myths had superhuman beings such as Gilgamesh of Mesopotamia - not just a culture hero, but he was the founding father of a whole society.  Hibbs is such a character, more than what he seems, though less than what he yearns to be.

    In many myths, the discovery of knowledge is related to the human characteristics of curiosity and playfulness.  Such is the case with the ever-curious, ever playful Hibbs  -- much to the consternation of the mysterious Turquoise Woman.

    She represents several dualities common in myths :

Trickster -

The Native American tricksters often take on animal form such as Raven or Coyote.  That particular role is taken on by Little Brother, often seen as a hawk.  But rarely, and luckily so, seen as Chaos or the ThunderBird.

Goddess/Teacher  -

Estanatlehi, the Turquoise regally assumes this role, much like Spider Woman.  Though a helper and teacher, she can also be dangerous and unpredictable.  And that is to be expected as she is also :

Gaia -

The Turquoise Woman is the electro-magnetic consciousness that circles from pole to pole of our world.  She is, in fact, the mind of this planet, who can take physical form.  And because of that she leads to an important aspect of my novel :

THE MELD OF THE WORLD'S MYTHOLOGIES -

The Australian aboriginal aspect of the Dreaming flows into my novel, shaping the universal Great Myth of Hibbs' adventures.  Why universal?  Which of us does not dream?

    Hibbs' adventures in the Dreaming, the creation time, interconnects all the world's myths, turning the landscape of the entire world into a living body.  The Lakota see the world as one large web of life, each strand vibrating to the beating of the heart next to it.

THE MYTH OF THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS

Myths are not fixed truths.
    Rather they are ever-winding, ever-shifting paths to misty glimpses of possible answers to questions.  And each wanderer down those paths asks different questions, so their eyes and hearts whisper different answers.

    Sometimes those eyes are at odds with the hearts.  And considering the two shadows we share with Hibbs, should not this be so?

    Thank you for letting me draw back the curtain a bit for you to peek into the myths which live in THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS.

AUTHOR BIO

WHO IS THIS STRANGE MAN WHO WROTE THIS BOOK?

My family left Detroit when I was quite young so my last memories of Detroit are hub cabs and knee caps. The further south we went, the hotter it got. So I was glad when we stopped in Lafayette, Louisiana, because I was real sure the next stop would have been Hell.

    A year there taught me to say "sir and ma'am" and to pronounce David and Richard in really strange ways when they were last names. And it was not a pretty sight when I said Comeaux for the first time.

    Lake Charles was the next stop. I remember standing in the front yard of our new home, watching the neighbor across the street beating in his front door (his wife had locked it) with a fence post.

    I looked up to Mom and said, "You know, if I had a degree in Psychology, I would probably understand what's going on there."

    She ruffled my hair and said back, "Lot's of luck with that."

    And she was right. A master's degree in psychology hasn't unlocked the why's of the pain I see. It just helped me put fancy labels on them.

    I have been everything but a pirate, but since I once worked for a tax preparation firm, I guess you could say I've been that, too. I was a teacher for awhile. Then, a family counselor. My mother contracted cancer, and I emptied my savings, opening my own bookstore to give me freedom to go with her for her out-of-town treatments.

    Mother died. The reason for my store died with her. I saw an opening at Lifeshare Blood Center in the Product Management department. I applied and was hired. And the rest is infamy, ah, I mean history.

    I've been writing most of my life. Most of my old writings burned up when my home burned to the ground. But now, I have an e-book, THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS, on sale at Amazon HERE.

Hibbs also appears to fend off the Twilight of the Gods in post-Katrina New Orleans along with the Lakota shaman, Wolf Howl, in END OF DAYS. Click HERE for more information.