Whether we listen with child-like amusement to the tales of some Tibetan Monk, or read the cultivated accounts of modern mystics, it is a wonder to learn mythology everywhere is the same. The meaning of myth "comes via mythos from the Greek root uv (mu) meaning to make a sound with the mouth, and is thus basic to human existene as we know it (Adams,1)." As well of the metaphorical, symbolical, or direct expression of the unknown, many people mistake the defintion of myth as a story with no basis, and often discredit the eyewitness explanation of the unknown(1). Yet, it is believed by many Mythologist that the comparing of myths from various cultures would reveal a correlation of truth.
In the same way, myths like dreams are physically real. The point is not to search for the intrinsic meaning of myth, but for the truth in the meaning. For instance, different myths have essential patterns of truth revealing the past, and the current world around us. Our culture still nurtured in mythology the landscape, as well as all of human existence is made alive with symbolic suggestion. The forests and mountains have their supernatural protectors who are known through long standing episodes of local histories. As Joseph Campbell describes in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, "many other symbolizations of this continuity fill the world of mythological instructed communities. For example, the clans of the American hunting tribes commonly regarded themselves descended from half-animal half human, ancestors. For the primitive hunting peoples of those remotest human millenniums when the saber tooth tiger, the mammoth, and the lesser presences of the animal kingdom were the primary manifestations of what was alien (Campbell, 384)." We can see many examples of this in Indian dances, and rock paintings around the globe. Likewise, "the great human problem was to become linked psychologically to the task of sharing the wilderness with these beings. An unconscious identifications took place, and this was finally redered conscious in the half-human half-animal figures of the mythological totem-ancestors(384, 390)." Many Native American tribes have stories about Bigfoot with their visages carved into totem poles calling the hairy man-like creatures Dsonoskwa, Steatco, and Bukwus.
Legends are clusters of ideas, or stories passed along by people who generally belive what they hear to be true, typically because they come from culturally uncontestable sources. Some people regard legends as rumors as they propel an almost unbelievable fascination in our bneliefs, but when legends become popularized and live on, their story has some clear function in our society, or it would not persist. The legend of the West, that of Bigfoot, or Sasquatch is a fascinating modern 'urban' legend which persists as a legend of the West. In this constellation of motifs and narratives, one central idea continues to emerge: alive in the mountains of the West is a kind of primate creature with shaggy hair and primitive build, one who is reminiscent of gorillas or larger apes but who apparently has come kind of social system like our own. Many Bigfoot stories depict the creature as angry, and prone to acts of revenge, because people won't leave it alone. Things like throwing rocks into campgrounds, and at cabins in the night. They also do what is often called a tree knock where big sticks are banged against trees making a loud echoing bang. In folklore itself, however, what is more interesting is what function such a character plays in the Pacific Region, whether or not it expresses something important in the culture. Going as far back as Beowulf, "there is a wealth of 'wild man of the forest' stories in medieval woodcuts, in tapestries, and even in statuary. The wild men are depicted as covered with wavy, unruly hair, matted with twigs and bits of grass and leaves; the wild women are a bit less hairy and very voluptuous. They are shown as intruding on the affairs of civilized human beings by angrily rushing out of the woods to kidnap people.
.....But in all cases, they actually pictorialize a clash between the civilized and cultivated world and the uncivilized, uncultivated world. Suffice it to say, this saga is perhaps as old as the Gilgamesh epic. The beast act to embody a condition of human existence against which ethos measures itself, and bares little meaning without.
"Nothing ever becomes real until it is experienced(Keats)."
The experiences in my back yard have let me to believe that Bigfoot is real. Nothing but an experience like I have documented lately could have made me a believer. If you have learned or considered anything of value from my experience, may my departing words excite a new wonder in your soul.
The temporal march from past ot present, as cultural ideologies continue, reveals a weaving of our beliefs of the unknown and the discovered. The threads of curiosity and our pursuit of knowledge stream together as we dream of finding something better. No broken promises, or shattered dreams, just fulfillment. Finding Bigfoot is the dream, and the fulfillment of this fabled blog. Whether an idea or a living creature, the search for Bigfoot both literally and metaphorically has always been a mix of destingy and destination for the explorer. By exploring for Bigfoot, we acknowledge the primitive, past, and inner fear of our psyche. We seek to discover ourselves much like we wish to discover Bigfoot. After all, when the day comes when Bigfoot is officially found, unrecognized and unclassifiable, then it will be the day humans learn we have big, very big footprints to fill.
