Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Myths and related stories describe essential human experience which, requiring use of the imagination, reconcile and give voice to fantasy and reality. Speaking through images which embrace the paradox of possible and impossible, the likely and the desired, they stimulate our personal expressive abilities in a way quite distinct from the absorption of prescribed images which television and radio present. This book is concerned with rekindling that creative power of the human imagination which in the West has atrophied through neglect. It is concerned with increasing an understanding of the need to exercise our imagination as one of our psychic functions, as well as the need to exercise our bodies.

This book contains myths and tales from all over the world which are grouped around seven themes, all reflective of forms of human experience. The authors suggest ways in which these myths and tales can be used to develop our imagination's original and unique voice through educational and therapeutic encounter, and how this expression can be communicated to others who are engaged in the same task.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Part 1: introduction; on myths, tales and storytelling. Part 2: beginnings - Mantis and the flower, the shared myth of the one that became two, creation, Maheo, the sacrifice to make the sun, the separation of God from man; passages - how man was made again, the maiden wiser than the Tsar, the serpent slayer, the knowledge of birds, the wooden head, beauty and the beast; knots - a storm coming, how different people came to earth, Maui Muri catches the sun, the spirit who could not make up its mind, why Imboto is alone in heaven, the story bag; the tree - the three eggs, Willow wife, coyote steals fire, trees, the spirit in the tree, the return of the flowers; trickster - the caterpillar and the wild animals, the harvest, Hermes and Apollo, fox and wolf, trickster takes 15 and 16, Loki and Baldut; healing - the healing waters, how the hummingbird got its colour, grandmother spider, the maiden with the wooden bowl, lo-sun the blind boy, Ulu and the breadfruit tree; return - the monkey's jump, the lady of Stavoren, the ending of the dream, Maui and death, Persephone's return, how raven came to leave the earth. Part 3: notes for facilitators; on mythmaking structures; ways of making images.