The Lost Importance of Ancient Oral Tradition in Modern Spirituality

Have you ever read something and shrugged it off only to later hear it from someone verbally (or have it visually communicated through sign) and then feel it in an “Aha!” moment?

Sometimes we can see information that has been written but that information doesn’t feel like it’s been fully integrated until we verbally, or physically, experience its communication through another human being.

This person-to-person exchange of information, through the sounds and motions of our bodies, extends back in time to our pre-homo sapiens days. It sits at the foundation of our humanity and has set the stage for the myriad of communication forms that have evolved with us over time.

However, as our ancestors began to experiment with the dispersal of information over large distances and in mass quantities we lost an important piece of the information that was being shared.

Ancient oral traditions are seen by elders and keepers across the globe as incredibly important to the continuation of our species and for good reason. This personal exchange not only communicates the information itself but the moral, emotional, ethical, historical and vibrational knowledge that cannot always be adequately passed on by written words or symbols alone.

Our communication systems and methods are fast, vast and varied today and with emerging technologies we have an opportunity to bring back that which was lost.

We have the power and capability to bring back the exchange of emotional information through our deepest, physical roots while bridging the technologies of our time.

Oral Tradition Solidifies Your Individual Reality

Our comprehension of the world around us is what defines our reality and this understanding is based on how each of us feels about the world.

The human brain is constantly updating its reality through the creation of new memories, most often through the process of dreams. Dreams take newly formed memories and put them up against old memories of similar content in a mock scenario to integrate this new information and emotional connection within the context of past lessons.

The key here, is that each and every memory you form is associated with an emotion.

Some emotions are subtle others are intense. It’s of no surprise then that our most vivid memories (and recurring nightmares) are born of the events we experienced with the greatest amount of emotion.

According to Frontiers in Psychology “…emotion modulates virtually every aspect of cognition.”

This explains why individuals may interpret the same event differently, because the emotion surrounding the event or memory is associated with an individual emotion. Every human on this planet lives within their own version of reality based on their individual life experience and the emotions they have felt that define it.

This is the most important point of oral tradition.

When we hear a story and see the physical body of another human moving we are not only absorbing the basic words and information but the emotion, reality and feeling that the storyteller is communicating through their voice and body language.

It is this transfer of emotion and feeling that is the most important, crucial piece of shared information and this cannot always be adequately communicated through written word alone.

Some information is meant to be heard or physically experienced.

The Power Within A 100,000 Year Old Oral Legend

To understand the untapped power of verbal communication today, we first need to go back in time and observe the incredible force of oral tradition in our stars over 100,000 years ago (yes, you read that right).

One of the most ancient myths, stemming from oral tradition, alive today is that of the Seven Sisters and the Pleiades constellation. There are slightly different versions of the myth but the basic story goes that seven sisters were being pursued by the hunter Orion. The sisters escaped into the stars but one of them either became lost, sacrificed herself to save her sisters, or went into hiding and that is why there are only 6 stars visible to the naked eye in the Pleiades constellation today.

This ancient myth is almost completely identical in structure across the world and is noted in texts and oral traditions from ancient Greeks and Persians to the Māori, Mayans to Aboriginal Australians, Native Americans and is even mentioned in the Christian bible.

In every single version of the myth there are seven sisters or seven stars in the Pleiades constellation even though only six stars are visible to the naked eye.

But over 100,000 years ago seven stars were visible.

Space scientists and astronomers have known, through the use of high-powered telescopes, about the seventh star but our ancestors would not have had that capability until more recently in our human history.

When the Kepler telescope was recalibrated in 2013 to begin identifying exoplanets in orbit around bright stars, it also identified the movement of the stars within the Pleiades constellation. The star Pleione today is often lost in the glare of it’s neighboring star Atlas but 100,000 years ago these stars had a greater distance between them and would have both been visible to the naked eye.

The final piece to this ancient puzzle is found within the oral traditions and legends passed down among Aboriginal Australians. The story of the Pleiades is almost identical here as well, that seven sisters were chased by three male hunters in a boat (their interpretation of the constellation Orion) and one of the sisters became lost.

It is commonly accepted that our ancestors left Africa around 100,000 BCE and spread across the world to places like Europe, Asia and Australia. The key in Australia is that the continent, a massive island, had been completely isolated until the British invaded in 1788 CE.

That means that this oral tradition may have survived since the original dispersal of our ancestors from Africa over 100,000 years ago.

A Recently Evidenced Native American Oral Legend Now Bases “The Goonies” in Fact

A more recent example of the accuracy in oral traditions and storytelling has surfaced from just over a week ago with the discovery of timbers from a 17th century Spanish galleon off the Oregon coast.

As white settlers invaded the northern west coast of America in the 19th century, Native American legends tell of a wreck off of the Oregon coast a few hundred years earlier. The legends detail the remnants of a ragged crew swimming ashore and gathering any riches from the wreck that they could find before going their separate ways.

The legend at the time was supported by physical evidence such as blocks of beeswax that the Native Americans had recovered from the wreck (honeybees are not native to North America) and broken pieces of Chinese porcelain.

This sparked a frenzy to discover any additional lost, buried or hidden treasure in the area from the so-called “Beeswax Wreck” and sparked the idea for Steven Spielberg’s 1985 movie “The Goonies.”

In June 2022 however, dozens of timbers from a Spanish galleon were recovered from sea caves off the Oregon coast. The galleon is believed to be the Santo Cristo de Burgos that veered off course and disappeared in 1693 with its full cargo of trading goods on board.

These recovered, distinctive timbers, along with the beeswax and porcelain found washed ashore by Native Americans gives credibility to this oral legend.

Understanding the Importance of Emotion and Oral Tradition in General Life and Spirituality Today

Throughout human history we have evolved our communication structures from verbal, to written and static information, to a combination of both.

From petroglyphs and early alphabets, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the first printing press, the telegraph, telephone, radio, computer and finally to our current smart devices, communication capability has exponentially expanded.

We have, in a way, come full circle.

Now, within an instant, we can access verbal and physically visual content on Tik Tok, Youtube, and Netflix. We can send instant voice notes through Whatsapp.

The emotion and feeling of communication is making a comeback and connecting us to the primal roots within our bodies. The specific vibration of sound is re-emerging from its forgotten depths.

It is this emotional connection that is of the utmost importance today.

Our societal rules and systems are crumbling. It’s as if we have not been allowed to truly feel or have a choice in the frequency and vibration of sound that we take in.

But the more we listen and the more we communicate freely with the movement of our bodies, the more we connect to each other, the more that emotional bond and connection surfaces and the more we understand about the nature of what makes us human.

It is important to seek out and identify with information that feels right to you. Listen to the sound, listen to the vibration and frequency of story and, if it feels right, let it sink into your bones.

It is time to bring back our humanity. The animalistic needs within us that crave a sense of community based in emotional connection and to make the world a better place by paying attention to the feeling and vibration of the information that we’re taking in.

It’s time to begin a new wave of oral tradition.