Dreamtime

by John Moriarty

This revised and substantially expanded edition of John Moriarty's first book interweaves fresh songlines and aislings in a work now recognized as a classic of spiritual writing. Mediated by stories and personal excursions in literature, philosophy and sacred texts, and containing a new Epilogue, Dreamtime takes issue with the Cartesian consciousness of a Cartesian world.. "Although Dreamtime is often thought of as an Australian aboriginal phenomenon, this book posits a European, Christian and Irish Dreamtime, as much cultural as geo-physical. The task of the poet-philosopher, it suggests, is to enlarge our capacity for symbolic understanding, while keeping the path to Connla's Well open and inviting us to inhabit a shared Dreamtime.

Genres: Philosophy, Ireland, Spirituality, Mythology, Nonfiction, Irish Literature, Religion

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

JOHN MORIARTY was born in North Kerry in 1938 and educated at Listowel and University College Dublin. He taught English literature at the University of Manitoba in Canada for six years, before returning to Ireland in 1971. He is author of Dreamtime (1994), and the trilogy Turtle Was Gone a Long Time: Crossing the Kedron (1996), Horsehead Nebula Neighing (1997) and Anaconda Canoe (1998).

Obituary with information: http://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/...

Reviews

[Tess Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Moriarty is a one of a kind writer. This book, while it might be difficult on first reading because of his many allusions to a huge swathe of literature, is well worth the effort. John is talking about one thing only, the path to enlightenment, spiritual development, and he uses his great erudition to support what he is saying. All traditions and cultures have had and have their own mythology or way to speaking about this matter. John decodes these mythologies for us. The Perennial Wisdom is John's metier.
It takes more than one reading. My experience of this book was that it had a cumulative effect on me, a gradual coming to understand and absorb what he was saying. It is a very powerful book, I think.

[Peter McLaughlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a bad book. Do not read it. Highlights include: literally the very first page, where the author writes ‘the answer implied but not overtly stated in this book is that…’ and then overtly states the answer.

[Enya]

I really can't rate this. I've read this whole book and still don't know what it was about.
It was a gift from my parents from their trip to Ireland. They wanted to give me something that I couldn't get here. True that. I wonder why. I'm not a mystic, and this was just reading for the sake of reading, - not a single word fastened in my mind.

[Con · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing introduction to Moriarty. Don't expect to 'get it'. Moriarty is the great enigma of recent Irish writing, worth exploring and giving a lot of time to but he definitely does not make it an easy ride.