Gaia: Then and Now is a series of ARAS webinars that focus on our relationship to the Earth, as revealed through the study of ancient and contemporary symbolic imagery as it appears in myth, the visual arts, dance, and dramatic story telling. With widely varying but complementary perspectives, the speakers will present commentary, visual images, original videos, and engage with the online audience in interactive dialogue.
St. Columba and the Poetic Imagination
During the first Covid lockdown in 2020, James Harpur pored over the extraordinary stories about St. Columba (521–597) and wrote a book of poems inspired by his life. In this talk he explores the saint not so much as a historical person but as the archetype of Poet, Pilgrim and Exile, three crucial figures in Irish culture and the country’s historical imagination. He also examines how the role of imagination exemplified in the stories about Columba has an urgent ecological and holistic relevance in today’s world.