The Smoke Hole
I’ve recently started reading the book Smokehole by Dr Martin Shaw. He is a renowned mythologist and storyteller.
His style is conversational and highly enjoyable to read.
So far, one part has jumped out at me:
In Siberian myth, when you want to hurt someone, you crawl into their tent and close the smoke hole.
That way, God can't see them.
Close the smoke hole and you break connection to the divine world: mountains, rivers, trees.
Close the smoke hole and we become mad.
Close the smoke hole and we are possessed by ourselves and only ourselves.
Close the smoke hole and you have only your neurosis for company.
The smoke hole is used to remove the smoke from the tent. Without it, the smoke circulates round the space. Either the inhabitants run from the tent coughing or they’ll eventually die through suffocation.
I think this imagery is a great reflection on the Western worldview. Modernism closed the smoke hole. God has been shut out. Western culture has rejected divine beauty and locked themselves away from the natural world.
And now the smoke is increasing. It wasn’t so bad at first, in fact, the smoke hid our little peccadillos from each other.
It was fun. But now the sins are getting out of control.
The darker the smoke, the more illusions we begin to see. We end up thinking that the ever-changing clouds are phantoms, with malicious intent.
Mistaking our neighbours as monstrous beasts, we lash out at them. Confusion reigns. We are going mad.
Unless the cover over the smoke hole is dislodged, Western culture is in trouble. For us to see more clearly, we need to let the smoke out.
And the Divine in.
That’s a lovely idea. Playing with that as a metaphor a little more, in pre-industrial Europe, thatched cottages did not have smoke holes. Thatch is permeable, and so the smoke would rise through the whole roof, sterilising it of any nastiness.
Perhaps it’s not about letting god or the divine in through one space. Perhaps it is about allowing the smoke to seep out of us constantly and to let it clean ua of all the bad things that can start to grow.
Mythology is truly powerful. Thank you for bringing this to Substack's light.