Turtle Was Gone A Long Time, Volume 1: Crossing the Kedron - An Introduction
Dr Kevin J Power
Click on the Video for Kevin’s introduction to Turtle Was Gone A Long Time, Vol. 1.: Crossing the Kedron
The phrase ‘Turtle Was Gone A Long Time’ refers to the creation story of the Maidu people, in which turtle descends into the oceanic abyss in order to bring back a small piece of soil from which the world can be formed. This myth encapsulates many of the ideas we encounter in Moriarty’s writing; where human and animal meet, where we reflect on our origins, where our great depths are confronted rather than avoided. Crossing the Kedron, the first volume of Moriarty’s Turtle Was Gone A Long Time trilogy, invites us on this ‘great adventure’ of inner exploration.
The Kedron is the stream which Jesus walked across on his way to Gethsemane. A small step which leads to the giant leap of the Triduum Sacrum, the three sacred days. Inward journeys of transformed experience await the reader in Crossing the Kedron. In its opening pages Moriarty presents the notion that Neil Armstrong’s ‘small step’ was nothing other than an impressive technical achievement, not a transformative change of human perspective. The inner journey, the discovery of the depths of ourselves, as told in the story of Jesus’ crucifixion, is an immense endeavour. Moriarty’s fellow explorers are not astronauts or scientists, but poets and mystics.
Moriarty’s entire literary output could be thought of as holographic; each individual part reflective of the whole. In this sense there is no ‘first place’ to start reading his work, but it is arguable that Crossing the Kedron encodes much of his core philosophy; the diligent interrogation of our cultural origins; the ecological and spiritual consequences of moving too far too quickly; the need for a ‘sheltering mythology’ and rituals around which people can live ecumenically with nature; and the profound insight and inspiration which can be gained from simple, everyday experiences.
‘Without contraries there can be no progression’. In Crossing the Kedron two contrasting aspects of Moriarty’s character are at work; one a multi-layered, seemingly impenetrable and introspective philosopher, the other a delightfully simple storyteller who shows us how to read spiritual insight not from great religious or philosophical texts but from earthy, personal experiences like witnessing the birth of a calf or trying to walk a drunk friend home on a dark night. The reader’s temperament will determine which style they gravitate towards, but in either case the richness of the writing is such that multiple readings reward us with multiple insights. Each time we think we have enumerated the meanings of a particular sentence or paragraph, we realise that there are other layers of intention encoded within. Moriarty never provides us with the final word on any topic; meanings and insights remain vibrant, fluid, reinvigorated by new attitudes we might bring to the text each time we engage with it. This is why, once we overcome the initial intimidation we might feel in reading his work, we come to see that Moriarty is an astonishingly generous writer; the thought processes which he provokes in the reader bear no relation to word count. A short phrase may inspire a day’s worth of reflection.
Please click on the audio file below to hear Kevin read from John Moriarty’s Turtle Was Gone A Long Time, Vol. 1: Crossing the Kedron.
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