Overview

Dreamtime is a visionary work of myth, memory, and spiritual excavation by one of Ireland’s most original thinkers. In this profound journey of the soul, John Moriarty draws from global mythologies, literature, and personal experience to uncover the shared stories that shape human consciousness and the natural world. Woven through with richly poetic language and startling philosophical insight, Moriarty reconnects Western culture with the sacred imagination it has long forsaken. From Aboriginal Dreamtime to Homer, from Celtic folklore to Christian mysticism, Moriarty travels widely and fearlessly through the symbolic landscapes that have animated human life for millennia.  The task of the poet-philosopher, Moriarty 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 Dreamtime is not just a book—it is a re-enchantment, a call to awaken the mythic soul and to live in harmony with the Earth and its ancient wisdoms. A Book of Revelations grounded in sense as in spirit, Dreamtime refuses known categories, invites fresh modes of understanding and contains multitudes, introducing the reader to ‘the splendour and terror and danger and wonder of a world everywhere and in everything eruptively Divine’. This is a powerful work of literature by a masterspirit of modern times.

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9781843519652

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Reviews

‘John Moriarty weaves an extraordinary tapestry of myths and memories, drawing on the riches of a dazzling variety of cultures to conjure up a personal vision of a world alive to spirituality. He has none of the dangerous certainty of the wide-eyed mystic and writes with grace and subtlety, an enthralling reminder that religion is supposed to be about openness, daring and humility.’ – Fintan O’Toole, The Irish Times ‘This is one of the most extraordinary books ever published in Ireland. Not this year, not this last decade, not this century, but ever. Moriarty, an ex-academic who has worked as a gardener in the West of Ireland for many years, here takes on almost every one of the world’s great religions and many of its mythologies, particularly Ireland’s, in an attempt to embody a way to live in our time… a milestone in contemporary Irish literature and thought.’ – Brian Lynch, Evening Press ‘A thing of beauty, at once a Greek temple and a Christian basilica, read any one episode carefully and you will find every other episode begin to reflect it. John Moriarty does not claim to have prophetic foresight in any ordinary sense, yet Dreamtime is surely a work of rare prophetic power for those who have ears to hear.’ – Noel O’Donoghue, The Furrow ‘John Moriarty weaves an extraordinary tapestry of myths and memories, drawing on the riches of a dazzling variety of cultures to conjure up a personal vision of a world alive to spirituality. He has none of the dangerous certainty of the wide-eyed mystic and writes with grace and subtlety, an enthralling reminder that religion is supposed to be about openness, daring and humility.’ – Fintan O’Toole, The Irish Times ‘This is one of the most extraordinary books ever published in Ireland. Not this year, not this last decade, not this century, but ever. Moriarty, an ex-academic who has worked as a gardener in the West of Ireland for many years, here takes on almost every one of the world’s great religions and many of its mythologies, particularly Ireland’s, in an attempt to embody a way to live in our time… a milestone in contemporary Irish literature and thought.’ – Brian Lynch, Evening Press ‘A thing of beauty, at once a Greek temple and a Christian basilica, read any one episode carefully and you will find every other episode begin to reflect it. John Moriarty does not claim to have prophetic foresight in any ordinary sense, yet Dreamtime is surely a work of rare prophetic power for those who have ears to hear.’ – Noel O’Donoghue, The Furrow

Author Information

JOHN MORIARTY, writer and philosopher, was born in Kerry in 1938 and educated at Listowel and University College Dublin. He taught English literature at Manitoba University in Canada for six years, returning to Ireland in 1971. He is author of three volumes of Turtle Was Gone a Long Time: Crossing the Kedron (1996), Horsehead Nebula Neighing (1997) and Anaconda Canoe (1998). In 1997 he hosted a major six-part RTE television series, ‘The Blackbird & the Bell‘. He lived down from the Horse’s Glen at the foot of Mangerton Mountain in north Kerry, and died June 1st 2007.

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