Hi everyone. I'm Josh, and this is The Emerald,

currents and trends through a mythic lens.

The podcast where we explore an ever-changing world and our lives in it

through the lens of myth, story, and imagination.

The Emerald.

All that's happening on this green jewel in space. Where do music and poetry come from?

Cultures have different answers to this question,

where music and poetry come from.

But in many cultures,

it's seen as this form of divine inspiration and the role of the person who's fortunate enough to be able to receive this fountain of inspiration.

Their role is to sing back in praise of that fountain, you could say.

And in singing back, the senses that they uplift the people around them,

the culture around them, the world at large, perhaps,

even the natural environment of the places they inhabit.

So the role of the bard, right, as it's known in the Celtic traditions, the bard,

who receives from this fount of divine inspiration and then sings back to the world,

and through their song and verse and poetry, is able not only to uplift the people around them,

but also to animate the land and invigorate the spiritual energies of place,

the energies of the plants and streams and rocks and great trees and oceans,

even through their song, they're able to reinvigorate this, and rocks and great trees and oceans even.

Through their song, they're able to reinvigorate this animate world.

The role of the bard has been very, very key in so many different cultures.

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