So, I was thinking about this the last several days. I participated in a count of homeless people here in our county (Yamhill County, Oregon) and many among them are veterans.The mythologies of the Gaelic and Brythonic cultures, are all commonly lumped into the catchphrase "Celtic." I wish they wouldn't do that, but, there it is. Semantic peculiarities and peccadilloes aside, these myths, and the archetypes they describe, are particularly apropos for homeless veterans.The particular archetype I have in mind is the Celtic "mad" man or woman. These are men and women who forsake "settled" society after battle, or after trauma, or being cursed in association with battle, or some kind of violent struggle. Such characters to be found in the literature include, but are not limited to, Merlin in his maddened state (Myrddin Wyllt), Lailoken, Mad Sweeny (Suibhne Geilt), and Mis, to name only a few who appear in these Traditions. The Woodwose appears as a cultural cognate in Anglo-Saxon traditional culture ( see Durer's "Woodwose". ) Older still is the figure of the wild-man Enkidu, finally tamed by music, in the epic tale of Gilgamesh.In the case of Mad Merlin, long before he became the advisor to young King Arthur, he too lost his mind and gained a vocation. In the 12th century Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote in Vita Merlini "I set myself to sing of the madness of the bard of prophecy."In this case Merlin was a king, who went mad after seeing the carnage and loss in battle of so many friends and family. He too flees and becomes "wood-wild" in the forests of Caledon (Scotland) - a gray wolf his only companion. He suffers the elements as they come, foraging for food in the harshest winters, and hiding from theoccasional traveler who might catch a sighting of him. He takes refuge in an apple tree which seems to have magical properties and, conveniently, a Romulan cloaking device. None of the search parties can see him when he's hiding in the tree, and the tree itself seems to convey onto him the gift of prophetic poetry.The Apple Tree Poems he composes are full of dire prophecy of the doom which the English would exact up on Wales. But he also made these poems intimate and tender by addressing them to his other adored friend, a wild pig:"Oh little piglet,oh blissful sow,don't take your morning nap,don't rummage in the undergrowth,if you sawthe sheer violencethat I saw,you wouldn't sleep in the morning"(Many of the Celtic Saints follow this same practice, and it would be a good research project to hunt down all of them who had been warriors and took the tonsure after a psychic break herein described. It should also be noted that Myrddin may also have been a title referring to a specific grade of religious functionary or even the style of tonsure by which that was signified. )To continue, Merlin's brother Rodarch tries to get him to come home by sending a musician out to sing to him,"Little by little as he played, he coaxed the madman to put by his wild mood under the sweet spell of the zither,"And for a little while Merlin recovers himself enough to be able to travel back to his brother's court. Sadly, the crowds of people and their enthusiastic greetings were too much, and he,"went mad; and once more his derangement filled him with a desire togo off to the forest, and he longed to slip away."Hijinks ensue until he finally drinks from a holy spring and recovers his mind fully, to go on to mold a future High King.To use Sweeny as an example, he was a tribal king and as he entered a battle, he was tormented by terrifying visions,"Huge, flickering, horrible aerial phantoms rose up, so that they werein cursed, commingled clouds tormenting him hovering, fiend-like hostsconstantly in motion, shrieking and howling"Sweeny flees the battle field by rising up into the air, flying away to the deepest part of the forest, there to "turn his back on mankind, and to herd with deer, run along with the showers, and flee with the birds, and to feast in wildernesses." His mind shattered and in completely stark isolation, he is also opened up to visionary poems and seership. He is now able to fly as would a bird into "the upper world" where he makes a nest in an ancient Yew tree dressed in a feathered cloak (or covered in a feathered pelt which grew onto him in some versions). And in that state of alternating clarity and madness, God speaks to him, "every morning and every evening," and in so doing, grants him the gift of prophecy.And that is pretty much the standard pattern for all of these archetypes. They flee the war, their homes and their families, and wholly abjure and abdicate their hitherto established social roles. In these archetypal scenarios, they present with a described symptomology that we know in post-industrial 21st century terms as PTSD with all its accompanying psychic detritus: depression, paranoia, schizoid behaviors and breaks, psychoses, panic attacks, violence, drug and alcohol addiction, and etc. All are considered emotional and psychological disabilities today. All have ancient roots in Celtic cultures, many of which were warrior cultures. Likely, with a bit of anthropological digging, cultural cognates could be found in most world cultures.The trajectory of these mythologies is that these folks take off for extended wanderings in The Wilds, often literal isolated wilderness landscapes without, and, as often concomitantly, within. An urban wilderness is these days as, or perhaps even more, potentially unfriendly and lonesome as any primordial scape.The length of these wanderings were such that after a time these archetypal figures became to be perceived by the "sane" as having morphed into part-animal, part-bird, or even transgendered or non-gendered "creatures," many with fur or feathers rather than clothing. It is as if The Wild is absorbing them, and they in turn, are surrendering themselves to that dissolution in an effort to escape, or exorcise, the soul-level pain of their vastly changed post-war existence. In a very real sense, they come to find a new ecological sense of self, from living in intimate proximity to Wild Nature's elements. In any event, they are forever changed, and the success with which some manage to live out their lives depends on how much they are accepted and made room for by the "sane and settled."And yet, "not all who wander are lost." These archetypes - mad poets - are also intimately connected to "visions," visionary experiences, prophetic abilities, poetry, and music, particularly thanatalogical genres. They hang in the in-between spot between this life and the Otherworlds, and their blasted minds catch all of the psychic windsthat blow, but they seem unable to close those doors at will, as opposed to the formally trained and initiated Bards or Filidh.In some cases, they manage to heal themselves sufficiently, through these new Arts and their splendid isolation, to be able to, if not completely rejoin society, then at least to be able to positively contribute to it with poetry, vision, prophecy, music, various media arts, compassionate understanding of Otherworlds & forms of non-human existence, and wise guidance. In so doing, they are then able to help others, and society as a whole, heal themselves from similar afflictions, and were often sought out and revered.In these figures, Spirit and Madness intersect and that nexus becomes a vortex of creativity, expression, and healing; a spirituo-psychological Black Hole that connects the two bar-bell ends of separate but related existences. These archetypes demonstrate how to live many lives in one mortal span by housing more than one Soul through the catalyst of trauma and war.In almost all cases of success, it was the "mad" who managed to reintroduce themselves, when welcomed and allowed to by "society."In almost all instances of failure, these tragic figures died miserable and violent deaths after being subjected to the tender ministrations of those who kept attempting to reincorporate them back into their old societal roles.Just my tuppence.Yr. Obed. Scrvnr.,Kathleen