Why Archery?

Archeological evidence has shown us that archery has been part of the human story for as long as 70,000 years. It is quite safe to say that every human alive, from every culture, has ancestors who have wielded a bow as a major part of their conversation with the world. Archery is older than all human languages. This is important, as our languages come from the natural world, and through our relationship with it. Languages are imbued with living metaphor, wisdom of our ancestors that is still alive, yet perhaps muted. Therefore, our language and concepts are imbued with and have been shaped by archery.

We can find evidence in our languages of how the bow, target, arrows, quiver, the arrow’s trajectory, and more, was used to convey abstract concepts such as peace, intention, to make a mistake, to be in integrity with one’s self, or one’s beliefs. We can see how the bow mirrors the rainbow, the half moon, and even the trajectory the arrow flies. We can see how the bow directly influenced geometry through the arc and chord length. The concepts derived by the bow was instrumental in the building of bridges, and the creation of stringed instruments. Looking into ancient archetypal figures such as Artemis and Apollo, they are often depicted with either a bow, or a lyre. Of course the bow was used to engage danger from a distance, either in war, or hunting large prey.

I have written the beginning of a book about the mythopoetic importance of the bow and being human, but what is much more important than knowledge, facts, and suppositions, is how archery lives in us, and what picking up the bow, taking aim, drawing the string, and releasing the arrow toward the object of our desire or what we fear, has to tell us about who we are, where we abandon ourselves, our relationship to power (ours and others), shame, longing, etc. And, archery is fun! The child in each of us has a chance to come out and play. We get out of our heads and into our bodies, and find more about ourselves just as the ancestors did, and perhaps reconnect with our ancestors, all while casting the arrow toward the target.