Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 29 -- The Underground River as Metaphor
Repressed by the missionaries, the SUBTERRANEAN STREAM of tribal tradition was still
operative in controlling the Indians and ready to break forth on the surface with the first release
of external pressure. -- R Shonle, "The Christianizing Process among Preliterate Peoples,"
Journal of Religion 4, 1924
Unappreciation
The editors have been deeply attracted to the vivid movement and activity of his poetry, which
seem to flow up from an UNDERGROUND RIVER that lies beneath mere speech, as though
written in some pre-verbal language of which all later languages have proved to be a mere
translation. -- Peter Davison, "A Reflection on Poet W.S. Merwin," Atlantic Monthly, August 28,
1997
Union
In the pit of the night our bodies merge,
dark clouds passing through each other in lightning,
the joining of RIVERS FAR UNDERGROUND in the stone.
I feel thick but hollow, a polyp floating on currents. -- Erica Jong, Half-Lives (1973)
Unseen
My life is like the SUBTERRANEAN RIVER in the Peak of Derby, visible only where it crosses
the celebrated cavern. -- Walter Scott, Redgauntlet (1824)
Vision
Joins the UNDERGROUND RIVER of ecstatic visionaries, what Gary Snyder calls "the Great
Subculture," which connects the cave painters with Blake, Cezanne, and Mondrian. -- Peter
Acheson, "Mind Mandala, The Art of James Harrison," The Brooklyn Rail, April 2006
Waste
For the first time in our history there is an overwhelming economic pinch, following the Great
War and stretching around the world. We have turned our attention in this country, as never
before, to the problem of waste -- waste in Governmental expenditures and processes, waste in
industry. -- Frederick M. Davenport, "UNDERGROUND RIVERS of Waste," The Outlook, An
Illustrated Weekly Journal of Current Life, January-April 1922
Wisdom
There are many wells of faith and knowledge drawing from one UNDERGROUND RIVER of
Divine wisdom. The practice of honoring, learning and celebrating the wisdom collected from
these wells is Deep Ecumenism. -- Creation Spirituality Communities, "Twelve Principles of
Creation Spirituality," internet posting
Medieval alchemists referred to these teachings as the UNDERGROUND RIVER, which flowed
through time carrying the ancient wisdom. -- Dennis William Hauck, Sorcerer's Stone, A
Beginner’s Guide to Alchemy (2004)
What seems most noteworthy regarding "underground rivers" is the spectrum of meanings. In the
manner of Alice in Wonderland's Queen of Hearts, "A word means what I want it to mean; nothing
more, nothing less."
Apparently, so can a metaphor.
For smothering bombasticy, a metaphoric underground river can flow like the Mississippi. William
E. Barton split his writings between treatises on the life of Abraham Lincoln and weighty parables
attributed to the wise Safed the Sage. We'll quote one of the latter, published in the Syracuse
Journal, October 16, 1901.
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