Teaching With Tales

From the Shining Tribe Tarot, the Speaker of Rivers (King of Cups); from the Animal Tiles, Cicada:

Pollack refers to the King of Cups as a storyteller who helps his people navigate the emotional currents of life. Myths and stories can be teaching tales, not necessarily to propagate beliefs, but to help people understand a concept. Stories work for all types of learners: visual (mental pictures of the story), auditory (hearing the speaker's voice), and kinesthetic (emotional connections and feelings from the story). Psychologist Peg Neuhauser found that learning which stems from a well-told story is remembered more accurately, and for far longer, than learning derived from facts and figures. For two to seventeen years, Cicadas go through multiple instar phases underground before emerging above ground to seek a mate. Males sing by flexing their tymbals - drum-like organs found in their abdomens. The sound is intensified by the cicada’s mostly hollow abdomen. The Cicada's long period underground suggests that the King not try to make up some narrative on the fly or to repeat an over-told story, but to draw from his experience to create it. Those tales have the most impact because others recognize their genuine foundation.