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"saule sēta saites" literally means "sun, fence, connections" in Latvian. This is a structural skeleton to understand Latvian folklore.
Introduction
What is Latvian Folklore
Latvian folklore explains the main philosophical questions in epistemology and metaphysics, but I find its greatest strength in naturalistic observation of human behavior. Latvian folklore does not have a formal set of rules, and it does not advocate changing world beliefs, so it is not a religion or cult. Instead, it is a system of tools to help understand the world, and in so doing, our ability to negotiate it. Everyone is free to their own interpretation of meaning of Latvian folklore devices. As a whole, Latvian folklore holds values and life principles of people living by the Baltic sea. It is told through a network of dainas; small 4-lined versus with unique structure, enabling them to link together with ease. These wisdoms are held and passed on by regular people who live and work the land. It is an oral tradition, that is communicated best when sung. Women have a natural instinct to nurture. Communication is vital to the success of nurturing, so it has been women who pass on the versus generation to generation. Men have provided the money and technology, to archive the original versus. The end result, is a folklore database containing a woman's perspective of life.
Introduction to my interpretation of Latvian folklore
My interpretation of Latvian folklore is founded on the following assumptions. The structure and growth process of the psyche parallels that of the universe. Our personal growth and community growth, is like growth in nature, universe and god (dievs). Consequently, there are no divisions between is and god and everything between.
Life in Latvia has been recorded in dainas. It is from reading these, and reading other scholar and layman interpretations, that I come to my own conclusions of their meaning. Dainas reflect nature, which is constant, so what varies among interpretations is how we use them. As mentioned, the daina versus describe nature scenes. These scenes in sequence tell a story. These nature scenes mirror ourselves, and the universe. They explain how we are structured and how we interact and live. To make a simple connection between nature and our lives as humans, the elements of nature are treated using animism and anthropomorphism, Specifically, nature describes a family structure. The family structure can reflect basic family unit, or a community with character personalities the same as a family's. Spiritual entities can be present as guides. I interpret folklore in multidimensional networks, as mathematical fractals, the large is a composite of many identical small. Like a tree, the smaller branches are actually identical in structure to the larger.
How Latvian Folklore Describes the Psyche
There are many models of the human psyche. Psychologists have theoretical models such as behaviorism, psychoanalysis, humanism to describe human behavior. Philosophers debate concept, linearly, resulting in volumes of books on a single emotion. Religions have indexes of rules. Pop-theorists are most popular, hence the name. Simple categorization explains peoples personalities. It could be by color (red people, blue people, orange people), or by shape (triangle people, square people, circle people), or by how they make you feel (draining people, happy people, angry people). I have my own interpretation of how to describe the psyche, using Latvian folklore. It's categorization system is based on family members.
Main principles:
I call this system "saule-sēta-saites" which means sun-fence-connections
More specifically, the sun (saule) is the light that shines inside you. Latvian folklore describes what it is, how to find it, and how to use it. When the sun is said in diminutive (saulīte), it suggests that its owner shines and sparkles. This means that the object has a sun entity (saulīte) shining in it, so it is alive. It alerts us that this object is beautifully special, and must be handled with care.
The fence (sēta) explains the structure of the self and universe, by defining the types of boundaries between entities. In Latvian these boundaries are called sētas (fences). I use a family fence structure (ģimenes sēta) to explain individual personalities. The environment we negotiate has other boundary fences.
Finally, connections (saites) explains the processes within ourselves and the universe. Behaviors and consequences. Its structure is a network of nodes. This is how the brain actually works, from neurological level, to the highest level of cognition. Dainas describe each node by creating a picture (glezna) of the psychological entity. The picture usually describes phenomenon in nature, such as trees and fields. The feel of this scene, reflects a state of our psyche. Then another daina-described picture (glezna) describes another node and psychological entity, and its relevance to the first.
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