Mythology is the most archaic and profound record we have of
mankind's essential spirit and nature. As far back as we are able to
trace the origins of our species, we find myth and myth-making as the
fundamental language through which man relates to life's mystery and
fashions meaning from his experiences. The world of myth has its own
laws and its own reality. Instead of concepts and facts that make
logical sense, we find patterns of irrational imagery whose meaning must
be discerned or experienced by the participant-observer. Discovering
these patterns of meaning is what Jung meant by the symbolic approach to religion, myth, and dream.
The mythic image is not to be taken literally and concretely as it
would be in the belief-system of a particular religion, nor is it to be
dismissed as 'mere illusion,' as often happens in scientific circles.
Instead, we must approach myth symbolically as revealed eternal 'truths'
about mankind's psychic existence — about the reality of the psyche.
'Once upon a time' does not mean 'once' in history but refers to events
that occur in eternal time, always and everywhere. Any myth is very much
alive today. Every night in sleep we sink back into that source of all
mythological imagery, the unconscious psyche — the origin of dreams.
Many of our games have their roots in mythology and much of contemporary
art, literature, and film is shot through with mythological themes.
The comparative method is the basic key to a symbolic understanding
of mythology. Through it we discover certain patterns which recur in
widely varying cultures separated by an immensity of both distance and
time. Jung called these underlying patterns 'archetypes' from 'arche'
meaning primordial, and 'typos' meaning typical. Archetypal images
embody the most essential elements of the human experience and drama.
They manifest both as powerful images, and as dynamic behavioral
patterns. They are a repertoire of instinctive human functioning,
analogous in our species to the instinctive impulse that impels, say,
the Baltimore Oriole to build a beautiful teardrop nest, or Salmon to
return to the streams of their birth. The generality of these images
result from recurrent reactions of human beings to situations and
stimuli of the same general order, repeated over thousands of years.
The archetypal images represent several basic stages of the life
drama symbolized by the Hero myth. They lead from an initial stage of
unconsciousness before the ego has awakened, through various stages of
heroic struggle, to a final state of 'wholeness' or integration when
life has reached its full potential and a relationship between the human
and divine has been reestablished. Jung called this process
'individuation,' the process of becoming the true individual that one
really is. This 'true self' Jung felt to be the dynamic factor in the
unconscious of each individual. It represents the central archetype of
order and wholeness among the other archetypes. Jung called it the Self.
The Original Embryonic State
In
the beginning of many creation myths is an image of an original state
of perfection, wholeness, and beatific containment. This is often
represented as a containing circle, cave, pool, or sphere. The
predominant archetypal symbol is that of the primordial Earth Goddess —
the Great Mother with her nourishing and protective womb. Many other
symbols express this archetype. Anything large and embracing or
containing, such as a vessel, that enwraps, shelters, and preserves
something small and fragile partakes of this 'primordial mother' One
very common symbol is the uroborus, the snake with its tail in its
mouth. These symbols express a paradisal state prior to any degree of
self-sufficiency and autonomy. The Garden of Eden, and the Golden Age
when mankind lived in union with the gods, partaking of divine fullness
and totality, are other common motifs of this psychological condition.
In the biological life of the individual this symbolism corresponds not
only to the pre-natal gestation of the embryo in the mother's uterus,
but to the state of the newborn's total dependence upon the mother.
Psychologically, these symbols express the stage when the ego is only a
potential, or when the ego is dominated by the universal instinctual
patterns of human response to the world, or a condition when little or
nothing of a uniquely personal value is expressed by the individual.
Separation, Creation, and the Birth Of Consciousness
Comparative mythology teaches us that there is always a creative
tension or urgency in the original embryonic state which leads to
trouble. The great uroboric round breaks open and light is born into the
world. A typical personification of this impulse is the snake that
tempts Eve to violate her passive containment in the Garden, or the
shadowy figure or animal in Fairy Tales that tempt the hero or heroine
to break the status quo and do something 'evil,' i.e., individual. Such
acts result in expulsion from paradisal condition. The protection of
childhood, as well as the contentment with the past or with what has
been achieved, are types of a paradise that are lost when life calls for
a new adaptation.
This process begins with a cataclysmic separation. In myth it is often imaged as the separation
of the world Parents. Father Sky and Mother Earth hold each other in an
embrace and the world is left in darkness. The children born between
them must thrust them apart, despite their parents' protesting cries and
groans. Only then does light enter the world. This light symbolizes
consciousness. Only in the light of consciousness can man know.
Yet the acquisition of consciousness is a Promethean act subjecting the
hero to the danger of inflation and retribution. For stealing fire from
the Gods Prometheus was chained to a rock where an eagle ate his liver
every night; when Icarus flew too high on his man-made wings, their wax
melted and he plunged to his death in the sea. As a bearer of light, the
hero is willing to face these dangers, despite the awareness of his
aloneness, individuality, and mortality, in order to carry development
further.
However, once the apple is eaten the world falls into opposites, and
'good' and 'evil' are assigned their place in the world. The Great Good
Mother shows her dark aspect, the hateful or Terrible Mother, while the
creative Father now sits opposite the Destructive Father, and brothers
kill each other in the name of love, and the world is alternately either
an enchanted or persecutory place.
The Hero Myth: Birth, Call, Journey
The
hero myth symbolizes that personality formation occurs only through
struggle, suffering, and sacrifice. The hero's triumphs and defeats are
the paradigms of the individual's confrontation with the challenges of
his or her own individual life — no matter how mundane or exalted. The
birth of the hero usually occurs in humble surroundings such as a manger
or cave, but it is always extraordinary in some way. Often there is a
special light around the child, or the child is perceived to be a threat
to the King. Frequently, the hero has two fathers — his personal father
and a 'higher' father. Often the mother is a virgin, and the hero's
conception is of divine origin. The hero thereby inherits a dual nature.
He is a human being like everyone else, yet at the same time he feels
himself to be an outsider, a stranger to the community. He does not fit
in, and discovers within himself something that sets him apart, such as
his prophetic powers, healing abilities, or creative powers. These lead
him to extraordinary deeds.
The heroic adventure often begins with some message or 'call' from a
miraculous source. A frog talks to the princess, or Moses confronts a
burning bush, or an empty rice bowl floats upstream (Buddha), or there
is an annunciation in a dream. The call often comes at an important
moment. Old life values have often been outgrown and a certain sterility
has set in. Parsifal's quest for the Holy Grail was set in motion by
the Fisher King's realm having become a wasteland. Whatever its form,
the call awakens the hero to his or her special destiny.
The Hero Myth: The Dragon Fight and Redemption of the Feminine
In
the fight with the dragon the hero battles the regressive forces of the
unconscious which threaten to swallow the individuating ego. The
forces, personified in figures like Circe, Kali, medusa, sea serpents,
Minotaur, or Gorgon, represent the Terrible side of the Great Mother.
The Hero may voluntarily submit to being swallowed by the monster, or to
a conscious descent into Hades so as to vanquish the forces of
darkness. This mortifying descent into the abyss, the sea, the dark
cave, or the underworld in order to be reborn to a new identity
expresses the symbolism of the night-sea journey through the uterine
belly of the monster. It is a fundamental theme in mythology the world
over — that of death and rebirth. All initiatory rituals involve this
basic archetypal pattern through which the old order and early infantile
attachments must die and a more mature and productive life be born in
their place.
The mythological goal of the dragon fight is almost always the
virgin, the captive, or more generally, the 'treasure hard to attain.'
This image of the vulnerable, beautiful, and enchanting woman, guarded
by and captive of a menacing monster gives us a picture of the inner
core of the personality and its surrounding defenses. The hero's task is
to rescue the maiden from the grasp of the monster and, ultimately, to
marry her and establish his kingdom with her. This dragon fight and
liberation of the captive is the archetypal pattern that can guide us
through those major transitional passages in our personal development
where a rebirth or reorientation of consciousness is indicated. The
captive represents the 'new' element whose liberation makes all further
development possible.
In response to the call the hero undertakes a journey, usually a
dangerous journey to an unknown region full of both promise and danger.
Often the journey is a descent. Sometimes, as with Jonah, Aeneas,
Christ, and Psyche, it is a descent into the depths — the sea, the
underworld, or Hades itself. Always there is a perilous crossing.
Sometimes the faintheartedness of the hero is balanced by the appearance
of guardians or helpful animals that enable the hero to perform the
superhuman task that cannot be accomplished unaided. These helpful
forces are representatives of the psychic totality that supports the ego
in its struggle. They bear witness to the fact that the essential
function of the hero myth is the development of the individual's true
personality.
The Goal of Individuation and Its Symbols
The
successful completion of the hero drama forges a relationship between
the psychic opposites which split apart at the birth of consciousness.
The major symbols for this synthesis are various forms of the Coniunctio Oppositorium or Mandala
in which the original wholeness is now re-established but on a higher,
more differentiated level. In the images of King and Queen united in
marriage, or male and female united in the form of the androgyne, or
geometrical opposites paradoxically united in the 'squared circle' or
life and death come together in the mysterious image of the immortal God
suffering a mortal wound, the integration of the opposites within the
personality are symbolized. Additional symbols of wholeness are the
elixir of immortality, the pearl of great price, and the divine child,
representing a life-transcending potential for future growth.
The hero myth tells us that the ego's courage to suffer the burdens
of fear, guilt, and the conflicts within the personality — the
willingness to be crucified on the cross of one's own doubleness and to
hold this inwardly — is the only way God and man can be reconciled and
drawn closer together. The original unity of God and man, as in the
Garden, is broken when the ego aspires to consciousness. The ego is then
banished to a world full of opposites which war with each other within
the personality, as brother falls upon brother in war and devastation.
But into the chaos is born the child of light, the hero, whose struggle
can forge an everlasting relationship between male and female, light and
darkness, life and death, God and man. This is the promise, the Ring,
the Covenant, the Flaming Rainbow Bridge which can unite the human and
divine in the inward depths of the human psyche.
This introduction to Jungian psychology was written by Donald Kalsched and Alan Jones
as a companion to a photographic exhibition at The Hofstra Museum, in
New York City, November 15 – December 19, 1986. The exhibit was
presented by The Hofstra Museum with The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (ARAS). The exhibit was curated by Karin Barnaby and Annmari Ronnberg.
