"One thing that comes out in myths is that at the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of salvation. The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light." Joseph Campbell, Power of Myth
How does mythology relate to the individual. The individual has a inner life and internal dynamic that must be aligned if they are to feel peaceful and powerful in their life. The power is not over someone else, but it pertains to being empowered as an individual existing in a social context. In our modern society shifting your attention to the inner life and what is happening within you seems to be for the eccentric and not the masses. The inner life sometimes scares people or they do not want to listen to their neurosis and or conflicting wants and desires. But as we ignore what appears to be negative parts of ourselves we also ignore our immense mystery and light. What mythology does is give you a road map to your inner energies because we have the positive and negative forces within us engaged in a battle. If we don't have symbols or mythology that act as our map then we are lost and thus we are always at the mercy of energies that do not have a name or value.
According to Joseph Campbell from his book Power of Myth, in India around the ninth century B.C the Upanishads explain that all gods are within you. Heaven and Hell are all manifestations that come from our inner battles. They are only metaphors for the opposite energies that are within every single human being on Earth from past to present. Gods represent energies from the ground of being. We have a source of life and it manifests as opposites in the world of time. This seems to devalue the god in religion but all it does is say that it is not literal devil or father god. This does not mean you can not raise your consciousness either. The experience of the mystery is still valuable and real. To transcend the world of opposites and find the eternal is possible and real. As you go deeper into some religions and analysis, many people have said that god cannot be described. To describe or name is to miss the point. Concepts and thought of humans cannot explain what is beyond thought, therefore the source or eternal cannot be named or explained. "The best things can't be told because they go beyond thought. Then the second mistake we make is to try to explain it and then it is all misunderstood. That is when we try to describe god we mess it up. The third thing we do is put it into story and use symbols which is also mythological images." Joseph Campbell.
The initiation into the mystery, your own inner mystery is you going deeper into the dynamic of your source. When you enter the forest-the dark parts of yourself- you meet your fears and face them. You find that you have qualities both male and female. You begin to understand that you are both, you have what it takes to empower and overcome the difficult things in your life. You understand that you are all things, you have everything to fight the battle of life. And you begin to feel fulfilled, whole because you start to identify with the world beyond opposites, you understand that beyond time there is eternity and you were born from this. The poet Blake says this "Eternity is in love with the productions of time!" Eternity poured into the field of time, of limitation, of opposites. Why? Our creation myths show us some possibilities. Here is one short one.
"Before all time, there was a deity who said, "I am." As soon as it said "I am," it was afraid. It was an entity now, in time. Then it thought, "What should I be afraid of, I'm the only thing that is." And soon as it said that, if felt lonesome, and wished that there were another, and so felt desire. It swelled, split in two, became male and female, and begot the world."
These elements are the elementary energies we must deal with in our everyday life. We must struggle with our fears, loneliness, desires and move in the field of time. All of our gods and devils are manifestations and symbols for these elements. To say one god is better than the other, or that one people are chosen over another is to miss the point of religion and its message. If we focused on our inner lives and understood the desires and fears then we would become more aware and learn how to be at peace. To understand what we are is to move past or transcend the world of opposites into the eternal. The world of radiance waits for all to see it. When you can look past the things in front of you, start to see the road map, the symbols that speak to you and transform your fear and desires, then you will have transformed your inner self into something more complete. Yes you will still be in Time but you will know and experience the eternal within Time.
Showing posts with label mythology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mythology. Show all posts
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
The Shadow and the Purpose of Initiation
Even if we think we are not on the Road of Trials- the Initiation stage is Joseph Campbell's second stage of the hero's journey, we are. In our modern technological society it seems as we are floating along with our three-bedroom house, our two car garage, and 9 to 5 job, but our inner life needs to be addressed also. Our lives seems civilized and without serious issues. The thing we don't see is our shadow, our night slumbering that reveals our unconscious desires and problems. We cannot hide from these unconscious tendecies. The shadow unattended becomes manifestated as addictions, abuse to others, constant failure of some part of our lives. It seems as if the masses are semi-lost all of the time. This is why it is important to explore our mythology or religion and figure out if the stories and lessons are fitting our everyday experiences. If they are not it means our conscious self and unconscious self are separated.
"It is a frightening thought that man also has a shadow side to him, consisting not just of little weaknesses- and foibles, but of a positively demonic dynamism. The individual seldom knows anything of this; to him, as an individual, it is incredible that he should ever in any circumstances go beyond himself. But let these harmless creatures form a mass, and there emerges a raging monster; and each individual is only one tiny cell in the monster's body, so that for better or worse he must accompany it on its bloody rampages and even assist it to the utmost. Having a dark suspicion of these grim possibilities, man turns a blind eye to the shadow-side of human nature. Blindly he strives against the salutary dogma of original sin, which is yet so prodigiously true. Yes, he even hesitates to admit the conflict of which he is so painfully aware." Carl Jung
On the Psychology of the Unconscious" (1912). In CW 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. P.35
It means our shadow is dangerous, unknown and causes us to hurt ourselves or others. The Road of Trials and or Inititation stage is to go into the dark-the-belly-of-the-whale- and bring forth the dark part into the light. It takes work, discipline and committment. It is like Frodo who has such a strong heart and intergrity that he can carry such a wicked ring. The ring almost kills him in the end. Carrying the wicked dark things around will eventually destroy the light inside you. So we must work with the little devil sitting on our shoulder- we should not opress him because then he comes forth as unknown tendencies. For example, if you are a priest and you deny your sexuality because you like men so you join the church to escape then your tendencies will take control of you and you will engage in unethical actions to release this sexual energy that has been supressed and the victims are usually those with less authority than you.
"If you imagine someone who is brave enough to withdraw all his projections, then you get an individual who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow. Such a man has saddled himself with new problems and conflicts. He has become a serious problem to himself, as he is now unable to say that they do this or that, they are wrong, and they must be fought against. He lives in the "House of the Gathering." Such a man knows that whatever is wrong in the world is in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his own shadow he has done something real for the world. He has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal part of the gigantic, unsolved social problems of our day." Carl Jung
"Psychology and Religion" (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.140
Mythology seems a primitive story telling episode but what everyone does realize is that stories are symbols and metaphors for our way of being. We have a psyche and it is a dynamic part of our lives. Stories are told to show and guide us as what to do with our being here on this Earth. In history the dragons and monsters represent the shadow and or negative energy of the the universe. The humans back in the day did not say "oh you have issues with your shadow you better go to your therapist." The humans had a medicine man or shaman who knew on some level that there was some sort of pscyhological issue with one of the tribe members. He did a dance and smoked a pipe and maybe the problem was fixed. The stories would accompany the problem of the tribesman. Some occasions called for serious calling on the spirits. The shamans knew how to have an "experience" that involved some sort of connection to a spirit world that gave guidance as how to treat their person with the illness.
In our modern day society we have measured away all mystery or magic for the facts. The problem arises that our spirit and or unconcious communicates in symbols. The proof of this is humanities dreams. The dreams of the patients match exactly the Greek myths with one eye cyclops down to being chased across some sybmolic bridge. These dreams are telling a story and are obscured from our conscious view because the scienctific community does not find them valueable. The bottom line is that we must bridge the gap between the conscious and unconscious selves. This requires a new mythology or a mixture of old and new.
"And so it happens that if anyone- in whatever society- undertakes for himself the perilous journey into the darkness by descending, either intentionally or unintentionally, into the crooken lanes of his own spiritual labyrinth, he soon finds himself in a landscape of symbolical figures(any of one of which may swallow him)....In the vocabulary of the mystics, this the second stage of the Way, that of the "purification of the self, " when the senses are "concentrated upon transcendental things"; or in a vocabulary of more modern turn this the process of dissolving, transcending, or transmuting the infantile images of our personal past. in our dreams the ageless perils, gargoyles, trials, secret helpers, and instructive figues are nightly still encountered; and in their forms we may see reflected not only the whole picture of our present case, but also the clue to what we must do to be saved." Joseph Campbell, (Hero with a Thousand Faces)
Here in this Lord of the Rings clip Frodo finds out that he is a ring bearer- that he must be the one that carries the dark powerful ring to ultimately destroy it. This is a perfect example of all of us that must carry darkness within us. Do we have what it takes? Yes we do, but it is not easy. As we know Frodo almost dies at the end. So we must seek out the dark parts of our lives. The parts that are unclear must be examined to move the dark into the light and transform ourselves.
http://psikoloji.fisek.com.tr/jung/shadow.htm
"It is a frightening thought that man also has a shadow side to him, consisting not just of little weaknesses- and foibles, but of a positively demonic dynamism. The individual seldom knows anything of this; to him, as an individual, it is incredible that he should ever in any circumstances go beyond himself. But let these harmless creatures form a mass, and there emerges a raging monster; and each individual is only one tiny cell in the monster's body, so that for better or worse he must accompany it on its bloody rampages and even assist it to the utmost. Having a dark suspicion of these grim possibilities, man turns a blind eye to the shadow-side of human nature. Blindly he strives against the salutary dogma of original sin, which is yet so prodigiously true. Yes, he even hesitates to admit the conflict of which he is so painfully aware." Carl Jung
On the Psychology of the Unconscious" (1912). In CW 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. P.35
It means our shadow is dangerous, unknown and causes us to hurt ourselves or others. The Road of Trials and or Inititation stage is to go into the dark-the-belly-of-the-whale- and bring forth the dark part into the light. It takes work, discipline and committment. It is like Frodo who has such a strong heart and intergrity that he can carry such a wicked ring. The ring almost kills him in the end. Carrying the wicked dark things around will eventually destroy the light inside you. So we must work with the little devil sitting on our shoulder- we should not opress him because then he comes forth as unknown tendencies. For example, if you are a priest and you deny your sexuality because you like men so you join the church to escape then your tendencies will take control of you and you will engage in unethical actions to release this sexual energy that has been supressed and the victims are usually those with less authority than you.
"If you imagine someone who is brave enough to withdraw all his projections, then you get an individual who is conscious of a pretty thick shadow. Such a man has saddled himself with new problems and conflicts. He has become a serious problem to himself, as he is now unable to say that they do this or that, they are wrong, and they must be fought against. He lives in the "House of the Gathering." Such a man knows that whatever is wrong in the world is in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his own shadow he has done something real for the world. He has succeeded in shouldering at least an infinitesimal part of the gigantic, unsolved social problems of our day." Carl Jung
"Psychology and Religion" (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.140
Mythology seems a primitive story telling episode but what everyone does realize is that stories are symbols and metaphors for our way of being. We have a psyche and it is a dynamic part of our lives. Stories are told to show and guide us as what to do with our being here on this Earth. In history the dragons and monsters represent the shadow and or negative energy of the the universe. The humans back in the day did not say "oh you have issues with your shadow you better go to your therapist." The humans had a medicine man or shaman who knew on some level that there was some sort of pscyhological issue with one of the tribe members. He did a dance and smoked a pipe and maybe the problem was fixed. The stories would accompany the problem of the tribesman. Some occasions called for serious calling on the spirits. The shamans knew how to have an "experience" that involved some sort of connection to a spirit world that gave guidance as how to treat their person with the illness.
In our modern day society we have measured away all mystery or magic for the facts. The problem arises that our spirit and or unconcious communicates in symbols. The proof of this is humanities dreams. The dreams of the patients match exactly the Greek myths with one eye cyclops down to being chased across some sybmolic bridge. These dreams are telling a story and are obscured from our conscious view because the scienctific community does not find them valueable. The bottom line is that we must bridge the gap between the conscious and unconscious selves. This requires a new mythology or a mixture of old and new.
"And so it happens that if anyone- in whatever society- undertakes for himself the perilous journey into the darkness by descending, either intentionally or unintentionally, into the crooken lanes of his own spiritual labyrinth, he soon finds himself in a landscape of symbolical figures(any of one of which may swallow him)....In the vocabulary of the mystics, this the second stage of the Way, that of the "purification of the self, " when the senses are "concentrated upon transcendental things"; or in a vocabulary of more modern turn this the process of dissolving, transcending, or transmuting the infantile images of our personal past. in our dreams the ageless perils, gargoyles, trials, secret helpers, and instructive figues are nightly still encountered; and in their forms we may see reflected not only the whole picture of our present case, but also the clue to what we must do to be saved." Joseph Campbell, (Hero with a Thousand Faces)
Here in this Lord of the Rings clip Frodo finds out that he is a ring bearer- that he must be the one that carries the dark powerful ring to ultimately destroy it. This is a perfect example of all of us that must carry darkness within us. Do we have what it takes? Yes we do, but it is not easy. As we know Frodo almost dies at the end. So we must seek out the dark parts of our lives. The parts that are unclear must be examined to move the dark into the light and transform ourselves.
http://psikoloji.fisek.com.tr/jung/shadow.htm
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