In
London or New York . . if anyone claims to have seen a vision
. . . he is mentally disturbed. We read the myths of the ancient
Greeks . . . or the folk stories of American Indians, but we fail
to see any connection . . . p. 97
The ancient history of man is being meaningfully rediscovered
today in the symbolic images and myths that have survived ancient
man. . . . it is not the events of . . . time that we learn
to treasure but the statues, designs, temples, and languages that
tell of old beliefs. They can show that the same . . . patterns
can be found in the rituals or myths of small tribal societies
still existing, unchanged for centuries, on the outskirts of
civilization.
P. 97
In
London or New York . . if anyone claims to have seen a vision
. . . he is mentally disturbed. We read the myths of the ancient
Greeks . . . or the folk stories of American Indians, but we fail
to see any connection . . . p. 97
Yet the connections are there. And the symbols that represent
them have not lost their relevance from mankind. P. 97
Consciously we may ignore them, but unconsciously we respond to
them . . . p. 98
These symbols are so ancient and unfamiliar to modern man that
he cannot directly understand or assimilate them. P. 98
A . . . striking example . . . to anyone who has grown up in a
Christian society. At Christmas we may express our inner feeling
for the mythological birth of a semi-divine child . . . the symbolism
of rebirth. This is a relic of an immensely older solstice festival,
which carries the hope that the fading winter landscape of the
northern hemisphere will be renewed. For all our sophistication
we find satisfaction in this symbolic festival, just as we join
. . . in the pleasant ritual of Easter eggs and Easter rabbits.
P. 99
But do we understand what we do, or see the connection between
the story of Christ's birth, death, and resurrection and the folk
symbolism of Easter? P. 99
Christ's crucifixion . .. seems at first . . to belong to the
same pattern of fertility symbolism that one finds in the rituals
of such other "saviors" as Osiris, Tammuz, Orpheus,
and Balder. They too, were of divine or semi-divine birth, they
flourished, were killed, and were reborn. They belonged, in fact,
to cyclic religions in which the death and rebirth of the god-King
was an eternally recurring myth. P. 99
But the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday is much less satisfying
from a ritual point of view than is the symbolism of the cyclic
religions. His resurrection occurs once and for all. P. 99
It is this finality of the Christian concept of the resurrection
. . . that distinguishes Christianity from other god-king myths.
It happened once . . . this since of finality is probably one
reason why early Christians . . . felt that Christianity needed
to be supplemented by some elements of an older fertility ritual.
They needed the recurring promise of rebirth . . . symbolized
by the egg and the rabbit at Easter. P. 100
Some symbols relate to childhood and the transition to adolescence,
others to maturity, and others again to the experience of old
age, when man is preparing for his inevitable death. P. 100
The myth of the hero is the most common and the best known myth
in the world . . . classical mythology . . . Greece and Rome .
. . Middle Ages . . . Far East . . . contemporary primitive tribes.
It also appears in dreams . . . obvious dramatic . . . profound
. . . importance. P. 101
. . .
structurally very similar . . . universal pattern . . .
over and over again . . . a tale of . . . miraculous . . . humble
birth . . . early proof of superhuman strength . . . rapid rise
to prominence . . . triumphant struggle with the forces of evil
. . . fallibility to the sin of pride (hybris) . . . and his fall
through betrayal or a "heroic" sacrifice that ends in
his death. P. 101
. . . another important characteristic . . . provides a clue .
. . the early weakness . . . is balanced by . . . strong "tutelary"
figures . . . who enable him to perform the superhuman tasks that
he cannot accomplish unaided. Theseus had Poseidon . . . Perseus
had Athena . . . Achilles had Cheiron . . . the wise centaur,
as his tutor. P. 101
These godlike figures . . . representative of the whole psyche,
the larger and more comprehensive identity that supplies the strength
that the personal ego lacks. P. 101
Once the individual has passed his initial test and can enter
the mature phase of life, the hero myth loses its relevance. The
hero's symbolic death becomes, as it were, the achievement of
that maturity. P. 103
. . . the image of the hero evolves in a manner that reflects
each stage of the evolution of the human personality. P. 103
. . . more easily understood . . from the obscure North American
tribe of Winnebago Indians . . . four distinct stages . . . Trickster
. . . the Hare . . . the Red Horn . . . the Twin.
It represents . . . efforts to deal with the problem of growing
up. P. 103
Trickster . . . earliest and least developed period of
life . . . physical appetites dominate his behavior . . . mentality
of an infant . . . gratification of primary needs . . .cruel .
. .cynical . . . unfeeling.
Hare . . . not yet attained mature human stature . . .
appears as the founder of human culture . . . the Transformer.
This myth was so powerful that the members of the Peyote Rite
were reluctant to give up Hare when Christianity began
to penetrate the tribe. He became merged with the figure of Christ.
Red Horn . . . ambiguous person . . . winning the race
. . .proving himself in battle . . . defeats giants . . . has
a powerful companion whose strengths compensates for . . . weakness.
We have reached the world of man . . . the aid of superhuman powers
or tutelary gods is needed to ensure . . . victory over evil forces
. . . p. 106
This basic theme . . . how long can human beings be successful
without falling victims to their own pride or . . .to the jealousy
of the gods? P. 106
Twins . . . sons of the Sun . . . originally united in
the mother's womb, they were forced apart at birth . . . yet they
belong together . . . it is necessary . . . though difficult .
. to reunite them. In these two children we see the two sides
of man's nature . . . "Flesh" . . . mild, without initiative
. . . "Stump" . . . dynamic and rebellious. P. 106
. . . for a long time . . . invincible . . . they eventually sicken
from their abuse of their own power. . . their consequent . .
. behavior brings retribution . . .the punishment they deserved
was death. P. 106
. . . we see the theme of sacrifice or death of the hero as a
necessary cure for hybris . . . the pride that has over-reached
itself. P. 107
. . . in European mythology . . . the theme of ritual sacrifice
is more specifically employed as a punishment for hybris.
P.107
. . . in any case the next stage in human development is one in
which the irresponsibility of childhood gives way to a period
of socialization, and that involves submission to painful discipline
. . . p. 110
. . . the concept of "shadow" . . . Dr. Jung has pointed
out that the shadow cast by the conscious mind of the individual
contains the hidden, repressed, and unfavorable aspects of the
personality. Buthis darkness is not just the simple converse of
the conscious ego. Just as the ego contains unfavorable and destructive
attitudes, so the shadow has good qualities . . . p. 110
The ego, nevertheless is in conflict with the shadow . . . in
the developing consciousness . . . the emerging ego overcomes
the inertia of the unconscious mind, and liberates the mature
man from a regressive longing to return to the blissful state
of infancy in a world dominated by his mother. P. 111
The battle between the hero and the dragon . . . shows more clearly
the . . . theme of the ego's triumph over regressive trends. For
most people the dark . . . side of the personality remains unconscious.
The hero . . . must realize that the shadow exists and that he
can draw strength from it. He must come to terms with his destructive
powers if he is to . . . overcome the dragon. I. E. Before the
ego can triumph, it must master and assimilate the shadow. P.
112
The idealism of youth, which drives one so hard, is bound to lead
to over-confidence: The human ego can be exalted to experience
godlike attributes, but only at the cost of over-reaching itself
and falling to disaster. (Icarus . . . carried up to heaven on
. . . fragile . . . . humanly contrived wings . . . flies too
close too the sun and plunges to his doom. ) All the same, the
youthful ego must always run this risk, for if a young man does
not strive for a higher goal than he can safely reach, he cannot
surmount the obstacles between adolescence and maturity. P. 113
The ritual has a sorrow . . . that is also a kind of joy . . .
acknowledgment that death . . . leads to a new life . . . it is
the same drama . . . of new birth through death. P. 113
As a general rule . . . the need for hero symbols arises when
the ego needs strengthening . . . p. 114
. . . rescue symbolizes the liberation of the anima figure from
the devouring aspect of the mother image. Not until this is
accomplished
can a man achieve his first true capacity for relatedness to women
. . . freeing the psychic energy attached to the mother-son
relationship,
in order to achieve a more adult relation to women . . . and,
indeed, to adult society as a whole. The hero-dragon battle .
. . symbolic expression of this process of "growing up".
P. 118
This important point . . . illustrated in a man nearing 50. All
his life he had suffered from periodic attacks of anxiety associated
with fear of failure (originally engendered by a doubting mother).
Yet his actual achievements . . . were well above average. Frequently
felt threatened by the shadow of self-doubt . . . no longer necessary
to fight the shadow . . . accept it. . . no longer driven to a
competitive struggle for supremacy . . . such a conclusion . .
. leads one to a truly mature attitude p. 119
This change . . . requires a period of transition . . . expressed
in forms of initiation. P. 119
. . . each human being has originally a feeling of wholeness .
. . from the Self . . . the totality of the psyche . . . the
individualized
ego-consciousness emerges as the individual grows up. P. 120
. . .
series of events by which the individual ego emerges during
the transition from infancy through childhood. This separation
can never become final without sever injury to the original sense
of wholeness. P. 120
. . . it would appear . . .that the hero myth is the first stage
of differentiation of the psyche. Unless some degree of autonomy
is achieved, the individual is unable to relate himself to his
adult environment. But the hero myth does not ensure that this
liberation will occur. There remains the problem of maintaining
and developing that consciousness in a meaningful way, so that
the individual can live a useful life and can achieve the necessary
sense of self-distinction in society. P. 120
Ancient history and the rituals of contemporary primitive societies
have provided us with a wealth of material about myths and rites
of initiation . . . young men and women are weaned away from their
parents and forcibly made members of their clan or tribe. P.120
. . . it is the initiation rite that most effectively solves this
problem . . . forcing a symbolic death . . . then ceremonially
rescued by the rite of a new birth . . . true consolidation of
the ego with the larger group. P. 123
The ritual . . . insists upon this rite of death and rebirth .
. . provides a rite of passage from one stage of life to the next
. . . p. 123
. . . not confined to . . . youth . . . every new phase of development
throughout an individual's life is accompanied by a repetition
of the original conflict between the claims of the Self and the
claims of the ego. In fact, this conflict may be expressed more
powerfully . . . from early maturity to middle age (between 35
to 40 in our society) than at any other time in life. P. 123
At these critical periods . . . initiation is strongly activated
to provide a meaningful transition that offers something more
spiritually satisfying . . . p. 123
There is one striking difference between the hero myth and the
initiation rite. The . . . hero . . . exhausts efforts in achieving
the goal . . . the novice for initiation is called upon to give
up willful ambition and all desire and to submit to the ordeal.
He must be willing to experience this trial without hope of success.
In fact, he must be prepared to die . . . the purpose remains
always the same: to create the symbolic mood of death from which
may spring the symbolic mood of re-birth. P. 124
. . . distinction . . . between initiation and the hero . . .
act of climbing a mountain . . . trial of strength . . . the will
to achieve . . . a scene by the altar . . . task is rather to
submit to a power greater than himself. He must see himself as
if he were dead . . . only by such an act of submission can .
. . experience rebirth. P. 125
. . . a man's sacrifice is a surrender of his sacred independence:
he becomes more consciously related to woman. P. 126
Man's knowledge (logos) encounters women's relatedness (Eros)
and their union is represented as that symbolic ritual of a sacred
marriage . . . the heart of initiation since its origins in the
mystery-religions of antiquity. But this is exceedingly difficult
for modern people to grasp, and it frequently takes a special
crisis in their lives to make them understand it. P. 126
. . . a man, ready to change his attitude to life . . . he had
been self-centered, seeking the illusory safety of personal
independence
but inwardly dominated by the fears caused by childhood . . .
needed a challenge to his manhood in order to see that unless
he sacrificed his childish state of mind he would be left isolated
and ashamed . . . pass through the symbolic rite by which a young
man gives up his exclusive autonomy and accepts . . . shared life
. . . in a related form . . . appropriate fulfillment in his
relationship
with his wife . . .essentially a woman's initiation rite, in which
a man is bound to feel like anything but a conquering hero. But
the theme of marriage is an image of such universality that it
also has a deeper meaning. P. 128
Girls . . . share in the . . . hero myths . . because they . .
must also develop a reliable ego-identity and acquire an education.
P. 129
. . .
for a woman to feel right about herself, life is best realized
by a process of awakening. P. 130
A universal myth expressing this . . .is found . . . in Beauty
and the Beast.
Beauty is any young girl or woman who has entered into an emotional
bond with her father, no less binding because of its spiritual
nature. Her goodness puts her father and then herself in the power
of a principle that expresses not goodness alone, but cruelty
and kindness combined. It is as if she wished to be rescued from
a love holding her to an exclusively virtuous and unreal attitude.
P. 131
. . . she awakens to the power of human love concealed in its
animal (and therefore imperfect) but genuinely erotic form . .
. this represents an awakening of her true function of relatedness,
enabling her to accept the erotic component of her original wish,
which had to be repressed because of a fear of incest. P. 131
To leave her father she had, as it were, to accept the incest-fear,
to allow herself to live in its presence in fantasy until she
could get to know the animal man and discover her own true response
to it as a woman. P. 131
. . . she redeems herself and her image of the masculine from
the forces of repression, bringing to consciousness her capacity
to trust her love as something that combines spirit and nature
in the best sense of the words. P. 131
Orpheus was probably a real man, a singer, prophet, and teacher,
who was martyred and whose tomb became a shrine. No wonder the
early Christian church saw in Orpheus the prototype of Christ.
Both religions brought . . the promise of a future divine life.
P. 135
. . .
one important difference between the religion of Orpheus
and the religion of Christ. Though sublimated into a mystical
form . . the spiritual impetus preserved the most significant
quality of a religion rooted in the art of agriculture . . . the
eternally recurrent cycle of birth, growth, fullness, and decay.
P. 135
Christianity . . . dispelled the mysteries. Christ was the product
and reformer of a patriarchal, nomadic, pastoral religion, whose
prophets represented their Messiah as a being of absolute divine
origin. P. 135
. . . the asceticism of early Christianity did not last. The memory
of the cyclic mysteries haunted its followers to the extent that
the Church eventually had to incorporate many practices from the
pagan past into its rituals. P. 139
Yet the two somehow fuse in the figure of Orpheus . . . who remembers
Dionysus but looks forward to Christ p. 139
. . . it is quite certain that the fundamental goal of initiation
lies in taming the original Trickster-like wildness of the juvenile
nature. It therefore has a civilizing or spiritualizing purpose,
in spite of the violence of the rites that are required to set
this process in motion. P. 146
There
is . . . another kind of symbolism . . . also connected
with the periods of transition . . . they concern a man's release
from any confining pattern of existence, as he moves toward a
superior or more mature stage in his development. P. 146
A child . . .possesses a sense of completeness, but only before
the initial emergence of his ego-consciousness. In the case of
an adult . . . completeness is achieved through union of the
consciousness
with the unconscious contents of his mind. Out of this . . . a
man can achieve his highest goal: the full realization of the
potential of his individual Self. P. 146
. . . the symbols of transcendence provide the means by which
the contents of the unconscious can enter the conscious mind .
. . p. 147
. . . we again meet the Trickster theme . . . he no longer appears
as a lawless would-be hero. He has become the shaman . . . the
medicine man . . . whose magical practices and flights of intuition
stamp him as a primitive master of initiation. P. 147
Evidence of such powers can be found as far back as the Paleolithic
period of prehistory . . . p. 147
At the highest level of this type of initiatory activity . . .
we find the Hindu master yogis. In their trance states they go
far beyond the normal categories of thought. P. 147
. . . the theme of the lonely journey . . .which somehow seems
to be a spiritual pilgrimage on which the initiate becomes acquainted
with the nature of death. But this is not death as a last judgment
or other initiatory trial of strength: it is a journey of release,
renunciation, and atonement, presided over and fostered by some
spirit of compassion. P. 150
In the first part of life . . . this may be experienced as that
moment of initiation at which one must learn to take the decisive
steps into life alone. P. 150
At a later period . . . one may not need to break all ties . .
. nonetheless one can be filled with that spirit of divine discontent
which forces all free men to face some new discovery or to live
their lives in a new way. This change may become especially important
between middle and old age. P. 151
This need may be filled temporarily . . . by a trip . . . or nothing
more than a move to a smaller house. But none of these will serve
unless there has been some inner transcendence of old values in
creating not just inventing, a new pattern of life. P. 151
Perhaps the commonest dream symbol of transcendence is the snake
. . . chthonic transcendence is the motif of the two entwined
serpents. Naga serpents of India . . .Greece . . . on a staff
belonging to the god Hermes . . . p. 155
It is not easy for modern man to grasp the significance of the
symbols . . . from the past . . . or that appear in dreams. P.
156
Initiation is, essentially, a process that begins with a rite
of submission, followed by a period of containment, and then by
a further rite of liberation. In this way every individual can
reconcile the conflicting elements of his personality: He can
strike a balance that makes him truly human, and truly the master
of himself. P. 156
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