Myths
The Interchangeability of Mythology & Psychology
Myth lives vividly in our symptoms and fantasies and in our conceptual systems. ...Mythology is a psychology of antiquity. Psychology is a mythology of modernity. The ancients had no psychology, properly speaking, but they had myths, the speculative tellings about humans in relation with more-than-human forces and images. We moderns have no mythology, properly speaking, but we have psychological systems, the speculative theories about humans in relation with more-than-human forces and images, today called fields, instincts, drives, complexes. This tenet of archetypal psychology—perhaps a hallmark distinguishing it from other psychologies—is also an operation. It offers the opportunity to reflect every psychological position as a fantasy or mythologem. It works as a self-critique of positivisms by means of myths. Our tenet also operates upon every mythic tale and figure, removing them from the realm of story only and pulling them down and in, showing how a myth precisely works in the psyche, in its habits of mind and heart. We seek to reflect back and forth between the two, myth and psyche, using them to provide insights for each other, preventing either from being taken on its own terms only.
J. Hillman
There is a barrier or threshold, or boundary between Conscious and Unconscious. The myths describe the hazards of getting across. There is trading and bargaining for what you want – and something invariably has to be given, preferably something precious to the Ego. As with any treaty it's important to fulfill the conditions if you get back, but getting back is hazardous too.
T. Chetwynd
Garden of Eden
Myth of the Unconscious
The Garden of Eden is comparable to the Greek myth of the golden age and Plato's original round man. The Garden of Eden has certain features of a mandala with four rivers flowing from it and the tree of life in its center. The mandala-garden is an image of the Self, in this case representing the ego’s original oneness with nature and deity.
The drama of temptation and fall begins when the original state of passive inflation turns into the active inflation of a specific deed. The serpent's whole approach and appeal is expressed in inflationary terms — if you eat of this fruit, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God. … It alI begins because Adam and Eve dare to act on their desire to be like God.
The myth depicts the birth of consciousness as a crime which alienates man from God and from his original preconscious wholeness. The fruit is clearly symbolical of consciousness. It is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which means that it brings awareness of the opposites, the specific feature of consciousness. Thus, according to this myth and the theological doctrine that rest on it, consciousness is the original sin, the original hybris, and the root cause fall evil in human nature.
Eating the forbidden fruit marks the transition from the eternal state of unconscious oneness with the Self (the mindless, animal state) to a real, conscious life in space and time. In short, the myth symbolizes the birth of the ego. The effect of this birth process is to alienate the ego from its origins.
E. Edinger
Slaying the Dragon
Myth of Individuation
In myths of creation, dragons are usually violent primeval creatures who must be defeated by the gods. Later, heroes and ancestors of noble lines take on the role of dragon-slayers (the intellectually superior human overcoming the untamed natural world). In fairy-tales and legends, slaying the dragon is a frequent test of the hero's mettle; if he succeeds, he will obtain a treasure or free a captive princess. The dragon is here a symbol of the bestial element which must be defeated with strength and discipline. In Christian symbology the dragon embodies the diabo lical element, or the satanic Lucifer, whom the archangel Michael defeated and plunged into the pit of hell. Dragons are therefore often associated with fire and portrayed as breathing fire, or else as creatures of that primeval chaos which was to be destroyed only through disciplined marshaling of mental and physical prowess.
H. Biedermann
In a great many legends, overlaying its deepest symbolic sense, the dragon appears with this very meaning of the primordial enemy with whom combat is the supreme test. Apollo, Cadmus, Perseus and Siegfried all conquer the dragon. In numerous masterpieces of hagiography, the patron saints of knighthood—St. George and St. Michael the Archangel—are depicted in the very act of slaying the monster.
J.E.Cirlot
If we examine the myth of the hero psychologically, we can see how in the successive phases a transformation takes place in the relationship between the masculine ego and the feminine element. From an ego originally contained and dissolved in feminine protectiveness (the uroboric situation), we progress through a passive dependence on the "benevolent mother" to a phase of violent opposition to the "terrible mother," culminating in the slaying of the dragon.
А. Carotenuto
Icarus
Myth of Inflation
Symbolically describes man's life, the years that fly, as skimming between sun and sea - that is, between male conscious Ego, and feminine unconscious emotion.
Icarus is given wings of wax and feathers, made by his father, Daedulus, who warns him not to fly too high or the sun will melt the wax, but if he skims too low the feathers will get wet in the sea: Superficially it is just a moral tale which ends badly when the boy doesn’t obey his father, who arrives safely on similar wings. Icarus flies too high, reflecting the typical pattern of meteoric rise and fall of the Ego in life. Symbolically, the story has associations with the flight into the mind realm, ignoring material factors as well as total identification with the conscious Ego. Icarus is in a state of elation as he flies up. The Ego has only a short reign.
T. Chetwynd
Icarus — the mythical creature who symbolizes the human wish to soar through the clouds like a bird, to float in a state of weightlessness—but his story also constitutes a warning against arrogance. Daedalus, Icarus’ father and the builder of the Cretan labyrinth to house the Minotaur, had given the princess Ariadne the ball of thread with which she was able to assure the hero Theseus’s escape from the labyrinth after he killed the monster. Her father, king Minos, had Daedalus and Icarus imprisoned, but Daedalus made wings out or was and feathers, with which they were able to escape. Icarus, despite his father’s warning, flew too close to the sun, which melted the wax, and he plunged into the sea and drowned. For humans, although hand gliding and bungie jumping come close, the desire to fly (propelled by their own muscles) has remained unfulfilled, except occasionally in dreams. Dreams of flying are interpreted generally as a result of physiological unbalance while sleeping or (psychologically) as an expressing of the desire to be freed from the restrains of gravity, of the world in which we live.
H. Biedermann
Artificial wings symbolize perverse imagination: the antithesis of sublime imagination. They signify flight that remains earthbound, the diabolical seduction of exalted desires that degenerate into daydreaming. Unlike Daedalus, who represents astute intellect, Icarus is intellect, Icarus is intellect blinded by vanity; he will not heed his father’s advice. …Since the sun is a symbol of the spirit, flight towards the sun symbolizes spiritualization. But flight upon wings of wax can only denote a senseless form of spiritualization: vain exaltation. The intellect (father) has become perverted imagination (son).
P. Diel
Eros & Psyche
Myth of Love
The famous mythical drama of Psyche and Eros is an illustration of the conflict between soul and love. Although the maiden Psyche surpassed all others in beauty, she could not find a husband, since her very loveliness set up a barrier. In their despair, her parents consulted the oracle and were told that they were to dress her in bridal clothes, lead her to a mountain and leave her alone on a cliff-top, where a monster would come to take her for its bride. She was accordingly led in funeral procession and abandoned at the place commanded. Soon a gentle breeze lifted her into the air and carried her to the floor of a deep valley. There stood a magnificent palace in which voices proffered their service to her like so many slaves. That night she felt the presence at her side, but did not know who it was. This was the husband of whom the oracle has spoken. He did not tell her who he was, simply warning her that if she ever saw him she would lose him for ever. Days and nights passed in this way in the palace, but although Psyche was happy, she wanted to see her parents again and was allowed to spend a few days with them. Her jealous sisters awoke her misgivings and, on her return to the palace, by lamplight she found a handsome youth sleeping at her side. Unfortunately Psyche's hand shook and a drop of hot oil fell upon Eros. Thus Love was revealed and fled away. Now Psyche's misfortunes began. Aphrodite made her the victim of her anger, setting ever more difficult tasks to fulfill a punishment. Eros, however, could no more forget Psyche that she him. He obtained permission from Zeus to marry her: Psyche became his wife and was reconciled to Aphrodite.
In this myth Eros symbolizes love and more particularly the longing for physical satisfaction, while Psyche personifies the soul, tempted to experience this love. Her parents stand for reason which provides the requisite framework. The palace is an epitome of images of luxury and physical enjoyment, all the product of dreams. Darkness, agreement not to look at the lover and the feeling of a presence all denote the resignation of spirit and consciousness to overweening longing and imagination, a blind surrender to the unknown. The return to the parents' home is the awakening of the rational faculty: the sisters' questions are those of the unsure and inquisitive spirit. Consciousness still slumbers, these are merely doubts and curiosity aroused once the senses have been sated. On her return to the palace, Psyche wants to see her lover and she snatches up the torch. This is still the smoky and flickering light of spirit hesitant to break the bargain and obtain the truth. At the sight of this lovely and splendid body the soul intuitively knows that it clothes something monstrous at his dim level of reality. Love flees when he is exposed. Enlightened but tormented, Psyche wanders through the world hunted down by Aphrodite, doubly jealous, as a woman of Psyche's beauty and as a mother of the love which the girl has aroused in her son, Eros. The Soul (psyche) experiences even the abyss of Hell where Persephone, nevertheless, gives her a flask containing the water of youth, the principle of renewal after expiation. Psyche falls asleep and is awakened by an arrow shot by Eros who has also been searching desperately for her everywhere – this represents the survival in her of desire. However, this time permission to marry is sought from Zeus – this means that Psyche and Eros will no longer come together simply upon the level of carnal lust, but in accordance with the spirit. With love thus deified, Psyche and Aphrodite, two aspects of the soul, desire and consciousness, are reconciled. Eros no longer appear as a solely physical presence and is no longer dreaded as a monster: love is integrated into life. 'Psyche weds the sublime image of physical love: she becomes the bride of Eros: the soul rediscovers the capacity to unite.'
J. Chevalier & A. Gheerbrant
