Myth-making is an ancient human endeavor. (To really understand the important story of Myth-making one needs to study Joseph Campbell's work for about 80 years. I only have 56 years remaining in my own studies!) Jung refers to myth as one of the earliest forms of science. Myth-making, after all, is the discovery, expression of, connection with, and attempt to find meaning in the fact that every single one of nature's species-specific phenomena are pushed to be and live. (Consider a blade of grass pushing through the pavement.) This Calling to life reveals and reflects how the internal and external potentialities of all nature are in a cyclical life-death-rebirth participation with the power of nature. In other words, the life of nature and the nature of life contain relationships that demand specific tasks of consciousness and fulfillment from every organism, whether a single cell creature or complex human being. As I understand it, the scientific and mythological task of "Being Human" then is to consciously acknowledge the sacred life-death-rebirth story contained within all of nature's relationships. In the words of Joseph Campbell, Myth-making is the capacity and intention "to wonder, at once terrible and fascinating, of ourselves and of the universe."
My conviction holds that "to wonder" about ourselves and the universe is a process of always going forth from, and returning back to, Internity. In the beginning, as newborn unconscious potential, our sensory systems go forth as projections and return as introjections. With every projection and introjection cycle one's Internity finds an expanding relationship to image and a new experience of energy and emotion. Each time this cycle occurs there is a centering of consciousness within the newborn. With each centering of consciousness the seed of ego takes root within Internity. Sometime late in the first year of life the ego begins to consciously differentiate between the perceptions of self and otherness. Around two years-old the ego begins to consistently declare, "I Am!" The ego's consciousness of images, energies and emotions then goes through the innumerable physiological, psychological, social, mental, emotional and spiritual transformations of an individual lifetime. And every transformation is a symbolic microcosm of the terrible and fascinating life-death-rebirth relationships that we each share with the universe. Mythically speaking, the story of consciousness demands the ego's declarations of "I Am!" but must also involve movement toward discoveries of the deeper SELF (the unconscious). From Here to Internity, therefore, always includes some level of both conscious and unconscious processes as we all go forth from and return back to wonder.
The PBS series with Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell called "The Power of Myth" starts with these words spoken by Joseph Campbell. I don't know if it's his poem or not but for me it sums up part of what I'm trying to write about in this blog.
"We have not even to risk the adventure alone
for the heroes of all time have gone before us.
The labyrinth is thoroughly known.
We have only to follow the thread of the hero path.
And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god.
And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves.
And where we had thought to travel outward,
we shall come to the center of our own existence.
And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world."
The adventure is Here and Now and it's ours alone. Truly following bliss, "the thread of the hero path," is not all happy-go-lucky or fun and games but if it's a genuine Calling it is the right path. One's ego, which is often emotionally unstable (more on that later), too often "thinks" the symbolic labyrinth is filled only with dark and scary threats to its own limited existence - the Minotaur. But, as the words above say, if the conditioned ego will heroically risk the experience of self for the genuine adventure of SELF what's found is "the center of our own existence" - Internity.
My conviction holds that "to wonder" about ourselves and the universe is a process of always going forth from, and returning back to, Internity. In the beginning, as newborn unconscious potential, our sensory systems go forth as projections and return as introjections. With every projection and introjection cycle one's Internity finds an expanding relationship to image and a new experience of energy and emotion. Each time this cycle occurs there is a centering of consciousness within the newborn. With each centering of consciousness the seed of ego takes root within Internity. Sometime late in the first year of life the ego begins to consciously differentiate between the perceptions of self and otherness. Around two years-old the ego begins to consistently declare, "I Am!" The ego's consciousness of images, energies and emotions then goes through the innumerable physiological, psychological, social, mental, emotional and spiritual transformations of an individual lifetime. And every transformation is a symbolic microcosm of the terrible and fascinating life-death-rebirth relationships that we each share with the universe. Mythically speaking, the story of consciousness demands the ego's declarations of "I Am!" but must also involve movement toward discoveries of the deeper SELF (the unconscious). From Here to Internity, therefore, always includes some level of both conscious and unconscious processes as we all go forth from and return back to wonder.
The PBS series with Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell called "The Power of Myth" starts with these words spoken by Joseph Campbell. I don't know if it's his poem or not but for me it sums up part of what I'm trying to write about in this blog.
"We have not even to risk the adventure alone
for the heroes of all time have gone before us.
The labyrinth is thoroughly known.
We have only to follow the thread of the hero path.
And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god.
And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves.
And where we had thought to travel outward,
we shall come to the center of our own existence.
And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world."
The adventure is Here and Now and it's ours alone. Truly following bliss, "the thread of the hero path," is not all happy-go-lucky or fun and games but if it's a genuine Calling it is the right path. One's ego, which is often emotionally unstable (more on that later), too often "thinks" the symbolic labyrinth is filled only with dark and scary threats to its own limited existence - the Minotaur. But, as the words above say, if the conditioned ego will heroically risk the experience of self for the genuine adventure of SELF what's found is "the center of our own existence" - Internity.
No comments:
Post a Comment