Showing posts with label myths. Show all posts
Showing posts with label myths. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

In the Presence of Gods and Goddesses

"People can get so over-involved with searching for mythic connections that they forget they also have personal associations to the symbols." Robert Johnson

Many times we dream of events from our past waking day, a sort of summation or re-hashing of events, or their parts. The mind in its curious method dissects, injects and reintroduces the subject in a way that is different from the events of our waking world. It's as if the mind sees with its own eyes, for its own purposes. Humanity has for eternity taken note of dreams. They perplex, confuse and inform in equal proportion. The bible as well as many other ancient texts serve as oracles to the perplexing nature of the dream state. Dreams and spirituality have always had a connection.

It is within our deepest self that we dream. In the silence of our nights images come to us; energies and feelings are portrayed as if on a movie screen while we slumber; watching the show which at times is so vivid and realistic filled with our emotions, hopes or fears that upon awakening we're not entirely sure if it "was real or just a dream." Often time the memory of the dream is deep; we ponder it, catching what little we can deduce and turning it outward concretely looking at others. But outward is not the solution, nor is it a resolution because the dream is the dreamer and the images are personal. No more is it true that dream symbols are standard than it is to assume that the loves one plays out at night are interchangeable!

If it were true that the loves, the gods and goddesses of our dreams were interchangeable, would not their value be so much less? What would we learn, and what could they teach us about our feelings, our beliefs and our own energies? Often dreams record and reflect changes a person has made, or is soon to make in their waking life; dreams then represent a reflection of their engagement with their own values and beliefs. In our spiritual journeys towards greater wholeness, dreams play an important role in representing to us what we most deeply think and feel.

We try on roles, we solve issues, paradoxes are presented and solutions, or part solutions, rendered. Feelings are deeply considered; the feelings that may have been squelched in our waking day, now are guides to what matters to us. Even if the images presented in the dream are borrowed, as in for example, your mother, your neighbor, the man in the store, an animal or a place, those images symbolize something that is going on. "You use that image to refer to something inside of you," writes Robert Johnson. With careful consideration, dreams can and often impart wisdom to the dreamer.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Inside the Grail Legend

“...if one is to find the Grail, [that] means not to fall prey to a mood.” The Holy Grail as interpreted by Robert Johnson


There are many, many truths to be gained from study of this most unique of legends, the Holy Grail. Following the lead of Carl and Emma Jung and Marie Louise von Franz, Robert Johnson writes in his book, He, that “what the Grail myth is telling us is that in his relationship to the interior feminine a man should relate to her, that interior feminine [self] on a feeling level and not on a mood level.” The author distinguishes the terms mood and feeling by explanation: he writes, a mood is the result of the interior self unconsciously in possession, the anima or interior feminine self of a man; a feeling is a value, the ability to value. “If a man has a good relationship with his anima, his feminine self, he is able to feel, to value, and thus find meaning in his life. If a man is not related to his anima... he has no capacity for valuation. So sharp collision between the two types of interior experience a man goes through."

In the Legend of the Grail, Percival is guided to his feeling senses, his anima. In discovering a bit of this sense, he is useful and creative; in doing so, he must not however seduce or be seduced by the interior feminine self. Granting himself seduction is destructive towards his goal of finding the Grail Castle. He is, in the legend, most thoroughly advised not to fall prey to a mood. “As soon as a man falls into a mood, he has no capacity for relationship, no power for feeling and therefore no capacity for valuation.” All moods, good or bad, are trouble.

While under the spell of a mood, the one who feels its effect is like a person bewitched. “He cannot think, he cannot function, he cannot relate; he may think he’s doing a great deal, but there is just so much churning inside. If something is not already wrong, a man in a mood will make it wrong.” And if they are not wise to it, a man’s loved ones may also fall victim to his moods. A man may, in fact, in that state of mind think that they are quite responsible for his moods!

Robbed of a sense of relatedness or meaning, a man in a mood we learn in the Grail legend, is a man who cannot find fulfillment. He is easily bored. Thus “if something is wrong with one’s ability to relate, the meaning in life is gone. So depression is another term for mood. One finds that most of the content of a psychosis for a man is anima. It’s a haunting, a possession.” A mood is a little madness then, which overtakes. Many times a person may be overtaken by a mood. There is then wild enthusiasm for this or for that, but the mood runs its course and then the thing is forgotten; much time and money is expended by those in a mood. While in this state he does not ‘run his own house’ and then is impossible to live with; he is terribly critical of exterior, in the flesh women at this time, soundly blaming them for any number of things to which they stand mystified!  A man must learn in his quest for the Grail to look for fulfillment but not good moods, lest he is again in possession by something destructive. It’s as if in the mood he declares, “You are going to make me happy--or else!”

The anecdote to this is to learn to live in time, moment to moment. One can learn to recognize the advent of a mood and refuse it. It is one's responsibility to know what is going on within himself so as to live consciously-- the point of this quest for the Holy Grail. “A man who has this kind of self-knowledge begins to develop ego strength,” writes Johnson. When truly enthusiastic, a man is filled with the Spirit of God. He is vibrant and creative. A great creativity flows, one which is stable and productive. It is not the petulance of a child.

The truest genius of a flesh and blood woman is that if she can be consciously aware of her innate feminine nature, not critical of others, and strong enough to stand up to this “spurious femininity” when a man’s mood presents such; he will likely come out of his mood and return to his senses. Many in this world are in the possession of a mental illness, a foul mood which befalls them either frequently or intermittently. They may say they’re having a bad day while in this state. And when comes its opposite, because balance is necessary, mania or depression appears. Chaos may also result owing to the lack of feeling or valuing. Careful reflection and conscious awareness is the point of Percival’s methodical search. The myth, if we follow it through, tells us that Percival triumphs.