Power of Dreams/MDS Dream Forum
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Exert from the book {begins with track 18 from the second cd} Rites of Passage The archetypal tasks of childhood and adolescence for the male are symbolised in the hero myths which are found in all parts of the world. These tell about how the hero leaves home and is subjected to a number of tests or trials, culminating in the supreme ordeal – the fight with a dragon or a sea monster. The hero's triumph is rewarded with the treasure hard to attain, that is, the throne of a kingdom and a beautiful princess as a bride. So it is in actuality, to embark on the adventure of life, a boy has to free himself of his bonds to home, parents and siblings, survive the ordeals of initiation, which virtually all traditional societies imposed, and win a place for himself in the world – the kingdom. To achieve all this, and to win a bride, he must overcome the power of the mother complex still operative in his unconscious – the fight with the dragon. This amounts to a second parturition from the mother, a final severing of the psychic umbilical cord – victory over the dragon monster often involves the hero being swallowed into it's belly, from which he cuts himself out in a kind of auto-caesarean section. As a result, he dies as his mother's son and is reborn as a man worthy of the princess and the kingdom. In girls, the transition to womanhood is more readily accomplished, since feminine gender consciousness does not demand a radical shift in identification away from the mother's world to father's world as it does in boys. Although our culture no longer provides rites of initiation, there persists in us, regardless of gender, an archetypal need to be initiated. We can deduce this from the dreams of patients in analysis, which become rich with initiatory symbolism at critical periods of their lives – e.g. at puberty, betrothal, marriage, childbirth, a divorce or separation, at the death of a parent or spouse. Attainment of a new stage of life seems to demand that symbols of initiation must be experienced. If society fails to provide them, then the self compensates for this deficiency by producing them in dreams. The Dynamics of Progress For all young people, growth is a hard journey out of the familiar past into an unknown future, and there are times when everyone feels daunted by the precarious uncertainty of the path. Sometimes it's challenges may appear so overwhelming that individuals breakdown or give up, or regress to a previous stage of development, returning to the mother in her archetypal aspect of nurturer and container. The period from adolescence to early adulthood is the time when people are most highly motivated to look after #1, pouring all their energies into job, marriage, home and children. It is a time of rapid, if one-sided, development – when few people have much time to devote to their inner life. For this reason, Jung maintained that a psychological commitment to the path of individuation was hardly appropriate to this stage. On the contrary, this is time to pay one's dues to society, in order to purchase the right to individuate which then becomes the task of the second period of life. Love and Marriage In most people, the capacity to relate to the opposite sex matures during adolescence and early adulthood, to the point where marriage becomes both possible and desired should circumstances allow. The experience of falling in love, as we have seen, when one meets a woman or man, rightly or wrongly, appears to be the living embodiment of one's anima or animus. This profoundly moving experience is an example of is what is means to be taken over by the power of an autonomous complex. Every archetype, once activated, seeks its own fulfillment in life. This is especially true of the animus or anima, for their quest for completion is rendered more imperative by the nagging insistence of sexual desire. Bonding with a partner is more than just a matter of unconscious projection. If the bond is to last long enough for children to be reared, then it must be sustained by continuing sexual interest, the insistence of the law and the recognition by each partner of the other as a real person with qualities over and beyond those that have been projected. Failure to forgive a spouse for not living up to his anima or her animus fantasies can lead to heartache, recrimination and divorce. Jung was very aware of this from his own experience of marriage. In his essay 'Marriage as a Psychological Relationship', published in 1925, he argues that a marriage can only be a true relationship if it transcends blind mutual animus/anima projections and if both partners become conscious of each other's psychic reality. Otherwise, it remains as 'medieval marriage', ruled by custom and illusion, a mere participation mystique ('one heart and one soul'). In present circumstances, marriage has to be a more conscious, less stereotyped institution, even if this entails feelings of disillusionment as the contrasexual fantasies are withdrawn, and results in an increased incidence of separation and divorce. 'There is no birth of consciousness without pain', Jung said. If, however, the union survives, then it can become what has been called an 'individuation marriage', enabling both personalities to grow through a richer understanding of each other, their marriage, and themselves. 'This is what happens very frequently about the midday of life', said Jung, 'and in this wise our miraculous human nature enforces a transition that leads from the first half of life to the second. It is a metamorphosis from a state in which man is only a tool of instinctive nature to another in which he is no longer a tool, but himself: a transformation of nature into culture, of instinct into spirit'. Jerry ![]() ![]() Sponsored & Supported by: Gifford Fence Co/Middle Tennessee Gifford Fence Orlando/Melbourne Fence Pro Daniel Gifford's 2Stain Fence Staining Web Design ![]() MyDrSy.com - The Power of Dreams Melbourne Dreams & Metaphysics - Dream Interpretation Space Coast, Florida Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 62 Space Coast, Fla. Have You Posted Before? Date of Last Post {Use Search and Your Post Name to Help Find Last Post} Male How Did You Find the Dream Forum? Yes Nov 23rd, 2012 - 9:42 AM
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