INTRODUCTION The ancient Greeks
understood there were two ways of thinking, logos and mythos.
Western society has developed a bias toward logic, toward objective truth.
Yet the reality is that mythos is a powerful force that acts to shape even
so-called logic. It is well understood that no scientist is truly objective,
that even they are captured by the narratives and meta-narratives of their
milieu.
If these facts were
fully considered then it would be accepted that any human phenomenon must
be understood from both perspectives, yet, all too often, these two perspectives
are in a state of conflict. And many a psychologist has found him or herself
caught between the two.
This was precisely
the situation Carl Jung found himself in. His work delved deeply into mythos
yet he found himself having to constantly defer to the ‘scientific’ prejudice
of his peers. Throughout his writings he constantly seems to pull back
from a controversial conclusion in deference to scientific orthodoxy. Of
this problem Jung says:
“I fancied
I was working along the best scientific lines, establishing facts, observing,
classifying, describing causal and functional relations, only to discover
in the end that I had involved myself in a net of reflections which extend
far beyond natural science and ramify into the fields of philosophy, theology,
comparative religion and the humane sciences in general. This transgression,
as inevitable as it was suspect, has caused me no little worry.” [1]
This paper is unapologetically
written from the perspective of mythos and it owes a particular
debt to the work of Carl Jung. This does not mean that it deprecates logos.
Far from it. It argues that human behaviour is best understood from both
perspectives and that if anything, the argument of mythos has too often
been a subdued voice. Here I might make
a note about Henry Corbin’s term ‘Imaginal’ [2]. This is his translation
of the Sufi term ta’wil. This is the process whereby numinous symbols
are interpreted and resolved as part of the process of spiritual unfoldment.
It closely resembles Jung’s individuation process. It involves a careful
process of personal hermeneutics. It involves understanding universal and
personal symbols in an active way. And just as we may separate cognitive
development and moral development, we can also, following Wilber, designate
the Imaginal as a separate line/stream of development.
PART
ONE
THE
DEVELOPMENTAL JUNG
Jung was never very
clear on some aspects of his theory. This has lead to divergent interpretations
of his work. One such view is that Jung’s model was non-linear and did
not include developmental stages. Yet he relied heavily on the symbolism
of both alchemy and Gnosticism, both of which contain explicit developmental
stages. Scattered throughout his work are references to stages of development.
On one page in Symbols of Transformation [3]he will say:
“The symbols act
as transformers, their function being to convert libido from a “lower”
form to a “higher” form.” [4]
On another:
“Psychic processes
therefore behave like a scale along which consciousness “slides”. At one
moment it finds itself in the vicinity of instinct, and fall under its
influence; at another, it slides along to the other end where spirit predominates
and even assimilates the instinctual processes most opposed to it.” [5]
The entire text of
Symbols
of Transformation arguably explores stages of transformation. Yet,
in apparent contradiction to this idea of development Jung preferred to
focus on the conjunction of opposites and circular images, the most famous
being the mandala. The Jungian therapist Jeffrey Raff has this to say:
“There is no linear
way of explaining the union of opposites; their union transcends reason.
One image for this union is the mandala and its central point around which
everything else is organized.” [6]
However, later in
his book Jung and the Alchemical Imagination, Raff goes on to describe
in detail a linear developmental sequence symbolized in the Book of
Lambspring by the alchemist Gerald Dorn. This describes a process of
linear development over three successive conjunctions, with each conjunction
being a precondition of the next.
So, is Jung’s process
of individuation linear or not? In actuality it is seemingly both, one
of those pesky paradoxes. Raff says:
“We might think
of the union of the opposites proceeding in this manner as sequential;
first one part of the personality expresses itself, then another. Another
experience of this union is not sequential”.[7]
The solution to this
paradox can be understood by referring to the work of Ken Wilber. Wilber
has been accused of being too rigidly linear with critics objecting that
the individual does not uniformly progress through Wilber’s stages. Wilber
answers his critics thus:
“’Linear’ is often
used in a very derogatory fashion, which is contrasted with the nice holistic
alternative, which is somehow supposed to be ‘not linear’. But most organic
and holistic systems actually unfold in irreversible stages of increasing
inclusiveness and envelopment…
“There is nothing
linear about the self-sense, however. In fact, the self can roam all over
the spectrum of consciousness….It can jump ahead, regress, spiral, go sideways,
or otherwise dialectically spin on its heels.” [8]
Jung and many of
his followers simply failed to make such a simple observation. The process
of individuation is the process of the self-sense, the ‘conscious’ mind,
becoming aware of the psyche’s ‘unconscious’ contents. As such it can appear
to follow either a linear or a non-linear path. None of this contradicts
the possibility of there being a linear, developmental ‘deep’ structure
to the unconscious.
PART
TWO
TEMENOS
Temenos is
the name I have given to a developmental meta-narrative I developed in
the mid-eighties. It proposes that the full spectrum of development has
been intuited by every culture and that the ‘narratives’ of that culture
reveal valuable insights into the developmental process. Its methodology
is the comparative sorting of narratives, whilst clearly understanding
that such narratives are themselves the result of developmental stages.
It is important to understand that such narratives are often of a composite
nature, that is, they include aspects that may, to use Wilber’s spectrum
delineations, be magic, mythic, rational and subtle/causal ? or any combination
thereof. A ‘myth’ may contain aspects that are typically magical but that
nonetheless can be understood to contain a perfectly rational understanding
of a deeper truth. Many myths are in fact teaching stories that are not
intended to be taken literally. Furthermore, many narratives can be interpreted
on many levels. Here it is extremely helpful to distinguish between the
subject of the narrative and the translation of the subject into a developmental
mode. A teaching story may use the structure of a myth and speak in a ‘mythic’
voice, but the subject may be about, for example, a causal level ‘lesson’.
A very good example is the Mahabharata. On the one hand it is a
grand mythic tale about ancient India (Bharata). But within Indian
philosophy it is understood to be a significant lesson in the understanding
of the concept of dharma.
The Temenos system
expands Jung’s concept of the structure of the psyche as revealed in the
various symbols of the archetype of the Self. There are multiple symbols
of this archetype. One of the most fascinating and enduring is the symbol
of Cosmic Order [9]. Every society that reaches the early State stage [10]
formalizes a cosmological system that contains a meta-narrative that attempts
to explain human society. The Asian sphere has been influenced by the circumpolar
cosmology of the Chinese empires, a system where the divine court of the
Jade Emperor is duplicated in detail by the mundane court of the earthly
emperor. The Meso-American sphere had its own unique cosmology. India and
the West have been heavily influenced by Sumerian cosmology. Each of these
cosmologies can be understood as a projection of the archetype of the Self
onto the tabula rasa of the night sky. And whilst there are aspects
that are culturally unique in each system, a comparative analysis shows
a great many common themes. These themes are often repeated in the many
narratives of any given culture, from the major mythic cycles to minor
fairytales and children’s stories, from the grand religious themes to the
enduring fictional romances, tragedies and comedies.
The most elaborate
of the cosmological narratives is the Sumerian ecliptic system that forms
the basis of both Hindu jyotish and Middle-Eastern and Western astrology.
Temenos finds that this symbol is a significant intuition of the developmental
process. Jung stated that the quaternity was a symbol of the Self. In Aion,
Jung argued that the number twelve was an extension of the quaternal structure
of the unconscious [11]. Temenos argues (for reasons far too detailed to
go into in this paper) that the number twelve is perhaps the prime numerical
symbol for the Self. Temenos therefore delineates a twelve-fold structure
for the archetype of the Self. The symbol of the number twelve is frequently
repeated in the narratives of many cultures, (even in the Chinese and Meso-American
spheres, whose cosmologies are not based on the Sumerian duodecimal system),
thus recapitulating the original symbol.
One of the major
gaps in Jung’s work was his failure to make a definitive list of the archetypes,
or to place them in a developmental sequence. This has led to a number
of confusions. Wilber has correctly pointed out that Jung’s concept of
the archetype suffers from the Pre/Trans fallacy. I deal with this particular
point in a paper called Revisioning Individuation [12]. However,
there are other confusions. How many archetypes are there? For example,
Jung speaks of the Anima archetype, then separately delineates the Mother
and Kore archetypes whilst suggesting that they are forms of the Anima.
So, are they archetypes in their own right, or sub-archetypes?
Are Senex, Puer Aeterna,
the Hero and the Great Father archetypes in their own right, or sub-archetypes
of Animus? Is the Trickster an archetype in its own right or an aspect
of the Shadow? In Symbols of Transformation Jung uses the Miller
fantasies as the basis to discuss a process of transformation through various
archetypal symbols. This suggests a pattern of unfolding, a pattern of
development, one that typically involves working with several archetypes
after the fashion of a heroic journey.
Temenos argues that
the Jungian archetypes can be placed in a developmental sequence and suggests
how that might be done.
THE TEMENOS SYSTEM
Temenos is based
on a sequence of twelve archetypes that interact in multiple harmonic patterns.
This harmonic structure is typical of symbols of the Self (which can be
read as a simple linear development, or as a interactive mandala, or, at
a higher level, as a multi-dimensional holograph). The most important of
the harmonic patterns is the pairing of the archetypes into six dyads.
Each of the dyads represents a creative tension, the resolution of which
allows the transformation to the next dyad in a developmental sequence.
This tension helps explain Jung’s concern with the symbol of the opposition.
It is important to
note that each of the dyads has a set of core needs. These must be ‘secured’
for development to take place. These follow Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
reasonably closely, with the exception of the higher stages. For example,
the major project of the first dyad is to secure food and shelter. People
who struggle daily to meet these basic needs will hardly be concerned with
other matters.
The dyads are as
follows:
DYAD ONE: EROS/THANATOS
The primal tension
is between order and chaos, birth and death. The defining characteristic
of life is pattern recognition, finding order. Early forms distinguish
between light and dark, hot and cold and so on. Sensing pattern allows
life to exist. However chaos is always there to bring novelty and change.
A meteor strikes, a volcano erupts and the pattern is broken, yet, in time
order is restored. The libido (eros) is the impulse toward life. Its natural
flow is toward higher order through transformation. Its opposite is the
force of death and destruction ? regression.
The symbols for this
dyad are many and involve images of birth, life, sex, abundance and order,
and images of death, chaos, destruction, evil, decay and waste. Here I
want to make special note of Grof’s Basic Perinatal Matrices and the dual
images of birth and death that arise in the birthing struggle. [13]
The classic mythic
theme is that of paradise and the fall. Other symbols are: first chakra,
Taurus/Scorpio, the Tree of Life, the Serpent, Kundalini and the Bull.
In individual development:
Sensorimotor.
In societal development:
survival bands, Archaic and Archaic-Magic.
The core needs of
the first dyad are the basics, food and shelter.
Jungian archetype;
none specified. Aspects of the Mother.
Wilber: Fulcrum 0
- 2 [14]
DYAD TWO - MATER/PATER
Life devises a strategy
to transcend the life/death struggle. This is the creation of self-sustained
structure that provides both nurturing safety and protective safety and
purposive order and structure. This is family, tribe and group. Usually
it is the female who provides nurture and the male who provides discipline,
however, these functions can be assumed by groups themselves or other individuals.
They are principles.
The individual ego
in relation to these two principles takes the position of the child who
both struggles against parental discipline but is wholly dependent on it.
It is the realm of emotion and of the distortion of libido through the
Oedipus and Electra complexes.
The symbols of this
stage are often to do with the Great Mother and Great Father and the multiple
variations thereof. Second chakra, Cancer/Capricorn, the Cave, the Mountain,
the Moon, the Ram.
In individual development:
Preoperational (mother), Concrete Operational (father).
In societal development:
Tribal groups to Big Man Collectivities to Archaic State. Magic to Mythic.
The core needs of
the second dyad are the emotional needs of belonging, identity and security.
Jungian archetype:
Mother, Father, Puer Aeternus, aspects of Kore, aspects of the Child.
Wilber: Fulcrum 3
- 4
DYAD THREE: INDIVIDUUS/CIVILIS
The tension of dyad
two creates the need to separate from the constrictions of the symbolic
parents. This is the creation of a strong and independent self-sense that
seeks relationship with other individuals. The main force is toward ‘self’
expression and freedom in free association with like-minded individuals.
Combined self-expression then leads to the formation of high culture and
of civilization.
The symbols of this
stage centre around the Hero/Heroine and of the feminine as the inspiration
for civilization: Athena Polias, the Muses, Justice holding her scales,
the Statue of Liberty. Third chakra, Aries/Libra, The Sun, the Knight and
the Maiden/Bride.
In individual development:
Formal Operational to Post Formal.
In societal development:
Advanced State, democracy. Rational to Integral.
The core needs of
the third dyad are a sense of individual purpose and creativity, and finding
one’s place in a community of equals.
Jungian archetype:
the Hero, aspects of Kore, aspects of the Conjunction.
Wilber: Fulcrum 5
Note: This is the
level most of society is still experiencing. The later dyads refer to the
transpersonal and transsocietal levels.
DYAD FOUR - WORLD
MASTERY/NEOPHYTE
When the individual
has ‘mastered’ the arts of civilization he/she reaches a period of fulfillment.
At this point there is an inner tension that calls for a ‘deeper’ exploration.
On the one hand there is satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment, on
the other is a gnawing feeling of something greater.
The symbols of this
stage are of Rex/Regina ? the righteous or dharmic monarch and of the ‘seeker’,
or of the ‘caller’, the voice that urges the Hero to a higher challenge.
Fourth chakra, Leo/Aquarius, the Heart, the Lion, the apprentice, and marriage.
Here special mention must be made of the classic righteous monarchs: King
Arthur and the Round Table, the mythic Richard the Lion-Heart, King David,
Prince Arjuna and Emperor Ashoka.
In individual development:
Piagetian terms no longer suffice; so in Wilberian terms, late Vision-Logic
to Psychic.
In social development:
here we need to refer to the symbol of Utopia, a social system in perfect
balance. There are many utopias and the study of them reveals interesting
information about this stage. Jung recognized that the idea of a divine
city (Jerusalem) or a perfect state was itself a symbol of the Self (particularly
as a projection of Cosmic Order).
The core needs of
this dyad are compassion, selflessness, intuitive understanding and free
information flow.
Jungian archetype:
aspects of the Conjunction.
Wilber: Fulcrum 6
- 7
DYAD FIVE: THE
FOOL/THE SAGE
The tension between
the comfort of success in the material world and the intuition that there
is much more must be resolved by the shift to the dyad of active searching.
Here the primary lesson is of discrimination and wisdom. The Fool represents
the confusing stage in which the neophyte’s projections and preconceptions
are tested and literally ‘played’ with. The Fool has a tendency to fall
back on to comfortable and manageable paradigms. However, a deeper impulse
to genuine gnosis tests the neophyte over and over again until true insight
and wisdom is gained.
The symbols of this
stage deal with wizards, shamans, tests, challenges, mazes, illusion and
clarity, wisdom and conquest of the demons/chimera of the subtle world.
Fifth chakra, Gemini/Sagittarius. A special note to Mickey Mouse in the
Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
In individual development:
subtle to causal.
The core needs are
discrimination and wise council.
Jungian archetype:
the Trickster, Senex.
Wilber: Fulcrum 8
DYAD SIX: THE
VIRGIN/CHRISTOS
This stage has best
been explained in the Shaivite philosophies as the union of Shiva/Shakti.
The Sage surrenders to the final great anima image of the Cosmic Mother
and is absorbed into nondual realisation. The tension at this level is
all about final surrender.
The western symbol
at this stage is that of the Virgin and of the son conceived by the Virgin
(a common theme not exclusive to the Christian story). Christos represents
the impulse toward creation, of immanence. Other symbols, the Veil, the
sixth and seventh charka, Virgo/Pisces.
In individual development:
causal to nondual.
The core needs are
reflection and ultimate service.
Jungian archetype:
aspects of Kore, aspects of the Child, aspects of the Self.
Wilber: Fulcrum 9
THE MATRICES:
THE DUAL MOTHER AND FATHER
A few paragraphs
ago I mentioned that the archetype of cosmic order typically contains harmonic
patterns. Another pattern I need to draw your attention to is the division
of the twelve into four groups of three.[15]
The first is called
the matriarchal matrix and consists of the archetypal themes of
birth, death and the mother.
The second is called
the patriarchal matrix and consists of the archetypal themes of
father, the individual and civilisation.
The third and fourth
matrices are transpersonal and do not concern us in this paper.
Many writers have
commented on the historical shift from matriarchal systems to patriarchal
systems. During the time of the Jewish Patriarchs all references the traditional
consort of Yahweh, Asherah, were removed from the Old Testament and her
image was removed from every temple. In some cultures there was a dramatic
split, as in the fiercely patriarchal Abrahamic religions, in other cultures
the goddesses remained but were made secondary to male gods. It seems that
only in India did the vestiges of the earlier matriarchal cults remain
in some Tantric systems.[16]
In both the matriarchal
matrix and the patriarchal matrix we see the development of a dual aspect
to both the mother and father symbol. We can call these dual aspects the
Great Mother/Terrible Mother and the Great Father/Terrible Father.
These dual aspects
are frequent themes in all religions. We see the Great Mother in the Virgin
Mary and in the many forms of the goddess. We see her Terrible aspect in
the blood-drenched form of the Hindu goddess Kali. The Terrible aspect
is usually associated with ritual sacrifice linked to fertility rites.
This makes perfect sense, as the very act of birth is associated with blood,
as is the act of hunting and preparing the kill. Often the worship of the
Great Mother, in both her aspects, involved sexual ritual as well. The
early goddess cults were associated with sacred prostitution, but even
the act of sacrifice sometimes involved sex. Joseph Campbell tells of the
fairly common act of sacrificing young couples in the act of copulating.
[17] The purpose of the sacrifice is to continue the cycle of life for
life.
There is however,
a dramatic change with the appearance of the Great Father. The act of sacrifice
shifts from being a part of the sacred round of birth, life and death to
being a way to realise a higher, abstract order. The Great Father is associated
with grand visions, whether they are political ideologies, claims to ethnic
superiority or religiously inspired attempts to build the divine order
on earth. A great many of the world’s wars have been in the name of a greater
cause, a vast murderous rampage of ethnic, religious and political conquest
tied into the assertion of the core need of identity. In every one of these
cases the Great Father sacrifices his children, particularly his sons,
in the name of the cause. There is a dramatic painting by the Spanish artist
Francisco de Goya that shows Saturn [18] eating his children. This is the
manifestation of the Terrible Father, the father who destroys his own children,
just as the Abrahamic god promises to destroy the whole world if his children
are not obedient to his higher order.
A significant part
of the patriarchal matrix is the appearance of the Son, or of the Hero,
who represents the individual ego. Jesus is the good son who models obedience
and offers a way for his followers to avoid the promised apocalypse. But
just as there is the good son there is also the evil son. King Arthur was
eventually killed by his own son, Mordred. There is a family tragedy at
play here. It contains the awful reality of patricide, fratricide and incest.
This drama is played out everyday as sons and daughters attempt to create
a separate identity and escape the psychological games of the family. Some
never make it and remain locked in a psychological inner family. This is
an important point because it happens to cultures as well.
The symbol par
excellence of the final escape from the family is marriage. It is the
union of male and female which allows a new round of birth to occur. In
patriarchal societies the daughter is given away by the father into the
care of the husband. The marriage ceremony is a rite of passage into full
adult responsibility (and marks the symbolic taming, the civilising, of
the wild youth). It recapitulates the ancient union of the god and goddess
(hence the use of the veil) and it is a theme I will return to at the end
of this paper.
The above themes
develop the archetypes of the father, the individual and civilisation,
the patriarchal matrix. Joseph Campbell explores these themes in his famous
book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The psychologist C.G. Jung
also elaborates on this theme. [19] There are many aspects of this grand
narrative, sometimes the Hero is escaping the clutches of the Terrible
Mother, at other times he is escaping the injustice of the Terrible Father.
The Hero then undergoes a tremendous journey and through a series of challenges
returns to the world with a greater understanding. The whole heroic cycle
is a metaphor for the successful transformation of the psyche and it shows
us what must be done in order to achieve the final goal.
Unfortunately the
whole idea of comedy and more importantly, tragedy, is that the Hero can
also sometimes fail. These tales of error are important because they warn
us that things can indeed go wrong, that if the archetypal pattern is not
followed then there can be fatal consequences.
PART
THREE
THE
DEVELOPMENTAL TRAGEDY OF THE BROTHERHOODS
In the aftermath
of September the 11th it was reported that members of the al Qaeda network
had met with members of the Russian mafia in an attempt to obtain the makings
of a nuclear bomb. As it turns out al Qaeda had been tricked and the barrels
of nuclear material were in fact fake. But why would a puritanical religious
group consort with gangsters who trade in prostitution? Surely their moral
beliefs would prohibit them from contact with pimps?
There is a nasty
underworld trade in drugs, illegal arms and mercenaries. Despite making
a pretense to clean up the lucrative heroin poppy fields of Afghanistan
the Taliban and al Qaeda actually used drug money to fund their activities.
In Colombia it is cocaine that funds both the criminal cartels and the
guerilla movement. Sometimes the links between the cartels, guerilla movements
and the army are extremely confused. The CIA has long been suspected of
using drug money to fund a ‘black’ budget used in counter-insurgency, a
secret cabal within a secret organisation. Meanwhile, three IRA members
are captured in Colombia, and Libya has been linked with providing arms
to several terrorist groups, some seemingly unconnected to the immediate
strategic interests of that country.
But what is the cause
of these brotherhoods? Why are groups of men connected in networks of violent
political, religious, ethnic and criminal brotherhoods, networks that transcend
the original cause to integrate into a worldwide underground of death merchants;
death through drugs, arms and terrorism?
I do not want to
understate the original conditions that give rise to such religious, political,
ethnic or criminal terrorism. In many cases such terrorism has a first
cause in genuine cases of political, social or economic oppression. This
oppression may be at the hands of a state, a rival ethnic group, or as
a result of economic inequity.
But there is much
more at work here. There is a deeper cause, and uncovering that deeper
cause is the subject of this section.
We have only briefly
explored the developmental scheme of Temenos. It is a vast subject with
a massive amount of supporting literature and the length of this paper
simply does not permit me to explore the subject further.
Our task now is to
apply this model to the problem of the brotherhoods.
Essentially the brotherhoods
are caught in the early stages of the patriarchal matrix. Each member is
in effect, a son attempting to appease the Great Father. Unfortunately
the brotherhoods largely play out the tragic aspect of the story, they
actually never leave the Great Father’s home and in the ensuing frustration
the guiding hand of the Great Father turns to the wrathful hand of the
Terrible Father. The path ahead should see them rebel against the Terrible
Father, find their own destiny and return to take their place in civilised
society. Instead they end up as sacrificial victims to the Father’s cause.
Mark Juergensmeyer says of the funerals of Hamas suicide bombers.
“These events
were not really funerals, a fact symbolized by the drinking of sweetened
rather than bitter coffee, the distribution of sweets, and the singing
of wedding songs. A cross between marriage and a religious festival, these
affairs were a modern example of an ancient religious ritual: the sanctification
of the martyrs.” [20]
Juergensmeyer goes
on to describe the age and social standing of the members of the brotherhood.
“The very youthfulness
of most members of the movements makes them socially marginal. A tabulation
of the ages of Sikh extremists killed by police indicated that most of
them were in their early twenties…Hamas has consisted largely of ‘urban
males in their teens’. In most societies, young people between the ages
of sixteen and twenty-two are in a liminal state between life stages. They
are no longer children in their parent’s families and they have not yet
created families of their own. Their marginality is especially acute in
traditional societies built around family units, in which one does not
find the highly developed youth cultures of modern urban and industrialized
societies. These activist youths are family members without a family, for
whom religious movements provide a home and extended kinship.”
In this last statement
Juergensmeyer is recapitulating the theme of the tragic journey of the
Hero. Unable to find meaning as an individual these vulnerable youths turn
to the many ideologies of the Terrible Father. And when we look at the
structure of the brotherhoods we do indeed find the archetype of the Terrible
Father. He takes many forms. He can be a god, he can be a mythologised
historical figure such as Jesus or Mohammed, or he can be an ethnic, religious,
political (we see this shift in communism as the shift from Marx as the
Great Father to Stalin as the Terrible Father ? a pattern repeated in other
political organisations as well) or criminal leader. In every case the
psychology of the brotherhoods removes them further and further from the
original cause and they descend into the archetypal tragedy of patricide,
fratricide and incest - the playing out of the Second Dyad familial tensions
between symbolic parents and siblings.
To protect himself
from challenge from younger males the dominant male must deal fiercely
with any dissension. Jerrold Post says this of terrorist groups:
“The wise leader,
sensing the building tension, will plan an action so that the group’s members
can reaffirm their identity and discharge their aggressive energy. Better
to have the group attack the outside enemy, no matter how high the risk,
than turn on itself - and him”. [21]
As the decline continues
the group starts to turn on its own members and demand even greater obedience.
Michael Wieviorka has argued that extreme violence is a sign of the collapse
of the original cause. He argues that “the organized practice of indiscriminate
and irredeemable violence” is a “substitute for a movement that
has become either imaginary or has fallen out of sync with the hopes pinned
on it”. [22] As the group descends further it begins to turn inwards.
In normal development the individual turns to the archetype of the bride,
to the idea of civilization [23]. In the brotherhoods this is turned inwards
to a powerful ritual of male bonding. Juergensmeyer quotes the revealing
words of the Sikh martyrs, Sukha and Jinda.
“Sukha and Jinda
were said to have stated in their final address that they imagined the
hangman’s rope ‘as the embrace of a lover’, and they ‘longed for death
as for the marital bed’. Their own ‘dripping blood’ would be the ‘outcome
of this union’ and they hoped it would ‘fertilize the fields of Khalistan’.
"[24]
This last quote provides
an interesting reference to the purpose of sacrifice in the matriarchal
matrix. However, this should not surprise us if we remember that religions
often contain remnants of earlier developmental stages. We need only remember
that the Sikh cause also conforms to the psychological process of the brotherhoods.
I would also like
to remind the reader of the earlier quote regarding the singing of wedding
songs at martyr’s funerals. What this points to is the simple appropriation
and inversion of the final developmental phase of the patriarchal matrix,
civilis as symbolised by the wedding of the male and female principles.
What of women? How
do they fare in the world of the brotherhoods? Unfortunately not well at
all. As the brotherhoods turn in on themselves they turn against women.
The women of the brotherhoods do not become equal members; they become
servants. In extreme cases they are reduced to being breeders of even more
sacrificial sons. Amongst societies caught in currents of Islamic extremism
it is a high honour for a woman to give birth to a martyr. The tragedy
however, does not end there. The brotherhoods further dehumanise women
and their greatest crime in that of rape. As the cults of the Terrible
Father descend into darkness the good sons become archetypal bad sons.
When they encounter the women of their enemy (this is particularly vicious
in ethnic conflict) they resort to rape, and rape of a particular kind.
In the worst cases daughters are raped in front of their parents and mothers
are raped in front of their children. Of all the images of the war in Afghanistan
the one that I recall vividly is the blank sadness and terror of three
girls of the Hazar ethnic minority. The largely Pashtun Taliban had raided
their village. They told how their mother had been killed in front of them,
what they would not say is that each of them had been raped. The youngest
was six. This is simply psychological incest, a deep attack against the
structure of the family and the symbolic destruction of the feminine, as
sister, daughter and mother. At a deeper level it is a blunt attack against
the archetype of Anima, particularly as Civilis, the Bride. It is the same
inverted pattern, from the pack rapes of ‘gangsta’ culture to the belief
that martyrs will be rewarded with a heavenly harem of compliant sex slaves.
CLOSED AND OPEN
META-NARRATIVES
Every culture and
society has a story it tells itself. A comparative examination shows a
common thread that recapitulates individual psychology. The structure of
the dyads outlined above is universal. Every culture has stories and myths
that point to the full potential of all the dyads. Unfortunately at various
points in time, at various critical transformative points, a culture or
society will deny itself this potential. Just as individuals get stuck
at developmental levels and retreat into repetitive cycles and complexes,
so to do societies and cultures.
To live a fulfilled
life one must be able to negotiate one’s own path through the developmental
stages. The same applies to societies and cultures. This is not the imposition
of a certain set of cultural norms onto other cultures. Each culture has
its own stories, its own myths that map out the universal path. There are
profound similarities in the myths of quite diverse cultures. As Jung has
pointed out, the archetypes can be found in every cultural variation. The
archetype of the Self for example, can be found in the mythologised figures
of Jesus in the West, of the Buddha in the East and of Quetzalcoatl in
the Americas; the feminine archetype of compassion as Mary in the West,
Kuan Yin in China and White Buffalo Woman for Native Americans.
When the full potential
of all the archetypal dyads can be accessed and realised the culture can
be said to be in an open state. It is equally possible however, for cultures
to close down and fail to provide a way for individuals to progress through
the developmental stages. History has often been the struggle of open systems
against closed systems. It is as if there is an evolutionary impulse toward
open development.
But what causes open
systems to turn inwards and close down? The answer is not actually all
that difficult. As I mentioned above, each dyad has a set of core needs
it must meet. When the core needs are stabilised then both the individual
and the society naturally evolve to the next stage. The first core need
is food and shelter. An individual who does not know where his or her next
meal is coming from is hardly concerned with other things. And it is only
when a society has developed a resource surplus that it develops from the
foraging band level to the next level. [25]
The next core need
is that of belonging, identity and security. The individual finds that
in his or her family. Societies provide this by creating tribal and ethnic
identity; meaning is found in complex narratives of relationship.
When one is confident
and secure in knowing where and to whom one belongs then the next need
arises. That need is to develop a separate and individual identity and
to establish that identity in a group of equals.
If any of these core
needs are denied in any way then the individual or society reverts to the
psychology of the related level. The brotherhoods usually arise in societies
that have been denied a sense of identity and belonging. Can it be as simple
as that? There is no doubt that a crisis of identity can have many causes.
Some may be caused by the actions of others; some may be caused by natural
disaster. But if you look at people in areas of natural disaster where
the core need of shelter and food are being denied you do not find the
brotherhoods. If you look however, at the conflicts in which the brotherhoods
arise you find an attack on the identity and security of a people. The
creation of Israel displaced many Palestinians and threatened their identity.
Similarly the Palestinian call for the abolition of the State of Israel
is a profound threat to Jewish identity. Basque separatism arose out of
the fear that the economic advance of the Spanish and French would swamp
Basque culture. In Fiji there have been several coups caused by the perception
that Fijian identity and power was being lost to the Indian immigrants.
Criminal gangs arise in the slums and ghettos of the disadvantaged who
struggle to gain an identity in the larger society, whether it is South
Central Los Angeles or Southern Italy and Sicily. Juergensmeyer quotes
the political head of Hamas, Dr Abdul Aziz Rantisi as saying that the very
nature of Islam was about the “defence of dignity, land and honour”.
[26] These are issues of identity, not of fundamental physical survival.
In fact many writers have commented that the rise of fundamentalist Islam
is due to a crisis of identity and that America is considered the enemy
because it has attained what Islam has not, thus humiliating Islamic pride.
Regrettably the rise
of influence and power of one ethnic, religious or political entity usually
results in the often careless and sometimes deliberate oppression and humiliation
of other groups. The fratricidal war in Rwanda arose out of the humiliation
and subjugation of one tribal group by another. During Jesus’s time the
brotherhoods were known as zealots and the reaction of the Jews to humiliation
by the Romans gave rise to the extreme Essene sect whose apocalyptic vision
so greatly influenced Christianity --and which led to the mass suicide
of Masada. Examples abound across all cultures and all periods of history.
What then of the
humiliation of the thousands of unemployed youth in the Middle East?
THE WAY AHEAD
The full and open
expression of the patriarchal matrix ends with symbolic marriage of the
masculine and the feminine. Jung called this the conjunction of the opposites
[27]. I say symbolic because it is not really about the actual marriage
of man and woman. In fact the ceremony of marriage is a symbolic acting
out of the greater mystery of harmonising the inner male and female principles.
Each individual and each society must allow this narrative to reach its
final and full conclusion.
I mentioned that
the most common images of the civilis stage are feminine. It is a woman,
Marianne, who leads the masses over the barricades towards freedom and
who is the inspiration for the Statue of Liberty (which significantly overlooks
the ruins of the World Trade Centre). The statues of Justice that adorn
many a court entrance, the goddess Athena Polias who gave name to the city-state
that first developed democracy. It is simply no accident that the so-called
arts of civilisation are symbolically associated with the feminine. In
India it is the goddess Saraswati who developed language and who guides
education and the arts. Even amongst certain Islamic sects it is Fatima
who is the true founder of the sacred line of Imams.
Wherever the feminine
is denied we find a closed system, a system still struggling to secure
the core need of identity and security. And if this core need continues
to be denied the system regresses into the psychology of the Terrible Father.
The history of Islam
provides a prime example. In the first phase of Islam the new faith had
to struggle to maintain its identity in the face of challenge from pagan
tribes. Mohammed’s message was at first denied and he had to flee to Medina.
In the face of a war of survival he developed a belief system that encodes
many of the values of the brotherhood and it was during this time that
he developed the idea of jihad and the rewards of martyrdom. In
the second phase a triumphant Islam expanded and secured its core need
of identity (unfortunately, as always, at the expense of others). At this
time Islam was able to absorb other influences and the feminine arose in
the Sufi tradition, particularly as Sofia, the Greek feminine principle
of wisdom. During this period Islam was the pre-eminent culture. Moorish
Spain was a thriving and tolerant society that gave birth to the Sufi mystic
Ibn Arabi and the Jewish mystic Moses de Cordovera. In fact it is worth
noting that Ibn Arabi had been the student of two female Sufis or shaikha,
Yasmin of Marchena and Fatima of Cordova [28]. In the third phase of Islam
a resurgent Europe saw the gradual decline of the Islamic empire. In reaction
the puritanical Wahhabi sect gained support in Arabia. As Islam further
declined and its values were challenged by modernism, it further retreated
into the psychology of the Terrible Father. The Taliban and al Qaeda are
the inevitable and predictable consequence of developmental regression.
And rather than embrace
the feminine they shun it.
What all this teaches
us is that each individual and each society must be allowed to openly secure
its core needs. It demands a new political wisdom, a wisdom that understands
the importance of the free and open development of all individuals and
cultures. It demands that careful attention be paid to the archetypal story
of humanity.
The signs are always
there, they just need to be heeded.
© Ray
Harris, May, 2002
[1] Jung, C G,
On
the Nature of the Psyche. CW Vol 8, Para 42. Bollingen, Princeton University
Press
[2] Corbin, H: The Creative
Imagination of Ibn ‘Arabi Bollingen, Princeton University Press
[3] Jung, C G, Symbols of
Transformation, CW Vol 5, Para 344. Bollingen, Princeton University Press
[4] Wilber, K, Integral
Psychology. CW Vol 4. Shambhala.
[5] Jung, C G, Vol 8 op
cit Para 408.
[6] Raff, J Jung and the
Alchemical Imagination, Pg 13, Nicholas Hays
[7] Ibid, pg 15
[8] Wilber, K The Eye of
Spirit, Pg 146 Shambhala
[9] Joseph Campbell has
explored this theme in detail. See The Mythic Image Bollingen, Princeton
University Press
[10] See Johnson & Earle,
The Evolution of Human Societies, Stanford University Press
[11] Jung, C G, Aion.
CW Vol 9, Para 351. Bollingen, Princeton University Press
[12] Available at http://www.worldofkenwilber.com/
[13] Grof, S, Beyond the
Brain. State University of New York.
[14] The inclusion of Wilber’s
Spectrum delineations will provide a way to link Temenos with other developmental
schemata. See his appendix in Integral Psychology.
[15] In fact Temenos contains
several interesting harmonic patterns, each with distinct meaning. There
is the standard division of 12 by the factors, 2, 3, 4 and 6. Each of the
levels appears as Sub-levels that explain process. There is also a mirror
harmonic which reveals a symbolic connection between Dyads 1-6, 2-5 and
3-4. There is also the disharmonic of 5 and 7, with 5 symbolic of descent
and 7 of ascent. But these are all subjects for a larger work.
[16]Through the worship
of shakti in the form of Kali/Durga
[17] Campbell, Joseph, The
Masks of God, Vol I. Penguin.
[18] What is interesting
is that the Hebrew for Saturn is sabbatai, from which is derived the word
Sabbath, traditionally held on Saturday ? Saturn’s day.
[19] Jung, CG, Symbols of
Transformation, CW Vol5, Bollingen, Princeton University Press.
[20] Juergensmeyer, Mark,
Terror in the Mind of God, University of California Press.
[21] Quoted from The Terrorism
Reader, Editor, David Whittaker. Routledge
[22] Wieviorka, Michel,
The Making of Terrorism, University of Chicago Press.
[23] This occurs in both
heterosexual and homosexual relationships
[24] Juergensmeyer, op cit.
[25] Johnson and Earle,
op cit.
[26] Juergensmeyer, op cit.
[27] Jung, CG, Mysterium
Coniunctionis, CW Vol 14, Bollingen, Princeton University Press.
[28] Corbin, Henry, Alone
with the Alone, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabi, Bollingen,
Princeton University Press.
