Archetypes & the Collective Unconscious (“The Spectacular Adventures of Solar Phallus Man”)

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Chris

On March 19th, a spacecraft known as NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the solar prominence seen below. In the article accompanying the image, the prominence is described as a magnetic plasma-filled “sun tentacle” which “erupted into space with a distinct twisting motion.”  The caption accompanying the photo also refers to the sun tentacle as a “nicely rounded prominence eruption.”[1]

Perhaps most striking of all is of course the image itself. Anyone somewhat familiar with the history of analytical psychology cannot be blamed if upon seeing this “nicely rounded prominence eruption” they immediately think of Jung’s case involving Emile Schwyzer, a.k.a. “The Solar Phallus Man.” In 1906 while working at the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital in Zurich, Jung spied Schwyzer, a 20-something resident with schizophrenic tendencies, staring out a window:

“One day I came across him there, blinking through the window up at the sun, and moving his head from side to side in a curious manner. He took me by the arm and said he wanted to show me something. He said I must look at the sun with eyes half shut, and then I could see the sun’s phallus. If I moved my head from side to side the sun-phallus would move too, and that was the origin of the wind.” [2]

Then four years later while steeped in his studies of mythology Jung came across several references that paralleled Schwyzer’s “vision” to a most uncanny degree. The first reference was found in a liturgy of visions, instructions, and invocations most likely belonging to an ancient Mithraic cult. [3] One of the visions reads as follows:

“And likewise the so-called tube, the origin of the ministering wind. For you will see hanging down from the disc of the sun something that looks like a tube. And towards the regions westward it is as though there were an infinite east wind. But if the other wind should prevail towards the regions of the east, you will in like manner see the vision veering in that direction.”

Jung goes on to note that as the Greek word for tube also means a “wind-instrument,” then, “evidently a stream of wind is blowing through the tube out of the sun.” [4]

In his discussion of these parallel cases involving the sun, phallus/tube, and wind, Jung is quick to point out that the book from which he took the Mithraic reference was published in 1910 and could not have been read by Schwyzer. It thus could not have informed or inspired his vision. [5] Similar logic holds true for other parallels. These include medieval paintings depicting the Immaculate Conception of Christ by way of a tube reaching down from heaven before it disappears beneath the robes of Mary. The Holy Ghost in the form of a dove flies down through the tube to impregnate her. In discussing this image, Jung writes:

“As we know from the miracle of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost was originally conceived as a mighty rushing wind [. . .] ‘the wind that bloweth where it listeth.’ In a Latin text we read: ‘Animo descensus per orbem solis tribuitur’ (They say that the spirit descends through the disc of the sun.”[6]

Schwyzer, who was not well travelled, particularly religious or well-educated, was almost certainly not exposed to these ideas or this imagery at any point in his life. (Jung even verified that other mental hospitals where Schwyzer had stayed did not possess libraries or similar collections of books.) So how is it possible that human nature, specifically the human psyche, can exhibit the same images and motifs – in this case the sun, tube/phallus, and wind – across both time and culture?

In answer to this question Jung put forth his theory of archetypes and the collective unconscious. As stated in a recent Mythfire post, the former refer to “an innate potential pattern of imagination, thought, or behavior that can be found among human beings in all times and places” and the latter term of collective unconscious can be understood as the shared psychic repository of these potential and only partially known patterns. When discussing the Schwyzer case, Jung also refers to archetypes as “a functional disposition.” [7]

In short, Schwyzer’s vision, the Mithraic liturgy quoted above, and the depiction of Christ’s conception all reflect “a functional disposition,” or archetype, within the psyche that holds energetic value or meaning for humanity. The specific archetypal disposition in this instance expresses itself in images connoting the existence of and interrelationship between both the spirit and the soul. Also, at least in the case of the impregnating of the Virgin Mary the interpenetration or fructification of the soul by the spirit is conveyed. (For Schwyzer, his experience of these archetypal energies took the form of a spiritual identification of himself both with God and with the sun’s phallus; on the physical soul-oriented plane the fructifying element manifested in a compulsion to spread his seed, i.e. masturbate).[8]

Jung’s hypothesis regarding archetypes and the collective unconscious continued to develop over the remainder of his life. Parallel images and motifs from mythological traditions of different cultures and periods of human history — many of which could not have influenced or cross-fertilized one another — served as one of the primary proofs for Jung of the existence of collectively shared archetypal energies. Moreover, instead of merely debunking long held religious beliefs or doctrines, appreciation for the existence and power of archetypes usually results in the following: a deeper awareness of the instincts, fears, desires, and drives of human nature; a stronger bond between individuals and “the Other,” especially as it takes shape in other cultures and belief systems; finally, and perhaps most importantly, a sense of religious connection to Something which is at one and the same time spiritual and soulful, transcendent and immanent. (Jung called this something “the Self.”)

For the moment, Mythfire will leave an additional related question unaddressed and unanswered. If, as seems the case, Schwyzer had never seen an actual solar prominence and that the same cannot be seen with the naked eye, how is it possible that real solar prominences – as shown in the above photo – so closely mirror the psychological and mythological analogues we’ve discussed? Schwyzer’s inability to physically see the solar prominence suggests that he was instead somehow seeing or intuiting it psychically.  Indeed, this gives renewed meaning to a phrase borrowed from mythologist Joseph Campbell: “the inner reaches of outer space.”[9]

——

Next Monday: Oneirocritica (“The Interpretation of Dreams”)

[1] The article’s title is “Solar eruption creates spectacular ‘sun tentacle’.”  See: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42269920/ns/technology_and_science-space/.

[2] Jung’s Collected Works Vol. 8, para. 317. In addition to the sources quoted in this post, readers interested in learning more about Schwyzer’s case may want to turn to Chapter 13 (“The Solar Phallus Man”) in Deidre Bair’s Jung: A Biography, as well as other references to the case in the index to Jung’s Collected Works.

[3] Mithraism was a religion practiced in Rome from approximately 1-4 A.D. An additional parallel to the examples offered in the present post perhaps can be found in the brief worship in Ancient Egypt (c. 1350 BCE) of the god Aten who took the form of a sun-disk with Holy Spirit-like sunbeams extending out and downward toward believers. To Mythfire‘s untrained eye, some of the images of the Aten sun disk even appear to be ithyphallic. For one example, see www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2351917&mesg_id=2352008.

[4] CW 8: 318.

[5] Nor could it have been an example of cryptomnesia, which is the sudden recollection of once known and then forgotten or repressed images and motifs.

[6] Ibid., 319. While not necessarily showing a tube, many if not most depictions of the Immaculate Conception do show a dove descending a shaft of light on its way from Heaven to the waiting Mary.

[7] The first definition of archetype comes from page 233 of Murray Stein’s Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction. Archetypes as a “functional disposition” can be found in CW 5:154.

[8] CW 9i:104-110 is also to be consulted when discussing the spiritual and soulful aspects of “The Solar Phallus Man.”

[9] According to online sources, solar prominences can be seen with the unaided eye only during eclipses and even then only rarely. Also, see Campbell’s book entitled The Inner Reaches of Outer Space.

 

Posted in Depth Psychology, Myth | 5 Comments

The Intoxicating Power of Flight (“Puermen & Ironmen”)

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Chris

The story of Icarus provides one of the more widely known examples from mythology of the puer aeternus, or eternal youth, an archetypal figure introduced in the two prior Mythfire posts. Impetuous, curious, “intoxicated with the power to fly,” and deaf to his father’s warnings, Icarus flies so close to the sun that his newly made waxen wings melt from the heat. He falls out of the sky and to his tragic, untimely death in the sea.[1]

The painting accompanying this blog is Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, most likely a copy of a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder from the late 1550s. Take a moment now to look at the painting before reading the following excerpt from a poem by W.H. Auden.

Musée des Beaux Arts

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
………………………………………..

In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Auden seems to suggest, then, that some things hadn’t changed in the almost four hundred years spanning the period from Brueghel’s painting to Auden’s 1938 poem. Perhaps they haven’t changed even to the present day. As conveyed in the painting and the poem, many people, so busy with their duties and routines, do not take much note of – much less learn from – the rise and fall of others. And yet that which we don’t learn from may indeed be doomed to be repeated. Finally, once puer energies are also observed in their collective forms such as national identities, governmental policies, corporate strategies and more, we see just how consequential for everyone the ungrounded or intoxicated “the sky’s the limit” puer can be. (See Fate of America by analytical psychologist Michael Gellert for more on the collective forms and impact of the puer.)

Of course, other individuals predisposed to turning a blind eye to Icaran downfalls are kindred puer aeterni, other eternal youths. Invincibility is perceived by them to be its own metallic shield. Puermen all too easily become Ironmen. However, to return to an image from the post which started this brief series, the puer aeternus somehow needs to learn that though his Ironman persona may feel like an “F-18,” even these and similar aircraft are not impervious to overheated circuitry, systems failures, or the resulting plummet out of the sky — as recent events have shown. [2]

For the Icaran or Ironman puer the hardest lesson to pay attention to may just be this: death is irreversible, even if no one else stops what they’re doing long enough to notice.

——

Next Monday: The Adventures of Solar Phallus Man…

[1] The quote comes from Ann Yeoman’s Now or Neverland: Peter Pan and the Myth of Eternal Youth, p. 53. Yeoman’s discussion of Icarus continues on to p. 54 and 55, where she includes the Bruegel painting and Auden poem.

[2] Charlie Sheen recently likened himself to an F-18. Also, though not an F-18, the crash roughly two weeks ago of an F-15E  in Libya — due to an “equipment malfunction” — shows that such planes are not inherently invincible. (http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/22/libya.civil.war/index.html?hpt=T1.) Sticking with Sheen: just as one may easily find Ironman-like “invincibility” in Sheen’s “Warlock” persona, the power of intoxication is also quite evident, i.e. in Sheen’s creative zeal, in the abuse of alcohol and drugs, and in the energy behind such statements  as “I’m on a drug, it’s called Charlie Sheen.” (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20037471-10391698.html). Sheen would do well to remember that his beloved Adonis was no stranger to intoxication either: Adonis was born of an incestuous relationship between his mother and her intoxicated father. As has also already been mentioned, Adonis’s wild boar-blood was another fatal form of intoxication — akin to Sheen’s “tiger-blood.” Finally and most recently, Sheen has been in the news for his new stand-up routine entitled “My Violent Torpedo of Truth,” the debut of which apparently”bombed” (http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/charlie-sheen-tour-detroit-violent-torpedo-truth/story?id=13284622).

 

Posted in Culture, Depth Psychology, Myth, Puer Aeternus | Leave a comment

The Epic Behavior of Carlos Estevez (“What’s in a Name?”)

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Chris

This week’s blog takes a somewhat lighthearted view of a phenomenon that some of you may have noticed from time to time. Mythfire’s interest in this phenomenon was piqued a couple weeks back after reading a footnote in C.G. Jung’s essay on synchronicity (which is sometimes defined as “meaningful coincidence”):

“We find ourselves in something of a quandary when it comes to making up our minds about the phenomenon which [psychologist Wilhelm] Stekel calls the ‘compulsion of the name.’ What he means by this is the sometimes quite grotesque coincidence between a man’s name and his peculiarities or profession. For instance, Herr Gross (Mr. Grand) suffers from delusions of grandeur, Herr Kleiner (Mr. Small) has an inferiority complex. The Altmann sisters marry men twenty years older than themselves . . . . Herr Freud (joy) champions the pleasure-principle, Herr Adler (eagle) the will-to-power, Herr Jung (young) the idea of rebirth, and so on. Are these the whimsicalities of chance, or the suggestive effects of the name, as Stekel seems to suggest, or are they ‘meaningful coincidences’?” [1]

That Jung is not sure what if anything should be made of this phenomenon is evident not only in the questioning language he uses in this quote but also in the fact that he relegates the entire matter to a footnote. Still, what Stekel calls “compulsion of the name” or what others have termed nominative determinism sometimes seems too apt to be mere chance. In fact, this is why names which match the profession, life, or character of the name-bearer are also sometimes referred to as aptonyms.[2]

Take last week’s post for example on Charlie Sheen as a puer aeternus or eternal youth. Once we do the most basic digging we see that Charlie is a diminutive form of Charles, a name which means “man” or “manly.”  Sheen as a word means bright, beautiful, radiant – all of which are traits of the eternally creative golden boy or puer. Thus we have Charlie Sheen as someone who is not quite a man and yet is radiant. In other words, a puer aeternus.

Interestingly, his birth name of Carlos Estevez means “manly son of the crown.”[3] As was also suggested in last week’s post, you could argue that the solution to the puer’s problem can be found in the redefinition or re-formation of manhood through connection with the positive qualities of the father, i.e. responsibility, caring for others and the greater good, discipline, selflessness, humility, awareness of limitations, etc. In mythology and in life the energies of the father archetype are often sought and found in the character of kings. Thus, it would seem that in both of Sheen’s names – that which he is known by and that which he was given at birth – we can find his Adonis-Odysseus dilemma as discussed in last week’s post. More to the point, his birth name may itself point the way toward healing and wholeness for the puer.

Another puer who has had a recent spectacular rise and fall similar to Sheen’s is Tiger Woods. Clearly, his first and last names both seem custom-designed for a golfer. His scandalous relations with women also reveal the full extent of Woods’ “tiger-blood,” to borrow again a term used by Sheen to describe himself. One hopes, as with Sheen, that time affords Tiger the means, i.e. introspection, therapy, experience, etc., to somehow learn the meaning of his actual birth name, Eldrick, or “sage-ruler.” Perhaps being “a sage-ruler of the woods,” with its defining wisdom, humility, and groundedness, wouldn’t be all that bad for Tiger as he moves forward with his life.

Two other examples of aptonyms or possible nominative determinism spring quickly to mind. First, Donald Trump with his competitive spirit, love of money, and ownership of casinos; second, Mildred and Richard Loving, the couple whose interracial marriage was deemed unlawful until 1967 when they successfully lobbied the Supreme Court to throw out anti-miscegenation laws in all fifty states.[4]

Rather than thinking of this phenomenon in a deterministic “my name is my fate” kind of way perhaps the more psychological approach may be to return to and possibly revise Stekel’s “compulsion of the name.” In so doing we ask ourselves, then, to what degree  we are unconsciously compelled by our name to act in ways harmful to ourselves and others. Or, more positively, how might our name reveal traits which point the way toward wholeness and authenticity?

Finally, the synchronistic approach to analyzing the meaning of names would ask the question “how are such close parallels possible between the personality of Charlie Sheen and his name, or between Adler, Freud, Jung and their psychological theories?” It is almost as if the stars were astrologically aligned and/or divine intervention played a role. Synchronicity involves correspondences between inner and outer — psychological and physical — mirroring one another in a mysterious, uncanny, and ultimately unknowable way. Regardless of whether or not someone believes in the synchronistic approach, it inevitably inspires and requires the same questions just posed by the more traditional psychological approach.

In other words, the honest inquiry, humility, and introspection accompanying the psychological and synchronistic approaches may in the end be the chief benefits of exploring this compelling phenomenon.

——

Tip: Anyone interested in researching the meaning of their name might try http://www.behindthename.com/ for their first name and http://surnames.behindthename.com/ for their last. If one’s name is not included on these sites a Google search should yield more favorable results. Thanks to Adam “The Man” Trachtman for these links. (Adam also mentioned that another aptonym belongs to tennis great Martina Navratilova whose last name means “to return” — as in “return of service.” Another athlete with a most fortuitous name is Usain “Lightning” Bolt, the 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist in the 100m and 200m sprints and the 4X100m relay.)

Update: For Michael Meade’s take on Donald Trump’s very apt name click here.

—–

Next Monday: “Puermen & Ironmen”

[1] CW 8: 827, fn 12. See the first Mythfire post of 2011 for more on synchronicity. Upcoming posts will also say more on the subject.

[2] A variance of aptonym that is sometimes used is aptronym.

[3] Carlos = manly; Estevez = son of Stephen = son of the crown.

 

Posted in Culture, Depth Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Puer Aeternus, Synchronicity | Leave a comment

The Epic Behavior of Charlie Sheen (“Oh, To Have Adonis DNA and Tiger-Blood!”)

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Chris

Last week’s post suggested that the drama of sporting events invariably provides a spiritual experience of enthusiasm, even ecstasy, for both athletes and spectators. Someone versed in depth psychology and/or mythological studies might look at that experience and identify the psychodynamics at work as being some of the same energies which gave birth and staying power to the myth of Dionysus in Ancient Greece. In other words, whether we are “fired up” in the stands or on the field of play the myth of Dionysus – at least for and in the moment – is alive in us again.

However, it is also important to note the possibility of engaging these and other Dionysian energies to an unhealthy extreme. The player who goes into the stands to fight with spectators and the spectator who disrupts play by drunkenly running onto the field are two relatively mundane examples. The disregard of boundaries and limitations is quite common for the type of figure which counts Dionysus as a member. Specifically, this type, or archetype, is called a puer aeternus (pron. pu-air eternus) or eternal youth. The plus side of the puer aeternus is his creative energy, radiant love of life, and infectious likeability. The down side manifests in destructive and immature outbursts, an inability to establish and maintain intimate relationships, and a disdain for discipline and responsibility.[1]

In addition to Dionysus, other figures from myth who are puer aeterni include but are not limited to Tammuz, Mithras, Osiris, Baldur, Attis, Icarus, and Adonis. This last figure has been somewhat in the collective consciousness lately following actor Charlie Sheen’s recent claim that he has “Adonis DNA.” Certainly, Sheen means this not literally but figuratively; in psychological terms we would further say “not figuratively, but archetypally.” That is to say Sheen is living the archetype of the puer aeternus, specifically the form it takes in Adonis. As Mythfire will attempt to show perhaps Sheen is living this myth to a greater degree than he even knows.

First and more generally it is not too difficult to identify both positive and negative tendencies of the puer aeternus in Sheen. Perhaps the negative tendencies have been most on display lately, especially in light of his public appearances and statements these last two weeks. A few examples of the latter negative puer tendencies from Sheen’s life no doubt include several marriages and public outbursts involving women, his Bacchanalian lifestyle of late night parties replete with drugs and porn stars, and even his likening himself recently to an “F-18” which is very much in keeping with the puer’s love of power, speed, and danger. [2]

Then there is Sheen’s already mentioned (over-)identification with the specific puer aeternus figure of Adonis. When one realizes that Adonis is a Semitic word meaning “lord” it comes as no surprise that Sheen, as lord or god, feels that the usual rules need not apply to him. Additionally, in his original myths Adonis split his time between two goddesses, Persephone and Aphrodite, one serving more of a motherly role and the other more of a consort. We shouldn’t be too surprised then when in a recent TV interview Sheen introduced us to his “goddesses,” one of whom is described as Sheen’s nanny and the other as a porn star. Adonis must have his mother and his consort (and yet seemingly cannot relate too well to either of them.)

Unfortunately, another trait binding most if not all of the above-mentioned puer aeterni is that they experience a tragic and untimely demise. Adonis is no exception. According to the myth, though warned by Aphrodite, Adonis cannot restrain his bloodlust for big game – you might say his “tiger-blood” which is another of Sheen’s self-described qualities – and as a result Adonis goes in pursuit of a wild boar his dogs have scented. Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, vividly describes what happens next: “A sidelong twist of the snout knocked [Adonis’ lance] away, smeared with the blood of the victim, a sight which enraged the boar. In fury it turned on the hunter, who tried to avoid its charge. In vain; the animal buried his tusks in Adonis’ groin, and tumbled the boy, as he perished, full length on the yellow sand.”[3]

The long list of prematurely dying puer aeterni in myth is only surpassed by their dying puer counterparts in real life. Of course, Mythfire hopes that Charlie Sheen’s name does not join this list. If one is or knows a puer aeternus like Sheen, psychology and myth may very well offer a few healing and preventative insights. First, many of the mythic puer aeterni already mentioned (as well as some not mentioned) die as Adonis did, i.e. castrated by having a boar’s tusks “buried” in their groin. Ouch. This image suggests two things: the problem with the puer is connected not only to the unbridled, unwavering instinctuality symbolized by the wild boar but also more basically to a flawed idea of masculinity, i.e. “what it means to be a man.” The imagery contained within the myth suggests that at least in part the solution to this problem is to be “unmanned” of this idea so that a genuine soulful connection to more feminine values of love, relatedness, caring and service takes place. In time, this connection will itself facilitate a new, less self-centered, less overly spirited understanding of manhood.

Perhaps the figure from myth that ideally embodies the reformed or transformed puer is Odysseus. Interestingly, Odysseus also was gored by a boar in the thigh as a youth, but unlike the other mythic figures Odysseus survived. He, too, was something of a Don Juan lover of women and goddesses until he remembered (and reunited with) the love of his wife Penelope, the wisdom of his father Laertes, and the responsibility to both his son Telemachus and the larger Ithacan community. All of these acts ultimately paved the way for Odysseus’ re-formation as a man.

In his essay “Puer Wounds and Odysseus’s Scar” psychologist James Hillman states that puers lack the ability to hold in, keep back, or stop short — steps needed so that they might reflect upon their energies and the events in their lives. Instead of being able to contain their energies, however, the puer usually is “afflicted by openness”: “The puer influence in any complex lays out its wares in public, and passers-by are amazed that anyone can be so open, so unpsychological. This public display is enacted by writers, painters, performers, whose complexes compulsively insist on being widely published, hung upon the wall, or shown to applauding audiences.”[4]

Hillman makes clear that the reflection needed by the puer enables awareness of one’s own woundedness and limitations. Instead of being “afflicted by openness” puers would then become open to their afflictions. They see that their wounds themselves are open, painful, limiting: “The wound announces impossibility and impotence. It says: ‘I am unable.’ It brutally brings awareness to the fact of limitation. This limitation is not imposed from without by external powers, but this anatomical gap is an inherent part of me, concomitant with every step I take, every reach I make.”[5]

In light of his recent self-aggrandizing TV interviews, Twitter updates, and upcoming tours it would seem that Charlie Sheen is more afflicted by openness than he is open to his own afflictions. (Clearly, his repeated motto of “Winning!” is also the very opposite of the just-mentioned, humbling confession: “I am unable.”)  If Hillman is right in asserting that it is Odysseus’ scar which “humanizes” him, then Mythfire hopes that Sheen and other eternal youths like him are able to identify their scars and their humanity before boar tusks find their bloody mark.[6] Being a god may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

Perhaps it’s better to be Odysseus than Adonis.

——

Addendum: Each of us lives one or more myths over the course of a lifetime. The myth may be that of soldier, healer, teacher, mother, father, leader, actor, child, and so on. In other words we may re-incarnate Ares, Asclepius, Hera or Hestia, Zeus, Apollo, Dionysus, Aphrodite, or energies closely identified with other mythic figures. To look at Charlie Sheen as an example of the puer aeternus or Adonis is meant less to psychoanalyze or criticize him as it is to exemplify dynamics which may very well be at work in our own lives, informing the myth by which we consciously or – as the case so often is – unconsciously live.

——

Next Monday: The Epic Behavior of Carlos Estevez (“What’s in a Name?!!?”)

 

[1] Murray Stein defines archetype as “an innate potential pattern of imagination, thought, or behavior that can be found among human being in all times and places.” (Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction, p. 233) Also, Dionysus is linked with both positive and negative aspects of the puer aeternus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses: “Behold puer aeternus with his angel seeming face, But oh, those invisible horns!” (Book 4, lines 28 and/or 29, trans. Rolfe Humphries.)

[2] In addition to referring to himself as an “F-18,” Sheen said “I have one speed. I have one gear: Go!” Most of the Sheen quotes in this blog can be seen in two video clips (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE6YLTZ0O4g&feature=rec-LGOUT-real_rn-1r-12-HM and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2SwEpbyD84&feature=related) or the article “Some See Poetry in Charlie Sheen’s ‘Adonis DNA’” found here: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=13051488&page=1. The title of the present post (“The Epic Behavior of Charlie Sheen”) comes from Sheen’s  use of the phrase “epic behavior,” apparently meant in a positive way about his lifestyle. Finally, if a longer piece were to be written on “Sheen as Puer” other quotes of his could easily inspire further puer musings. For instance, his statement that he has “poetry in my fingertips” links Sheen to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s narcissistic “poet-hero” as discussed on pages 59-60 of Ann Yeoman’s Now or Neverland: Peter Pan and the Myth of Eternal Youth.

[3] The Ovid excerpt comes from Book 10, lines 713-718 of Metamorphoses and was found in Barry B. Powell’s Classical Myth, 4th Ed., p. 250. On p. 248 Powell says that Adonis “cared only for the hunt” which no doubt is quite common to people with “tiger-blood.” One myth-sized historical figure who may have died under Adonis-like circumstances is King Tut. However, in the latter’s case it wasn’t “tiger-blood” that might have done him in but “hippo-blood.” (http://www.history.com/topics/king-tut-hippo?cmpid=PaidMedia_Outbrain_HIS.)

[4] Senex & Puer, 230-1. The two sentences prior to the indented quote draw from page 229. Finally, Hillman’s book along with Marie-Louise von Franz’s The Problem of the Puer Aeternus are the classic texts in depth psychology on the puer. Also, Puer Papers, a book featuring some of Hillman’s articles later re-published in Senex & Puer has additional important essays on the subject by other authors.

[5] Ibid., 233, italics added. In his essay “Puer Wounds and Odysseus’ Scar” Hillman provides multiple examples of how the puer is wounded or “crippled,” (p. 214), and that his true salvation comes through an awareness and acceptance of his crippledness. Charlie Sheen’s father Martin said much the same thing in an article posted online today about Charlie’s need to face his “emotionally crippled” psyche: http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/celebrity.news.gossip/03/21/martin.sheen.ppl/index.html?hpt=T2

[6] Ibid., 237.

 

Posted in Culture, Myth, Puer Aeternus | 1 Comment

Why Must We Always Get Mad in March? (“An Interlude on ‘The Big Dancer'”)

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Chris

Last week the St. John’s men’s basketball team beat Rutgers in a game that may be best remembered for its “wild last minute” of play. With 4.9 seconds left in the game and St. John’s ahead 65-63, Rutgers inbounded the ball by throwing it from their basket to just past midcourt. As a St. John’s player and a player from Rutgers converged on the thrown ball, they collided with one another, sending the ball in the direction of a second St. John’s player. After this second player seemingly walked with the ball – an infraction – he stepped out of bounds and, thinking the game over, exuberantly and victoriously threw the ball high in the air.

This is where it got even more interesting. Replays indicated that not only did the St. John’s player walk with the ball but when he stepped out of bounds there still were 1.7 seconds on the clock. However, no travelling call had been made by the referees nor was the ball called out of bounds. Thus, the last 1.7 seconds ran off the clock, and when the Rutgers coach looked around for the referees none were to be found. Just that quickly, they had already left the court for their locker rooms. (The three referees later withdrew themselves from the tournament.)

News reports make it clear that the wildness of the game’s back-and-forth finish coupled with the noise of spectators made it difficult to know exactly what was going on. As the player who walked with the ball, stepped out of bounds, and gave the ball a heave toward the heavens said, “”I just let my emotions get to me. I was just trying to throw it up so the time would expire.” It seems he was not alone in letting his emotions get to him. [1]

Perhaps it is important to note that no one is blaming this player for losing emotional control in this way. Under the circumstances, i.e. the excitement and importance of the game, it is even to be expected that players and spectators alike are going to be enthusiastic participants. If anyone is being blamed it is of course the referees whose poor management or control of the crucial last seconds of the match has been deemed “unacceptable.”

As we embark this week on the 2011 version of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament readers might be wondering what this all has to do with a blog purporting to be about mythology and psychology. Well, as it turns out, quite a bit. But first a little mythological primer…

To the degree that most of us think of mythology at all, perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is the ruins of ancient Greece and Rome or the pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt. Next in line might be stories that have been passed down to us and/or given new life on the silver screen, i.e. movies about mythic figures such as Zeus, Apollo, and the rest of the Olympians. But why do these figures and their stories (and others like them) still capture our imagination thousands of years after they were first told?[2]

This is one of the questions that a psychological approach to mythology attempts to answer.  (Another form of the question: “how is it possible that people two thousand years ago could actually build temples to and worship these figures?”). A short, quick, and certainly only partial answer to both questions is that in the stories and rituals that have been built up around them these figures embody energies that are important, even vital, to what it means to be spiritual and soulful human beings. Among other traits, Zeus is associated with paternal authority and potency, Apollo with order and excellence in the arts, sciences, and athletics, Athena with the protection, peace and prosperity of the populace, Aphrodite with all things beautiful, Ares with soldiering and war, and so on.

Then there is Dionysus. More so than the other gods and goddesses, Dionysus is a god of the people, living down among them rather than up on Mt. Olympus. These gods and goddesses up on high represent lofty ideals whereas Dionysus stands for an emotional bodily experience in the here-and-now. Two words are often associated with this type of in-the-moment Dionysian experience, the first being enthusiasm, which etymologically means “to be filled with the god.” Somewhat paradoxically the second word is ecstasy which means “to stand outside oneself or one’s body.”

Author Barry B. Powell discusses the ancient festivities engaged in by the followers of Dionysus, or Bacchus as he was also called, which made a simultaneous experience of enthusiasm and ecstasy possible:

“When Dionysus was present, his devotees lost their sense of personal identity and became one with the god. So strong was this sense of oneness that the follower was called Bacchus too. With the loss of identity came a willingness to transcend ordinary standards of decent and rational conduct.” [3]

Mythfire hopes that readers are beginning to see the links between the energies of Dionysus and the present day experience of sporting events such as the NCAA basketball tournament. To return a moment to the game mentioned at this blog’s start, the rush of enthusiasm in the basketball arena, the noise level, the spontaneous emotional heave of the basketball, the stepping out of bounds and even the disappearance of the referees are all in keeping with the experience of Dionysus. Regarding these last two aspects, anyone familiar with the myth of Dionysus knows that wherever he goes he upsets the status quo, the rule of law and order – so much so that people do things that they wouldn’t normally do, i.e. “step out of bounds.” Finally, to the degree that individuals try to avoid such powerful and frightening emotions, which are most often experienced as “losing control of oneself,” they go running for the hills – just as the referees did.

Several other parallels between sports events and the energies contained within the myth of Dionysus can also quickly be noted. For example, this god was most usually depicted in the company of maenads, (pron. mee-nads), partially clad women who frenetically danced to the beating of drums, played flutes, and thereby fostered in themselves and others a direct experience of the god. Today’s maenads, of course, are none other than the dancing and pom-pom swinging cheerleaders helping us root “our” team on.[4]

As an aside it is in fact arguable that anyone who looks on cheerleaders and cheerleading with moralistic disdain is both a) “unmythological” or unpsychological in the sense of not being aware of the important mythic energies given form and expression in and through the cheerleaders , and, b) very mythological, albeit unconsciously, in the sense that they themselves, i.e. the moralizers, are today’s version of Pentheus, the man in the original myth of Dionysus whose fear of the body and emotions manifested in an overly rational fundamentalistic adherence to law, order, and control. In the myth, Pentheus was driven mad and torn to pieces because he could not find a place in his life for a healthy relationship to Dionysus.

Lopez-Pedraza writes: “A living Dionysian experience is feeling oneself in the body.” [5] That is, Dionysus is a spiritual experience we have in the here-and-now, generally in the company of others, and through the engagement of emotions and the body.  To deny this experience altogether or to indulge it to an extreme is to court madness.  One of the best ways, then, to honor the god, i.e. his and our spiritual energies, in such a way that forestalls madness is through ritual. Rituals simultaneously contain these energies and allow them to circulate and be expressed. In ancient Rome and Greece one prominent religious festival devoted to Dionysus was the Great Dionysia which was held in March to mark the end of winter and beginning of spring. Something in us recognizes that the miraculous and ever-revolving cycle of death and rebirth must be honored and celebrated. More tangibly, those emotions and energies which were bottled up over a long winter need to once again spring forward with characteristic vigor and lust for life.[6]

This entry could go on and share more aspects of the myth of Dionysus and how he gave a sense of meaning to the ancient Greeks and Romans. His soulful association with the comedy and tragedy of theater is well known and also transferable to the dramatic thrill of victory and equally cathartic agony of defeat in sporting events.  In other words, the next time we hear sportscasters refer to the “Big Stage” of an NCAA tournament game or call the tournament in its entirety the “Big Dance,” we know which divine energies are about to dance in and through us.

As stated, Dionysus is one god who does not like too much rationalization and explanation, too much thinking. So, today’s blog post will end with this delirious prospect: our Great Dionysia, i.e. “March Madness,” is upon us once again.

Get ready to rumble because Dionysus is in the House!

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Coda: As suggested in this entry, a psychological approach to myth sees how the mythic figures of old represent dynamic energies which still course through us for better and for worse. To bring more consciousness and fullness to our lives requires in no small part learning about the positive and negative aspects of these energies, how we might be neglecting or repressing them, and how we might more adequately honor and express them. Not just Dionysus, then, but the other figures named above (as well as others not mentioned) reflect back to us our own potential for a deeper, more spiritual and soulful life.

——

Next Monday: The Epic Behavior of Charlie Sheen

[1] Video of the Rutgers-St. John’s “wild” finish, which included more errors by the refs than mentioned above, can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKw6jgZVONI . For the player’s quotes see: http://espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=310682599.

 

[2] For two articles about recent and upcoming films based on mythic themes see: http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2010-04-06-mythmash06_VA_N.htm and http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2010-04-06-mythmash06_CV_N.htm. The first article bears the title “‘Clash of the Titans’ heralds a return to mythic moviemaking.” [3] Powell, Barry B. Classical Myth. 4th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004: p. 280. Other good sources of information on Dionysus are Ginette Paris’s Pagan Grace: Dionysos, Hermes, and Goddess Memory in Daily Life and Dionysus in Exile: On the Repression of the Body and Emotion by Rafael Lopez-Pedraza.

[4] The maenads (“manic or raging women”) were also sometimes called Bacchae, i.e. “women possessed by Bacchus,” or Thyiades: “Frenzied ones.” See Powell p. 258.

 

[5] Dionysus in Exile, p. 43. In The Myth of Analysis, James Hillman provides a good juxtaposition between the styles of consciousness exhibited by Dionysus and Pentheus as well as a hint at the neurotic “acting out” disorders that ensue when the former is repressed: “[Dionysian consciousness] would be abody-consciousness, giving the experience of a somatized awareness of self in concrete, actual behavior. This would in turn transform that old frustration of reflection divided from action, where consciousness is conceived mainly in terms of speech and mind, giving over the unconscious to the body and its ‘actings-out.’” (285). Hillman’s book is particularly to be recommended to psychotherapists wanting to see how Apollonian and Dionysian energies play out in analysis.

[6] In Dionysus:Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life Carl Kerenyi evocatively conveys the serious religious regard the Athenians had for Dionysus in a section entitled “The Dionysian Festivals of the Athenians.” The first festival, occurring at winter’s onset, celebrated the more tragic aspects of life including death; the last festival, the Great Dionysia, celebrated rebirth and life’s restorative powers. See pages 290-315 as well other pages in the book on the Great Dionysia.

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