Myth & Justice VI.7 (“Restorative Justice II”)

Posted on December 25, 2010 by Chris

In the previous blog the phrase “restorative justice” referred to Mythfire’s contention that a balance between masculine and feminine, thinking and feeling must be restored to our contemporary understanding of jurisprudence.  This “Myth & Justice” series as a whole has admittedly been a challenge and much has been left out or at best merely hinted at. Truly there is enough material for a much longer work on how a mytho-psychological toolkit could deepen both our understanding and our experience of justice.

One of the ideas that hasn’t really been mentioned is that the spirit and heart-souls, or masculine thinking and feminine feeling functions, have negative poles just as they do positive ones. The extreme pole for thinking sometimes manifests as the reduction of data, or “facts,” to black and white, good and evil categories. This rigid worldview refuses to recognize that principles and values are only “eternal” in so far as they are eternally contingent on the circumstances of a given historical place and time.*

In contrast, the extreme for the heart-soul or feeling function can be characterized by the inability to see the forest for the trees, getting so caught up supporting this or that single value that the larger implications of such a one-sided view are overlooked. Or, equally possible, extreme “feelers” can be aware of so many potential values being in play in a given situation that it is nearly impossible to prioritize one value before another and then make a decision. The ideal, of course, is that thinking and feeling learn to work together which is no easy matter. (They also need to learn to work together with the other two psychological functions – intuition and sensation – which have unfortunately been entirely absent from this blog series.)

Next, Mythfire would like to summarize a few of the ideas from the “Myth & Justice” series as to how mythology and psychology might facilitate a deeper and fuller understanding of jurisprudence:

  • Mythology: Jungian psychologist James Hollis writes that one way of defining myth is as “affectively charged images [. . .] which serve to activate the psyche and to channel libido in service to some value.” He continues: “We are never without myth, for we are never not in service to some charged image.”** This series has discussed the figures and myths of Themis, Athena, Sophia, and Wisdom. Much more could be said about these figures to connect them one to another and to the values that they have served since time immemorial. Certainly, the scales, blindfold, and sword of Themis are also images that could be opened up for further mythic illumination and explication. The same applies to age-old traditions such as mottos (“In God/dess We Trust”), court etiquette and customs (i.e. judicial robes), legal documents (From The Ten Commandments to the U.S. Constitution; also earlier and later forms of these same), and more.
  • Psychology: Swiss psychiatrist C.G. Jung’s branch of depth psychology, called analytical psychology, has much more to say about how and why these energized mythic images (with their corresponding values) arise in the first place. Other topics that need further development include: a greater understanding on how typology, especially the thinking and feeling functions, impacts the judicial process in both positive and negative ways; how the feeling function is a value-based rational decision-making process; that opposites such as spirit-soul and heart-soul, masculine and feminine are natural energies within the human psyche, and how their tension might be held together and even transformed into something new via what Jung called “the transcendent function”; how this transcendent “something new” generally takes the form of an equally new and powerful symbol (After all, the images of Themis and her sword, scales, and blindfold arose in the first place and have remained for millenia because the psyche needed them then and still needs them now.); how Jung’s concept of the anima may be the feminine animating spirit behind more traditionally masculine endeavorssuch as the creation of law and order. (Though not mentioned by name in the “In God/dess We Trust” entries, the anima pervades these blog posts just as she does the very fact that most if not all virtues, i.e. Hope, Charity, Love, Prudence, Justice, Temperance, etc., have invariably been imagined as feminine in form. These archetypal soul ideas animate the movers and shakers [Zeus!] to create a world in which we can wisely live together in harmony.) Finally, depth psychology can yield a better understanding of how evolution occurs not only biologically but psychologically as well: that which was thought impossible, improbable, immoral, etc., in an earlier eon may in a later one be taken as part of [human] nature.

It has been said that “[c]oming to terms with the past has emerged as the grand narrative of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.”*** Once again, this “Myth and Justice” blog series has suggested that both mythology and psychology can help tremendously in this endeavor, especially if it involves a restoration of trust in the feminine as well as a more refined understanding of how feeling operates. In their book From Ancient Myth to Modern Healing, Pamela Donleavy and Ann Shearer go one step further by providing actual concrete examples of “restorative justice.” Facilitated by what are known as Truth Commissions, restorative (or transitional) justice helps two bodies of people – one an aggressor and the other the traumatized victim – through a process of reconciliation:

“By the turn of the 21st century, there had been more than 20 Truth Commissions across the world, from Argentina and Chile to Rwanda, Ethiopia and the Philippines. In the wake of the bloodiest century yet known, where 90 percent of the estimated 22 million people dead in conflicts were civilians, these commissions had become a crucial tool in ‘transitional justice’ from repression to democracy.” (112-3)****

The authors also include a very interesting quote from Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the subject of amnesty:

“Certainly amnesty cannot be viewed as justice if we think of justice only as retributive and punitive in nature. We believe however that there is another kind of justice – a restorative justice which is concerned not so much with punishment as with correcting imbalances, restoring broken relationships — with healing, harmony and reconciliation. Such justice focuses on the experience of victims; hence the importance of reparation.” (119)

In this quote, Tutu perfectly demonstrates how one may explain to a third party the symbolic figure of Iustitia or Themis without resorting to psychological or mythological jargon. “Correcting imbalances” corresponds to her balancing scales; “restoring broken relationships” to the sword that heals just as often as it destroys; finally, focusing “on the experience of victims” is practically a verbatim definition of the blindfold’s powers of vicarious introspection, a.k.a. empathy. In fact the whole process of restorative justice is arguably a kind of collective empathy.

It doesn’t seem possible or perhaps even desirable to do away with the adversarial approach to justice altogether (This adversarial approach is linked with “jousting” in earlier Mythfire posts). In fact, it is tempting to suggest, in keeping with Jung’s notion of the transcendent function alluded to above, that the figure of Themis, with her scales, sword, and blindfold, was a symbol that at some point in the past arose out of a state of extreme tension between these two approaches: adversarial versus restorative. Eye-for-an-eye retribution versus forgiveness and reconciliation. Or, put differently again, individual rights vs. communal/collective rights. This is territory that could bear further psychological exploration and discussion; this tension warrants continued holding.

Mythfire, however, quickly puts forward two additional thoughts regarding restorative justice:

  • Restorative justice need not be restricted to something enacted by a Truth Commission. The recent official admission by the Russian Parliament that in 1940 Josef Stalin ordered the execution of 20,000 Polish citizens (most of them officers) followed a ceremony held earlier this year at the site of the crime.  Both Russian and Polish officials were in attendance. Admission of guilt and jointly held ceremony are almost certainly examples of restorative justice.*****
  • For that matter, restorative justice need not be restricted only to nations. Affirmative action, equal opportunity and other rulings so long as they correct imbalances, restore broken relationships, and focus on the experience of the victims, are all forms of restorative justice.

No doubt coming to terms with the past will continue to be part of the grand narrative of this century. However, the need to come to terms with the present and future is being forced on us more and more everyday. Toward this end, it may be appropriate to borrow an idea from the South African constitution: ubuntu. On a most basic level it means “a person is a person because of, through, other people.” (Donleavy and Shearer 114-115). To Mythfire, this sounds very reminiscent of the “values of relatedness” mentioned in the last post.

According to Donleavy and Shearer, “ubuntu permeates the country’s jurisprudence with three principles: communitarianism and emphasis on group solidarity rather than on individualism; conciliation and the restoration of peace rather than adversarial justice; and the promotion of the individual’s duty to the larger group rather than individual rights.” (116) In the United States in particular we have gotten away from the “we” and “people” of “we the people” or “a government of, by, and for the people” (from the U.S. Constitution and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address respectively). Rights are almost invariably spoken of in terms of individual rights, even when those individuals, as in a controversial Supreme Court decision earlier this year, are companies with their rights of “corporate personhood.”****** Other recent rulings in the U.S. maintain tax breaks for the wealthy and keep in place an estate tax, both of which will likely increase the gap between the rich and the poor. So many of us on some level feel that, deep down, we as individuals have the “right” to amass as much wealth as we desire and as much life, liberty, and happiness.

Two questions, then, to close: “When we are so focused on the rights of the individual, who is going to look after the rights of the people, i.e., the commonwealth?” Secondly, “What will it take for ‘we the people’ to decide to exercise wisdom, prudence, foresight and empathy — even if such a decision means sacrifices now so that a more prosperous and harmonious world can be realized tomorrow?”

The statuesque divine-like figure of Themis stands starkly by as if awaiting an answer to these and related questions. However, perhaps she herself imagistically embodies the way forward: her symbolically powerful scales, blindfold, sword, and feminine figure speak volumes if we would but listen.

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This concludes the “Myth & Justice” series. Mythfire wishes everyone a healthy and joyous holiday season. See you in the New Year.

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*Mythfire hopes to say more about principles vis-à-vis values in a future blog. For now, though, it will have to suffice it to note that a) examples given of values often show up elsewhere as principles and vice versa, and, more importantly, b) in any given situation there are invariably multiple principles or values in play. In both cases, the feeling function is then exercised to rank the values/principles in terms of importance (in other words value!) before a decision is made.  In this and other ways, principles and values are both “contingent” on a time and place. More on what depth psychology has to say on these and other related terms (i.e. morals, ethics, conscience, etc.) as Mythfire moves forward.

** Hollis, James. Creating a Life: Finding Your Individual Path. Toronto, ON: Inner City Books, 2001, p. 44.

*** Kenneth Christie. Review of Meredith, Martin, Coming to Terms: South Africa’s Search for the Truth. H-SAfrica, H-Net Reviews. April, 2000.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=4008

****Donleavy, Pamela and Ann Shearer. From Ancient Myth to Modern Healing: Themis, Goddess of Heart-Soul, Justice and Reconciliation. London: Routledge, 2008.

*****http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/11/26/russian-parliament-stalin-ordered-katyn-massacre/

******http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/opinion/22tue1.html

Posted in Depth Psychology, Justice, Myth, Symbols, Typology | 1 Comment

Myth & Justice VI.6 (“Restorative Justice”)

Posted on December 21, 2010 by Chris

The six installments in this “Myth & Justice VI” blog post are all connected to the idea of empathy as a rational concern for the plight or well-being of the other or others. These and the previous series installments have also shown that this rational concern is a feeling-toned value often associated in image and symbol with the feminine form. Whether this form is called Iustitia, Themis, Athena, Sophia, or Wisdom, there can be no doubt that the idea of a “right order” based on empathy, prudence, foresight, prosperity, and communal well-being (or commonwealth) have been around since humankind began telling stories about its origins.

Take a moment to contemplate the just-mentioned values and their eternal association with the feminine. This positive archetypal association is sharply contrasted with how both the feminine and feeling have been devalued, viewed as weak and even sinful at least since Eve’s appearance in the book of Genesis.*  Notwithstanding the Hebrew / Old Testament passage involving Wisdom in the last blog entry, this distrust of the feminine has spread out across time, cultures, and religious traditions. So Mythfire poses a question: “Has the distrust of the feminine finally been overcome or is it still alive and ‘well’ today?”

Regardless of other factors and considerations, the political debate over empathy described in an earlier entry, the passionate and fearful proclamation that President Obama is leading us down the road toward socialism, the claims that gays will somehow disrupt the (masculine) morale, discipline, and order of other soldiers in the military, that ordained gays or still, in some cases, ordained women will disrupt the order of the (masculine) organized church and, finally, that married gay couples will similarly disrupt the structure of society (structure also being a masculine trait) — all of these are a modern form of the fear and distrust of the feminine and its related values — i.e., its values of relatedness.**

Despite this troubling conclusion, anyone who has been following the “Myth & Justice” series knows that Mythfire is not advocating some proverbial angry overthrow of the patriarchal status quo. Instead, via a more informed discussion of empathy and an acknowledgement of the timeless wisdom of the feminine feeling values, Mythfire has attempted to restore the feminine foresight and wisdom conveyed by the word jurisprudence, to restore Athena to the side of Zeus, to restore “In Goddess We Trust” as the animating spirit behind “In God We Trust” – to restore, then, as in the last blog entry, Wisdom to the side of God at the beginning of Creation. Only when their relationship is valued will real harmony be possible for the individual and collective.

By no means is this restorative move uncomplicated or pain-free; more to the point, a restoration of the feminine feeling values on an individual and collective level cannot occur without the masculine energies of discrimination and decision-making. The traditionally masculine qualities of order, morale, structure, discipline, organization, etc., (as alluded to in the italicized paragraph above), are all crucial to the healthy integral functioning of a society. Symbolically this is where Iustitia or Themis’s sword must bewielded as precisely as possible; psychologically this is where the thinking function comes into play. Both sword and thinking have to do with clarity, illumination, analysis/discrimination, and practical implementation. The feeling function/balancing scales ask “which value at this particular time is most needed and do we therefore value most highly?” Then the sword and thinking function follow with “how do we best realize or implement this chosen value?” “How and to what degree is it feasible?”

Undeniably, one of the sword’s symbolic meanings is the threat and administration of punishment to the guilty. However, it is equally undeniable that the sword and its powers of discrimination are concerned just as much with precision in models, frameworks, and blueprints. In other words, its love of logic manifests most clearly in attention to logistics. Put to work this way, the masculine sword and thinking function cut through the emotional fog, the fears and desires of the ego, assess potential perils and pitfalls, and when it has been determined that the times demand a change, they shine forth into the dark and still somewhat scary Unknown. (We see the thinking function hard at work in both the Pentagon’s long-term in-depth study as to if and how gays may be openly admitted to the U.S. military and Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ resulting conclusion that Congressional approval rather than Supreme Court order provides the time needed for effective training and preparation for this change.)***

In most if not all story-telling traditions, i.e. myth, fairy tale, legend, etc., the sword also symbolizes truth. However, if the modern/post-modern age has taught us anything through the discoveries of physics, psychology and evolutionary theory or in political developments such as women’s suffrage and Civil Rights, truth is neither absolute nor unchanging. Just as the U.S. Constitution has needed to be (re-) interpreted anew and have its meaning clarified from time to time or have amendments added,  the human constitution since its first appearance on this planet  has also proven individually and collectively to be a living constitution. In fact, as our understanding of human nature improves, the sword and thinking function — through the processes of clarification, differentiation, and integration — help to reconstitute the very truth or truths by which we live.

In this regard, it is important to remember that the word “truth” etymologically goes back to the Old High German triuw which means “loyal” and the Old Norse tryggr which means “trust.”  The first point Mythfire would like to make is, then, that “truth” is itself a heart-soul/feeling value rather than something written in stone for eternity. Second, in putting forward the idea that we must once again learn to trust rather than distrust the feminine and its related values – its values of relatedness — Mythfire argues that this is a truth and a trust whose time has come.

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On Saturday: The conclusion of “Myth & Justice” provides several examples of restorative justice.

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*cf. 1 Timothy 2:11-15; Ecclesiasticus 25:24; Additionally, it has been argued that the “trust” and exertion of masculine energies was essential for a time in order for civilization to develop in a natural, healthy fashion. Mythfire is not debating that point in this series, only that, a return to an intelligent balance between masculine and feminine, thinking and feeling, is needed in today’s world.

**Is it any wonder that a New York Times editorial last week on congressional blocking of gays in the military took as its title “The Senate Stands for Injustice”? Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/opinion/10fri1.html?scp=3&sq=An%20Injustice&st=Search. Next, the phrase “values of relatedness” in the post was finally chosen over “values of relationship(s).” No matter our personal relationship with or to another individual or group, by virtue of being a member of the human race we all share hopes, fears, desires, beliefs, and a common stake in our future. All of these are at the root of our “values of relatedness,” without which we cannot have a healthy polis or nation — today or in the future.

***http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/12/15/gays.in.military/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

Posted in Culture, Fundamentalism/Literalism, Justice, Symbols, Typology | Leave a comment

Myth & Justice VI.5 (“In God/dess We Trust – Part III”)

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Chris

“From of old I was poured forth…”

With a title like “In God/dess We Trust” some readers might be inclined to view this and the last two blog entries as “New Agey.” After all, they emphasize the return of a real experience of the feminine, of feeling, values, empathy, etc.,  to the predominantly masculine, thinking-oriented – in other words patriarchal – status quo. Mythfire, however, contests this “New Agey” label. With their attention to the ancient goddess figure of Iustitia or Themis, to the idea of feminine wisdom and foresight as the prudence within “jurisprudence,” and finally to the notion of Athena as trusted deity depicted on Athenian currency, these posts have attempted to show that rather than “New Agey” the feminine or feeling energies described are in fact, well, “Old Agey.”

Ultimately these ancient principles or values predate both the Judeo-Christian and Greek cultures on which most of Western civilization is based. And yet, as shown in the last blog entry, Athena’s owl still peeks out at us on the U.S. one dollar bill just as it did for over 500 years on Athenian currency. Not mentioned in the last entry was the fact that the owl can still be found on the Greek Euro today. That is to say, whether on the U.S. one dollar bill or the Greek Euro, the archetypal values of the feminine feeling function are still important in the 21st century. Yes they are old but they are also ever-renewing.

Second, although the blog title “In God/dess We Trust” was chosen to hopefully be somewhat provocative – an attention-grabber – it was also selected because through the included “/” the title conveys what is perhaps the central idea within the “Myth & Justice” series: a better appreciation of the mythological images and psychological energies associated with justice may help restore a desperately needed balance to our understanding of a healthy judicial system. Not only a God, then, but a Goddess as well. Not Zeus but Zeus and Athena. Masculine and feminine, thinking and feeling. To a certain extent, the first “In God/dess We Trust” blog put the Goddess somewhat ahead of God; the second placed her in the form of Athena somewhat behind Zeus. The present entry puts the feminine qualities and values of the Goddess where they should be and have been all along: right beside the masculine qualities of God.

The Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament as it is sometimes called, may be brought in to support this last statement. In this sacred text we find a similarly personified masculine and feminine duo: God and Sophia, or Wisdom. Note not only their relationship in the passage below but, just as important, the immediate linking of Wisdom and justice:

“I, Wisdom, dwell with experience and judicious knowledge. Mine are counsel and advice. Mine is strength, understanding. By me kings reign and lawgivers establish justice. By me princes govern and nobles, all the rulers of the earth. Those who love me I also love, and those who seek me find me…On the way of duty I walk, along the paths of justice. The Lord begot me, the first-born of his ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago. From of old I was poured forth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no foundations or springs of water, before the mountains were settled into place. When he established the heavens I was there, when he made firm the skies above, when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth; when he set for the sea its limit so that the waters should not transgress his command; then I was beside him as his craftsman. I was his delight, day by day, playing before him all the while, playing on the surface of his earth; and I found delight in the sons of men.”*

The chapter from which this comes also includes the following verse: “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, / And I find knowledge and discretion.”** So, once again, in the Judaic tradition as in the Greek and Roman, feminine wisdom is joined from the beginning with law-making and the establishment of order. We have prudence added to justice (or juris) to form jurisprudence. The “knowledge” and “discretion” furthermore suggest the discriminating evaluating nature of the rational feeling function which has been discussed throughout this “Myth & Justice” series.

As something of an aside, anyone familiar with the myth of Athena’s birth will also see parallels from the above passage about Wisdom with the birth of Athena. She was begotten by Zeus, was a companion or counselor to him as well as to humankind, and, like Wisdom, was also a “craftsman.” All of the figures discussed in this blog series, then, Themis/Iustitia, Athena, and now Wisdom, are all associated with the establishment or crafting of rules and structures that facilitate harmonious relations among people and thereby ensure the effective functioning of the collective or polis.

But what about the “delight” mentioned in the last verse of the above passage? This is a quite curious Bible verse. Like Athena among the Ithacans in The Odyssey, Wisdom dwells among humans, “playing on the surface of the earth,” and is thus an animating spirit and counselor for them just as she is in Heaven for the Hebrew God. She breathes a collective spirit into humans so that the collective might cohere and survive, ideally even thrive.

Further: delight, play, concern for the commonwealth, all speak to the role of feeling values in creating and maintaining order. Like Athena, for Wisdom the work of crafting a society is not meant to be drudgery. It is not work done only with the head, or thinking function, out of a sense of duty or righteousness. The above quote shows that crafting a cohesive collective is done out of love and yet it is even something more refined than that. Rather than an abstract or general (dare I say “New Agey”?!?) love for all humankind, the feeling function is about values that begin by discriminating likes from dislikes.*** We like order and dislike disorder/chaos. We like carefully designed city streets, arts which mirror back to people their emotional soul lives, a currency that provides a sense of divine providence and collective identity with its slogan: “In Goddess We Trust” (“Athena of the Athenians” – see previous blog). We like peace and prosperity and dislike war and poverty and so on.

James Hillman reveals another dimension to Wisdom’s “delight” and why it is hard to come by today:

“In other times, the grand, positive feelings of joy also were ritualized: a time for celebration, for carnival; collective forms for feeling were provided in terms of a divinity. How hard we have it to give exorbitant praise, to pull the magnanimous gesture, or to bask in what wholly makes us happy. We do not let ourselves sing, not merely because of a puritan morality or a super-ego, but because the [feeling] function cannot sing, and in the bourgeois, secular language of factional psychology, to let go is a sign of immaturity and inflation. The Gods must keep their distance and not enter the living room.”****

As Mythfire has been attempting to show, this distancing wasn’t always the case — a fact also confirmed by Barry Powell in this evocative passage from Classical Myth:

“In Athens an annual festival to Athena, the Panathenaea, celebrated her birthday. The festival was of special grandeur every fourth year, when a procession of high-born youths and maids carried sacred implements, led sacrificial animals, and rode in chariots to the Acropolis, bearing a freshly woven robe for the statue of Athena. The procession is shown on the inner relief sculpture of the Parthenon.”******

In other words, the Gods and Goddesses once entered our city streets as well as our living rooms. It was through these and other festive experiences that feminine and masculine energies such as wisdom and lawfulness – combined together as jurisprudence – were brought to life, given a (collective) body and even a robe! Back when people were still able to “let go” — as Hillman puts it — these festive energies were celebrated by a polis to the delight of all.

As Mythfire struggled to bring this entry to a close, a search for images appropriate to the blog’s theme brought an unexpected revelation: The World card in Tarot. Seen at the top of this blog post, The World has a figure front and center who is often equated with Sophia or Wisdom. And what is she doing? Dancing. Of course.*******

Esoteric traditions such as Tarot, then, echo the more exoteric or conventional Judaic and Greek traditions: Wisdom was poured forth into the world of old so that the opposites, i.e. human and divine, masculine and feminine, thinking and feeling and more could be united in a functional mutually satisfying harmony.

A harmony best expressed in dance…

****

Next Week: “Myth & Justice” concludes with posts on Tuesday and Saturday.

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*Proverbs 8:21-31; New American Bible (condensed).

**Proverbs 8:12; New American Standard Bible.

***Hillman, James.“The Feeling Function.” Lectures on Jung’s Typology. Woodstock, Conn.: Spring Pub, 1971, p. 167.

****Ibid. p. 165.

******Powell, Barry B. Classical Myth. 4th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004: p. 217.

*******c.f. Sallie Nichol’s chapter “The World: A Window on Eternity” in Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey for more on The World card and dancing.

Posted in Depth Psychology, Imagination, Justice, Myth | Leave a comment

Myth & Justice VI.4 (“In God/dess We Trust – Part II”)

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Chris

Athenian Tetradrachm Please Click for Finer Detail

This entry briefly turns to one of literature’s greatest epics to shed further light on ideas expressed in the last blog.

Upon his return home in The Odyssey, Odysseus lays waste to the suitors who have plagued his court in his absence. Then he, along with his father and son, sets out to battle the suitors’ vengeance-minded families on the Ithacan plains.  More bloodshed is imminent.

At this point in the story the goddess Athena approaches Zeus in his heavenly abode on Mt. Olympus.  “Our father, son of Cronos, highest of all rulers,” she begins, “Tell me when I ask, what plan of yours is concealed here? Will you fashion further an evil war and dread battle, or will you establish friendship between both sides?”

To this “cloud-gathering Zeus” replies: “My child, why do you ask me and question me about this? Why did you not think out this idea by yourself, that Odysseus might indeed take vengeance on them when he came? Do as you wish, but I will tell you what seems fitting. Since godly Odysseus has done vengeance on the suitors, let them solemnize an oath, that he may always reign. And let us bring about oblivion for the murder of their sons and kinsmen. Let them love one another as before, and let there be abundant wealth and peace.’”*

Arguably, we can see the jurisprudence that was discussed in the last entry at work here in this exchange between Athena and Zeus.  Athena in essence is tacitly suggesting to Zeus that it would be prudent to end the bloodshed. Zeus takes in her question and digests it, mulls it over. In fact, his first three statements in response to her seem almost as if he is buying himself time in which to consider his answer by way of his own feeling function. That is to say, his consequent evaluation that the warring should cease, those in pain and suffering should be granted “oblivion” or forgetfulness, and, finally, that love, wealth, and peace should be had by all quite impressively exhibit the rational decision-making powers of the feeling function with its emphasis on values, especially the value of empathy.

If we take one further step back to focus not on processes but mythic symbols and more specifically symbolic figures, we seem to have confirmation of this idea: Athena as a non-traditional female figure born from the head of Zeus herself symbolizes this rational feeling function and its process of evaluation. Or to employ once again more mytho-legalistic terminology, she is the prudentia — the feeling wisdom and foresight — to the law and order of Zeus’s juris. Together  they comprise jurisprudence.

After Zeus’s above-quoted declaration, Athena descends from Mt. Olympus to be among the Ithacans. The bloodshed ceases, and then Athena “established oaths for the future between both sides.”** Here we have a couple important ideas. The first is that Athena’s relationship to Zeus in a way reminds one of the variants of the saying “Behind every successful or great man is a successful or great woman.” Athena is, you might say, among other things the great woman behind Zeus, which is to be understood psychologically as the animating spirit behind his actions and proclamations. Finally, Athena’s animating spirit not infrequently has to do with the well-being of the collective community or polis; this is why she secures “oaths for the future” from both sides of the Ithacan conflict.

The second idea has to do with Athena’s attending to and even standing by this joint “future.” As is still apparent today, Athena was (some might say still is) the tutelary or protecting deity of the polis otherwise known as Athens. For about the five hundred year period following 500 B.C. the Athenians had a likeness of Athena on one side of their tetradrachm coin while the other side showed the animal most frequently associated with her: the owl. (The image at the head of this entry is from one such coin.) The owl is an animal associated with the ideas of wisdom, vision, and foresight – not surprisingly all attributes of Athena.

The inscription on the face of the coin shown above may be translated into English as “the money of the Athenians” or even “Athene (another spelling of Athena) of the Athenians.”** It seems fair to say, does it not, that as Athena was Athen’s protecting deity, another way of putting this motto, “Athena of the Athenians,” in modern lingo, is “In Goddess We Trust.” So Mythfire now poses this question: “is the feminine wisdom, based on values and symbolized by Athena, something that still watches over us today?”

Seal with Scales

In the last entry we discussed how the phrase “In God We Trust” appears in many if not most courtrooms in the U.S.  Another place where that phrase appears is of course on the U.S. currency.  Take for example the U.S. one dollar bill where the phrase appears on what’s called the bill’s reverse side.  Flip it over to the obverse side and you see good old George Washington’s face. To the right of George you’ll quickly find the U.S. Treasury Seal, discovering in the same instant that lo and behold within the Seal there is the image of the scales – the symbol of weighing and balancing not only monetary currency but also spiritual or psychological currencies, i.e. spirit and heart-soul, masculine and feminine, and thinking and feeling  — all of which have been discussed throughout the “Myth and Justice” series.

Owls and Olives – Please Click to Enlarge

Look to the upper right corner of this same side of the bill and what do you see? As in the image to the right, there seems to be something unusual depicted above and to the left of the number “1.” Many people see therein an owl – Athena’s symbolic animal. Now – before you get too excited at this discovery or, equally possible, groan because it seems to be “trying too hard to see what can’t possibly be there” take note of the olive branches both overshadowing our owl guardian and appearing elsewhere on the bill. If we remember that the olive branch and olive tree — symbolizing peace — were associated with Athena every bit as much as the owl, (take another look at the Athenian coin above and you’ll see the olive branch),  it seems undeniable that the values of wisdom and foresight, and peace and prosperity for the commonwealth – all associated with Athena – are still with us today. That is, just as “behind every great man is a great woman” and behind Zeus stands Athena, behind the God of “In God We Trust” is the animating spirit of “In Goddess We Trust.”

A very valuable goddess indeed…

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On Friday: Myth & Justice VI.5 (“In God/dess We Trust — Part III”)

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*Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Albert Cook. New York: Norton, 1993; lines 473-486.

**Ibid. Line 547.

***The Encyclopedia Britannica: a Dictionary: Vol. XVII. Ninth Edition. Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart Co. Ltd., 1884; p. 684.

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Myth & Justice VI.3 (“In God/dess We Trust?”)

Posted on December 9, 2010 by Chris

The first entry to this series of blogs on Myth and Justice was entitled “Image is Everything” and concerned how our judicial process is very much a mythic process.  The robe worn by the judge in the courtroom transforms him or her into a mythic figure deserving of respect; upon command we “all rise” as one when he/she enters the courtroom.  Similarly, this earlier blog entry also observed that recent court cases about the rightness or wrongness of having the Ten Commandments in some concrete form on courthouse property missed the mythic boat by literalizing the psychological energies and ideas underpinning these very mythic images. Both sides – pro and con – were no doubt guilty of this literalizing tendency, forgetful of the fact that before they were a codified religious statement, the Ten Commandments were a psychological/mythic one.

This present entry would like to touch on two more examples of how the judicial process is undeniably mythic. First, if one Googles the slogan “In God We Trust” most likely search results will indicate that the phrase first appeared on U.S. currency during the Civil War and was adopted as the nation’s motto almost one hundred years later. Court cases like those concerning the Ten Commandments have been waged over this motto in recent years by literalists/fundamentalists on both sides of the argument. Should or should not the motto appear on currency? Should or should not “In God We Trust” be emblazoned on many if not most of the courtrooms in the country?

In the view of Mythfire this is a bit myopic. What might seem a perfect example of church and state infringing upon one another’s domains is revealed upon deeper reflection to have mythological underpinnings which preceded and need not be inextricable from organized religion.  “In God We Trust” predates not only its first appearance on the U.S. currency but more importantly it predates even Christianity!  As just one example, people in the ancient Roman courts of law used to invoke Jupiter as they witnessed the oath. (This energy of appealing to or invoking the idea of divine/cosmic justice and aid has come down to us today in the phrase “By Jove” as well as “In God We Trust.”). The word “god,” for that matter, etymologically means “the one invoked.”  Thus, when we declare in a courtroom setting “In God We Trust” we are appealing to or invoking an archetypal notion of cosmic justice rather than a specific deity belonging to one or another religion.

The second example of “justice as mythic” takes us back to the image at the center of this blog series: the statuesque feminine figure of Iustitia, or Themis, as she stands before courthouses around the world. In her we find embodied both the eternal balancing of spirit-soul and heart-soul discussed in the early blogs as well as the thinking and feeling functions discussed in the later blog entries. Perhaps in the end these soul energies and psychological functions are one and the same.

Another way of driving home this point is to look at the word jurisprudence. The standard definition states that jurisprudence is the science or philosophy of law. If we look at the word’s etymology in Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law, however, we get closer to confirming what we’ve been suggesting all along: juris comes from the Latin genitive form jus meaning “right” or “law” and prudentia means wisdom or proficiency. Other sources show that prudentia has to do with foresight as well. Oh, and it is feminine in gender.

Jurisprudence without a feeling or value-attuned wisdom is not jurisprudence. One can argue then that alongside or even instead of the present-day “In God We Trust” there should be another phrase emblazoned on courtroom walls and that is “In Goddess We Trust.”

Wouldn’t this be appropriate? To pass by the statue of Themis outside, enter the inner sanctum of the courthouse, and see before us the phrase “In Goddess We Trust”? It is through just such experiences that we discover “the power of myth” still operating in our lives today.

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On Monday: “In God/dess We Trust — Part II”

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