Author: Edward F. Edinger
notes
questions
- Do archetypal images spring up independently or are they inspired by one another?
highlights
Cover
Building on C. G. Jung’s assertion that mythology is an expression of the deepest layers of mind and soul, Dr. Edinger follows the mythic images into their persistent manifestations in literature and on into our modern lives. – p. 2 · location: 26
1. What Is Mythology?
Jung conceived of the human psyche as consisting of two interpenetrating levels, the personal and the archetypal (or transpersonal). – p. 14 · location: 178
Myths are not simply tales of happenings in the remote past but eternal dramas that are living themselves out repeatedly in our own personal lives and in what we see all around us. – p. 16 · location: 202
Knowing that the gods exist makes one less likely to mistake oneself for a god. – p. 17 · location: 217
By reflecting it, mythology enables us to get some grasp of the transpersonal dimension, which otherwise would be overwhelming in its raw primordial power. – p. 17 · location: 219
Of course poets know all about this spiritual nourishment because they are all mythologists. They make the mythical images visible. They live in a constant awareness of the archetypal powers. – p. 21 · location: 281
The cherishers are cherished. – p. 21 · location: 290
2. The Beginnings: Cosmogony
In a certain sense, the Titans became sacrifices for humankind’s well-being. The archetypal contents that they represent went into the service of the ego. – p. 25 · location: 331
As these myths describe it, the unconscious state is paradise and the birth of the ego is paid for by suffering. – p. 29 · location: 382
One is that consciousness is accompanied by suffering, and the other is that the ego does not have to do all the suffering. There is an archetypal advocate or benefactor that supports and assists the ego. Whether we call him the suffering servant of Isaiah or Prometheus or Christ, there is an advocate in the archetypal realm. – p. 31 · location: 423
3. The Olympian Gods
As the ego looks in the direction of the Self, the transpersonal center of the psyche, it tends to experience the Self not as a unity (at least not at first) but as a multiplicity of archetypal factors that one can think of as the Greek gods. – p. 34 · location: 444
The Poseidon personality would have certain similarities to the Zeus personality, but his authority and effectiveness would be more apt to manifest themselves in concrete power—political and economic—as opposed to intellectual or spiritual power. – Zeus, Poseidon, Hades > p. 42 · location: 541
But as often happens, the god of something is the one who is greater than that thing, the one who transcends it. – Hermes > p. 47 · location: 594
He is a magician with a magic wand, and his ability to cross boundaries makes him a mediator between the human and the divine realm, or in psychological terms, between the personal psyche and the unconscious. – Hermes > p. 48 · location: 603
Unless we have relation to the principle, we will fall victim to its negative manifestation. – Ares > p. 53 · location: 669
4. The Olympian Goddesses
The Hera principle embodies the idea of the power and the authority of the feminine requiring one’s respect and, in some circumstances, worship. – Hera > p. 59 · location: 729
She signifies the sacredness of being centered, rooted, and contained in a collective group and in a particular region, a local soil. – Hestia > p. 59 · location: 734
This pictures how relationships can be destroyed in the Artemis woman through the jealousy of the spiritual animus, here signified by Apollo. It is as if the woman already has a partner within her own psyche, which wants no competitors from the human realm. – Artemis > p. 64 · location: 775
The story suggests that one must be in good relation with the Ares principle of aggression if one is to have an encounter with Aphrodite. – Aphrodite > p. 65 · location: 788
When we read these lines, we see that the symbolism of Aphrodite overlaps with that of the Holy Ghost, even though one might imagine them to be quite separate. – Aphrodite > p. 69 · location: 835
The subjective or inner component of Aphrodite can be seen in an introverted or an extraverted way. Internally, it could mean the ability to relate to the beautiful, since beauty is an important characteristic of the Aphrodite function. Externally it would encompass the whole principle of Eros, the willingness to connect with and to be considerate of the other. – Aphrodite > p. 70 · location: 849
5. The Heroes
The hero can be thought of as a dynamism toward a certain kind of psychological achievement or service, more concretely as a personification of the urge to individuation. The hero is linked both to the Self and to the ego but is neither one of them. The heroic urge, the urge to individuation, is an expression of the Self, the greater personality, but the conscious ego must relate to this urge and act on it in order to make it a reality. – Heracles > p. 74 · location: 898
It is as though we have the image of ego represented by Iphicles, and the heroic function represented by Heracles, the difference between them becoming immediately apparent. – Heracles > p. 75 · location: 919
The image expresses the fact that individuation energy is dangerous when the conscious ego is still weak and undisciplined. – Heracles > p. 77 · location: 949
Such a pocket of energy and affect from the unconscious, which tends to take the ego by surprise and trigger an emotional outburst, must be held in awareness until it has exhausted its quantity of unconscious energy, until it has “cooled off.” If it is let go too soon, it is reinforced by its contact with the depths. – Heracles > p. 85 · location: 1056