The Power of Myth and the Feminine Principle

"We have not even to face the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time, have gone before us: the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god, and where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence, and where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the World."

--Joseph Campbell

The Power of Myth and the Feminine Principle

To help give you a basic grounding in thinking symbolically, please watch the next wonderful video, which is the first in a series entitled, "The Power of Myth" with Joseph Campbell. I encourage you to seek out this series and watch it in it's entirety. You will not regret it. Joseph Campbell was a Professor of Comparative Mythology and the penultimate writer/philosopher of this subject matter in his time. Mythology is a wonderful subject. It is one that can really capture you and engage you in a world that runs to very deep places. When you are able to see fairytales, Biblical stories, movies, novels, and your own story with symbolic-mythical eyes, you will (perhaps for the first time) see a deeper world that is both embedded and a-part from the waking "real" world. You will see the archetypal world and one which is all around us, but few have the courage to look upon. A good example for the actual power of myth and story is by looking at the life of many of my own patients. Often I find that when a person comes for counseling they are coming because their "old story", the one that once made sense and guided their life, is no longer working. Soon the theme and thread of their life becomes apparent and I encourage them to re-examine their story. When they are able to change it or adopt an entirely new story or find the solution to their story through the example of an archetypal figure in mythology, their lives begin to transform.

Remember the first time you ever saw "The Wizard of Oz" on television. Perhaps you were a young child. Why did it capture you so? Why do you remember the entire story now and probably can recite dialogue from the movie? Why is it part of our shared experience? This is the power of myth, and the theme that we will continue to explore through out this discussion.

Click this link, to watch: "The Power of Myth"

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Dr. Carl Jung Himself explains the Archetype

Feminine Maturation and Initiation Processes
Firstly let's look briefly at some background. The four feminine archetypes occur in a fairly pure form in the stories and rituals of pagan cultures, such as those that existed in Celtic Europe, Africa, Asian, and tribal cultures before the introduction of Christianity: they are called the maiden, the queen, the mother and the crone.

Most cultures around the world and throughout history recognize four clearly identifiable physical changes in a woman's life. These four events are: adolescence, entry into marriage (wedding), childbirth and menopause. Most cultures associate these with initiations or ceremonies of one kind or another.

Connecting the four archetypal images with the four physical changes, and the four levels of reality mentioned above, I see a clear correspondence:

name	aspect of existence	event	example
maiden	physical	adolescence
queen	spiritual	wedding
mother	emotional	childbirth
crone	intellectual	menopause

Other Feminine archetypes include: the goddess, the virgin, seductress, the Amazon (warrior), the Hetaria (lover and companion to man), the Medial Woman (mystic/healer), the muse, the Virgin Mary, the Harlot (i.e. Mary Magdaline), Sarah, Eve, or Rachel from the Bible or search and research any "goddess" from your own or any other cultural tradition to discover a feminine archetype. Chose any you desire. Listen carefully when studying these archetypes, they will speak to you and often it is the archetype that chooses you not the other way around.

FOLLOW THIS LINK: For a Wonderful article on the Archetype of Sacred Feminine Initiation.

FOLLOW THIS LINK: RELEASING THE POWER OF THE POSITIVE FEMININE ARCHETYPE to read an excellent example of this paper written by an Undergraduate student at the University of Oregon.

Review the Following Websites, Links, and Videos for further explanation concerning the Divine Feminine Principle

The Divine Feminine, Unveiled	Will embracing woman-centered spirituality take us beyond patriarchy? Elizabeth Debold explains more here: The Divine Feminine
The Feminine Archetype	Three Archetypal Spheres of Feminine Symbolism: HOUSE: (womb) Woman's body=first house (container) and first clothing; woman's weaving and spinning provide protection for body. Click here for an illustration, a detail from Hieronymus Bosch's painting “The Temptation of St. Anthony” (Prado Museum). TABLE: (milk) Woman's body=first provider of nourishment; woman's cooking provides food. Click here for an illustration, a detail from a fifteenth-century painting by Sano di Pietro (Siena Pinocoteca). BED: (sexuality) Woman's body=provoker and arouser of sexuality; bed is place of sex, birth, sleep, death. Click here for an illustration, Paul Cezanne's painting “The Eternal Feminine” (Getty Museum). Click for more: The Feminine Archetype
The Recent History of Woman in Popular Culture