Jung's Cookie

So it took me a while to settle on a fairytale that had enough characters while not being incredibly long and convoluted. Eventually I decided that the Gingerbread Man was as good a story as any. We'll see how this goes.

With the Gingerbread Man as the dreamer:

• given life by the old lady, who starts out as a positive anima in bringing gingy into existence.
• old lady quickly becomes a negative anima when she decides that gingy would make a good snack.
• encounters the husband (shadow) in escaping from the old lady, and the old man joins in the pursuit. at this point the gingerbread man still believes in his ability to defeat the shadow rather than embracing them.
• next encounters the cow (shadow) who also desires the end of mr. gingy's life and his being brought completely into the shadow.
• the horse is the next shadow the gingerbread man encounters. once again he denies the shadow's power and thinks himself to be invincible.
• then the gingerbread man runs into a whole party of people (shadows) and invites them to test his mettle. he still doubts that the shadow is stronger than he is.
• next the gingerbread man encounters the fox (shadow), whom he invites to join in the chase. the fox denies his interest, and even promises him safe travel across the river, making himself seem to be the self in the story. maybe he really is. in the end the fox's trickery ends in the gingerbread man's demise, though the question remains whether he's being absorbed into the shadow or transcended into a higher plane. is there really even a difference?

With the Old Lady as the dreamer:

• creates the gingerbread man as an extension of her Self (since a cookie is fairly gender-neutral the differences of sex aren't too big of an issue)
• gingerbread man escapes, expressing her desire for freedom.
• follows after it in order to be more human, to inhibit herself properly.
• husband (negative animus) tries to catch the gingerbread man and inhibit her freedom.
• the cow (shadow of responsibility) begins to chase the gingerbread man in order to draw it back to the kitchen.
• the horse (shadow of diligence) joins in the chase.
• the party of workers (shadows of community, sameness) also join in the chase to bring the old lady back to the familiar.
• the fox (seemingly a self) offers help to the gingerbread man, tantalizing the woman with the taste of freedom and then taking it away just when hope seems brightest. the poor woman is stuck. ouch.

Posted in response to the Week Four prompts

Prompt for Week Five

Week Five: How do you see mythos (mythic thinking) present in the world today? In politics, current events, social attitudes? How might these observations help you form motivating questions for further research and learning about mythology?

Piercing the Heavens

Meet Simon.

He's the main character in an anime series called Gurren Lagann. I thought of him this morning when we talked about autochthony. You see, at the beginning of the series, Simon is just a normal boy living in a small village...several miles under the surface of the earth. He dreams of going to the surface, but it is not until he finds Lagann (a mecha) that he is able to escape and come to the surface to defeat the forces that were keeping humans hidden under ground.

It's kind of a complicated series and it moves very fast - though it's only two seasons, by the end they are throwing galaxies at each other...like I said, complicated. Anyways. I mostly wanted to point this out. First time in a while that I've sat down to post something without hearing the words leaking out of my ears as I did so. Hopefully it sticks.

Prompts for Week Four

Practice a Jungian analysis on a simple fairy tale of your choice. Try more than one approach to the same tale using different characters as the "dreamer."

He's the Goddamn Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh leaves the cave to kill things. He loses a friend, learns about himself, and kicks some bad guy ass. Considering that the story was first recorded more than 3000 years ago and is the oldest known literary work, that gives Gilgamesh a pretty good shot at being the first superhero. After all, all you need is a tragic past and a desire for revenge to make a good superhero. You don't need magical mutant powers or even awesome weaponry.

Gilgamesh proves that in his fight with Humbaba. Of course, he does get a god to help him strike the monster down, but that hardly counts. Everyone in the first thousand years of literature had a god as their sidekick, so that wasn't even a big deal. Gilgamesh has a whole host of buddies, though he does not seem nearly as lucky as our dear friend Mwindo (who is a subject for another time, when I'm running on a bit more sleep).

The homoerotic subtext that exists between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is reminiscent of Batman and Robin. Or Holmes and Watson. Also, I'll talk about Br'er Rabbit at a later time, but I thought I'd spew out some random thoughts about Gilgamesh for a little bit before I headed off to sleep for the first time in god knows how long.

Posted in response to the Week Three prompts