20. The Growth of Consciousness in Mythology. I

Neumann proposes that, just like dreams tell of the psychic situation of the dreamer, so do myths typify humanity’s unconscious situation at different stages of its development. In his book The Origins and History of Consciousness he builds on a description and classification of myths to outline the archetypal stages in the growth of consciousness.

The first, still unconscious stage is the embryonic containment in mother and the childlike dependence on her, an early, beatific state, when the world remains undivided. It’s expressed in symbols that represent the maternal womb and display all the positive maternal traits (bestower, helper, she who fulfills). Among them are the round (circle, sphere, egg) and the pot (jar, bowl, vessel), for thousands of years worshipped as the goddess in her elementary character. But anything deep or big that surrounds and preserves anything small is part of this archetype: abyss, valley, ground, sea, fountain, lake, pool, earth, underworld, cave, house.

Every human being is both male and female.

In all myths and legends the unconscious is symbolized by the feminine and by darkness. When the ego comes forth from the dark, it is associated with light and with the masculine. The terms masculine and feminine are symbolic, not personal, sex-linked characteristics. Every individual is by nature a psychological hybrid: passive, ‘feminine’ features are as common and effective in men as active, ‘masculine’ features are in women.

(Let’s therefore remember that suppressing our congenital ‘contra-sexuality’--e.g., by identifying some human qualities with one sex only--is a violation of the integrity of the personality and something culture created, not nature. It's an example of the arbitrariness of those in power.)

One early symbol is the Uroborus, the circular snake that represents the union of masculine and feminine opposites joined in perpetual cohabitation. This idea can be found in many cultures; examples are Plato’s Original Man (whose male and female halves haven’t yet separated), the Chinese T’ai Yuan, the Holy Woman, the Great Original (who combines in herself the yin and the yang, the active-masculine and the passive-feminine powers of nature) and the Hindus’ purusha (the great hermaphrodite). But we come across the same idea also in the Revelation of St John, among Gnostics, in Navajo sand paintings, in alchemical texts and as an amulet among the Roma.

For the emergence of the ego, see next post.

Uroborus (Greek oura, tail, boros, eat)

The Chinese T'ai Yuan, The Holy Woman,The Great Original

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