(A response to Stephen Larsen’s The Shaman's Doorway and The Mythic Imagination)
Part
1: Storytelling Therapy in Counselling, Coaching and Training: in person
and via videoconferencing
http://storytellinginbusiness.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-healing-power-of-story.html
by Eric Miller, 2019,
Chennai, South India
by Eric Miller, 2019,
Chennai, South India
(Dreamcatcher)
Introduction
In
his books, The Shaman's Doorway (1976), and The Mythic Imagination (1990), Stephen Larsen
encourages people to cultivate their relationships with their individual and
collective unconscious -- especially through the use of symbols from dreams and
myths.
He
points out that dreams can be a key source of symbols from and about one's
unconscious; and that supernatural figures from various cultures can also
provide very valuable and useful symbols of aspects of 1) one's own
personality, 2) the human personality in general, and 3) the rest of nature.
The
author explains that the development of an individual is not just internal to that person, nor is
it
limited to
that person's family, acquaintances, or even community. Development
of an individual also relates to the entire human race, and to all of the rest
of nature. Ceremonies and symbolic representations utilising various
media are needed to facilitate individuals' healthy and satisfying growth and
maturation processes.
(Note: A
shaman is a ritual leader who interacts with the realms of the divine and
death. In cultures in which shamans exist, it is believed that a
shaman may go on spirit journeys to other realms, and/or may call figures from
other realms into his/her body).
A Precis of (and quotations from) Two Books by Stephen Larsen: The
Shaman's Doorway and The Mythic Imagination (including
some Creative Mythology Exercises).
The Shaman's Doorway
My goal is
to invite modern people to join me in an ancient quest, a re-awakening to the
spiritual universe which has always lain just beyond the borders of secular
materialism. (Page vii)
People
everywhere are turning to the inner quest as a vehicle for
transformation. (Page viii)
Myth has
been perennially active throughout human history, informing peoples'
perceptions of the world and subtly shaping their every dealing with
it. Myth must now be withdrawn from the theatre of history and
relocated in the psyche. (Page 6)
Myth,
withdrawn from its projection on the common outer environment and no longer
bound to culturally-propagated forms, is to be recognised as part of
consciousness. Hence it becomes, perhaps for the first time in
history, the responsibility of the individual. (Page 7)
When the
mythic imagination is cultivated, it is the creative source realm of the
highest and best in human endeavor, the inspiration of the finest flowerings of
our culture. (Page 7)
This book
is intended as an instruction manual for owning and operating a mythic imagination. (Page
8)
Our
collective response to a de-mythologised, industrialised, and technological
environment is an escalating cycle of alienation, dissociation, and
confusion. Yet we cannot return to the days of our ancestors -- to literal,
orthodox mythology. What is required is a form of consciousness that
recognises the enduring needs of that shadowy myth-susceptible dreamer still
waiting just below the surface of awareness: our deeper, older
self. (Page 6)
We require
a mediator between the bright world of myth and ordinary
reality. (Page 9)
Sometimes
when we feel uncertain, we hope guidance may come from an invisible world
within or beyond ourselves. (Page 13)
As we work
with mythic patterns, we find that they can be catalysts which initiate changes
in consciousness. The ultimate dialogue is between consciousness
(the undiluted perception of self and world), and those patterns to which
consciousness has proven most susceptible: the archetypes that underlie the
shape-shifting world of myth. (Page 15)
"A myth is a large controlling image that
gives philosophical meaning to the facts of ordinary life" (Schorer,
M. 1950)
Dialogue
with an inner world of terror or ecstasy, contacting the shape-shifting
universe of the psyche. (Page 45)
Our dreams
and visions, the dramatis personae of our imaginations, act as
if they were independent entities with lives of their own. Often as
not, they show up as hidden, undiscovered parts of ourselves. (Page
45)
An
effective transpersonal message (transcending the personal)
must somehow touch and speak to the collective archetypal
predicament. (Page 47)
What ought
to function as a symbolic metaphor for the client's psychological state is
sometimes delusionally read as the literal workings of
reality. (Page 52)
The
shaman's profession is the relationship between the mythic imagination and
ordinary consciousness. (Page 59)
Many people
have no symbolic vocabulary, no grounded mythological tradition, by which to
make their experiences comprehensible to themselves. (Page 81)
Animals can
often be seen as representing aspects of one's unconscious. (Page
85)
An
operative mythology provides structures and expresses otherwise inaccessible
inner levels of psychological meaning. Such a mythology constitutes
a comprehensive symbolic system which may function both for internal reference
and for social dialogue. (Page 88)
Dreams give
access to one's inner life, which is other-than waking
consciousness. (Page 89)
The enactment
of dreams is an all-important therapeutic technique. Dreams may seem
to want to become real. Making dreams real may involve a literal
carrying out of an action portrayed or suggested by a dream; or, if this may
not be appropriate, a symbolic enactment. (Page 89)
In some
traditional societies, it is believed that certain illnesses may best be cured
by the interpretation of dreams facilitated by medicine societies during
spring, fall, and mid-winter dream
festivals. (Page 93)
The
Iroquois (a Native-American people) pay the strictest attention to the messages
contained in dreams, for to ignore them is to court illness, madness, and
disaster, by opposing the messages of the god coming from
within. (Page 95)
Iroquois (Wikimedia)
Most of our
difficulties come from losing contact with our instincts -- with the age-old
unforgotten wisdom stored up in us. And where do we make contact
with this old man or woman within us? In our
dreams. (Page 96)
During
a dream festival, when the
dreamer -- or others -- feel that someone has made the right interpretation of
a dream, the dreamer must give a gift to that person. A friendship
is expected to spring up between them as a result of this psycho-symbolic
transaction. (Page 97)
If a dream
expresses a "wish of the soul," everyone takes part in helping the
individual to realise his/her wish. ... When a dream is
enacted, audience members may play various parts. (Page 97)
Public
"dream interpretation ceremonies" may occur during dream festivals. (Page 98)
The Senoi,
like the Iroquois, value the enactment and making public of messages contained
in their dreams. (Page 101):
·
Voyaging in their own mythic inner spaces and bringing back things of
value for us all. (Page 102)
·
A young person may seek to cross the threshold from adolescence to
adulthood by going into the wilderness alone, to fast and await a vision or
dream which serves as a psychological initiation. (Page 103)
The
archetypal dimension of such an experience serves to initiate one into a sense
of belonging, not only to the social but also to the cosmic
order. The initiate may return with a new name. (Page
103)
To the
patient it is a revelation when something altogether strange rises up to
confront him/her from the hidden depths of the psyche -- something that is not
his/her ego and thus is beyond the reach of his/her personal
will. He/she has regained access to the sources of psychic life, and
this marks the beginning of the cure. (Page 111)
Jungian
analysts feel the emergence of such archetypal material signals the onset of a
natural curative process from within. (Page 111)
Carl Jung
(Wikimedia)
There is a
curative magic in finding one's meaningful place in the archetypal, cosmic
order. (Page 112)
How bleak
our three-dimensional world can be without the magic light of myth shining into
it. (Page 117)
Many of us
have no training in turning one's attention to the living landscape within, and
allowing one's energies to there enact their symbolic play. (Page
121)
We need to
learn ways to deal intelligently and creatively with mythopoetic
consciousness. (Page 122)
We are
developing a relationship with the symbolic phantasmagoria that has been
released into the collective mindscape in modern times. (Page 122)
The guide
within fulfills a psychological need, which is one of the basic functions of
myth. (Page 123)
Having been
shown by Darwin that the Garden of Eden is most likely not literally true, many
of us have discarded our entire mythological orientation, with its
psychological guiding functions as well. (Page 126)
When
consciousness turns its energy back upon itself, the result is to render
perceptible its otherwise inaccessible subjective patterns. When one
has engaged those patterns and energies directly, they no longer fully dictate
and structure our conscious experience, and we no longer think and act
unconsciously and compulsively. (Page 155)
Whenever
the unconscious fails to co-operate, one is instantly at a loss, even in one's
most ordinary activities. There may be a failure of memory, of
coordinated action, or of interest and concentration. Such a failure
may cause a serious annoyance, a fatal accident, a professional disaster, or a
moral collapse. The cooperation of the unconscious, which is
something we often take for granted, when it suddenly fails, can be a very
serious matter. (Page 156)
All parts
of the self must be in relationship to each other for an organism to be
healthy. (Page 161)
When I am
disembodied, out of touch with myself, I am out of touch with the world of
nature, and I can remain numb and content in a city of humans. But
when I am embodied, and the sap-energy of life flows strongly within, I am not
happy unless I am among trees and brooks and mountains, or by the
sea. (Page 168)
We humans
are in the midst of ecological, bodily, and psychological
crises. (Page 169)
The central
and unifying dialogue is between ordinary consciousness and the mythic
imagination. (Page 171)
The psyche
has been developing a mythic vocabulary for inner dialogue. (Page
176)
The
scientist is only the magician of the daylight world. He/she has
lost touch with the nocturnal world of the imagination. (Page
186)
Look at a
person's soul. (Page 191)
The visions
obtained require the stabilising anchor of enactment. (Page 199)
Our modern
Western culture is a barren womb for the gestation of the sacred and lacks a
framework for validating one's visionary experiences. (Page 200)
The quest
for psycho-spiritual learning, for apprenticeship to a person of knowledge, is
one of our enduring archetypal yearnings. (Page 200)
Rigid
people are cut off from the flow of life. (Page 212)
One may be
able to resolve collective problems through attunement to hidden patterns of
the universe. (Page 227)
The Mythic Imagination.
Dreams
break into this world. (Page xix)
One
needs to find one's mythic roots. (Page xxv)
Something
from this world could marry something from the mythic world. (Page
xxvii)
Knowledge
of myths gives one a richly-furnished chamber of the psyche. (Page
xxvii)
Awaken
to the presence of mythic themes in your life. (Page xxxii)
An
archetype is an identity larger than oneself. When one consciously
plays an archetype, one enters an eternal role. (Page 3)
Mythological
symbols communicate and touch one beyond vocabularies of
reason. (Page 4)
Break
out of an isolated human adventure, and participate in a larger social,
cultural, historical, and spiritual ecology. (Page 5)
We
often repeat mythic patterns. (Page 11)
Construct
an authentic psyche -- one that is broad, integrated, and
creative. (Page 14)
Become
the unity that embraces all of the possibilities within
oneself. Give coherence and unity to one's component
parts. (Page 15)
Develop
symbolic compendiums of soul-vitalising forms. (Page 16)
Myths are
symbols that contain emotions and ideas. (Page 25)
Emotions
and behaviors are made meaningful by recognising the stories that surround them. (Page27)
Seek to
discover the secret workings in everyday life of gods, heroes, and
demons. What emotions, thoughts, and experiences of yours are
associated with these symbolic figures? (Page 28)
What
unknown, secret script -- and what underlying logic -- seem to inform one's
emotions and behaviors? At times a sense of helpless participation
in a timeless drama may come over one. (Page 30)
To what god
or goddess is a certain passion sacred? (Page 31.)
In
traditional cultures, mythological themes are presented at points of life
development -- at stages of emotional, physical, and social
transition. These moments are marked by corresponding rituals, which
provide a mythic tissue of transformation for the growing psyche. (Page 33)
Symbols of
transformation help us transform. (Page 35)
A myth may
have a magical impact on layers of the psyche which cannot be reached by
intellectual talk. (Page 42)
The
mythically awake imagination sees through the ordinary-seeming surface of
everyday life to discover the "secret
cause," the mythic and archetypal patterns underneath. (Page 50)
In
psychotherapy, the therapist often traces a destructive personal
belief-and-behavior-complex back to an event, or series of events, and
"exorcises" the destructive pattern through awareness and emotional
release. However, I believe a belief-and-behavior-complex must be
understood both in terms of its experiential origin and its mythic meaning for
it to be truly worked through and transcended. (Page 61)
In myth and
dream, "impulse is transduced into
image and symbol, and an internal plight is converted into a story plot"
(Bruner, J.S. 1959) (Page 70)
"To
understand the psyche, we have to include the whole world" (Jung, C.
1960) (Page 95.)
"The
human personality is always on a journey of soul-making" (Page 97)
The
psychological task of the hero is "to retreat from the world scene of
secondary effects to those causal zones of the psyche where the difficulties
really reside" (Page 98)
"A
hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural
wonder. There fabulous forces are encountered and a decisive victory
is won. The hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the
power to bestow boons on his fellow man" (Campbell, J. 1949) (Page 98)
Joseph
Campbell (Wikimedia)
The self is
to be entered as the fairy realm of myth and folklore. The dragons
and ogres encountered there are aspects of ourselves. The kingdom,
lying under its wicked enchantment, is the world as we have come to see it in
our regressive and self-induced trance. (Page 105)
The
individual soul plunges into the depths of his/her own psyche in search of
renewed meaning and a sense of belonging. (Page 108)
Images of
animals can be living sources of power within the psyche. It can be
a therapeutic encounter to enter into dialogue with imagined animals and
discover what they need. Some may be sick, caged, or neglected, for
examples. (Page113)
By failing
to recognise our inner as well as outer ecology, we modern folk have cut
ourselves off from our sources of life. (Page 114)
To have a
richness of outer experience requires an inner wealth of symbolic forms: this
is both the legacy and the invitation of the mythic imagination. (Page 114)
Actualising
an underlying pattern or myth into life can be called incarnation (page 117)
Modern
humanity is in search of a soul. (Page117)
One cause
of "Soul sickness" is being cut-off from one's natural and healthy
psychic environment. (Page 122)
A woman had
an impaired relationship with her own instinct and intuition. Her
dreams were helping her improve her relationship with her unconscious. (Page 166)
A symbol
connected her with her energy source. (Page 174)
The mythic
world guides and interfuses events in the everyday world. These
events may become (in one's perception) timeless, luminous, or intensely
meaningful. (Page 181)
One needs
to get in touch with the spiritual principle that gives meaning to the entire
adventure. (Page 206)
A theme in
Jung's approach is to recognise the ancient gods and offer them
"hospitality" in modern life. (Page 214)
In our
depths lie transpersonal wisdom figures and an inexhaustible creative life
force. (Page 223)
Humanity
needs a new sense of mythology, geared to the creative life of the individual
who seeks his/her own way in the world and who, through following his/her own
path, develops a relationship with the archetypal and mythical powers that
inform life. (Page 227)
It is this
individual path to the mysteries, not the collective participation enjoined
upon us by all of the religions, that may well constitute the ultimate human
adventure and the achievement of personal wholeness. (Page 228)
The modern
mind still thirsts to drink at the well of mythic meaning. It yearns
for experience of the world made sacred. (Page 232)
The
responsibility of the conscious mythmaker is to construct an appropriate
"frame of reference" into which the powers are invited to show
themselves (page 233)
A function
of a mask is to unite the wearer (and the observer) with a mythic being (an
archetypal power.) A mask can enable a concentration of psychic
energy, and offer dialogue between ego and other. (Page
236)
Mask-making
and -wearing can be signs of a covenant between the supernatural realm and the
human, natural, and social worlds. (Page 241)
When a
Navajo sand painting healer places his patient in the mandala he has worked
hours or days to prepare, he is trying to align psycho-spiritual forces in the
patient, in himself, and in the universe. (Page 242)
Humans are
truly free only when they are at play. Play enables the energies of the
psyche to be released and transformed. (Page 287)
In a
hero's/heroine's quest, the hero/heroine encounters important aspects of
him/herself. (Page 317)
What does
the world need? (Page 318)
What does
the hero/heroine need? (Page 318)
Does the
hero bring something back? Is anything different in the world
because of what the hero/heroine has done? (Page 318)
A personal
awakening and transformation can be achieved. (Page 327)
"Creative Mythology Exercises"
(from The Mythic Imagination).
Ask for a
dream or vision, and wait. (Page 25)
Act out a
dream to help accomplish healing. (Page 25)
Construct a
container, a ritual form, to hold the mythic energy. The energies
can then be safely and reliably invoked, summoned, confronted, and
pleased. (Page 30)
Projective
technique: present ambiguous stimuli and invite the client to make
additions. (Page 32)
Find images
of the universe that bring meaning into the soul. (Page 94)
Imagine
yourself at your own funeral, when you are leaving this life and looking back
upon it. Deliver your own eulogy (speech about your
life). (Page 141)
I invited
him to find his inner guide to see what he advised. He said, "I
find him in a cave." (Page 219)
Help the
patient regenerate the life force deep within him/herself. (Page
243)
A ritual
must be structured enough to contain and shape psychic energy, and loose enough
to allow it to flow freely from its own deep sources. At every step
one could dialogue with the images as they emerge. The images carry
emotion and are protean; they metamorphose as one tries to hold
them. (Page 247)
Create an
imaginary universe, and then live in it. (Page 259)
We can play
at confronting what terrifies us most. We can, in play, open the cages and
prisons that lock up parts of us. (Page 282)
Create a
space into which the mythic may be invited. (Page 296)
Go through
your body, part by part. (Page 304)
Imagine
your mind to be a blank screen on which images may appear. (Page
304)
Look into a
deep well. (Page 304)
Look into a
mirror. (Page 304)
In a dream,
what is the feeling? Seek to identify and describe colors, objects,
perceptions, and themes. (Page 304)
Fantasies
may involve wish fulfillment, compensation, anxiety, etc. (Page 306)
Does the
fantasy recur? Does it seem stuck, or is it going
somewhere? (Page 306)
Does the
dream present an impasse (a difficulty)? If yes, in what ways could the
impasse be resolved? (Page 306)
Meet an
inner guide. Meet an ally. Meet a
shadow. (Page 306)
Stand
before a doorway. (Page 308)
Stand at
the top of a spiral staircase that goes down. Go downward, spiraling
seven times, to meet your guide. (Page 308)
At the
bottom of the staircase of seven spirals, look into the eyes of the person you
find there. Ask this person, "Are you my
guide?" Wait for confirmation or contradiction. If
the answer is no, ask, "Could you take me to my
guide?" (Page 309)
Tell your
guide what your challenging situation is, and ask, "What should I
do?"
You could
ask,
"May I
visit my shadow?"
"May I
visit a deceased ancestor?"
"May I
visit ...?" (Page 309)
Perhaps
bring a gift for the person you would like to visit. (Page 309)
When ready,
ask one's guide, "May I go back to the ordinary
world?" (Page 309)
If you
cannot follow your guide's advice literally, try to do so as a symbolic
enactment. (Page 310)
Imagine walking
in a beautiful garden. There are many plants and
flowers. (Page 310)
If animals
are there, move like an animal you see. (Page 312)
Cross a
river. Come to a sacred grove. (Page 314)
Ask whoever
you meet, "Is there anything I could do for you?" (Page
314)
Describe
the first dream you have had. That is, the earliest dream you can
remember. Describe the room and the bed in which you had this dream,
and what you were doing and how you were feeling at that point in your
life. (Page 316)
Re-dream a
dream, and have it go differently this time. (Page 316)
Closing Commentary
Stephen
Larsen's thinking as a therapist, healer, and facilitator is very much in the
Carl Jung - Joseph Campbell tradition, as is mine. I am very
grateful to Stephen Larsen for presenting these ideas.
The
Shaman's Doorway and The Mythic Imagination state, discuss, and illustrate ways working
with symbols in dreams and myths can help people to connect with themselves,
society, culture, history, and nature.
Using these
symbols can help one to achieve a sense of belonging, and to see the larger
picture and one's place in it.
This is
finally about helping people to find themselves, and to discover the meanings,
purposes, and directions of their lives.
However, we
are living at a perilous moment:
As the old
cultures recede in time, and as physical and linguistic traces of those
cultures disappear, it seems fewer and fewer people are digging into history,
immersing themselves in ancient cultures, and learning about ancient
myths.
The study
of the Liberal Arts, the Humanities, is dwindling. Mass media tends
to be sensational and fleeting. In the realm of mass media, memory
of the distant past, and background and social-context, are secondary
considerations. Much on the Internet is
self-promotional. Education is more and more designed to prepare
people to for vocations and to manage systems -- not to question, modify,
reject, and create systems. It seems most young people, and people
in general, do not like to read or write for more than a minute or two.
Biological,
cultural and linguistic diversity are all dwindling.
Forests are
being cut down. This has been going on for a long time, but it seems
we are now arriving at the end of the process. Forest vegetation is
being replaced by mono-crops. Wild animals and plants are simply
disappearing. (Fears, D. 2019)
As a
result, we humans are ending up cut off from the rest of nature, and isolated
-- on physical as well as psychic levels.
We are being cut off from nature in part because in many cases
the nature no longer exists: we are in the late stages of eradicating much of
it. What happens to one's psyche when there is no longer wilderness in nature
that one could experience and use to represent the wilderness within one's
psyche?
All of this
seems to be leading to the production of individuals who might have shallow,
under-nourished psyches -- not "richly-furnished chambers of the
psyche." People in this deprived, uncultivated condition may be
relatively unaware (culturally-speaking) of where they came from, who they are,
and where they might be going.
In leading
Creative Writing workshops for teenagers, I feel some glimmer of hope when
students express interest in the "occult" and the "paranormal"
(ghosts, etc). At least they are searching for something
under-the-surface. I was heartened the other day by a teenage
student who included in a short story of hers the Goddess of the Forest known
in ancient Greece as Artemis, and in ancient
Italy as Diana.
References
Bruner, Jerome S. (1959) Myth and Mythmaking Daedalus Vol.88 No.2 (Spring 1959) pp 349-358
The MIT Press on behalf of the American Academy of Arts
Campbell,
Joseph (1949) The Hero with a Thousand
Faces Bollingen Series XVII Third Edition, New World Library, California
Fears,
Darryl (2019) One Million Species Face
Extinction, UN Report Says. And Humans Will Suffer as a Result The
Washington Post, 6 May 2019,
Jung, Carl
G (1975) The Structure and Dynamics of
the Psyche Vol.8 Bollingen
Foundation, NY Princeton University Press, NJ
Larsen, Stephen (1976) The Shaman's Doorway: Opening
Imagination to Power and Myth. First edition. Harper and Row, New York
Larsen, Stephen (1990) The Mythic Imagination:
Your Quest for Meaning through Personal Mythology First
edition. Bantam Books, New York
Schorer,
Mark (1950) The Story: a critical anthology
Prentice Hall (page 27)
Wikimedia:
Campbell, Joseph:
(author Joan Halifax)
The Iroquois: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Iroquois_-_or,_the_bright_side_of_Indian_character_(1855)_(14768867862).jpg
Dreamcatcher Picture
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=228694&picture=dream-catcher free download
Dr Eric Miller is a native New Yorker, settled in
Chennai (on India's southeast coast). Dr Eric has earned a PhD in
Folklore (University of Pennsylvania), and a MSc in Psychology (University of
Madras). He has also completed in a one-year course in "Psychological
Counselling" offered by the Chennai Counsellors Foundation. He
is the Director of the World Storytelling Institute and is the Assistant
Director of the East West Centre for Counselling and Training, and the Indian
Institute of Psychodrama
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