I am very excited to have the chance to explore some of the more intriguing and familiar mythic archetypes of the psyche that all of us share in my upcoming on-line Reflections class that starts later this month. I have received a number of emails asking me questions about this seminar, so I thought I would write a bit about each of the characters I will be discussing. The cast of mythic characters that resides in our psyche are the following: Dragons, Trolls, Giants, Wizards, and the Phoenix that rises from the ashes of our lives. I have already mentioned Trolls, though I will say a bit more about these curious Nordic creatures in a future entry. Today feels like the day to discuss Giants. Every person has Giants in his or her life, whether in the form of human beings or as metaphors. Many of us have had the good fortune to encounter the types of Giants that inspired us in our youth, larger-than-life individuals whose achievements or quality of character made us want to rise to great heights ourselves. It was the great 17th C English physicist and mathematician, Isaac Newton, who said If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. The opposite extreme presents us with Giants of the sort that David confronted when he met Goliath, a person we are destined to take on in life in a more adversarial role. These giants may not be physically larger than us, but their psychic energy presents as a giant energy field that seems to eclipse our own. Does destiny demand that we meet them on some type of battlefield in life? That is a question I will discuss. Yet another form of the Giant archetype is the giant as metaphor; that is, the giant debt, or the giant-sized problems that seem to control the whole of our lives. But here is an insight worth understanding: Size does not make a winner. What are the archetypal challenges and lessons of the giant? What are the themes in stories in which the giant is a significant character? One is that real power has nothing to do with size. It never has. And finally, you must ask if people see you as a Giant. Do they? If so, what sort of giant are you? This class is going to be so much fun as well as a rich experience is personal revelation. And isnt self-discovery exactly what we should be doing at this time in our lives? ***Series 6: Encountering the Mythic Characters in Your Psyche Six On-Line Seminars. Weekly, August 27 ~ October 1 myss/CMED/workshops/reflections/series-6.asp
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 14:43:41 +0000
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