This article will consist of one of the narrative essays conducted by Robert Johnson, psychiatrist, American essayist and Jung's disciple. Who to explain common psychological patterns to man, was based on the classic myth of Parsifal.
It is necessary to remember that when Johnson talks about the elements of male psychology, he not only referred to men but also to the masculine aspects that lie in every woman ( animus in Jungian terminology) and those feminine psychic elements that exist in every man ( encouragement) . In turn, he commented on the imperative need to balance these aspects, whether a man or a woman. Due to the fact that both elements of their sexual gender lie in the opposite direction, it is necessary that they are in a harmonious balance . In this way, if we become aware of them in relationships or with people of the other sex, we can use them properly.
In short, taking this knowledge about male psychology will help men to develop greater knowledge about themselves and their ability to control the process of their own personal growth and to women to begin to glimpse their masculine side and get to know people of sex better contrary.
Myth: The search for the Holy Grail by Parsifal.
Before starting with the myth itself, I am going to quote some words from the psychiatrist and American R. Johnson: “We must remember that a myth is a living entity and exists within all people . The way to obtain the true, living form of myth is to see it develop within us. The most satisfying mythological experience we can have is to see him live in our psychological structure. ”
The story begins when the Fisher King of the Grail Castle has been wounded in a very deep way, but not lethal enough to end his life. His pain is constantly, so he shouts and is very distressed, all his people suffer with him and they are desolate since, in the words of R. Johnson: “a country reflects the state of its king : inwardly, in a mythological dimension and, externally, in the physical world. ” The crops are lost, the maids cry everywhere, the cattle do not multiply, the children are orphaned, and all this is a consequence of the Fisher King being injured.
The underlying idea is that in the virility or in the power of a King, lies the well-being of a people is very common in these times.
The Grail castle is in danger because its King, the Fisherman is seriously injured . Legend has it, one of the many versions, that the Fisher King, being a teenager, stumbled upon wandering around as a gentleman, through the woods with a camp . There was a lot of salmon in the fire, and as he observed that its members had abandoned it, he took a piece of fish to eat it, but at taking it with his hands was so hot that he let go. He brought his fingers to his mouth to relieve their burn. When he did this, he entered a piece of fish in his mouth . That is the wound of the Fisher King and gives its name to the masculine individual of modern psychology, which is the painful heir of that psychological episode corresponding to an ancient culture.
What does this story symbolize?
The psalm symbolizes Christ . In other words, as the King meets a roasted salmon, so does a boy who in his teens finds or discovers something of the nature of Christ within himself, but It makes it too fast. This is how he is wounded in a mysterious way, so he immediately throws said piece for being so intense, but it is already late, because a piece is left in his mouth . And you will never forget this experience.
In other words, the first contact of any youth or masculinity with consciousness leaves a great wound and / or suffering. This suffering will remain until its redemption.
Most Western men are fishing kings. All the boys naively come across something too big for them . They progress halfway through their masculine development and then release it because they are too intense. They often experience some bitterness, because, like the Fisher King, they cannot live with the new consciousness with which they have come into contact, nor can they abandon it altogether . ” ( Johnson R., 1996)
So in order for any man to reach a new level of consciousness, he must necessarily have been injured, and heal that wound. The latter is called by the Church as a felix guilt or fall of Eden, a process that leads to redemption . In other words, it consists in the passage from naive consciousness to self-awareness .
What is the wound experienced by young people?
The wound has to do with the moment in which young people realize that the world is not only plagued with joys and happiness, but also with its other polarity, and can begin to glimpse how its false optimism and utopian beauty disintegrates Childish watching of the world. It is here the moment in which the wound occurs, it is here when man is expelled from Eden, since not everything is a paradise. This experience is painful but necessary.
Stages of evolution
There are three possible phases in the psychological development of a man, each phase constitutes a passage to the next.
- Unconscious Perfection of Childhood
- Conscious imperfection of adult life
- Conscious perfection of old age
OR
- Innocent totality, union between inner and outer world
- Feeling of duality of life by the separation and differentiation between the inner and outer worlds
- Illumination, conscious reconciliation of the harmonic totality of the interior and the exterior.
So the King Fisher's wound is the first step a man has to take to get out of the Garden of Eden and go to the world of duality . This has to do with experiencing the suffering and the feeling of alienation in your own person, a feeling that will open the way to a new consciousness.
The myth tells that the Fisher King is wounded in the thigh, that is, the organ responsible for reproduction is injured, so his capacity for relationship and procreation is injured. Legend has it that the Fisher King was damaged by an arrow that pierced his testicles, so he could not move it backwards or forwards. "Again, the Fisher King is represented as too sick to live, but also to die."
To conclude this first part, we will return to the words of Johnson R. “The Fisher King presides over his court at the Grail Castle, where the Holy Grail is preserved , the chalice of the Last Supper . Mythology teaches us that the king who reigns in our innermost court imposes its tone and character and, therefore, on our entire lives . If the king is fine, we are fine ; If the things inside are as God commands, the same will happen outside. With the wounded King Fisher presiding over the inner court of modern western man, we can expect much suffering and outside alienation . ” ( Johnson R., 1996) This means that if the king is injured, the whole exterior will reflect the same, the crops will not prosper, the children will be orphaned, their knights will die, the maidens will not stop crying. This mythical language wants to signify the way in which an injured archetype manifests itself in life, in this case in the form of problems in outer life .
CONTINUE IN:
PART 1: aspects-of-the-mind-of-man-part-1 /
PART 2: aspects-of-the-mind-of-man-part-2 /
REDACTORA: Gisela S., editor of the great family of the White Brotherhood.
SOURCE: Johnson, RA (1996). He: to understand male psychology. It was nascent.