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Short
Answer: No.
Long Answer:
The
discovery of Archetype Theory was one of the biggest
influences in the pre and post-World War II period of the
20th Century. In particular Carl Jung's ideas provided Hitler with
the Aryan archetype and psychoanalysts since with a
framework for understanding the unconscious.
Archetype Theory has won over many
adherents with its claims that the huge complexities of
human behaviour can be explained by hierarchies of
archetypes and devotees have noticed this hierarchy in the
poetic works of Hesiod, whose creation myth appears to mirror the
structures of archetypes, with primary pairing and
secondary and tertiary levels of offspring deities, a sub-division giving rise to a whole pantheon of Gods and
Goddesses.
As
a consequence psychoanalysts have returned to the world of
myth, believing it to be a rich source of explanatory
potential, as did Jung himself.
'Instincts
form very close analogues to the archetypes, so close in
fact that there is good reason for supposing that the
archetypes are the unconscious images of the instincts
themselves; in other words they are the patterns of
instinctive behaviour,' said he.
Classical
mythology
does not portray the Olympians in flattering illumination. They
are depicted as quarrelsome and jealous, capable of eating
their own children, incestuous, violent and vengeful, and from time to time in dire
need of human wisdom to help them out with a difficult
decision. In
Homer's epics: Iliad and Odyssey they are
seen playing with opposing sides, attempting to outdo
each other causing trouble for each other and for mortals.
To many psychoanalysts, the
classical writers' portrayals of the Gods was not so much
about independent super beings, 'out there', they were actually
depicting the inner world of the human psyche, the archetypes of the interior unconscious realms
that influence human
behaviour.
As astrologer analyst Liz Greene
observes: 'These ancient and sacred figures which for so
many centuries we perceived as Gods. We still do not know
what they are. It is more accurate now, for purposes of
collective evaluation to call them drives, or motivations,
or archetypes.'
But
is she correct?
Hesiod's
legends of creation and the family of Gods does seem
purpose-made for Archetype Theory. That the classical myths are human
constructs and reflect a human's unconscious there can be no doubt. No one claims for them,
as does the Bible, that the contents are literally the
words of the Gods made textual. The classical myths are
imprinted with the psychological bias of their authors.
Hesiod the poet was somewhat hardened by sibling trouble and
as historian Charles Freeman points out, maintained a deep-rooted prejudice
against women.
Architecture
of the Unconscious
It is no easy task to comprehend the architecture of the unconscious when it is by
definition everything not conscious.
Archetype Theory, like so many theories which purport to
explain what exactly are Gods and Goddesses, denies their reality
by applying a theory to explain them and make them safe. Archetype
Theory, albeit sweet-seeming is notoriously
difficult to prove either way. For more information we
recommend the excellent Michael Harding's 'Hymns To the
Ancient Gods'.
Throughout the ten years and more of
the Foundation's work the Gods
and Goddesses rarely volunteer intimate details of their
personal affairs as classical myth would have us believe,
nor their family connections, nor their history, which
through the writings of Hesiod so neatly
provides a perfect hierarchical model which has since gifted psychoanalysis with Archetype Theory.
However,
if by archetype we mean, more widely, the organising
principles of creation, then perhaps so.
Team-members
describe their encounters with the Olympians as extremely
real. And so too their concerns: Our world, they love and for which
they are responsible is being seriously polluted as a
result of
ignorance, greed and corruption. This
is why they now appear face to face to so many people.
Not as instinctual drives from within, but as
independent individuals with a warning for our future.
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