HomeThese concepts are profoundly connected and predominately lost in the age of which we are a part.
Who you think you are – is in all truth only a very small part of the picture.
Myth [as opposed to fairy story] is a deeply powerful tool for the individual and the community. It is an archetypal story that takes place within a cultural reality. It is something that is true on the inside of us – not on the outside of us.
Ritual is the process that brings that which is true on the inside into the outside world – thus bringing it in to reality.
The myth has several functions. 1] It is mystical and connects us to the eternal, beyond space and time. 2] It is cosmological in that it informs us of the world in which we find ourselves. 3] It is sociological, validating structures on how the world is built and why and 4] It is pedagogical in that it teaches us how to navigate this world.
The characters in the myth are the deeper aspects of your psyche and your projections and are deeply symbolic. It is through myth we discover what is ready to reveal itself, what is ready to heal, what is ready to make itself aware to you and it is through Ritual that this comes home to life thus expanding your reality and the resources you have access to.
This will strengthen the sense of ‘I’ without judgement, it will allow us to step back and see the persona for what it is, and will allow that which is hidden in shadow [and must come home to us in order for us to become whole] to make it self known to us – good and bad, golden and dark.
It allows the aspects of the Anima and Animus [feminine and masculine aspects] to be known to us and resolved in their conflict and it allows us to own our projections. It is the path to the mystical, wild, dangerous and elemental world within you, shaking the tree, unhousing you from your nailed on perceptions and calls us into a new way of being.
The Ritual becomes a vehicle for transitioning and transforming the everyday into a new reality in which all things are changed.
In the realm of myth we can tap into the deeper elements of the psyche, remembering that our persona – the masks we wear for everyday life – is but a tiny fraction of who we are really.
In this life though we come to believe that this is who we really are – we identify with it and so do others.
The greater part of us is hidden in the shadow world – all the things we are not allowed to be because they frightened our parents or our society, until we are a shell of what we were born to be – putting on different masks for different people to stay safe in an unsafe world.
Deep within us we have aspects of self that have never seen the light of day whether these are good, bad or indifferent and they will break through, they will escape when we least expect it in a slip of the tongue, an accident, a realisation that you like something you had always told your self you would not.
They must have expression in order for us to become whole and myth and ritual are the vehicle for bringing the self home. We have an external God simply because we consider ourselves of being the creative force or source of which we are a part but nothing could be further from the truth.
Believing something does not make it true – it just means you bought the story you were given as a child and the fault lies with the story, not the child’s acceptance of it. The old jesuit admonition of ‘give me the child until seven and I will give you the man’ is very true and very sad.
Myth and ritual create the field in which we can overcome the old and set free what was held within us. The energy and power that come with integrating shadow and making that which is real on the inside, real on the outside is extraordinary.
We build a bridge between the ego and the Self – allowing the Self to expand within us and guide us to live more authentic and genuine lives, free of the shackles of fear and inadequacy.
Ritual is for remembering the sacred in the mundane and for renewal of the human condition.
It represents the archetypal patterns that are played out in all. It provides a safe environment in which we can know ourselves better.
We can identify with it, express ourselves through it and it allows us to own our lives and reduce feelings of helplessness, to draw on resources not readily available to us.
Group rituals can create a strong sense of community and bonding with social support, reducing feelings of isolation and alienation.
They can facilitate connection with a greater reality and from that allow meaning to infuse our lives – this is critical as all existential crisis [read depression, psychosis and anxiety] have issues of meaningless within them.
Symbols are encrypted units of reality that cross many dimensions of human experience and can initiate ecstacy. They transcend the everyday.
By daring to know ourselves, be ourselves and live the life of possibility that was always a breath or a heartbeat away we become our truth and show another that this is possible and there is no greater gift you can give your fellow human. The role model you become for your alive or future children is priceless!! Literally
contact Prue at prue.blackmore@thrivebydesign.com.au to explore what this approach can do for you personally
