Chapter 2, Book #8: Death Wish, or Life Wish? (alternate-needs major edit)

“It is No Measure of Health to Be Well Adjusted to a Profoundly Sick Society” —Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Be mindful oh Mankind, of all the painful secrets that we must keep, By sharing with others we may awaken, or by our suffering silence just die asleep —–Elisha Scott

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Our nation’s mental health status is becoming an issue of national concern. We are now witnessing the oppression of our citizenry, and the effects of our collective mental illness as it continues to cast its chaotic spell over our world. The internal fogs created by the repression of powerful aspects of our most noble essence and our shared human spirit is encouraged by our culture, thus compounding the effects of the disease. The stigma associated with sufferers of mental illness must be lifted. Until that day mankind will continue to suffer in silence in a collective sense, and all of the oppressed, victimized, and the most innocent and sensitive people will remain part of our most vulnerable group of citizens.

.There are now millions of  early deaths or disabilities from excess stress,  suicide, mental illness including anxiety and depression and/or addictive cycles and alcoholism.  The sickness that it introduces into an innocent being becomes a tragic divorce from the higher potentials for their lives.. The victims know little of joy and happiness, and, if they die earlier than expected,  their deaths, though they are a tragic occurrence for the family and society, are often a welcome release for them. Some had lost their careers, and could not recover from that. Some had no meaning in their lives, and could not recover from that. Some were addicted to drugs and/or alcohol, and could not recover from that. Some were addicted to the idea that their only function was to provide for their family, and, having achieved success or failure, they could not recover from that. Some were just waiting for a better day, and when it never appeared, they could not recover from that. Some were lonely and depressed, and they could not recover from that. Some had profound mental illness, and they could not recover from that.

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Our society continues to play into its own conspiracy of silence, only focusing on these difficult issues when convenient to its agenda, when a popular star or athlete experiences the ravages of this disease, or when there is a sensational news story to be reported. Our insurance industry has denied coverage for addictions and mental health therapies until recently, and even now co-payments for treatment and medication remain inordinately high, and out of the financial reach for far too many Americans. And in the most evil of recent developments, the mentally ill have become the scapegoats of immoral and emotionally unhealthy gun rights propagandists who continue to claim that this category of humanity is responsible for all gun violence, as well.

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In America right now, it is conservatively estimated that there are FORTY EIGHT MILLION citizens suffering from mental illness. That figure works out to nearly ONE IN FIVE Americans who are subjected to being taken by such illness. And those sufferers impact their families, their friends, their employers, their communities, and, ultimately, their world. FORTY THREE percent do not ever get care for themselves. And, the time period between the onset of mental illness, and the victims first treatment for it, averages around ELEVEN YEARS. And, the most common medical disorders for children under of eighteen years of age involve mental health issues.

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When a desire for self-destruction has been made unconscious, it is difficult to sort through the chaos of a life created by those self-hatred inspired decisions.  But, in the seeing, the release from tentacles attempting to pull the unaware victim under the water can be achieved..  Sigmund Freud said that most people have a death wish, a desire, often deeply repressed, for self-destruction, often accompanied by feelings of depression, hopelessness, and self-reproach. Arguably, Freud’s theories have been the subject of considerable controversy and debate over the years but his impact on psychology, therapy, and culture is undeniable.  And, just observing our present day culture, who could argue against his contention, as people continue to spin self destructive and other destructive conspiracy theories not based on facts but instead upon anti- science and anti- fact fantasies and wishful thinking, religious or otherwise, and then attempt to spread them much like the COVID pandemic virus.  This behavior is the manifestation of confused, disordered, and diseased minds, and cultural chaos and division inevitably results from this dysfunction.

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I have made a personal acquaintance with the wayward Christian desire for the Apocalypse, and the American equivalent of the Hindu God, Lord Shiva, the god of Destruction. Of all the “gods’ that the human race consciously or unconsciously worships, these aspects of most  egos needs some dissection and examination, so that the entirety of our human race will no longer be hypnotized by a suicidal, apocalyptic spell. The unconscious male, Christian, American, Russian, Muslim, Jew, or whatever label you like, is the seed bed for true terrorism in our world.  Our 45th president, Donald Trump, carried this damaged archetype within himself, while much of the entire world continues to suffer from other nationalistic leaders and their sycophants.  They all advance similar Earth destroying agendas, placing citizens  under this toxic, dangerous spell, while potentially driving mankind to its final apocalypse…

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A person just does not support or incite hatred, violence, or racism, without having some sort of unconscious death wish for self, and/or for others.  The forest fires that hate’s arsonists light up, end up torching the wayward soul’s back yard, however.

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Does anybody think that the suicide victim, lone wolf arsonist, abusive alcoholic, mentally ill man shot by a policeman, drug overdose victim, morbidly obese person, corrupted national politician and/or reality TV star, or mass murderer, is a unique being, with no relationship to the rest of the very humanity that spawned him? I have been asked why I often focus my attention on the damaged American psyche, and why I don’t instead focus on more pleasant, loving thoughts and activities. The question itself reveals the flaws inherent in living an non-examined life, and the fragmentation already present in our collective understanding of how to bring healing to our self, and to our world. Just because we are not now consciously aware of, and viscerally experiencing the damaging effects of, the unhealed American psyche, does not mean that we remain unaffected by its self-destructive, and other-destructive, energies. Ignorance never leads to bliss, but instead to more suffering by self and others. Before we can proceed into a new world order of better health, increased happiness, peace, and preservation of our sacred planet and our relationships with the totality of life upon it, we must first completely see where we came from, or our self-destructive history will repeat itself.

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I will submit a series of exchanges between Alfred and Batman (Bruce Wayne), from within the Batman movie, the Dark Knight, showing how the writers caught the very essence of the “God of Terror” that lives within us:

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Bruce Wayne: [while in the underground bat cave] Targeting me won’t get their money back. I knew the mob wouldn’t go down without a fight, but this is different. They crossed the line.

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Alfred Pennyworth: You crossed the line first, sir. You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn’t fully understand.

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Bruce Wayne: Criminals aren’t complicated, Alfred. Just have to figure out what he’s after.

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Alfred Pennyworth: With respect Master Wayne, perhaps this is a man who *you* don’t fully understand, either. A long time ago, I was in Burma. My friends and I were working for the local government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit. So, we went looking for the stones. But in six months, we never met anybody who traded with him. One day, I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing them away.

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Bruce Wayne: So why steal them?

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Alfred Pennyworth: Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with.  Master Wayne, 

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It is extremely difficult to find a way to reach an individual, and a society, that has unconsciously made a decision to slowly and painfully commit suicide through toxicity and addictive cycles, while all remain in rigorous denial of that fact. Each toxic human being, be they a traitorous politician,  greedy Capitalist, gun hoarding religious zealot, other unconscious power hungry men or women, alcoholic, drug addict, or mentally ill person must find their own unique “bottom”, where the pain of the disease causes a desire for change in their lives. Insanity, loss of job, loss of family, admission to a mental health or addiction recovery facility, jail, DUI, threat of death, or near death experiences, the deaths of close friends or family members also suffering, and the final awareness that humankind is hell bent on destroying  our planet Earth, have been known to bring the desire for healing to many of us. A confrontation from those we may have harmed. Including our planet with the man caused global warming and extinction of species,  can have rather dramatic effects on our desire to change, as well.  It took all of the negative life cycle outcomes to convince me to change behavior. Living in hell for an extended period of time brought me to death’s doorstep, yet I did survive, and the process helped me to seek for a deeper, healing light.

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I don’t know how the rest of the world feels about itself, but I do know how I feel about myself, both now, and in the past.  I have my theories and suspicions about major blocks of the world’s population, especially those who search the internet and/or Fox News and OAN commentators to confirm their own heartless and/or ungrounded beliefs.  Many believe that religious dogma and church attendance is all that they need for their own healing, thus remaining uninspired individuals who choose to just stay their wayward course.  I am concerned, and often disappointed, by the lackluster and uninspired efforts that much of humanity makes to overcome limitations, and seek for a higher order of reality.  Those who do not aspire to go beyond their own desire for self and other destruction continue to make the world, and our country, a very dangerous place.

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The creators and the believers of lies and fantasy narratives are not healthy, happy people, and they seem to be the most resistant to embracing the need to change their outlook. These people often feel out of control in their own lives, and try to hold the rest of the world hostage to their insane beliefs and behavior..They fell diminished by those with greater intelligence and insight than themselves, especially fact based  medical, climate change, and other science authorities.  They are confused, despairing beings, and cling to narratives that, in effect, just stick up middle fingers at the Truth.

Most of the male peer groups from my childhood and early adulthood were populated by individuals who were both coarse in interpretation and superficial in presentation of their lives, and they could have cared less about what I am now writing about or saying.  Many of my peers, and friends from those days have already died relatively young, or continue to practice unhealthy attitudes and dependencies into their later years, as a direct result of their unwillingness or inability to delve deeper into the painful issues, concerns, and mysteries of their lives.  Their own personal knowledge of the world can not actualize their healing potentials and bring a deeper sense of purpose and meaning to their lives, yet there is the fear of the unknown, which inhibits the revelation of truth in their life.

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By staying in familiar painful ruts, the view at least does not change too much.  And far too many people stuck in those ruts are not even aware that they are engaged in self-defeating attitudes and behaviors, or, if they are aware, have already given up hope that there is another life available for them.  Yet, staying in the familiar hell remains the unconscious choice that most suffering people make, all the way up to their deaths, imprisonment, insanity, and even the death of Earth. Poor self-esteem which can create a rut all the way to our grave, has been inculcated into both boys and girls from birth by our wayward mothers, fathers, religions, and cultures. In our efforts to meet the needs for economic security, continue our family line, and meet our sexual needs, we often make sacrifices that diminish our health, our sense of well-being, our community connections, and our personal integrity.

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What are some of the factors that have misshapen our lives?

The following are formative energies that tend to shape and guide men in today’s America:T

• Unconscious participation in the Common Knowledge Game of cultivating harsh and inaccurate self and other judgement,
• Remaining ignorant or fearful of our own feelings, including anger and grief, and/or expressing them unskillfully,
• Letting stress go on unabated in our lives, without challenging its points of origin
• Loss of emotional and physical safety in home, school or work environments
• not communicating honestly with others, and carrying the feeling of not being heard or appreciated,
• eschewing deep and meaningful relationships with others,
• excessive competitiveness with others while engaging with greed, trying to “keep up with the Jones’ “,
• proving self-worth in environments where self, and others’, worth is disrespected, thus trying to fit in where we really don’t belong,
• people pleasing, at the expense of our personal integrity
• not speaking up for ourselves or for others that are oppressed for fear of being marginalized,or further victimized
• over immersion in entertainment, excess reliance upon Snapchat, Facebook, or other social media platforms for social awareness
• excessive eating and/or eating excessive sugar or processed foods
• not exercising, not hiking in Nature and thus staying away from its healing balm
• excessive drinking of alcohol, use of recreational drugs to the point of habituation (including marijuana),
• allowing employers to abuse our work ethic to encourage us to become workaholics, which ends up keeping us out of the connecting, healing currents of friendships and family relationships.
• forgetting how to laugh and play well with others

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What do we really want and need, as human beings, and what might we need, that we have yet to be able to express clearly to others? I have listed a few possibilities below, please add your own to the list.

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• To be able to express our thoughts and feelings authentically, without bringing unnecessary harm to ourselves or to others
• To belong, to feel safe while belonging, including the desire to help and protect others while helping oneself,
• To speak up, and feel like we really were heard, and not have our spirit layered over with another’s error in reasoning and judgement,
• To be able to listen to another at the deepest level possible, and be present in the spirit of understanding, cooperation, and collaboration.
• To feel whole, and to be able to recognize that wholeness, not only within ourselves, but within all others, even those living in alternative realities.
• To love all others, as well as to be accepted, and loved, by others, with as few conditions attached as possible.
• To evolve, for if we do not, we become subject to the forces of friction and chaos inherent within a closed mind, and system, resulting in higher physical and mental disease and dysfunction.

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White male privilege, patriarchy, and toxic masculinity are three useful terms denoting the entrenched, institutionalized nature of the male component of our cultural dysfunction, which is a major disease of the human spirit. This disease has its deadly flames fanned by our cultural denial of a deadly truth, which is the foundation for a collective conspiracy of silence around these issues. .Men are still predominantly in control of our cultural narrative, and continue to divert attention away from the truth of that fact.  This is not a new phenomenon, as the Greeks were active misogynists and quite patriarchal in their approach to culture, and, of course, much of modern civilization, including Christian religious (mis)understanding,  is predominantly based upon their mythology,  philosophical theories,  and attitudes.

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MEN’S ATTITUDES ARE THE PRIMARY UNDERLYING PROBLEM OF OUR SELF DESTRUCTIVE  PATRIARCHAL CULTURE.

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Our ideas for addressing the problems of gun violence, racism, addiction, greed, and sexism tend to avoid obvious, rational solutions, because we don’t want to face ourselves. And, failure to face ourselves will lead to the same self-destructive end that eventually happens to all humans and their attempts at maintaining connections with themselves, their families, and their civilization. True freedom is NOT about hoarding guns and money, excessive booze, drugs, or religious fundamentalism. The unskilled male behavior collectively remains a national disgrace, as we continue to dishonor each other, our animal brothers and sisters, the environment, and our planet Earth.

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As human beings, we were impacted, and wounded, by that great explosion called our birth into this world, and by our early life training and experiences.  Our lives became shaped by a unique mixture of both loving and negligent parental, familial, ancestral, and societal guidance, and by many genetic predispositions. We were given both life affirming and life threatening and demeaning lessons,, with our unique responses to all of these influences adding to our conditioning. We were then provided incomplete or inaccurate schematics for understanding our individual life, and the totality of life. The models and messages provided  to us for our emulation and our edification by our family, religious avatars, movie and sports stars, billionaire investors, and general culture were often limited and tragically flawed,.  Thus, we were led to confusion and fragmentation of thought, and became more susceptible to taking long, tortuous journeys down dead end paths in life, while introducing greater degrees of chaos into our cultural network…

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There is no greater trauma to the human soul than to continue to live an inauthentic life, while still dominated by conflicted parental and societal messaging and expectations.  Add to that trauma the developed sense of our valuelessness,  and the perceptions that calls for love and affirming attention would not be heard, and it can be clearly seen the foundation for a traumatic engagement with the world.  The original wounds can be compounded by the crazy making and manipulating communication styles that were adopted by controlling family members and cultural/religious leaders over the years of childhood development, and even unto adulthood.  Though it is far more interesting to explore the world, its diverse cultures and geographies, than it is to remain tethered to the uncreative, unloving, shaming, and devaluing constants and debasing Punch and Judy shows built right into the structure of internal family and external cultural systems, we often ignore or deny our potential for liberation.

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To be trapped in this story or narrative of having limited value is to be trapped in the mythological Labyrinth, with few options for escape. .If we have to be trapped in a life story, or narrative given to us by our family, our patriarchal society and resultant toxified masculinity, our media and news commentators, our anti-social politicians, and/or our religion, then we may as well accept the fact that we will be living a second hand and disempowered experience. In the words of a long dead biblical writer, we will just sin, suffer and die.. Our life spans will tend to be shortened by extra stress, and characterized by unresolved grief, suffering, despair, and, in the end, the experience of less than a meaningful life, and death.  That was my experience prior to thirty one years of age, where I suffered, and was tormented by suicidal ideation. My descent into darkness and the underworld was a direct result of my failure to escape from poor self-esteem, find my happy place in life, and to bring healing light to myself.

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Here are some principles of toxic masculinity that I found live in our collective consciousness, and which also once lived in unconscious domains of my own mind and heart. I have exaggerated them, and linked them with common monetary, sexual, and personal power dynamics. And yes, these principles, or variations of these themes, are part of the Common Knowledge Game fundamentals for erroneous understanding of self and other. If they appear to mimic some of the values and principle’s underlying Donald Trump’s abhorrent behavior, then you are already paying close attention to our collective consciousness, and its dangerous and sometimes catastrophic influence on the affairs of humanity throughout our history.

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1. I am the center of the Universe. The rest of humanity is here either for my pleasure, for my profit, or for my disdain. I may attend a church occasionally, so that I can create the impression that I worship a higher power than myself. But, I already know that there is no higher power but me. HUMILITY IS NOT AN OPTION FOR ME, and is only for the poor and weak among us.
2. Truly loving another human being is a sign of weakness, and thus I must continue to suppress all such impulses so that I can achieve my selfish goals. I will carry on a campaign of hatred, judgement, and condemnation of all people unlike myself, all the while claiming to represent their interests at the highest level of my being (with subtlety, if one is of the passive/aggressive nature) . The ignorant people populating my world will hopefully associate my hateful behavior with their understanding of what love is, thus damaging the hearts and souls of all who may fear, respect, and/or follow me. My schizophrenia will be confusing to others, but may still be normalized, as others that I have influenced model and support my behavior.
3. People are most valuable if they can be monetized. If I can’t make money from my relationship with people, then I don’t necessarily need them. They will have to prove that they belong in my life in some other selfish self-serving ways.
4. Never admit that I am wrong. Always blame somebody else for my problems. The admission of guilt is a sign of weakness, and only for those who do not have sufficient monetary and legal power. I don’t need your forgiveness for my mistakes, because, as far as you should be concerned, I do not ever make mistakes.
5. I have a right to choose how much drugs and alcohol that I consume. I do not need feedback from others telling me that I am abusing my medicine and/or alcohol. I have earned the right to drink as much as I feel like, because I have so much stress in my life, and I make so many sacrifices that I deserve an extra break and release through excessive alcohol and;/or drug consumption. I do not have a problem, and if you think that I have a problem with my chemicals, then it is your misunderstanding, and not my own.
6. Never spend any time in self-reflection or meditation. Developing insight is difficult and time-consuming, and I have more important things to do I am already perfect, I always have been perfect, and everybody else needs to change to accommodate my needs. If I am not “perfect” today, I always have someone, or something, else to blame.
7. I have a right to use my strong emotions to intimidate and threaten anybody that I need to in order to get my way. My anger is a weapon, to be wielded whenever necessary, and its expression is my first selection from my arsenal of control tools in manipulating and controlling my world.
8. If I can’t get my way with another human being, then I will cajole or bully them into submission, or attack their name and character, and/or impugn their dignity, until they either submit, or are discredited by my allies.
9. Everybody unlike me should be distrusted. Relationships built through mutual trust and collaboration can be threatening to my short-term goals, and should not be cultivated, as only alliances of hate and distrust are capable of bringing me to my goals.
10. The women in our lives are more suited to be our personal possessions than self-sufficient, independent people, and are not to be treated as equals, and are better suited for exploitation for family support, sexual purposes and/or economic gain
11. If I can’t get my way through truth-telling, then the telling of lies becomes my most potent weapon. If I am caught in a lie, then it is only your misunderstanding of my point, and not what I said, that is wrong. If I tell the same lie often enough, then people will start to accept the lie as the truth.
12. If there is no conflict currently in progress, then I must start creating the conditions for the next one, and socially position myself so that I can maximize emotional profits and visibility for myself. I never will obtain enough money, power, sex, or attention to keep me happy. I must continue to pursue these needs to extremes in order to keep me from becoming depressed and losing my sense of personal value in this world. If I achieve my goals, and I am still unhappy, I must set new goals to attempt to fill that big hole in my heart and soul.
13. The powers of my penis reigns supreme. When it is erect, it always points me in the right direction, regardless of the people who may be hurt by my wayward sexual desires. My self-esteem is dependent on how many women that I can convince to make love to me, and nobody is immune from my advances. One is too many, and a thousand is not enough, when it comes to sexual conquests.
14. I am the king of my home. I have created my kingdom to serve my selfish needs. If my rules are not honored, and my intentions for the family do not hold up, and family members start to stray, I will coerce, cajole, or threaten all wayward members with violence, if necessary. The family must stay together under my control, no matter what the cost to others might be.
15. Perfectionism and full control of others should not be mutually exclusive propositions. I will judge, criticize, and condemn others, and myself, as needed, to bring all of my world into alignment with how I think that it should be. I will compare and contrast my wealth and success with others to establish the best baseline for my expectations and behavior. My wife and my children are first and foremost my possessions. I will direct and control as necessary, and nobody else has any right to criticize my choices in how I provide and care for them My whole sense of self-esteem is derived by how deeply they honor and obey me, without argument or back talk. I do not want or need alternate points of view, as my view is the only view that is relevant.
16. If those closest to me engage in betrayal, and destroy my sacred relationship with my family, I must avenge myself, and destroy all who have threatened my life and values. My wife is my property, and my property alone. If she should ever have an affair with another man, I reserve the right to punish her and my family, up to, and including, murdering them. If I must die in the process, it is a good death for me.
17. Self sabotage is my unconscious need.  It is my right to destroy my creations even as I destroy myself, so murder-suicide is an acceptable option in the extreme, when my needs have been dishonored, and I feel that I have no more options to improve my life situation.
18. I have been a failure since I never measured up to my father’s, my church’s, or my society’s standards. I will continue to self-sabotage my success at ever bend in life’s road, and I will see life as a self-fulfilling prophesy of incompleteness and loss. I will not even question that my life has other possibilities for it, and I will resign myself to my depressing fate.
19. I reserve the right to murder anybody, when it suits my needs to protect myself. I will justify my possession and use of firearms through quoting the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution, as well as pointing to the fear and threats in our world, and our country as my own justification for stockpiling weapons. I will not listen to reason, as my mind is made up, and you can have my weapons after “prying them from my cold, dead hands” (thanks NRA, and the late mega-asshole Charlton Heston).

This is the abbreviated list, as aspects of our collective selfishness covers the entire range of human darkness. Men burdened by toxicity tend towards sexism, racism, isolation, poor judgement against all others unlike themselves, and low self-esteem, while men moving towards spiritual healing tend to unite with others in peace and mutual acceptance, and a willingness to share an improving sense of their self with the world. These Toxic Masculinity Values and Principles underpin much of the Common Knowledge Game, which is the modern name for the phenomenon of socialized understanding of self and the other. As the wise ones advise: To change my world, I first change myself. There is terrorist, a Nazi, that lives deep down within all of us. Once we have addressed our darkness, and healed it through bringing our light to it (insight), it loses its power to unconsciously control us. Then, when we go out into the world to subdue the evil that sometimes erupts in dank, dark places, we can fight the actual enemies, and not waste energy fighting projections of our unhealed self.  The fundamental oppressive force in the human universe is not our wayward political or social agendas, it is the human mind itself.

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Yet, some men still just want to watch the world burn. When hatred gets redefined as love, cultural schizophrenia ensues. Welcome to the world currently being re-created by anti-vaxxers, Donald Trump’s base, some dark money billionaires, backward elements of the Christian Evangelical movement, and many members of the far right conservative movement, and their propaganda, lying, and corruption of thought. Why do we continue to try to paint the house, when the foundation is on fire? By far and away, the majority of the violence against other human beings, and planet Earth, erupts from within the unhealed, unconscious minds and lives of toxic men and boys.

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We who have despaired of the dysfunctional ways of the world, the family, and our own personal suffering, can be the most motivated ones, and become driven to seek the freedom gained from seizing back real and authentic lives.  We must become ” sick and tired of being sick and tired”, to borrow a common expression from recovery group meetings. In fact, it is only the most motivated ones, like those tired of suffering from the effects of extraordinary grief, depression, relationships where our value is demeaned, drug addiction, alcoholism, or other self-destructive relationships, attitudes and  habits,  that eventually discover,their own threads of poor habits, poor self esteem,  inattention, and wayward intention that drove them to despair and misery in the first place.

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There is nothing more confusing than being told that we are loved, then have our essence belittled, run over, devalued, and/or ignored at our most important, vulnerable times.  Also, many of us feel that there is not enough love in our worlds, and that we have to compete with each other just to grab a thread of it.  Is there any wonder why there is confusion and schizophrenia around the concept of love?  And, even in the absence of the family, we are often exposed to bullies, those cultural enforcers of personal value demeaning codes.  It is common knowledge within our American culture that there is reduced value for others not of perfect physical appearance and beauty, not of our tribe, not of our religion, not of our race, not of our economic status, not of our version of sexuality, or, generally, not of our point of view. This is wounding that is universal in nature, has been present for thousands of years.  It is quite resistant to healing, because it’s attributes have become part of humanity’s common knowledge, which is a relentless and ongoing experience.

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.The Way It Is:  William Stafford  

You don’t ever let go of the thread. .

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Mythology is at the root of all religions, for storytelling about ultimate causes also is at the root of all human experience. A fact about the American Christian tradition and its mythology is that is relies on a prophet and spiritual warrior from 2000 years ago, coupled with voluminous ancient mythology,  in their attempt to bring spiritual relief and a higher degree of social and personal order to us in the present.  Jesus going out into the desert to face ” the devil” has no value to us, unless we also do the same. Jesus being crucified does not protect us from our own infinite potential for suffering, as well Jesus is not going to fight our battles for us, nor is he going to perform our real spiritual work, unless we have named the unknown spiritual part within ourselves as “Jesus”, rather than the deepest creative “I am” that we are in our essence.

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I don’t know about you, but I don’t want another character, no matter how prized, roaming around in my mind and competing for my attention. This is idolatry in its essence, and contrary to the teachings of all people, including Jesus, who have come to an understanding of what Truth is.  There is room only for one infinite being in our consciousness, if we are on Truth’s real path. We are all potential spiritual super heroes, but we have to apply ourselves, even while seeking inspiration from others, including the historical Jesus, if necessary.

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Establishing and maintaining some semblance of order in the midst of widespread civil unrest and religious divergence of beliefs was the major motivating force behind creating a state sponsored religion for 4th century Rome.  Though the Romans finally defeated the Greeks at the battle of Corinth in 146 B.C.,  at the council of Nicaea in 325 A.d., where Roman Emperor Constantine and up to 318  local and regional religious leaders convened to develop Roman Catholicism, the Greeks philosophically prevailed.  Jesus of Nazareth was chosen as the religious avatar for the new state religion, out of 25 other discussed and eligible prophets.  The reason that Jesus’s teachings were selected over all others are still subject to debate among historical scholars, though Constantine’s mother Helen was a major influence upon the decision, having become enamored by the thought of Jesus and his teachings.  She had previously traveled throughout the Mediterranean region  for years seeking relics and evidence of Jesus’s existence..

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The new Roman version of Christianity became steeped in borrowed mythology from the Gods of the Greeks, especially Dionysus, who was of virgin birth, died for the sins of the world, and was resurrected three days after his death (sound familiar?).  The Nicaea council also borrowed from other ancient civilizations and traditions, and pagans practicing Earth centered spirituality.  The astute observer will be able to see that a story about a Jewish prophet and revolutionary has been overlaid upon pre-existent human and divine archetypes and ancient stories.  These archetypes are essential to understand, for they are the very basic symbols for understanding ourselves, much like the lines on a topographic map, or the symbols on a schematic, are essential to understand to comprehend what the map makers or system designers were trying to represent.

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My intention is not to wrap too much of this present narrative around Christian history and its mythology, which has been expounded upon at length by meta physicians and religious scholars for centuries, and Joseph Campbell (among many others) in more recent times, but rather to take a tour through earlier human archetypes and understanding. The myth and legend of Theseus, the Labyrinth, and the Minotaur is rich with allusions to the hero’s journey that we all can take, and it provides an entertaining mirror for us to view a mythological representation of our own potential for balance, healing, and, liberation from much of the human condition, and from which we may derive life’s greatest meaning, and, ultimately joy and love.

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In the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, Theseus knew he needed a clew (a ball of string).  The clew helped to define his journey inward into and outward from the labyrinth.  Otherwise, and return  he could never retrace his exact inward steps after he confronted and defeated his oppressor, and then return back to outside of the labyrinth’s vast complexity.  As such, we all need a clew(clue) as well, as we finally seek to defeat our Minotaurs, or  demons from the past and gain freedom for our present and the future.  Our clew/clue will be a unique one, one derived from our own life experience, and it will appear as an arrow of perception shot by the bow of a neglected most important part of ourselves where wholeness has resided, unaffected by our wounds from our adventures and journeys through our present incarnation.

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In a nutshell, the labyrinth IS OUR STORY, or narrative, of disease, dysfunction, despair, and death to our dreams.   It is the narrative that we have developed to help define ourselves to others, and to ourselves.  It is our ego, plain and simple.  And, once we are imprisoned by it, we feel that we have no escape, and we are doomed until eternity to live a second-hand life and to fight the same distorted projections of our minds.  The labyrinth can represent all of those unexamined, culturally normalized unconscious dead end pathways of life that we have had inculcated into our minds, yet, like in the story of Theseus, we have available to us threads to retrace that reveals the exit from its trappings. Those are the threads that we must fully examine, and then follow, to find the new paths of consciousness leading to our ultimate transcendence over all non life affirming unconscious influences.

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The Minotaur is a fascinating construct.  Originally formed by the unholy union of the Greek God Poseidon’s wife and Goddess Pasiphae and a bull, it is a perfect symbol or metaphor for what happens to the person burdened by an unexamined life and heart, and defeated by our so-called lower nature.  It is interesting to not that the divine feminine, as represented by Pasiphae, is coupled with our animal nature to make the Minotaur.  Yes, the Greeks and their understanding was dramatically influenced by their cultural imbalances, misogyny, and patriarchy.

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The Minotaur symbolically represents the fallen human, a being now tormented by an unrefined and dark, vitriolic base nature.  It feeds on the young delivered to it every nine years, which just means the Minotaur devours our innocence and its creativity, and exploiting our vulnerability while keeping fear entombed within our minds.  The trapped Minotaur keeps our more aggressive masculine nature engaged, out of balance with our subdued feminine qualities and nature.

In close to the final passage of the Theseus, he sails back to his father, yet fails to display a new flag indicating he has defeated the Minotaur.  In real life, after we have defeated our greatest internal enemies, we still look the same on the outside, don’t we?  The father, who is also a king, represents not only the family influences, but the cultural influences, as well.  His father despairs upon witnessing the ship carrying his son back to him, believing that his son has died.  Well, Theseus has died, to the overpowering influence his father and his culture formerly had over him and his life.  The father commits suicide, which is a most important part of the story.  If, in our narrative, the father (or mother/father) image, and the cultural oppression, does not die within us, we are still doomed to do further battle with the Minotaur, in many other forms through the rest of our lives.  We must die to all such parental and negative cultural influences to reclaim our authentic selves.  The father/mother and the culture must NOT continue to live their lives through us, or we are doomed to a second hand life experience until the day that we die.

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