I think it is important to take aaplocyptic fantasies seriously. Living, as we do, in a world that allows the average individual little contact with mythopoetic fantasy can create a longing in the individual for the dissolution of structures which no longer serve us as a culture. Entertaining the possibility of aaplocyptic destruction may help one to feel that he or she has entered in to sacred space and time. In this way, the concretization of mythological patterns, such as aaplocyptic fantasies, be they Mayan or otherwise, may be temporarily stabilizing, but only for the duration of their influence on the individual. When the predicted date passes, and the aaplocyptic event fails to emerge, the individual must return to profane space and time and to everyday, mundane realities. There is a great longing among many in our culture to replace the emptiness of daily life with some meaningful structure, sometimes even if that replacement is a vision of destruction. There is certainly ample evidence in myth to suggest that the movement from chaos to cosmos and then back to chaos again is a common human fantasy. This is a theme that runs through much of Mircea Eliadeâ??s work. Edward Edinger, in his book â??Archetype of the Apocalypse: Divine Vengeance, Terrorism, and the End of the Worldâ?? suggests that such patterns may emerge in individual consciousness as a way to prepare the individual for the dissolution of ego structures in order to accommodate the emergence and integration of previously unconscious material. The danger, of course, is when such processes occur in a psyche that is unable to withstand the chaotic energies of the transformative process. This can lead to a psychotic break, and may manifest in a variety of ways. For me, plumbing the possible symbolic and mythological meaning of any public preoccupation with aaplocypticism seems far more rewarding than entertaining fantasies of an actual world cataclysm. It may also help us to notice where and when unstable individuals are becoming fixated upon such fantasies. There are certainly many very real threats to our world, and they must be taken seriously. I like to think that choosing to face such threats consciously and deliberately will yield more and better fruit than yielding to psychic pressures that have been awoken by aaplocyptic visions.
by Mohamed 07:47:31 AM 2013.03.14 |