I feel culture and personality can be described respectively as the macrocosm and the microcosm of the experience of life.
A lot of what we are, at least in the way we perceive reality and show up in life, is influenced by culture. Definitely the way we project our image and expectations onto others, the rituals of the day to day, our social conventions follow semi-automatic and repeating patterns.
I currently see my unique ability to respond to the challenges and exhilarations of life as the reflection of cultural mores on archetypal predispositions, a new lens for me to make sense of existence.
Our living is full of mysteries and it seems evident that reality is very much a subjective, relative matter, in the way it is perceived at least.
I think we are more than just our personalities and definitely much more than our personas, the outer shell people actually see. But to a very large degree, our existence is influenced by our mental activity, both the conscious and the unconscious drives that form the psyche.
One of the most rewarding recent learning has been to re-discover ancient Greek mythology. Fascinatingly intricate stories of gods, goddesses and heroes were very much part of my school curriculum when I studied the Iliad, an incredible tragedy set at the end of the Troyan war. We also read the king of Ithaca’s Odyssey through half of the known world and the myth of Ennead.
Although always taken by the subject of conspiracies, loves, plots and politics these stories brought to life, I was too young to fully appreciate their depth and significance.
As part of my natural desire to learn about myself and the world, I rediscovered mythology as a fundamental subject underpinning both our continuously developing cultures, as well as a tool to understand my personality, others around me and the world at large.
I recently read Jung’s book Man and His Symbols and Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces to grasp the importance of symbols, archetypes and mythology in psychology. Myths, symbols and archetypes are part of the collective and individual unconscious and massively influence our day to day life. This is well known by marketers, politicians and media types of course, but generally no mainstream subject of analysis.
“Myths are the world’s dreams. They are archetypal dreams and deal with great human problems. Myths and dreams come from the same place. They come from realizations of some kind that then have to find expression in symbolic form.” – Joseph Campbell
There are 8 major gods and 7 major goddesses in Greek mythology I had the pleasure to revisit. Each carries specific traits and characteristics that can be extrapolated by studying ancient myths and adapting the findings to the modern world.
Jean Shinoda Bolen’s Gods in Everyman & Goddesses in Everywoman were invaluable to help me translate sometimes difficult concepts into an easily applicable and wonderfully practical format .
This knowledge greatly improved my perception of reality. I feel compelled to describe some of my findings in this short post. The real deal in the mentioned books of course.
Every god carries some traits that are perceived as positive in our culture and others that are maybe less so. Zeus, the distant and critical sky father and the most powerful of the deities is a large corporation’s CEO, a top politician and a natural leader. Totally focused on power, status, achievement and success, he works very hard and is machiavellian in his machinations.
Outerly moral and even appearing conventional, he wears complex personas that conceal his true self. He knows how to bend the rules and win power struggles behind the curtains. Zeus characteristics are very much appreciated in Western society, but Zeus types need to sacrifice a lot in order to become so powerful and successful.
Even if you do make it to the top, if your predispositions were better suited to a different path, you might burn out, have a mid-life crisis or fall into depression. This was obvious to me when I worked with investment bankers. Some of my senior clients looked amazing, really fit, intelligent, present and powerful, highly inspirational to me.
Others in similar top positions had a terrible outer appearance and worse inner energy, no real vitality or glow. It almost seemed the effort to sustain their career required too much sacrifice, too much stress, angst and, maybe, compensation in the forms of drugs and alcohol.
Hera, Zeus’ wife, is assertive, vain and glamorous. When Zeus cheats on her, which is often, she becomes extremely jealous, vengeful, cruel, vindictive, merciless and ruthless. As the goddess of marriage, she is very much in love and identified with her husband’s status. She would never leave him, no matter what.
More you look into the Greek gods’ archetypes, the more you find yourself, friends and loved ones easily put under one typology or another. But all archetypes are present at once, just we somehow tend to express one or two more distinctly. We can consciously appeal to a god in us, or an archetype in someone else, through awareness, language and behaviour.
The ability to be present and in the flow, balanced and effective in bringing together the different parts of our personality, helps hugely when relating to others and thus living a “good” life, whatever that might mean to you.
Depending on what phase in life we are going through, the specific challenges of one’s existence, we might bring forth an aspect of ourself over another. How successful we are in adapting to the demands of life will therefore depend on how much self-knowledge and shadow integration we have done.
In this context, getting to know all archetypal forces, that are consciously or unconsciously playing a role in our psyche, is pure gold, extremely beneficial.
Was my patriarchal father more of a Zeus or a Poseidon? Always physically fit and confident in his masculinity, he was a lover of sports and the outdoors, like Ares the god of war.
Born an Apollo, I had the sun on my side. I remember my early youth as being particularly gifted at school, good in writing, having a very sunny predisposition and wanting to impress my mum and dad. I had a rather conventional upbringing and my childhood memories are overall happy.
Teenage years brought the Hermes out. A strong desire to go beyond the boundaries of my limited world, pushed me to explore both through intellectual learnings and travel.
Relationships with girls were not so easy for me initially. A strict Catholic ethic and a traditionally puritanical and very protective Persephone turned Demetra mother made me somewhat shy and defiant with the opposite sex.
A fierce independence and strong minded will characterised my early 20s. I felt capable and invincible, Zeus-like, ready to take on a corporate career in London, which will become my home city for 15 years.
Dionysus came through towards the end of my university years, when I lived, studied (and partied) in the Netherlands and again in my final year in Milan. Creativity and mysticism characterise the Pandemic times in Koh Phangan, one of the best periods of my life. The god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre, Dionysus is a great discovery of recent times I need to connect with sensibly.
I started practising improv theatre, I was part of a musical show and I intensified my search for psychological, spiritual and esoteric knowledge, continuously practising meditation, achieving amazing mystical and tantric expansions, while living in the moment.
An interesting character I don’t resonate with consciously is Hephestus, although I have this archetype as all archetypes are present within me and I see it in some of my friends.
The god of fire, Hephaestus became the divine smith and patron of craftsmen. He was rejected in his youth and he carried the abandonment wound, so common to many who struggle in relationships.
Hephaestus was born with a physical defect and was cast from heaven in disgust by his mother, the critical and status conscious Hera, and again by his father, Zeus. He was married to enchantingly irresistible to men, rather empowered and liberated Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love and beauty, known as Venus in Roman times.
This marriage was initiated by Zeus to prevent the other gods from fighting over her. Aphrodite never even considered being faithful to Hephaestus though. Never limited to one man and little concerned with her husband feelings, she regularly cheated with Ares, the buff, embodied and assertive sports type, as well as a slew of mortal lovers, such as the Trojan nobleman Anchises and the youth Adonis, in her spontaneous pursuit of fun, joy and creativity.
While Aphrodite and Ares lay together in bed, Hephaestus ensnared them in an unbreakable chain-link net so small as to be invisible and dragged them to Mount Olympus to shame them in front of the other gods for retribution. The gods laughed at the sight of these naked lovers and Hephaestus was once again rejected and humiliated.
Hermes is overall the Greek deity I identify myself with the most. Some of his characteristics include a facility with language and communication, a curious disposition for travel and to seek knowledge, a inclination for adaptation, transformation and spirituality.
He had an easy and laid back approach to life and was the only god who could travel to the underworld and come back scot free. This shows that the depths of the unconscious are accessible only by those who don’t take themselves too seriously, that are willing to experiment, Hermes also being the god of alchemy, and are not afraid of the unknown.
Will conventional and strategic Apollo, or powerful Zeus, help me become more financially established? Or is my faith to deepen the knowledge of the esoteric though Hermeticism and the exploration of Hades, the god of the underworld, where many secrets and treasures are found?
As the concept of Karma takes over in my mind, and the Jungian notions of the collective and individual unconscious become more clear, I feel drawn to continue my self-exploration with archetypal astrology, the next frontier of investigation on the mysteries of life.
As the Jungian concept of individuation blends with Nietzsche’s idea to live authentically and powerfully, creating one’s own goals and values, I seek a sense of wholeness through mysticism, and self-integration through psychological development.
Trying to understand how my shadow and the archetypes might work, could bring forward more acceptance and renewed alignment between my true predispositions and actual lifestyle.
I hope this increased awareness will help me to further develop my cognitive, emotional, intellectual, and social capabilities to achieve more psychological and spiritual maturity.
Ultimately, this could translate into more harmony, serenity, joy and acceptance. The development of these qualities are a worthy pursuit, a powerful representation of meaning and, maybe, the manifestation of a life well lived.