New Beginnings

My first quarter at Pacifica is wrapping up and I am proud to say that I have learned a great deal in the last ten weeks. I have not come to feel any deep bond with the myth of Prometheus, but I have gained an entirely different perspective on the myth. Through the exploration of the Prometheus myth, I have come to understand a great deal about other myths. I have also come to respect Carl Jung’s perspective on humanity’s relationship with mythology. It is the human who creates the myth but it is also the myth that creates the human. If one observes a proper relationship to mythology then a whole new aspect of reality opens up for the individual. I am only beginning to work through this thesis but I think it will continue to guide me throughout my career as a graduate students.

I have been researching Prometheus for a depth psychology class at Pacifica rather heavily in the last week or two. I have been using the model of childhood development that Edward Whitmont presents in this text The Symbolic Quest Basic Concepts of Analytical Psychology. It is fascinating to recognize the ways in which the Prometheus myth represents the earliest stages of Human development. Prometheus himself seems to be an initiator to consciousness. He creates humankind and tricks the great father Zeus in order to provide them with good meat. This is symbolic of the initial development of the ego in the child. The ego begins to separate out of the Self and establish some form of conscious awareness. Humans are punished by not being able to have fire to cook their meat with and so Prometheus steals fire away from Zeus. This furthers the symbolism of the separation that occurs in early stages of development. It also details the child's initial awareness of themselves as a thing in the world. They are no longer one with the parents, but finding their own path of development in the world. Zeus punishes Prometheus by chaining him to a rock for eternity and unleashing a great deal of suffering on humankind. This is symbolic of the parents still holding all power over the child. Despite the fact that the child has branched out in the world, it is still responsible to the god-parents. Further, the punishments inflicted on Prometheus and humankind are symbolic of the development of a conscience within the child. Now that it has begun to separate itself as an ego, it becomes responsible for its actions in the world. It is no longer inside the Self where everything is one, but in a world where actions have reactions. I have always loved myths but never gleaned this sort of insight from them. Fascinating.

Chained to the Mountain

After turning in my midterm paper for my process class I had a few more insights about Prometheus. Prometheus is the giver of the sacred fire, this can be interpreted as development of new consciousness or new technology, or both. This Promethean spirit is at work in our culture today. Stem cell research is a great example of the Promethean drive. Those scientists and supporters of this sort of research are not confining themselves with the mythology of today, they are only interested in the results. Many fear that the results of stem cell technology will be a Pandora’s box, bringing the good with the bad.

In my paper I argued that technology and mythology should seek to synthesize their motives and work together in the future, but the case of stem cell research is a sketchy one. This sort of research has been greatly censored by people’s mythologies. Going along the lines of my paper I could find a mythology like the Prometheus myth that supports these technological advances but then I would run into another problem.

How can we choose which mythology should be actualized in the determination of any given event. If we choose to embrace the Prometheus myth then we would brave the results good or bad and set forth into the world of stem cell research. If we accept modern mythologies and find stem cell research as an assault on divinity then we will most certainly not move ahead with it. In the latter case we are left in a world where people continue to suffer over diseases that stem cell research could prevent or eradicate all together.

This is the question that my paper must address in order to hand together as a whole, but I am not sure that I can provide an answer to this predicament. If anyone out there has any thoughts on the matter I would be happy to read through some replies to this issue. Thanks.

A view from the top

While reading The Children of Odin today I noticed a parallel between the Prometheus myth and a Norse myth centered on the acquisition of “magic mead’. In this story the god Odin pretends to be a simple wanderer in order to find out where the giants have hidden away a draught that gives wisdom to all who drink it. There is clear mentioning that Odin is not merely acquiring this magical brew for himself but for all of humankind.

Interestingly enough the mead is actually brewed from the blood of a human poet named Kvasir. That seems to imply that this man reached a state of knowing that was greater than the gods and coveted by all. Kvasir was murdered by dwarves who then distilled his blood with honey to preserve and partake in his wisdom through drink. The dwarves grow brazen with their new found wisdom and begin murdering dimwitted giants. The giant Suttung catches on to the dwarves actions and brings them out to a low rock as the tide is rising. In order to be free of their doom the dwarves promise the mead to the giant. Suttung takes this wondrous brew and hides it deep in a cavern and sets his daughter there to protect it.

Odin, in the guise of Vegtam the wanderer, does some investigating and finds where the mead is being stored. Odin then goes to work in the fields of a giant under the stipulation that he will be paid whatever he desires at the end of a season’s work. When collection time comes, Vegtam demands the magic mead. The giant cannot grant Odin the mead as he knows no way into the cave system where it is hidden. Odin takes the giant to the mountain side and instructs him to drill a hole through the wall. The giant sets to work though he begins to grow suspicious of the old wanderer’s knowledge. When the hole is complete Odin tricks the giant into looking away as he turns into a snake and slithers through the hole much to the giant’s chagrin. Odin then rescues Suttung’s daughter from her fate as guardian and secures the magic mead for humankind.

We do not see much of the after affects of the mead’s release to humankind in this myth but there are some other interesting parallels. Firstly, there is a distinct divide between the powers in each myth. For Prometheus the divide is between the remaining titans, humans and the gods. In the Norse tale we see a similar divide between the gods, men and the giants. None of the positions are clearly good or evil as Prometheus is eventually forgiven by Zeus, and Odin saves Suttung’s daughter from her fate.

Secondly, the object of the myth is to give a hard earned gift to humanity. The gift is a symbol of awakening to a new consciousness whether it be the fire or the mead. According to Edinger in Ego and Archetype, this is a symbol for our rise to consciousness as a people, and as children. As a people we have evolved into human consciousness, we no longer share all of our mental faculties with the animal world. As children we must manifest from the unconscious world to become conscious and responsible figures within the world.

Another point demonstrated in these myths is the fall from grace. In the Prometheus myth we are told that Pandora’s box is opened and all the world’s ills issue forth from it. We do not see a clear affect after the mead has been given to men, but we are told that the dwarves who first discover the mead commit all sorts of terrible deeds once they have drunk it.

The last thing I shall mention for now is that in both cases, the hero of the tale is not a human, but a creator of humans. The hero’s act as stewards to humanity, encouraging us to greater states of awakened consciousness.

Ascent

During the course of this week I have spent a good deal of time skimming Internet databases for articles related to Prometheus. As I set out I assumed it would actually be fairly difficult to find a varied amount of information about Prometheus, but I was wrong. The fire stealer came up in almost every topic I could think of, education, philosophy, science and technology among them.

During my residential session at Pacifica we discussed the dichotomy that exists between mythology and technology and if the two really have anything to do with each other. I had a tough time coming up with any significant ways in which these two disciplines interact. Mythology can be seen as providing explanations for how certain aspects of technology function. For instance, I have had actual conversations with people who claim that aliens gave us microwave technology. The technology is too complicated to understand so a myth rises up to meet it. I wasn't contented with this example so I kept the dichotomy in mind as I prepared this week's research for my upcoming paper on Prometheus.

The manner in which myth and technology influence each other became very apparent as I read the article titles which came up in my searches. "Health, healing, and the Myth of the hero journey", "Truth in myth and science", "Neuromythology: Brains and stories" were just a few of the returns that I received. All of these titles tell us something about how myth is still significant in the modern world. People tend to think of myths as mere allegories, as I outlined in my example above. When a myth is labeled as such, it becomes a thing rather than a function. The articles that have shown up to me as well as my readings of Carl G. Jung and his understudies have opened my eyes to the function of myth. Myth is a container of eternal human truths. If the hero myth was mere allegory then it would have little to do with health and healing. It is a function, it has something to offer us beyond explanation.

That said, I have had a few thoughts about how to move into Prometheus as a researcher. There is the allegorical/ historical account which would seek to explain why and how historically Prometheus is significant. I will probably avoid this method for the reasons I mentioned above.

Prometheus can also be understood as Edinger points out, as a function of our break between ego and self. In this case the Prometheus story arises out of necessity as it establishes the ego as a thing in the presence of the self, a subject in the objective world. Prometheus provides a connection between the ego, the hero, and the self, the gods.

Prometheus could also be seen as symbol of our birth from childhood into adulthood. Prometheus takes great risk in order to provide fire to humankind and he receives great punishment for it. The same is true when we move from childhood innocence to the adult world of responsibility. We begin life in the presence of the gods (our parents) and are eventually, in most cases, exiled into the world of work and earning. Just as Prometheus has his liver pecked out each day, we too must provide a days sacrifice before our evening relaxation. In a childlike state the eagle is the least of our worries.

Lastly, I can approach Prometheus as the bearer of technology. He is responsible for providing man with fire, just as we are responsible for bringing more technology to bear in the world. Fire is a powerful element that helps shape human endeavors in a beneficent way, yet it can also burn flesh and annihilate the environment. The same can be said of every new invention that comes along, cellular phones are suspected to cause cancer, IPODs harm hearing levels, cars destroy the ozone layer. Pandora's box has been opened and we can never close it.

First Steps

This Blog will serve as a jumping off point for further research into the significance of the myth of Prometheus. I am starting this blog as part of a project for one of my classes at Pacifica Graduate Institute. For the next several weeks I will be focused on gathering as much insight as possible into the message of the Prometheus myth. Those who have not heard of Prometheus
can find a good heal of information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus .

According to Edward F. Edinger, the Author of Ego and Archetype, Prometheus is a symbol of humankind's rise to consciousness. This myth is common in many cultures and traditions. I recall hearing a Native American tale in which a raven stole knowledge of fire from the gods and told of it to men only to be punished by angry powers. Edinger also sites the tale of Adam and Eve as representative of the same message. When the first humans eat of the tree of knowledge they are expelled from Eden and made to work the earth in order to live. Death, disease and war fall upon them in the following books of the Bible.

It seems that what is represented in these stories is a common event for all people and cultures, a rise to consciousness. As we progress from childhood to adulthood we undergo several psychological changes. We become morally conscious subjects in the world, no longer do we live in the paradise of mothers arms, we must make our own way in the world eventually. Edinger would have it that this is what the above myths are explaining to us. We must rebel against the powers that be in order to achieve these new states of mind.