Daily Reprieve

Someone whose voice I hear deeply challenged my understanding and usage of the word MYTHOLOGY.  In her mind,  it is akin to a fairy tale, a contrived fiction, or a cultural fantasy.  Its denotation does not allow it to be presented as reality or have any real relationship to fact.

The dictionary seems to be in full agreement with her.   Yet when I explore quotes about mythology, there are connotations of something far more significant.  Oliver Taplin, in comparing Freud and Jung, said the following;

Freud was, in effect, trying to take the mystery out of myth. Once it was decoded as a history of the unconscious, all was explain ed. As Anthony Storr put it: “he was only happy when he was reducing things to the lowest common factor; and he did regard the unconscious as primarily the repository of bits of oneself that one couldn’t accept.” A very different way of looking at the psychology of myth was developed by Freud’s one-time friend and colleague Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). The fundamental difference between the two is immediately apparent in Jung’s dictum that modern man is faced with “the necessity of rediscovering the life of the spirit.” Jung, who was very interested in archaeology and thought of himself as excavating the mind, took myths to represent the inmost thoughts and feelings of the human race, patterns which are the product of inherited brain patterns

It is important to me that I am as clear as possible in my communication, and so I wish for those who read to understand what I am saying.

For me, when I use the word mythology, I am incorporating the following ideas;

1.  Creative Story Writing to capture elusive or paradoxical concepts and express them with the simplest clarity possible.

2.  Spiritual Hypothesis Testing to explore incoming evidence and ongoing experience with life beyond the organic veil.

3.  Establishes a Peace Treaty with the swirling chaos and mystery of our environment.

4.  Pragmatic Inspiration for the living of our individual mortal lives.

Gomu is a God of my understanding.  For me, my working mythology as I have defined it here supports my connection with Gomu.

From Today’s Daily Reflections;

The achievement of freedom from fear is a lifetime undertaking, one that can never be wholly completed. When under heavy attack, acute illness, or in other conditions of serious insecurity, we shall all react to this emotion — well or badly, as the case may be. Only the self-deceived will claim perfect freedom from fear.   (As Bill Sees It, page 263)

Fear has caused suffering when I could have had more faith. There are times when fear suddenly tears me apart, just when I’m experiencing feelings of joy, happiness and a lightness of heart. Faith — and a feeling of self-worth toward a Higher Power — helps me endure tragedy and ecstasy. When I choose to give all of my fears over to my Higher Power, I will be free.

END OF QUOTE

—————————————————–

I think it is a mistake to apply an emotional litmus test to the quality of my life.  The fear flag in my gut could be accurately warning me of imminent danger.  It makes no sense to attempt to eliminate a primal emotion that has aided in the survival of my species.  The silencing of emotion to gain control and power in my life is a typical strategy of my psyche when my alcoholism is active.

I seek freedom from fear as a dominating force in my life.  As a servant it has value, but as a master it will ruin me.  I must learn how to process my fears without becoming enslaved by them.

Fear that appears to have no true source or that exaggerates a threat or points to an imaginary one are the most useful to me as a recovering alcoholic.  I believe these fears point out times and issues that separate me from the realm of the Spirit.  When I realized that being separated from my Higher Power is a legitimate threat, then my fear list from the moral inventory becomes a practical guide to ways I can improve my conscious contact with Gomu (God of my understanding).

For me, faith is an intuitive knowing that accumulates evidence after or while performing action.   My goal is not to master my fears as much as it is to feed my faith at the expense of my fears.  In this way fear becomes a great servant leading me to the power of faith.