We have fought monsters of our own and others' making, tried to right wrongs or enhance the condition of life wherever we have found it, and have even discovered a path to the beloved and marriage to the spiritual partner within. Our lives could hardly be called humdrum, but any time they seemed dull, we went out and did something about it. Or perhaps some archetypal force entered in and livened things up for us.

In my travels, I have discovered this phenomenon occurring worldwide. We are all engaged in a mythic experiencing of the life of the soul and, by extension, of the Soul of the World. Indeed marriage to the soul may be the preeminent occurrence in the life of the psyche today. But what is unique about our time is that our lives are not amplified by reflection in the cultural mythic hero or heroine. Our lives are as mythic as theirs. We are direct participants in the story of the Soul of the World. We catch the evolutionary resonance much more directly than we once did, which explains all the new emphasis on personal mythology.

Despite the media dominance of economic and political forms, I feel that the most important event in the present whole system transition is the radical incorporation of mythical and archetypal qualities in our lives. Whenever we study myth, we open the gate to this disclosure. And we can begin to examine our own lives as mythic events — events that tell of the unfolding and uncoding of the Soul of the World.

At this point, the tension between soul and world, inner and outer, public and private begins to disappear as we discover ourselves to be characters in the drama of the world soul, the anima mundi. In this mode, ego structures are seen as only one aspect among multiple aspects of the self. Indeed the most accurate model of human existence reveals innate diversity, both within each individual and among individuals.

The polyphrenic or multiminded self is the healthy self. Spiritually, however, as the psychologist James Hillman reminded us, "the soul's inherent multiplicity demands a theological fantasy of equal differentiation." This means that now those psychospiritual potencies whom we call gods — the neters of ancient Egypt — need to be seen as polyphrenic, multifaceted images of the One.

In the state of partnership that blends into union, we are digested by God and re-formed by God. And in some sense, God becomes human for us. Meister Eckhart, one of the most powerful conceptual and experiential Christian theologians of the Middle Ages, believed that the mystical union is not the privilege of the few but the very vocation and ultimate realization of humanity. Eckhart the writer has God speak to us, saying, "I became man for you. If you do not become God for me, you do me wrong."

In such a statement, our notions of substance and essence begin to shift and vibrate, moving across transpersonal domains. Spirit is infused with matter and matter with spirit. Eckhart believed this entirely because he believed that God is immanent in us all, is in fact our very being. Eckhart said, "If I am to know God directly, I must become completely God, and God I; so that this God and this I become one I."

The "archetype of partnership" is our very reason for being. Marriage to the soul is our raison d'être. Our fears and our limited self-concept keep reducing the sense of the reality and vitality of the union. The quality of our selfhood depends on the presence of that divine image in us, on our communion with this soul, this God-self that we contain. Following from that, it depends on the degree of our own immanence in the archetype of soul or God-self. This relationship can be experienced as the soul's union with its beloved. By becoming immersed in the archetypal and profoundly loving relationship, we can grow toward our true identity in God.




Copyright © 1995 by Jean Houston

From The Passion of Isis and Osiris by Jean Houston (New York: Ballantine, 1995). Used by arrangement with Ballantine Books, Inc.