Jung and the Cosmic Myth

In the mailbox this Tuesday morning:

With no storyline, no integrating images that define who we are or direct our lives, we just won’t be happy. Carl Jung developed this idea for our generation of Western rationalists, who had thought that myth meant “not true”—when in fact the older meaning of myth is precisely “always and deeply true”! … Like good art, a Cosmic Myth … gives a sense of universal belonging and personal participation in Something/Someone much larger than ourselves. …. it is nearly impossible to heal isolated individuals inside of a culture as unhealthy and unhealed as the USA, and inside any narrative storyline that supports exclusion and superiority. – Fr. Richard Rohr

The storyline of our traditional Western culture is one of radical individualism. We've even co-opted myth to support this rather isolating perspective (think The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell). But neither Campbell nor Jung saw us as the isolated, fear based narcissistic creatures we have become. Rather, they saw consciousness (particularly the subconscious, per Jung) as wholly interconnected. Contemporary research stimulated by quantum physics suggests that the interconnectedness is likely even at the DNA level of all living beings. The title of Campbell's book, after all, was The Hero with a Thousand Faces, reflecting a storyline running like a unifying thread throughout the woof and warp of all cultures. We are all heroes, on the same metaphoric journey.