This past week I happened to pull a 1974 edition of the book, HE: Understanding Masculine Psychology, by Robert A. Johnson off the bookshelf. The pages had turned brownish and become a bit fragile. Now reading this eighty-page gem from a different vantage point in life, how he uses the myth of Parsifal and the Fisher King has much deeper meaning than I remembered.
Two excerpts:
Often, when a new era begins in history, a myth for that era springs up at the same time. The myth is a sort of preview of what is to come, and contains sage advice for coping with the psychological elements of the time…To most modern men, however, the word myth is almost synonymous with false or illusion… For Carl Jung, myths have meaning for everyone because they represent in story fashion archetypes, that is, patterns of life that are universally valid.
This gave me pause to ask myself, “What myth is emerging for our present time? How does this tie into the work we have been pursuing in our circle for the past 8-1/2 years?”
Audio Book: 1:50-hours
Parsifal and the Fisher King – 7-1/2 minute video
