Tamara's Journey

A Path To Higher Consciousness Part 5

Lastly, in this series of books by Johnson entitled, “We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love”, we approach what has been alluded to throughout this paper, namely, a synthesis of the inner masculine and the inner feminine. Again, what is being stressed here has very little to do primarily with the relationship between a flesh and blood man and woman. Rather, let us see romantic love in the religious sense rather than merely the outward form of physical courtship between the man and the woman.

“The work of enlightenment is to make conscious these divided and conflicting parts of ourselves, to wake up to the primordial unity that joins them. To awaken to the unity of the self is the great goal of our psychological evolution, the Pearl Without Price, the object of our deepest longings. It is this possibility that is manifested by the dual masculine-feminine nature of the psyche…In mythical symbolism the self is often represented by a masculine-feminine pair: a King and Queen, a divine brother and sister, a god and goddess. Through this symbol of the royal couple the psyche tells us that the self is one, though we experience it as complementary opposites. It shows us that we must make a marriage, a holy synthesis between the two great polarities of our human nature.” (We: Understanding The Psychology of Romantic Love WUPRL p. 19)

The basis for the synthesis of masculine and feminine is in the medieval myth of Tristan and Iseult. This is essentially about two kingdoms of Cornwall in England and Ireland. King Mark of Cornwall finds it necessary and expedient to seal it’s alliance with King Rivalen of Lyonesse in France. the means by which this is done is with Mark’s sister Blanche Fleur who is sold to Rivalen as his wife; the marriage is thus a pact of the alliance.

Following this, Rivalen has trouble at home and is called back to Lyonesse where his kingdom is under siege and threatened by Duke Morgan and his army. Morgan triumphs resulting in Rivalens’s death, leaving Blanche Fleur now pregnant with a son, widowed and in a state of deep sorrow. In her sorrow, she gives birth to her son naming him Tristan, child of sadness. Tristan is orphaned and lives, first with Rivalen’s faithful marshal, Lord Rohalt. Tristan is, however, captured by Norwegian pirates in a raid. As they set sail with their hostage a storm whips up and realizing that their evil deed done to Tristan brought upon them bad fortune they set him adrift on a small boat.

Within this story we see two instances in which the feminine has been blatantly abused. To King Mark and Rivalen, Mark’s sister is merely a piece of property used as the masculine ego sees fit, in the service of the man’s power drive. We experience something similar to this when corporate advertisements, seemingly desiring to sell a product, will put love and feeling in the service of power and profit.

“The power drive gone mad without the balancing force of love, feeling and human values. He seeks only power; he destroys all that is human and tender; he is reduced to brutality.” (WUPRL p. 23)

Blance Fleur died because of Morgan killing her husband Rivalen. Blanche Fleur has thus been driven away dominated by the overbearing masculine zest for power through brutality. The birth of Tristan is sad, his mother and father gone, leaving only the tyrant Morgan who has raped his home and birthplace and stolen his birthright.

But there’s hope. In passing, his parents represent the ancient world order, given up in the face of seemingly hopeless odds of swift and effective evil all around. Tristan, a child, represents the dawn of hope, new possibilities. He’s inherited a sad world but also inner strength, “the potential for making a new world and a new understanding.” (WUPRL p. 24)

There is more emphasis in this story than the other two on the synthesis of the masculine and the feminine and Tristan does idealize hope for the future. In fact, uon his shoulders rests a grave responsibility. Dependent upon him and the choices he makes is this union of masculine and feminine, either the marriage of these two aspects thus completing the whole or the destruction of it which lays hanging in the balance.

The kingdom of Cornwall and that of Ireland have been historically at war for some time. They are both symbolic of the patriarchal consciousness and the matriarchal consciousness. Cornwall has always remained at a distance from Ireland abandoning her. Ireland has in turn required it of Cornwall that they pay a tribute of 300 youths to serve as slaves. King Mark has always refused to pay. Because of this Ireland sends over to Cornwall their warrior Morholt who confronts King Mark as well as all of his knights to send their best warrior to fight him. Of all his intimidation toward all of Mark’s bravest men there is no one to meet the challenge.

All this happens when the masculine refuses to identify with its true self.

“If only we would learn to honor the feminine side. If only we knew how to go to Ireland and make peace! Instead, we try to live out the feminine side in compulsive, unconscious ways: We eat and drink to much, we get captured by moods, we have headaches. If we learned to live the Feminine in a more conscious way, the sales of aspirin would fall drastically. We need to learn to take a walk in the sunshine and see the colors of the earth, to respect our physical bodies, to wake up to the music in life, to listen to our dreams, to show affection to the people we love. Then we can make peace; we will no longer find the Morholt at our doors, no longer find the sword at our throats.” (WUPRL p. 27-28)

Tristan is the only one who challenges Morholt, but in his sword battle with this warrior Tristan is severely wounded. Seeing it no longer purposeful to use the sword, Tristan lays down his sword, boards a small boat with a harp close to his breast and is set adrift bound for Ireland.

There is a time for the sword and a time for the harp.

“This is correct swordsmanship in a man. He must have sword power to protect his conscious life, as he must have harp power for his journey into the unconscious.” (WUPRL p. 32)

One way or another the feminine, matriarchal spirit within us must be dealt with. If we keep living in abject denial of our conscience of who we are then sooner or later our unconscious will demand that tribute be paid. If it is not done obligatorily and by responsible choice it will be demanded of through neurosis, illness or depression, even a situation where one finds himself in a funk or a strange mood that has tapped and drained all of his energy. This is Ireland through the forceful vengeance instrumented by Morholt. This is not to be taken personally but seriously by he or she whom is in denial of their true feelings.

The end to which the means of self integration of the masculine and feminine aspects within an individual is taking him is Romantic Love or courtly love.

“It idealized a spiritual relationship between the man and the woman. Courtly love was an antidote to the patriarchal attitude we see in Tristan’s world: It idealized the feminine; it taught a rough knight like Tristan actually to worship the universal feminine, symbolized by the fair lady whom he served and adored.” (WUPRL p. 45)

Romantic love is the way in which we, through the synthesis of the masculine with the feminine, journey with the help of the feminine aspect into the inner world of the unconscious. Based upon this there is a whole framework upon which we are to adhere to the values of the inner world. It has been called courtly love or chivalry. This should not be confused as was mentioned above with human love or the relationship between a flesh and blood man and woman. These are two separate worlds and they are never to be mistaken for each other. Rather, the integration gained as a result of a successful communion between the persona and the anima or the animus, whether it be a man or a woman, will effectively serve how a man and a woman conduct themselves in marriage in an honest and intimate way.

“One of the great needs of modern people is to learn the difference between human love as a basis for relationship and romantic love as an inner ideal, a path to the inner world. Love does not suffer by being freed from the belief systems of romantic love. Love’s status will only improve as love is distinguished from romance.” (WUPRL p. 49)

It must be stressed that it is primary that a sense or state of wholeness be achieved on an individual level as a proper foundation upon which may be laid a wholesome marital relationship. This is the significance of Romantic love as a precursor for Human Love. Romantic love can be seen in the religious sense. Romantic love has been the last bastion of any real experience that people have anymore with the divine. Religion does not seem to have the pull or the influence it once had in bringing the faithful to a level of consciousness that was greater than themselves in which they felt in touch with the eternal and the infinite. Romance seems to do that just fine with most people although the act of falling in love is very superficial, doesn’t last and yields a lot of disappointment and eventually cynicism. With the understanding of Romance as a journey into the unconsciousness toward a healthy integration of a person’s masculine and feminine aspects, those who lean more to the secular side of life can find a deeper sense of spiritual satisfaction that they never knew they could experience before. Those more religiously inclined may be able to appreciate human relationships, namely human intimacy in a more fuller context, compassion for others and a genuine sense of living one’s life in this world, although temporal as it may be and all the beauty this world has to offer.



Bibliography
1. Lee, Sung Hun Essentials of Unification Thought: The Head-Wing Thought Unification Thought Institute Japan 1992
2. Badinter, Elizabeth The Unopposite Sex: The End Of The Gender Battle Harper & Row Publishers St. Louis 1986
3. Gilder, George Men and Marriage Pelican Publishing Company Gretna L.A. 1986
4. Fromm, Eric The Art of Loving Harper and Row NY 1956
5. Kilgore, James The Intimate Man: Intimacy and Masculinity in the 80’s Abingdon Press Nashville 1984
6. Jung, Carl: The Essential Jung Princeton University Press 1999
7. Johnson, Robert He: Understanding Masculine Psychology Harper and Row San Francisco 1974 p. 15-29
8. Johnson, Robert She: Understanding Feminine Psychology Harper and Row 1974 p. 5-10
9. Johnson, Robert We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love Harper and Row San Francisco 1983

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