Pacifica Graduate Institute by Emily A Ruch
Pacifica Graduate Institute Doctoral Dissertation, 2020
Different cultures have different conceptions of fate but share parallel metaphors for this pheno... more Different cultures have different conceptions of fate but share parallel metaphors for this phenomenon in the personified forms of goddesses (and mythic women) and the non-personified forms of cloth and thread. This study proposes that such common fate- metaphors are archetypal.
The archetypal expressions of fate examined in this dissertation include crafters, wielders, and agents of fate—the Weaver, the Foreteller, and the Summoner—as well as material channels of fate, the Thread and the Cloth.
The archetypal Weaver is the maker of opportunity. She spins, plies, or weaves fate and sometimes does other textile-related work that closely involves fate—like the Morrigan washing the garments of those doomed to die in battle. The Weaver archetype has two aspects: one weaves harmony, and the other weaves discord.
The archetypal Foreteller speaks fate before it comes to pass. She stitches an interwoven image (the foretold phenomenon) into the fabric of life by providing the “vocal woof” to the warp threads of fate.
The archetypal Summoner draws someone toward her allotted fate, at times pulling on the thread of fate itself. Summoners regularly take the shape of personal gods, guides (psychopomps), or spirit doubles, but they are not always on such intimate terms with those they summon. The perilous Sirens, for example, summon anyone who chances to hear them. Summoners often appear in myth as shape-shifters.
The archetypal Thread essentially connects and represents the most potently fundamental and transformative experiences known to the human condition: birth, death, life, and love. The goddesses of fate craft each fate-thread, usually near the time of birth or conception.
The archetypal Cloth symbolizes a complex, creative, and harmonious interweaving of many strands into a single, unified whole—an important metaphor for the fate of individuals, families, and society. Throughout history women have been the primary (often the only) makers of cloth—which is associated with fortune of every kind—thus the Cloth archetype and the fateful power of the Feminine are inextricably bound.
KEYWORDS: comparative mythology, archetypal psychology, feminist literary criticism, Irish mythology, Táin Bó Cúailnge, Fedelm, Freyja, seiðr, Darraðarljóð, wool-work
Papers by Emily A Ruch
Mythological Studies Journal, 2021
This paper examines the phenomenon of flagpole rituals as a means of establishing the spiritual c... more This paper examines the phenomenon of flagpole rituals as a means of establishing the spiritual center of the American military world and the flagpole as the axis mundi around which that military cosmos takes shape. Music is integral to the effectiveness of flagpole rituals and may even be substituted for the physical flagpole as the center around which these ceremonial gestures are performed. Such practices articulate the American civil religion that permeates military consciousness as mythic, symbolic, and sacred while simultaneously conveying an unarticulated and intuitive realization of the Confucian way of ren.
Mythological Studies Journal, 2019
The anima and animus archetypes are two of C. G. Jung’s most challenging contributions to the fie... more The anima and animus archetypes are two of C. G. Jung’s most challenging contributions to the field of psychoanalytical thought—perhaps all the more so because the conceptual development of these archetypes has coincided with the gradual shift away from the rigidly patriarchal culture of Jung’s time and the simultaneous rise of the feminist movement. Fundamental elements of Jungian depth psychology, anima and animus—the unconscious compensatory, and therefore contrasexual, characteristics of man and woman respectively—have undergone considerable reconfiguration in the increasingly egalitarian sociocultural context of post-Jungian thought. Although they have proved tremendously valuable to the field of depth psychology, Jung’s gender-biased conceptions of these archetypes and their inevitable implications concerning the nature of masculinity and femininity do not work for many contemporary men and women. In order to retain the value of Jung’s visionary work while shedding its metaphorical corset, I have examined the conceptual development of the archetypes from the writings of Jung and Emma Jung through the post-Jungian work of Edward C. Whitmont, James Hillman, Claire Douglas, and Gareth Hill. These updated theories remain limiting, however, and I believe that further reconfiguration is still necessary.
Mythological Studies Journal, 2018
The intersection between history and memory is tenebrous and intricate. In the west we tend to re... more The intersection between history and memory is tenebrous and intricate. In the west we tend to regard history as factual, objective, literal truth, as though it were somehow unbiased, invulnerable to subjectivity—all that memory is not. History is often treated as sacrosanct in the west (where Science is the religion of the “rational” among us) as a result, in part, of its supposed objective facticity. In part, however, history may be sanctified in the west because western culture is predominantly Judeo-Christian in origin, and “[the] biblical myth,” as Christine Downing observes, “is a myth about a god who speaks in the unique events of history” (“Subliminal Presence” 254). Like scripture, what has been “written”—whether it be the factual events of cultural or personal history—is usually “read” as the fixed and final word, as the (unchanging and unchangeable) story. Yet the Jewish tradition of midrash, the creative exegesis of scripture, teaches that there is no single story, no one true interpretation; thus the midrashic saying that “the Torah has seventy faces” (Rotenberg 4). Using midrash as a method, individuals might learn to approach their personal histories creatively, liberating themselves from merely reading the facts of their lives and claiming the audacious authority to write their own stories—to rewrite history as it were. Drawing on Mordechai Rotenberg’s Rewriting the Self: Psychotherapy and Midrash, I will call such rewriting—which he calls “biographic rehabilitation” or, more often, “re-biographing” (18)—autobiographic rehabilitation to emphasize that rewriting one’s history through personal, therapeutic midrashic mythmaking is an essentially autonomous act.
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Pacifica Graduate Institute by Emily A Ruch
The archetypal expressions of fate examined in this dissertation include crafters, wielders, and agents of fate—the Weaver, the Foreteller, and the Summoner—as well as material channels of fate, the Thread and the Cloth.
The archetypal Weaver is the maker of opportunity. She spins, plies, or weaves fate and sometimes does other textile-related work that closely involves fate—like the Morrigan washing the garments of those doomed to die in battle. The Weaver archetype has two aspects: one weaves harmony, and the other weaves discord.
The archetypal Foreteller speaks fate before it comes to pass. She stitches an interwoven image (the foretold phenomenon) into the fabric of life by providing the “vocal woof” to the warp threads of fate.
The archetypal Summoner draws someone toward her allotted fate, at times pulling on the thread of fate itself. Summoners regularly take the shape of personal gods, guides (psychopomps), or spirit doubles, but they are not always on such intimate terms with those they summon. The perilous Sirens, for example, summon anyone who chances to hear them. Summoners often appear in myth as shape-shifters.
The archetypal Thread essentially connects and represents the most potently fundamental and transformative experiences known to the human condition: birth, death, life, and love. The goddesses of fate craft each fate-thread, usually near the time of birth or conception.
The archetypal Cloth symbolizes a complex, creative, and harmonious interweaving of many strands into a single, unified whole—an important metaphor for the fate of individuals, families, and society. Throughout history women have been the primary (often the only) makers of cloth—which is associated with fortune of every kind—thus the Cloth archetype and the fateful power of the Feminine are inextricably bound.
KEYWORDS: comparative mythology, archetypal psychology, feminist literary criticism, Irish mythology, Táin Bó Cúailnge, Fedelm, Freyja, seiðr, Darraðarljóð, wool-work
Papers by Emily A Ruch