The Emerging Feminine Book Launch at Kalakriti Art Gallery

Kalakriti Art Gallery St Yatra Books invite you to the launch of 'The Emerging Feminine' — Discovering the Feminine Within

The book tries to trace the cultural collective unconscious patterns that we inherit by analyzing some of our dominant characters from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana that affect behavior patterns that we unknowingly inherit without our conscious awareness.

'Right' behaviour patterns are not invented overnight or by a single 'poet'. They evolve through the slow crystallization of personalities, real or mythical, who act in certain ways, and who are then scripted into mythologies. Thus the individual actions of a hero's or heroine's journey are scripted in story form as a collective 'right' or 'wrong' action.

C. G. Jung the Swiss psychologist's work has shown that, like dreams, myths and fairy tales tell us more than the intellect can grasp. There is a deeper meaning to them that is not easily evident to the normal understanding.

Heroes and heroines in the myths are therefore symbols of the maturing 'Self'. Symbolically their journey describes the unfolding of our psychic and spiritual growth, facing the dragons and demons within the individual psyche. They represent ego development of the personality that functions in harmony with 'Self'. Therefore, to study their path has a deep significance - a personal quest where each of us must find his (or her) own truth. They act as pathfinders that demonstrate actions that must be taken, that allow one to adapt to the changes required in a society, which are in accordance with the 'Self' and represent the totality of the personality.

Hearing the stories and sagas of heroes and heroines of a by-gone era, we suddenly recognize and discover archetypal — behavior patterns that resemble our life situations that seem familiar. Myths reveal the archetypal nature of man — repeating patterns outside time, place or history, describing fundamental truths of nature and human life.

As Jungian psychologist I have tried to dissect the dominant cultural narratives that stand out in our mythological stories and analyze whether they are functional and relevant to us today and how these narratives affect society and culture at large. Being caught in an archetype is somewhat like being condemned to live out an irreversible situation of one's own making that one cannot imagine being other than it is. One has no idea that one is acting out a certain character. Jung used myths to amplify the themes that repeat themselves. He showed that increasing awareness of such forces that grip us eventually can free individuals from their present state of compulsion or blindness, demonstrating ways of breaking with an archetype to be able to transcend a pattern.

Perhaps heroism in today's world would be different if the 'hero' in any myth would be a 'heroine'. However if the feminine function is repressed or effectively 'exiled' in our society the male function too, is affected and ultimately society at large bears the consequences. Are we able to question, such behavior or do we blindly passed down such family heirlooms from one generation to another, which may not necessarily bestow order to the present day and age?