XPost: alt.psychology.jung, alt.psychology, alt.psychology.psychoanalysis   
   XPost: sci.psychology.theory   
   From: mlwi@swipnet.se   
      
   "The matricide"   
      
   Seth, the dark deity of the Egyptian pantheon, committed patricide. He   
   murdered Osiris and took over his kingdom. This follows the Oedipal mode   
   of procedure. Osiris was dismembered by Seth who scattered the body   
   parts all over Egypt. This is a classical symbol. The dismemberment of   
   the deity means that he dies and enters the conscious realm. It stands   
   for a level of culture where people have integrated the cunning of the   
   agricultural deity, Osiris. They have learnt to till the land, have   
   acquired technological know-how, and dutifully abide by the law. The   
   integration of the fatherly deity, besides denoting a phase of personal   
   development, relates to a legislative society where people dutifully   
   follow the Law (of Maat), reminiscent of the Old Testamental frame of   
   mind. This is the phallocentric, paternalistic society, which is   
   furtively matriarchal, because Isis is still live and well. However, she   
   keeps herself in hiding, together with her child Harpokrates, who is the   
   child Horus. Accordingly, women in phallocentric society generally   
   remain in the background, often hidden under a cloak. Isis had recovered   
   the bodily remains of Osiris, and enlivened him temporarily in order to   
   become impregnated with his seed. This seems to be a typical pattern   
   after the death of a god. It is partially vitalized by another deity,   
   i.e. it lends energy from another archetype in order to resume its   
   existence, although it will now remain in the background. Thus she begot   
   Harpokrates who was a feeble child. He abided for a long time hidden in   
   the thicket of the Nile delta (i.e., the unconscious), before he was   
   ready to make his appearance as a contender for the throne.   
      
   Whereas Seth is a patricide, Horus is a matricide. When the Mother   
   goddess is mutilated it implies that the phallocentric deity Seth is   
   dethroned, and the patriarchal era begins. The motherly wisdom is   
   integrated with consciousness. From now on the law abides in the heart,   
   and the guiding rule is to always pave the way for individual   
   consciousness, to allow the feeble child deity to grow to maturity,   
   protecting him from danger. This is a motherly characteristic, to   
   discern the faint voice in the unconscious and allow it to mature. It is   
   characteristic of individuation, which is halted in phallocentric   
   society where people blindly follow rules and refrain from choosing a   
   personal path in life. In keeping with the archetypal revivification   
   procedure, whatever it means, Isis is revived by Thoth and fitted with a   
   cow's head. It means that she will continue to have influence from the   
   unconscious, but won't be a dominant force, anymore. Oedipal patricidal   
   persons are replete in today's society, to the dismay of the many   
   individuated individuals. To a degree, it seems a reversion has occurred   
   in that there are also many people who are under the influence of the   
   matriarchal archetype of Osiris and Isis. But Western culture can only   
   be maintained by the matricidal personality, the man who rejects the   
   goods of life. It is necessary to kill the illusion of society as a good   
   mother. The welfare society, the orderly machinelike state, and the   
   caliphate, etc., have today attained proportions of a Mother goddess.   
   Horus severed the head of the Mother goddess and went into reclusion.   
   The individuant ought to follow the example of Christian recluses in   
   history, in some way or another.   
      
   Psychoanalysis centers upon the motif of patricide and the Oedipal   
   complications. It seems the problems associated with the motif of   
   matricide is being overlooked, despite the fact that the heroic motif is   
   ubiquitous in history and in modern myth. The lone cowboy who rides into   
   the desert sunset is essentially an heroic recluse. He sleeps on the   
   ground and eats a can of beans. This kind of hero, who is a rejectee,   
   and who is poor and lonely, and goes through great sufferings, but is   
   victorious in the end, is part and parcel of a Christian consciousness.   
   It is enormously popular, because he is a Christ figure and a matricide.   
   I use the term matricide as a *symbol*. Jesus is a matricide in the   
   sense that he declares his independence of Mother Earth. He said "In the   
   world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the   
   world" (John, 16). When being tempted by the devil in the desert, he   
   rejected all the riches and the power that would befall him if he   
   accepted a worldly kingship. He also rejected his mother Mary and said   
   "My true brother and sister and mother are those people that do the   
   things God wants." (Mark 3). Jesus renounced the world and saw poverty   
   as ideal. He would not depend on anything worldly and voluntarily   
   confronts torture and death. He has "overcome the world" and no worldly   
   allure can ensnare him. Jesus is very radical. He says that one should   
   have no worldly possessions. "Consider the birds", he says. They do not   
   store food in barns, for the heavenly Father provides for them (Matthew   
   6).   
      
   In psychoanalysis, the term patricide is not interpreted in concrete   
   terms, either. That would imply a regress to the archaic psychology of   
   the "Urhorde". It is not necessary to actually kill your father to   
   overcome the father complex and become a father yourself. The father is   
   a complex, and not the real father. The integration of the fatherly   
   principle (as the the Oedipal blood-sacrifice) means that the individual   
   experiences that he is in control. He will always endeavour to take   
   charge of the situation. He is himself the father who makes the rules.   
   That's why phallic-narcissistic people are "control freaks". They see   
   themselves as "rulers". They are like little kings, if not deities.   
   That's why the phallic notion is so apt. They are akin to little erect   
   phalli that are seated upon a pillar. That's why they are always trying   
   to predict what's going to happen so that they can take relevant   
   measures and remain in control. They are not prepared to meet reality as   
   it presents itself, but want to remain in charge of the situation,   
   because they see themselves as controllers of the universal situation.   
      
   In her article, "Towards a structural theory of matricide:   
   psychoanalysis, the Oresteia and the maternal prohibition", Amber Jacobs   
   says that "[m]atricide, unlike patricide, has been untheorized in   
   psychoanalysis. If patricide in the Oedipal myth has been interpreted as   
   the Name-of-the-Father, allowing for filiation, symbolic loss and   
   genealogy, matricide in the Oresteian myth has not been translated into   
   such clear conceptual terms. This means that the mother is not theorized   
   within the terms of the underlying cultural laws that determine our   
   socio-symbolic organization." ('Women: A Cultural Review', Volume 15,   
   Issue 1, 2004). However, she takes the view that the matricidal symbol   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)