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ARCHIVE.
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Blog
entries beginning with #101 are not essays but minimally-edited notes and
reviews from the files I've collected over the last few decades. I no longer
have the time and energy needed to sort out and put together into decent
essay-form the many varied ideas in these files, but I would like to share them
with all who are interested.
If
you have questions and think I might help, you're welcome to send me a
note: sam@macspeno.com
Post
#132 is a collection of extensive reflections by a small men's group over
several years on the needed alternative to patriarchal manhood.
===
SUMMARY.
From a Paleolithic perspective, males are called to be hunters, and hunters are
called to be shamans. Providing the energy for both functions (tasks/roles) is
the archetypal imagery of the trickster, which both empowers a man's bodily
relatedness to all things, so that he lives his life “on behalf of all and for
all,” and empowers his conscious awareness, especially the intuitive function,
by which he has access to the life-giving energies of the cosmos.
Several
books have been especially helpful. One is the British writer Nikolai Tolstoy's
study of Merlin, The Quest for Merlin (Little Brown & Co, 1988).
Another
is Patrick Arnold's Wildmen, Warriors, and Kings: Masculine Spirituality and
the Bible
(Crossroad, 1992).
A third
is Beyond the Hero: Classic Stories of Men in Search of Soul, by Allan B. Chinen, MD (Xlibris
Corporation, 1993).
===
BACKGROUND.
From the data of anthropology, archeology, prehistory and paleontology we now
have available a coherent model of manhood which can serve as an alternative to
that of patriarchy's warrior-hero model.
It has
its origins in the nomadic hunting cultures of Paleolithic times, the original
form of human society, that to which our body, mind and spirit has been
genetically adapted over hundreds of thousands of years.
Its
recovery-- after ten thousand years of an apparently necessary differentiation
of the masculine and feminine in humanity-- offers a balanced, integrated and
thoroughly practical masculine way of life for a new, post-patriarchal age.
---
Prior to
the invention of agriculture, every man was a hunter. And every hunter, if he
is to succeed, has to be both a trickster and a shaman. As a trickster, he uses
disguises and ruses, such as camouflage and dressing in the skins of the hunted
animals.
As a
shaman he makes use of the world’s spirit powers to insure the success of the
hunt. Hunting (and more generally, providing for the survival of his people) is
a creative instinct which lies are the core of every man’s psyche.
It was the
common experience of all men everywhere for many hundreds of thousands of
years: from the dawn of human history until the Neolithic age, ten thousand
years ago.
---
When
settled agricultural communities came into existence the male psyche lost its
core self-understanding. Hunting became far less necessary for survival and
male communion with nature was broken.
That was
the event by which men became “wounded in the stones” and lost their communion
with the Sacred. The perspective is recorded as a prohibition in the Hebrew
Bible:
“Whatsoever
man hath his stones broken may not approach the altar.” (Deuteronomy XXII, King
James Version)
He that
is wounded in the stones shall not enter into the Lord’s congregation.
(Leviticus XXI)
---
Only
after the Neolithic period, which lasted about five thousand years, did the
warrior-hero model of patriarchal culture and hierarchical civilization come
into being in an attempted and unsuccessful compensation for this being
"wounded in the stones."
Global
humanity is now moving "beyond the hero"-- beyond the wounded stage
of the patriarchal masculine-- to a recovery of male communion with the cosmos
and the sacred.
===
ALLEN
CHINEN'S STORIES. Chinen's book is definitive. He is a Jungian MD well-known
for his sharing of folktales from around the world which help us to understand
personal growth and development.
Of the
thousands of known folktales, only a small percent deal with men at midlife; in
Beyond the Hero
Chinen offers ten of these Classic Stories of Men in Search of Soul. All of them indicate the ultimate
identity of the male images of hunter, shaman and trickster.
Chinen
has a clear sense of patriarchal civilization as coming after the Neolithic
age, as well as of the Neolithic age itself being the occasion for the loss of
that deep masculine/phallos energy which contemporary males, especially those
are midlife, need to recover. It's by far the best historical perpective yet on
the whole business!
---
In his
own words, he offers “an integrated, masculine way of life: a coherent model of
manhood,” one which allows us to move beyond the patriarchal model.
The
essence of it is that the male psyche was shaped along with the male body
during the many thousands of years of the Paleolithic period: 98% of human
history.
The
body and mind of any human male is essentially that of a hunter: in the depths
of his psyche there is a creative instinct for survival. Not just for personal
survival, but for that of his extended family-- his people, his community-- as
well.
In
essence a male is a provider; his genes make him generative and life-giving. We
need a good term here; it’s an indication of our present cultural situation
that we still have no adequate term or concept for non-hierarchical maleness.
["Sacred manhood" seems to be the best, so far.]
In this
integrated model of manhood a male knows himself called to be what he is and to
do what he does “so that the people might live.” He know that he is most
himself, most whole, most real when he lives and acts “on behalf of all and for
all.” The universe needs him; he exists “for the life of the world.”
---
Just as
all males are called, at least to a some extent, to be hunters, so all hunters,
at least to some extent, are called to be shamans.
From
the Paleolithic perspective, the shaman’s primary task is to insure the success
of the hunt. Black Elk says to one who is a pipe-bearer, “When the others go
hunting, go with them, but sit on a hill near by, smoking/praying...” for a
good outcome to the hunt.
The
relationship between hunter and shaman is not at all like that of hero-warrior
and patriarch.
The old
patriarch must move out to make room for a younger, and only one hero can
become a patriarch. Hero and patriarch roles are mutually exclusive. The
warrior-hero is essentially one who eliminates all others who stand in his way
on his way to the top: his self-enhancement happens via putting down others,
primarily by attacking their manhood, physically or psychologically.
But
with the hunter and shaman, the two roles are complementary. Hunters are
providers, and the shaman might be called "a provider for the
providers." His primal task is to insure that the male hunter can fulfill
his life-giving provider vocation. The shaman does this via his relationship
with the powers of the cosmos.
---
Underlying
the hunter-providers’ role is their talent and skill at using tricks,
disguises, and sneak attacks against big game animals in order to survive.
Underlying the shamans’ role is their talent and skill at entering into
communion with the life-giving powers of the cosmos, powers which take the form
of animal spirits-- especially that of the Owners of the Animals.
The
shaman’s communion with them is readily understood (by both the shamans and
others) as identification: they are perceived as having the ability to become
wolf, deer, bear, jaguar, etc.
This
ability is no less a function of the trickster. We need to keep in mind that
the trickster is as much a creative culture-bringer as he is the more familiar
gross characterization. Like both Merlin and the “ithyphallic black manitou with glowing horns” known in the
Great Lakes area as "Morning Star," the trickster is body and mind
together, both phallic and radiant-browed simultaneously.
The
trickster archetype is that of the primal male human: phallus and consciousness
not divided by the forces of differentiation which brought about both the
Neolithic age and hierarchical civilization which followed.
But the
trickster archetypal is also primal in the sense that it offers us an image of
the re-integrated male, one who has moved beyond the hero to the
post-patriarchal stage of manhood. The trickster stands at both the beginning
and the end of the male individuation process-- and of humanity's cultural
history.
===
CONFIRMATION.
In Wildmen, Warriors, and Kings: Masculine Spirituality and the Bible, scripture scholar Patrick Arnold
says similar things, particularly in his section on “Moses the Magician.”
1) The
trickster survives by his wits, outsmarting the oppressive tyrant, as the
oppressed and down-trodden always have to do.
2) The
trickster uses his inner/psychic faculties, especially intuition, which remain
unknown to the majority of males of our culture.
3) The
trickster is in touch with the life-giving powers of the universe, its “deep
magic.”
===
THE
NEXT STEP. We need a good way to say that a male human being, in the depths of
his somatic/psychic reality, exists to provide for and nurture the life of the
world-- and that this is the very content of the mysterium tremendum et
fascinans which
is sacred phallos.
We also
need a deeper and fuller understanding of the trickster archetype than is
currently available. The study by the British writer Nikolai Tolstoy, The
Quest for Merlin,
remains the best I know.
===
DETAILS.
The hunter is not a warrior. The distinction is critically important; and we
need to be conversant with its specifics if we are to participate actively and
intelligently in the current recovery of sacred manhood.
Our very
understanding of the distinction between hunter and warrior is in fact a part
of-- indeed, a major contribution to-- the cosmic healing process.
-
1)
Hunters kill animals, not people. Hunters tend to be pacifists and avoid human
bloodshed. They have no farms, crops, domesticated animals or property which
they must fight to defend.
-
2) Hunter
societies are characterized by cooperation-- the sharing of food, water and
information-- which provides a safety net for survival. In contrast,
competition is characteristic of warriors and heroes.
-
3) The
hunter is fierce yet peaceful. Hunters are fierce with the hunted game, but
peaceful with people. While patriarchal heroes divide males into “real men” who
will fight each other and “wimps” who avoid battle, hunters use ingenious
techniques to maintain peace.
Hunters
use ritual battles to settle disputes by fights on a personal level, in which
no one is intended to be seriously injured. Warrior-heroes promote fighting
which typically escalates into personal death duels, family feuds and clan
vendettas.
Hunting
cultures dampen disputes, relying on mediation and negotiation. Warrior
cultures glorify arguments and delight in resorting to combat and conquest.
Among
hunters disagreements may be settled by “fission,” where a disputant simply
leaves one group to join another. In patriarchal cultures disagreeing
individuals are forced to obey and to accept group decisions. Farmers are tied
to the land and simply can’t move away, so that coercion by authority becomes
the norm.
Hunters tolerate
pluralism: They accept many different views and practices, while warrior-heroes
insists on one authority and one viewpoint only. (Theirs!)
Hunters
use trance techniques for ASCs to resolve conflicts: dance, chanting, sweat
lodge, etc. Warriors use trance to provoke murderous frenzy.
-
4)
Hunters honor their quarry: they kill with reverence and gratitude, asking
permission and forgiveness beforehand, offering thanksgiving afterward,
treating the remains with respect. They see game animals as equals, if not
wiser then themselves, while hero-warriors demean their enemies and treat them
as inferiors, thus dehumanizing them and removing any limitations on physical
aggression and brutality, allowing warriors to gloat over, torture, mutilate
their victims.
-
5)
Hunters have a wholistic view. They know that personal gain is always at a cost
to others, that the privileges of one group rest on the disadvantages of
others. For hero-warriors, in contrast, personal triumph and glory are
everything. Seeing only half the equation, their enemy’s defeat, humiliation
and death can be ignored, rationalized away.
-
6) The
hunter respects women while affirming masculine fierceness. Two examples of
hunter respect for the feminine:
The
hunter-trickster respects the feminine by treating women as his equals. The
warrior-hero-king-patriarch denigrates the feminine and dominates women.
Hunters
trace their kinship through both parents, valuing both sides equally.
Warrior-heroes trace kinship only through the father’s line.
-
7) Among
nomadic hunters, equality holds between men.
Among
hunters, there is no single “chief” who runs everything. Leadership depends on
who has the best skills for the tasks at hand, with many leaders in different
domains. Hero-patriarchs create hierarchies ruled by a single man.
Among
hunters, male equality is customarily enforced via trickster humor. Differences
in power and prestige are downplayed and leveled out, with the one being teased
being expected to go along with the joke. Among warriors and heroes,
authorities are not made fun of; unequal status is exaggerated rather than
counteracted.
Among
hunters, power is available to many. In patriarchal hierarchies, many men
compete for the same few positions, with most being left out, feeling
frustrated and dissatisfied.
Nomadic
hunter-tricksters-nomads do not hoard possessions, property or territory, so
that marked differences in accumulated wealth do not develop. A give-away
perspective and sense of generosity keeps goods circulating and being recycled.
Heroic-patriarchal cultures focus on accumulation. (Contemporary culture is
defined by its pathological addiction to consumerism!)
===
FINAL
QUESTIONS. Two questions important to ask.
Why do
men feel the need for superiority over women? And why do men feel the need for
superiority over other men?
I think
the answers to the two questions are slightly different.
The need
for superiority over women is based on fear of the feminine-- due to lack of
experience of a co-equal cosmic male principle.
But the
need for superiority over other men is due to the ego’s lack of connectedness
with body/matter/earth-- i.e., lack of experience of being in relationship with
all things.
One is a
fear of the unconscious [and the Intuition-Imagery function], while the other
is a fear of other consciousnesses (and of the Feeling function].
===
[2012
UPDATE.] Two additional books which wonderfully complement the insights and
ideas presented here need to be mentioned. The men's group of 25 years ago
found them invaluable.
One is
Eugene Monick's Phallos: Sacred Image of the Masculine (Studies in Jungian Psychology By
Jungian Analysts. Inner City Books, 1987).
The other
is Joseph Jastrab's Sacred Manhood, Sacred Earth: A Vision Quest into the
Wilderness of a Man's Heart (Harpercollins, 1994).
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