Ecstasy: Understanding the Psychology of Joy
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About this ebook
The renowned Jungian psychologist and author of Transformation and Owning Your Own Shadow brings the hidden gift of ecstasy back into our lives.
Robert A. Johnson has taken tens of thousands of readers on spiritual and psychological journeys towards inner transformation. In Ecstasy, he reconnects with the powerful and life-changing ecstatic element that lies dormant—but long-repressed—within us.
Ecstasy was once considered a divine gift, Johnson tells us, one that could lift mortals out of ordinary reality and into higher world. But because Western culture has systematically repressed this ecstatic human impulse, we are unable to truly experience its transformative power.
Johnson penetrates the surface of modern life to reveal the ancient dynamics of our humanity, pointing out practical means for achieving a healthy expression of our true inner selves. Through dreams, rituals, and celebrations, he shows us how to return to these original life-giving principles and restore inner harmony.
Robert A. Johnson
Robert A. Johnson, a noted lecturer and Jungian analyst, is also the author of He, She, We, Inner Work, Ecstasy, Transformation, and Owning Your Own Shadow.
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Ecstasy - Robert A. Johnson
PART I
ECSTASY: UNDERSTANDING THE PSYCHOLOGY OF JOY
Ecstasy: Understanding the Psychology of Joy
Joy, divine spark of the Gods,
daughter of Elysium,
we enter your sanctuary,
drunk with fire.
Your magic reunites
what custom has sternly parted.
All men become brothers
where your gentle wings rest.
SCHILLER’S ODE TO JOY
Ecstasy—the Dionysian experience—may be intellectually unfamiliar. But in ecstatic expression we will recognize a long-forgotten part of ourselves that makes us truly alive and connects us with every living thing. In Greek myth that part of ourselves is represented by Dionysus.
As you read the myth of Dionysus in the next chapter, remember that it is a picture of the forces, behaviors, and instincts that shape our inner world. Dionysus is a complex figure who symbolizes the irrational world of our senses as it interacts with the rational world of rules and limitations.
Half-mortal, half-god, Dionysus had more epiphanies—more manifestations—than any other god. He could change his shape from lion to stag to goat to panther to man to god. Dynamic, powerful, ever changing, all these manifestations are valid representations of the archetype. In the myth you will meet many aspects of Dionysus: Dionysus the personification of divine ecstasy, who can bring transcendent joy or madness; Dionysus the goat—the capricious, unpredictable thrill of joy that makes us jump up and click our heels; Dionysus the personification of wine and its ability to bring either spiritual transcendence or physical addiction.
If this does not seem to you like the ordinary
Greek god, you are not far off. The dynamic, volatile Dionysus was unique among the Olympians:
The characteristic of an Olympian god (patriarchal) in contrast to a mystery god (matriarchal) is that the Olympian form is rigidly fixed, and always human. He has lost his animal forms and his magical ability to transmute from one energy shape to anther. … The Olympian is idealized, rational, aloof, deathless—and so ultimately he seems too geometric to move us. … The Olympian does not evolve, he apotheosizes—to the blare of trumpets. This means he is not born from woman, or earth, or matter, but from his own absolute will. He represents a static perfection, in human form, incapable of transformation or ecstatic change; as a god, he is an intellectual concept. And so the energy exchange between all creatures and their magical-evolutionary power connection is broken: God becomes mere idea, and his world mere mechanism.
With all this in mind, let us read the myth of Dionysus. When you hear the story of his birth, you will wonder how he ever survived at all.
1. The Myth of Dionysus
I am Dionysus, the son of Zeus,
come back to Thebes, this land where I was born.
My mother was Cadmus’ daughter, Semele by name,
midwived by fire, delivered by lightning’s
blast.
And here I stand, a god incognito,
disguised as a man …
EURIPIDES, THE BACCHAE
No other Greek god came into the world in quite the same way as Dionysus. His father was Zeus, whose name means shower of light.
Lord of the sky, god of the thunderbolt, Zeus was the most powerful of all the gods of Olympus. He loved women, mortal and immortal, and enjoyed many love affairs. His wife, the goddess Hera, was naturally angry and jealous. She was forever seeking revenge for Zeus’s many love affairs—and a goddess scorned has fury indeed!
Born of Fire*
One day Zeus was traveling on earth. He wore a disguise, because undisguised no mortal could look at him and live. He came to Thebes, an ancient city of Greece, where he fell hopelessly in love with Semele, the daughter of King Cadmus. Their passion was great, and before long she became pregnant.
Semele wanted nothing more than to look into the true eyes of her lover. She was urged on mercilessly by her nurse—who happened to be the treacherous Hera in disguise. Finally, Semele could stand it no longer. She asked Zeus to grant her a boon. Zeus was in a good mood, and he loved the young woman. Foolishly, he swore an unbreakable oath on the River Styx that she could have whatever she asked.
When the innocent Semele asked to see the god of the thunderbolt in his true splendor, Zeus was horrified. He knew that the sight of his godhead would mean her certain death.
No!
he cried in anguish. Anything but that. You do not know what you are asking for.
But she persisted and Zeus sadly kept his word. As he shed his disguise and revealed his fiery radiance, the unfortunate Semele was almost completely incinerated. Only her womb, around which she had wrapped some ivy, escaped the flame. (Ivy is said to be the only thing on earth that is impervious to the splendor of