Notes and Quotes Part 2

More of the same...there's a lot...

• Princess A is the anima of the hero. She rides-that is, possesses the three legged horse, which is the shadow, the inferior function-triad of her later spouse. To put it more simply; she has taken possession of the inferior half of the hero's personality. She has caught him on his weak side, as so often happens in ordinary life, for where one is weak on needs support and completion. In fact, a woman's place is on the weak side of the man. This is how we would have to formulate the situation if we regard the hero and Princess A as ordinary people. But since it is a fairy story, played out mainly in the world of magic, we are probably more correct in interpreting Princess A as the hero's anima. pg. 245 Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (ACU)

First off, we see that in our myth this principle can work both ways, whether we regard Mulder as the hero and Scully as his anima, or if we view Scully as the hero and Mulder as her animus. Both work to support and complete the other's weaknesses. Basically, the fairy tale referred to above can be seen as an example of how the hero's anima/animus can be an aid in the journey to the quest goal, but supplementing those weaknesses. Further I will note, the image the the fairy tale includes of the anima's association with the shadow calls to mind Scully's interactions with Mulder's shadow (the syndicate/Smoking Man). This seems to be particularly to be relevant to the episode En Ami, where we find that Scully has a great deal of impact on the Smoking Man and his view of Mulder and in her choosing to go along with the shadow in the hope of finding an important piece of "the truth".

• ...or she meets him only in the dark and may never look at him. The implication is that, by blindly trusting and loving him, she will be able to redeem her bridegroom. pg. 206 MHS

Here is an example of a motif that we regularly encounter in our myth. Scully meets Mulder in the dark both literally in clandestine meetings when they have been separated, and metaphorically in the sense that she journeys with him to face dark forces. And certainly it is through mutual trust and love between the two that Mulder is redeemed as a more functional individual and that same trust and love make him fit to continue in his quest.

• The young swineherd who climbs from the animal level up to the top of the giant world tree and there, in the upper world of light, discovers his captive anima, the high born princess, this symbolizes the ascent of consciousness, rising from almost bestial regions to a lofty perch with a broad outlook, which is a singularly appropriate image for the enlargement of the conscious horizon. Once the masculine consciousness has attained this height, it comes face to face with its feminine counterpart, the anima. pg. 239 ACU

This fable parallels our story in that we see two strong anima personifications first Samantha and later Scully make the "Ascension" (we even have that as an episode tag name) to the heavens when they are abducted. We can then view Mulder's abduction in 'Requiem' as a moment of expanded consciousness in which he finds a new kinship with his anima.

• ...the relationship to the earth and to matter is one of the inalienable qualities of the mother archetype. So that when a figure that is conditioned by this archetype is represented as having been taken up into heaven, the realm of the spirit, this indicates a wnion of earth and heaven, or of mother and spirit. pg. 108 ACU

This further shows the significance of Mulder's abduction experience. Having been conditioned strongly by the Mother archetype he is then taken up by the aliens who we will later explore as the symbol of spirit.

• ...as to correct some sort of original male-female opposition Man's Knowledge (Logos) then encounters Woman's Relatedness (Eros) and their union is represented as that symbolic ritual of a sacred marriage which has been at the heart of initiation since its origins in the mystery religions of antiquity. pg 126 MHS

Once again we see here how our myth reverses many of the traditional qualities associated with the sexes, yet in the end, recreates the same dynamic interaction between those qualities to attain the same 'sacred marriage' to which Jung refers. In this case, Scully is Knowledge (Logos) and Mulder is relatedness (intuition) or (Eros).

• The richly varied allegories of the Mother of God have nevertheless retained some connection with her pagan prefigurations in Isis (Io) and Semele...Teh ascension of Semele, the originally mortal mother of Dionysis, likewise anticipates the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. pg. 107 ACU

In our myth we find this symbolism of 'ascension' not in the actual mother of the hero, but in his projection of the 'good mother' onto Samantha and later in the anima figure of Scully, in the latter case foreshadowing her progression to the Marian stage of anima development. Both of these characters can also be symbolically associated with the purity and virtue of the Blessed Mother in that Samantha is literally a virgin child and that Scully's abduction or 'ascension' results in her infertility and the eventual sexless creation of Emily. There is also an element of immortality attached to both characters. Samatha's immortality comes in existing in an afterlife of starchildren/walkins. Scully is associated with the mysterious prediction of the character of Clyde Bruckman, the psychic who can foresee the circumstances of every person's death, who tells her that she "doesn't die".

• Your mass consists of your contemplation of these psychic images that your religious anima reveals to you. pg. 194 MHS

We see in the progression and evolution of Mulder's 'belief' that his interaction with the more traditionally religious Scully brings him to a point where his belief is something akin to hers. ('The Truth' "then we believe the same thing"). His supernatural/paranormal belief system, we find in the end, to be not so different from Scully's more traditional Catholic belief system. This ties back to the key thesis point that belief in the UFOs and the paranormal serves a religious function.

• ...documented in my book Symbols of Transformation..."the loving and terrible mother"...the Virgin Mary, who is not only the Lord's mother, but also according to the medieval allegories, his cross...anima...mingled with the mother image. pg. 82 ACU

We see this paradox actively plague our hero in the immense guilt he carries regarding his inability to save/locate Samantha, his inability to fully understand and forgive his mother's choices, and in the role he has played in the tragic events experienced by Scully. These women are all in this way both a blessing and a cross for Mulder.

Notes and Quotes

So here we go again: This is just some further exploration of some of what we've talked about in the first few entries. Some is just support references, others deal with more specific examples of how archetypes appear throughout our myth (The X files); and still others elaborate on some of we've touched on.

• Circle and square: (as seen in the second picture above) In Matisse's 'Still Life with Vase of Nasturtiums'...The two figures that from the beginning of time have formed a whole are in this painting torn apart or incoherently related. Yet both are there and touching each other. pg. 279 Man and His Symbols (MHS)
  

I include this image and excerpt in order to illustrate just what Jung meant when he spoke of a spiritual split in the concept of the unified 'self' showing up in the art of modern man. Here we see the circle and square, which in traditional religious art are often overlaid symmetrically as a symbol of the 'self' or complete spiritual being (as illustrated in the first image above in the form of a Tibetan Mandala) , have been torn out of balance in modern art. Just as Christianity took off balance the symbol of the equilateral cross, so we see this as a further expression of the imbalance in modern man's spiritual state.

• ...as a rule the feminine unconscious of a man is projected upon a feminine partner, and the masculine unconscious of a woman is projected onto a man. pg. 177 Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (ACU)

The reinforces the basic definition of the anima and animus. At some point this work will include an examination of this myth from a perspective in which Scully can is viewed as the hero and Mulder as her animus. The elements of which, by their being present in this story, are a part of what makes this myth so particularly suited to this time which has seen such a rapid change in traditional sex roles in our culture.

• We encounter the anima historically above all in the divine syzygies, the male-female pairs of deities. These reach down, on the one side, into the obscurities of primitive mythology, and up, on the other, into the philosophical speculations of Gnosticism and of classical Chinese philosophy, when the comsogenic pair of concepts are designated yang (male) and yin (female). pg. 59 ACU

Here we see specific examples of the fine balance of the male and female components of spirituality that the Judeo Christian tradition, according to Jung, threw out of balance. Yin and Yang and the Gnostic Gospels in which, as has been the topic of much discussion in the media and popular culture recently, Mary Magdalene is called the wife of Christ.

• ...in every masculine mother complex, side by side with the mother archetype, a significant role is played by the man's sexual counterpart the anima. pg. 85 ACU

This is demonstrated in our myth when we see Mulder's mother and anima both become unbalanced or dysfunctional through the projection of the good/pure aspects of both symbols onto the image of his missing sister. This casts in actual mother into the role of villainess and becomes the root cause of his attraction to women who embody a dark sexuality accompanied with an apparent lack of virtue.

• In an unbalanced anima/mother identification effects on the son... Don Juanism, in Don Juanism he unconsciously seeks his mother in every woman he meets. pg. 85 ACU

In our hero's particular misalignment of the feminine symbols (see previous quote) we see that this effect plays out in his early romantic attachments in his choosing relationships which reflect only the negative aspects of the feminine persona that he associates with his mother, the more positive female traits being misdirected onto the absent sister. Thereby dooming him into a constant cycle of relationships which repeat the pattern of abandonment and disillusionment that began with his view of his mother from the time of his sister's abduction.

• Men may be drive to amuse their fantasies by looking at films and striptease shows, or by day-dreaming over pornographic material. This is a crude primitive aspect of the anima, which becomes compulsive only when a man does not sufficiently cultivate his feeling relationships-when his feeling attitude toward life has remained infantile. pg. 191 MHS

This is a fairly simple parallel to our hero's moments of being reduced to a recluse in a basement office or dark apartment alone with those "videos that aren't his"....(for the uninitiated, Mulder's porn habit is a source of running humor in the series).

• within the soul of such a man repeat the theme: "I am nothing. Nothing makes any sense. With others it is different but for me...I enjoy nothing." pg. 187 MHS

Certainly our hero with his isolation, obsessions and overwhelming guilt complexes demonstrates this concept.

• If he feels his mother had a negative influence on him, his anima will often express itself in irritable, depressed moods, uncertainty, insecurity and touchiness. pg. 186 MHS

This can also be easily apply to the mercurial nature of our hero, especially in the early seasons when his negative anima/mother complexes have their strongest hold on his personality.

• I remember a case that was presented to me as the victim of a high grade mother and castration complex, which had still not been overcome in spite of psychoanalysis. Without any hint from me, the man made some drawings which showed the mother first as a superhuman being, and then as a figure of woe, with bloody mutilations. I was especially struck by the fact that a castration had obviously been performed on the mother, for in front of her gory genitals lay the cut off male sexual organs. The drawings clearly represented a diminishing climax: first the mother was a divine hermaphrodite, who then through the son's disappointing experience of reality, was robbed of its androgynous, Platonic perfection and changed into the woeful figure of an ordinary old woman. pg. 67ACU

Certainly we can see a reflection of our hero's history in the case of this patient, in that Mulder's childish deified image of his mother was shattered by her inability to cope with his sister's abduction, was further when he realized that his mother had played a role in that event and was finally was completely obliterated by her death by suicide. By that point she is reduced to a tragic figure of womanhood, where his childish image of her would have been that of the glorious entity "mother".

• The anima is the personification of all feminine psychological tendencies in a man's psyche, such as vague feelings and moods, prophetic hunches, receptiveness to the irrational, capacity for personal love, feelings for nature; and-last but not least-his relation to the unconscious. pg. 186 MHS

This is a great example of how this myth adjusts the archetypes to best fit the particular time and society it serves. In this age, when gender roles have been realigned, we see our hero himself (Mulder) rather than his anima Scully) personifying these traditionally feminine traits.

Mulder's Inner Woman Part 3

So we left off with our hero approaching the point in his journey wherein he is ready to begin the integration of his anima bringing him to the fourth stage of anima development, that which Jung called Sophia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_(wisdom) This process will occur over time in a number of symbolic moments in the story.

The first sign that our hero is ready to begin the integration of this symbol comes, as we noted in the previous entry, when in the first feature film he acknowledges her as a component of his complete "self" (the line:"You make me a whole person.") After working, through the sixth season's story arc, to banish his old negative anima persona from his active psyche (his relationship with thru the death of Diana Fowley), and begin to bring his image of his current anima projection (Scully), down from the impossible heights of idealism that she attained in her Marian phase of development. We are reminded of the hero's acknowledgment of the importance of his anima to his quest and his relation to his "self", when in Amor Fati, he refers to Scully as his "touchstone". The stone is a frequent symbol of the archetype of the "self" in myths and dreams; from the Christian view Christ as "the rock",to the alchemist's "philosopher's stone", to the character of Locke's relation to the island on "Lost".

In order for integration to occur for our hero the next and most significant step in his journey is the final release of the grip that the earliest anima/mother relations have on his present psyche. This comes to pass in the episodes "Seit und Zeit" and "Closure", in which the hero is finally and literally abandoned by his mother's death in suicide and simultaneously comes to terms with the disappearance of his sister, who has served him at times as Divine Child, Anima and Mother. He releases Samantha to the "starlight", the place where the other major symbol of his unified self and object of his quest, the UFO resides.

This symbolic integration of his childhood feminine symbols, represented by their release, and in turn the release of their paralyzing hold on his psychic life, makes him ready to face his next important task of integration, that of his current adult anima.

Later in the storytelling, we are told of a false start to this process in the episode Per Manum, where we learn that it was around this time that the hero and his anima had attempted to conceive a child through in vitro fertilization. Though the desire for this symbolic joining is present, since the attempt failed, it would seem that in the myth there is still another obstacle to its completion.

As the story plays out, it becomes apparent that the anima needs to be further removed from her Marion image of perfection. We see that an "immaculate" conception or laborotory produced conception, would be a shortcut to integration, and therefor this attempt must fail.

Here the shadow intervenes yet again in a mysteriously beneficial way, that aids in the final step necessary to allow integration. In the episode En Ami, we see the anima (Scully) seduced by the shadow (Smoking Man), who acts as the devil in the desert, tempting her with visions of the miraculous (a cure for all disease). In her following of the hero's shadow, we see the "Eve" component return to balance the whole of her moral character, through what the hero views as an act of betrayal.

In this episode, the Smoking Man seems to embody the biblical snake in his offer of temptation to Scully, which can also connect back to the image of the Oroborus, or snake eating its own tail that she was tattooed with in the episode Never Again, in which she rebels and pulls away from the hero, fearful of losing herself in Mulder (and demonstrating her unreadiness as a symbol to be integrated by the hero at that time). This Never Again episode also sees her exploring her sexuality, which Mulder, at that point in the story (the height of her Marian incarnation), is hesitant to associate with her.

To put it another way, the first step in the symbolic integration process for these characters is to join in a physical/sexual union. In order for the integration to move smoothly Mulder must acknowledge Scully as a flawed as well as virtuous character, the complete acceptance of which is brought about by her misadventure with the Smoking Man. He must also acknowledge that she is a sensual and sexual being, which the echo of her earlier carnal misadventure through the Smoking Man's biblical snake like actions invokes.

Through her interactions with the Smoking Man in this episode, and through her own reflections as to her past romantic patterns in the episode All Things, she brings to Mulder's attention her flawed and sexual side, but also allows her to reach a point where she is certain that she is ready to enter into a more "integrated" relationship with the hero.

Once this level of integration is attained, the next major step in the hero's overall quest is the fullest manifestation in the series of the hero's death and rebirth which occurs with his abduction and eventual literal death and rebirth that takes place from the season 7 finale Requiem thru the season 8 episodes titled This Is Not Happening. Simultaneously with this major step in the hero's journey, we see the anima move yet another step further in full integration when we learn that she is pregnant with what we eventually determine to be his child.

His relationship with the anima at this point is highly functional. She works tirelessly to be his savior and upon his return they are able to communicate enough to come to terms with their new level of integration (having a child together). More over, in his absence she has served the important anima function of facilitating the hero's capacity for socialization, having placed trust in others, particularly the characters of John Doggett, Monica Reyes, and Walter Skinner. Skinner is significant because until this point in Scully's development as a highly functional anima figure, he was always regarded with a certain level of distrust. Upon Mulder's return, his faith in Scully allows him to place a degree of trust and socialization in these individuals as well. She has recruited allies in the quest for the hero.

The hero's period of exile in the last season after the birth of their child is significant in his anima integration, because upon his return he is faced with a difficult test of his emotional maturity. When he returns he finds that his anima has been forced to make the same decision that his mother did early in his life and sacrifice the "divine child" of their union, in this case giving him up for his own protection. We can see where this action on her part might hearken back mightily to the early traumatic event in the hero's life. His reaction to this turn of events demonstrates his growth in relation to understanding of his own feminine nature (the anima) as he is able to understand and forgive Scully's actions and her motivations.

In this final episode we also see her give up security and identity to join him in exile and continue to aid in his quest. The final scene shows the process of integration reach the spiritual level, when in a discussion of recent events and their ramifications on their belief systems she concludes that they now, "believe the same thing".


We can now assume that the hero can move forward with his anima (inner feminine) symolicaly integrated in his psyche and as a wise and active partner in his life's journey....don't fuck it up Carter!

If there's anything as a reader you feel that I've overlooked as far as the anima relationship, please leave comments. The beautiful thing about archetypes is their elastic nature and the possibilities that they inspire, so I'd love to get the input of anyone reading.

Next up I'm thinking we may explore the Divine Child more thoroughly.

Mulder's Inner Woman Part 2

So, where were we? Ah yes! We're looking at Scully's transition from the Helen to Mary stages of anima development.
The stage of Mary can be seen as an elevation of the feminine to a chaste ideal. There's is also an element of sacrifice in such a character, she who must bear the savior only to see him die on the cross, to use the Christian allusion. At this stage the anima becomes the epitome of virtue and righteousness.

How is this represented in the story arc of our myth?
After Mulder's first rebirth, we see a more spiritual side of Scully coming to light, as we discussed at the end of the previous entry. We also see her symbolically unsexed through the revelation that she's been rendered infertile as a result of her abduction. The image of motherhood comes to replace the more sexual aspects of the character. In the episode "Home" we hear the hero literally tell his anima that he's not viewed her as a mother up to this point. This seems a moment of revelation in his image of her.

But for our anima (Scully) to reach the pinnacle of this Marian ideal there will be obstacles. Jung warns us that one inherent danger in any anima complex, is that, " The anima can become a death demon by depressing the man to the point of suicide."-man and his symbols


We see this particular psychodrama enacted quite literally at this point in our myth. Our anima figure faces her literal mortality when we find out that she has an inoperable and inevitably fatal cancer. Our hero is now forced to look death in the face vicariously as his anima battles a deadly disease. In the end, the experience leads him to just the brink that Jung warns us of. In the connected mythology episodes between seasons 4 and 5 we see Scully rapidly approaching death and Mulder, unable to cope actively contemplating suicide.

Interestingly it is the shadow, or dark reflection of the hero's self, that saves them both at this point. He does not take his own life, rather he is forced to kill a representative of the shadow forces, whom he finds has been monitoring his activities, and thereby spurring him back into action in his pursuit of a cure for his anima. And it is the shadow figure of the Cigarette Smoking Man who in the end gives him that cure, leading him to the chip that needs to be replaced in her neck in order for the cancer to subside. (Redux I&II) The anima is revived and the shadow of death is removed by the shadow figure of the hero's psyche.

It is in the fifth seasons that we see hero's anima reshaping itself around the image of the Christian symbol of Mary. We see the anima experience a strange sort of immaculate conception when she discovers her daughter Emily, who was created in a laboratory by the individuals who orchestrated her abduction. And we see her live out the Christian Mary's sacrifice when she has to let go of her child in death.


Before we move into the next obstacle that our hero faces in his anima relations, we should note a pivotal stepping stone that is achieved at the point of the first X files feature film. This is the acknowledgment on the part of the hero that the anima is in fact a part of himself, "You make me a whole person." Here the hero has acknowledged that his positive anima has an intrinsic part to play in the completion of his quest. He cannot find his elusive "truth" without the aid and support of his feminine self.

The next challenge to the anima development of our hero occurs with the return of one of the "Eve" anima figures from his past, one Diana Fowley. Our hero is now faced with a juxtaposition of the two faces of his anima, one that embodies all that is earthly and one his spiritual ideal.
This situation evolves primarily over the course of the sixth season, as our hero is faced with a choice of whether to regress to what may seem at times a simpler anima relation with this old Eve figure, or to continue forward with the more challenging yet fulfilling relationship with the anima that has taken precedence in his adult life .

How can this decision be reached in a way that continues our hero's growth? We find that it comes in the gradual breaking down of the pedestal on which Scully, the Marian anima, has been placed. He needs to allow himself to let go of his guilt for her losses and view her as a multidimensional woman, who, while possessing great virtue, can also have human fallibilities, and who can have a sexual aspect to her persona. This then allows him to release the unhealthy anima relation in his past and move forward certain of his choice.

What are the events in which we see this happen? Certainly throughout the sixth season we see both Mulder and Scully slowly coming to acknowledge that there may be a romantic or sexual element to their partnership. (Evidenced in the film, and in such episodes as, Triangle, Dreamland I&II, The Rain King, How the Ghosts Stole Christmas,Arcadia,Milagro and the Unnatural). In this same time frame we see a jealous, perhaps overly protective streak emerge in Scully (toward Diana and in the episode Alpha in particular), along with a further exploration of her needs as a woman (Milagro), which serve to humanize her emotionally, and make her less of an infallible goddess in the eyes of the hero.

When we reach the end of this conflict in Amor Fati, with the death of the old negative anima Fowley, we see the character of Scully begin the journey to fourth stage of development, when the hero will achieve the integration of this aspect of his psyche, which as we will see, occurs in several steps in this myth.

The fourth stage is Sophia, take it away Wiki:
Sophia, named for the Greek word for wisdom. Complete integration has now occurred, which allows females to be seen and related to as particular individuals who possess both positive and negative qualities.

and it looks like we'll be continuing this in yet another post...

What will happen as Mulder manages to gradually integrate his anima?
Tune in next time....

Mulder's Inner Woman

So here we go gang, let's delve a little deeper and look at a specific story arc in symbolic terms. I want to examine the development of our hero in terms of one of the most important archetypes, that of the anima.

In psychological terms, a man's anima is the inner feminine aspect of his own psyche. Complexes that can affect the development of his anima begin with the first female figure he encounters, the symbol of the mother.

In our myth (X-files, for those who need reminding) we see our hero's (Mulder's) anima personified in a number of ways throughout his journey, the primary incarnation being that of Scully.

But before we explore the details of that particular relationship, we must examine the incarnations of the anima in our hero's early development. First, of course, there is his mother. This character is presented to us as caring, if slightly detached. From what we eventually learn of his early childhood, this was a comparatively normal relationship with a fairly common level of dysfunction.

However, his anima development is abruptly arrested in its normal development at the age of 12, with the defining event of his adolescence and early adulthood, the abduction of his sister Samantha. This causes a monumental shift in his relations to the mother; and here we can observe an almost Freudian split in the mother symbol, wherein his actual mother and his relationship to her become the foundation of the personality of the darker side of his anima. Consequently, the figure of the sister, who though her primary function in this myth is that of the divine child, at his point also takes on an anima/mother role as the hero projects onto her the characteristics of the "good mother" and thereby sculpts his anima's positive characteristics around this immature and idealized figure of loss and sacrifice.

As our hero moves through his adolescence and into early adulthood we see his outward personality and relationships greatly affected by this catalyst event and its symbolic ramifications. We observe almost textbook manifestations of his anima complex, in that we now see a man who is emotionally and intuitively driven, sometimes to the exclusion of logic, and who devalues women, both in his choice of his quest over his romantic attachments (the primary examples we're given being Phoebe Green in the episode "Fire" and Diana Fowley whose relationship with Mulder is alluded to in seasons 5-7), and in his habitual use of pornography and adult entertainment (something alluded to periodically throughout the earlier years of the series).

His early romantic relationships further reinforce the origin of his issues, in that we see him being drawn to women with dominant, and at times hypersexual personalities. These relationships, as we have noted, cannot survive in the shadow of his idealized relationship with the figure of his sister/mother/good anima (Samantha), inevitably dooming him to repeat the traumatic break down of the relationship with his mother when he finds himself continuing to re experience the betrayal and emotional abandonment caused by his mother's actions and responses at the time of and since his sister's abduction.

We should also note here, that his idealized relationship with his positive anima, up to this point embodied by his missing sister, is the cause of a great deal of guilt in our hero. He failed to save his sister on the night of her abduction and has since failed to be able to find her, and as a result he adds to this guilt every time that experience causes him to fail in his adult relationships with women and adds fuel to his tendency to fixate on cases of missing persons in his work as an investigator. This sense of guilt and unfulfilled obligation becomes a major obstacle as his relationship with his anima moves forward in its evolution.

So this brings us to the point at which we meet our hero. We find a man with an extensive anima complex, that has affected his personal and professional decisions. All of his anima interactions have amounted to, what we in the modern vernacular would call a "virgin/whore complex", in which there is one ideal of woman held pure and sacred, while all other women reflect the earliest stage of anima development, that which Jung called "Eve", in which the female is the object of desire, yet simultaneously viewed as evil and ultimately powerless.


At this point I will diverge briefly and touch on the symbol of the shadow as it has manifested itself in our myth. I'll insert a definition here for those who might need further clarification as to what the "shadow" is.

Wiki":In Jungian psychology, the shadow or "shadow aspect" is a part of the unconscious mind consisting of repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts."Everyone carries a shadow," Jung wrote, "and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is." ^[1] It may be (in part) one's link to more primitive animal instincts,^[2] which are superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind. According to Jung, the shadow is instinctive and irrational, but is not necessarily evil even when it might appear to be so.

As a consequence, the shadow is prone to project: turning a personal inferiority into a perceived moral deficiency in someone else. Jung writes that if these projections are unrecognized "The projection-making factor (the Shadow archetype) then has a free hand and can realize its object--if it has one--or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power." ^[3] These projections insulate and cripple individuals by forming an ever thicker fog of illusion between the ego and the real world.

Jung also believed that "in spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness—or perhaps because of this—the shadow is the seat of creativity.


In the case of our hero and his development, up to the point at which we first encounter him, the shadow is very well developed and is represented primarily by the "syndicate" or the "shadow government", specifically the figure of the Cigarette Smoking Man. There are other manifestations of the shadow that we will explore at another time, but those mentioned here are the ones that have bearing on the subject at hand.

Our hero up to this point has, as we have just discussed, projected his positive anima into the figure of his missing sister. But as the shadow can at times work mysteriously to our benefit, we see that at this point it introduces a new female (Scully) into our hero's world. The shadow's stated intention in bringing her into the equation is nefarious. She is instructed to discredit and debunk the hero's work, or in symbolic terms, his quest.

This figure, however, seems to have a will all her own, that we can see have a positive impact on our hero. She is, interestingly, the polar opposite personality of the anima complexed figure of our hero. She is rational, logical and scientific, a rigid contrast to the fluid and kinetic disposition of Mulder.

Upon meeting this new figure, our hero's initial response is to immediately project his negative anima's image onto her, knowing as he does, that she has come from the shadow, and is therefore a perceived threat. His interactions with this new anima figure, however, contradict this preconceived notion of her motives and allow him to form a new level of respect for a woman, and thus, he takes a step forward in his development when he takes her into his confidence and places professional trust in her. His overall anima now moves into the stage of "Helen", for which I will again I will defer to the Wiki definition for simplicity's sake.

"The second is Helen, in allusion to Helen of Troy in Greek mythology. In this phase, women are viewed as capable of worldly success and of being self-reliant, intelligent and insightful, even if not altogether virtuous. This second phase is meant to show a strong schism in external talents (cultivated business and conventional skills) with lacking internal qualities ( lacking faith or imagination)."

So thus far, we have established the dynamic that characterizes our hero's interaction with this new anima figure in the early portion of this myth. The next major event in this evolution comes when we see Scully abducted herself ("Duane Barry" through "One Breath") . Here we see that she is beginning to acquire some of the symbolic significance that was previously concentrated in the figure of his sister. The extent of this transference is later demonstrated more concretely, when Mulder chooses to save Scully over the woman who he believes to be his sister (End Game).

It is at this point in the overall story, that we see the hero's first major rebirth, (Season 2-3 cliffhanger series) and simultaneously, we see the anima begin a gradual progression into the third stage of development, which Jung named "Mary".

Wiki:The third phase is Mary, named for the Christian theological understanding of the Virgin Mary (Jesus' mother). At this level, females can now seem to possess virtue by the perceiving male (even if in an esoteric and dogmatic way), in so much as certain activities deemed consciously unvirtuous cannot be applied to her.

In this phase of our myth we learn more and more of the spiritual side of Scully, as demonstrated by her seemingly psychically based faith in Mulder's return in "The Blessing Way", and her relationship to religion and Catholicism.

I'm going to stop abruptly here and continue this in another post if that's not too confusing...this is just getting to be quite long and this new phase seems like a good point to press pause.

An Overview of the Thesis

I figured this might be helpful before I get into more specifics.

So what is the purpose behind all of this mumbo jumbo? Well here goes...

I'm hoping to illustrate the formation of a modern myth and demonstrate how the stories that we tell today continue to serve the same psychological and spiritual needs that myth and religion have historically address.

I've chose this particular example (The X-files) for two primary reasons. First because it is very rich in archetypal symbolism and is structured, much in the way that the myths of the major religions are, in a way that can be seen to demonstrate a person's psychological journey through the course of his or her life. This is a well defined myth in which we see major archetypal symbols in action, challenging the hero and being "integrated" and in some cases reborn to begin a cycle of further growth.

Secondly, I'm using this example because it demonstrates how the classic myth structure takes on the face of the age in which it is created. This story reflects and addresses various conflicts and concepts that are specific to the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st.

To elaborate, what is the great fear of contemporary western man? One could answer that we live in a culture of paranoia, born from the horrors or the earlier portion of the 20th century, solidified through the Cold War and now carrying over into this age where our focus is global terrorism. We fear a lack of control and yet fear being controlled. This contributes to the proliferation of countless conspiracy theories regarding any event that shakes our sense of well being and security. We crave the security of there being those in power who dictate events, but at the same time fear that that accumulation of power may fall into the wrong hands and cause us further damage as individuals and a society.

Next, what is the spiritual conflict of contemporary western man? It seems to be clearer with each passing day that this is the conflict between science and spirituality; That the myths of previous ages, for many, no longer hold up in this age of the scientific mindset, and that faith is harder to hold onto when our focus is on the material realm.

So how do the minds of individuals caught in this paradox respond? Late in his career, Jung took an interest in the reports of "flying saucers" that were appearing with increasing frequency around the world. He posited that they may be an external projection of the unified "self", something that he observed western man to be struggling to find within himself.

It would seem that he was on the right track. Setting aside debate as to the physical origins or scientific validity of the phenomena, belief in UFOs or "flying saucers" can be seen as a method to bridge the scientific/spiritual gap. The modern man who has embraced the tenants of science and therefore is finding faith in traditional religious constructs increasingly difficult, can find for himself a parallel to these constructs in new age tales of peaceful beings from other worlds who may have colonized our planet in prehistory and/or assisted in the early evolution of man. We see in these more advanced intelligent life forms, wise teachers who have an interest in our well being who can be equated with the notion of gods. They can lead us to wondrous heights of achievement, but through our human weaknesses we can find ourselves going astray from their desires and bring ourselves to the brink of heavenly vengeance. They are gods for the technological age.

Beliefs of this type then can allow a modern man to believe as he would in the gods, but believe that those forces could someday be understood by science. Science fiction, for many, becomes the conduit for spiritual comfort and security that religion was in the past.

So for these reasons, The X-files is the perfect choice to explore modern spirituality and myth-making. First, because the archetypes are well defined and the myth is structured in a way that is a strong reflection of the function of religion on the individual psyche; and second, because it demonstrates how an age and society can adapt the old myth format to serve it's specific needs as well as those that are more inherent to man's nature.

To further explain my general thesis, I'm hoping to shed some light on the specifics of why those tales, be they of antiquity or today, which contain the strong imagery of archetypes, seem to touch our collective unconscious and aid in our spiritual growth through vicarious participation, be it in the mass or religious ceremony, or in the reading or viewing of a piece of contemporary media. An alternate title to this piece could be "Why people get so obsessed with things like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter...using the X-files as the central example".

Another way of putting it would be that we are looking at the X-files to examine its function as a myth for the post modern belief system of Ufology and Alien Lore.

I hope this makes sense to the reader and can't wait for my next entry, which will likely deal with the plot arc of anima integration experienced by Mulder (because it will give a flavor of the way that we'll explore various symbols and is a big part of the overall integration process, and also because it's the one that's closest to being ready for consumption).

Till then my Jungians and Philes....

We'll start with the X

I'll note in this post that a basic understanding of the concepts of archetypal symbolism and the collective unconscious will most likely make these entries a little more accessible until I add a proper introduction that will explore these concepts along with the general thesis behind the concepts I'm exploring. In the meantime I will try to supply each entry with some basic definitions that may be helpful in reading. Credit to Wiki for the the definitions.

Archetype:In Jung's psychological framework archetypes are innate, universal prototypes for ideas and may be used to interpret observations. A group of memories and interpretations associated with an archetype is a complex, e.g. a mother complex associated with the mother archetype. Jung treated the archetypes as psychological organs, analogous to physical ones in that both are morphological constructs that arose through evolution.

Self:In Jungian theory, the Self is one of the archetypes. It signifies the coherent whole, unified consciousness and unconscious of a person. The Self, according to Jung, is realized as the product of individuation, which in Jungian view is the process of integrating one's personality. For Jung, the self is symbolized by the circle (especially when divided in four quadrants), the square, or the mandala.

Individuation:it is the name given to processes whereby the undifferentiated tends to become individual, or to those processes through which differentiated components tend toward becoming a more indivisible whole.

But to the draft:

This myth (The X files), which is one of the most well defined in the belief system of Ufology, has man layers of intricate and expanding symbolism which will be examined in detail throughout this work.

I would like to begin with the first symbol that we encounter, that which is in the title itself, the "X". This can be seen as both a symbol of the "self" or integrated psyche, and of the basic model of the modern spiritual belief system and how it functions.

Jung tells us that the spiritual "self" can be represented by the equilateral cross, a quaternity that he saw modern western man having drifted from in his religion and art. In this equation there are four arms representing four facets that make the whole. These can be seen to represent the following: The topmost arm representing the creator (god the father, the organizing force in the universe, etc), moving clockwise to the conscious self (the hero, god made flesh), the bottom arm as that of the divine feminine (mother earth, pagan gods that live within nature), and the fourth arm as the spirit (holy spirit, soul). Or to put it in Jung's psychological terms, in the same order, thinking, sensing, feeling, intuiting.

It has been observed that in many older religions, the quaternity is represented by symbols like the equilateral cross, while in Christianity there was a deviation into a different cross, that of the crucifixion, which symbolically raised the horizontal bar of the old cross and thereby elevated three of these parts, placing a value of "goodness" upon them and casting the fourth component, (the divine feminine) into the realm of "evil" or that which opposes not only its opposite, the creator, but the two other parts as well.

The myth which we now examine shows us not the cross of the trinity nor of the classical quaternity, but rather the equilateral cross turned on its axis to for a new symbol for the self, that of the "X".

But how can we view the function of this new symbol? In our post modern, technological age it seems our collective world view has shifted, and that within that new paradigm the components of the psychological "self" must be adjusted to include the component of scientific thought. So let us now view the four aspects as follows: Where there was the creator there is now belief in that for which we do not have empirical evidence (aliens, the supernatural), where we placed the spirit, we now place that which does have empirical evidence (science). Leaving the other two aspects, that of the conscious self or hero and that of the divine feminine to be represented in this particular myth by our hero (Mulder) and heroine (Scully).

Why the turning of the symbol? In both of its former forms the cross had strong symbolic implications of value in the placement of the components as above or below, left or right. In the turning of the symbol there is a new balance and dynamic between the parts of the whole. We can also see another new dimension in which the feminine is below (or is the child of) science and the masculine is below the ephemeral. (It should also be noted that these alignments are the opposite of the traditionally perceived functions and characteristics of male and female, in which the male would be associated with the logical and concrete, and the female with the intuitive and fluid. This is important because it addresses the rapidly changing roles of men and women in the 20th and early 21st centuries.)

We find this symbolism bears out in the course of our myth when we are confronted with a man who is the intuitive believer and the woman who is the scientist and skeptic. As these two characters interact and proceed on their dramatic journey we can return to the symbolism of the "X" and see how the two lower arms work to bring the other closer to their opposite points, until the four elements can be seen as converging toward a single point in a dynamic symbol of the integrated consciousness.

We can also note at this point that in turning the cross to an "X" and bringing the feminine aspect to a level equal with that of the hero we are also addressing the changing role of a man's anima in our modern culture, wherein men are called upon to more actively manifest their "feminine side" in their daily lives.

The changing role of the woman is not only symbolized by her arm of the quaternity moving to an equal plane with the male arm, but also in our particular myth's lovely choice in making our female character Catholic and her wearing of the Christian cross. This serves as a constant reminder of the modern woman's spiritual struggle to reconcile her role in the modern spiritual equation against her traditional role as the dark side of nature.


So that's it for now...let me know if it makes coherent sense, I know that deeper examination of the concepts might be tough when I'm only presenting one small fragment of the whole idea, but I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts.