A Totem Pole History: The Work of Lummi Carver Joe Hillaire

10 Archetypes from Cedar: Myth and Coast Salish Story Poles

101 10 Archetypes from Cedar Myth and Coast Salish Story Poles Gregory P. Fields Carl Jung began work on his autobiography four years before his death in 1961 at age eighty-five. His prologue to Memories, Dreams, and Reflections begins with the words “My life is a story.” He speaks of his autobiography as the telling of his personal myth. The language of myth, not the language of science, Jung wrote, is the language that can be used to speak of the process of personal growth: “Science works with concepts of averages, which are far too general to do justice to the subjective variety of an individual life. My life is a story,” he wrote, “of the self-realization of the unconscious. Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestation, and the personality too, desires to evolve out of its unconscious conditions and to experience itself as whole.” In his autobiography, Jung reflects on his inner life and on his remarkable career of clinical and theoretical work, in which he founded the tradition of analytic psychology. He speaks as a person fluently conversant with the world’s traditions of religion and mythology and as a person whose inner psychic life was a productive field for both his scientific inquiry and for the creating of his own life as art. Jung wrote the following, among the 102 Gregory P. Fields final conclusions that he articulated toward the end of his life: “In the end, the only events in my life worth telling are those when the imperishable world irrupted into this transitory one. That is why I speak chiefly of inner experiences, amongst which I include my dreams and visions. They form the prima materia of my scientific work. They were the fiery magma out of which the stone that had to be worked was crystallized.”1 Jung and other thinkers have explored how the human process of transformation toward wholeness is provoked and supported by the psyche’s engagement with symbols and archetypes encountered in dreams, art, and myth. This chapter considers how stories and myths can be transformative and healing, and how Coast Salish story poles function as a medium of archetype and myth. Storytelling is one of the most ancient and universal of human activities . The reading of printed texts (let alone access to electronic media) is a relatively recent activity in human history. Since prehistoric times, people have gathered to tell and hear stories, and they still do. Many benefits are received in the hearing of stories, among them, companionship , instruction, inspiration, admonition, entertainment, and solace. One of the most important functions of stories is that they connect us with the wonderment of being. One kind of wonderment is the sense of wondering about questions concerning the universe and our human journey. Another kind of wonderment is a sense of awe at the greatness of the universe and the greatness of our human experience, wonderment in which we recognize our connection with that which is greater than ourselves. Even among the humble details that make up our lives, we can recognize the greatness of certain episodes of our life’s journey. Myths can also redirect our focus away from our ordinary state of absorption in the details of our individual lives and limited perspectives so that we can, at least for a while, connect with important elements of our cultural traditions and common humanity. By participating in a myth, we can experience the vastness of the universe and presence of the sacred. Response to a sense of connection with that which is greater than ourselves—God, the divine, the sacred, the Great Universe, or however it might be named—is at the heart of the human impulse toward spiritual Archetypes from Cedar 103 life. On the side of the spiritual domain are principles of functionality, order, development, healing, and well-being, as distinct from, for example, dysfunction, disorder, lack of development, deterioration, and suffering. Myths provide powerful examples of healthy, constructive functioning and examples of destructive dysfunction. In so doing, myths help perpetuate insight and transformation, which are conducive to individual and community well-being. Stories and Myths The book Life Lived Like a Story contains the histories and traditional stories of three Yukon Native elders.2 Each of the three Native women recounted her biography in her chosen way, including the traditional narratives that she regarded as essential to her life story. Our stories, personal...