The Odyssey

I don’t know if we have a myth, or if a myth has us? Anyway, one of the myths that speaks to me the most, is the Odyssey, which includes going on a night sea journey, and getting blown off course, and meeting the one-eyed Cyclops, and having to pass through the dangerous straits of Scylla and Charybdis, and lingering awhile with Circe and going to so many different islands of experience on the way back to Penelope and Ithaca.

It just seems more aligned with how life really works, rather than the ófficial’ version of events, which I sometimes have a hard time believing. And the Odyssey is like a story of mystery and initiation, and a transformative story, and a ‘rite of passage’ and he is trying to get home and get back to Penelope(which psychologically, is also like a return to ‘wholeness’).

And James Hillman makes an interesting point about the Odyssey. Odysseus was surrounded by feminine figures that play many roles Hillman says and he sees them as playing a role in the initiation of Odysseus: There was the Goddess(Athene), Mistress(Calypso), Devourer(Scylla and Charybdis), Enchantress(Circe), Mother-Daughter(Arete-Nausica), Personal Mother(Anticleia), Rescuer(Ino), Seductress (Sirens), Nurse(Eurykleia), and Wife(Penelope) — the feminine is there in The Odyssey, in all of its many forms.

The feminine is guiding him towards Ithaca.

the Odyssey seems like a story of mystery and initiation to me, and a transformative story, and a ‘rite of passage’ and he is trying to get home and get back to Penelope(which is psychologically, like a return to ‘wholeness’).

spending time on the Isle of the Phaecians. And going to so many different islands of experience on the way back to Ithaca.

And sometimes that adventure can be more like the ‘Ódyssey’(than a straight upward line towards success).  And can include going on a night sea journey, and getting blown off course, and meeting the one-eyed Cyclops, and having to pass through the dangerous straits of Scylla and Charybdis. And having to linger awhile with the Circe or on the Island of the Phaecians. And it is like going to many different islands of experience on the way back to Ithaca.

my favorite myths, and one that speaks to me the most, is the Odyssey, where Odysseus is thrown out onto a night sea journey and has to go to all those different islands of experience on his way back home to Ithaca.

It just seems more aligned with how life really works, rather than the ófficial’ version of events, which I sometimes have a hard time believing. And some of those different islands he goes to, remind of different chapters in my life. Like when he encountered the one-eyed monster of the Cyclops, which reminds me of my time in the corporate world. And the isle of the Phaecians, that reminds of when I first went to India and was hanging out with the people at the yoga ashram. And when he lingered a while, with Circe, that reminds me of when….well maybe, I will be able to write about that another time.

And that is what they never told you at school, that life isn’t actually linear and just a straight upward path towards success, and that you will probably have to go to many different islands of experience(and that is also how you might have many lives within one life). And Odysseus was know as polytropos, a man of many ways, and you would have to be after going to all those different islands. And the Odyssey seems like a story of mystery and initiation to me, and a transformative story, and a ‘rite of passage’ and he is trying to get home and get back to Penelope(which is psychologically, like a return to ‘wholeness’).