I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, blogging here daily to track my progress. In Tuesday Book Club, I share an idea from a book.
In the story of Psyche and Eros, some of which I shared on Saturday, Psyche is given four tasks to complete by Aphrodite, after she violates Cupid’s command that she never look at his face.
The third challenge was to fill a crystal goblet with icy black water from the River Styx, one of the underworld’s most dangerous and sacred rivers. As in the earlier tasks, divine help appeared to help her. Zeus’s eagle flew into the river gorge, avoided the deadly mist and serpents, and filled the goblet with the sacred water for her.
In Robert A. Johnson’s book She: Understanding Feminine Psychology, Johnson interprets this task as it relates to the female mind:
This task is telling us how the woman must relate to the vastness of life. She may take only one goblet of water. The feminine way is to do one thing and do it well and in proportion. She is not denied a second or third or tenth activity but she must take it one goblet at a time, each in good order.
The feminine aspect of the human psyche has been described as unfocused consciousness. The feminine nature is flooded with the rich vastness of possibilities in life and is drawn to all of them, usually all at once. But this is impossible; one cannot do or be so many things at once. Many of the possibilities open to us oppose each other and one must choose among them. Like the eagle, who has a panoramic vision, one must look at the vast river, focus on a single spot, and then dip out a single goblet of water.
I do wonder just who has described the feminine aspect of the human psyche as “unfocused consciousness.” Is that a Jungian thing?
I checked with ChatGPT, who told me:
In Jungian psychology, Jung often described masculine consciousness (especially in its archetypal form) as more goal-directed, discriminating, and linear, while feminine consciousness was seen as more inclusive, receptive, relational, and diffuse. He used metaphors like logos (masculine, ordering principle) and eros (feminine, relating principle) to distinguish these energies….
And provided me with a (alleged?) quote from Jung from Psychological Aspects of the Anima:
Eros is a psychic relatedness, and it is characteristic of women. […] Logos, on the other hand, is the principle of discrimination and order, and is typical of men.
This may be getting confusing in that I’m writing about Psyche and Eros, the figures of Greek mythology, as well as psyche and eros, aspects of human consciousness as described by Jung, concepts inspired by the mythological figures.
Regardless, I’m intrigued by the idea of taking just one goblet at a time in my life. As I’ve focused my creative efforts on my Things Men Gave Me conceptual writing and art project, I’ve felt more powerful and less scattered. At the same time, I have other commitments, notably to local art groups I’m involved with. I’m putting together a show guide of sorts to the Littleton Plein Air Festival art exhibition right now and I’ve also committed to working as publicity director for Heritage Fine Arts Guild for the next year. I’m moderating the Women’s Caucus for Art Colorado Chapter Facebook, but just for a three-month period.
I have family commitments too—hosting my niece next week as she visits for a couple days and assisting my daughter with her cross-country road trip from Mountain View, California to Atlanta, Georgia.
Meanwhile I continue submitting my artwork to various shows, which not only takes time and energy, but scatters my artistic focus.
And of course I have to keep my life going: maintain the house, manage the investment portfolio, care for my pets, nurture my romantic partnership.
I don’t need to eliminate all distractions from my life, but maybe I need to apply some of the ideas from Psyche’s third task to my life, to focus myself better. Maybe I need to think of one crystal goblet priority for my life, and let other things be subservient to that.
Johnson writes:
The ego that is attempting to raise some of the vast unconscious into human conscious life must learn to contain only one goblet of water at a time lest it be overwhelmed and the container shattered.
I am indeed attempting to raise some of the vast unconscious into human conscious life, that is the point of my art, especially TMGM: to surface meaning that would otherwise remain hidden.
Johnson suggests combining that with the eagle perspective:
When the small bit of river bank looks impossible, the eagle perspective opens up the next step—probably a small step in light of normal ambition, but a necessary step for progress in personal growth.
This echoes advice from Jung that I wrote about in What is your life asking of you?: “If you always do the next right thing that needs to be done, you will go most safely and sure-footedly along the path prescribed by your unconscious.”
The next right thing, the thing that life is asking me to do right now, is to get my first essay-and-painting pairing out into the world. Life is asking me to focus on this one creative project, I think. But I’m having a hard time doing it amongst the rest of the noise of my life.
Johnson summarizes the lesson of Psyche’s third task:
Almost every person is overwhelmed by the too-muchness of modern life, even on a day to day basis. That is the time for the eagle view and one-goblet-at-a-time mentality.
I do feel some too-muchness of my life right now, as truly happy as I am.
I’m hoping that the answer isn’t to cut out anything I’m doing or anything I’m committed to, but just putting one project as my crystal goblet priority, then, like an eagle, homing in on the next right thing to be done.
Last night, appropriately, Ray and I drank a sangria in crystal goblets with our dinner of Seattle-style hot dogs. ChatGPT helped me develop the recipe. I named it 3.99 Wine Sangria. It was super yummy. It had cheap red wine from King Soopers, segmented and sliced oranges, a bit of lime juice, and macerated strawberries. I sweetened it a bit with a Shirley Temple soda I found at the grocery store.