To me, pantheism is better than believing in one all-powerful God. I’m not really talking about belief in Zeus and all them- I’m talking about a more personal pantheism, one that works for you in a symbolic way, but perhaps not literally, as religious gods seem to be representing.
Thinking about myth and psycology, particulairly Jungian psycology, I can see how a pantheist can create personal models as representations for the psyche, as well as representations of nature. The anima, the animas, and the shadow are manifestations in our psyche, to some degree they exist in all of us, but not the same in every person.
Basically, I’m saying that an exorsize in creating your ‘gods’ can be very rewarding, and it will be very personal to you- more personal that one omnipotent god can be. Like creating a mandalla of yor psyche- filled with personal icons that only mean something to you.
If one takes from the abstracts of the psyche and makes them into forms (say humanoid), they have created a personal pantheion. Perhaps doing this can give you a way of associating you with yourself.
Jungian Psych really is something, eh? Yes, those things reside in you, but what of the collective unconcious? This yields the reason why the shadow, anima etc have likenesses. Primordial Images- why the attempt for a more personalized god results in a god for all man. We contain all the same primordial images and this causes the archetypes we have to be similar, but not the exact same. Your hero may be different than someone elses, but we still identify with a hero figure.
There is no doubt that what you speak of is rewarding. It gives reason to living.
I read Demian by Hermann Hesse, and absolutely fell in love with Jung and his ideas. Collective Unconcious, primordial images, archetypes. All are fantastic and seem to describe human life so well.
Are you familiar with Nietzsche? If so, you’ll love the book even more. In short over the book, there has been no other written piece of anything that has impacted me as much as this book has. It is written remarkably and made all the confusing ideas I’ve had for the past years…clear. I have a poll over the book in the “Psychology” forum but no one has responded.
Well, if any philosopher was trying to be confusing…it’s Nietzsche. But he is truely revelating. I’ve been reading Beyond Good and Evil. It’s a brilliant piece and is regarded as one of his best. You don’t have to read volumes of him but just know the basics and such, to get a grasp for his philosophy embedded in the story.
Everyone has some piece of art that just strikes home for them and becomes an instant favorite which they identify with. For me, that was Demian.
