Synchronicity... and Waking the Tiger

3rd Century BC statue of Athena,
Musee du Louvre

There ain't nothin' in this whole wide dispensabubble cosmos a-better to show one that one's on the right track, than a run of good ol' synchronicities. I've heard it said, by none less than the venerable Ch'an Buddhist Master Sheng Yen, that when a person gets onto the path of enlightenment a thousand Bodhisattvas will pop up, out of the woodwork, as it were, to help him along the way.

The Aegis

Be that as it might - and it might as well, although I'll grant that all of the above could be construed as flights of fancy - I was pleasantly surprised to have my re-interpretation of the Medusa myth doubly confirmed during a recent trip to Paris. Firstly, while touring the Louvre, I came across two ancient statues of Athena... both bearing the Aegis with the Gorgon's head: one of them even had snakes as the decoration on her robe. Disregarding the ban on photography, I took this here snap, for you, dear blogophile. And then, not 20 minutes later I went for a sit down in the Tuileries, and started to read a new book, that I'd brought along for just such idle moments on my travels: In an Unspoken Voice, by Peter A. Levine.

Flabbergasted is not the word. Levine mentions Medusa as an ancient example of a traumatised person... his interpretation of the story is not identical to mine, but it's close enough for my jaw to drop as quick as a guillotine, much to the puzzlement of a passing party of Chinese holidaymakers.

Levine does point out one feature of the tale that I hadn't noticed... it is the look of fear in Medusa's eyes that turns people to stone, rather than anger or hideous snakiness!


I think the ideas from the book are worthy of dissemination, so I'll give them a write-up in another post. For now, here's a paragraph from Chapter 3, dealing with Medusa.

"The Greek myth of Medusa captures the very essence of trauma, and describes it's pathway to transformation.
[...] those who looked directly into Medusa's eyes were promptly turned to stone... frozen in time.[ ...] There is more to this myth. out of Medusa's wound, two mythical entities emerged: Pegasus the winged horse and the one-eyed giant Chrysaor, the warrior with the golden sword. The golden sword represents penetratng truth and clarity. The horse is a symbol of the body and instinctual knowledge; the wings represent transcendence. Together they suggest transformation through the living body.Together these aspects form the archetypal qualities and resources that a human must mobilise to heal the Medusa (fright paralysis) of trauma.."


More on Levine and his theory of trauma to follow. Stay tuned ;