The creator of analytical psychology, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, said that accounts of mythical journeys such as those of Marco Polo, Ulysses or Hercules can be understood as symbolic expressions of a process of psychic transformation that everyone is obliged to undertake throughout life. called it the hero’s travel process, or individualization process.
The journey of the hero or heroine usually begins with a call or the need to leave the common and known world, as a necessity to use aspects and potentials that are not surprised.
- In myths.
- Heroes often arise in times of uncertainty.
- Collapse of social forms.
- Religious or political crises.
- So in our personal lives we may be forced to take a journey of transformation when circumstances appear that end up suffocating.
- Or when we feel stagnant or wanting something else.
The hero’s journey refers to a symbolic journey, so it is possible (not necessary) to do so without physically moving, so the hero’s appeal can result from a job offer, a scholarship or as an opportunity for financial, educational or social improvement abroad.
The purpose of the hero’s path is represented as the search for a treasure, a promised land, the Philosopher’s Stone, the Holy Grail, the marriage of the prince or princess. Each person gives an image to the object of their search; however, the most common thing is that the road surprises the traveler with treasures he had not even imagined.
On certain occasions, before embarking on the journey, victims often occur (with people, books, movies, etc. ). Losses that gradually help us choose the destination of our migration. Jung called them synchronicities and saw them as an expression of the relationship between the physical world and the psychic world.
The result of the hero’s journey is usually depicted as a new birth, requiring a strong dose of courage and humility to resist and transcend obstacles and challenges that arise along the way. The hero’s journey can then be understood as a process involving death. in some stages to be reborn in others, steps that can be seen as the passage through different archetypes.
Archetypes are images present in the mythologies of all peoples that are linked to prototypical situations that humanity has faced throughout history, understood by Jung as operational forces, which function as creative sources and as an encouragement to live a certain type of experience, necessary for the journey of realization that we mentioned above.
During a migration trip, we can identify a transition of 4 archetypes:
This step refers to the safe and familiar environment of our place of origin, this environment, at some point, ends up being very rigid and suffocating, inviting us to undertake the journey of transformation.
This is the stage of idealized expectations about ourselves, or about our place of welcome. We may think, for example, that we speak a language at a higher level than we actually perceive; it may be that we are possessed by the fantasy that someone or something will provide us, that the work will fall from heaven.
This is the period of false illusions, which also behave as functional, because if one were well aware of the real conditions that one would have to face, it would be more difficult to have the motivation to undertake the journey. in the same way as a kind of passion for the place of our migration.
Faced with the specific conditions of the place of reception, the veil begins to fall, which prevented us from perceiving the dark side of everything that once seemed wonderful to us, then the orphan archetype emerges, and much of what we had imagined disappears.
It is common for us to be forced to carry out activities that we never imagine, to live with people and customs that surprise us and question us at some point in the migration process, then there is a kind of fall, a descent, what the Greeks called katabasis.
For a foreigner, the cultural model of the new group may resemble a “labyrinth” where the sense of direction fades. Firmly rooted beliefs can collapse, beginning to challenge many aspects that we consider “natural. “
It is the stage of desire and a feeling that refers to the lack of courage, at this point there is usually an idealized memory of our place of origin and a great temptation to give up the continuation of our path.
A relevant element is that when you are in a foreign country (physically or symbolically), the way others look at you changes, somehow makes your identity more flexible, provides the opportunity to explore facets and nurture these new looks.
We can live this stage with a lot of uncertainty, almost as if we had to jump off the cliff for new attitudes and principles to emerge.
Then, Transit? Through feelings of helplessness and orphan, from the dark night of the soul arises the archetype of the warrior.
This is what gives you the energy to overcome obstacles, to get out of the falls, this encourages us to develop the resources that the new context requires, allows us to regain hope and strength to continue the path.
Gradually, and thanks to our perseverance, patience, allies and adversaries that we encounter along the way, we leave the maze and the reception space becomes a home where we can apply the new skills acquired.
Finally, the archetype of the magician emerges. Under his influence, we have the ability to make sense of how far we have come, give us the wisdom to thank you for the good and bad times we have been through, because it is theirs that we find the treasure. which translates into a better understanding of ourselves and humanity, a better understanding of our complexity, our strengths, and our weaknesses.
The path also allows us to make our identity more flexible and live better with the uncertainty and vicissitudes of life.
After this transformation process, on certain occasions, when we return to our place of origin, we feel strange, as if everything had been ”frozen in time” while we are no longer the same. This feeling of strangeness is the engine and encouragement to continue to seek our psychic homeland: the realization of ourselves and our potential.
The status of migrant, as a foreigner, can therefore be seen as an intensification of the feeling inherent in the human being, of the desire never achieved to find a place of fullness and well-being. A feeling that motivates us to penetrate and rediscover, ourselves constantly.
Great were the works left to us by artists and philosophers whose creative motivation was precisely this feeling of strangeness. For us, the migration process is an opportunity to become more aware of the need to carry out our main work, which is to have a dignity, deep and enriching life. This quest, of misfortune and fortune, never stops and there is no place on Earth that can fully satisfy it.