New Images Of Eros And Psyche Revealed Through Feminine Consciousness

Caughey, D. (2003). New Images Of Eros And Psyche Revealed Through Feminine Consciousness: An artistic study on the changing relationship between the masculine and feminine (Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2003).

In past centuries, masculine Logos consciousness has generally been elevated above feminine instinctual knowledge resulting in an overvaluing and imbalance of masculine consciousness, which now threatens the psychological health of individuals, civilization, and the biosphere. This work attempts to discover some ways the objective psyche is attempting to rebalance human consciousness. The use of a creative method to study the nature of and differences between masculine and feminine consciousness led me to the imaginal theory that suggests the coming of a “higher feminine consciousness,” one capable of equal partnership to Logos or “higher masculine consciousness.” I wrote the mythopoetic tale, The Story of “The,” as a gathering from the unconscious. The dialogue and adventures in this myth became the intuitive library from which I garnered new images of Eros and Psyche. Holding the imagination as a valid research source was critical in developing a feminine methodology to study new directions in feminine consciousness and its impact on the changing relationship between the sexual opposites.

The imaginal couple in the tale, a snail named Theo and a Butterfly just emerged from the patriarchal cocoon, are revealed as the new equal and androgynous Royal Couple who each carry the wholeness of their compensatory opposites within themselves. Their story has elicited a number of imaginal theories presented in the academic portion of this work such as, a model of feminine transformation, the nature of feminine fertilization, and the coming of a “higher feminine consciousness,” which I call Liminal consciousness. This is an “inbetween” intelligence that bridges masculine dualistic logos and matriarchal unconscious wholeness while being neither of them. Liminal consciousness is a unique awareness carried by the spiritual feminine that is equal to, but different from, Logos. Jn this imaginal theory, it requires Jung’s ththonic son, the compensatory brother of Christ, to midwife the birth of Liminal consciousness into collective awareness through the development of his “extraordinary empathy.” The chthonic son, carrier of repressed masculine instinctual feelings and the Spirit Muse, carrier of the repressed spiritual feminine, are the new son and daughter of our consciousness, the new Royal Couple. For the story reveals that it is now only through the couple, the coming together of the opposites in consciousness, that new meaning will be ushered in and the old restored.