Manannan's Reach

Brundage-Rude, Patricia Ann. (2005). Manannan's Reach: Entrance to the Celtic Otherworld within (Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute, 2005). UMI 3166378.

The archetypal psychology approach to the study of mythology equates psychology with mythology. Thus a study of mythology contributes to an understanding of the psyche. This study applies archetypal analysis to selected Welsh and Irish myths in the hopes of gaining fresh insights into the soul. Celtic cultures, combined with those of the ancient Mediterranean world, form the basis of Western civilization. They also provide a view of the world before the rise of urban cultures in western Europe. The Welsh and Irish myths examined in this study open a window that allows a glimpse of the psyche without the veneer of a city-based point of view.

C. G. Jung maintains that an alternation between analysis and creativity constitutes an authentic approach to the study of myth. This study reflects these alternating elements in both its method and its structure. Each chapter begins with an original poem inspired by the myth under scrutiny. A discussion of Celtic cultural elements pertaining to the myth follows. Each chapter then ends with an archetypal analysis of the myth's primary figures. The device of a sojourner who travels the Otherworld of the soul, here called Manannan's Reach, unifies the study. As the sojourner moves through the psyche, she encounters the archetypal figures explored in each chapter.

Several conclusions emerge by the end of the sojourner's journey. Archetypes derived from ancient Welsh and Irish mythologies still express themselves in the Otherworld of the soul. Recognition and exploration of these archetypes adds to psyche's understanding of itself. Further, the study of Celtic mythology reveals that the psyche exists as a continuum with no rigid barriers dividing its component parts. The various aspects of the soul interpenetrate and intermingle, a concept mirrored in the relationship between the ordinary worlds and the Otherworlds of Welsh and Irish mythology. Recognition of the psyche's unified nature may benefit the soul, and incorporation of the Celtic notion of an ensouled world may help repair some of the damage caused by compartmentalized views of humanity and nature.