Myth Points to Deeper Truths

Myth Points to Deeper Truths

Why do we tell stories? Why are we captivated by the hero who triumphs over evil or the anti-hero who “gets the job done” for the greater good in less than pleasant ways that the typical archetypal practitioner of righteousness dare not transgress into. For me, there seems to be something noble about the descent of the hero into a degree of madness in order to meet evil where it is at and stare it down with a greater feriousity than the villain could ever muster, like a sheep dog staring down the wolf, both with a similar nature, but a different posture in terms of the sheep. One protects them, one seeks to devour them, but both have the same basic instinct simply directed in a different direction. 

Batman and the Joker come to mind in terms of a mythic element symbolizing this deeper truth, neither really exist but both represent something very real about human nature and the author is free to explore this idea in greater detail through storytelling and this seems to be the appeal. Batman and Joker are really the same person in a way, both have a distorted view of reality and not exactly sane (I mean dressing up as a bat to terrorize criminals isn't exactly normal), both have traumas, both are brilliant and each one dawns a particular role. The only difference it seems is the expression of these character traits and the direction they funnel their energies into. I remember one thing about Batman that stood out to me, why he doesn't kill and the answer is somewhat chilling… “Because I might like it.” Is the only difference between them then a moral resolution? Interesting to ponder and I believe this is part of the magnetic pull of fiction. 

Personally, when I examine my own heart I feel a small tinge of this in my desire for justice and for the wrongs of the world to be made right. One of my favorite shows is homicide hunter and Joe Kenda happens to be one of my favorite people, but the show is hard for me to watch sometimes, in terms of the reenactments. I remember one particular episode where there were three men holding a gun over another man in an execution style position and he pleaded with them saying, “Please, take what you want. I have a wife and kids.” They shot him without a second thought and my anger immediately blazed and I wanted nothing more in that moment to round these men up, place them in a room and do unspeakable horrors to them in an effort to make them pay for their horrendous evil against this man. Fire would not begin to describe the utter intensity of emotion that flared in me and the desire for these three to face justice for their moral abomination against their fellow man. Ironically, the reason Joe retired is because of his desire to hurt this pedophile grandpa who abused his grandson. He had said something along the lines of (paraphrasing), “I was filled with so much anger and rage and I wanted to find any way I could to harm and kill this person.” 

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

Of course, I don't agree with Nietzsche on everything, but it is a fitting quote and thankfully Joe drives a school bus and seems to be recovering well from the PTSD such a job would inevitably produce in someone. Do you see the correlation however yet? Batman is a reflection of something true that was going on in me when I watched the reenactment and something that was going in Kenda and something that goes on in all of us whenever we encounter gross examples of malevolence, but will we take the path of the Batman archetype or will we let the suffering leads us to insanity where the Joker is waiting? 

Reflecting onto my own heart to the rest of my ability, there is something lurking in the shadows that I believe if I did not know the Lord Jesus as Savior would have manifested itself in an unbelievably cruel and dark way. There is no doubt in my mind that Christ has saved me from immense depravity and it is something I could never repay Him for, but it's really interesting when He shines the light on our hearts as He shows us who we really were… 

My old self seemed to not be really concerned with social rules, true justice or following procedures. In other words, if there is a job that needs to be done it needs to be done and it really does not matter how. Reflect on this, it's a wrong and evil idea, but it should help you to understand the mentality. 

“If good is achieved by an evil means, is it really evil to do so?” 

Another way of saying the same thing, but rephrased… 

“If the justice system fails and lets a murderer who deserves to die free, is it wrong to take matters into our own hands and issue the sentence they deserve into our own hands?” 

So I find myself identifying more with the anti-hero than the traditional hero as my old self would have seen traditional morality as getting in the way of what needs to be done. Evil needs to be removed from this world and justice must be impartial and it doesn't seem hard to think if an evil individual as my old self had the power, someone like Thanos could easily be a reality…

Still, I find myself with a deeply ingrained need for justice and a desire to make sure it is meted out no matter what. 

No matter what… 

Where does this desire come from however? Why do I feel this deep compulsion? Desiring justice is not evil, but why am I having this desire being expressed in an evil way?

Ghost Rider is one of the most interesting and fascinating anti-heroes I have come across in terms of story arc. He's not quite the hero, but he's also not necessarily a villain either and the curse of the Ghost Rider placed on him with his pact with the demonic force, known as Mephistopheles pushes him to bring the souls who escaped hell back home. 

This has a profound impact on me as I dive into the deeper aspects of the human personality. I’ve pondered the existence of God for some time and while I do believe He exists now, along the way I have developed theories to try and explain away His existence and so I want to give a bit of background on this particular point, by asking a simple question? 

What is a spirit? 

Depending on your assumptions about reality will determine how you answer the question and so I want to start with the following premises (note these are not my starting places anymore). Let's.start with naturalistic assumptions about reality. 

• Consciousness is reducible to brain chemistry. 

• What we define as spirit is nothing more than an amalgamation of neural networks (we will call spirit clusters). 

• These neural networks are determined by our biology. 

• Multiple spirit clusters may exist in one brain and are expressed are archetypes. 

Now, there is evidence that what we think about directly correlates with what we become (https://ifho.org/neuronal-plasticity-how-your-thoughts-literally-shape-your-brain/) and so I would like to propose what I find to be an interesting idea with the boundaries of the premises mentioned above. 

Suppose all human societies have certain archetypical constructs built into their psychology that given the right conditions, can develop further into full fledged personalities. 

“The archaic and mythic characters that make up the archetypes reside with all people from all over the world, Jung believed. Archetypes symbolize basic human motivations, values, and personalities.”

Jung believed that each archetype played a role in personality, but felt that most people were dominated by one specific archetype. According to Jung, the actual way in which an archetype is expressed or realized depends upon a number of factors, including an individual's cultural influences and uniquely personal experiences.

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-jungs-4-major-archetypes-2795439

If this is the case, then any mythological story is going to have some sort of representation of these archetypes and I think in terms of Ghost Rider we see the shadow and the hero in a complex interplay of competing desires which can exist in all of us. Now, if “spirit clusters” exist within our brains we should expect to be a mix bag of them in terms of our behaviors. Sometimes we are the hero, sometimes we are the villain, sometimes we are the caretaker, sometimes we are the ruler and at other times we are the rebel. In terms of personality development, it seems that overtime one of these spirit clusters may become dominant, but if there is an internal conflict within an individual that produces a cognitive dissonance in their perceived sense of who they should be and who they really are we can start to see the potential for some interesting character development in our own lives. 

“A Cherokee elder was teaching his young grandson about life.

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil- he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt and ego.

The other is good- he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

This same fight is going on inside you—and inside every other person, too."

The boy thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather,

"Which wolf will win?"

The elder simply replied,

"The one you feed.”

Tsalagi Tale 

On one hand, I found myself with darker aspects that had infected my personality that wanted to unleash absolute hell on those who do evil, showing no mercy and repaying them back for the atrocities they’ve committed, not only to the people who have hurt me, but to the people that have hurt others. Before I knew the Lord Jesus, this was a small seed, a “spirit cluster” (forgive me for jumping between two contradictory ideas, I know it's not for everyone!) that occupied a part of my mind that if given the right conditions, could have grown and become something monstrous, with a life of its own that would seemingly take over all other aspects of whatever self I had left. 

The more I chose to dwell on my hurts as well as the hurts of others and the lack of justice in this world, the more the self consuming fire would burn. My conscience would intervene and the internal conflict would escalate. One aspect of myself, the spirit cluster that understands it's wrong to take revenge, would desire to contain the monster (the clusters of vengeance and wrath) within that is angry at the injustice in the world which desires to make it right. At some point one of these would win out and at that point, all I can say is God help me (and praise the Lord Jesus, He saved me!) if I was pushed to let the monster out. 

I've had some extreme conflicts with my family. I won't delve into involving my own dad who began to cross lines with my wife you do not cross  coupled with years of emotional abuse that made me feel the flames of this monster arise. 

The things I said I would do to him, the evil that came out of my mouth and heart was so vile, so intense, it can be hard to believe it actually resided somewhere within myself! The Lord has been faithful to me and I realize if I did not have His Holy Spirit within me that those wors could have easily become actions. 

The Ghost Rider seems to be a reflection of the human desire for vengeance in punishing the wicked, to give justice to the innocent and a desire for redemption for the wrongs we have committed. 

I certainly have felt this within me. Overwhelming  desires to rid the world of evil, intense emotions at injustices that feel like a blazing furnace that could never be quenched and a desire to hunt down those who have committed atrocious evil (I will write about my views on the death penalty soon that may challenge my brothers and sisters in Christ). On one hand there is an aspect of myself that is like Johnny Blaze who knows that the Ghost Rider isn't who he wants to be, an aspect of himself he wants to be free from, while simultaneously not being able to rid himself of that seemingly unquenchable desire to stand up for the innocent by punishing the wicked and sending abominations back to hell manifested as the ghost rider. 

For me, the story of the Ghost Rider points to a deeper truth that all of us have the potential to identify with and is an interesting take on how even in the midst of a mistake (like selling your soul to Mephistopheles) we can still choose to turn around and pursue a higher good. My own personal struggles seem to hint at a “Ghost Rider” archetype and while I would never soul my soul or burst into flames to hunt evil people with a penance stare, still there is something true about saying the spirit cluster of the Ghost Rider has manifested itself in reality. 

Anytime someone takes vengeance in the wrong way the Ghost Rider lives…