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hamliet · 4 years

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The Rose and the Raven: Ciri and Cahir’s Journeys

Or the post analyzing their foiling throughout The Witcher Saga.

While there are quite a few characters who undergo development in the saga, I’d say the four most complete arcs are Yennefer’s, Geralt’s, Ciri’s, and Cahir’s, because all four of them follow the same Jungian/alchemical structure. I’ll write something on Yennefer as the Red King and Geralt as the White Queen (no, those terms are not me mixing them up) later on, but for now I want to focus on Ciri and Cahir, because they are utterly necessary for each other’s arcs. They meet three times, and each of these meetings mark particular points in their development.

In this meta, I’m going to focus specifically on the very blatant Jungian symbolism employed by Sapkowski. (Honestly the symbolism is basically Jung 101.) In particular, Sapkowski draws from Jung’s Psychology and Alchemy, which explores alchemy as a metaphor for individuation. Individuation is the main goal of Jungian psychology and literature, and it refers to a person reconciling with themselves to become a complete person, without repression, the best they can be. This “complete person/best person you can be” is akin to the philosopher’s stone in literary alchemy, and that is the journey of Yennefer’s, Geralt’s, Ciri’s, and Cahir’s arcs. Additionally, Cahir is Ciri’s shadow, and Ciri is Cahir’s anima.

NB before we continue: while anima/animus is often romantic in stories, it does not have to be; for example, Jung spoke of one potential frequent anima as a character’s sister. So while Cahir does say he’s in love with Ciri, I’m not delving into that debate in this post. Ty.

The Black Raven: Cintra

Literary alchemy begins with the prima materia, the primary material that comprises the entire world and from which the philosopher’s stone will be formed (the reason alchemists want to form the stone? It creates the elixir of life, which grants eternal life. This is important for The Witcher’s themes). The Fall of Cintra is where the main saga begins, and it’s also where Ciri and Cahir meet. Cintra itself is not the prima materia; rather, Ciri and Cahir are.

Cahir describes his mindset before the fall of Cintra as, essentially, the opposite of the ultimate goal of individuation:

A soldier does not question commands... He does not analyze them, he does not think about them, and he does not expect an explanation of their meaning. This is the first thing they taught us soldiers.

Whereas Ciri is quite literally a child at this point: innocent, mischievous, unaware of the horrors that await her. A child relies on adults to help them survive; they cannot individuate because they need people to care for them.

Ciri is in a sense Cahir’s inner child. In Jungian works, true adulthood can only be achieved when the person learns to parent or care for their inner child. Later on, we hear that Child!Cahir is noted to be mischievous and fun, much like Ciri:

Small Cahir preferred running around the walls and fighting with his peers from families who came with their parents for the funeral, burial and ceremony. Cahir was devoted to making mischief by the walls.

But that changes with his brother’s death and his mother’s admonition:

“Remember, my son,” Mawr sobbed, clutching her child to her breast so hard he could not breathe. “Remember this day. Never forget who put your dear brother Aillil to death. It was those damn Nordlings. Your enemies, my son. Be sure to hate them. Never stop hating that damn nation of murderers!”

“I will always hate, Mother,” Cahir promised.

Jung comments that the inner child “represents the strongest, the most ineluctable urge in every being, namely the urge to realize itself;” i.e. someone has to connect with their inner child in order to be able to develop a sense of who they want to become and thereby achieve individuation. Cahir’s goals prior to meeting Ciri are to achieve fame and glory in war, but once he encounters his inner child, that gradually becomes less important.

The first stage in alchemy is Nigredo, or the blackening. Nigredo is associated with night, death, dark nights of the soul, and specifically with ravens and crows as well. In fact, Jung called the darkest parts of Nigredo “the raven’s head.” (Yes, really.)

The Fall of Cintra and Ciri and Cahir’s meeting takes place at night, and Ciri’s main memory of this is the knight with raven wings on his helmet, marking this as Nigredo in both of their developments.

But even more than that, Nigredo can be divided into further steps. George Ripley’s Magnum Opus (which influenced Shakespeare, among other well known writers who shaped literary tradition) identifies the first stage as “calcination,” which refers to heating something to extremely high temperatures (thus, the blackening). To rescue Ciri, Cahir has to ride through literal flames.

The second step is “dissolution/solution,” in which something dissolves. The bath scene is dissolution, as Ciri is covered in burns an coated in blood, feces, dirt, and smoke. However, this is traumatizing for Ciri, because she has no idea why this stranger who can’t even bring himself to speak to her is bathing her. Cahir regrets it as well.

The next step is “separation.” Cahir falls asleep and wakes up to find Ciri gone. Jung cites this separation as being a particular separation of the anima and animus. But it’s this that gives Cahir time to reflect on his life choices and his allegiance to Emhyr (even if he doesn’t break right away with Emhyr): “I cried with anger against an emperor who likes chasing little girls. I cried for a year while sitting in a cell in the Citadel.”

Following their first meeting, Ciri has nightmares about Cahir, and Cahir has dreams about Ciri.

Ciri sees Cahir as a nightmare, a nightmare she needs to face rather than repress, in order to find hope for herself after all the trauma she’s been through. But at this point, she can’t quite do that, and at first is somewhat imprisoned by the nightmares. This marks Cahir as Ciri’s Jungian Shadow (the archetype Jung associated with Nigredo), which is essentially the part of ourselves that we try to repress. Ciri cannot remember exactly what happened with Cahir (a sign of repression), but she does remember his helmet and her fear. She is afraid of him in her dreams.

The White Monster: Thanedd

Prison and repression are strong motifs in both Cahir’s and Ciri’s arcs, but the difference is that Cahir is the one who starts out imprisoning himself whereas Ciri’s is more natural as a result of her being a literal child. Cahir is not going to grow at all by taking Ciri prisoner, but he tries to do so because he himself is a prisoner. He’s a prisoner of his family’s role and then a literal prisoner in Emhyr’s dungeon, condemned to die for over a year. He’s allowed to go free specifically because he’s literally the only Nilfgaardian who has seen Ciri and thereby they need him. Thus the concept of Ciri sets him free, but you can’t be truly free when you’re seeking to imprison someone else.

Yet Cahir still dreams about the girl with a rose tattoo. Cahir sees Ciri as a rose (something beautiful rising from thorns/pain), as his destiny according to the line of thinking that destiny is hope. The rose is red, symbolic of Rubedo, or what Ciri will become and what Cahir needs to aim for: philosopher’s stones, capable of producing eternal life.

I do think it’s important that the Ciri Cahir expresses himself as in love with is the one who appears in his dreams—as animas often do (Anima is the archetype of the Albedo stage, according to Jung). Jung says:

It belongs to him, this perilous image of Woman; she stands for the loyalty which in the interests of life he must sometimes forego; she is the much needed compensation for the risks, struggles, sacrifices that all end in disappointment; she is the solace for all the bitterness of life. And, at the same time, she is the great illusionist, the seductress, who draws him into life with her Maya – and not only into life’s reasonable and useful aspects, but into its frightful paradoxes and ambivalences where good and evil, success and ruin, hope and despair, counterbalance one another. Because she is his greatest danger she demands from a man his greatest, and if he has it in him she will receive it.

Seductress doesn’t have to mean sexual in this context, FYI. Think of the anima as tempting/seducing the man to grow as a human being. The point is that it’s this dream that encourages Cahir to grow, thereby setting himself free on the path to individuation.

Their second meeting comes at Thanedd, signifying Albedo, or the whitening. If Nigredo is the process of breaking things down, then Albedo is the process of cleansing away the impurities. “Conjunction” is a term in which all the separated parts that can be salvaged from the Nigredo come together: for Ciri, in the persons of Geralt and Yennefer and the like; for Cahir, it’s more internal (again more fittingly, because he’s an older teenager at this point). What he has left to grasp cannot be grasped as who he is currently, but he’s freed because of Ciri, and needs to continue to pursue what Ciri represents. That’s kinda all that’s salvageable.

They fight, and Ciri spares his life, marking Ciri’s decision towards individuation... because Ciri sees her inner child in Cahir, a bruised innocence she chooses not to kill:

There was no black helmet, no wings of a bird of prey, whose sound had pursued her in her nightmares. He was no longer the Black Knight of Cintra. Instead there was a pale dark-haired young man writhing in a pool of blood, a young man with blue eyes and his mouth twisted into a grimace of terror. The Black Knight of Cintra had fallen under the blows of her sword, had ceased to exist, the wings that caused her to be afraid were no more than limp feathers. The frightened boy, bent over, vomiting blood, was nothing. She did not know him, had never seen him before.... She was not afraid of him, did not hate him. She did not want to kill him.

She threw her sword on the ground.

This marks step towards maturity and towards reconciling with her shadow for Ciri.

Sapkowski then focuses on emphasizing just where we are in Ciri and Cahir’s refinement, making sure we recognize the white motif in this scene. Like, we get it, Geralt has white hair. It’s repeated so often for the symbolic purpose (emphasis is mine):

A white-haired monster attacked them. He jumped from the wall. From a height it was impossible to jump without breaking a leg. It was impossible to land softly, turning a pirouette that blurred to the eye and killing a split second later. But the white-haired monster did it. And he began to kill.

The Scoia’tael fought fiercely. They had the advantage. But they had no chance. Cahir gaped in horror at the sight of the massacre that was carried out. The gray-haired girl who had struck him a moment ago was fast, was incredible agile as a cat who was protecting her kittens. But the white-haired monster who jumped upon the Scoia’tael was like a Zerrikanian tiger. The gray-haired girl from Cintra, who, for unknown reason, had not killed him, had seemed to be crazy. The white-haired monster was not crazy. He was calm and cold. And calmly and coldly killed...

When Cahir opened his eyes, the monster was right before him. ‘Don’t kill me...’ he whispered, abandoning his attempts to rise on the floor slippery with blood. The hand that had been wounded by the gray-haired girl had stopped hurting and was numb.

‘I know who you are, Nilfgaardian.’ The monster with the white hair kicked the helmet with the broken wing. You’ve stubbornly pursued her for a long time. But you couldn’t even hurt her.’

‘Don’t kill me.’

‘Give me a reason. Just one. Quickly.’

‘I..’ whispered Cahir ‘I was the one who took her from Cintra. The fire... I saved her. I saved her life...’

When he opened his eyes the monster was gone, he was alone in the yard, alone with the bodies of the elves. The tinkling water from the fountain, poured over the edge of the pond, washing the blood from the floor.

Not only is there emphasis on white, but there is emphasis on washing away blood, or impurities, for Cahir. His reputation in Nilfgaard cannot be salvaged; only his soul, which chose to save a girl once, can be.

But guess what the next steps are in Albedo (if you said happy, you’d be sadly wrong): “putrefication” and “congelation.”

We see putrefication (focus on death and rotting) in Ciri, when she’s wandering the Frying Pan and trying to survive, her mind breaking and frustration and abandonment welling up inside of her. While this marks a darker, negative turn for her character, it’s actually very necessary towards getting Ciri to a place where she can accept her shadow self, represented in the person of Cahir.

In Cahir, putrefication lands him captured, to brought to Nilfgaard chained in a coffin. This is not subtly symbolic of him listening to his mother and chaining himself to an idea of hate that was born in death and can only ever end in death. When Geralt (the white monster) frees him, he is reborn, in a sense, and given a second chance not in the same sense Emhyr gave him a second chance: he cannot spend a second chance doing what brought him there in the first place. No, he has to change. This is further symbolized by Geralt giving Cahir the knife and telling him to free himself or wait to be found by other Nilfgaardians, sharply contrasting with how Cahir was freed before (for the purpose of serving Nilfgaard).

Congelation involves heat and requires lots of water, which is also seen in Ciri in the Frying Pan (for her, putrefication and congelation are kind of combined; this is not unusual in alchemical stories). When Cahir is freed from the coffin and when he later asks to join Geralt, Milva, and Jaskier, it is noted to be raining: “After the summer drought, the land was now soaked with water and the forest paths had turned to mud slides.”

Buildup to Stygga

So... I know I said I would be talking about their three meetings, and I am doing so, but technically there is another stage between Albedo and Rubedo (red), called Citrinitas (yellowing/golden). However, it’s most often compressed into Rubedo. So you could see Citrinitas as the buildup to Stygga and thereby part of Rubedo, and I kind of do, but I’m putting it in its own section for now.

Citrinitas focuses on the light, or fire. Basically, it’s where everything starts to go very, very wrong for Ciri.

Life isn’t kind enough to let Ciri continue as an innocent, merciful child. She literally draws from fire to save the unicorn, but ends up in a dark place afterwards. The next stages are “cibation,” “sublimation,” and “fermentation.” Ciri’s journey through these stages are quite clear: cibation is with the Rats, in which she distracts herself but also feeds herself with skills she will later use in her journey, sublimation is when she literally travels to a different world for (with sublimation meaning solid becoming air, and Ripley describes it as “in the air our child must thus be born,” which very much reflects Ciri’s journey back to her world), and fermentation... Stygga. It’s also telling that Ciri encounters Jung’s archetype of the wise old man in Vysogota during these stages, because Jun associated Citrinitas with that archetype.

Cahir, however, has a slightly different journey. Cibation is when he joins the hansa and starts to learn from Milva, Geralt, Jaskier, and Regis--in particular, from Regis, his own wise old man archetype, he learns redemption. They feed him in a spiritual sense. Sublimation is when he finally reconciles with his inner child as himself, exemplified in his relationship with Geralt.

For starters, Cahir acts like a child in punching Geralt for accusing him of betraying them, and is then treated by a child by Milva when she literally uses her whip to spank them apart. Then, Cahir gets injured and Geralt has to save him, which marks a moment at which both Cahir and Geralt reconcile with their inner child. (While I plan on writing a different post for Geralt and Yennefer, this point in Geralt’s development matters for Cahir’s own journey; hence its inclusion.)

Geralt has been blaming Cahir because he fears Yennefer has betrayed them, and so lashes out at someone he knows hurt someone he loves once, projecting his own insecurities and fears he abandoned Ciri onto Cahir. Geralt is only able to get over his distressed fears about Yennefer’s betrayal by acting like, well, a dad to a feverish Cahir, who opens up at last and keeps asking for reassurance like a child:

Cahir finally showed some signs of life, and shortly afterwards – miraculously – he stood up, cursed himself, and held his head. They continued on. Initially, Cahir moved quickly. Then, he slowed down. Then, he fell.

Geralt took turns carrying him on his back and dragging him, groaning, pushing against rocks.

...

“Geralt?” “Yes.” Cahir straightened the logs in the fire with the help of a leg bone he had found. “In the mine, as we fought… I was scared, you know?” “I know.”

...

“I've seen her constantly in dreams… I see her still, as a woman – beautiful, confident, provocative… with details, such as a fire-red rose tattooed in her groin…”

“What are you talking about?”

“I do not know, do not know, myself… But it was, and still is. I see her still, in the dreams, just as I had seen her in a dream back then… So, I agreed to take the mission on Thanedd. That's why I wanted to join you later. I… I still want to once again… to see her once again, to touch her hair, to look into her the eyes… I want to see her. Strike me dead, if you want. But I'm going to stop pretending. I think… I think I love her. I beg you, do not laugh.”

“I am not laughing.”

In a sense, Cahir’s role in regards to Geralt is giving Geralt a chance to see what Ciri has become before they reunite: an innocent mistreated by the world, a red rose striving to grow even among thorns, marked by her trauma but strong. Geralt helping Cahir is Geralt coming to terms with his inner child in both Cahir and in Ciri. And for Cahir, he comes to term with his inner child in himself, and acknowledges Ciri as not just his anima, but as a necessary part of the philosopher’s stone he’s becoming. Ciri’s tattoo is notably red, the color of Rubedo, of completion. The red rose is a sign of what Cahir has to pursue.

The Red Rose: Stygga Castle

“Exaltation” is where, according to Ripley, all things combine at last. He quotes Christ from the Bible as saying: “if I exalted be/Then shall I draw all things unto me.” Hence, Stygga is where everyone and everything comes together, from Ciri to the Hansa to Bonhart to Vilgefortz and Yennefer to Emhyr himself.

Exaltation is where “two contraries together shall meet.” By the time Ciri and Cahir reunite, they have both changed. This time, Ciri still is afraid, but then she recognizes the idea of redemption inside him, because it’s one she’s had to grapple with herself now. In doing so, she is no longer afraid of her shadow self. He apologizes and she sees him as a human and not as a nightmare, she accepts her shadow, thereby freeing herself from her fear that she is irredeemable. In other words, Ciri is brought closer to individuation than ever before.

Cahir, likewise, decides who he is and who he will be right there, thus achieving individuation and fulfilling the Jungian Self archetype (which is the archetype Jung associated with Rubedo). Cahir goes from being Ciri’s literal nightmare to being the one Ciri trusts to protect her from her nightmare in Bonhart:

“Run,” Ciri whispered, seeing who was coming down the second passage. “It is the devil incarnate. But he wants me and will not chase you… Go. Help Geralt…”

Cahir shook his head. “Ciri,” he said mildly. “I’m surprised at you. I cross the whole world to see you, and now that I found you, to redeem myself, to save you and defend you. And you want me to run away now?”

“You don’t know who you are dealing with.”

Cahir tugged on his gloves, removed his coat and wrapped it around his left arm. He waved his sword and swung it until it whistled in the air. “I would know.”

At the sight of the trio, Bonhart stopped. But only for a moment. “Oh,” he said. “There was a rescue? Your friends, witcheress? All right. Two more or less, it does not make a difference.”

Ciri suddenly thought of something. “Say goodbye to your life, Bonhart,” she cried. “This is your end. Here is your match!”

Undoubtedly she exaggerated. Bonhart caught the false note in her voice. He looked suspicious. “The witcher? Really?”

Cahir swung his sword, standing in position.

Bonhart did not waver. “Well, well, the witcher is younger than I thought... It would be more sensible, in that case, to get out of my way and flee. I want this wench, I have nothing against you.”

“Strong words,” Cahir said calmly. “Let’s see what else you can do. Angoulême, Ciri, run!”

Cahir’s being equated with Geralt in the above fight with Bonhart is significant. Ciri is Geralt's innocent side, and Cahir his not-so-innocent side. That Cahir both is held accountable by Geralt and comforted by him is important for Cahir and Geralt’s respective growths. By growing towards Ciri, his anima, Cahir has become more like Geralt, and towards Cahir’s ideal self as well: a knight who really saves people. He has become a philosopher’s stone.

The scene where Cahir dies describes quite a bit of red, noting that his blood falls at the feet of a statue like a sacrifice. He knows he doesn’t have much of a chance against Bonhart, but instead of the terrified boy begging Geralt to be spared, he’s willing to lay it all down to give Ciri a chance to escape. And he’s able to do it knowing that she expressed that she believed in him, and was trying to unnerve Bonhart to give Cahir the best chance possible.

Cahir’s mother told him to fuel himself with hate, but in the end, Cahir died for love, and he was better for it.

It’s also no coincidence then that after reconciling with her shadow in the person of Cahir, Ciri is finally able to defeat Bonhart. Nor is it a coincidence that she extends Bonhart the same mercy she once showed Cahir, sparking his redemption, to Bonhart. She can do this now, because she is no longer afraid of her mercy, her inner child, or of her darker side. She is fully herSelf. When Bonhart tries to kill her anyways, she is able to do what she has to do in that situation and without blaming herself.

Only then does Ciri truly mature and then reunite with her parents in Yennefer and Geralt (black and white, as Ciri is gray in hair; not coincidentally). She is exalted, then, as the philosopher’s stone. She is able to express her innocence and darker instincts together, weeping when she is told to say goodbye to them, and it’s the sight of that innocent child, the one that coexists inside her now, that spurs Emhyr to free her.

Neither Geralt nor Yennefer. Never again.

That awareness, in one fell swoop wiped away her fake mask of courage. Ciri’s face contracted and contorted her eyes filled with tears, and her nose ran. The girl fought with all her might, but in vain. A wave broke the dam as the tears made an appearance.

The Nilfgaardians in salamander cloaks looked on silently. And amazed. Some had seen her on the stairs covered in blood, had seen her talking with the Emperor. A witcheress with a sword, who was defying the Emperor himself. And now they were stunned, seeing a simple girl crying and sobbing.

...She struggled, but to no avail. The more she tried to restrain herself, the more she cried.

...

“A strange thing, fate,” she heard him whisper faintly. “Goodbye, my daughter.”

Of note, exaltation is where “man and wife” are “bur[ied] together/To be after revived in the spirit of life.” Geralt and Yennefer are sealed in a bath to commit suicide together, but make love first, and Ciri’s being freed means that they do not have to die after all. As the philosopher’s Stone, Ciri is able to produce the elixir of life.

Multiplication is the next stage, which is less overt in the text because in literature it’s often quantity, but it can be quality as well. Ciri taking her own destiny in her hands before the council of mages increases her quality as the philosopher’s stone; thereby I’d call that multiplication. Cahir dies during exaltation, but you could perhaps see his sacrifice as a way of enabling the multiplication and projection of Ciri.

Ciri’s ability to produce the elixir of life is further seen in the end scenario, where Ciri spirits both Geralt and Yennefer away to Avalon. Whether they are literally alive or not is not clear nor important, because they have transcended life itself. They have become legends, living eternally in them, as has everyone who traveled with them. Ciri telling Lancelot her story is projection, the sharing of the legend, the stone, the elixir of life, with the whole world... or in this case, worlds.

#the witcher #the witcher meta #ciri #cahir mawr dyffryn aep ceallach #cirilla fiona elen riannon #princess cirilla #yennefer of vengerberg #geralt of rivia #yenralt #alchemy #literary alchemy #jung #emhyr var emreis #vysogota #leo bonhart #andrzej sapkowski #ciri x cahir

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gosherlocked · 6 years

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Set This House On Fire

“ … that that God, who, when he could not get into me, by standing, and knocking, by his ordinary means of entering, by his word, his mercies, hath applied his judgments, and hath shaked the house, this body, with agues and palsies, and set this house on fire, with fevers and calentures, and frightened the master of the house, my soul, with horrors, and heavy apprehensions, and so made an entrance into me …” (John Donne, Sermon LXXVI)

(Warning: This is not so much a concise meta but more of a collection of ideas, a field or network of associations: house, body, fire, burning, fear. )

Read on under the cut

Sometimes you get these intuitions. Out of the blue I remembered the above quote, and it reminded me of Eurus burning down Musgrave Hall. So I did a little research. The quote is from a religious sermon by John Donne that on the surface does not seem to have any connection with BBC Sherlock. But we have been trained to look beneath the surface, don’t we? Let us have a closer look.

What I find interesting is this: Donne explicitly equates the house with a sick human body, the fire destroying it with fevers and calentures (heat strokes or fevers, delirium), and the master of the house with the human soul. We have discussed the Sherlock’s body/London analogy but I think that a Sherlock’s body/Musgrave Hall analogy works quite as well. And while there may be no explicit religious connotation in Eurus burning down the house, throughout the show there is a lot of religious symbolism which has been discussed extensively.

Since I believe that Eurus is not real but an aspect of Sherlock himself (or, to quote @sagestreet‘s brilliant meta X about Jung, a combination of Sherlock’s anima and shadow), the idea would be this: Musgrave burning down symbolises a traumatic (physical/psychological) experience suffered by Sherlock at some point in his childhood. His body was shaken, his soul was frightened with horrors.

P.S.: The motto of the sermon is taken from Mark 16:16: “… he that believeth not shall be damned.” Well then.

Maison de la Peur

However, there is more, and the illuminating hint is hidden very aptly on a matchbox. On the matchbox little Eurus is holding and which is foreshadowing the burning down of Musgrave Hall it says: “Maison de la Peur”. This is the French title of a 1945 Rathbone Holmes film, “The House of Fear”, in which several people are (allegedly) burnt to a crisp but in the end all are alive and it has just been an attempted insurance fraud. There are also orange pips. (@ebaeschnbliah managed to take these screenshots and these are the only ones in which you can more or less read the words on the box. Since I assume that this is more than a personal joke between Mark and Steven alone, they are fully expecting us to find these things.)

So we may assume that Musgrave Hall is associated with fear and fire. And there is still more because the burnt gingerbread man from TRF may also be read as a connection to the people in the Rathbone film who are allegedly burnt to a crisp but remain alive.

In TGG Moriarty threatens to burn the heart out of Sherlock, i.e. as early as here Sherlock’s body is connected to fire. Then, in TRF, Sherlock is threatened by sending him a burnt gingerbread man, reminding him once again of Moriarty’s words at the pool. This quote from TAB may also be read as a reference to burning Sherlock: “You want your skin fresh ... just a little crispy. “ Skin gets crispy if burnt, right? And this is Sherlock imagining the dialogue so the idea of his body getting burnt must be very deeply rooted in his consciousness.

On the surface TFP presents us with Mycroft as the one who has been deeply shaken by losing his home to fire, not Sherlock, who had already suffered his terrible trauma by losing Victor. But if you look at the pictures Eurus draws you can see that she wanted to destroy Sherlock himself, physically, by every means possible. You can even see Sherlock going up in flames. Therefore I would like to propose that in some way or other Sherlock’s trauma is connected to fire. I would love to hear your thoughts.

@ebaeschnbliah, @sagestreet, @sarahthecoat, @monikakrasnorada, @tjlcisthenewsexy, @tendergingergirl. @darlingtonsubstitution, @possiblyimbiassed, @raggedyblue, @loveismyrevolution, @may-shepard, @mrskolesouniverse

#sherlock #john donne #emp #set this house on fire #tgg #trf #tab #body metaphor #eurus holmes #mycroft holmes #maison de la peur #the house of fear #rathbone holmes

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ben-trovato · 4 years

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Archetypes & Individuation process : Jungian Psychology

Individuation process as per Carl Jung is the process of becoming one’s self, gaining individuality, which can mean our own uniqueness which is incomparable and makes me a single, homogeneous being.

The more I realise the self, the more will I be independent and embrace my inner self. My inner self is a combination of diving into my conscious and unconscious mind. So, individuation process is essential for a healthy living personality since it helps in understanding our own psyche.

Psyche is a combination of ‘conscious realm’ & ‘unconscious realm’, where ‘ego’ is a part of former and ‘personal & collective unconscious’ are a part of the latter respectively.

Source : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjgEOLocrus

Personal Unconsciousness consists of ‘the repressed/ suppressed elements from one’s life’, based on individual’s personal experiences of life. The personal conscious includes the individual's spirit as well as his or her spirituality, orientation to the outer world (optimism vs. pessimism, introversion vs. extraversion), beliefs and behaviors. Jung's concept of the personal unconscious includes the thoughts, feelings, memories, experiences, and emotions that are not permitted by the ego are maintained in the unconscious. These may range from experiences to traumatic events or thoughts. For example our dreams, fantasies, or our artistic expressions such as visual art, poetry, or music we create.

Collective Unconscious : Collective unconscious includes the archetypes and instincts. If I look back at the history of my existence till 16 generations, then there are 65,536 people existed for me to exist today. So, in a way I have inherited collective unconcious from thise 65k people. The fears one inherits from the earliest human ancestors and comes out by default when they encounter a thing or situation similar to that in real life at the moment. The intuition/instincts that something is about to happen are a part of it. For example when we see some wild animals, we are fearful or when we have some kind of intuition or sixth sense of something bad to happen while entering into a situation.

“Archetypes are images and themes which have universal meanings across cultures which may show up in dreams, literature, art or religion.” (Jung, 1947)

Archetypes provide a structure to the parts of our psyche and psyche functions optimally when the parts of psyche are balanced and are not inflated or deflated. Inflated parts are which suffer from over expression. Deflated parts are which under expressed or suppressed.

Now if look at balancing of the parts of psyche, then there is a need to confront our unconscious to be able to practice individuation process. How do we do so?

By analysing and recording the dreams of ourselves, we can reach at the level of converting unciouscious into consciousness but that's like a continuous long process. For analysing the dreams, most important is to understand the most important archetypes (as described by Jung).

The Persona : The persona is like a mask we wear through which we present ourselves to the world. This is the role a person plays, the way he present himself the world which can be different from who we really are. for example : a father, a mother, an actor, an engineer or any tag we carry with us when we are interacting with outside world. Personas are very strong at the following places : Police stations, Hospitals, Court rooms, Schools (Indian context) and even Indian mothers who are sacrificing a lot for their families do carry very strong personas of a mother at times.

Animus/ Anima : The “anima/animus” consists of the unconscious feminine side in males and the masculine tendencies in women. Each sex carries the attitudes and behavior of the other by virtue of living together for centuries. The psyche of a woman contains masculine behaviours or tensdencies (the animus archetype), and the psyche of a man contains feminine tendencies (the anima archetype). So it is like a mirror of our opposite biological sex.

The Shadow : Shadow For example : when my father tries to complete his aspirations of becoming an IPS/IAS officer on me as a daughter and asks me to opt for this profession. Or if my mother asks me not to behave in a particular manner, it is their shadow they are imposing on me. So, I can say that Shadow is the part of personality which is suppressed because of the fear of punishment or some other reasons (like fitting in a society).

The Self : the self is the real me which provides me the sense of uniqueness and unity as an individual. As per Jung, the ultimate goal of every individual is to achieve a state of self-actualisation, which comes with understanding the archetype ‘the self’.

My Reflections :

I completely agree with the quote in Carl Jung’s book, ‘Man & his symbols’ :

“A million zeros joined together do not, unfortunately, add up to one.”

I believe we usually forget our own selves in a race to fit in the society. Does that make us lead a happy life at all? I think no. The most important aspect of life should be to understand and embrace ‘the self’ to lead a happy and healthy life. Reading Carl Jung is really an enriching experience. If we study and understand ourselves, we never need to be dependant on other’s validation for living, and this is a way to become a successful leader or for that matter lead a successful life.

#self #jung #carljung #invidual #persona #dreams

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akamaru01 · 7 years

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Just watched the season finale of RWBY Vol 4 so I’ll drop a few thoughts of mine below the cut

tldr; GOD I LOVE THIS SHOW

Edit: Wow I am making this a lot longer than I intended to but I’ll keep going

So first of all, this was very much an exposition season, but personally I am 100% okay with that. It’s very reminiscent of Vol 1, actually, which makes sense considering this is the start of a new... arc I guess? New piece of the story. Whatever. So anyway, personally I believe it was handled very well. There was plenty of action to keep up the energy, but not so much that it left no time to tell the stories they wanted to tell. And boy were those stories great. I want to pick apart each of the main groups one at a time.

First of all, Ruby Team RNJR. So after the loss of Pyrrha, Penny, and in a way Yang, these four banded together to try and make things better, not giving up in the face of adversity. Jaune continues his training, and seems to have even become a stronger tactician, which we saw he had a potential talent for back in Vol 1 fighting the Deathstalker. His physical abilities are still being worked on, but he’s shown to continue getting better at a steady pace. However, he is shown to still be grieving, as shown after Qrow explains the story of the Maidens to them. We finally learned about Ren and Nora’s origin, and first of all those little kids were adorable as hell. And that Nuckelavee Grim is horrifying and I love it. So this origin also shows Ren going from a bubbly little kid to the stoic person he is today, after a tragedy like that who can blame him? While Nora, who grew up as a sad kid, after meeting Ren and gaining a friend was able to become the super energetic ball of energy she is without fear. But when the same Grimm came back, Ren LOST IT and I thought it was beautiful and heart breaking. This monster stole his life, and all that passion and fire in Ren boiled to the surface, his rage blinding him and only Nora was able to calm him down so he could refocus and face his demon with composure. Finally, we come to Ruby. Although she played an important part in the season, in her group she was very much not the main point of focus. But after the battle with Tryion, and Qrow explaining the religion of Remnant and the 4 powers, Ruby learns who she pissed off, but they all decide to continue the journey regardless. And then the next morning they realize Qrow is poisoned, so now Ruby has to deal with the possibility of someone else close to her dying, but resolves to not let it stop her. Through the course of the season, she leads Team RNJR on their journey through Anima, getting occasional advice from the other 3 regarding the area and direction.

Next up, Weiss. She’s come a long way from Vol 1. And now we confirm that her father is indeed a manipulative asshole, and we now know she has a devil of a little brother. Also a fantastic butler who is a much better father than Jacques. In the beginning of the season, she does not resist her father’s plans, regardless of her own feelings towards them, showing she was still afraid of him and his anger. However, during the reception, she is surrounded by ‘nobles’ who talk shit about Beacon and the Faunus. After everything she’s experienced and seen, she finds the courage to retaliate at all of them, angry that they would talk so poorly about other living beings. I loved this moment, because it shows her showing her development from Vol 1, and that she will no longer stand for such horribleness. After awakening her summoning power and causing a ruckus with a Boarbatusk put down by Ironwood, she is grounded by her father and berated for being ‘primitive’ by her brother. Her lashing out also caused Jacques to name Whitley his new heir. Soon after, Weiss decides on a new plan. She will no longer live under her father’s thumb, and will leave Atlas to find her friends and help people like a true Huntress. The end of Vol 4 shows her bribing a pilot to let her stowaway in the cargo hold before the plan to shut down Atlas completely is put into place.

Blake, after coming to the decision that anyone she is close to will be harmed by the White Fang like Yang was, leaves for her home in Menagerie. Of course, Sun being Sun he followed after her. Blake being Blake, she is initially annoyed at his insistence to go where she goes, and continues to be annoyed at him for most of the season. However, he is a friend, and has never been to Menagerie, and he’s already there, so she takes him with her. She explains that Menagerie may be a haven for Faunus, but it’s also almost like a prison, a place for Faunus to go so regular humans don’t have to interact with them. Menagerie isn’t even a kingdom. We find out her father was the previous leader of the White Fang and current chief of Menagerie, essentially making Blake a noble. I love this because it adds on to the duality between Blake and Weiss. Two nobles of very different backgrounds and upbringings, initially hostile to each other but over time become best friends. Kali quickly takes a liking to Sun, as he is basically a dork who clearly cares for Blake,even though he’s not always bright. Ghira dislikes him for the same actions. After chasing down a White Fang spy and battling one of Blake’s old friends, a battle where Sun got hurt, Blake remembers why she left in the first place. She yells at Sun for following her, and only wants to try to live in peace so that no one else can get hurt. However, Sun retaliates, telling her that he chose to fight, and so did Yang, and neither of them blame her for their injuries. Her problems don’t have to be her own anymore, because she has friends, and with this and the information that Adam is going after Haven Academy, they decide to head for Mistral to fight. This talk was very important, as Blake has said before that all she does is run away, and has in the past constantly tried to do things herself, usually with mixed or negative results.

Yang, after losing her arm, is in a state of emptiness and loss. She is shown to not be very active, and rather emotionless. Even when a new arm arrives for her, she refuses to try it, still traumatized by the battle with Adam. After a talk with Taiyang, Port, and Oobleck, she is feeling better, but not quite there. However, she hears the 3 of them talking about Taiyang going after Ruby, but he has to look after Yang. This, possibly coupled with her desire to help her sister, gives her the strength to try the arm. She begins sparring with Taiyang in an attempt to regain strength, get used to the arm, and learn about herself. She was still not completely okay for a time, but Taiyang told her the truth she needed to hear. She was reckless. She relied on her semblance and so never bother with defense, which is what led to her defeat. This explanation of her weakness allowed her to grow stronger not only physically, but mentally, with the knowledge of being better than before to prevent such an event in the future. So, with some more rest and recuperation, and a slick new paint job for the arm, she decided to go after Ruby in Mistral.

Oscar was a simple farmboy, now going crazy with a voice in his head telling him to leave home and fight evil. I loved how realistic Oscar’s reactions were to this. Freaking out, denial, saying he’s crazy, but overtime he knew it was all real. And so off he goes on this journey, finds Qrow, and gets his cane. I am excited to see more of what he does in the future.

And so finally we come to Salem. Holy shit. There was a couple of times where Cinder was shown to be TERRIFIED of her, which makes sense, and it makes me wonder about her origin and how she got her, and how truly loyal she is to the cause, or is she just afraid like Roman was? One thing’s for sure, she hates the hell out of Ruby and has mastered the Maiden powers so I imagine some shit’s gonna go down with her next season. Maiden vs Silver Eyes. Also I’m still holding onto the theory that it’s possible Ruby is the summer maiden but I won’t make any conclusions on that just yet.

And finally, to the more technical aspects. I love the new look, it is fucking amazing. I wasn’t sure about it way way back when the first teaser image of the new renders were shown but I quickly fell in love with it. The music was on fucking point and I would have to go back to every episode to comment on all of it but form the finale at least I can say I noticed 2 great scores. Slowed down and instrumental versions of both Boop and Cold and they were fantastic.

Okay that’s all from me and it took like 2 hours and I think I lost track of my original intentions somewhere along the line but whatever

And I know no one will read this but fuck it I made it already too late to care about that now

#rwby #rooster teeth #rwby vol 4 #rwby spoilers

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