I first wrote this post back in October, 2020 on my Instagram. At the time, including the summer of 2020, I was writing about the Mother Archetype. Due to a strange, bittersweet coincidence, I happened to deeply feel the bond we associate with “Mother” and our “birth place / motherland”.
War, re-discovered patriotism and suffering
Whoever has followed the series, already, knows, both phenomena are different manifestations of the Mother Archetype. The war of over 25 years ago, due to which I had become refugee and had eventually cooled into a frozen conflict, haphazardly reignited. I was totally consumed and shattered by the events. So much that couldn’t pull myself together to log into my site for months. I mean, even months after the war ended in 44 days.
In the background of this war and crippling pandemic, fashion seemed so superfluous. I kept asking and still ask myself why I dedicated this blog exclusively to fashion. And again, after putting my life on hold for months, the blog is the first place I log in to have a sense of purpose and continuity. In these moments of deep perplexity, this site feels like a tie that bonds me to the physical life. It pushed me to channel my efforts in one direction when I was crumbling into million pieces couple of years ago. Now this is my refuge again to hold on to reality, and not roll back into that darkness of nowhere.
Honestly, I understand I have complicated relationship with fashion. It is both superfluous and the most natural way of self-expression, the undeniable connection with the other world. It is Godly, but without God. I better stop and share the post that I consider worthy to stay. As mentioned, it points out a very important connection between mother, city and country of birth – the motherland. This connection is often an overlooked root of patriotism and admiration for heroism.
The original post with slight modification:
In these troubling times for my motherland, Jung’s writings on the Mother Archetype make more sense than ever to me. Living the experience is important to realize why we call our country of birth Motherland, why we can’t detach ourselves from it, our decisions, choices, even random tweets in the background are conditioned by our attitude towards the Mother Archetype. To break down a bit, by our attitude to our own mother, motherland, our city of birth, our own identity, alma mater, and even death.
As for this specific connection between the Mother Archetype and the “Motherland”, Jung refers to mythical monuments as a visual guide. He explains this intricate web of emotions and psychic processes as below. Very obvious, all the monuments share two not so little details – all are women and all carry City Walls on their heads instead of crown.
“The symbol-creating process substitutes for the Mother the City…. what was natural and useful to the child [ref. mother attachment] is a psychic danger for the adult, and this is expressed by the symbol of incest…: the infantile attachment [to mother] is a crippling limitation for the adult, whereas attachment to the city fosters his civic virtues and at least enables him to lead a useful existence.”
Therefore certain mythical female statues have city walls on the heads instead of crown. These monuments symbolize the transfer of attachment from actual mother to the motherland / “mothercity”. This is an indication of healthy dynamics of psychic growth. Does it explain why patriotisms and martyrdom are so revered?
Right here, these thoughts make me wonder. What Jung would have to tell about, from what I see, another round of failed globalism. This archetype gives us a pretty much rounded answer to why globalism is such a difficult process. No matter how amazing it sounds in theory, the process has more layers than we realize. But, I’ll just leave it there and come about to our series.
Read other posts of the series:
Mother Archetype I
Mother Archetype II – Son Lover of the Mother Goddess
Mother Archetype III – Don Juanism
Mother Archetype IV – Homosexuality and Impotence
Mother Archetype V – Exaggerated Maternal Instinct
Mother Archetype VI – Home-Wrecker With a Mission
Mother Archetype VII – Shadow Daughter
Mother Archetype VIII – Mom Hater
Mother Archetype IX – Part Human, Part Supernatural
Mother Archetype XI – Teenage Crisis – Libido
Mother Archetype XII – Incest: Problem or Solution?
