Popular Culture is often just thoughtlessly consumed today as entertainment. That is unfortunate because if one looks deeply at many works of popular culture and analyzes them properly with the right tools and background knowledge regarding the sources from which they come, one will realize certain profound and noteworthy things which I will try to summarize below. We have done this by analyzing films such as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Harry Potter (and his different adventures), Regarding Henry, etc.
[1] Heroes and Villains | Works of popular culture generally have “Heroes” and “Villains.” These characters, their respective “journeys” and “adventures/misadventures” usually form the backbone of the stories. The journeys of heroes have been a main focus of this course because they reflect and mirror the real journeys that each of us undertakes in life. Each of us is “the Hero” of our own life. At the same time, we can also potentially become “the Villain” of both our life and the lives of others.
[2] Journeys and Spiritual Quests | The “journey” itself can be considered a spiritual quest. The essence of the “spiritual quest” can be expressed in this way: We may not be fully aware of it, but all of us are actually seeking (“questing”) in everything we do for a more MEANINGFUL and HAPPY existence. This can only be reached—I’m proposing—by pursuing a more profound “depth in life” and, at the same time, participating in something “bigger” than ourselves. The key words here are “depth” and transcendence.”
[3] Spirituality and Spiritual Quests | Hence, the (working) definition of the spiritual quest (or of “spirituality” itself) that I have proposed in this course is: The spiritual quest (or spirituality itself) is the human quest for meaning by finding ways to go deeper into oneself and transcend oneself for something bigger. We can shorten that to: Going “Deeper” and “Bigger” as the very essence of the spiritual quest. At their best, the different religions and spiritual traditions of the world try to enhance the development of this spiritual quest/spirituality in their own particular ways. Sometimes they are successful; at other times, they are not. Another main point I’ve emphasized is that spirituality is a basic human dimension. It is not the exclusive domain of institutional religions although the pursuit of spirituality has been predominantly done within religious institutions in the past. Hence, spirituality can be properly pursued within but also outside institutional religion today.
[4] Christianity and Jesus | We cannot neglect the major role that the Christian tradition and its central figure (Jesus Christ) have played in the history of Western civilization. For better or worse, Christianity has impacted many aspects of Western culture both in the past and still in our day. Therefore, a knowledge of key aspects of Christianity, particularly, of its central figure—Jesus Christ, is key to understanding Western culture itself and the many pieces of literature and popular culture (among other things) that come from it.
[5] Joseph Campbell and the Monomyth | The American mythologist Joseph Campbell proposed that stories of heroes around the world follow one basic plot which he outlined in his influential work A Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell called this plot “the monomyth.” It is also popularly known as “The Hero’s Journey.” These stories, which basically follow Campbell’s scheme of the hero’s journey, are found in various mythologies and religious-spiritual traditions. Or course, they are also found in many of the stories and plots of popular culture.
[6] Carl Jung & the Collective Unconscious | Why do so many stories around the world, across different cultures and historical periods follow one basic plot?, one may ask. The reason seems to lie in what the Swiss depth psychologist, Carl Jung, identified as “the collective unconscious.” This can be thought of as the vast, common consciousness of all humans everywhere and across very different cultures and historical eras, which they are nevertheless largely unaware of or do not usually think about (hence, “unconscious”).
[7] Humans and Storytelling | This “collective unconscious,” this common consciousness is marked by some important characteristics that do some vital things for us. The common human consciousness seems to be characterized by narrative thinking. In other words, we humans usually think in terms of stories and plots. Just listen to conversations happening around you when you are in a common area. Most people—you will realize—will be telling stories to one another. These stories follow some common patterns that can be called “archetypes.” We can even make a good case that humans look at life through the dominant stories that they are familiar with. This further underscores the importance of stories, the hero’s journey in those stories, and the archetypes that are dominant in the stories
[8] Archetypes – Carol S. Pearson | Archetypes can be described as “recurring symbols” or even “patterns of being human” (Carol S. Pearson), expressed in different symbolic characters. They can be found in all the mythologies, religions, art, and even dreams of people throughout history and across all cultures. Carl Jung thought that these archetypes form part of the collective unconscious. In this course, we have focused on six archetypes identified by Pearson in her work The Hero Within. They are: (1) The Innocent; (2) The Orphan; (3) The Seeker-Wanderer; (4) The Warrior; (5) The Caregiver-Altruist; (6) The Magician. We have proposed a simpler “Hero’s Journey” (than the one Joseph Campbell presented) in which these six different archetypes themselves are the different stages that are present in a Hero’s Journey.
[9] Different Meanings of Archetype | To elaborate further, we can say that these symbolic characters are universal patterns (hence, “archetypes”) of the different roles that humans have in life. They can also be symbols of dominant personality traits that we have as individuals. Moreover, they can also be understood as different stages of the Hero’s Journey. That is, they symbolize different dominant roles that we have to embody and fulfill in the different stages or circumstances of life.
[10] Limit and How We React to It | We have also emphasized the importance of the concept of “Limit” as found in “Limit Experiences and Situations.” A “Limit Situation” can be described as an intense moment when something major (either positive or negative [or both!] so powerfully discloses the limits of human beings to understand the mysteriousness of human existence. It forces us to make at least some sense of this event’s mysteriousness that transcends the ordinary limits of human understanding. When faced with a limit situation, humans try to put forward a possible explanation of the event. For example, one can interpret a tragedy as “God’s punishment” for sin. The truth of the matter though is: the explanation offered for “limit situations” are usually interpretations which cannot be completely proven. That’s why limit situations are fundamentally part of the mystery of life that we have to make sense of. Besides, our efforts to make sense of “limit” usually takes the form of a story (because of our innate narrative way of thinking) which, in turn, is generally expressed in terms of the different archetypes.
[11] Narrative Intelligence and our Spiritual Quests | Becoming knowledgeable and proficient in identifying the “Hero’s Journey” and the different archetypes that are in it, is a valuable skill for understanding ourselves, others, life in general and the world in which we live, in a deeper way. Carol S. Pearson calls this “archetypal and narrative intelligence.” It is my hope that from now on, we will not only thoughtlessly “consume” popular culture for its entertainment value. Rather, let us also apply the archetypal and narrative intelligence gained here to the different pieces of popular culture that we encounter so that we could draw precious lessons that would help us in our own particular spiritual quests wherever we may be in our life-journeys.
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