Maps of Meaning, Lesson 6: The Great Father

Lesson #6 – The Great Father: Jordan Peterson’s take, Camping in Harriman, Health and Voluntary Struggle

(Note: If you’d like to read along with me, you can get Jordan Peterson’s Maps of Meaning on amazon.)

Revisiting The New Framework of the Hero (as discussed in Lesson 5, all previously written text is in italics)

In “Maps of Meaning,” Peterson provides an incredibly simple (and ineffably dense) framework through which to interpret the hero’s journey and your daily experience. He says there are 7 players in the divine drama, pictured here:

There is the Archetypal Son (the individual, knower, the divine hero) who is both hero and adversary, nested in the confines of The Great Father (culture, explored territory), who is both supportive and tyrannical, nested inside The Great Mother (nature, the unknown, unexplored territory) which is both creative and destructive, and all of which springs forth from (and ultimately returns to) the Dragon of Chaos (reality).

He communicates that the 3 primary players in the drama – the individual, culture, and nature – possess both positive and negative aspects.

Today’s Focus

We will discuss the Great Father – culture and society, tradition, the protective walls of your home and community, the warmth of the fire – and how this is both supportive and tyrannical to the modern individual.

The Great Father: The Positive

“Construction of culture is creation of the mythic Great and Terrible Father, tyrant and wise king, as intermediary between the vulnerable individual and the overwhelming natural world.” – Maps of Meaning, pg. 206

Our traditions, our community, and our culture are the foundation upon which the individual stands, the foundation upon which our exploratory creative action is made possible. It is The Great Father which keeps chaos at bay, the enemies at the gates, and the unknown “out there.”

The Great Father is the source of emotional stability and safety. The Great Father is the source of all our modern pleasures.

The Great Father: The Negative

The flip side of the Great Father’s support is his tyranny. Societal structures are disciplines which shape the individual into a player in the societal game. Too much involvement (and not enough creative exploration on the part of the individual) turns the Great Father into a Tyrant.

The Tyrannical father opposes revolution and creative exploration. What started as support for the thriving of the individual becomes an ossification of the human spirit, as the “walls [which] provide a barrier to the sudden influx of the unknown … block progress forward”. (pg 215)

The tyrannical aspect of the Great Father directly opposes the novel exploration of the divine individual.

Real World Application of this Understanding: Your Mental and Physical Health

The supportive aspect of the Great Father is our couch, our television, our fridge full of food, our thermostat, our comfortable bed, our food delivery services, our automobiles, AND EVERYTHING WHICH MAKES LIFE EASY.

Here’s the catch: I posit that, in the realm of physical and mental health, this supportive aspect of the Great Father is simultaneously the tyrannical aspect as well.

The environment grows the organism, and when an environment because too supportive, the organism has no need for strength. Our amenities both support and weaken us.

I believe our gratitude muscles suffer the same fate as our skeletal muscles. Because everything is so accessible, easy, and fast, we’ve come to expect these benefits. We believe that our modern advances are the norm, rather than see them as the benefit of a long line (unfathomably long) of humans toiling upward to produce a society which protects against the terrible unknown. This is an achievement of indescribable strength of human will, cooperation, and unfathomable grace from circumstance.

Ironically, now we need to protect against this very protection.

In terms of our physical and mental health, the Great Father has become tyrannical. The ease of modern living has led to dis-ease in our minds and bodies.

We need to struggle. We need to walk up hill. We need to experience the discomforts of our ancestors to actually experience the comforts of our present.

We need to seek out voluntary struggle. We need to stand on the foundation of the Great Father – and all the supportive benefits culture brings – and strive forward in our health and our passions. We can use this foundation to achieve the good life, whatever that is in the unique confines of your particular existence.

But we must be careful. We must pay heed. If we are not conscious and aware, that foundation we stand upon can quickly become our ceiling and our walls WHICH LIMIT FORWARD PROGRESS. We must walk the fine line of enjoying the fruits of the Great Father while avoiding it’s poison.

This is the plight of the modern individual. And this is the journey that we find ourselves on together.

Further Reading:

This is the focus of my new book which can be found here: Jiu Jitsu and Resistance: An Antidote to Modern Struggle. Should you read it, I deeply appreciate the support, and I hope that this framework provides you the tools to live your best life and win the battle against Resistance.