Maps of Meaning, Lesson 7: Apprenticeship

Lesson #7 – The Apprentice: Pursuing Mastery and Competence Through Restriction

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

Apprenticeship

Jung, Nietzsche, and Peterson have all demonstrated the need to become an apprentice, to subordinate yourself to a discipline, so that the discipline can develop you into an actualized being. The role of the discipline is to trade all of your potential – through time, effort, struggle, and study – to craft you into something real, tangible, and capable of executing in the world.

Last week we discussed the Great Father – culture, society, and tradition – and how this is both supportive and tyrannical to the modern individual. Perhaps the most positive aspect of the Great Father is the opportunity for apprenticeship!

It is the stable society which supports the individual’s pursuit of education and competence which allows that individual to take these newfound skills and upgrade that society as a result. Michelangelo would not have had time to paint if he had to hunt his own food. Stephen King would not have written had his society not produced the written word, books, and publication.

The relationship between apprentice (soon to be master) and society is reciprocal.

Culture provides the opportunity for apprenticeship so that citizens can become masters and contribute back to the culture. Each informs the other. This is the relationship between the Hero and the Great Father: the great father protects the hero from the chaos in the unknown, giving him the opportunity to become something valuable, and that value is experienced when the hero then confronts the unknown productively and expands the known (culture) in the process.

“Following the successful “apprenticeship,” the individual is competent to serve as his own master - to serve as an autonomous incarnation of the hero. This means that the individual’s capacity for “Cultural imitation” – that is, his capacity for subservience to traditional order – has been rendered subordinate to his capacity to function as the process that mediates between order and chaos.” – Pg 232, Maps of Meaning

The hero only becomes the hero because of an apprenticeship which crafted him or her into someone of tremendous utility. The environment grows the organism. The individual needs the restriction of a discipline to remove the superfluous – from both his or her actions and character – so that all is left is the usefulness of a worthwhile skill and a character which can wield that skill in service of his or her people.

Real World Application of this Understanding: Become an Apprentice

I believe this is the most worthwhile aspect of training Jiu Jitsu. The art is so difficult, so complex, so demanding, that the only way to “survive” that environment is to acquire the strength (and remove the weakness) that the gentle art demands. For me, this and philosophy have been the disciplines under which I was and am an apprentice.

I deeply believe that each of us can find a passion which lights us up, challenges us, and forces us to grow. If it can be a physical pursuit, like Jiu Jitsu or Yoga, all the better. But being an apprentice in chess or cooking can be just as rewarding.

The environment grows the organism. We need to create the environments which will produce the strengths we wish to possess. If you do not know what you want to be, ask, “Who do I want to be,” and then determine what environments would create that change within you.

“But My Life Is To Busy To Become An Apprentice”

Then hold off on acquiring new skills (for now). We still have one silver bullet in our pockets. One of the best disciplines to become an apprentice of is our intimate relationships. Become an apprentice of your marriage. Learn what it has to teach.

For me, marriage has continually been the master which has removed my shortcomings. To subordinate yourself to marriage, to truly serve your partner, and to learn from the experience with an open heart, is what Ram Dass called “the yoga of relationships.” There is enough gold there to keep us busy for a lifetime.

Conclusion:

So whether it’s Jiu Jitsu, Yoga, Marriage, or anything else, become an apprentice in something worth mastering. In the process of mastering your craft, you will master yourself, and will now have more to offer the people you serve.

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.