The Wounded King
This very old idea about mythic reverberation was understood as one which takes place in a triad between Creator, Culture, and Individual. Each entity within the triad mysteriously and deeply affects and inspires the other two. Thus, within a number of ancient Babylonian and Assyrian tales, the psychological, moral, and spiritual states of the heroic character (of the king or queen), were directly reflected in the health of the people, the homeland, its flora and fauna, and even the weather.
When the ruler was ethical and whole, the culture was also. When the king or queen was ill from having broken taboos, or had become sick with power, greed, hatred, sloth, envy, (insert any of the 7 deadly sins here), then the land fell into a famine. Insects and reptiles rained down from the skies. People weakened and died. The people turned on one another, and nothing new could be born.
Comparative mythologists tell us that this mythic cycle of stories is found in many cultures and traditions. In the West, as recent as the 12th Century CE, this mythic tale is known as the “Wounded King” or the “Fisher King” myth…
“The story of the Fisher King is an example of what American writer and mythologist Joseph Campbell calls the “Monomyth”, the story of man’s search for himself, or the Hero’s Journey. In Arthurian legend, the Fisher King is an immortal king… the last in a long line charged with keeping the Holy Grail. However, he was wounded in the groin, and incapable of performing his tasks himself. He was also unable to father a next generation to carry on after his death. His impotence affected the fertility of his land, reducing it to a barren wasteland. All he could do is fish in the river near his castle and wait for the “chosen one” who would be able to heal him.”
- Marianne Fisher
The Fisher King mythology has been retold by scholars and scoundrels alike, from T S Elliot’s Wasteland… to Monty Python’s The Holy Grail.
Mythologists consider the Fisher King to be a figure of paradox: a guardian of great mystery who is himself wounded and in need of healing. He waits in pain for a question to be asked, a question that might restore both himself and his land: Whom does the Grail serve? Until that moment of recognition and empathy, the king cannot be healed, and neither can the world around him.
This myth, although ancient in origin, has been re-told for eons, and still holds relevance today. By now, the intrepid reader has drawn their own philosophic or psychological parallels. For many of us, these times in which we live seem barren… social systems broken by inequality, injustice, and corruption. Likewise, we the people… feel the dis-ease, the angst and alienation. And as in the ancient tale, we look upon a wounded king… one unaware that it is empathy that will make our world whole again.
Let us set aside the “man who would be king” concept for a moment and recognize the psychic resonance that exists between the populace and the land…
Our post-modern, socially mediated world has fallen prey to the siloed, insulated information streams that serve only to separate and isolate us from any sense of community. The late great Robert Anton Wilson called these phenomena “Reality Tunnels” where consensual reality has been splintered into competing, alt-realities. Our numerous social media platforms leverage these reality tunnels to their own nefarious ends.
As we have seen, the breakdown in community, driven by the isolating nature of social media, becomes a community wide affliction… indeed a cultural ailment. Thus, our post-modern American (world) culture suffers from the affliction of alienation and abandonment. This is an illness of the soul that cannot heal as long as we are unaware that it is empathy that will make our world whole again...
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- J♥
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