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In one of those cock-eyed theaters that are in New York, on 42nd and Broadway, I saw advertised Fire Women from Outer Space. That was a mythological idea. In Tibetan Buddhism these are called docheles—fire women from outer space! And in their spiritual powers they can excite you a little bit. And so I thought, Well, we’re getting back to the old days in a very funny way. Whenever the human imagination gets going, it has to work in the fields that myths have already covered. And it renders them in new ways, that’s all.
For the symbols of mythology are not manufactured; they cannot be ordered, invented, or permanently suppressed. They are the spontaneous productions of the psyche, and each bears within it, undamaged, the germ power of its source.
In the older mother myths and rites the light and darker aspects of the mixed thing that is life had been honored equally and together, whereas in the later, male-oriented, patriarchal myths, all that is good and noble was attributed to the new, heroic master gods, leaving to the native nature powers the character only of darkness––to which, also, a negative moral judgment was now added.
Mythologies are in fact the public dreams that move and shape societies, and conversely one's own dreams are the little myths of the private gods, antigods, and guardian powers that are moving and shaping oneself: revelations of the actual fears, desires, aims and values by which one's life is subliminally ordered.
Of what profit to the young man going off to war to have chanted over him, five long days and nights, the hymns and prayers of such a rite? What can be the meaning of this solemn sitting or standing or walking on a picture, this wearing of feathers and string? To anyone familiar with the pictorial language of myth and cult the answer is clear and simple: the one sung over becomes identified, inwardly and outwardly, with the divine hero, and thus imbibes his power and the harmony of his perfection.
Our outward-oriented consciousness, addressed to the demands of the day, may lose touch with these inward forces; and the myths, states Jung, when correctly read, are the means to bring us back in touch. They are telling us in picture language of powers of the psyche to be recognized and integrated in our lives, powers that have been common to the human spirit forever, and which represent that wisdom of the species by which man has weathered the millenniums.
The journey of the hero … I consider the pivotal myth that unites the spiritual adventure of ancient heroes with the modern search for meaning. As always, the hero must venture forth from the world of common-sense consciousness into a realm of supernatural wonder. There he encounters fabulous forces – demons and angels, dragons and helping spirits. After a fierce battle he wins a decisive victory over the powers of darkness. Then he returns from his mysterious adventure with the gift of knowledge or of fire, which he bestows on his fellow man.
The magic of the sacraments (made effective through the passion of Jesus Christ, or by virtue of the meditations of the Buddha), the protective power of primitive amulets and charms, and the supernatural helpers of the myths and fairy tales of the world, are mankind’s assurances that the arrow, the flames, and the flood are not as brutal as they seem.
From the Pyrenees to Lake Baikal, the evidence now is before us of a Late Stone Age mythology in which the outstanding figure was the Naked Goddess. And she can already be recognized in a number of her better-known later roles: as Lady of the Wild Things, Protectress of the Hearth, Consort of the Moon-bull, who dies to be resurrected––with herself thereby a personification of the mystery of the moon, which has the power to shed its shadow (as the serpent sloughs its skin) to appear reborn. Not a few of her images suggest pregnancy: she was almost certainly a patroness of childbirth and fecundity.
The wonder is that the characteristic efficacy to touch and inspire deep creative centers dwells in the smallest nursery fairy tale—as the flavor of the ocean is contained in a droplet or the whole mystery of life within the egg of a flea. For the symbols of mythology are not manufactured; they cannot be ordered, invented, or permanently suppressed. They are spontaneous productions of the psyche, and each bears within it, undamaged, the germ power of its source
Mythology tells us that where you stumble, there your treasure is. . . . And where it seems most challenging lies the greatest invitation to find deeper and greater powers in ourselves. But where the power to respond succeeds, there comes a new amplification of life and consciousness.

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