Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of BeliefWhy have people from different cultures and eras formulated myths and stories with similar structures? What does this similarity tell us about the mind, morality, and structure of the world itself? From the author of 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos comes a provocative hypothesis that explores the connection between what modern neuropsychology tells us about the brain and what rituals, myths, and religious stories have long narrated. A cutting-edge work that brings together neuropsychology, cognitive science, and Freudian and Jungian approaches to mythology and narrative, Maps of Meaning presents a rich theory that makes the wisdom and meaning of myth accessible to the critical modern mind. |
Contents
The Birth of the World Parents | 145 |
The Constituent Elements of the World in Dynamic Relationship | 146 |
Novelty the Great Mother as Daughter of the Uroboros | 155 |
The Spontaneous Personification of Unexplored Territory | 158 |
Unexplored Territory as Destructive Mother | 162 |
Unexplored Territory as Creative Mother | 168 |
The Heavenly Genealogy of the Destructive and Creative Mothers | 170 |
The Exploratory Hero as Son of the Heavenly Mother | 182 |
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The Involuntary Descent and Disintegration of Osiris | 130 |
The Birth and Return of Horus Divine Son of Order and Chaos | 131 |
Voluntary Encounter with the Underworld | 132 |
Ascent and Reintegration of the Father | 133 |
The Constituent Elements of Experience as Personality Territory and Process | 136 |
The UroborosPrecosmogonic Dragon of Chaos | 141 |
The Metamythology of the Way Revisited | 183 |
St George and the Dragon | 184 |
The Process of Exploration and Update as the MetaGoal of Existence | 186 |
Order the Great Father as Son of the Uroboros | 208 |
Explored Territory as Orderly Protective Father | 209 |
Explored Territory as Tyrannical Father | 212 |
The Heavenly Genealogy of the Tyrannical and Protective Fathers | 213 |
The Exploratory Hero as Son of the Great Father | 214 |
Adoption of a Shared | 216 |
The Death and Rebirth of the Adolescent Initiate | 224 |
Challenge to the Shared | 233 |
The Paradigmatic Structure of the Known | 242 |
Nested Groups and Individuals | 243 |
The Fragmentary Representation of Procedure and Custom in Image and Word | 252 |
The Dual Death of the Revolutionary Hero | 273 |
The Crucified Redeemer as Dragon of Chaos and Transformation | 280 |
The Socially Destructive and Redemptive Journey of the Revolutionary Hero | 281 |
The Rise of SelfReference and the Permanent Contamination of Anomaly with Death | 283 |
Archetypes of Response to the Unknown | 307 |
Notes | 471 |
References | 503 |
Permissions | 513 |
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Common terms and phrases
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