Australian MYTHOLOGY — Undstanding Ourselves Through Stories
Throughout history, people have used stories, myths and symbols to help others understand human behaviour. A story can give us a different perspective on something we have not yet recognised in ourselves.
Quasimodo, the bell-ringer of Notre-Dame, recently returned to my thoughts. I remembered this character from perhaps fifty or sixty years ago. Now his story has brought me a new question.
I use Quasimodo as a symbol of a person who feels imperfect and sees the world through that feeling. This is my own interpretation of the character. I am speaking about our inner attitude, rather than judging anyone by their appearance.
We may carry pain, beliefs and emotional habits that began long before we understood them. Some may have been passed down through our families. If we look at other people through that pain, we may look without seeing and listen without hearing. We may blame others without recognising what we ourselves bring into the situation.
Understanding ourselves gives us an opportunity to change how we respond. Our pain does not give us permission to pass it on to someone else.
Another thought expresses the limits of our understanding: we can count the seeds in an apple, but we cannot count all the apples that may come from one seed.
We can see what is in front of us, but we cannot see every possibility, every connection or every future result. That gives us a reason to be careful with our judgments and to ask what we can understand and improve in ourselves.
As I understand Jung’s work, he offered an outline of a path towards greater self-understanding. I want to describe how I have approached these questions through my own practical experience: what happened, what I noticed, what I did not understand, and how my understanding gradually changed.
This is the direction of Australian Symphony. I want to bring these experiences and reflections together so that someone who is searching, but does not know where to begin, may find a useful starting point.
The question I return to is simple: what can I learn about myself so that I cause less harm and contribute more to the lives around me?
