Scarcity of Courage

The use of myth and ritual to combat fear, anxiety

and shame.


What we are experiencing today is a scarcity of courage. Traditionally, a variety of myths and their accompanying
rituals were employed to tackle the problem. These rituals
would offer transformative moments where the person experiencing the ritual would be reborn through the re-enactment of the myth within the protective environment of the
group.

In the first chapter of Karen Armstrongs book, The
Case For God, she walks us through a history of religion
and ritual since humankind first existed, beginning with
the rituals that shape pre-historic life. For the pre-modern
person, myth only makes sense in the context of the ritual
which brings it to life. It isnt the myth thats important, or
even the truth behind it; instead what matters is the transformation caused by the ritual. Its pointless knowing that death
is intimately entangled with life if you dont live as though
thats true. So, 30 000 years ago, a boy would crawl through
a mile of underground labyrinthine passages with no light,
and to the terrifying sound effects of screaming and thumping to find himself in a cave covered with paintings, where
he would be introduced to the tribal rituals surrounding
hunting, victory, death and birth and there in the cave he
wouldnt just hear the stories; he would know them through
a new lens of courage, because hed had to find that courage simply to make it to the cave. And, when he left the cave
and faced the inevitable terrors of the adult world, he would
know where to find courage to live. (Karen Armstrong, 2009)

This rich history of rituals is now either only associated with religion, and thus seems unfit and out of context in
our secular society, or it has disappeared completely. While
some of our desires have changed compared to that of
people several years ago, our basic emotional needs have

remained the same. Is there a way to make traditional rituals

relevant again (in the frame of our secular society) to address our constant and transcendent emotional needs? Focusing on the ever growing problem of fear, in our modern
world, could we reinvent rituals to alleviate fear and exercise
courage? How can we use ritualized social interaction to
find balance between our personal fears (which are presented as anxiety and shame) and courage?

But to start talking about courage we first have to
define it in order not to confuse it with monumental acts
of bravery and the such. "Courage" comes from the latin
word "cor", which means heart, and specifically it means
to tell a story wholeheartedly. Thus, the hero archetype is
courageous not because he/she defies an external evil but
because of taking the risk to expose who he/she really is
and this exposure of their flaws (what Jung calls the shadow
self) is what makes them stronger. Adding to that, courage is
not to be confused with fearlessness, rather it is the decision of doing something despite being afraid. So courage
is found in the simple act of taking the risk to be authentic,
to be different and ultimately to be flawed. However, what
has become the norm during the past years is an obsession with the objective and the rational and a deep fear
of the subjective and the emotional and with the myth of
objectivity comes conformity and a deep fear of taking the
risk to really express ones true self. Therefore, the only safe
way is to go with the herd, the perpetuating force of logic
and rationality. Nevertheless, this lack of taking the risk to
face our fears has numbed our soul, it has created a kind of
paralysis. As Simone Weil beautifully puts it The protection
of mankind from fear and terror doesnt imply the abolition
of risk; it implies on the contrary, the permanent presence
of a certain amount of risk in all aspects of social life; for the

absence of risk weakens courage to the point of leaving

the soul... (Simone Weil, 2002, p.33). Therefore, as much as
the objective side is needed, so is the subjective, that is the
emotional side. The two are not mutually exclusive, they are
complementary, they have distinct functions but together
they create our experience of the world.

Similarly, the ancient Greeks had logos and mythos.
The former, translates today into speaking but it was more
accurately the rational side, the pragmatic mode of thought,
the things that people had to know to survive on a daily
basis. It was also what was necessary to advance the knowledge to the future. In other words, it was forward-looking.
The latter, was to acquire a deeper understanding of the
things that couldn't be explained by logos, for example
emotions, such as grief, joy as well as passions and the ego.
Unlike today, where the notion of myth is correlated with a
self-indulgent fantasy and thus something not true, for the
Greeks it was more of an experience and was not understood as a factual story. As much as the logos was necessary
to survive and move into the future, mythos was devised to
explain the obscure regions of the psyche and to do that it
usually looked into the past.

Today we live in a society of scientific logos and myth
has fallen into disrepute, taking along with it the experiences necessary to make us brave enough to take the risk to live
and express our true self. And myth can only be transmitted
through experience; it cannot be merely explained, thus it is
inseparable from the ritual that re-enacts it. The problem, in
our time, is that by being disconnected from our senses and
focusing on the mind (again, the rational) we have also lost
this connection with the mythical and the mysterious. We
even try to understand religious myths under the scope of

logic. But, as Marrett explains savage religion is something not

so much thought out as danced out (R. R. Marrett, 1914, p.34).
So, in order for a myth to be meaningful the experience of it is
crucial, because only then is it possible for every person to make
connections with his own life and to appropriate the myth so that
it makes sense for him/her.

This is evident in the movie Upstream Color. By intentionally leaving the narrative loose, the director wants to create
an experience rather than an array of factual stories. Thus, the
protagonist of the film, a woman amidst a mental breakdown
who is desperately trying to find and formulate her own narrative,
seems as a very appropriate choice. By not having a clear plot
both in the movie as a whole and in the womans life, everyone
is able to appropriate the film and find connections to his or her
own life. In a sense, the film is the ritual, and the viewer participates in it actively by formulating his/her own narrative.

Even in our language this favoring towards the rational is
evident in the metaphors we use in our daily life. As explained in
the book Metaphors we live by, rational is up while emotional
is down, for example: The discussion fell to the emotional level, We put our feelings aside and had a high-level intellectual
discussion... etc. (Lakoff, Johnson, p.17). In other words, rational
is good while emotional is bad. This is further discussed in the
book as the myth of objectivism and the myth of subjectivism.
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson propose an alternative to
these two models and claim that no idea is either purely unbiased (objective) or merely intuitive (subjective), it is rather an
experiential synthesis of the two. We experience things and by
combining the absolute truths weve learnt about them and
our own interaction with them we define our own reality. What is
interesting in this is mainly the connection with our educational
system (and society as a whole) which focuses merely on the
rationalization of knowledge which cultivates in us a deep fear of

expressing emotion or our own intuition.

So this fear of expressing emotion, perpetuated by the
educational system, leads to a vicious cycle of fear of making
mistakes, fear of failure and ultimately shame (fear of being a
failure). As Rene Brown explains, shame has reached the levels of
an epidemic. Here, it is important to differentiate between guilt
and shame: The former can be summed up as I did something
bad, so it points at the action, the latter can be summed up in
the phrase I am bad, so it is directed at the deeper psyche of the
individual. As she explains, shame is directly correlated with most
anxiety disorders that rage our time. She talks about how vulnerability is misunderstood as weakness, while for her, being able to be
vulnerable is the only way to ultimately be courageous. Also, this
connects with the idea of collective rituals which most of the times
are designed to foster a true connection between individuals and
to achieve that connection the participants have to be vulnerable.
Take for example the case of a funeral, the ritual is used to connect
the people in grief with the rest of the community and to make
them vulnerable means to find the courage to overcome the loss.
So rituals can play a crucial role in the alleviation of anxiety and can
foster courage. The fear of connection that we experience today is
deeply rooted in this fear of being vulnerable.

Fear of intimacy is also an epidemic of our time, we do not
want to risk to connect with someone because of crippling fear of
rejection, betrayal etc. But how can we make this shadow our asset
and draw strength from it? Jung explains that in order for courage
to exist, we have to be at ease with being vulnerable : The battle
between the hero and the dragon shows more clearly the theme of the
egos triumph over regressive trends. For most people the dark side of
the personality remains unconscious. The hero must realize that the
shadow exists and that he can draw strength from it. He must come to
terms with his destructive powers if he is to overcome the dragon. I. E.
Before the ego can triumph, it must master and assimilate the shadow.
(p. 112)


Also, something interesting to note here is that in
Greece, the mythical figure of fear, called phobos, was
always drawn on the shields of heroes, such as Hercules,
Leonidas and Alexander the Great. Thus fear was not perceived as something that made these men weak but rather
as something that gave them the strength to surpass what
the rational mind would believe possible and to achieve
the impossible. Besides that, the myths of ancient Greece
showcased the vulnerability of the hero, such as in the case
of Achilles. While the myth refers to the Achilles heel as a
physical vulnerability this of course can be extended to the
sphere of the psychological, again referring to this idea of
drawing strength from our shadow self.

Phobos depicted on the shield of Leonidas


Rituals were traditionally used to offer relief from fear in
highly uncertain times. In 1948, the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski examined the tribe of the Trobriand Islanders and discovered that they had developed a way to relieve fear and anxiety in
highly uncertain moments through the use of ritual. He explains
that the islanders had two very different ways of fishing depending
on the setting that they had to fish in: The first one was the inner
lagoon, where there was plenty of fish and little danger while the
second one was the open sea, where the yield varied and the
danger was high. Malinowski notes that when the islanders fished
in the inner lagoon they didnt use any ritual beforehand because
they could depend on their skill and knowledge to get the job
done. When they had to fish out in the open sea, however, they
used magic rituals to ensure a good yield and the safety of the
fishermen.

Malinowskis theory can still be observed, in our modern
society, in a number of rituals that people perform in times of high
uncertainty and fear. His observations have been extended, for
example, in the field of sports, like baseball and that of gambling.
However, apart from these exceptions, rituals designed to aspire
courage reduce fear and foster social interaction are increasingly
disappearing. On the other hand, the ones that survive are the
more secular and personal (superstitious) rituals; like knocking
on wood, wearing favourite pieces of clothing when being interviewed for a job or rehearsing before a speech, among others. But
why did we abandon rituals that require social interaction with others, like eating together, dancing or bathing? How can we reinvent
convivial rituals of the past and make them relevant to our secular
society? Lastly, how can these convivial rituals help us alleviate the
fear of scarcity?

Starting with these questions and trying to address a
personal fear, a ritual was born. As a person without a thyroid the
fear of not having access to my hormonal replacement pill is crippling. During my recent visit to Greece, I realized that the case of
drug shortage was actually not at all a distant and unlikely scenar-

io. There was a shortage in several hormonal replacement pills,

leaving people like me with no alternative. While this is definitely
something that can cause panic to an immense amount of people
(1 out of 10 people has thyroid disease), it is at the same time an
opportunity to change the existing ways we use to heal ourselves.
How can we, for example, use myth and ritual as an alternative to
simply taking a pill? Do we need to do it alone, or can we share
the experience with others? Does it need to be sensually mundane, or can it instead stimulate the senses and be an exciting
experience on its own?

The rituals goal was at first to address a scarcity of medication in times of high uncertainty. With that in mind, however,
the focus was also directed towards a scarcity of gratitude that we
are experiencing today. I dont feel grateful to the pharmaceutical
company that provides me with a pill, even when my life depends
on it. What if we shift the way we perceive the pill from commodity
to gift? When someone is offering you a gift, you intuitively feel
grateful, when there is a person caring for your health the experience changes, it becomes a bonding ritual; A communion.
Inspired by Alain De Bottons book Religion for Atheists and
deeply convinced that there is a way to borrow ideas from existing
religion and reinvent them so that they are relevant in the context
of a secular society I decided that the Christian communion ritual
was the most appropriate for several reasons. First of all, it is about
sharing an intimate experience with people you may or may not
know. In the context of the steam bath this also holds true; people are naked and vulnerable among other people. Sharing their
vulnerability and a common sensual experience is what makes the
bonding process easier. The Christian Communion is also about
this notion of the sacrifice that becomes a gift. In the church context it is about the sacrifice of Christ and the sacrament consists of
his blood and body in the form of wine and blood. Just like when
watching a film, the participant in this ritual will have to let go of
the rational, logic side that reminds him/her that this transformation is in reality impossible. The participant is instead convinced of

the fact merely by willingly choosing to focus on the experience

and not the facts. In the context of the steam bath the sacrifice
comes from people and is directed towards people. The euthyroid
person is sacrificing time and ultimately the urine that contains valuable hormones that will be used to heal the hypothyroid person.
The hypothyroid person is responsible for providing the bathing
experience and the tea. In this setting there is an exchange of gifts
that initiates a perpetual cycle of giving, receiving, gratitude and
connection.
The new rite, called the naked communion is split up in four
parts, according to the liturgy of the eucharist in the Christian
church. Every part has a very important role to play. The first part is
the Preparation of the altar and the gifts, in which the hypothyroid
are preparing the steam bath and the herbs for the tea. This stage
also includes the undressing and preparing physically and psychologically for the steam bath. The second part is the Eucharistic
Prayer, where the medicine is prepared as a gift in the lab in beautiful vessels that allow the viewer to see the hormone crystallization
process. The preparation, however, is mysterious, all people are
participating but the exact method is not revealed, again to focus
on the experience and symbolism and not on the rational. The
third part, is the Communion rite, in which the hypothyroid and
euthyroid people are exchanging the gifts in the nurturing context
of the steam bath. The hypothyroid person offers the herbal tea
and the euthyroid person the medicine, in the form of sugar rock
candy to accompany the tea. It is here that it becomes apparent
that the process of healing can be much more sensual and convivial than merely taking a pill. The last part is the Concluding Rites,
where Christians are send back to the world to in turn become sacraments themselves. In a similar fashion, that is the stage where the
sacramental gift of urine occurs in the intimacy of the toilet.

The ritual is then repeated every evening after work, a time
that is traditionally used by many cultures for their public bathing
rituals as it marks the passage from activity to inactivity.


As with all rituals, the one analysed below can be understood as two complementary actions; the implicit action of providing a meaningful experience and the instrumental action of
achieving a goal.

The implicit action of the ritual is to bring back the lost
ceremony of public bathing, an activity that combines a strong
sensual experience with physical and spiritual purification and
convivial social interaction. Humans have always used rituals to create social bonds and even to nourish interpersonal relationships.
For example, nearly all fraternities and sororities have rituals incorporated into their structure, from elaborate and sometimes secret
initiation rites, to more formalized ceremonies used to convene a
meeting. Thus, the meaning of the ritual is both to foster self care
and conviviality. On the other hand, the instrumental action of
the ritual is to offer an alternative scenario in case of the synthetic
drug shortage. The herbal steam bath is designed to stimulate the
thyroid and boost the production of hormones that will be later
extracted (from urine) and offered to people that need them. Research has shown that when the body temperature of an euthyroid
person rises to 39 degrees the thyroid produces 23% more thyroid
hormone, called thyroxine (Carrell et al, 2014); this surplus is then
excreted in urine. Secondly, thyroid stimulating herbs are added to
the steam bath to induce further production of hormones.


The ritual described above could thus provide a way to shift the
emphasis from being dependent on pharmaceutical companies
to creating a valuable connection with others. The goal is to move
away from the impersonal way the medical field operates at the
moment towards a system that would connect us more intimately with the people that provide for our healing and to learn to
express our gratitude. In other words, to complement the brain
centred process of western medicine with emotional and sensual
experiences that could prove effective in different ways. The vulnerability aspect is also present in the ritual, in the form of nakedness
and exposing the imperfections. Of course, as mentioned before,

this vulnerability from both sides is necessary for a deeper emotional connection to be even possible. Through the ritual, the drug
is transformed from a commodity to a gift and the act of taking the
pill is transformed from a mundane habit to a convivial ceremony
of gratitude.

References

Print.

Jung, C. G. Man and His Symbols. London: Picador, 1964.

De Botton, Alain. Religion For Atheists. London: Penguin,
2012. Print.

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live by.
Chicago: University of Chicago, 1980. Print.

Campbell, Joseph, and Bill D. Moyers. The Power of Myth.
New York: Doubleday, 1988. Print.

Upstream Color. Dir. Shane Carruth. Perf. Amy Seimetz,
Frank Mosley, Shane Carruth. Erbp [us], 2013. DVD.

Weil, Simone. The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration
of Duties towards Mankind. London: Routledge, 2002. Print.

Hicks, David. Ritual and Belief: Readings in the Anthropology of Religion. Lanham, MD: AltaMira, 2010. Print.

Armstrong, Karen. The Case for God. New York: Knopf,
2009. Print.

Brown, Rene. The power of vulnerability. TED. June 2010.
Lecture.


Hoyt, Randy. Journey to the Sea. Mythos & Logos: Two
Ways of Explaining the World. Randy Hoyt, 1 Mar. 2009. Web. 22
Feb. 2014. <http://journeytothesea.com/mythos-logos/>.

Marett, R. R. The Threshold of Religion. London: Methuen,
1914. University of Toronto Libraries. Web. 20 Feb. 2014. <https://
archive.org/details/thresholdofrelig00mareuoft>.