Mythic Mapping: The Creation of a Tool for Self-Analysis

Abstract

Trauma affects over 50% of the population. From sexual abuse to domestic violence, a terrifying number of people in the West will go through some sort of turning point that changes their lives forever. As a rape survivor and having suffered debilitating postpartum depression, the author of this dissertation knows this firsthand. C. G. Jung himself experienced his own life-altering experience when he split from Freud, after which he went down his own unique individuation path. This dissertation explores how a traumatic turning point can open the gateway to an individual’s conscious individuation path. Mythic Mapping combines game design, storytelling, active imagination, and dreamwork into a life-long healing adventure.  This system utilizes stories of eight goddesses from around the world as mythic examples of individuation after trauma to help a person craft a mythic character. Mythic Mapping has been created to be utilized by individuals who may not have access to therapy, and thus self-discovery is wrought into an evolutionary system that includes a workbook, map, spinner, dice, and oracle cards. In this arts- based dissertation that utilizes intuitive inquiry as a methodology, a system was developed by way of the author’s own active imagination work and paying attention to the synchronicities that have deeply connected her to myth and self.