#shamanism #CarlJung #archetypes
The Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a documentary film by Werner Herzog about the Chauvet Cave in southern France. The film is shot entirely in 3-D. The cave was discovered in 1994 with hundreds of cave paintings dating from the Paleolithic age, around 30,000 years ago.
In his review, Peter Bradshaw, writes:
“Human beings are relatively absent from the pictures, indicating, perhaps, a sublime lack of self-awareness in this prehistoric artistry, although there is a representation of the human female form in apparent sexual congress with an animal. Were these paintings made in a secular artistic spirit–or were they part of a religious ritual? Or are both these ‘artistic’ and ‘religious’ dimensions subservient to something else, some third aspect that has been faced by time is utterly beyond our wit to guess that?”
In my opinion the third aspect points to shamanistic rituals. In The Strong Eye of Shamanism, Robert E Ryan, PhD, thoroughly explores the archetypal patterns shamans have employed for well over 30,000 years. His book is largely based on the ideas of Carl Jung and depth psychology. He writes “the archetypal symbol is experienced by the psyche as vitally meaningful. It precipitates a transformation of consciousness that is ‘the natural analogue of religious initiation ceremonies,’ uniting man with the transpersonal aspect of his mind, which reaches back into the world of instinct and nature itself (17).”
Herzog says the pictures of animals in the cave represent the beginnings of the modern human soul.
I’m excited about the release of this movie and I cannot wait to see it for myself.
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