ARES / MARS
Prepared on invitation for Bibliotheca Alexandrina: Dauntless, a devotional anthology in honor of the Greek Ares, God of War and his Roman counterpart Mars, Father of Rome. Closed submission;
edited by Rebecca Buchanan. The editor is interested in a variety of material, including but not limited to: prayers, rituals, hymns, essays, visual artwork, short stories, plays, recipes, and new translations of ancient and public domain works.
Iona Miller is a nonfiction writer, widely published in the academic and popular press, clinical hypnotherapist, and multimedia artist. She is interested in extraordinary human potential and experience, and the effects of doctrines of religion, science, philosophy, psychology, esoterics, and the arts. She writes on archetypal ancestry, bloodline history, and transgenerational integration; she has served as a Grand Dame and Senechal in heritage societies. She has appeared in Green Egg, “The Wild Hunt”, and Bibliotheca Alexandrina anthologies on Hephaestus and Aphrodite. http://ionamiller.weebly.com
"Mythology––and therefore civilization––is a poetic, supernormal image, conceived, like all poetry, in depth, but susceptible of interpretation on various levels. The shallowest minds see in it the local scenery; the deepest, the foreground of the void; and between are the stages of the Way from the ethnic to the elementary idea, the local to the universal being, which is Everyman, as he both knows and is afraid to know. For the human mind in its polarity of the male and female modes of experience, in its passages from infancy to adulthood, in its toughness and tenderness, and in its continuing dialog with the world, is the ultimate mythogenetic zone––the creator and the destroyer, the slave and yet the master, of all the gods." --Joseph Campbell, "The Masks of God, Vol. I: Primitive Mythology," © Joseph Campbell 1959, 1969, renewed 1987), p. 472
Worship of "Scythian Ares"
Although Tabiti was apparently the most important deity in the Scythian pantheon, the worship accorded to the deity Herodotus refers to as "Ares" was unique. He notes that "it is not their custom [...] to make images, altars or temples to any except Ares, but to him it is their custom to make them".[4] He describes the construction of the altar and the subsequent sacrifice as follows:
In each district of the several governments they have a temple of Ares set up in this way: bundles of brushwood are heaped up for about three furlongs in length and in breadth, but less in height; and on the top of this there is a level square made, and three of the sides rise sheer but by the remaining one side the pile may be ascended. Every year they pile on a hundred and fifty wagon-loads of brushwood, for it is constantly settling down by reason of the weather. Upon this pile of which I speak each people has an ancient iron sword set up, and this is the sacred symbol of Ares. To this sword they bring yearly offerings of cattle and of horses; and they have the following sacrifice in addition, beyond what they make to the other gods, that is to say, of all the enemies whom they take captive in war they sacrifice one man in every hundred, not in the same manner as they sacrifice cattle, but in a different manner: for they first pour wine over their heads, and after that they cut the throats of the men, so that the blood runs into a bowl; and then they carry this up to the top of the pile of brushwood and pour the blood over the sword. This, I say, they carry up; and meanwhile below by the side of the temple they are doing thus: they cut off all the right arms of the slaughtered men with the hands and throw them up into the air, and then when they have finished offering the other victims, they go away; and the arm lies wheresoever it has chanced to fall, and the corpse apart from it.[3]
According to Tadeusz Sulimirski, this form of worship continued among the descendants of the Scythians, the Alans, through to the 4th century CE.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythian_religion
We are, all of us, descendents of killers. With maybe a few very limited exceptions, every human being alive today is the result and beneficiary of a long line of conquerors. All of us have rape and slaughter up front and center in our lineage. Peace, where it occurs, is a precious, hard won and jealously defended prize. If one wants peace, one must first make peace with war.
edited by Rebecca Buchanan. The editor is interested in a variety of material, including but not limited to: prayers, rituals, hymns, essays, visual artwork, short stories, plays, recipes, and new translations of ancient and public domain works.
Iona Miller is a nonfiction writer, widely published in the academic and popular press, clinical hypnotherapist, and multimedia artist. She is interested in extraordinary human potential and experience, and the effects of doctrines of religion, science, philosophy, psychology, esoterics, and the arts. She writes on archetypal ancestry, bloodline history, and transgenerational integration; she has served as a Grand Dame and Senechal in heritage societies. She has appeared in Green Egg, “The Wild Hunt”, and Bibliotheca Alexandrina anthologies on Hephaestus and Aphrodite. http://ionamiller.weebly.com
"Mythology––and therefore civilization––is a poetic, supernormal image, conceived, like all poetry, in depth, but susceptible of interpretation on various levels. The shallowest minds see in it the local scenery; the deepest, the foreground of the void; and between are the stages of the Way from the ethnic to the elementary idea, the local to the universal being, which is Everyman, as he both knows and is afraid to know. For the human mind in its polarity of the male and female modes of experience, in its passages from infancy to adulthood, in its toughness and tenderness, and in its continuing dialog with the world, is the ultimate mythogenetic zone––the creator and the destroyer, the slave and yet the master, of all the gods." --Joseph Campbell, "The Masks of God, Vol. I: Primitive Mythology," © Joseph Campbell 1959, 1969, renewed 1987), p. 472
Worship of "Scythian Ares"
Although Tabiti was apparently the most important deity in the Scythian pantheon, the worship accorded to the deity Herodotus refers to as "Ares" was unique. He notes that "it is not their custom [...] to make images, altars or temples to any except Ares, but to him it is their custom to make them".[4] He describes the construction of the altar and the subsequent sacrifice as follows:
In each district of the several governments they have a temple of Ares set up in this way: bundles of brushwood are heaped up for about three furlongs in length and in breadth, but less in height; and on the top of this there is a level square made, and three of the sides rise sheer but by the remaining one side the pile may be ascended. Every year they pile on a hundred and fifty wagon-loads of brushwood, for it is constantly settling down by reason of the weather. Upon this pile of which I speak each people has an ancient iron sword set up, and this is the sacred symbol of Ares. To this sword they bring yearly offerings of cattle and of horses; and they have the following sacrifice in addition, beyond what they make to the other gods, that is to say, of all the enemies whom they take captive in war they sacrifice one man in every hundred, not in the same manner as they sacrifice cattle, but in a different manner: for they first pour wine over their heads, and after that they cut the throats of the men, so that the blood runs into a bowl; and then they carry this up to the top of the pile of brushwood and pour the blood over the sword. This, I say, they carry up; and meanwhile below by the side of the temple they are doing thus: they cut off all the right arms of the slaughtered men with the hands and throw them up into the air, and then when they have finished offering the other victims, they go away; and the arm lies wheresoever it has chanced to fall, and the corpse apart from it.[3]
According to Tadeusz Sulimirski, this form of worship continued among the descendants of the Scythians, the Alans, through to the 4th century CE.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythian_religion
We are, all of us, descendents of killers. With maybe a few very limited exceptions, every human being alive today is the result and beneficiary of a long line of conquerors. All of us have rape and slaughter up front and center in our lineage. Peace, where it occurs, is a precious, hard won and jealously defended prize. If one wants peace, one must first make peace with war.
ARES: ARCHETYPE & ANCESTOR
Divine Descent; Mythology As Family
By Iona Miller, 2016
"It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward, in counteraction to those constant human fantasies that tend to tie it back. In fact, it may well be that the very high incidence of neuroticism among ourselves follows from the decline among us of such effective spiritual aid." --Joseph Campbell, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", 2008. Joseph Campbell Foundation, p.7
"It is a great mistake in practice to treat an archetype as if it were a mere name, word, or concept. It is far more than that: it is a piece of life, an image connected with the living individual by the bridge of emotion." ~Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols, Page 96
"Genealogy reveals the importance of ancestry to soul. The weight of human history is in the voices of the dead, in opening the mouth of the dead and hearing what they have to say. It's the actual living presence of history in the soul, the past in the soul, not just the deeply repressed or forgotten." ~James Hillman
"Over the course of the millennia, all these ancestors in your tree, generation upon generation, have come down to this moment in time--to give birth to you. There has never been, nor will ever be, another like you. You have been given a tremendous responsibility. You carry the hopes and dreams of all those who have gone before. Hopes and dreams for a better world. What will you do with your time on this Earth? How will you contribute to the ongoing story of humankind? History remembers only the celebrated, genealogy remembers them all." --Laurence Overmire
"Soul rootedness and rootedness of a medicine lineage can only happen by being rooted to source, original fire, as well as deeply in the earth. When we understand our place in the vastness of the cosmos, our deep connection with that which gave birth to all, and are able root this connection to the earth plane for the good of our communities, only then are we truly rooted." ~Theresa C. Dintino, * The Akan of Ghana, Eva Meyerowitz, Faber & Faber, London, 1958
"The Reality of War: Of course, war and the large military establishments are the greatest sources of violence in the world. Whether their purpose is defensive or offensive, these vast powerful organizations exist solely to kill human beings. We should think carefully about the reality of war. Most of us have been conditioned to regard military combat as exciting and glamorous - an opportunity for men to prove their competence and courage. Since armies are legal, we feel that war is acceptable; in general, nobody feels that war is criminal or that accepting it is criminal attitude. In fact, we have been brainwashed. War is neither glamorous nor attractive. It is monstrous. Its very nature is one of tragedy and suffering.
"War is like a fire in the human community, one whose fuel is living beings. I find this analogy especially appropriate and useful. Modern warfare waged primarily with different forms of fire, but we are so conditioned to see it as thrilling that we talk about this or that marvelous weapon as a remarkable piece of technology without remembering that, if it is actually used, it will burn living people. War also strongly resembles a fire in the way it spreads. If one area gets weak, the commanding officer sends in reinforcements. This is throwing live people onto a fire. But because we have been brainwashed to think this way, we do not consider the suffering of individual soldiers. No soldiers want to be wounded or die. None of his loved ones wants any harm to come to him. If one soldier is killed, or maimed for life, at least another five or ten people - his relatives and friends - suffer as well. We should all be horrified by the extent of this tragedy, but we are too confused." --Dalai Lama, http://www.dalailama.com/messages/world-peace/the-reality-of-war
Divine Descent; Mythology As Family
By Iona Miller, 2016
"It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward, in counteraction to those constant human fantasies that tend to tie it back. In fact, it may well be that the very high incidence of neuroticism among ourselves follows from the decline among us of such effective spiritual aid." --Joseph Campbell, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", 2008. Joseph Campbell Foundation, p.7
"It is a great mistake in practice to treat an archetype as if it were a mere name, word, or concept. It is far more than that: it is a piece of life, an image connected with the living individual by the bridge of emotion." ~Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols, Page 96
"Genealogy reveals the importance of ancestry to soul. The weight of human history is in the voices of the dead, in opening the mouth of the dead and hearing what they have to say. It's the actual living presence of history in the soul, the past in the soul, not just the deeply repressed or forgotten." ~James Hillman
"Over the course of the millennia, all these ancestors in your tree, generation upon generation, have come down to this moment in time--to give birth to you. There has never been, nor will ever be, another like you. You have been given a tremendous responsibility. You carry the hopes and dreams of all those who have gone before. Hopes and dreams for a better world. What will you do with your time on this Earth? How will you contribute to the ongoing story of humankind? History remembers only the celebrated, genealogy remembers them all." --Laurence Overmire
"Soul rootedness and rootedness of a medicine lineage can only happen by being rooted to source, original fire, as well as deeply in the earth. When we understand our place in the vastness of the cosmos, our deep connection with that which gave birth to all, and are able root this connection to the earth plane for the good of our communities, only then are we truly rooted." ~Theresa C. Dintino, * The Akan of Ghana, Eva Meyerowitz, Faber & Faber, London, 1958
"The Reality of War: Of course, war and the large military establishments are the greatest sources of violence in the world. Whether their purpose is defensive or offensive, these vast powerful organizations exist solely to kill human beings. We should think carefully about the reality of war. Most of us have been conditioned to regard military combat as exciting and glamorous - an opportunity for men to prove their competence and courage. Since armies are legal, we feel that war is acceptable; in general, nobody feels that war is criminal or that accepting it is criminal attitude. In fact, we have been brainwashed. War is neither glamorous nor attractive. It is monstrous. Its very nature is one of tragedy and suffering.
"War is like a fire in the human community, one whose fuel is living beings. I find this analogy especially appropriate and useful. Modern warfare waged primarily with different forms of fire, but we are so conditioned to see it as thrilling that we talk about this or that marvelous weapon as a remarkable piece of technology without remembering that, if it is actually used, it will burn living people. War also strongly resembles a fire in the way it spreads. If one area gets weak, the commanding officer sends in reinforcements. This is throwing live people onto a fire. But because we have been brainwashed to think this way, we do not consider the suffering of individual soldiers. No soldiers want to be wounded or die. None of his loved ones wants any harm to come to him. If one soldier is killed, or maimed for life, at least another five or ten people - his relatives and friends - suffer as well. We should all be horrified by the extent of this tragedy, but we are too confused." --Dalai Lama, http://www.dalailama.com/messages/world-peace/the-reality-of-war
Our Mythological Family
We are born into a family which we share with more and more contemporary people as we look further back in time. But when we are gathered to the ancestors are we met by the gods? Shall we move Ares from our archetypal altar to the family shrine? Perhaps some of us can.
We know there is power in naming. What is it to name something, to name someone, to name someone an ancestor, or even name a god as direct ancestor? It all comes down to our own name. Genealogy is a heritage-led regeneration. Tracing our lines back from our parents, we move deeper into the realm of the ancestors who gave us the substance of life and soul's self-expression. A sense of soul gives us a sense of history.
Our sacred and mythic roots inform our primordial human behavior and the timeless soul-world. They act on us through meaning as well as the world stage. This natural unconscious process doesn't need to be driven by a therapeutic or self-development agenda. In a complex and fragmented world, genealogy helps us revision the present. We look back for a context of meaning using our most personal history of being. We also recognize cultural ancestors, collective ancestors, ancestors of our land, and animal ancestors.
We don't carry ancestral DNA from all our direct ancestors. But we remain entangled with them in the ancestral field, consciously, or unconsciously. In real, imaginary, and symbolic ways they are meaningful to our wholeness. We reflect as we find our way back. The inner life exerts its manifest influence. Emotions shape our sense of self and relationships.
Ares aggression, might and energy have controlled all of history from behind the scenes. History is written by the competitive winners who then self-describe their glorious descent from the gods, insuring their renown and divine right to rule with genealogical propaganda. It is enforced with constant wars and worldview warfare, a battle for minds.
The dragon or serpent guards the treasures of the deep unconscious, the unwritten history of mankind, and its myth-spinning capacity. The serpentine path, which is an image for our descent and return, is a way to find our instinct that has no conflicts, because conflicts belong to the discriminating conscious mind.
Archetypal Ancestors
We can leverage our genealogy to inform our spiritual development and religious practice. Our biography begins with our progenitors and Ares appears in that context. An archetypal approach to genealogy is polytheistic. Each god appears with a divine family.
We recognize spiritual and psychological ancestors, as well as genetic ones. Their influence stays with us and helps us. The gods personify soul's need for spiritual ancestors. Our sense of identity expands to one of symbolic identification.
Genealogical methods trace ancestries back to gods, dynastic animal totems, and legendary heroes. Ancestral souls resided in sacred animals, such as the wolf, serpent, or dragon totems of Ares. Oral narratives became tribal history.
Divine right to rule was traced through genealogy in Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt, India and China. Biblical begats culminate in the House of David, a royal bloodline. It has been connected to Trojan and Roman lines for prestige, propaganda and power reasons.
The Greeks and Romans linked their heritage to the gods with their ancestral blessings and curses. It was first recorded in Homer’s The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Virgil’s The Aeniad. They are all stories of a quest to answer a deeper call. They fought to become immortal, to be remembered through the centuries.
The same characters described in classical literature still show up in genealogy -- in mine, and perhaps in yours, too. Dreams are catalysts for ancestral phenomena. Our ancestors dream of us unceasingly. When we dream of them, they dream of us right back. When we actively engage, they engage.
Dreams help us work with archetypal ancestors in transgenerational integration and trauma, combining traditional wisdom with contemporary practices (Gaillard). Transgenerational legacies shape our early life, and Ares is among them. This approach to self knowledge deals with our connection to our origin. The past still influences us in the present through integration of familial, social and cultural issues, and reclaiming our true self.
Descent from the Gods
Ares is our forebear, and archetype of the Blade, as Aphrodite is the Chalice. This aggressive and muscular warrior is the psychic background of an incendiary historical drama that is still unfolding in us and the world, a specific manifestation of dynamic energy. We can only meet Ares on his own ground, but it is not always the battlefield. Ares illuminates soul's special relationship to violence and death. Such an ancestor can be a loyal protective spirit, soul-guide, or mentor.
A secret unrest gnaws at our roots, an instinct for expansion. Such urges are expressed in our emotional and sensorimotor patterns. The less we are conscious of it, the more it influences us. Carl Jung thought that inclinations, moods, and decisions are influenced by the dark forces of psyche, and they could be dangerous or helpful in shaping destiny. (CW 10, Para 332)
We take our ancient lineage as metaphorical and symbolic, not just literal. Yes, Ares’ fiery nature has been with us from Greek Fire to the Hydrogen bomb. But the ancestral approach shows us that trans-subjective facts made of our own psychophysical substance, still reside in and work on us inside as they did outside. For Jung they were part of our inherited instinct and preformed patterns.
With a bit of insight, we can read the epic story of the Trojan War and Founding of Rome from the top down in our genealogy. The collective genealogy of the World Tree is a symbol of the collective unconscious. In Book 20 of The Iliad, Aeneas recites sixty lines of ancestral history back to Zeus as the beginning of his family line. Modern genealogies may compact that descent. In the descent from antiquity the kings of England, Scotland, France, and ancient Rome all claimed lines back to Trojan ancestors.
The gods are the archai, the deepest patterns and fundamental fantasies that animate all life. Archetypes direct fantasy activity and inherited potential for ideas and action. A metaphysical assertion or "truth" is a psychological statement of the psyche.
We see with the soul's eye through the web of reality. The spirits of the dead help us bring out our character and restore balanced relationships with the larger web of ancestors and spiritual forces. We work with archetypal patterns held within our psyche epigenetics, and DNA. We all suffer from the violence that is the foundation to life; life feeds on life. Compulsive repetition is always transpersonal.
In the case of Ares, Jung thought that conflict, war and conquest is about the failure of a myth to contain personal and collective dark energies projected onto real or imagined enemies. War goes with the territory. We must endure it as we do the conflict between the sexes, and between the ego and unconscious. Ancient myths, their archetypes, heroes, and monsters still animate our anxieties.
Myth explains the unexplainable, especially when history is unreliable. Myths repeat again and again, hence the totem serpent/dragon of Ares symbolizes endless time. Everything that was outside is also inside the mythic unconscious, including the fiery warrior who 'sticks to his guns', perhaps far too long. Ares is an organ of our pre-rational psyche. If character is our genius, some have a terrible genius for war and make a career of endlessly repeating the play of dominations.
As Jung (1977) puts it, “Although the opposites flee from one another they nevertheless strive for balance, since a state of conflict is too inimical to life to be endured indefinitely. They do this by wearing each other out, like the two dragons or the other ravenous beasts of alchemical symbolism.” (CW14, Pp. 230)
When we rely on physical power, intensity, intimidation, and direct action, how often do we act and react unmindfully? When are we too primitive, too present, or too strong? We all have to cope with violence, struggle, and death. What happens to the feminine, especially the dark feminine, in a society saturated by masculine war, or blood-soaked atrocities? Can conflict become the avenue to hope and self-worth?
The secret doctrine of antiquity survives in our bloodlines. Our genes pulse down the lines with us as temporary custodians. Separated across the face of time, we have the same genetic material. We go down in history, descending from the most remote and divine characters imaginable at the edge of reality.
In genealogy, inherent meaning unites with experience; historical facts help us uncover psychological meaning. Historical facts are set in and rooted in myth. The story acts on our psyche as much as it acted in the world. Even non- or pre-historical, genealogy is a symbol of an unbroken relationship with the others and divine forces and our mortality.
My story, rooted in Ares, may be your story, too, if Ares is in your lineage or a spirit in your blood. The soul has its own ancestors. We find our spiritual ancestors in "the land of the dead." Ares doesn't have to manifest in coercion, extreme rage, blood lust, or combativeness. We might be dauntless in our aspirations, inspired and sacrificing beyond ourselves, challenging our own personal best, courage and daring.
The first written words of Greek epic poetry were about the war with Troy in Asia Minor and the return from it. We now know that all wounds in war are not visible. Soul-searing post-traumatic stress persists throughout a lifetime as a disease of the soul. Shell shock with flashbacks, emotional flooding, hypervigilance and depression persists because the powerful archetypal field remains active.
The Aeniad, The Illiad and the Odyssey are stories of the soul. Odysseus failed in his long voyage home for many years, because the true voyage home is an inner journey to heal the rage, deadness and stuckness that comes from visceral horror and atrocities.
"But this much I would claim to know: that a man cannot go to war in quest of power and wealth without doing mortal harm to some portion of his soul, and once the soul is damaged and impaired then all kinds of madness follow." (Clarke, p. 272, 2004)
Not necessarily aggressive with primitive brutality, Ares is also chivalry, protection and self-protection, repressed action. We needn't be raiders, military or militant, do martial arts, collect weapons, or be sports or sex addicts. We don't need forceful exercise of the power drive to commune with Ares of the mighty heart and emotional wounds.
Courage, empowerment, assertiveness, sportsmanship, and other qualities shine when not confounded with shadow ferocity, violence, might, and impulse. Sometimes, we may be headstrong, rash, self-gratifying. We will fight for what we believe. We will risk, lose reason and restraint, again and again.
We will play tough; we will quarrel; we will be impetuous. We will be tense; we will overreact; we may surrender to despair or vengeance. Someone will press our buttons. We feel Ares as the surge of emotion, loyalty, or the urge to retaliate, but also the light generated by fiery emotions.
Soul Retrieval
Indigenous people equate ancestor loss with soul loss that can be retrieved by reintegrating our ancestral generations. Our memory gives the dead greater reality and invokes their “participation” in births and marriages. If ancestral spirits are watchful, we cease to be cut off from those relationships and feel more whole.
Since soul is the living thing in us, soul loss is depression, loss of vitality or passion about life, or feeling that something is missing in life. Body-language betrays feelings. We define ourselves by interaction. When you put human names to it, perception shifts.
Genealogy is about re-connection. It helps heal loss of meaning, survivor-guilt, direction, vitality, mission, purpose, identity, and deep unhappiness. We need to know who we are and where we come from beyond the recent past. We can follow the lines of our genealogical descent like a path, our particular path into existence. In this case it is the path of Ares, through Aeneas, through the Roman Emperors.
The ancestors, including the divine roots create the form of all our experience. By facing our soul, we face our ancestors and the gods in a circumambulation of the self. Our devotion to Ares echoes how that archetype informs our lives. There is a caution warning, an object lesson in his frenzy, irrationality, and uncontrolled lust.
Ares harks back through the Mycenaean Greeks to the prehistoric Dragon lineages of the Hittites, Sumerians, and beyond. His character matches Teshub, another Anatolian deity. Ares fought for the Trojans at the siege of Ilium. Hesiod and Aeschylus said he was the father of the race of Kadmos, who married his daughter Hermione. The warriors of Kadmos sprang from the teeth of the dragon of Ares, which Kadmos sowed.
The wolf is the totem animal of Ares, but the dragon is also his sacred animal. The nymph Telphousa bore the sacred dragon Ares begat on her. This Ismenian dragon was a giant serpent which guarded the sacred spring of Ares near Thebes.
We can follow this martial thread as a lead. Reading the line we "see through" the collective portion of a classical line of descent from Ares/Mars. It descends through Troy to the rise and fall of Rome, into the Middle Ages, and the modern world. Revisioning Ares (c. -1680) as a direct ancestor forges an emotional connection with the root archetypes, the Olympians.
We realize what Ares means from deep inside as more than an unconscious psychic factor. Giving voice to the ancestors is giving voice to the gods so their images can live and ground our being. Our lonely hearts open fully to loving reciprocity.
Recognition
Ceremonially reciting their ancestors was one of the most important things an ancient person could do. In Scotland declaring lineage was part of the battle-rattle preceding war, designed to strike terror into the heart of the enemy. We can welcome them hospitably back into our lives. Their images impress us in a way beyond the physical facts, restoring form to the formless.
Recognition is a great mystery of the psyche. The inner wealth of the soul resides in our hearts. Jung calls the unconscious, "the unwritten history of mankind from time unrecorded." (CW 11, Para 280) And he notes, "The unconscious mind of man sees correctly even when conscious reason is blind and impotent." (CW 11, Para 608). Our genealogical lines symbolically and literally encode information and express this concept.
Our family tree helps us learn the family history and the stories behind the pedigrees which trail off into the mists of pre-history. Matters stuck in limbo are lured back into life by genealogical soul retrieval and emotional reconnection to the ancestors, gods, and primordial womb of nature.
When that is part of 'what we know' we don't have to merely believe. The ancestors and divine root permeate us through the dark borderland of body and soul and unify our archetypal essence. Everything in the psychic world is real.
In Scotland, oral traditions of genealogy marked the structure and evolution of the clan by blood descent, marriage, and territorial holding. Oral recitation of genealogy was passed on to children round the fireside. The Highlanders did not use the form of a tree, but used the track of a wheel or the imprint of fingers tracing intricate relations in the dust.
Old seanchaidhean could recite the sinnsearachd, the Gaelic term used for the descent or genealogical track. So, pardon me while I idly trace the relationships and genealogical tracks left in the dusts of time, legend, and memory in the line of Ares/Mars.
What if God Was [more than] One of Us?
Myth is the DNA of the human psyche. Genes are memories, primordial and otherwise. Living myths give story and experience meaning. Genealogy is not always simple, being full of alternate matings, shared ancestry, inter-family marriages, incest, natural and disputed offspring.
Because of the genetic shuffle in chromosomes at conception, such revelations come mostly through genealogy, not genetic tests which reveal ethnic identity but few if any individual ancestors.
In his archaic form, Ares was a fertility god and reproductive drive. If the lines are to be believed his descendants proliferate in the flesh to this day. The psychic fact is that he is in us all, and remains in us and our progeny through certain royal lines of descent. The soul becomes the arbiter of truth or error.
We embody the survival of the pagan gods. Psyche cannot be distinguished from its manifestations. The historical tradition is conflated with the mythic tradition through genealogy. The implication is that if we were engendered by them, they continue through us. They persist in our spirit, psyche and psychology, emotions, as well as physical bodies that create our reality every day.
The gods' misty pre-historical origin is our own origin. Thus, Ares/Mars is archetype and ancestor, an instinct for physical survival. Questionable empirical reality has a transcendent aspect, including dark and mysterious areas of our experience. We are informed by his Being. Umberto Eco says, wryly, in Foucault's Pendulum that we cannot betray an ancestor who never existed nor fail that old-time religion.
The general premise of The Survival of the Pagan Gods, by Jean Seznec (1981) is that "the ancient gods survive during the Middle Ages by virtue of interpretations of their origin and nature propounded by antiquity itself."
The gods are civilizers, who founded dynasties as well as legends. They hide in astrology, science, and magic as 'astral' planetary forces. The Renaissance reduced them to mythological allegory, but the bloodlines went silently on as testimony to divine origin. Our genealogy informs our understanding of history and even the unleashed terror of a god. What happens when the warrior god culture goes too far?
Archetypal Genealogy
Truth be told, ancient genealogy is probably more about the poetics of commemoration than filial descent. Ancient genealogies are an object of belief with little evidence. The evidence for their confabulation for politics and propaganda has increased in the last decades. But they remain the basis and touchstone of classical history.
Settipani (2011) says, “The first contribution genealogy makes to history is to fix the chronology. Early chronological texts about human beings are often genealogies. The time of an event was fixed by saying "that happened at the time of my father's father .. ". Genealogy was also used to legitimize the power of a social class claiming that power because it was inherited from the gods or from kingly ancestors.”
We still have to find the point where the evidence fails and search for reliable sources. Archaeology keeps filling in the historical gaps. Traditional genealogy is an archetypal activity, recapitulating and extending humanity's oldest activities, including the imaginal root. The aesthetic response is an ethical response -- a response of the heart -- that values the ancestors and the genealogical history.
Genealogy is thus an archetypal order, an aesthetic construction, and a virtual map of the personal and collective unconscious, reflecting a principle of totality and primordial origins. Traditional genealogy considered these mythological inclusions best-practice, yet it may be more of a psychic than historical "fact."
This does not mean we need to take that literally – historically as fact -- but the connections seem implicit by their nature. Genealogy is another way for us to connect with the gods, and if we are connected to one, we are therefore related to others, as well. Jung claimed, “There is no form of human tragedy that does not in some measure proceed from this conflict between the ego and the unconscious.”
Only a Jungian approach to traditional genealogy keeps the historic/mythic gestalt of The World Tree alive as a symbol of wholeness -- a holistic resonant field pattern. According to Jung, trees are a symbolic reference to the self, so family tree is self-defining. As well as our lineage, our ancestors also form a vast symbol chain, rooted in the mythic unconscious and pre-history.
The symbolic function is beyond innate impulse and ideological bias. Through introversion, we are fertilized, inspired, regenerated, and reborn. Self-incubation, self-castigation, and introversion are closely related ideas. Immersion in oneself (introversion) is a penetration into the unconscious, the imaginal world of psyche. What is invisible to us was obvious to the ancients.
The World Tree is the Axis Mundi of genealogy, a worldwide database of genealogical connectivity. At this point travel and correspondence is made between higher and lower realms. Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones and be disseminated to all. The origin functions as the omphalos (navel), the world's point of beginning.
The earliest mythologies are of the World-Tree, or Tree of Life. Aspects of the same image, sacred trees are the most common motif from the ancient world. The Tree connects our psychophysical aspects from sub-nuclear to macrocosmic scales. The trunk is the axis of psychic growth that unites Heaven and Earth, spirit and matter.
First Nations insist that lack of connection to our ancestors is one of our greatest shortcomings, so reclaiming them takes on great importance. It gives us a model of ‘how’ precisely we are connected, and just how many generations lie between. The further back in time they are, the more we can be certain we share them with most of humanity.
The mythology of our ancestors is as important as their cosmology. We can explore the mystic in ourselves and in our ancestors. Our worldview is the root of our identity and relationship to Nature and our own deep nature. Researching the cosmologies of our direct ancestors in the historical era provides a quick path into dreamwork as these ways are still half-remembered. Our common destiny lies beyond any worldview.
Bloodlust & Bloodline
According to the best practice of conventional and traditional genealogy, Ares is my 94th gr-grandfather, through Electra, some Trojan kings, Caesars, Roman emperors, Iberian aristocracy, and British knights. They are followed by Colonial immigrants, frontier pioneers and homesteaders. The theme remains space expansion and survival in extreme environments, going further and farther than any before.
The tale of Ares is the tale of the Greek, Trojan, and Roman family trees. The forms remain important for transgenerational reintegration of our ancestral spirits. Violent histories are the common core of transgenerational wounding.
Ares had four sons: Evenus, Molus, Pylus, and Thestius. My descent originates with Ares and Eurythemis, who had issue, Thestius (my 93rd gr-gr). The mother seems to have also married her divine son. We don't need to plot all the characters of the epic Trojan war, only those in the direct line of descent. The gods take sides in the conflict: Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, and Apollo back the Trojans. Hera, Athena, Hephaestus, and Poseidon favor the Greeks, while Zeus remained neutral.
The Trojan Family tree consists largely of an unbroken paternal line sired by Erichthonius (my 88th gr-gr), King of Dardania and Acadia [ancient Turkey]. But that descent is rooted in the maternal triad of Electra of Mycenae [my 90th], Mycenean queen Clytemnestra of Troy with Agamemnon of Mycenae [both my 91st ge-gr], and Leda of Sparta [92nd], who famously coupled with Zeus as the Swan. Leda is usually considered the daughter of King Thestius of Aetolia and Eurythemis. And her daughter was Helen of Troy, (92nd gr-aunt) the catalyst of the war.
On the Greek side, Odysseus is my 85th gr-grandfather, and traces back his maternal and paternal lines to Zeus through Hermes. His gr-great grandaughter is Lavinia Roma of Alba Longa, and her son is Iulus, who founds the Julian Dynasty. So both lines of Odysseus and Aeneas merge when Lavinia marries Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, grandson of King Priam of Troy, descendant of Aphrodite, and ancestor of Romulus, Remus and the Gens Julia, clan of Julius Caesar.
This story with its variants is that of the Kings of Alba Longa, from the Silvii to the Julii dynasties. His grandfather, Anchises, and his son Aeneas (my 83rd gr-grandfather), claimed descent from Aphrodite. They became important divine forebears to the Romans, who claimed descent from both the Goddess of Love and the God of War. The Julian dynasty descended from their progenitor Iulus (my 81st gr-gr).
In some Roman traditions, Iulus, the semi-divine ancestor of gens Iulia, was identical with Aeneas’ son Ascanius (Virgil). In other traditions, Iulus was the son of Aeneas by his Trojan wife, Creusa, while Ascanius was the son of Aeneas' Latin wife Lavinia, daughter of Latinus (Livy). And, in still another tradition, Iulus was son of Ascanius. My genealogy lists Iulus as son of Ascanius and Lavinia.
With Aeneas, the dramatic setting changes from Troy to Rome and its antecedents. With a host of other beliefs among them, all descendants unconsciously pay homage to the strength and courage of their ‘progenitor’ Ares/Mars and his dynamic pioneering energy. That spirit is ratified in Julius Caesar, my 59th gr-grandfather, back through Aeneas to the Trojan kings, Zeus and the Titans. Or, so he claimed.
Zeus engineered the Trojan War because there were too many generations on the earth. Earth (Gaia) complained to Zeus there were too many humans for her to bear. She laments, "The people whom I nurture now dishonor Me. This Iao has taught them not to love.” Jung noticed, "Each of us, every living being, is a small earth, one could say, because we are in intimate connection with the earth, we are partially earth, we are conscious of our earthly body, for instance." (Visions Seminar, Pages 1158-1159)
Ares/Mars supported the Trojans and the Romans. The root lines of Julius Caesar show that Electra's maternal line descends from Ares' union with Eurythemis. The descent of the Julian Family tree continues through the collateral adoptive son, Augustus Caesar, which breaks the direct genetic chain but preserves rule in the Julian family.
Divine Ancestry
In -7th BCE. Greece, Hesiod recounts the birth of Ares in Theogony 921 ff (trans. Evelyn-White). "Zeus took Hera to be his fresh consort, and she, lying in the arms of the father of gods and mortals, conceived and bore Hebe to him, and Ares, and Eileithyia."
There are a number of ways in which the idea of descent from the gods is used in ancient and medieval writings. In some legends individual heroes are said to be sons of gods or descended from a god, like Ares. Rather than literal divine ancestry and divine descent we can approach the god as a symbolic and metaphorical reality -- a lived and living connection to the Olympians as close as our skin.
Homer's story of Troy is the first written in Greek, allegedly 500 years after the events. It is a foundation of western tradition and archetypes of all sorts of behaviors and legendary heroes. Before that stories were sung about heroes and battles. In the 13th century BCE, Trojan and Greek warriors fought this long bloody battle that became an epic that still resonates through history.
The defeat of Troy was the end of the Bronze Age. It ushered in the Greek Dark Ages. More legends were born. But there are real people behind many of the legends. Trojan refugees were led West by Aeneas, who Julius Caesar claimed as his ancestor. As Romans they later returned and conquered Greece. In between, pre-history became history and empire.
Aeschylus says in Fragment 282 of Papyri Oxyrhynchus, (trans. Lloyd-Jones):
"[Dike the goddess of justice speaks: ...And I will tell you a proof which gives you this clearly. Hera has reared a violent son [Ares] whom she has borne to Zeus, a god irascible, hard to govern, an one whose mind knew no respect for others. He shot wayfarers with deadly arrows, and ruthless hacked . . ((lacuna)) with hooked spears . . he rejoiced and laughed . . evil . . scent of blood."
As the gods do not appear in isolation, a relationship with Ares, implies one with his extended and immediate family – Aphrodite, Zeus and Hera, and other Olympians. Their drop lines include Rome's founders Romulus and Remus, listed as gr-uncles of today's descendants. We are reminded again of Ares and his totem wolf as the divine twins were raised by a she-wolf.
Yet, clearly, “No one can 'prove' a descent from Julius Caesar,” [my 59th].
The dynasty Aeneas Gens Iulia includes Iulus, my 81st → Ascanius, King of Alba Longa, his father → Aeneas, King of Lavinium, his father, my 83rd]
This family which spawned Julius Caesar claimed descent from the Roman goddess Venus-Aphrodite (my 84th gr-gr) through Aeneas, her son by her lover Anchises, who was a Trojan prince. My genealogy shows this in the profile of Aeneas, closely braiding the Aphrodite and Ares dual-divinity generation of this line. Aphrodite as anima mundi binds all states of being together, the totality of the psyche.
Legend says Aeneas escaped the Fall of Troy (about 1200 BCE) and journeyed to Italy where he became the tribal ancestor of the Latins and the Etruscans. This acknowledges Zeus as prime ancestor.
Aeneas was a popular figure in medieval genealogical inventions. In the Norse saga, the Deluding of Gylfe, he is called Anea. Medieval Welsh genealogies called him Annyn Tro. In one Welsh source he is called a son of Brydain, giving name to Britain) and a grandson of Aedd Mawr (Edward the Great), c. 1300 BCE. These chronologies are too confused to be credible.
As we retreat through history most people are genetically related, even if the genealogy cannot be traced. The story becomes one not of our own family, but the collective family of man. Still, it is one thing to read history in a book, and quite another to read it in the lines of one's own direct descent.
The historian Strabo has Poseidon prophetically declare in Iliad XX, “But, now I know, the lineage of Aeneas will rule over all, and so too will his son, and his son's sons, who will be born thereafter." So it seemed throughout the rise and fall of Rome, including some of the most famous names and leaders in global history.
Alba Longa was an indigenous Latin iron age settlement in the mountains near Rome today. In Roman mythology, Alba was founded by Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, as a new colony of Trojan refugees and native Latins. In some accounts Ascanius was the son of Lavinia, and grandson of Latinus. (Livy); in other versions, Ascanius was the son of Creusa (Dionysius,Virgil). Virgil claims Ascanius and Iulus were the same. Dionysius makes Iulus the son of Ascanius, the founder and first king of Alba Longa. Many claimed Iulus as the ancestor of the Julian gens.
Eratosthenes places the sack of Troy around 1184 BC, more than four centuries before the traditional founding of Rome, in 753. The Alban kings history neatly closed the gap from Aeneas to Romulus. It is a mythical justification for the close ties between Rome and the indigenous Latin families descended from the Trojan immigrants or their Alban descendants.
Fifteen Trojan pedigrees of the Alban kings from Aeneas to Romulus survive. In the Aeniad, Virgil claimed that Latinus was the son of Faunus, and grandson of Picus, the first king of Latium, who was in turn the son of Saturn. But Picus was also said to be the son of Mars, rather than Saturn.
The Latins attacked the intruding Trojans, were defeated, and peace was cemented with the marriage of Aeneas and Lavinia, daughter of the Latin king. Aeneas founded a town of both Trojans and Latins, named Lavinium. (Kings of Alba Longa, Wikipedia)
Founding Rome: Ares Becomes Mars
No matter which of the ancient writers or genealogies we follow for the backstory of Rome, we encounter the same names over and over, even if their links and marriages are juggled around. No one argues about their descent from Ares and Aphrodite, whether in the same or different lines.
Following the Ares descent line down through time, we come to the era and people associated with the founding and legends of Rome. Ares insinuated himself actively into the founding of Rome, as Mars. Rhea Silvia conceived the Twins when Mars impregnated her in a sacred grove dedicated to him. Through their mother, they were descended from Greek and Latin nobility. His character defined that of the Empire -- its conquering and martial nature.
The Romans considered Mars second only to Zeus or Jupiter, his father, and my 95th gr-grandfather. The twin founders of Rome raised by a wolf are the mythical offspring of Ares and Rhea Silvia, Princess of Alba Longa (b. circa 808), the wife of Ascanius. Roman emperors were always priests of Ares/Mars.
Romulus and Remus were the direct descendants of Ares, through Aeneas, whose fate-driven adventures in Italy are described in The Aeneid by Vergil. The Julian family, including Julius Caesar and Augustus, traced their lineage to Ascanius and Aeneas, thus to the goddess Venus. The legendary kings of Britain allegedly trace their family through Brutus first king of Britain (my 70th gr-gr), a grandson of Aeneas. Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Benedictine monk living in the 12th century AD, fabricated this connection in the Historia Regum Britanniae.
In the Iliad, the god Poseidon prophesied that the descendants of Aeneas (the Aeneadae), would survive the Trojan War and rule their people forever. Virgil traced the divine connection down the line of Aeneas stretched through Romulus, Augustus, and the Julio-Claudian emperors down to Nero. Some Greek writers considered the Romans descendants of the Achaeans, rather than the Trojans. Or, the Romans are descended from Odysseus, one of the Achaeans, rather than his contemporary, the Trojan prince Aeneas.
Romulus and Remus were related to Aeneas through their mother's father, Numitor. He was a king of Alba Longa, an ancient city of Latium in central Italy, Numitor, 15th king of Alba Longa, was father to Rhea Silvia. Rubens depicts the Roman god Mars, identifiable with his war helmet and shield, raping the vestal virgin Rhea Silvia.
The identity of the father of Romulus and Remus generated debate. Some myths claim that Mars appeared and lay with Rhea Silvia; other myths name the demi-god hero Hercules as her partner. The genealogy shows Mars forcibly impregnated Rhea Silvia with Romulus and Remus.
However, the author Livy claims that Rhea Silvia was in fact raped by an unknown man, but blamed her pregnancy on divine conception. In either case, Rhea Silvia became pregnant and gave birth to her sons. Any Vestal Virgin betraying her vows of celibacy was condemned to death. But the king ordered the twins thrown into the Tiber River, expecting them to die of exposure. But a servant put them in a tiny boat and a she-wolf found and nursed them.
When we consider if Aeneas was their father or grandfather, consider there are more than 500 intervening years from the fall of Troy to the founding of Rome. Aeneas was the father of Ascanius with Creusa, and of Silvius with Lavinia. The former, also known as Iulus (or Julius), founded Alba Longa and was the first in a long series of kings.
Romulus named his city Roma after himself and created a government system of senators and patricians. When the male population exploded, the Roman men abducted women from the Sabines and Latins. In response to this rape or abduction of women, the Sabine and Latin men went to war against Rome. Romulus was the definitive winner of this war and this first hero’s victory was Rome's first triumph.
Psyche and History
There are, indeed, psychic powers within us that correspond to the divine -- and Ares/Mars is pre-eminent among them. The immortal soul in us surpasses the perishable individual significance.
We are links in the great chain of being, which is sometimes more like chainmail armor in its interconnections with ancestors and the gods. There remains a destructive impulse in ourselves and others that adds fire, vitality, passion, and power to life.
It is the mystery of brinksmanship -- the art or practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping, typically in politics -- power vs. empowerment. Personal sovereignty is the practice of trying to achieve an advantageous outcome by pushing dangerous events to the brink of active conflict to secure an advantage. But Mars will gladly bring the hammer down, too.
We have many possibilities for embracing power and genealogy remains a symbol of that human struggle, not only in war, but in class struggle, business competition, and love or sport. Genealogy gives the subject substance, "by showing us a broad experience of power, rooted in the body, the mind, and the emotions, rather than the customary narrow interpretation that simply equates power with strength." (Hillman, 2005)
In The Terrible Love of War, James Hillman (2005) noted that, "During the 5,600 years of recorded history, 14,600 wars have been fought -- 2 to 3 for every year of human history. War is a constant thing. And yet no one really understands why that is." He described his antidotes in Kinds of Power: A Guide to its Intelligent Uses (1997).
It is no accident we find Ares and the other gods at the roots of our genealogical lines. Hillman (2004) drills down into myth, into religion, and into the soul’s basement where the most basic impulses to war is seething. He suggests we, "listen to the language of the media, with its lexicon of war, battle, fight, compete, win, lose — all of these words pointing to conquest." Jung thought that how a person reacts to conflict in life arises accidentally from childhood experiences producing certain impressions – responses to haphazard conflicts.
We have not even begun to wake up to the complex and nuanced power of the god of war. Nation-states find war a normal presence. But there is a deeper mythic and religious intention behind the fog of war and its purpose. It deepens the values we hold. The Crusades, begun after the Fall of Rome, symbolize the battle of East and West that still rages. The groups change, but the battle hymn of Mars remains the same. Ideologies lead to demagogues.
In our imaginative engagement with conflict, we need to maintain the place of psyche in genealogical interpretations, not cutting off the mythic past from our narrative with the sword of rationality and evidence or proof. Equivalent images remain dormant in our psyches if we do not recognize and establish the sacred connection between the divine figures and our own psyche.
There is an irrational reality beyond the radical honesty of rationalism. It preserves even as it deconstructs our cherished notions about the past and self. It makes our lines no less 'real,' but it deliteralizes them, emphasizing soul's meaning is deeper connection, with or without metaphysical assertions. Genealogical history is a false but meaningful metaphor of disjunction and wholeness which mirrors our existence.
We suffer collectively if we cut off those connections and psychological truths from our conscious and spiritual lives. Myth remains the key to 'the art of seeing.' Psyche remains full of obscurities and unsolvable riddles which press against our weak and often dull comprehensions.
Genealogy opens us to emotional experience, often of both sides of any historical conflict, suggesting we have a personal connection or stake in them all, which as humans we naturally do. Genealogy -- real, confabulated, or imaginal -- is the basis of the whole western world, or at least its public face and rulership. They sought to blaze their way through the heavens.
We always remain both perpetrators and victims of forces eternally greater than ourselves – witting or unwitting pawn. The interaction of the divine and the soul remains an over-arching theme of humanity. The religious function itself is archetypal, and we continue to sacrifice at the altar of Ares in local and global conflict. When any old worldview is failing, it is pressured by a new belief system.
International quarrels are personified in the 'usual suspects', the characters and kings in the conflicting dramas of nation states, and identity, ethnicity, and power-struggle. Throughout most of European history, rulers battled with their own extended family members. They married enemies to negotiate peace. Thus, nearly all European royals are related.
Whether we call that Ares/Mars, or not, it remains a living reality in international politics, as surely as anything passed to us all through the persistent legacy of the Roman Empire. Mars casts a very long shadow across individual and collective history. Only now, through the body and DNA itself, are we realizing we are multi-ethnic at the deepest level, and even contain other species of human, and less than human DNA.
Descent From Antiquity
Genealogy, especially Descent From Antiquity (DFA) is an imaginal activity. We can view it reductively as pseudoscience, pretention, or magical thinking. Or, aware of its historical shortcomings, we can view it metaphorically like a dream, an active imagination, or a Way of spiritual connection. These are stories we carry in our blood and bones – the marrow of our life – our Holy Grail. Mythic dissociation is imposed on us by culture, disturbing the ecology and topography of our own soul, laid out in our pedigree.
Christian Settipani (2011) describes the issues: “To give you an example, it has taken ages to know if what Homer recounts in "The Iliad and the Odyssey" corresponds to what life was like during the Mycenaean period it was supposed to describe. On the whole it doesn't, but there is a little bit all the same. Another example from the "Iliad", it's a mythological tale filled with genealogies. Ever since 1800, it was thought to be meaningless. But today we're much more careful: it's been shown that the city of Troy existed, Hittite texts have been found that describe the tensions in the region at this time, with a king of Troy at the time called Alexander, as Alexander Paris in the "Iliad." There are things in the "Iliad" that can be retained even if all the heroes are not real people. The historian has to use all the texts at his disposal, including epic poems, and compare them with other sources to see if there's anything that can be used or not.”
Deliteralizing genealogy, we reject false ‘royal’ grandiosity and literalism, or concretization in favor of value and meaning that aids our individuation. They may be fictive but not untruth; they are internal and instinctual values that sustain us. The gods remain psychic factors, including the way we deal with conflict. We may not solve such problems, but we may outgrow them, adapt, and survive. We grow around them in a non-linear way.
Myth, legend, and history interpenetrate in genealogy. We don’t pretend to go back in time as an unbroken chain that transcends all forgotten things, but it arouses us emotionally. There have been genealogical forgeries in all ages for gain, prestige, or even through ignorance. It doesn’t show evolution or map our destiny. It unfurls the panoply of the past as a vast psychological and historical epic. It functions as an effective history -- sense of identity shifts.
It helps us imagine the complex course of descent that gives birth and value to our existence. We see the accidents, the false steps, the miscalculations. There are legendary and fictitious persons who are born, yearn, and die, in the traditional lineage linking ancestry to the collective unconscious. By uniting the opposites, genealogy transcends true/false, real/fiction in a coherent imaginal reality with its own truths and values.
The value systems of our ancient ancestors were rooted in tribal life and stories. If we eschew dislocated metaphors we are thrown back upon our own psychic life, understanding mythic meaning at the individual level. The fixities have been deconstructed, generating ambivalence, disquietude, and ambiguity.
Foucault (1971) quips, “The new historian, the genealogist, will know what to make of this masquerade. He will not be too serious to enjoy it; on the contrary, he will push the masquerade to its limit and prepare the great carnival of time where masks are constantly reappearing. No longer the identification of our faint individuality with the solid identities of the past, but our "unrealization" through the excessive choice of identities--Frederick of Hohenstaufen, Caesar, Jesus, Dionysus, and possibly Zarathustra."
Rather than a linear development, genealogy gives us a vast overview of emergent humanity, its governing laws, and rules of engagement. It is marked by rulers, and competing powers, not designed to temper violence, but to satisfy it. Law, itself, permits the perpetual instigation of new dominations and the staging of serially repeated scenes of violence. Humanity arose from perversion though guilt, conscience, duty, and obligation. But that process was saturated in blood. Each system has its own rules for violence and domination, opposed by resistance.
Genealogy is non-linear and accidental. It demonstrates a mobility of appearances and realities. Sometimes we go the wrong way or reach a ‘dead end’ in the labyrinth of ancestors. Sometimes we identify with a renown victor only to find the victim in our lines, as well. Tracing, deviating, and re-tracing a particular line is a sort of ‘walkabout’ trying to find our way onto the routes that continue back to meta-stories that give us vitality and validity. But, there are no pure historical origins with unbroken continuity or succession.
Genealogy recognizes the malleability of history, marriage, and generation. It’s an inside story. Genealogy effectively produces exemplars and episodes. It doesn’t try to give a history of the past as it actually was, nor its full significance. It is cyclic at the level of narrative time. It gives an interpretation, a hermeneutic of emergent events and people. It is the confabulation of a coherent and locally true narrative. Sovereignty is the unthought foundation of our knowledge, and sovereigns are the links that take us back the farthest in time.
It is a way of interacting and imagining beyond therapy or history, while maintaining the traceable and plausible family histories. The Domesday Book (William the Conqueror, 1086) introduced surnames. We can find records traceable to early 1500s, and disputed connections back to 13th century English royalty. As a model census, the Domesday Book became an exemplar for historical record-keeping that encouraged more reliable ‘proofs’ of descent, in civil and parish records.
Ancestral Soulwork
Can we go back to the Titans or Adam and Eve, or Noah? No, we cannot, not with documentation. But we can trace the history of our developing ideas. In this context historical characters arouse more emotions in us through identification. We find a way back that illumines our origins and Western history. The cosmological nature of Ares that relates us to universals is different than his in-group/out-group effect in the social field.
We look to the past because of present concerns. What has been remembered sheds light on what has been forgotten. It’s a story of survival as much as origins. Myth is visionary. It calls for a fertile and disciplined imagination. It calls us to repeat the question, “What is my myth?” When cultural myths collide there is global conflict – projected disdain and aggression. Winning can come at too high a price.
Are we served or impeded by ancestral influences? What does it mean to create a life with a heroic fantasy, and ego fantasy of being in control and on top of the situation? What are we pursuing? In search of who knows what? We are locked in a struggle of the higher and lower nature of our soul and must be willing to recognize this dominating nature.
Still, things turn out in the same old ways. We need linkage to an order of meaning larger than ourselves and current culture. We need connection with the transcendent other. By what authorities are we living our lives? The living myth is an internal reference. Genealogy is part of an inward individual search. We build our own experience of that deeper dimension through meditatively working within our genealogy, our illustrious ancestors. It opens us to the transpersonal.
Do we have a learned, personal relationship with our ancestors? What god are we serving? The challenge of our inner warrior remains finding peace without victory. We can retreat honorably through a pilgrimage of the soul toward our own origin in the Compassionate Warrior. Mars is exalted in the Taoist notion:“to act but not to compete.”
By activating our genealogy rites, we participate in the myth. We see through our actual life problems with mythological considerations that open a mystery dimension and insight on the right use of power. Genealogy marks the points where mythic thought ran headlong into religion and fundamentalism, and other systems of social control and engineering. Ares th econqueror repeats demands for veneration and still suggests, "I am in control because I am divine."
We are born into a family which we share with more and more contemporary people as we look further back in time. But when we are gathered to the ancestors are we met by the gods? Shall we move Ares from our archetypal altar to the family shrine? Perhaps some of us can.
We know there is power in naming. What is it to name something, to name someone, to name someone an ancestor, or even name a god as direct ancestor? It all comes down to our own name. Genealogy is a heritage-led regeneration. Tracing our lines back from our parents, we move deeper into the realm of the ancestors who gave us the substance of life and soul's self-expression. A sense of soul gives us a sense of history.
Our sacred and mythic roots inform our primordial human behavior and the timeless soul-world. They act on us through meaning as well as the world stage. This natural unconscious process doesn't need to be driven by a therapeutic or self-development agenda. In a complex and fragmented world, genealogy helps us revision the present. We look back for a context of meaning using our most personal history of being. We also recognize cultural ancestors, collective ancestors, ancestors of our land, and animal ancestors.
We don't carry ancestral DNA from all our direct ancestors. But we remain entangled with them in the ancestral field, consciously, or unconsciously. In real, imaginary, and symbolic ways they are meaningful to our wholeness. We reflect as we find our way back. The inner life exerts its manifest influence. Emotions shape our sense of self and relationships.
Ares aggression, might and energy have controlled all of history from behind the scenes. History is written by the competitive winners who then self-describe their glorious descent from the gods, insuring their renown and divine right to rule with genealogical propaganda. It is enforced with constant wars and worldview warfare, a battle for minds.
The dragon or serpent guards the treasures of the deep unconscious, the unwritten history of mankind, and its myth-spinning capacity. The serpentine path, which is an image for our descent and return, is a way to find our instinct that has no conflicts, because conflicts belong to the discriminating conscious mind.
Archetypal Ancestors
We can leverage our genealogy to inform our spiritual development and religious practice. Our biography begins with our progenitors and Ares appears in that context. An archetypal approach to genealogy is polytheistic. Each god appears with a divine family.
We recognize spiritual and psychological ancestors, as well as genetic ones. Their influence stays with us and helps us. The gods personify soul's need for spiritual ancestors. Our sense of identity expands to one of symbolic identification.
Genealogical methods trace ancestries back to gods, dynastic animal totems, and legendary heroes. Ancestral souls resided in sacred animals, such as the wolf, serpent, or dragon totems of Ares. Oral narratives became tribal history.
Divine right to rule was traced through genealogy in Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt, India and China. Biblical begats culminate in the House of David, a royal bloodline. It has been connected to Trojan and Roman lines for prestige, propaganda and power reasons.
The Greeks and Romans linked their heritage to the gods with their ancestral blessings and curses. It was first recorded in Homer’s The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Virgil’s The Aeniad. They are all stories of a quest to answer a deeper call. They fought to become immortal, to be remembered through the centuries.
The same characters described in classical literature still show up in genealogy -- in mine, and perhaps in yours, too. Dreams are catalysts for ancestral phenomena. Our ancestors dream of us unceasingly. When we dream of them, they dream of us right back. When we actively engage, they engage.
Dreams help us work with archetypal ancestors in transgenerational integration and trauma, combining traditional wisdom with contemporary practices (Gaillard). Transgenerational legacies shape our early life, and Ares is among them. This approach to self knowledge deals with our connection to our origin. The past still influences us in the present through integration of familial, social and cultural issues, and reclaiming our true self.
Descent from the Gods
Ares is our forebear, and archetype of the Blade, as Aphrodite is the Chalice. This aggressive and muscular warrior is the psychic background of an incendiary historical drama that is still unfolding in us and the world, a specific manifestation of dynamic energy. We can only meet Ares on his own ground, but it is not always the battlefield. Ares illuminates soul's special relationship to violence and death. Such an ancestor can be a loyal protective spirit, soul-guide, or mentor.
A secret unrest gnaws at our roots, an instinct for expansion. Such urges are expressed in our emotional and sensorimotor patterns. The less we are conscious of it, the more it influences us. Carl Jung thought that inclinations, moods, and decisions are influenced by the dark forces of psyche, and they could be dangerous or helpful in shaping destiny. (CW 10, Para 332)
We take our ancient lineage as metaphorical and symbolic, not just literal. Yes, Ares’ fiery nature has been with us from Greek Fire to the Hydrogen bomb. But the ancestral approach shows us that trans-subjective facts made of our own psychophysical substance, still reside in and work on us inside as they did outside. For Jung they were part of our inherited instinct and preformed patterns.
With a bit of insight, we can read the epic story of the Trojan War and Founding of Rome from the top down in our genealogy. The collective genealogy of the World Tree is a symbol of the collective unconscious. In Book 20 of The Iliad, Aeneas recites sixty lines of ancestral history back to Zeus as the beginning of his family line. Modern genealogies may compact that descent. In the descent from antiquity the kings of England, Scotland, France, and ancient Rome all claimed lines back to Trojan ancestors.
The gods are the archai, the deepest patterns and fundamental fantasies that animate all life. Archetypes direct fantasy activity and inherited potential for ideas and action. A metaphysical assertion or "truth" is a psychological statement of the psyche.
We see with the soul's eye through the web of reality. The spirits of the dead help us bring out our character and restore balanced relationships with the larger web of ancestors and spiritual forces. We work with archetypal patterns held within our psyche epigenetics, and DNA. We all suffer from the violence that is the foundation to life; life feeds on life. Compulsive repetition is always transpersonal.
In the case of Ares, Jung thought that conflict, war and conquest is about the failure of a myth to contain personal and collective dark energies projected onto real or imagined enemies. War goes with the territory. We must endure it as we do the conflict between the sexes, and between the ego and unconscious. Ancient myths, their archetypes, heroes, and monsters still animate our anxieties.
Myth explains the unexplainable, especially when history is unreliable. Myths repeat again and again, hence the totem serpent/dragon of Ares symbolizes endless time. Everything that was outside is also inside the mythic unconscious, including the fiery warrior who 'sticks to his guns', perhaps far too long. Ares is an organ of our pre-rational psyche. If character is our genius, some have a terrible genius for war and make a career of endlessly repeating the play of dominations.
As Jung (1977) puts it, “Although the opposites flee from one another they nevertheless strive for balance, since a state of conflict is too inimical to life to be endured indefinitely. They do this by wearing each other out, like the two dragons or the other ravenous beasts of alchemical symbolism.” (CW14, Pp. 230)
When we rely on physical power, intensity, intimidation, and direct action, how often do we act and react unmindfully? When are we too primitive, too present, or too strong? We all have to cope with violence, struggle, and death. What happens to the feminine, especially the dark feminine, in a society saturated by masculine war, or blood-soaked atrocities? Can conflict become the avenue to hope and self-worth?
The secret doctrine of antiquity survives in our bloodlines. Our genes pulse down the lines with us as temporary custodians. Separated across the face of time, we have the same genetic material. We go down in history, descending from the most remote and divine characters imaginable at the edge of reality.
In genealogy, inherent meaning unites with experience; historical facts help us uncover psychological meaning. Historical facts are set in and rooted in myth. The story acts on our psyche as much as it acted in the world. Even non- or pre-historical, genealogy is a symbol of an unbroken relationship with the others and divine forces and our mortality.
My story, rooted in Ares, may be your story, too, if Ares is in your lineage or a spirit in your blood. The soul has its own ancestors. We find our spiritual ancestors in "the land of the dead." Ares doesn't have to manifest in coercion, extreme rage, blood lust, or combativeness. We might be dauntless in our aspirations, inspired and sacrificing beyond ourselves, challenging our own personal best, courage and daring.
The first written words of Greek epic poetry were about the war with Troy in Asia Minor and the return from it. We now know that all wounds in war are not visible. Soul-searing post-traumatic stress persists throughout a lifetime as a disease of the soul. Shell shock with flashbacks, emotional flooding, hypervigilance and depression persists because the powerful archetypal field remains active.
The Aeniad, The Illiad and the Odyssey are stories of the soul. Odysseus failed in his long voyage home for many years, because the true voyage home is an inner journey to heal the rage, deadness and stuckness that comes from visceral horror and atrocities.
"But this much I would claim to know: that a man cannot go to war in quest of power and wealth without doing mortal harm to some portion of his soul, and once the soul is damaged and impaired then all kinds of madness follow." (Clarke, p. 272, 2004)
Not necessarily aggressive with primitive brutality, Ares is also chivalry, protection and self-protection, repressed action. We needn't be raiders, military or militant, do martial arts, collect weapons, or be sports or sex addicts. We don't need forceful exercise of the power drive to commune with Ares of the mighty heart and emotional wounds.
Courage, empowerment, assertiveness, sportsmanship, and other qualities shine when not confounded with shadow ferocity, violence, might, and impulse. Sometimes, we may be headstrong, rash, self-gratifying. We will fight for what we believe. We will risk, lose reason and restraint, again and again.
We will play tough; we will quarrel; we will be impetuous. We will be tense; we will overreact; we may surrender to despair or vengeance. Someone will press our buttons. We feel Ares as the surge of emotion, loyalty, or the urge to retaliate, but also the light generated by fiery emotions.
Soul Retrieval
Indigenous people equate ancestor loss with soul loss that can be retrieved by reintegrating our ancestral generations. Our memory gives the dead greater reality and invokes their “participation” in births and marriages. If ancestral spirits are watchful, we cease to be cut off from those relationships and feel more whole.
Since soul is the living thing in us, soul loss is depression, loss of vitality or passion about life, or feeling that something is missing in life. Body-language betrays feelings. We define ourselves by interaction. When you put human names to it, perception shifts.
Genealogy is about re-connection. It helps heal loss of meaning, survivor-guilt, direction, vitality, mission, purpose, identity, and deep unhappiness. We need to know who we are and where we come from beyond the recent past. We can follow the lines of our genealogical descent like a path, our particular path into existence. In this case it is the path of Ares, through Aeneas, through the Roman Emperors.
The ancestors, including the divine roots create the form of all our experience. By facing our soul, we face our ancestors and the gods in a circumambulation of the self. Our devotion to Ares echoes how that archetype informs our lives. There is a caution warning, an object lesson in his frenzy, irrationality, and uncontrolled lust.
Ares harks back through the Mycenaean Greeks to the prehistoric Dragon lineages of the Hittites, Sumerians, and beyond. His character matches Teshub, another Anatolian deity. Ares fought for the Trojans at the siege of Ilium. Hesiod and Aeschylus said he was the father of the race of Kadmos, who married his daughter Hermione. The warriors of Kadmos sprang from the teeth of the dragon of Ares, which Kadmos sowed.
The wolf is the totem animal of Ares, but the dragon is also his sacred animal. The nymph Telphousa bore the sacred dragon Ares begat on her. This Ismenian dragon was a giant serpent which guarded the sacred spring of Ares near Thebes.
We can follow this martial thread as a lead. Reading the line we "see through" the collective portion of a classical line of descent from Ares/Mars. It descends through Troy to the rise and fall of Rome, into the Middle Ages, and the modern world. Revisioning Ares (c. -1680) as a direct ancestor forges an emotional connection with the root archetypes, the Olympians.
We realize what Ares means from deep inside as more than an unconscious psychic factor. Giving voice to the ancestors is giving voice to the gods so their images can live and ground our being. Our lonely hearts open fully to loving reciprocity.
Recognition
Ceremonially reciting their ancestors was one of the most important things an ancient person could do. In Scotland declaring lineage was part of the battle-rattle preceding war, designed to strike terror into the heart of the enemy. We can welcome them hospitably back into our lives. Their images impress us in a way beyond the physical facts, restoring form to the formless.
Recognition is a great mystery of the psyche. The inner wealth of the soul resides in our hearts. Jung calls the unconscious, "the unwritten history of mankind from time unrecorded." (CW 11, Para 280) And he notes, "The unconscious mind of man sees correctly even when conscious reason is blind and impotent." (CW 11, Para 608). Our genealogical lines symbolically and literally encode information and express this concept.
Our family tree helps us learn the family history and the stories behind the pedigrees which trail off into the mists of pre-history. Matters stuck in limbo are lured back into life by genealogical soul retrieval and emotional reconnection to the ancestors, gods, and primordial womb of nature.
When that is part of 'what we know' we don't have to merely believe. The ancestors and divine root permeate us through the dark borderland of body and soul and unify our archetypal essence. Everything in the psychic world is real.
In Scotland, oral traditions of genealogy marked the structure and evolution of the clan by blood descent, marriage, and territorial holding. Oral recitation of genealogy was passed on to children round the fireside. The Highlanders did not use the form of a tree, but used the track of a wheel or the imprint of fingers tracing intricate relations in the dust.
Old seanchaidhean could recite the sinnsearachd, the Gaelic term used for the descent or genealogical track. So, pardon me while I idly trace the relationships and genealogical tracks left in the dusts of time, legend, and memory in the line of Ares/Mars.
What if God Was [more than] One of Us?
Myth is the DNA of the human psyche. Genes are memories, primordial and otherwise. Living myths give story and experience meaning. Genealogy is not always simple, being full of alternate matings, shared ancestry, inter-family marriages, incest, natural and disputed offspring.
Because of the genetic shuffle in chromosomes at conception, such revelations come mostly through genealogy, not genetic tests which reveal ethnic identity but few if any individual ancestors.
In his archaic form, Ares was a fertility god and reproductive drive. If the lines are to be believed his descendants proliferate in the flesh to this day. The psychic fact is that he is in us all, and remains in us and our progeny through certain royal lines of descent. The soul becomes the arbiter of truth or error.
We embody the survival of the pagan gods. Psyche cannot be distinguished from its manifestations. The historical tradition is conflated with the mythic tradition through genealogy. The implication is that if we were engendered by them, they continue through us. They persist in our spirit, psyche and psychology, emotions, as well as physical bodies that create our reality every day.
The gods' misty pre-historical origin is our own origin. Thus, Ares/Mars is archetype and ancestor, an instinct for physical survival. Questionable empirical reality has a transcendent aspect, including dark and mysterious areas of our experience. We are informed by his Being. Umberto Eco says, wryly, in Foucault's Pendulum that we cannot betray an ancestor who never existed nor fail that old-time religion.
The general premise of The Survival of the Pagan Gods, by Jean Seznec (1981) is that "the ancient gods survive during the Middle Ages by virtue of interpretations of their origin and nature propounded by antiquity itself."
The gods are civilizers, who founded dynasties as well as legends. They hide in astrology, science, and magic as 'astral' planetary forces. The Renaissance reduced them to mythological allegory, but the bloodlines went silently on as testimony to divine origin. Our genealogy informs our understanding of history and even the unleashed terror of a god. What happens when the warrior god culture goes too far?
Archetypal Genealogy
Truth be told, ancient genealogy is probably more about the poetics of commemoration than filial descent. Ancient genealogies are an object of belief with little evidence. The evidence for their confabulation for politics and propaganda has increased in the last decades. But they remain the basis and touchstone of classical history.
Settipani (2011) says, “The first contribution genealogy makes to history is to fix the chronology. Early chronological texts about human beings are often genealogies. The time of an event was fixed by saying "that happened at the time of my father's father .. ". Genealogy was also used to legitimize the power of a social class claiming that power because it was inherited from the gods or from kingly ancestors.”
We still have to find the point where the evidence fails and search for reliable sources. Archaeology keeps filling in the historical gaps. Traditional genealogy is an archetypal activity, recapitulating and extending humanity's oldest activities, including the imaginal root. The aesthetic response is an ethical response -- a response of the heart -- that values the ancestors and the genealogical history.
Genealogy is thus an archetypal order, an aesthetic construction, and a virtual map of the personal and collective unconscious, reflecting a principle of totality and primordial origins. Traditional genealogy considered these mythological inclusions best-practice, yet it may be more of a psychic than historical "fact."
This does not mean we need to take that literally – historically as fact -- but the connections seem implicit by their nature. Genealogy is another way for us to connect with the gods, and if we are connected to one, we are therefore related to others, as well. Jung claimed, “There is no form of human tragedy that does not in some measure proceed from this conflict between the ego and the unconscious.”
Only a Jungian approach to traditional genealogy keeps the historic/mythic gestalt of The World Tree alive as a symbol of wholeness -- a holistic resonant field pattern. According to Jung, trees are a symbolic reference to the self, so family tree is self-defining. As well as our lineage, our ancestors also form a vast symbol chain, rooted in the mythic unconscious and pre-history.
The symbolic function is beyond innate impulse and ideological bias. Through introversion, we are fertilized, inspired, regenerated, and reborn. Self-incubation, self-castigation, and introversion are closely related ideas. Immersion in oneself (introversion) is a penetration into the unconscious, the imaginal world of psyche. What is invisible to us was obvious to the ancients.
The World Tree is the Axis Mundi of genealogy, a worldwide database of genealogical connectivity. At this point travel and correspondence is made between higher and lower realms. Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones and be disseminated to all. The origin functions as the omphalos (navel), the world's point of beginning.
The earliest mythologies are of the World-Tree, or Tree of Life. Aspects of the same image, sacred trees are the most common motif from the ancient world. The Tree connects our psychophysical aspects from sub-nuclear to macrocosmic scales. The trunk is the axis of psychic growth that unites Heaven and Earth, spirit and matter.
First Nations insist that lack of connection to our ancestors is one of our greatest shortcomings, so reclaiming them takes on great importance. It gives us a model of ‘how’ precisely we are connected, and just how many generations lie between. The further back in time they are, the more we can be certain we share them with most of humanity.
The mythology of our ancestors is as important as their cosmology. We can explore the mystic in ourselves and in our ancestors. Our worldview is the root of our identity and relationship to Nature and our own deep nature. Researching the cosmologies of our direct ancestors in the historical era provides a quick path into dreamwork as these ways are still half-remembered. Our common destiny lies beyond any worldview.
Bloodlust & Bloodline
According to the best practice of conventional and traditional genealogy, Ares is my 94th gr-grandfather, through Electra, some Trojan kings, Caesars, Roman emperors, Iberian aristocracy, and British knights. They are followed by Colonial immigrants, frontier pioneers and homesteaders. The theme remains space expansion and survival in extreme environments, going further and farther than any before.
The tale of Ares is the tale of the Greek, Trojan, and Roman family trees. The forms remain important for transgenerational reintegration of our ancestral spirits. Violent histories are the common core of transgenerational wounding.
Ares had four sons: Evenus, Molus, Pylus, and Thestius. My descent originates with Ares and Eurythemis, who had issue, Thestius (my 93rd gr-gr). The mother seems to have also married her divine son. We don't need to plot all the characters of the epic Trojan war, only those in the direct line of descent. The gods take sides in the conflict: Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, and Apollo back the Trojans. Hera, Athena, Hephaestus, and Poseidon favor the Greeks, while Zeus remained neutral.
The Trojan Family tree consists largely of an unbroken paternal line sired by Erichthonius (my 88th gr-gr), King of Dardania and Acadia [ancient Turkey]. But that descent is rooted in the maternal triad of Electra of Mycenae [my 90th], Mycenean queen Clytemnestra of Troy with Agamemnon of Mycenae [both my 91st ge-gr], and Leda of Sparta [92nd], who famously coupled with Zeus as the Swan. Leda is usually considered the daughter of King Thestius of Aetolia and Eurythemis. And her daughter was Helen of Troy, (92nd gr-aunt) the catalyst of the war.
On the Greek side, Odysseus is my 85th gr-grandfather, and traces back his maternal and paternal lines to Zeus through Hermes. His gr-great grandaughter is Lavinia Roma of Alba Longa, and her son is Iulus, who founds the Julian Dynasty. So both lines of Odysseus and Aeneas merge when Lavinia marries Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, grandson of King Priam of Troy, descendant of Aphrodite, and ancestor of Romulus, Remus and the Gens Julia, clan of Julius Caesar.
This story with its variants is that of the Kings of Alba Longa, from the Silvii to the Julii dynasties. His grandfather, Anchises, and his son Aeneas (my 83rd gr-grandfather), claimed descent from Aphrodite. They became important divine forebears to the Romans, who claimed descent from both the Goddess of Love and the God of War. The Julian dynasty descended from their progenitor Iulus (my 81st gr-gr).
In some Roman traditions, Iulus, the semi-divine ancestor of gens Iulia, was identical with Aeneas’ son Ascanius (Virgil). In other traditions, Iulus was the son of Aeneas by his Trojan wife, Creusa, while Ascanius was the son of Aeneas' Latin wife Lavinia, daughter of Latinus (Livy). And, in still another tradition, Iulus was son of Ascanius. My genealogy lists Iulus as son of Ascanius and Lavinia.
With Aeneas, the dramatic setting changes from Troy to Rome and its antecedents. With a host of other beliefs among them, all descendants unconsciously pay homage to the strength and courage of their ‘progenitor’ Ares/Mars and his dynamic pioneering energy. That spirit is ratified in Julius Caesar, my 59th gr-grandfather, back through Aeneas to the Trojan kings, Zeus and the Titans. Or, so he claimed.
Zeus engineered the Trojan War because there were too many generations on the earth. Earth (Gaia) complained to Zeus there were too many humans for her to bear. She laments, "The people whom I nurture now dishonor Me. This Iao has taught them not to love.” Jung noticed, "Each of us, every living being, is a small earth, one could say, because we are in intimate connection with the earth, we are partially earth, we are conscious of our earthly body, for instance." (Visions Seminar, Pages 1158-1159)
Ares/Mars supported the Trojans and the Romans. The root lines of Julius Caesar show that Electra's maternal line descends from Ares' union with Eurythemis. The descent of the Julian Family tree continues through the collateral adoptive son, Augustus Caesar, which breaks the direct genetic chain but preserves rule in the Julian family.
Divine Ancestry
In -7th BCE. Greece, Hesiod recounts the birth of Ares in Theogony 921 ff (trans. Evelyn-White). "Zeus took Hera to be his fresh consort, and she, lying in the arms of the father of gods and mortals, conceived and bore Hebe to him, and Ares, and Eileithyia."
There are a number of ways in which the idea of descent from the gods is used in ancient and medieval writings. In some legends individual heroes are said to be sons of gods or descended from a god, like Ares. Rather than literal divine ancestry and divine descent we can approach the god as a symbolic and metaphorical reality -- a lived and living connection to the Olympians as close as our skin.
Homer's story of Troy is the first written in Greek, allegedly 500 years after the events. It is a foundation of western tradition and archetypes of all sorts of behaviors and legendary heroes. Before that stories were sung about heroes and battles. In the 13th century BCE, Trojan and Greek warriors fought this long bloody battle that became an epic that still resonates through history.
The defeat of Troy was the end of the Bronze Age. It ushered in the Greek Dark Ages. More legends were born. But there are real people behind many of the legends. Trojan refugees were led West by Aeneas, who Julius Caesar claimed as his ancestor. As Romans they later returned and conquered Greece. In between, pre-history became history and empire.
Aeschylus says in Fragment 282 of Papyri Oxyrhynchus, (trans. Lloyd-Jones):
"[Dike the goddess of justice speaks: ...And I will tell you a proof which gives you this clearly. Hera has reared a violent son [Ares] whom she has borne to Zeus, a god irascible, hard to govern, an one whose mind knew no respect for others. He shot wayfarers with deadly arrows, and ruthless hacked . . ((lacuna)) with hooked spears . . he rejoiced and laughed . . evil . . scent of blood."
As the gods do not appear in isolation, a relationship with Ares, implies one with his extended and immediate family – Aphrodite, Zeus and Hera, and other Olympians. Their drop lines include Rome's founders Romulus and Remus, listed as gr-uncles of today's descendants. We are reminded again of Ares and his totem wolf as the divine twins were raised by a she-wolf.
Yet, clearly, “No one can 'prove' a descent from Julius Caesar,” [my 59th].
The dynasty Aeneas Gens Iulia includes Iulus, my 81st → Ascanius, King of Alba Longa, his father → Aeneas, King of Lavinium, his father, my 83rd]
This family which spawned Julius Caesar claimed descent from the Roman goddess Venus-Aphrodite (my 84th gr-gr) through Aeneas, her son by her lover Anchises, who was a Trojan prince. My genealogy shows this in the profile of Aeneas, closely braiding the Aphrodite and Ares dual-divinity generation of this line. Aphrodite as anima mundi binds all states of being together, the totality of the psyche.
Legend says Aeneas escaped the Fall of Troy (about 1200 BCE) and journeyed to Italy where he became the tribal ancestor of the Latins and the Etruscans. This acknowledges Zeus as prime ancestor.
Aeneas was a popular figure in medieval genealogical inventions. In the Norse saga, the Deluding of Gylfe, he is called Anea. Medieval Welsh genealogies called him Annyn Tro. In one Welsh source he is called a son of Brydain, giving name to Britain) and a grandson of Aedd Mawr (Edward the Great), c. 1300 BCE. These chronologies are too confused to be credible.
As we retreat through history most people are genetically related, even if the genealogy cannot be traced. The story becomes one not of our own family, but the collective family of man. Still, it is one thing to read history in a book, and quite another to read it in the lines of one's own direct descent.
The historian Strabo has Poseidon prophetically declare in Iliad XX, “But, now I know, the lineage of Aeneas will rule over all, and so too will his son, and his son's sons, who will be born thereafter." So it seemed throughout the rise and fall of Rome, including some of the most famous names and leaders in global history.
Alba Longa was an indigenous Latin iron age settlement in the mountains near Rome today. In Roman mythology, Alba was founded by Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, as a new colony of Trojan refugees and native Latins. In some accounts Ascanius was the son of Lavinia, and grandson of Latinus. (Livy); in other versions, Ascanius was the son of Creusa (Dionysius,Virgil). Virgil claims Ascanius and Iulus were the same. Dionysius makes Iulus the son of Ascanius, the founder and first king of Alba Longa. Many claimed Iulus as the ancestor of the Julian gens.
Eratosthenes places the sack of Troy around 1184 BC, more than four centuries before the traditional founding of Rome, in 753. The Alban kings history neatly closed the gap from Aeneas to Romulus. It is a mythical justification for the close ties between Rome and the indigenous Latin families descended from the Trojan immigrants or their Alban descendants.
Fifteen Trojan pedigrees of the Alban kings from Aeneas to Romulus survive. In the Aeniad, Virgil claimed that Latinus was the son of Faunus, and grandson of Picus, the first king of Latium, who was in turn the son of Saturn. But Picus was also said to be the son of Mars, rather than Saturn.
The Latins attacked the intruding Trojans, were defeated, and peace was cemented with the marriage of Aeneas and Lavinia, daughter of the Latin king. Aeneas founded a town of both Trojans and Latins, named Lavinium. (Kings of Alba Longa, Wikipedia)
Founding Rome: Ares Becomes Mars
No matter which of the ancient writers or genealogies we follow for the backstory of Rome, we encounter the same names over and over, even if their links and marriages are juggled around. No one argues about their descent from Ares and Aphrodite, whether in the same or different lines.
Following the Ares descent line down through time, we come to the era and people associated with the founding and legends of Rome. Ares insinuated himself actively into the founding of Rome, as Mars. Rhea Silvia conceived the Twins when Mars impregnated her in a sacred grove dedicated to him. Through their mother, they were descended from Greek and Latin nobility. His character defined that of the Empire -- its conquering and martial nature.
- Founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus are my 94th great uncles.
- Romulus was husband of Hersilia of Alba Longa, an abducted Sabine;
- Remus was father of Pompilia of Rome, my 1st cousin 95x removed
The Romans considered Mars second only to Zeus or Jupiter, his father, and my 95th gr-grandfather. The twin founders of Rome raised by a wolf are the mythical offspring of Ares and Rhea Silvia, Princess of Alba Longa (b. circa 808), the wife of Ascanius. Roman emperors were always priests of Ares/Mars.
Romulus and Remus were the direct descendants of Ares, through Aeneas, whose fate-driven adventures in Italy are described in The Aeneid by Vergil. The Julian family, including Julius Caesar and Augustus, traced their lineage to Ascanius and Aeneas, thus to the goddess Venus. The legendary kings of Britain allegedly trace their family through Brutus first king of Britain (my 70th gr-gr), a grandson of Aeneas. Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Benedictine monk living in the 12th century AD, fabricated this connection in the Historia Regum Britanniae.
In the Iliad, the god Poseidon prophesied that the descendants of Aeneas (the Aeneadae), would survive the Trojan War and rule their people forever. Virgil traced the divine connection down the line of Aeneas stretched through Romulus, Augustus, and the Julio-Claudian emperors down to Nero. Some Greek writers considered the Romans descendants of the Achaeans, rather than the Trojans. Or, the Romans are descended from Odysseus, one of the Achaeans, rather than his contemporary, the Trojan prince Aeneas.
Romulus and Remus were related to Aeneas through their mother's father, Numitor. He was a king of Alba Longa, an ancient city of Latium in central Italy, Numitor, 15th king of Alba Longa, was father to Rhea Silvia. Rubens depicts the Roman god Mars, identifiable with his war helmet and shield, raping the vestal virgin Rhea Silvia.
The identity of the father of Romulus and Remus generated debate. Some myths claim that Mars appeared and lay with Rhea Silvia; other myths name the demi-god hero Hercules as her partner. The genealogy shows Mars forcibly impregnated Rhea Silvia with Romulus and Remus.
However, the author Livy claims that Rhea Silvia was in fact raped by an unknown man, but blamed her pregnancy on divine conception. In either case, Rhea Silvia became pregnant and gave birth to her sons. Any Vestal Virgin betraying her vows of celibacy was condemned to death. But the king ordered the twins thrown into the Tiber River, expecting them to die of exposure. But a servant put them in a tiny boat and a she-wolf found and nursed them.
When we consider if Aeneas was their father or grandfather, consider there are more than 500 intervening years from the fall of Troy to the founding of Rome. Aeneas was the father of Ascanius with Creusa, and of Silvius with Lavinia. The former, also known as Iulus (or Julius), founded Alba Longa and was the first in a long series of kings.
Romulus named his city Roma after himself and created a government system of senators and patricians. When the male population exploded, the Roman men abducted women from the Sabines and Latins. In response to this rape or abduction of women, the Sabine and Latin men went to war against Rome. Romulus was the definitive winner of this war and this first hero’s victory was Rome's first triumph.
Psyche and History
There are, indeed, psychic powers within us that correspond to the divine -- and Ares/Mars is pre-eminent among them. The immortal soul in us surpasses the perishable individual significance.
We are links in the great chain of being, which is sometimes more like chainmail armor in its interconnections with ancestors and the gods. There remains a destructive impulse in ourselves and others that adds fire, vitality, passion, and power to life.
It is the mystery of brinksmanship -- the art or practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping, typically in politics -- power vs. empowerment. Personal sovereignty is the practice of trying to achieve an advantageous outcome by pushing dangerous events to the brink of active conflict to secure an advantage. But Mars will gladly bring the hammer down, too.
We have many possibilities for embracing power and genealogy remains a symbol of that human struggle, not only in war, but in class struggle, business competition, and love or sport. Genealogy gives the subject substance, "by showing us a broad experience of power, rooted in the body, the mind, and the emotions, rather than the customary narrow interpretation that simply equates power with strength." (Hillman, 2005)
In The Terrible Love of War, James Hillman (2005) noted that, "During the 5,600 years of recorded history, 14,600 wars have been fought -- 2 to 3 for every year of human history. War is a constant thing. And yet no one really understands why that is." He described his antidotes in Kinds of Power: A Guide to its Intelligent Uses (1997).
It is no accident we find Ares and the other gods at the roots of our genealogical lines. Hillman (2004) drills down into myth, into religion, and into the soul’s basement where the most basic impulses to war is seething. He suggests we, "listen to the language of the media, with its lexicon of war, battle, fight, compete, win, lose — all of these words pointing to conquest." Jung thought that how a person reacts to conflict in life arises accidentally from childhood experiences producing certain impressions – responses to haphazard conflicts.
We have not even begun to wake up to the complex and nuanced power of the god of war. Nation-states find war a normal presence. But there is a deeper mythic and religious intention behind the fog of war and its purpose. It deepens the values we hold. The Crusades, begun after the Fall of Rome, symbolize the battle of East and West that still rages. The groups change, but the battle hymn of Mars remains the same. Ideologies lead to demagogues.
In our imaginative engagement with conflict, we need to maintain the place of psyche in genealogical interpretations, not cutting off the mythic past from our narrative with the sword of rationality and evidence or proof. Equivalent images remain dormant in our psyches if we do not recognize and establish the sacred connection between the divine figures and our own psyche.
There is an irrational reality beyond the radical honesty of rationalism. It preserves even as it deconstructs our cherished notions about the past and self. It makes our lines no less 'real,' but it deliteralizes them, emphasizing soul's meaning is deeper connection, with or without metaphysical assertions. Genealogical history is a false but meaningful metaphor of disjunction and wholeness which mirrors our existence.
We suffer collectively if we cut off those connections and psychological truths from our conscious and spiritual lives. Myth remains the key to 'the art of seeing.' Psyche remains full of obscurities and unsolvable riddles which press against our weak and often dull comprehensions.
Genealogy opens us to emotional experience, often of both sides of any historical conflict, suggesting we have a personal connection or stake in them all, which as humans we naturally do. Genealogy -- real, confabulated, or imaginal -- is the basis of the whole western world, or at least its public face and rulership. They sought to blaze their way through the heavens.
We always remain both perpetrators and victims of forces eternally greater than ourselves – witting or unwitting pawn. The interaction of the divine and the soul remains an over-arching theme of humanity. The religious function itself is archetypal, and we continue to sacrifice at the altar of Ares in local and global conflict. When any old worldview is failing, it is pressured by a new belief system.
International quarrels are personified in the 'usual suspects', the characters and kings in the conflicting dramas of nation states, and identity, ethnicity, and power-struggle. Throughout most of European history, rulers battled with their own extended family members. They married enemies to negotiate peace. Thus, nearly all European royals are related.
Whether we call that Ares/Mars, or not, it remains a living reality in international politics, as surely as anything passed to us all through the persistent legacy of the Roman Empire. Mars casts a very long shadow across individual and collective history. Only now, through the body and DNA itself, are we realizing we are multi-ethnic at the deepest level, and even contain other species of human, and less than human DNA.
Descent From Antiquity
Genealogy, especially Descent From Antiquity (DFA) is an imaginal activity. We can view it reductively as pseudoscience, pretention, or magical thinking. Or, aware of its historical shortcomings, we can view it metaphorically like a dream, an active imagination, or a Way of spiritual connection. These are stories we carry in our blood and bones – the marrow of our life – our Holy Grail. Mythic dissociation is imposed on us by culture, disturbing the ecology and topography of our own soul, laid out in our pedigree.
Christian Settipani (2011) describes the issues: “To give you an example, it has taken ages to know if what Homer recounts in "The Iliad and the Odyssey" corresponds to what life was like during the Mycenaean period it was supposed to describe. On the whole it doesn't, but there is a little bit all the same. Another example from the "Iliad", it's a mythological tale filled with genealogies. Ever since 1800, it was thought to be meaningless. But today we're much more careful: it's been shown that the city of Troy existed, Hittite texts have been found that describe the tensions in the region at this time, with a king of Troy at the time called Alexander, as Alexander Paris in the "Iliad." There are things in the "Iliad" that can be retained even if all the heroes are not real people. The historian has to use all the texts at his disposal, including epic poems, and compare them with other sources to see if there's anything that can be used or not.”
Deliteralizing genealogy, we reject false ‘royal’ grandiosity and literalism, or concretization in favor of value and meaning that aids our individuation. They may be fictive but not untruth; they are internal and instinctual values that sustain us. The gods remain psychic factors, including the way we deal with conflict. We may not solve such problems, but we may outgrow them, adapt, and survive. We grow around them in a non-linear way.
Myth, legend, and history interpenetrate in genealogy. We don’t pretend to go back in time as an unbroken chain that transcends all forgotten things, but it arouses us emotionally. There have been genealogical forgeries in all ages for gain, prestige, or even through ignorance. It doesn’t show evolution or map our destiny. It unfurls the panoply of the past as a vast psychological and historical epic. It functions as an effective history -- sense of identity shifts.
It helps us imagine the complex course of descent that gives birth and value to our existence. We see the accidents, the false steps, the miscalculations. There are legendary and fictitious persons who are born, yearn, and die, in the traditional lineage linking ancestry to the collective unconscious. By uniting the opposites, genealogy transcends true/false, real/fiction in a coherent imaginal reality with its own truths and values.
The value systems of our ancient ancestors were rooted in tribal life and stories. If we eschew dislocated metaphors we are thrown back upon our own psychic life, understanding mythic meaning at the individual level. The fixities have been deconstructed, generating ambivalence, disquietude, and ambiguity.
Foucault (1971) quips, “The new historian, the genealogist, will know what to make of this masquerade. He will not be too serious to enjoy it; on the contrary, he will push the masquerade to its limit and prepare the great carnival of time where masks are constantly reappearing. No longer the identification of our faint individuality with the solid identities of the past, but our "unrealization" through the excessive choice of identities--Frederick of Hohenstaufen, Caesar, Jesus, Dionysus, and possibly Zarathustra."
Rather than a linear development, genealogy gives us a vast overview of emergent humanity, its governing laws, and rules of engagement. It is marked by rulers, and competing powers, not designed to temper violence, but to satisfy it. Law, itself, permits the perpetual instigation of new dominations and the staging of serially repeated scenes of violence. Humanity arose from perversion though guilt, conscience, duty, and obligation. But that process was saturated in blood. Each system has its own rules for violence and domination, opposed by resistance.
Genealogy is non-linear and accidental. It demonstrates a mobility of appearances and realities. Sometimes we go the wrong way or reach a ‘dead end’ in the labyrinth of ancestors. Sometimes we identify with a renown victor only to find the victim in our lines, as well. Tracing, deviating, and re-tracing a particular line is a sort of ‘walkabout’ trying to find our way onto the routes that continue back to meta-stories that give us vitality and validity. But, there are no pure historical origins with unbroken continuity or succession.
Genealogy recognizes the malleability of history, marriage, and generation. It’s an inside story. Genealogy effectively produces exemplars and episodes. It doesn’t try to give a history of the past as it actually was, nor its full significance. It is cyclic at the level of narrative time. It gives an interpretation, a hermeneutic of emergent events and people. It is the confabulation of a coherent and locally true narrative. Sovereignty is the unthought foundation of our knowledge, and sovereigns are the links that take us back the farthest in time.
It is a way of interacting and imagining beyond therapy or history, while maintaining the traceable and plausible family histories. The Domesday Book (William the Conqueror, 1086) introduced surnames. We can find records traceable to early 1500s, and disputed connections back to 13th century English royalty. As a model census, the Domesday Book became an exemplar for historical record-keeping that encouraged more reliable ‘proofs’ of descent, in civil and parish records.
Ancestral Soulwork
Can we go back to the Titans or Adam and Eve, or Noah? No, we cannot, not with documentation. But we can trace the history of our developing ideas. In this context historical characters arouse more emotions in us through identification. We find a way back that illumines our origins and Western history. The cosmological nature of Ares that relates us to universals is different than his in-group/out-group effect in the social field.
We look to the past because of present concerns. What has been remembered sheds light on what has been forgotten. It’s a story of survival as much as origins. Myth is visionary. It calls for a fertile and disciplined imagination. It calls us to repeat the question, “What is my myth?” When cultural myths collide there is global conflict – projected disdain and aggression. Winning can come at too high a price.
Are we served or impeded by ancestral influences? What does it mean to create a life with a heroic fantasy, and ego fantasy of being in control and on top of the situation? What are we pursuing? In search of who knows what? We are locked in a struggle of the higher and lower nature of our soul and must be willing to recognize this dominating nature.
Still, things turn out in the same old ways. We need linkage to an order of meaning larger than ourselves and current culture. We need connection with the transcendent other. By what authorities are we living our lives? The living myth is an internal reference. Genealogy is part of an inward individual search. We build our own experience of that deeper dimension through meditatively working within our genealogy, our illustrious ancestors. It opens us to the transpersonal.
Do we have a learned, personal relationship with our ancestors? What god are we serving? The challenge of our inner warrior remains finding peace without victory. We can retreat honorably through a pilgrimage of the soul toward our own origin in the Compassionate Warrior. Mars is exalted in the Taoist notion:“to act but not to compete.”
By activating our genealogy rites, we participate in the myth. We see through our actual life problems with mythological considerations that open a mystery dimension and insight on the right use of power. Genealogy marks the points where mythic thought ran headlong into religion and fundamentalism, and other systems of social control and engineering. Ares th econqueror repeats demands for veneration and still suggests, "I am in control because I am divine."
REFERENCES
Boccassio, Wilkins, Ernest H. (1927), The University of Chicago Manuscript of the Genealogia Deorum Gentilium of Boccaccio, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Clarke, Lindsay, (2005), The War at Troy, HarperCollins (April 2, 2010).
Dalai Lama, The Reality of War, http://www.dalailama.com/messages/world-peace/the-reality-of-war
Easter, Sandra, (2015), Jung and the Ancestors: Beyond Biography, Mending the Ancestral Web, Muswell Hill Press.
Faulkes, Anthony, Descent From the Gods
http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Descent-from-the-gods.pdf
Gaillard , Thierry, (2014), L’intégration transgénérationnelle: Aliénation et connaissance de soi, Ecodition.
Giglio Gregorio Giraldi, De deis gentium.
Hillman, James and Sonu Shamdasani, (2013), Lament of the Dead: Psychology After Jung's Red Book, W. W. Norton & Company.
Homer, (1999), The Iliad & The Odyssey, Barnes & Noble Books.
Jung, C.G. (Author), Gerhard Adler (Editor), R. F.C. Hull (Translator), (1970), Civilization in Transition (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10) 2nd Edition, Princeton University Press; 2nd edition.
Jung, C.G., (1975), Collected Works 11, Psychology and Religion, Princeton University Press; 2nd ed. edition (January 1975).
Jung, C.G., (1977), Mysterium Coniunctionis, (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.14), Princeton University Press.
Jung, C.G. (Author), Claire Douglas (Editor), (1997), Visions : Notes of the seminar given in 1930-1934 (2 Volume Set) (Bollingen), Princeton University Press.
Marsh, Danielle I. Marsh, (2013), Heroes, Saints, and Gods: Foundation Legends and Propaganda in Ancient and Renaissance Rome Eastern Michigan University, Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations.
Miller, Iona, (2016), Ancestors & Archetypes, http://ancestorsandarchetypes.weebly.com/
Miller, Iona, (2015), Jungian Genealogy, http://jungiangenealogy.weebly.com/
Settipani, Christian, and Patrick van Kerrebrouck, (1993), La Préhistoire des Capétiens, 481-987, première partie : Mérovingiens, Carolingiens et Robertiens.
Les ancêtres de Charlemagne, 1989
Nos ancêtres de l'Antiquité, 1991
Christian Settipani, La préhistoire des Capétiens, 1993
Settipani, Christian, (2011), Interview with Christian Settipani, http://worldancestors.blogspot.com/2011/06/interview-with-christian-settipani.html
Rowland, Susan, PhD, (2007), Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies Vol.3, No. 1, 2007,
"Writing about War: Jung, Much Ado About Nothing, and the Troy novels of Lindsay Clarke".
Schützenberger, Ancelin A., (1998). The Ancestor Syndrome: Transgenerational Psychotherapy and the Hidden Links in the Family Tree. London: Routledge.
Seznec, Jean, (1953), The Survival of the Pagan Gods: The Mythological Tradition and Its Place in ..., Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology, Princeton University Press.
Virgil, The Aeneid of Virgil, (Bantam Classics) Reissue Edition.
Wagner, Anthony, 1975, Pedigree and Progress Essays in the Genealogical Interpretation of History. London: Phillimore.
Wikipedia, List of Trojan War characters, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Trojan_War_characters
Wikipedia, Founding of Rome, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_of_Rome
Boccassio, Wilkins, Ernest H. (1927), The University of Chicago Manuscript of the Genealogia Deorum Gentilium of Boccaccio, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Clarke, Lindsay, (2005), The War at Troy, HarperCollins (April 2, 2010).
Dalai Lama, The Reality of War, http://www.dalailama.com/messages/world-peace/the-reality-of-war
Easter, Sandra, (2015), Jung and the Ancestors: Beyond Biography, Mending the Ancestral Web, Muswell Hill Press.
Faulkes, Anthony, Descent From the Gods
http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Descent-from-the-gods.pdf
Gaillard , Thierry, (2014), L’intégration transgénérationnelle: Aliénation et connaissance de soi, Ecodition.
Giglio Gregorio Giraldi, De deis gentium.
Hillman, James and Sonu Shamdasani, (2013), Lament of the Dead: Psychology After Jung's Red Book, W. W. Norton & Company.
Homer, (1999), The Iliad & The Odyssey, Barnes & Noble Books.
Jung, C.G. (Author), Gerhard Adler (Editor), R. F.C. Hull (Translator), (1970), Civilization in Transition (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10) 2nd Edition, Princeton University Press; 2nd edition.
Jung, C.G., (1975), Collected Works 11, Psychology and Religion, Princeton University Press; 2nd ed. edition (January 1975).
Jung, C.G., (1977), Mysterium Coniunctionis, (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.14), Princeton University Press.
Jung, C.G. (Author), Claire Douglas (Editor), (1997), Visions : Notes of the seminar given in 1930-1934 (2 Volume Set) (Bollingen), Princeton University Press.
Marsh, Danielle I. Marsh, (2013), Heroes, Saints, and Gods: Foundation Legends and Propaganda in Ancient and Renaissance Rome Eastern Michigan University, Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations.
Miller, Iona, (2016), Ancestors & Archetypes, http://ancestorsandarchetypes.weebly.com/
Miller, Iona, (2015), Jungian Genealogy, http://jungiangenealogy.weebly.com/
Settipani, Christian, and Patrick van Kerrebrouck, (1993), La Préhistoire des Capétiens, 481-987, première partie : Mérovingiens, Carolingiens et Robertiens.
Les ancêtres de Charlemagne, 1989
Nos ancêtres de l'Antiquité, 1991
Christian Settipani, La préhistoire des Capétiens, 1993
Settipani, Christian, (2011), Interview with Christian Settipani, http://worldancestors.blogspot.com/2011/06/interview-with-christian-settipani.html
Rowland, Susan, PhD, (2007), Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies Vol.3, No. 1, 2007,
"Writing about War: Jung, Much Ado About Nothing, and the Troy novels of Lindsay Clarke".
Schützenberger, Ancelin A., (1998). The Ancestor Syndrome: Transgenerational Psychotherapy and the Hidden Links in the Family Tree. London: Routledge.
Seznec, Jean, (1953), The Survival of the Pagan Gods: The Mythological Tradition and Its Place in ..., Mythos: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology, Princeton University Press.
Virgil, The Aeneid of Virgil, (Bantam Classics) Reissue Edition.
Wagner, Anthony, 1975, Pedigree and Progress Essays in the Genealogical Interpretation of History. London: Phillimore.
Wikipedia, List of Trojan War characters, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Trojan_War_characters
Wikipedia, Founding of Rome, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_of_Rome
We are born into a family which we share with more and more contemporary people as we look further back in time. But when we are gathered to the ancestors are we met by the gods? Shall we move Ares from our archetypal altar to the family shrine? Perhaps some of us can.
We know there is power in naming. What is it to name something, to name someone, to name someone an ancestor, or even name a god as direct ancestor? It all comes down to our own name. Genealogy is a heritage-led regeneration. Tracing our lines back from our parents, we move deeper into the realm of the ancestors who gave us the substance of life and soul's self-expression. A sense of soul gives us a sense of history.
Our sacred and mythic roots inform our primordial human behavior and the timeless soul-world. They act on us through meaning as well as the world stage. This natural unconscious process doesn't need to be driven by a therapeutic or self-development agenda. In a complex and fragmented world, genealogy helps us revision the present. We look back for a context of meaning using our most personal history of being.
We don't carry ancestral DNA from all our ancestors. But we remain entangled with them, psychophysically, conscious of it or not. In real, imaginary, and symbolic ways they are meaningful to our wholeness. We reflect as we find our way back. The inner life exerts its manifest influence. Emotions shape our sense of self and relationships.
Ares aggression, might and energy has controlled all of history from behind the scenes. History is written by the competitive winners who then self-describe their glorious descent from the gods, insuring their renown and divine right to rule. It is enforced with constant wars and worldview warfare, a battle for minds playing on anger, greed, and anxiety.
The dragon or serpent guards the treasures of the deep unconscious, the unwritten history of mankind, and its myth-spinning capacity. The serpentine path, which is an image for our descent and return, is a way to find our instinct that has no conflicts, because conflicts belong to the discriminating conscious mind.
Archetypal Ancestors
We can leverage our genealogy to inform our spiritual development and religious practice. Our biography begins with our antecedents and Ares appears in that context. An archetypal approach to genealogy is polytheistic.
We recognize spiritual and psychological ancestors, as well as genetic ones. Their influence stays with us and helps us. The gods personify soul's need for spiritual ancestors. Our sense of identity expands to one of symbolic identification.
Genealogical methods trace ancestries back to gods, animal totems, and legendary heroes. Ancestral souls resided in sacred animals, such as the wolf, serpent, or dragon, totems of Ares. Oral narratives became tribal history.
Divine right to rule was traced through genealogy in Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt, India and China. Biblical begats culminate in the House of David, a royal bloodline. It has been connected to Trojan and Roman lines for prestige, propaganda and power reasons.
The Greeks and Romans linked their heritage to the gods with their ancestral blessings and curses. It was first recorded in Homer’s The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Virgil’s The Aeniad. They are all stories of a quest to answer a deeper call.
The same characters described in classical literature still show up in genealogy -- in mine, and perhaps in yours, too. Dreams are catalysts for ancestral phenomena. Our ancestors dream of us unceasingly. When we dream of them, they dream of us right back. When we actively engage, they engage.
Dreams help us work with archetypal ancestors in transgenerational integration and trauma, combining traditional wisdom with contemporary practices. Transgenerational legacies shape our early life, and Ares is among them. This approach to self knowledge deals with our connection to our origin, the past that still influences us in the present, integration of familial, social and cultural issues, and reclaiming our true self.
Descent from the Gods
Ares is our forebear, and archetype of the Blade, as Aphrodite is the Chalice. This aggressive and muscular warrior is the psychic background of an historical drama that is still unfolding in us and the world, a specific manifestation of dynamic energy. We can only meet Ares on his own ground, but it is not always the battlefield. Ares illuminates soul's special relationship to violence and death. Such an ancestor can be a loyal protective spirit, soul-guide, or mentor.
A secret unrest gnaws at our roots, an instinct for expansion. Such urges are expressed in our emotional and sensorimotor patterns. The less we are conscious of his incendiary nature, the more it influences us. Carl Jung thought that inclinations, moods, and decisions are influenced by the dark forces of psyche, and they could be dangerous or helpful in shaping destiny. (CW 10, Para 332)
We take our ancient lineage as metaphorical and symbolic, not just literal. Yes, Ares’s fiery nature has been with us from Greek Fire to the Hydrogen bomb. But the ancestral approach shows us that trans-subjective facts made of our own psychophysical substance, still reside in and work on us inside as they did outside. For Jung they were part of our inherited instinct and preformed patterns.
With a bit of insight, we can read the epic story of the Trojan War and Founding of Rome from the top down in our genealogy. The collective genealogy of the World Tree is a symbol of the collective unconscious. In Book 20 of The Iliad, Aeneas recites sixty lines of ancestral history back to Zeus as the beginning of his family line. Modern genealogies may compact that descent. In the descent from antiquity the kings of England, Scotland, France, and ancient Rome all traced back to Trojan ancestors.
The gods are the archai, the deepest patterns and fundamental fantasies that animate all life. Archetypes direct fantasy activity and inherited potential for ideas and action. A metaphysical assertion or "truth" is a psychological statement of the psyche -- including the vision of the hero, the man of action.
We see with the soul's eye through the web of reality. The spirits of the dead help us bring out our character and restore balanced relationships with the larger web of ancestors and spiritual forces. We work with archetypal patterns held within our psyche epigenetics, and DNA. We all suffer from the violence that is foundation to life; life feeds on life.
In the case of Ares, Jung thought that conflict, war and conquest is about the failure of a myth to contain personal and collective dark energies projected onto real or imagined enemies. War goes with the territory. We must endure it as we do the conflict between the sexes, and between the ego and unconscious. Ancient myths, their archetypes, heroes, and monsters still animate our anxieties.
Myth explains the unexplainable, especially when history is unreliable. Myths repeat again and again, hence the totem serpent/dragon of Ares is endless time. Everything that was outside is also inside the mythic unconscious, including the fiery warrior who 'sticks to his guns', perhaps far too long. Ares is an organ of our pre-rational psyche. If character is our genius, some have a terrible genius for war and make a career of the endlessly repeated play of dominations.
As Jung puts it, “Although the opposites flee from one another they nevertheless strive for balance, since a state of conflict is too inimical to life to be endured indefinitely. They do this by wearing each other out, like the two dragons or the other ravenous beasts of alchemical symbolism.” (Mysterium Coniunctionis, Pp. 230)
Relying on physical power, intensity, intimidation, and direct action, how often do we act and react unmindfully? When are we too primitive, too present, or too strong? We all have to cope with violence, struggle, and death. What happens to the feminine, especially the dark feminine, in a society saturated by masculine war, or blood-soaked atrocities? Can conflict become the avenue to hope and self-worth?
The secret doctrine of antiquity survives in our bloodlines. Our genes pulse down the lines with us as temporary custodians. Separated across the face of time, we have the same genetic material. We go down in history, descending from the most remote and divine characters imaginable at the edge of reality.
In genealogy, inherent meaning unites with experience; historical facts help us uncover psychological meaning. Historical facts are set in and rooted in myth. The story acts on our psyche as much as it acted in the world. Even non- or pre-historical, genealogy is a symbol of an unbroken relationship with the others and divine forces and our mortality.
My story, rooted in Ares, may be your story, too, if Ares is in your lineage or a spirit in your blood. The soul has its own ancestors. We find our spiritual ancestors in "the land of the dead." Ares doesn't have to manifest in coercion, extreme rage, blood lust, or combativeness. We might be dauntless in our aspirations, inspired and sacrificing beyond ourselves, challenging our own personal best, courage and daring.
The first written words of Greek epic poetry were about the war with Troy in Asia Minor and the return from it. We now know that all wounds in war are not visible. Soul-searing post-traumatic stress persists throughout a lifetime as a disease of the soul -- shell shock.
The Aeniad, The Illiad and the Odyssey are stories of the soul. Odysseus failed in his long voyage home for many years, because the true voyage home is an inner journey to heal the deadness and stuckness that comes from visceral horror and atrocities.
"But this much I would claim to know: that a man cannot go to war in quest of power and wealth without doing mortal harm to some portion of his soul, and once the soul is damaged and impaired then all kinds of madness follow." (The War at Troy, by Lindsay Clarke, p. 272, 2004)
Not necessarily aggressive with primitive brutality, Ares is also chivalry, protection and self-protection, repressed action. We needn't be raiders, military or militant, do martial arts, collect weapons, or be sports or sex addicts. We don't need forceful exercise of the power drive to commune with Ares of the mighty heart and emotional wounds.
Courage, empowerment, assertiveness and other qualities shine when not confounded with shadow ferocity, violence, might, and impulse. Sometimes, we may be headstrong, rash, self-gratifying. We will fight for what we believe. We will risk, lose reason and restraint, again and again.
We will play tough; we will quarrel; we will be impetuous. We will be tense; we will overreact; we may surrender to despair or vengeance. Someone will press our buttons. We feel Ares as the surge of emotion, loyalty, or the urge to retaliate, but also the light generated by fiery emotions.
Soul Retrieval
Indigenous people equate ancestor loss with soul loss that can be retrieved by reintegrating our ancestral generations. Our memory gives the dead greater reality and invokes their participation in births and marriages. If ancestral spirits are watchful, we cease to be cut off from those relationships and feel more whole.
Since soul is the living thing in us, soul loss is depression, loss of vitality or passion about life, or feeling that something is missing in life. Body-language betrays feelings. We define ourselves by interaction. When you put human names to it, perception shifts.
Genealogy is about re-connection. It helps heal loss of meaning, direction, vitality, mission, purpose, identity, and deep unhappiness. We need to know who we are and where we come from beyond the recent past.
We can follow the lines of our genealogical descent like a path, our particular path into existence. In this case it is the path of Ares, through Aeneas, to the Roman Emperors. Julius Caesar's claims to descent from Aeneas and Romulus were well known, as was the relationship between Mars and Venus.
The ancestors, including the divine roots create the form of all our experience. By facing our soul, we face our ancestors and the gods in a circumambulation of the self. Our devotion to Ares echoes how that archetype informs our lives. There is a caution warning, an object lesson in his frenzy, irrationality, and uncontrolled lust. But also duty, honor, loyalty, and sacrifice.
Ares harks back through the Mycenaean Greeks to the prehistoric Dragon lineages of the Hittites, Sumerians, and beyond. His character matches Teshub, another Anatolian deity. Ares fought for the Trojans at the siege of Ilium. Hesiod and Aeschylus said he was the father of the race of Kadmos, who married his daughter Hermione. The warriors of Kadmos sprang from the teeth of the dragon of Ares, which Kadmos sowed.
The wolf is the totem animal of Ares, but the dragon is also his sacred animal. The nymph Telphousa bore the sacred dragon Ares begat on her. This Ismenian dragon was a giant serpent which guarded the sacred spring of Ares near Thebes.
We can follow this martial thread as a lead. Reading the line we "see through" the collective portion of a classical line of descent from Ares/Mars. It descends through Troy to the rise and fall of Rome, into the Middle Ages, and the modern world. Revisioning Ares (c. -1680) as a direct ancestor forges an emotional connection with the root archetypes, the Olympians.
We realize what Ares means from deep inside as more than an unconscious psychic factor. Giving voice to the ancestors is giving voice to the gods so their images can live and ground our being. Our lonely hearts open fully to loving reciprocity.
Recognition
Ceremonially reciting their ancestors was one of the most important things an ancient person could do. In Scotland declaring lineage was part of the battle-rattle preceding war, designed to strike terror into the heart of the enemy. We can welcome them hospitably back into our lives. Their images impress us in a way beyond the physical facts, restoring form to the formless.
Recognition is a great mystery of the psyche. The inner wealth of the soul resides in our hearts. Jung calls the unconscious, "the unwritten history of mankind from time unrecorded." (CW 11, Para 280) And he notes, "The unconscious mind of man sees correctly even when conscious reason is blind and impotent." (CW 11, Para 608). Our genealogical lines symbolically and literally encode information and express this concept.
Our family tree helps us learn the family history and the stories behind the pedigrees which trail off into the mists of pre-history. Matters stuck in limbo are lured back into life by genealogical soul retrieval and emotional reconnection to the ancestors, gods, and primordial womb of nature.
When that is part of 'what we know' we don't have to merely believe. The ancestors and divine root permeate us through the dark borderland of body and soul and unify our archetypal essence. Everything in the psychic world is real.
In Scotland, oral traditions of genealogy marked the structure and evolution of the clan -- by blood descent, marriage, and territorial holding. Oral recitation of genealogy was passed on to children round the fireside. The Highlanders did not use the form of a tree, but used the track of a wheel or the imprint of fingers tracing intricate relations in the dust.
Old seanchaidhean could recite the sinnsearachd, the Gaelic term used for the descent or genealogical track. So, pardon me while I idly trace the relationships and genealogical tracks left in the dusts of time, legend, and memory in the line of Ares/Mars.
What if God Was [more than] One of Us?
Myth is the DNA of the human psyche. Genes are memories, primordial and otherwise. Living myths give story and experience meaning. Genealogy is not always simple, being full of alternate matings, shared ancestry, inter-family marriages, incest, natural and disputed offspring.
Because of the genetic shuffle in chromosomes at conception, such revelations come mostly through genealogy, not genetic tests which reveal ethnic identity but few if any individual ancestors.
In his archaic form, Ares was a fertility god and reproductive drive. If the lines are to be believed his descendants proliferate in the flesh to this day. The psychic fact is that he is in us all, and remains in us and our progeny through certain royal lines of descent. The soul becomes the arbiter of truth or error.
We embody the survival of the pagan gods. Psyche cannot be distinguished from its manifestations. The historical tradition is conflated with the mythic tradition through genealogy. The implication is that if we were engendered by them, they continue through us. They persist in our spirit, psyche and psychology, emotions, as well as physical bodies that create our reality every day.
The gods' misty pre-historical origin is our own origin. Thus, Ares/Mars is archetype and ancestor, an instinct for physical survival. Questionable empirical reality has a transcendent aspect, including dark and mysterious areas of our experience. We are informed by his Being. Umberto Eco says, wryly, in Foucault's Pendulum that we cannot betray an ancestor who never existed nor fail that old-time religion.
The general premise of The Survival of the Pagan Gods, by Jean Seznec (1981) is that "the ancient gods survive during the Middle Ages by virtue of interpretations of their origin and nature propounded by antiquity itself."
The gods are civilizers, who founded dynasties as well as legends. They hide in astrology, science, and magic as 'astral' planetary forces. The Renaissance reduced them to mythological allegory, but the bloodlines went silently on as testimony to divine origin. Our genealogy informs our understanding of history and even the unleashed terror of a god. What happens when the warrior god culture goes too far?
Archetypal Genealogy
Settipani says, “The first contribution genealogy makes to history is to fix the chronology. Early chronological texts about human beings are often genealogies. The time of an event was fixed by saying "that happened at the time of my father's father .. ". Genealogy was also used to legitimize the power of a social class claiming that power because it was inherited from the gods or from kingly ancestors.”
We still have to find the point where the evidence fails and search for reliable sources. Archaeology keeps filling in the historical gaps. Traditional genealogy is an archetypal activity, recapitulating and extending humanity's oldest activities, including the imaginal root. The aesthetic response is an ethical response -- a response of the heart -- that values the ancestors and the genealogical history.
Genealogy is thus an archetypal order, an aesthetic construction, and a virtual map of the personal and collective unconscious, reflecting a principle of totality and primordial origins. Traditional genealogy considered these mythological inclusions best-practice, yet it may be more of a psychic than historical "fact."
This does not mean we need to take that literally – historically as fact -- but the connections seem implicit by their nature. Genealogy is another way for us to connect with the gods, and if we are connected to one, we are therefore related to others, as well. Jung claimed, “There is no form of human tragedy that does not in some measure proceed from this conflict between the ego and the unconscious.”
Only a Jungian approach to traditional genealogy keeps the historic/mythic gestalt of The World Tree alive as a symbol of wholeness -- a holistic resonant field pattern. According to Jung, trees are a symbolic reference to the self, so family tree is self-defining. As well as our lineage, our ancestors also form a vast symbol chain, rooted in the mythic unconscious and pre-history.
The symbolic function is beyond innate impulse and ideological bias. Through introversion, we are fertilized, inspired, regenerated, and reborn. Self-incubation, self-castigation, and introversion are closely related ideas. Immersion in oneself (introversion) is a penetration into the unconscious, the imaginal world of psyche. What is invisible to us was obvious to the ancients.
The World Tree is the Axis Mundi of genealogy, a worldwide database of genealogical connectivity. At this point travel and correspondence is made between higher and lower realms. Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones and be disseminated to all. The origin functions as the omphalos (navel), the world's point of beginning.
The earliest mythologies are of the World-Tree, or Tree of Life. Aspects of the same image, sacred trees are the most common motif from the ancient world. The Tree connects our psychophysical aspects from sub-nuclear to macrocosmic scales. The trunk is the axis of psychic growth that unites Heaven and Earth, spirit and matter.
First Nations insist that lack of connection to our ancestors is one of our greatest shortcomings, so reclaiming them takes on great importance. It gives us a model of ‘how’ precisely we are connected, and just how many generations lie between. The further back in time they are, the more we can be certain we share them with most of humanity.
The mythology of our ancestors is as important as their cosmology. We can explore the mystic in ourselves and in our ancestors. Our worldview is the root of our identity and relationship to Nature and our own deep nature. Researching the cosmologies of our direct ancestors in the historical era provides a quick path into dreamwork as these ways are still half-remembered. Our common destiny lies beyond any worldview.
Bloodlust & Bloodline
According to the best practice of conventional and traditional genealogy, Ares is my 94th gr-grandfather, through Electra, some Trojan kings, Caesars, Roman emperors, Iberian aristocracy, and British knights. They are followed by Colonial immigrants, frontier pioneers and homesteaders. The theme remains space expansion and survival in extreme environments, going further and farther than any before.
The tale of Ares is the tale of the Greek, Trojan, and Roman family trees. The forms remain important for transgenerational reintegration of our ancestral spirits. Violent histories are the common core of transgenerational wounding.
Ares had four sons: Evenus, Molus, Pylus, and Thestius. The descent originates with Ares and Eurythemis, who had issue, Thestius (my 93rd gr-gr). The mother seems to have also married her divine son. We don't need to plot all the characters of the epic war, only those in the direct line of descent.
The Trojan Family tree consists largely of an unbroken paternal line sired by Erichthonius (my 88th gr-gr), King of Dardania and Acadia [ancient Turkey]. But that descent is rooted in the maternal triad of Electra of Mycenae [my 90th], Mycenean queen Clytemnestra of Troy and Agamemnon of Mycenae [both my 91st ge-gr], and Leda of Sparta [92nd], who famously coupled with Zeus as the Swan. Leda is usually considered the daughter of King Thestius of Aetolia and Eurythemis. And her daughter was Helen of Troy, (92nd gr-aunt) the catalyst of the war.
On the Greek side, Odysseus is my 85th gr-grandfather, and traces back his maternal and paternal lines to Zeus through Hermes. His gr-great grandaughter is Lavinia Roma of Alba Longa, and her son is Iulus, who founds the Julian Dynasty. So both lines of Odysseus and Aeneas merge when Lavinia marries Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, grandson of King Priam of Troy, descendant of Aphrodite, and ancestor of Romulus, Remus and the Gens Julia, clan of Julius Caesar.
This story with its variants is that of the Kings of Alba Longa, from the Silvii to the Julii dynasties. His grandfather, Anchises, and his son Aeneas (my 83rd gr-grandfather), claimed descent from Aphrodite. They became important divine forebears to the Romans, who claimed descent from both the goddess of love and the god of war. The Julian dynasty descended from their progenitor Iulus (my 81st gr-gr).
In some Roman traditions, Iulus, the semi-divine ancestor of gens Iulia, was identical with Aeneas’ son Ascanius (Vergil). In other traditions, Iulus was the son of Aeneas by his Trojan wife, Creusa, while Ascanius was the son of Aeneas' Latin wife Lavinia, daughter of Latinus (Livy). And, in still another tradition, Iulus was son of Ascanius. My genealogy lists Iulus as son of Ascanius and Lavinia.
With Aeneas, the dramatic setting changes from Troy to Rome and its antecedents. With a host of other beliefs among them, all descendants unconsciously pay homage to the strength and courage of their ‘progenitor’ Ares/Mars and his dynamic pioneering energy. That spirit is ratified in Julius Caesar, my 59th gr-grandfather, back through Aeneas to the Trojan kings, Zeus and the Titans.
Zeus engineered the Trojan War because there were too many generations on the earth. Earth complained to Zeus there were too many humans for her to bear. Jung noticed, "Each of us, every living being, is a small earth, one could say, because we are in intimate connection with the earth, we are partially earth, we are conscious of our earthly body, for instance." (Visions Seminar, Pages 1158-1159)
Ares/Mars supported the Trojans and the Romans. The root lines of Julius Caesar show that Electra's maternal line descends from Ares' union with Eurythemis. The descent of the Julian Family tree continues through the collateral adoptive son, Augustus Caesar, which breaks the direct genetic chain but keeps it in the Julian family.
Divine Ancestry
In -7th c. Greece, Hesiod wrote in Theogony 921 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) "Zeus took Hera to be his fresh consort, and she, lying in the arms of the father of gods and mortals, conceived and bore Hebe to him, and Ares, and Eileithyia."
There are a number of ways in which the idea of descent from the gods is used in ancient and medieval writings. In some legends individual heroes are said to be sons of gods or descended from a god, like Ares. Rather than literal divine ancestry and divine descent we can approach the god as a symbolic and metaphorical reality… a lived and living connection to the Olympians as close as our skin.
Homer's story of Troy is the first written in Greek, allegedly 500 years after the events. It is a foundation of western tradition and archetypes of all sorts of behaviors and legendary heroes. Before that stories were sung about heroes and battles. In the 13th century BCE, Trojan and Greek warriors fought a long bloody battle that became an epic that still resonates through history.
The defeat of Troy was the end of the Bronze Age. It ushered in the Greek Dark Ages. More legends were born. But there are real people behind many of the legends. Trojan refugees were led West by Aeneas, who Julius Caesar claimed as his ancestor. As Romans they later returned and conquered Greece. In between, pre-history became history and empire.
Aeschylus says in Fragment 282 of Papyri Oxyrhynchus, (trans. Lloyd-Jones):
"[Dike the goddess of justice speaks: ...And I will tell you a proof which gives you this clearly. Hera has reared a violent son [Ares] whom she has borne to Zeus, a god irascible, hard to govern, an one whose mind knew no respect for others. He shot wayfarers with deadly arrows, and ruthless hacked . . ((lacuna)) with hooked spears . . he rejoiced and laughed . . evil . . scent of blood."
As the gods do not appear in isolation, a relationship with Ares, implies one with his extended and immediate family – Aphrodite, Zeus and Hera, and other Olympians. Their drop lines include Rome's founders Romulus and Remus, listed as gr-uncles of today's descendants. We are reminded again of Ares and his totem wolf as the divine twins were raised by a she-wolf.
Yet, clearly, “No one can 'prove' a descent from Julius Caesar,” [my 59th].
The dynasty Aeneas Gens Iulia includes Iulus, my 81st → Ascanius, King of Alba Longa, his father → Aeneas, King of Lavinium, his father, my 83rd]
This family which spawned Julius Caesar claimed descent from the Roman goddess Venus-Aphrodite (my 84th gr-gr) through Aeneas, her son by her lover Anchises, who was a Trojan prince. My genealogy shows this in the profile of Aeneas, closely braiding the Aphrodite and Ares dual-divinity generation of this line. Aphrodite as anima mundi binds all states of being together, the totality of the psyche.
Legend says Aeneas escaped the Fall of Troy (about 1200 BCE) and journeyed to Italy where he became the tribal ancestor of the Latins and the Etruscans. This acknowledges Zeus/Jupiter as prime ancestor.
Rome's leaders used the foundation myths of Aeneas and Romulus to make the public recognize the tangibility and legitimacy of their spiritual and temporal power. These legends related themselves to the founders and foundation myths in order to claim that inherent power.
Aeneas was a popular figure in medieval genealogical inventions. In the Norse saga, the Deluding of Gylfe, he is called Anea. Medieval Welsh genealogies called him Annyn Tro. In one Welsh source he is called a son of Brydain, giving name to Britain) and a grandson of Aedd Mawr (Edward the Great), c. 1300 BCE. These chronologies are too confused to be credible.
As we retreat through history most people are genetically related, even if the genealogy cannot be traced. The story becomes one not of our own family, but the collective family of man. Still, it is one thing to read history in a book, and quite another to read it in the lines of one's own direct descent.
The historian Strabo has Poseidon prophetically declare in Iliad XX, “But, now I know, the lineage of Aeneas will rule over all, and so too will his son, and his son's sons, who will be born thereafter." And, so it seemed throughout the rise and fall of Rome, including some of the most famous names and leaders in global history.
Alba Longa was an indigenous Latin iron age settlement in the mountains near Rome today. In Roman mythology, Alba was founded by Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, as a new colony of Trojan refugees and native Latins. In some accounts Ascanius was the son of Lavinia, and grandson of Latinus. (Livy); in other versions, Ascanius was the son of Creusa (Dionysius,Virgil). Vergil claims Ascanius and Iulus were the same. Dionysius makes Iulus the son of Ascanius, the founder and first king of Alba Longa, Iulus was claimed as the ancestor of the Julian gens.
Eratosthenes places the sack of Troy around 1184 BC, more than four centuries before the traditional founding of Rome, in 753. The Alban kings history neatly closed the gap from Aeneas to Romulus. It is a mythical justification for the close ties between Rome and the indigenous Latin families descended from the Trojan immigrants or their Alban descendants.
Fifteen Trojan pedigrees of the Alban kings from Aeneas to Romulus survive. In the Aeniad, Virgil claimed that Latinus was the son of Faunus, and grandson of Picus, the first king of Latium, who was in turn the son of Saturn. But Picus was also said to be the son of Mars, rather than Saturn.
The Latins attacked the intruding Trojans, were defeated, and peace was cemented with the marriage of Aeneas and Lavinia, daughter of the Latin king. Aeneas founded a town of both Trojans and Latins, named Lavinium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_of_Alba_Longa
Founding Rome: Ares Becomes Mars
No matter which of the ancient writers or genealogies we follow for the backstory of Rome, we encounter the same names over and over, even if their links and marriages are juggled around. No one argues about their descent from Ares and Aphrodite, whether in the same or different lines.
Following the Ares descent line down through time, we come to the era and people associated with the founding and legends of Rome. Ares insinuated himself actively into the founding of Rome, as Mars. His character defined that of the Empire -- its conquering and martial nature.
Founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus are my 94th great uncles.
Romulus was husband of Hersilia of Alba Longa, an abducted Sabine;
Remus was father of Pompilia of Rome, my 1st cousin 95x removed
The Romans considered Mars second only to Zeus or Jupiter, his father, and my 95th gr-grandfather. The twin founders of Rome raised by a wolf are the mythical offspring of Ares and Rhea Silvia, Princess of Alba Longa (b. circa 808), the wife of Ascanius. Roman emperors were always priests of Ares/Mars.
Romulus and Remus were the direct descendants of Ares, through Aeneas, whose fate-driven adventures in Italy are described in The Aeneid by Vergil. The Julian family, including Julius Caesar and Augustus, traced their lineage to Ascanius and Aeneas, thus to the goddess Venus. The legendary kings of Britain allegedly trace their family through Brutus first king of Britain (my 70th gr-gr), a grandson of Aeneas. Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Benedictine monk living in the 12th century AD, fabricated this in the Historia Regum Britanniae.
In the Iliad, the god Poseidon prophesied that the descendants of Aeneas (the Aeneadae), would survive the Trojan War and rule their people forever. Virgil traced the divine connection down the line of Aeneas stretched through Romulus, Augustus, and the Julio-Claudian emperors down to Nero. Some Greek writers considered the Romans descendants of the Achaeans, rather than the Trojans. Or, the Romans are descended from Odysseus, one of the Achaeans, rather than his contemporary, the Trojan prince Aeneas.
Romulus and Remus were related to Aeneas through their mother's father, Numitor. He was a king of Alba Longa, an ancient city of Latium in central Italy, Numitor, 15th king of Alba Longa, was father to Rhea Silvia. Rubens depicts the Roman god Mars, identifiable with his war helmet and shield, raping the vestal virgin Rhea Silvia.
There is much debate and variation as to whom was the father of Romulus and Remus. Some myths claim that Mars appeared and lay with Rhea Silvia; other myths name the demi-god hero Hercules as her partner. The genealogy shows Mars forcibly impregnated Rhea Silvia with Romulus and Remus.
However, the author Livy claims that Rhea Silvia was in fact raped by an unknown man, but blamed her pregnancy on divine conception. In either case, Rhea Silvia pregnant and gave birth to her sons. Any Vestal Virgin betraying her vows of celibacy was condemned to death. But the king ordered the twins thrown into the Tiber River, expecting them to die of exposure. But a servant puts them in a tiny boat and a she-wolf found and nursed them.
Virgil in the Aeneid, claimed Romulus and Remus were descendants of Aeneas through their mother Rhea Silvia, making Aeneas progenitor of the Roman people. Virgil traced the divine connection through Romulus, Augustus, and the Julio-Claudian emperors down to Nero. Some early sources call Aeneas their father or grandfather, but there are more than 500 intervening years from the fall of Troy to the founding of Rome. Aeneas was the father of Ascanius with Creusa, and of Silvius with Lavinia. The former, also known as Iulus (or Julius), founded Alba Longa and was the first in a long series of kings.
Romulus named his city Roma after himself and created a government system of senators and patricians. When the male population exploded the Roman men abducted women from the Sabines and Latins. In response to this rape or abduction of women, the Sabine and Latin men went to war against Rome. Romulus was the definitive winner of this war and this first hero’s victory was Rome's first triumph.
Psyche and History
There are, indeed, psychic powers within us that correspond to the divine -- and Ares/Mars is pre-eminent among them. The immortal soul in us surpasses the perishable individual significance.
We are links in the great chain of being, which is sometimes more like chainmail armor in its interconnections with ancestors and the gods. There remains a destructive impulse in ourselves and others that adds fire, vitality, passion, and power to life.
It is the mystery of brinksmanship -- the art or practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping, typically in politics -- power vs. empowerment. Personal sovereignty is the practice of trying to achieve an advantageous outcome by pushing dangerous events to the brink of active conflict to secure an advantage. But Mars will gladly bring the hammer down, too.
We have many possibilities for embracing power and genealogy remains a symbol of that human struggle, not only in war, but in class struggle, business competition, and love or sport. Genealogy gives the subject substance, "by showing us a broad experience of power, rooted in the body, the mind, and the emotions, rather than the customary narrow interpretation that simply equates power with strength." (Hillman)
In The Terrible Love of War, James Hillman noted that, "During the 5,600 years of recorded history, 14,600 wars have been fought -- 2 to 3 for every year of human history. War is a constant thing. And yet no one really understands why that is." He described his antidotes in Kinds of Power: A Guide to its Intelligent Uses (1997).
It is no accident we find Ares and the other gods at the roots of our genealogical lines. Hillman drills down into myth, into religion, and into the soul’s basement where the most basic impulses to war is seething. He suggests we, "listen to the language of the media, with its lexicon of war, battle, fight, compete, win, lose — all of these words pointing to conquest." Jung thought that how a person reacts to conflict in life arises accidentally from childhood experiences producing certain impressions – responses to haphazard conflicts.
We have not even begun to wake up to the complex and nuanced power of the god of war. Nation-states find war a normal presence. But there is a deeper mythic and religious intention behind the fog of war and its purpose. It deepens the values we hold.
In our imaginative engagement with conflict, we need to maintain the place of psyche in genealogical interpretations, not cutting off the mythic past from our narrative with the sword of rationality and evidence or proof. Equivalent images remain dormant in our psyches if we do not recognize and establish the sacred connection between the sacred figures and our own psyche.
There is an irrational reality beyond the radical honesty of rationalism. It preserves even as it deconstructs our cherished notions about the past and self. It makes our lines no less 'real,' but it deliteralizes them, emphasizing soul's meaning is deeper connection, with or without metaphysical assertions. Genealogical history is a false but meaningful metaphor of disjunction and wholeness which mirrors our existence.
We suffer collectively if we cut off those connections and psychological truths from our conscious and spiritual lives. Myth remains the key to 'the art of seeing.' Psyche remains full of obscurities and unsolvable riddles which press against our weak and often dull comprehensions.
Genealogy opens us to emotional experience, often of both sides of any historical conflict, suggesting we have a personal connection or stake in them all, which as humans we naturally do. Genealogy -- real, confabulated, or imaginal -- is the basis of the whole western world, or at least its public face and rulership.
We always remain both perpetrators and victims of forces eternally greater than ourselves. The interaction of the divine and the soul remains an over-arching theme of humanity. The religious function itself is archetypal, and we continue to sacrifice at the altar of Ares in global conflict.
International quarrels are personified as the 'usual suspects', the characters and kings in the conflicting dramas of nation states, and identity, ethnicity, and power-struggle. Throughout most of European history, rulers battled with their own extended family members. They married enemies to negotiate peace.
Whether we call that Ares/Mars, or not, it remains a living reality in international politics, as surely as anything passed to us all through the persistent legacy of the Roman Empire. Mars casts a very long shadow across individual and collective history. Only now, through the body and DNA itself, are we realizing we are multi-ethnic at the deepest level, and even contain other species of human, and less than human DNA.
Descent From Antiquity
Genealogy, especially Descent From Antiquity (DFA) is an imaginal activity. We can view it reductively as pseudoscience, pretentious, or fantasy-based. Or, aware of its historical shortcomings, we can view it metaphorically like a dream, an active imagination, or a Way of spiritual connection. These are stories we carry in our blood and bones – the marrow of our life. Mythic dissociation is imposed on us by culture, disturbing the ecology and topography of our own soul, laid out in our pedigree.
Christian Settipani describes the issues: “To give you an example, it has taken ages to know if what Homer recounts in "The Iliad and the Odyssey" corresponds to what life was like during the Mycenaean period it was supposed to describe. On the whole it doesn't, but there is a little bit all the same. Another example from the "Iliad", it's a mythological tale filled with genealogies. Ever since 1800, it was thought to be meaningless. But today we're much more careful: it's been shown that the city of Troy existed, Hittite texts have been found that describe the tensions in the region at this time, with a king of Troy at the time called Alexander, as Alexander Paris in the "Iliad." There are things in the "Iliad" that can be retained even if all the heroes are not real people. The historian has to use all the texts at his disposal, including epic poems, and compare them with other sources to see if there's anything that can be used or not.”
Deliteralizing genealogy, we reject false ‘royal’ grandiosity and literalism, or concretization in favor of value and meaning that aids our individuation. The may be fictive but not untruth; they are internal values that sustain us. The gods remain psychic factors, including the way we deal with conflict. We may not solve such problems, but we may outgrow them, adapt, and survive. We grow around them in a non-linear way.
Myth, legend, and history interpenetrate in genealogy. It does not pretend to go back in time as an unbroken chain that transcends all forgotten things, but it arouses us emotionally. There have been genealogical forgeries in all ages for gain, prestige, or even through ignorance. It doesn’t show evolution or map our destiny. It unfurls the panoply of the past as a vast psychological and historical epic. It functions as an effective history -- sense of identity shifts.
It helps us imagine the complex course of descent that give birth and value to our existence. We see the accidents, the false steps, the miscalculations. There are legendary and fictitious persons who are born, yearn, and die, in the traditional lineage linking ancestry to the collective unconscious. By uniting the opposites, genealogy transcends true/false, real/fiction in a coherent imaginal reality with its own truths and values.
The value systems of our ancient ancestors were rooted in tribal life and stories. If we eschew dislocated metaphors we are thrown back upon our own psychic life, understanding mythic meaning at the individual level. The fixities have been deconstructed, generating ambivalence, disquietude, and ambiguity.
Foucault (1971) wryly quips, “The new historian, the genealogist, will know what to make of this masquerade. He will not be too serious to enjoy it; on the contrary, he will push the masquerade to its limit and prepare the great carnival of time where masks are constantly reappearing. No longer the identification of our faint individuality with the solid identities of the past, but our "unrealization" through the excessive choice of identities--Frederick of Hohenstaufen, Caesar, Jesus, Dionysus, and possibly Zarathustra."
Rather than a linear development, genealogy gives us a vast overview of emergent humanity, its governing laws, and rules of engagement. It is marked by rulers, and competing powers, not designed to temper violence, but to satisfy it. Law, itself, permits the perpetual instigation of new dominations and the staging of meticulously repeated scenes of violence. Humanity has risen from perversion, though guilt, conscience, duty, and obligation. But that process was saturated in blood. Each system has its own rules for violence and domination, opposed by resistance.
Genealogy is non-linear and accidental. It demonstrates a mobility of appearances and realities. Sometimes we go the wrong way or reach a ‘dead end’ in the labyrinth of ancestors. Sometimes we identify with a renown victor only to find the victim in our lines, as well. Tracing, deviating, and re-tracing a particular line is a sort of ‘walkabout’ trying to find our way onto the routes that continue back to meta-stories that give us vitality and validity. But, there are no pure historical origins with unbroken continuity or succession.
Genealogy recognizes the malleability of history, marriage, and generation. It’s an inside story. Genealogy effectively produces exemplars and episodes. It doesn’t try to give a history of the past as it actually was, nor its full significance. It is cyclic at the level of narrative time. It gives an interpretation, a hermeneutic of emergent events and people. It is the confabulation of a coherent and locally true narrative. Sovereignty is the unthought foundation of our knowledge, and sovereigns are the links that take us back the farthest in time.
It is a way of interacting and imagining beyond therapy or history, while maintaining the traceable and plausible family histories. The Domesday Book (William the Conqueror, 1086) introduced surnames in the 1500's. We can find records traceable to early 1500s, and disputed connections back to 13th century English royalty. As the first census, the Domesday Book became a model for historical record-keeping that encouraged more reliable ‘proofs’ of descent, in civil and parish records.
Conclusions
Can we go back to the Titans or Adam and Eve, or Noah? No, we cannot, not with documentation. But we can trace the history of our developing ideas. In this context historical characters arouse more emotions in us through identification. We find a way back that illumines our origins and Western history. The cosmological nature of Ares that relates us to cosmos is different than his in-group, out-group effect in the social field.
We look to the past because of present concerns. What has been remembered sheds light on what has been forgotten. It’s a story of survival as much as agnatic origins. Myth is visionary. It calls for a fertile and disciplined imagination. It calls us to repeat the question, “What is my myth?” When cultural myths collide there is global conflict – projected disdain and aggression. Winning can come at too high a price.
Are we served or impeded by ancestral influences? What does it mean to create a life with a heroic ego fantasy of being in control and on top of the situation -- the will to power? What are we pursuing? In search of who knows what? We are locked in a struggle of the higher and lower nature of our soul and must be willing to recognize this.
Still, things turn out in the same old ways. How we exercise power reveals our character. We internalize our history and it becomes autonomous. We need linkage to an order of meaning larger than ourselves and current culture. We need connection with the transcendent other. By what authorities are we living our lives?
The living myth is an internal reference. Genealogy is part of an inward individual search. We build our own experience of that deeper dimension through meditatively working within our genealogy, with our illustrious ancestors. It opens us to the transpersonal.
Do we have a learned, personal relationship with our ancestors? What god are we serving? The challenge of our inner warrior remains finding peace without victory. We can retreat honorably through a pilgrimage of the soul toward our own origin in the Compassionate Warrior.
By activating the (genealogy) rites, we participate in the myth. We see through our actual life problems with mythological considerations that open a mystery dimension and insight on the right use of power. Genealogy marks the points where mythic thought ran headlong into religion and fundamentalism, and other systems of social control and engineering...Ares again. The conqueror repeats demands for veneration and still suggests, "I am in control because I am divine."
We are born into a family tree which we share with more and more contemporary people as we look further back in time. But when we are gathered to the ancestors are we met by the gods? Shall we move Ares from our archetypal altar to the family shrine? Perhaps some of us can.
We know there is power in naming. What is it to name something, to name someone, to name someone an ancestor, or even name a god as direct ancestor? It all comes down to our own name. Genealogy is a heritage led regeneration. Tracing our lines back from our parents, we move deeper into the realm of the ancestors who gave us the substance of life and soul's self-expression. A sense of soul gives us a sense of history.
Our sacred and mythic roots inform our primordial human behavior and the timeless soul-world. They act on us through meaning as well as the world stage. This natural unconscious process doesn't need to be driven by a therapeutic or self-development agenda.
We don't carry ancestral DNA from all our ancestors. But we remain entangled with them, psychophysically, consciously, or unconsciously. In real, imaginary, and symbolic ways they are meaningful to our wholeness. The inner life exerts its manifest influence.
Ares aggression, might, and energy has controlled all of history from behind the scenes. History is written by the winners who then self-describe their glorious descent from the gods, insuring their renown and divine right to rule. It is enforced with constant wars and worldview warfare, a battle for minds. The dragon or serpent guards the treasures of the deep remains the unconscious, the unwritten history of mankind, and its myth-spinning capacity.
Archetypal Ancestors
We can leverage our genealogy to inform our spiritual development and religious practice. Our biography begins with our antecedents and Ares appears in that context. An archetypal approach to genealogy is polytheistic.
We recognize spiritual and psychological ancestors, as well as genetic ones. Their influence stays with us and helps us. The gods personify soul's need for spiritual ancestors. Our sense of identity expands to one of symbolic identification.
Genealogical methods trace ancestries back to gods, animal totems, and legendary heroes. Ancestral souls resided in sacred animalsr, such as Ares's wolf, serpent or dragon. Oral narratives became tibal history. Divine right to rule was traced through genealogy in Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt, India and China. Biblical begats culminate in the House of David, a royal bloodline.
The Greeks and Romans linked their heritage to the gods with their ancestral blessings and curses. It was first recorded in Homer’s The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Virgil’s The Aeniad. They are all stories of a quest to answer a deeper call that involves their relationships with the Olympians.
The same characters described in classical literature still show up in genealogy -- in mine, and perhaps in yours, too. Dreams are catalysts for ancestral phenomena. Our ancestors dream of us unceasingly. When we dream of them, they dream of us right back. When we actively engage, they engage.
Dreams help us work with archetypal ancestors in transgenerational integration and trauma, combining traditional wisdom with contemporary practices. Transgenerational legacies shape our early life, and Ares is among them. This approach to self knowledge deals with our connection to our origin, the past that still influences us in the present, integration of familial, social and cultural issues, and reclaiming our true self.
Descent From the Gods
Ares is our forebear, and archetype of the Blade, as Aphrodite is the Chalice. This hard and muscular warrior is the psychic background of a historical drama that is still unfolding in us, a specific manifestation of dynamic energy. We can only meet Ares on his own ground, but it is not always the battlefield. Ares illuminates soul's special relationship to death. Such an ancestor can be a protective spirit, soul-guide, or mentor.
A secret unrest gnaws at our roots, an instinct for expansion. Such urges are expressed in our emotional and sensorimotor patterns. The less we are conscious of it, the more it influences us. Carl Jung thought that inclinations, moods, and decisions are influenced by the dark forces of psyche, and they could be dangerous or helpful in shaping destiny. (CW 10, Para 332)
We take our ancient lineage as metaphorical and symbolic, not just literal. Ancestors are trans-subjective facts made of our own psychophysical substance, still residing and working on us inside as they did outside. For Jung they were part of our inherited instinct and preformed patterns.
With a bit of insight, we can read the epic story of the Trojan War and Founding of Rome from the top down in our genealogy. In Book 20 of The Iliad, Aeneas recites sixty lines of ancestral history back to Zeus as the beginning of his family line. Modern genealogies place his mythic descent from Olympians closer.
The gods are the archai, the deepest patterns and fundamental fantasies that animate all life. Archetypes direct fantasy activity and inherited potential for ideas and action. A metaphysical assertion or "truth" is a psychological statement of the psyche.
We see with the soul's eye through the web of reality. The spirits of the dead help us bring out our character and restore balanced relationships with the larger web of ancestors and spiritual forces. We work with archetypal patterns held within our psyche and DNA.
In the case of Ares, Jung thought conflict, war, and conquest is about the failure of a myth to contain personal and collective dark energies projected onto real or imagined enemies. War goes with the territory. We must endure it as we do the conflict between the sexes, and between the ego and unconscious. Ancient myths, their archetypes, heroes, and monsters still animate our anxieties.
Myth explains the unexplainable, especially when history is unreliable. Myths repeat again and again, hence the totem serpent/dragon of Ares is endless time. Everything that was outside is also inside the mythic unconscious, including the fiery warrior who 'sticks to his guns', perhaps far too long. Ares is an organ of our pre-rational psyche. If character is our genius, some have a terrible genius for war and make a career of it.
“Although the opposites flee from one another they nevertheless strive for balance, since a state of conflict is too inimical to life to be endured indefinitely. They do this by wearing each other out, like the two dragons or the other ravenous beasts of alchemical symbolism.” (Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, Pp. 230)
Relying on physical power, intensity, intimidation, and direct action, how often do we act and react unmindfully? When are we too primitive, too present, too strong? We all have to cope with violence, struggle, and death. What happens to the feminine, especially the dark feminine, in a society saturated by masculine war, or blood-soaked atrocities? Can conflict become the avenue to hope and self-worth?
The secret doctrine of antiquity survives in our bloodlines. Our genes pulse down the lines with us as temporary custodians. Separated across the face of time, we have the same genetic material. We go down in history, descending from the most remote and divine characters imaginable at the edge of reality.
In genealogy, inherent meaning unites with experience; historical facts help us uncover psychological meaning. Historical facts are set in and rooted in myth. The story acts on our psyche as much as it acted in the world. Even non- or pre-historical, genealogy is a symbol of an unbroken relationship with the others and divine forces and our mortality.
My story, rooted in Ares, may be your story, too, if Ares is in your lineage or a spirit in your blood. The soul has its own ancestors. We find our spiritual ancestors in "the land of the dead." Ares doesn't have to manifest in coercion, extreme rage, blood lust, or combativeness. We might be dauntless in our aspirations, inspired and sacrificing beyond ourselves, challenging our own personal best, courage and daring.
The first written words of Greek epic poetry were about the war with Troy in Asia Minor and the return from it. We now know that all wounds in war are not visible. Soul-searing post-traumatic stress persists throughout a lifetime as a disease of the soul -- shell shock.
The Aeniad, The Illiad and the Odyssey are stories of the soul. Odysseus failed in his long voyage home for many years, because the true voyage home is an inner journey to heal the deadness and stuckness that comes from visceral horror and atrocities.
"But this much I would claim to know: that a man cannot go to war in quest of power and wealth without doing mortal harm to some portion of his soul, and once the soul is damaged and impaired then all kinds of madness follow." (The War at Troy, by Lindsay Clarke, p. 272, 2004)
Not necessarily aggressive with primitive brutality, Ares is also chivalry, protection and self-protection, repressed action. We needn't be raiders, military or militant, do martial arts, collect weapons, or be sports or sex addicts. We don't need forceful exercise of the power drive to commune with Ares of the mighty heart and emotional wounds.
Courage, empowerment, assertiveness and other qualities shine when not confounded with shadow ferocity, violence, might, and impulse. Sometimes, we may be headstrong, rash, self-gratifying. We will fight for what we believe. We will risk, lose reason and restraint, again and again.
We will play tough; we will quarrel; we will be impetuous. We will be tense; we will overreact; we may surrender to despair or vengeance. Someone will press our buttons. We feel Ares as the surge of emotion, loyalty, or the urge to retaliate, but also the light generated by fiery emotions.
Soul Retrieval
Indigenous people equate ancestor loss with soul loss that can be retrieved by reintegrating our ancestral generations. Our memory gives the dead greater reality and invokes their participation in births and marriages. If ancestral spirits are watchful, we cease to be a whole person cut off from those relationships.
Since soul is the living thing in us, soul loss is depression, loss of vitality or passion about life, or feeling that something is missing in life. Body-language betrays feelings. We define ourselves by interaction. When you put human names to it, perception shifts.
Genealogy is about re-connection. It helps heal loss of meaning, direction, vitality, mission, purpose, identity, and deep unhappiness. We need to know who we are and where we come from beyond the recent past. We can follow the lines of our genealogical descent like a path, our particular path into existence. In this case it is the path of Ares, through Aeneas, to the Roman Emperors.
The ancestors, including the divine roots create the form of all our experience. By facing our soul, we face our ancestors and the gods in a circumambulation of the self. Our devotion to Ares echoes how that archetype informs our lives. There is a caution warning, an object lesson in his frenzy, irrationality, and uncontrolled lust.
Ares harks back through the Mycenaean Greeks to the prehistoric Dragon lineages of the Hittites, Sumerians, and beyond. His character matches Teshub, another Anatolian deity. Ares fought for the Trojans at the siege of Ilium. Hesiod and Aeschylus said he was the father of the race of Kadmos, who married his daughter Hermione. The warriors of Kadmos sprang from the teeth of the dragon of Ares, which Kadmos sowed.
The wolf is the totem animal of Ares, but the dragon is also his sacred animal. The nymph Telphousa bore the sacred dragon Ares begat on her. This Ismenian dragon was a giant serpent which guarded the sacred spring of Ares near Thebes.
We will be following this martial thread as a lead. Reading the line we "see through" the collective portion of a classical line of descent from Ares/Mars. It descends through Troy to the rise and fall of Rome, into the Middle Ages, and the modern world. Revisioning Ares (birth: circa -1680) as a direct ancestor forges an emotional connection with the root archetypes, the Olympians.
We realize what Ares means from deep inside as more than an unconscious psychic factor. Giving voice to the ancestors is giving voice to the gods so their images can live and ground our being. Our lonely hearts open fully to loving reciprocity.
Recognition
Ceremonially reciting their ancestors was one of the most important things an ancient person could do. In Scotland declaring lineage was part of the battle-rattle preceding war, designed to strike terror into the heart of the enemy. We can welcome them hospitably back into our lives. Their images impress us in a way beyond the physical facts, restoring form to the formless.
Recognition is a great mystery of the psyche. The inner wealth of the soul resides in our hearts. Jung calls the unconscious, "the unwritten history of mankind from time unrecorded." (CW 11, Para 280) And he notes, "The unconscious mind of man sees correctly even when conscious reason is blind and impotent." (CW 11, Para 608). Our genealogical lines symbolically and literally encode information and express this concept.
Our family tree helps us learn the family history and the stories behind the pedigrees which trail off into the mists of pre-history. Matters stuck in limbo are lured back into life by genealogical soul retrieval and emotional reconnection to the ancestors, gods, and primordial womb of nature.
When that is part of 'what we know' we don't have to merely believe. The ancestors and divine root permeate us through the dark borderland of body and soul and unify our archetypal essence. Everything in the psychic world is real.
In Scotland, oral traditions of genealogy marked the structure and evolution of the clan -- by blood descent, marriage, and territorial holding. Oral recitation of genealogy was passed on to children round the fireside. The Highlanders did not use the form of a tree, but used the track of a wheel or the imprint of fingers tracing intricate relations in the dust.
Old seanchaidhean could recite the sinnsearachd, the Gaelic term used for the descent or genealogical track. So, pardon me while I idly trace the relationships and genealogical tracks left in the dusts of time, legend, and memory in the line of Ares/Mars.
What if God Was [more than] One of Us?
Myth is the DNA of the human psyche. Genes are memories, primordial and otherwise. Living myths give story and experience meaning. Genealogy is not always simple, being full of alternate matings, shared ancestry, inter-family marriages, natural and disputed offspring.
Because of the genetic shuffle in chromosomes at conception, such revelations come mostly through genealogy, not genetic tests which reveal ethnic identity but few if any individual ancestors.
In his archaic form, Ares was a fertility god. If the lines are to be believed, his descendants proliferate in the flesh to this day. The psychic fact is that he is in us all, and remains in us and our progeny through certain royal lines of descent. The soul becomes the arbiter of truth or error.
We embody the survival of the pagan gods. Psyche cannot be distinguished from its manifestations. The historical tradition is conflated with the mythic tradition through genealogy. The implication is that if we were engendered by them, they continue through us. They persist in our spirit, psyche and psychology, emotions, as well as physical bodies that create our reality every day.
The gods' misty pre-historical origin is our own origin. Thus, Ares/Mars is archetype and ancestor, an instinct for physical survival. Questionable empirical reality has a transcendent aspect, including dark and mysterious areas of our experience. We are informed by his Being. Umberto Eco says, wryly, in Foucault's Pendulum that we cannot betray an ancestor who never existed nor fail that old-time religion.
The general premise of The Survival of the Pagan Gods, by Jean Seznec (1981) is that "the ancient gods survive during the Middle Ages by virtue of interpretations of their origin and nature propounded by antiquity itself."
The gods are civilizers, who founded dynasties as well as legends. They hide in astrology, science, and magic as 'astral' planetary forces. The Renaissance reduced them to mythological allegory, but the bloodlines went silently on as testimony to divine origin. Our genealogy informs our understanding of history and even the unleashed terror of a god. What happens when the warrior god culture goes too far?
Archetypal Genealogy
We still have to find the point where the evidence fails and search for reliable sources. Traditional genealogy is an archetypal activity, recapitulating and extending humanity's oldest activities, including the imaginal root. The aesthetic response is an ethical response -- a response of the heart -- that values the ancestors and the genealogical history.
Genealogy is thus an archetypal order, an aesthetic construction, and a virtual map of the personal and collective unconscious, reflecting a principle of totality and primordial origins. Traditional genealogy considered these mythological inclusions best-practice, yet it may be more of a psychic than historical "fact."
This does not mean we need to take that literally – historically as fact -- but the connections seem implicit by their nature. Genealogy is another way for us to connect with the gods, and if we are connected to one, we are therefore related to others, as well. Jung claimed, “There is no form of human tragedy that does not in some measure proceed from this conflict between the ego and the unconscious.”
Only a Jungian approach to traditional genealogy keeps the historic/mythic gestalt of The World Tree alive as a symbol of wholeness -- a holistic resonant field pattern. According to Jung, trees are a symbolic reference to the self, so family tree is self-defining. As well as our lineage, our ancestors also form a vast symbol chain, rooted in the mythic unconscious and pre-history.
The symbolic function is beyond innate impulse and ideological bias. Through introversion, we are fertilized, inspired, regenerated, and reborn. Self-incubation, self-castigation, and introversion are closely related ideas. Immersion in oneself (introversion) is a penetration into the unconscious, the imaginal world of psyche. What is invisible to us was obvious to the ancients.
The World Tree is the Axis Mundi of genealogy, a worldwide database of genealogical connectivity. At this point travel and correspondence is made between higher and lower realms. Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones and be disseminated to all. The spot functions as the omphalos (navel), the world's point of beginning.
The earliest mythologies are of the World-Tree, or Tree of Life. Aspects of the same image, sacred trees are the most common motif from the ancient world. The Tree connects our psychophysical aspects from sub-nuclear to macrocosmic scales. The trunk is the axis of psychic growth that unites Heaven and Earth, spirit and matter.
Indigenous societies insist that lack of connection to our ancestors is one of our greatest shortcomings, so reclaiming them takes on importance. It gives us a model of ‘how’ precisely we are connected, and just how many generations lie between. The further back in time they are, the more we can be certain we share them with most of humanity.
The mythology of our ancestors is as important as their cosmology. We can explore the mystic in ourselves and in our ancestors. Our worldview is the root of our identity and relationship to Nature and our own deep nature. Researching the cosmologies of our direct ancestors in the historical era provides a quick path into dream shamanism, as these ways are still half-remembered. Our common destiny lies beyond any worldview.
We know there is power in naming. What is it to name something, to name someone, to name someone an ancestor, or even name a god as direct ancestor? It all comes down to our own name. Genealogy is a heritage led regeneration. Tracing our lines back from our parents, we move deeper into the realm of the ancestors who gave us the substance of life and soul's self-expression. A sense of soul gives us a sense of history.
Our sacred and mythic roots inform our primordial human behavior and the timeless soul-world. They act on us through meaning as well as the world stage. This natural unconscious process doesn't need to be driven by a therapeutic or self-development agenda.
We don't carry ancestral DNA from all our ancestors. But we remain entangled with them, psychophysically, consciously, or unconsciously. In real, imaginary, and symbolic ways they are meaningful to our wholeness. The inner life exerts its manifest influence.
Ares aggression, might, and energy has controlled all of history from behind the scenes. History is written by the winners who then self-describe their glorious descent from the gods, insuring their renown and divine right to rule. It is enforced with constant wars and worldview warfare, a battle for minds. The dragon or serpent guards the treasures of the deep remains the unconscious, the unwritten history of mankind, and its myth-spinning capacity.
Archetypal Ancestors
We can leverage our genealogy to inform our spiritual development and religious practice. Our biography begins with our antecedents and Ares appears in that context. An archetypal approach to genealogy is polytheistic.
We recognize spiritual and psychological ancestors, as well as genetic ones. Their influence stays with us and helps us. The gods personify soul's need for spiritual ancestors. Our sense of identity expands to one of symbolic identification.
Genealogical methods trace ancestries back to gods, animal totems, and legendary heroes. Ancestral souls resided in sacred animalsr, such as Ares's wolf, serpent or dragon. Oral narratives became tibal history. Divine right to rule was traced through genealogy in Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt, India and China. Biblical begats culminate in the House of David, a royal bloodline.
The Greeks and Romans linked their heritage to the gods with their ancestral blessings and curses. It was first recorded in Homer’s The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Virgil’s The Aeniad. They are all stories of a quest to answer a deeper call that involves their relationships with the Olympians.
The same characters described in classical literature still show up in genealogy -- in mine, and perhaps in yours, too. Dreams are catalysts for ancestral phenomena. Our ancestors dream of us unceasingly. When we dream of them, they dream of us right back. When we actively engage, they engage.
Dreams help us work with archetypal ancestors in transgenerational integration and trauma, combining traditional wisdom with contemporary practices. Transgenerational legacies shape our early life, and Ares is among them. This approach to self knowledge deals with our connection to our origin, the past that still influences us in the present, integration of familial, social and cultural issues, and reclaiming our true self.
Descent From the Gods
Ares is our forebear, and archetype of the Blade, as Aphrodite is the Chalice. This hard and muscular warrior is the psychic background of a historical drama that is still unfolding in us, a specific manifestation of dynamic energy. We can only meet Ares on his own ground, but it is not always the battlefield. Ares illuminates soul's special relationship to death. Such an ancestor can be a protective spirit, soul-guide, or mentor.
A secret unrest gnaws at our roots, an instinct for expansion. Such urges are expressed in our emotional and sensorimotor patterns. The less we are conscious of it, the more it influences us. Carl Jung thought that inclinations, moods, and decisions are influenced by the dark forces of psyche, and they could be dangerous or helpful in shaping destiny. (CW 10, Para 332)
We take our ancient lineage as metaphorical and symbolic, not just literal. Ancestors are trans-subjective facts made of our own psychophysical substance, still residing and working on us inside as they did outside. For Jung they were part of our inherited instinct and preformed patterns.
With a bit of insight, we can read the epic story of the Trojan War and Founding of Rome from the top down in our genealogy. In Book 20 of The Iliad, Aeneas recites sixty lines of ancestral history back to Zeus as the beginning of his family line. Modern genealogies place his mythic descent from Olympians closer.
The gods are the archai, the deepest patterns and fundamental fantasies that animate all life. Archetypes direct fantasy activity and inherited potential for ideas and action. A metaphysical assertion or "truth" is a psychological statement of the psyche.
We see with the soul's eye through the web of reality. The spirits of the dead help us bring out our character and restore balanced relationships with the larger web of ancestors and spiritual forces. We work with archetypal patterns held within our psyche and DNA.
In the case of Ares, Jung thought conflict, war, and conquest is about the failure of a myth to contain personal and collective dark energies projected onto real or imagined enemies. War goes with the territory. We must endure it as we do the conflict between the sexes, and between the ego and unconscious. Ancient myths, their archetypes, heroes, and monsters still animate our anxieties.
Myth explains the unexplainable, especially when history is unreliable. Myths repeat again and again, hence the totem serpent/dragon of Ares is endless time. Everything that was outside is also inside the mythic unconscious, including the fiery warrior who 'sticks to his guns', perhaps far too long. Ares is an organ of our pre-rational psyche. If character is our genius, some have a terrible genius for war and make a career of it.
“Although the opposites flee from one another they nevertheless strive for balance, since a state of conflict is too inimical to life to be endured indefinitely. They do this by wearing each other out, like the two dragons or the other ravenous beasts of alchemical symbolism.” (Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, Pp. 230)
Relying on physical power, intensity, intimidation, and direct action, how often do we act and react unmindfully? When are we too primitive, too present, too strong? We all have to cope with violence, struggle, and death. What happens to the feminine, especially the dark feminine, in a society saturated by masculine war, or blood-soaked atrocities? Can conflict become the avenue to hope and self-worth?
The secret doctrine of antiquity survives in our bloodlines. Our genes pulse down the lines with us as temporary custodians. Separated across the face of time, we have the same genetic material. We go down in history, descending from the most remote and divine characters imaginable at the edge of reality.
In genealogy, inherent meaning unites with experience; historical facts help us uncover psychological meaning. Historical facts are set in and rooted in myth. The story acts on our psyche as much as it acted in the world. Even non- or pre-historical, genealogy is a symbol of an unbroken relationship with the others and divine forces and our mortality.
My story, rooted in Ares, may be your story, too, if Ares is in your lineage or a spirit in your blood. The soul has its own ancestors. We find our spiritual ancestors in "the land of the dead." Ares doesn't have to manifest in coercion, extreme rage, blood lust, or combativeness. We might be dauntless in our aspirations, inspired and sacrificing beyond ourselves, challenging our own personal best, courage and daring.
The first written words of Greek epic poetry were about the war with Troy in Asia Minor and the return from it. We now know that all wounds in war are not visible. Soul-searing post-traumatic stress persists throughout a lifetime as a disease of the soul -- shell shock.
The Aeniad, The Illiad and the Odyssey are stories of the soul. Odysseus failed in his long voyage home for many years, because the true voyage home is an inner journey to heal the deadness and stuckness that comes from visceral horror and atrocities.
"But this much I would claim to know: that a man cannot go to war in quest of power and wealth without doing mortal harm to some portion of his soul, and once the soul is damaged and impaired then all kinds of madness follow." (The War at Troy, by Lindsay Clarke, p. 272, 2004)
Not necessarily aggressive with primitive brutality, Ares is also chivalry, protection and self-protection, repressed action. We needn't be raiders, military or militant, do martial arts, collect weapons, or be sports or sex addicts. We don't need forceful exercise of the power drive to commune with Ares of the mighty heart and emotional wounds.
Courage, empowerment, assertiveness and other qualities shine when not confounded with shadow ferocity, violence, might, and impulse. Sometimes, we may be headstrong, rash, self-gratifying. We will fight for what we believe. We will risk, lose reason and restraint, again and again.
We will play tough; we will quarrel; we will be impetuous. We will be tense; we will overreact; we may surrender to despair or vengeance. Someone will press our buttons. We feel Ares as the surge of emotion, loyalty, or the urge to retaliate, but also the light generated by fiery emotions.
Soul Retrieval
Indigenous people equate ancestor loss with soul loss that can be retrieved by reintegrating our ancestral generations. Our memory gives the dead greater reality and invokes their participation in births and marriages. If ancestral spirits are watchful, we cease to be a whole person cut off from those relationships.
Since soul is the living thing in us, soul loss is depression, loss of vitality or passion about life, or feeling that something is missing in life. Body-language betrays feelings. We define ourselves by interaction. When you put human names to it, perception shifts.
Genealogy is about re-connection. It helps heal loss of meaning, direction, vitality, mission, purpose, identity, and deep unhappiness. We need to know who we are and where we come from beyond the recent past. We can follow the lines of our genealogical descent like a path, our particular path into existence. In this case it is the path of Ares, through Aeneas, to the Roman Emperors.
The ancestors, including the divine roots create the form of all our experience. By facing our soul, we face our ancestors and the gods in a circumambulation of the self. Our devotion to Ares echoes how that archetype informs our lives. There is a caution warning, an object lesson in his frenzy, irrationality, and uncontrolled lust.
Ares harks back through the Mycenaean Greeks to the prehistoric Dragon lineages of the Hittites, Sumerians, and beyond. His character matches Teshub, another Anatolian deity. Ares fought for the Trojans at the siege of Ilium. Hesiod and Aeschylus said he was the father of the race of Kadmos, who married his daughter Hermione. The warriors of Kadmos sprang from the teeth of the dragon of Ares, which Kadmos sowed.
The wolf is the totem animal of Ares, but the dragon is also his sacred animal. The nymph Telphousa bore the sacred dragon Ares begat on her. This Ismenian dragon was a giant serpent which guarded the sacred spring of Ares near Thebes.
We will be following this martial thread as a lead. Reading the line we "see through" the collective portion of a classical line of descent from Ares/Mars. It descends through Troy to the rise and fall of Rome, into the Middle Ages, and the modern world. Revisioning Ares (birth: circa -1680) as a direct ancestor forges an emotional connection with the root archetypes, the Olympians.
We realize what Ares means from deep inside as more than an unconscious psychic factor. Giving voice to the ancestors is giving voice to the gods so their images can live and ground our being. Our lonely hearts open fully to loving reciprocity.
Recognition
Ceremonially reciting their ancestors was one of the most important things an ancient person could do. In Scotland declaring lineage was part of the battle-rattle preceding war, designed to strike terror into the heart of the enemy. We can welcome them hospitably back into our lives. Their images impress us in a way beyond the physical facts, restoring form to the formless.
Recognition is a great mystery of the psyche. The inner wealth of the soul resides in our hearts. Jung calls the unconscious, "the unwritten history of mankind from time unrecorded." (CW 11, Para 280) And he notes, "The unconscious mind of man sees correctly even when conscious reason is blind and impotent." (CW 11, Para 608). Our genealogical lines symbolically and literally encode information and express this concept.
Our family tree helps us learn the family history and the stories behind the pedigrees which trail off into the mists of pre-history. Matters stuck in limbo are lured back into life by genealogical soul retrieval and emotional reconnection to the ancestors, gods, and primordial womb of nature.
When that is part of 'what we know' we don't have to merely believe. The ancestors and divine root permeate us through the dark borderland of body and soul and unify our archetypal essence. Everything in the psychic world is real.
In Scotland, oral traditions of genealogy marked the structure and evolution of the clan -- by blood descent, marriage, and territorial holding. Oral recitation of genealogy was passed on to children round the fireside. The Highlanders did not use the form of a tree, but used the track of a wheel or the imprint of fingers tracing intricate relations in the dust.
Old seanchaidhean could recite the sinnsearachd, the Gaelic term used for the descent or genealogical track. So, pardon me while I idly trace the relationships and genealogical tracks left in the dusts of time, legend, and memory in the line of Ares/Mars.
What if God Was [more than] One of Us?
Myth is the DNA of the human psyche. Genes are memories, primordial and otherwise. Living myths give story and experience meaning. Genealogy is not always simple, being full of alternate matings, shared ancestry, inter-family marriages, natural and disputed offspring.
Because of the genetic shuffle in chromosomes at conception, such revelations come mostly through genealogy, not genetic tests which reveal ethnic identity but few if any individual ancestors.
In his archaic form, Ares was a fertility god. If the lines are to be believed, his descendants proliferate in the flesh to this day. The psychic fact is that he is in us all, and remains in us and our progeny through certain royal lines of descent. The soul becomes the arbiter of truth or error.
We embody the survival of the pagan gods. Psyche cannot be distinguished from its manifestations. The historical tradition is conflated with the mythic tradition through genealogy. The implication is that if we were engendered by them, they continue through us. They persist in our spirit, psyche and psychology, emotions, as well as physical bodies that create our reality every day.
The gods' misty pre-historical origin is our own origin. Thus, Ares/Mars is archetype and ancestor, an instinct for physical survival. Questionable empirical reality has a transcendent aspect, including dark and mysterious areas of our experience. We are informed by his Being. Umberto Eco says, wryly, in Foucault's Pendulum that we cannot betray an ancestor who never existed nor fail that old-time religion.
The general premise of The Survival of the Pagan Gods, by Jean Seznec (1981) is that "the ancient gods survive during the Middle Ages by virtue of interpretations of their origin and nature propounded by antiquity itself."
The gods are civilizers, who founded dynasties as well as legends. They hide in astrology, science, and magic as 'astral' planetary forces. The Renaissance reduced them to mythological allegory, but the bloodlines went silently on as testimony to divine origin. Our genealogy informs our understanding of history and even the unleashed terror of a god. What happens when the warrior god culture goes too far?
Archetypal Genealogy
We still have to find the point where the evidence fails and search for reliable sources. Traditional genealogy is an archetypal activity, recapitulating and extending humanity's oldest activities, including the imaginal root. The aesthetic response is an ethical response -- a response of the heart -- that values the ancestors and the genealogical history.
Genealogy is thus an archetypal order, an aesthetic construction, and a virtual map of the personal and collective unconscious, reflecting a principle of totality and primordial origins. Traditional genealogy considered these mythological inclusions best-practice, yet it may be more of a psychic than historical "fact."
This does not mean we need to take that literally – historically as fact -- but the connections seem implicit by their nature. Genealogy is another way for us to connect with the gods, and if we are connected to one, we are therefore related to others, as well. Jung claimed, “There is no form of human tragedy that does not in some measure proceed from this conflict between the ego and the unconscious.”
Only a Jungian approach to traditional genealogy keeps the historic/mythic gestalt of The World Tree alive as a symbol of wholeness -- a holistic resonant field pattern. According to Jung, trees are a symbolic reference to the self, so family tree is self-defining. As well as our lineage, our ancestors also form a vast symbol chain, rooted in the mythic unconscious and pre-history.
The symbolic function is beyond innate impulse and ideological bias. Through introversion, we are fertilized, inspired, regenerated, and reborn. Self-incubation, self-castigation, and introversion are closely related ideas. Immersion in oneself (introversion) is a penetration into the unconscious, the imaginal world of psyche. What is invisible to us was obvious to the ancients.
The World Tree is the Axis Mundi of genealogy, a worldwide database of genealogical connectivity. At this point travel and correspondence is made between higher and lower realms. Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones and be disseminated to all. The spot functions as the omphalos (navel), the world's point of beginning.
The earliest mythologies are of the World-Tree, or Tree of Life. Aspects of the same image, sacred trees are the most common motif from the ancient world. The Tree connects our psychophysical aspects from sub-nuclear to macrocosmic scales. The trunk is the axis of psychic growth that unites Heaven and Earth, spirit and matter.
Indigenous societies insist that lack of connection to our ancestors is one of our greatest shortcomings, so reclaiming them takes on importance. It gives us a model of ‘how’ precisely we are connected, and just how many generations lie between. The further back in time they are, the more we can be certain we share them with most of humanity.
The mythology of our ancestors is as important as their cosmology. We can explore the mystic in ourselves and in our ancestors. Our worldview is the root of our identity and relationship to Nature and our own deep nature. Researching the cosmologies of our direct ancestors in the historical era provides a quick path into dream shamanism, as these ways are still half-remembered. Our common destiny lies beyond any worldview.
Bloodlust & Bloodline
According to the best practice of conventional and traditional genealogy, Ares is my 94th gr-grandfather, through Electra, some Trojan kings, Caesars, Roman emperors, Iberian aristocracy, and British knights, followed by Colonial immigrants, frontier pioneers and homesteaders. The theme remains space expansion and survival in extreme environments, going further and farther than any before.
The tale of incendiary Ares is the tale of the Greek, Trojan, and Roman family trees. The forms remain important for transgenerational reintegration of our ancestral spirits. Violent histories are the common core of transgenerational wounding.
Ares had four sons: Evenus, Molus, Pylus, and Thestius. The descent originates with Ares and Eurythemis, who had issue, Thestius (my 93rd gr-gr). The mother seems to have also married her divine son. We don't need to plot all the characters of the epic war, mainly those in the direct line of descent.
The Trojan Family tree consists largely of an unbroken paternal line sired by Erichthonius (my 88th gr-gr), King of Dardania and Acadia [ancient Turkey]. But that descent is rooted in the maternal triad of Electra of Mycenae [my 90th], Mycenean queen Clytemnestra of Troy and Agamemnon of Mycenae [both my 91st], and Leda of Sparta [92nd], who famously coupled with Zeus as the Swan. Leda is usually considered the daughter of King Thestius of Aetolia and Eurythemis. And her daughter was Helen of Troy (92nd gr-aunt).
On the Greek side, Odysseus is my 85th gr-grandfather, and traces back his maternal and paternal lines to Zeus through Hermes. His gr-great grandaughter is Lavinia Roma of Alba Longa, and her son is Iulus, who founds the Julian Dynasty. So both lines of Odysseus and Aeneas merge when Lavinia marries Ascanius,
the son of Aeneas, grandson of King Priam of Troy, descendant of Aphrodite, and ancestor of Romulus, Remus and the Gens Julia, clan of Julius Caesar.
This story with its variants is that of the Kings of Alba Longa, through the Silvii to the Julii dynasties. His grandfather, Anchises, and his son Aeneas (my 83rd gr-grandfather), claimed descent from Aphrodite. They became important divine forebears to the Romans, who claimed descent from both the goddess of love and the god of war. The Julian dynasty descended from their progenitor Iulus (my 81st gr-gr).
In some Roman traditions, Iulus, the semi-divine ancestor of gens Iulia, was identical with Aeneas’ son Ascanius (Vergil). In other traditions, Iulus was the son of Aeneas by his Trojan wife, Creusa, while Ascanius was the son of Aeneas' Latin wife Lavinia, daughter of Latinus (Livy). And, in still another tradition, Iulus was son of Ascanius. My genealogy lists Iulus as son of Ascanius and Lavinia.
With Aeneas, the dramatic setting changes from Troy to Rome and its antecedents. With a host of other beliefs among them, all descendants unconsciously pay homage to the strength and courage of their ‘progenitor’ Ares/Mars and his dynamic pioneering energy. That spirit is ratified in Julius Caesar, my 59th gr-grandfather, back through Aeneas to the Trojan kings, Zeus and the Titans.
Zeus engineered the Trojan War because there were too many generations on the earth. Earth complained to Zeus there were too many humans for her to bear. Jung noticed, "Each of us, every living being, is a small earth, one could say, because we are in intimate connection with the earth, we are partially earth, we are conscious of our earthly body, for instance." (Visions Seminar, Pages 1158-1159)
Ares/Mars supported the Trojans and the Romans. The root lines of Julius Caesar show that Electra's maternal line descends from Ares's union with Eurythemis. The descent of the Julian Family tree continues through the collateral adoptive son, Augustus Caesar, which breaks the direct genetic chain but keeps it in the Julian family.
According to the best practice of conventional and traditional genealogy, Ares is my 94th gr-grandfather, through Electra, some Trojan kings, Caesars, Roman emperors, Iberian aristocracy, and British knights, followed by Colonial immigrants, frontier pioneers and homesteaders. The theme remains space expansion and survival in extreme environments, going further and farther than any before.
The tale of incendiary Ares is the tale of the Greek, Trojan, and Roman family trees. The forms remain important for transgenerational reintegration of our ancestral spirits. Violent histories are the common core of transgenerational wounding.
Ares had four sons: Evenus, Molus, Pylus, and Thestius. The descent originates with Ares and Eurythemis, who had issue, Thestius (my 93rd gr-gr). The mother seems to have also married her divine son. We don't need to plot all the characters of the epic war, mainly those in the direct line of descent.
The Trojan Family tree consists largely of an unbroken paternal line sired by Erichthonius (my 88th gr-gr), King of Dardania and Acadia [ancient Turkey]. But that descent is rooted in the maternal triad of Electra of Mycenae [my 90th], Mycenean queen Clytemnestra of Troy and Agamemnon of Mycenae [both my 91st], and Leda of Sparta [92nd], who famously coupled with Zeus as the Swan. Leda is usually considered the daughter of King Thestius of Aetolia and Eurythemis. And her daughter was Helen of Troy (92nd gr-aunt).
On the Greek side, Odysseus is my 85th gr-grandfather, and traces back his maternal and paternal lines to Zeus through Hermes. His gr-great grandaughter is Lavinia Roma of Alba Longa, and her son is Iulus, who founds the Julian Dynasty. So both lines of Odysseus and Aeneas merge when Lavinia marries Ascanius,
the son of Aeneas, grandson of King Priam of Troy, descendant of Aphrodite, and ancestor of Romulus, Remus and the Gens Julia, clan of Julius Caesar.
This story with its variants is that of the Kings of Alba Longa, through the Silvii to the Julii dynasties. His grandfather, Anchises, and his son Aeneas (my 83rd gr-grandfather), claimed descent from Aphrodite. They became important divine forebears to the Romans, who claimed descent from both the goddess of love and the god of war. The Julian dynasty descended from their progenitor Iulus (my 81st gr-gr).
In some Roman traditions, Iulus, the semi-divine ancestor of gens Iulia, was identical with Aeneas’ son Ascanius (Vergil). In other traditions, Iulus was the son of Aeneas by his Trojan wife, Creusa, while Ascanius was the son of Aeneas' Latin wife Lavinia, daughter of Latinus (Livy). And, in still another tradition, Iulus was son of Ascanius. My genealogy lists Iulus as son of Ascanius and Lavinia.
With Aeneas, the dramatic setting changes from Troy to Rome and its antecedents. With a host of other beliefs among them, all descendants unconsciously pay homage to the strength and courage of their ‘progenitor’ Ares/Mars and his dynamic pioneering energy. That spirit is ratified in Julius Caesar, my 59th gr-grandfather, back through Aeneas to the Trojan kings, Zeus and the Titans.
Zeus engineered the Trojan War because there were too many generations on the earth. Earth complained to Zeus there were too many humans for her to bear. Jung noticed, "Each of us, every living being, is a small earth, one could say, because we are in intimate connection with the earth, we are partially earth, we are conscious of our earthly body, for instance." (Visions Seminar, Pages 1158-1159)
Ares/Mars supported the Trojans and the Romans. The root lines of Julius Caesar show that Electra's maternal line descends from Ares's union with Eurythemis. The descent of the Julian Family tree continues through the collateral adoptive son, Augustus Caesar, which breaks the direct genetic chain but keeps it in the Julian family.
Divine Ancestry
Hesiod writes in Theogony 921 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.) : "Zeus took Hera to be his fresh consort, and she, lying in the arms of the father of gods and mortals, conceived and bore Hebe to him, and Ares, and Eileithyia."
There are a number of ways in which the idea of descent from the gods is used in ancient medieval writings. In some legends individual heroes are said to be sons of gods or descended from a god, like Ares. Rather than literal divine ancestry and divine descent we can approach the god as a symbolic and metaphorical reality… a lived and living connection to the Olympians as close as our skin.
Homer's story of Troy is the first written in Greek, allegedly 500 years after the events. It is a foundation of western tradition and archetypes of all sorts of behaviors and legendary heroes. Before that stories were sung about heroes and battles. In the 13th century BCE, Trojan and Greek warriors fought a long bloody battle that became an epic that still resonates through history.
The defeat of Troy was the end of the Bronze Age. It ushered in the Greek Dark Ages. More legends were born. But there are real people behind many of the legends. Trojan refugees were led West by Aeneas, who Julius Caesar claimed as his ancestor. As Romans they later returned and conquered Greece. In between pre-history became history and empire.
Aeschylus says in Fragment 282 of Papyri Oxyrhynchus, (trans. Lloyd-Jones):
"[Dike the goddess of justice speaks: ...And I will tell you a proof which gives you this clearly. Hera has reared a violent son [Ares] whom she has borne to Zeus, a god irascible, hard to govern, an one whose mind knew no respect for others. He shot wayfarers with deadly arrows, and ruthless hacked . . ((lacuna)) with hooked spears . . he rejoiced and laughed . . evil . . scent of blood."
As the gods do not appear in isolation, a relationship with Ares, implies one with his extended and immediate family – Aphrodite, Zeus and Hera, and other Olympians. Their drop lines, include the divine Hermaphrodite that unites the opposites, and Rome's founders Romulus and Remus, listed as gr-uncles of today's descendants. We are reminded again of Ares and his totem wolf.
Yet, clearly, “No one can 'prove' a descent from Julius Caesar,” [my 59th].
The dynasty Aeneas Gens Iulia includes Iulus, my 81st → Ascanius, King of Alba Longa, his father → Aeneas, King of Lavinium, his father, my 83rd]
This family which spawned Julius Caesar claimed descent from the Roman goddess Venus-Aphrodite (my 84th gr-gr) through Aeneas, her son by her lover Anchises, who was a Trojan prince. My genealogy shows this in the profile of Aeneas, closely braiding the Aphrodite and Ares dual-divinity generation of this line. Aphrodite as anima mundi binds all states of being together, the totality of the psyche.
Legend says Aeneas escaped the Fall of Troy (about 1200 BCE) and journeyed to Italy where he became the tribal ancestor of the Latins and the Etruscans. This acknowledges Zeus as prime ancestor.
Aeneas was a popular figure in medieval genealogical inventions. In the Norse saga, the Deluding of Gylfe, he is called Anea. Medieval Welsh genealogies called him Annyn Tro. In one Welsh source he is called a son of Brydain, giving name to Britain) and a grandson of Aedd Mawr (Edward the Great), c. 1300 BCE. These chronologies are too confused to be credible.
As we retreat through history most people are genetically related, even if the genealogy cannot be traced. The story becomes one not of our own family, but the collective family of man. Still, it is one thing to read history in a book, and quite another to read it in the lines of one's own direct descent.
The historian Strabo has Poseidon prophetically declare in Iliad XX, “But, now I know, the lineage of Aeneas will rule over all, and so too will his son, and his son's sons, who will be born thereafter." And so seemed, throughout the rise and fall of Rome, including some of the most famous names and leaders in global history.
Alba Longa was an indigenous Latin iron age settlement in the mountains near Rome today. In Roman mythology, Alba was founded by Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, as a new colony of Trojan refugees and native Latins. In some accounts Ascanius was the son of Lavinia, and grandson of Latinus. (Livy); in other versions, Ascanius was the son of Creusa (Dionysius,Virgil). Vergil claims Ascanius and Iulus were the same. Dionysius makes Iulus the son of Ascanius, the founder and first king of Alba Longa, Iulus was claimed as the ancestor of the Julian gens.
Eratosthenes places the sack of Troy around 1184 BC, more than four centuries before the traditional founding of Rome, in 753. The Alban kings history neatly closed the gap from Aeneas to Romulus. It is a mythical justification for the close ties between Rome and the indigenous Latin families descended from the Trojan immigrants or their Alban descendants.
Fifteen Trojan pedigrees of the Alban kings from Aeneas to Romulus survive. In the Aeniad, Virgil claimed that Latinus was the son of Faunus, and grandson of Picus, the first king of Latium, who was in turn the son of Saturn. But Picus was also said to be the son of Mars, rather than Saturn.
The Latins attacked the intruding Trojans, were defeated, and peace was cemented with the marriage of Aeneas and Lavinia, daughter of the Latin king. Aeneas founded a town of both Trojans and Latins, named Lavinium.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_of_Alba_Longa
Hesiod writes in Theogony 921 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.) : "Zeus took Hera to be his fresh consort, and she, lying in the arms of the father of gods and mortals, conceived and bore Hebe to him, and Ares, and Eileithyia."
There are a number of ways in which the idea of descent from the gods is used in ancient medieval writings. In some legends individual heroes are said to be sons of gods or descended from a god, like Ares. Rather than literal divine ancestry and divine descent we can approach the god as a symbolic and metaphorical reality… a lived and living connection to the Olympians as close as our skin.
Homer's story of Troy is the first written in Greek, allegedly 500 years after the events. It is a foundation of western tradition and archetypes of all sorts of behaviors and legendary heroes. Before that stories were sung about heroes and battles. In the 13th century BCE, Trojan and Greek warriors fought a long bloody battle that became an epic that still resonates through history.
The defeat of Troy was the end of the Bronze Age. It ushered in the Greek Dark Ages. More legends were born. But there are real people behind many of the legends. Trojan refugees were led West by Aeneas, who Julius Caesar claimed as his ancestor. As Romans they later returned and conquered Greece. In between pre-history became history and empire.
Aeschylus says in Fragment 282 of Papyri Oxyrhynchus, (trans. Lloyd-Jones):
"[Dike the goddess of justice speaks: ...And I will tell you a proof which gives you this clearly. Hera has reared a violent son [Ares] whom she has borne to Zeus, a god irascible, hard to govern, an one whose mind knew no respect for others. He shot wayfarers with deadly arrows, and ruthless hacked . . ((lacuna)) with hooked spears . . he rejoiced and laughed . . evil . . scent of blood."
As the gods do not appear in isolation, a relationship with Ares, implies one with his extended and immediate family – Aphrodite, Zeus and Hera, and other Olympians. Their drop lines, include the divine Hermaphrodite that unites the opposites, and Rome's founders Romulus and Remus, listed as gr-uncles of today's descendants. We are reminded again of Ares and his totem wolf.
Yet, clearly, “No one can 'prove' a descent from Julius Caesar,” [my 59th].
The dynasty Aeneas Gens Iulia includes Iulus, my 81st → Ascanius, King of Alba Longa, his father → Aeneas, King of Lavinium, his father, my 83rd]
This family which spawned Julius Caesar claimed descent from the Roman goddess Venus-Aphrodite (my 84th gr-gr) through Aeneas, her son by her lover Anchises, who was a Trojan prince. My genealogy shows this in the profile of Aeneas, closely braiding the Aphrodite and Ares dual-divinity generation of this line. Aphrodite as anima mundi binds all states of being together, the totality of the psyche.
Legend says Aeneas escaped the Fall of Troy (about 1200 BCE) and journeyed to Italy where he became the tribal ancestor of the Latins and the Etruscans. This acknowledges Zeus as prime ancestor.
Aeneas was a popular figure in medieval genealogical inventions. In the Norse saga, the Deluding of Gylfe, he is called Anea. Medieval Welsh genealogies called him Annyn Tro. In one Welsh source he is called a son of Brydain, giving name to Britain) and a grandson of Aedd Mawr (Edward the Great), c. 1300 BCE. These chronologies are too confused to be credible.
As we retreat through history most people are genetically related, even if the genealogy cannot be traced. The story becomes one not of our own family, but the collective family of man. Still, it is one thing to read history in a book, and quite another to read it in the lines of one's own direct descent.
The historian Strabo has Poseidon prophetically declare in Iliad XX, “But, now I know, the lineage of Aeneas will rule over all, and so too will his son, and his son's sons, who will be born thereafter." And so seemed, throughout the rise and fall of Rome, including some of the most famous names and leaders in global history.
Alba Longa was an indigenous Latin iron age settlement in the mountains near Rome today. In Roman mythology, Alba was founded by Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, as a new colony of Trojan refugees and native Latins. In some accounts Ascanius was the son of Lavinia, and grandson of Latinus. (Livy); in other versions, Ascanius was the son of Creusa (Dionysius,Virgil). Vergil claims Ascanius and Iulus were the same. Dionysius makes Iulus the son of Ascanius, the founder and first king of Alba Longa, Iulus was claimed as the ancestor of the Julian gens.
Eratosthenes places the sack of Troy around 1184 BC, more than four centuries before the traditional founding of Rome, in 753. The Alban kings history neatly closed the gap from Aeneas to Romulus. It is a mythical justification for the close ties between Rome and the indigenous Latin families descended from the Trojan immigrants or their Alban descendants.
Fifteen Trojan pedigrees of the Alban kings from Aeneas to Romulus survive. In the Aeniad, Virgil claimed that Latinus was the son of Faunus, and grandson of Picus, the first king of Latium, who was in turn the son of Saturn. But Picus was also said to be the son of Mars, rather than Saturn.
The Latins attacked the intruding Trojans, were defeated, and peace was cemented with the marriage of Aeneas and Lavinia, daughter of the Latin king. Aeneas founded a town of both Trojans and Latins, named Lavinium.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_of_Alba_Longa
Ferdinand Bol's 17th-century mythological painting shows Aeneas, in armor, awarding laurels to the winner of a race; he rules jointly on the same dais with Latinus.
By Ferdinand Bol - www.rijksmuseum.nl: Home - info - pic,
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3934474
By Ferdinand Bol - www.rijksmuseum.nl: Home - info - pic,
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3934474
Founding Rome: Ares Becomes Mars
No matter which of the ancient writers or genealogies we follow for the backstory of Rome, we encounter the same names over and over -- renown warriors, kings, and queens, and mythic beings -- even if their links and marriages are juggled around. No one argues about their descent from Ares and Aphrodite, whether in the same or different lines.
Following the Ares descent line down through time, we come to the era and people associated with the founding and legends of Rome. Ares insinuated himself actively into the founding of Rome. His character defined that of the Empire -- its conquering and martial nature.
Founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus are my 94th great uncles.
Romulus was husband of Hersilia of Alba Longa, an abducted Sabine;
Remus was father of Pompilia of Rome, my 1st cousin 95x removed
The Romans considered Mars second only to Zeus or Jupiter, his father, and my 95th gr-grandfather. The twin founders of Rome raised by a wolf are the mythical offspring of Ares and Rhea Silvia, Princess of Alba Longa (b. circa 808), the wife of Ascanius.Roman emperors were always priests of Ares/Mars.
Romulus and Remus were the direct descendants of Ares, through Aeneas, whose fate-driven adventures in Italy are described in The Aeneid by Vergil. The Julian family, including Julius Cæsar and Augustus, traced their lineage to Ascanius and Aeneas, thus to the goddess Venus. The legendary kings of Britain also trace their family through Brutus, a grandson of Aeneas.
In the Iliad, the god Poseidon prophesied that the descendants of Aeneas (the Aeneadae), would survive the Trojan War and rule their people forever . Virgil traced the divine connection down the line of Aeneas stretched through Romulus, Augustus, and the Julio-Claudian emperors down to Nero. Some Greek writers considered the Romans descendants of the Achaeans, rather than the Trojans. Or, the Romans are descended from Odysseus, one of the Achaeans, rather than his contemporary, the Trojan prince Aeneas.
Romulus and Remus were related to Aeneas through their mother's father, Numitor. He was a king of Alba Longa, an ancient city of Latium in central Italy, Numitor was father to Rhea Silvia. Rubens depicts the Roman god Mars, identifiable with his war helmet and shield. raping the vestal virgin Rhea Silvia.
There is much debate and variation as to whom was the father of Romulus and Remus. Some myths claim that Mars appeared and lay with Rhea Silvia; other myths attest that the demi-god hero Hercules was her partner.
However, the author Livy claims that Rhea Silvia was in fact raped by an unknown man, but blamed her pregnancy on divine conception. In either case, Rhea Silvia was discovered to be pregnant and gave birth to her sons. It was custom that any Vestal Virgin betraying her vows of celibacy was condemned to death; the most common death sentence was to be buried alive.
However, King Amulius, fearing the wrath of the paternal god (Mars or Hercules) did not wish to directly stain his hands with the mother's and children's blood. So, King Amulius imprisoned Rhea Silvia and ordered the twins' death by means of live burial, exposure, or being thrown into the Tiber River.
He reasoned that if the twins were to die not by the sword but by the elements, he and his city would be saved from punishment by the gods. He ordered a servant to carry out the death sentence, but in every scenario of this myth, the servant takes pity on the twins and spares their lives. The servant, then, places the twins into a basket onto the River Tiber, and the river carries the boys to safety.
Romulus named his city Roma after himself and instated a government system of senators and patricians. When the male population exploded the Roman men abducted women from the Sabines and Latins. In response to this rape or abduction of women, the Sabine and Latin men went to war against Rome. Romulus was the definitive winner of this war and his victory was Rome's first triumph.
"Aeneas was the father of Ascanius with Creusa, and of Silvius with Lavinia. The former, also known as Iulus (or Julius), founded Alba Longa and was the first in a long series of kings. According to the mythology outlined by Virgil in the Aeneid, Romulus and Remus were both descendants of Aeneas through their mother Rhea Silvia, making Aeneas progenitor of the Roman people. Some early sources call him their father or grandfather,[1] but considering the commonly accepted dates of the fall of Troy (1184 BC) and the founding of Rome (753 BC), this seems unlikely.
In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (/ᵻˈniːəs/;[1] Greek: Αἰνείας, Aineías, possibly derived from Greek αἰνή meaning "praised") was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Venus (Aphrodite). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both being grandsons of Ilus, founder of Troy), making Aeneas a second cousin to Priam's children (such as Hector and Paris). He is mentioned in Homer's Iliad. Aeneas receives full treatment in Roman mythology, most extensively in Virgil's Aeneid, where he is an ancestor of Romulus and Remus. He became the first true hero of Rome. [wiki]
Mars and Rhea Silvia is a 1617 painting by Peter Paul Rubens, now in the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna. It shows Mars's rape of Rhea Silvia, which resulted in the birth of Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome.
No matter which of the ancient writers or genealogies we follow for the backstory of Rome, we encounter the same names over and over -- renown warriors, kings, and queens, and mythic beings -- even if their links and marriages are juggled around. No one argues about their descent from Ares and Aphrodite, whether in the same or different lines.
Following the Ares descent line down through time, we come to the era and people associated with the founding and legends of Rome. Ares insinuated himself actively into the founding of Rome. His character defined that of the Empire -- its conquering and martial nature.
Founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus are my 94th great uncles.
Romulus was husband of Hersilia of Alba Longa, an abducted Sabine;
Remus was father of Pompilia of Rome, my 1st cousin 95x removed
The Romans considered Mars second only to Zeus or Jupiter, his father, and my 95th gr-grandfather. The twin founders of Rome raised by a wolf are the mythical offspring of Ares and Rhea Silvia, Princess of Alba Longa (b. circa 808), the wife of Ascanius.Roman emperors were always priests of Ares/Mars.
Romulus and Remus were the direct descendants of Ares, through Aeneas, whose fate-driven adventures in Italy are described in The Aeneid by Vergil. The Julian family, including Julius Cæsar and Augustus, traced their lineage to Ascanius and Aeneas, thus to the goddess Venus. The legendary kings of Britain also trace their family through Brutus, a grandson of Aeneas.
In the Iliad, the god Poseidon prophesied that the descendants of Aeneas (the Aeneadae), would survive the Trojan War and rule their people forever . Virgil traced the divine connection down the line of Aeneas stretched through Romulus, Augustus, and the Julio-Claudian emperors down to Nero. Some Greek writers considered the Romans descendants of the Achaeans, rather than the Trojans. Or, the Romans are descended from Odysseus, one of the Achaeans, rather than his contemporary, the Trojan prince Aeneas.
Romulus and Remus were related to Aeneas through their mother's father, Numitor. He was a king of Alba Longa, an ancient city of Latium in central Italy, Numitor was father to Rhea Silvia. Rubens depicts the Roman god Mars, identifiable with his war helmet and shield. raping the vestal virgin Rhea Silvia.
There is much debate and variation as to whom was the father of Romulus and Remus. Some myths claim that Mars appeared and lay with Rhea Silvia; other myths attest that the demi-god hero Hercules was her partner.
However, the author Livy claims that Rhea Silvia was in fact raped by an unknown man, but blamed her pregnancy on divine conception. In either case, Rhea Silvia was discovered to be pregnant and gave birth to her sons. It was custom that any Vestal Virgin betraying her vows of celibacy was condemned to death; the most common death sentence was to be buried alive.
However, King Amulius, fearing the wrath of the paternal god (Mars or Hercules) did not wish to directly stain his hands with the mother's and children's blood. So, King Amulius imprisoned Rhea Silvia and ordered the twins' death by means of live burial, exposure, or being thrown into the Tiber River.
He reasoned that if the twins were to die not by the sword but by the elements, he and his city would be saved from punishment by the gods. He ordered a servant to carry out the death sentence, but in every scenario of this myth, the servant takes pity on the twins and spares their lives. The servant, then, places the twins into a basket onto the River Tiber, and the river carries the boys to safety.
Romulus named his city Roma after himself and instated a government system of senators and patricians. When the male population exploded the Roman men abducted women from the Sabines and Latins. In response to this rape or abduction of women, the Sabine and Latin men went to war against Rome. Romulus was the definitive winner of this war and his victory was Rome's first triumph.
"Aeneas was the father of Ascanius with Creusa, and of Silvius with Lavinia. The former, also known as Iulus (or Julius), founded Alba Longa and was the first in a long series of kings. According to the mythology outlined by Virgil in the Aeneid, Romulus and Remus were both descendants of Aeneas through their mother Rhea Silvia, making Aeneas progenitor of the Roman people. Some early sources call him their father or grandfather,[1] but considering the commonly accepted dates of the fall of Troy (1184 BC) and the founding of Rome (753 BC), this seems unlikely.
In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (/ᵻˈniːəs/;[1] Greek: Αἰνείας, Aineías, possibly derived from Greek αἰνή meaning "praised") was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Venus (Aphrodite). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both being grandsons of Ilus, founder of Troy), making Aeneas a second cousin to Priam's children (such as Hector and Paris). He is mentioned in Homer's Iliad. Aeneas receives full treatment in Roman mythology, most extensively in Virgil's Aeneid, where he is an ancestor of Romulus and Remus. He became the first true hero of Rome. [wiki]
Mars and Rhea Silvia is a 1617 painting by Peter Paul Rubens, now in the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna. It shows Mars's rape of Rhea Silvia, which resulted in the birth of Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome.
Psyche and History
There are, indeed, psychic powers within us that correspond to the divine -- and Ares/Mars is pre-eminent among them. The immortal soul in us surpasses the perishable individual significance.
We are links in the great chain of being, which is sometimes more like chainmail armor in its interconnections with ancestors and the gods. There remains a destructive impulse in ourselves and others that adds fire, vitality, passion, and power to life.
It is the mystery of brinksmanship -- the art or practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping, typically in politics -- power vs. empowerment. Personal sovereignty is the practice of trying to achieve an advantageous outcome by pushing dangerous events to the brink of active conflict to secure an advantage. But Mars will gladly bring the hammer down, too.
We have many possibilities for embracing power and genealogy remains a symbol of that human struggle, not only in war, but in class struggle, business competition, and love or sport. Genealogy gives the subject substance, "by showing us a broad experience of power, rooted in the body, the nind, and the emotions, rather than the customary narrow interpretation that simply equates power with strength." (Hillman)
In The Terrible Love of War, James Hillman noted that, "During the 5,600 years of recorded history, 14,600 wars have been fought -- 2 to 3 for every year of human history. War is a constant thing. And yet no one really understands why that is." He described his antidotes in Kinds of Power: A Guide to its Intelligent Uses (1997).
It is no accident we find Ares and the other gods at the roots of our genealogical lines. Hillman drills down into myth, into religion, and into the soul’s basement where the most basic impulses to war is seething. He suggests we, "listen to the language of the media, with its lexicon of war, battle, fight, compete, win, loser—all of these words pointing to conquest."
We have not even begun to wake up to the complex and nuanced power of the god of war. Nation-states find war a normal presence. But there is a deeper mythic and religious intention behind the fog of war and its purpose. It deepens the values we hold.
In our imaginative engagement with conflict, we need to maintain the place of psyche in genealogical interpretations, not cutting off the mythic past from our narrative with the sword of rationality and evidence or proof. Equivalent images remain dormant in our psyches if we do not recognize and establish the sacred connection between the sacred figures and our own psyche.
There is an irrational reality beyond the radical honesty of rationalism. It preserves even as it deconstructs our cherished notions about the past and self. It makes our lines no less 'real,' but it deliteralizes them, emphasizing soul's meaning is deeper connection, with or without metaphysical assertions.
We suffer collectively if we cut off those connections and psychological truths from our conscious and spiritual lives. Myth remains the key to 'the art of seeing.' Psyche remains full of obscurities and unsolvable riddles which press against our weak and often dull comprehensions.
As Jung claims, "We do not devalue statements that originally were intended to be metaphysical when we demonstrate their psychic nature; on the contrary, we confirm their factual character.
"But, by treating them as psychic phenomena, we remove them from the inaccessible realm of metaphysics, about which nothing verifiable can be said, and this disposes of the impossible question as to whether they are "true" or not.
"We take our stand simply and solely on the facts, recognizing that the archetypal structure of the unconscious will produce, over and over again and irrespective of tradition, those figures which reappear in the history of all epochs and all peoples, and will endow them with the same significance and numinosity that have been theirs from the beginning." (CW 14, Para 558)
Genealogy opens us to emotional experience, often of both sides of any historical conflict, suggesting we have a personal connection or stake in them all, which as humans we naturally do. Genealogy -- real, confabulated, or imaginal -- is the basis of the whole western world, or at least its public face and rulership.
We always remain both perpetrators and victims of forces eternally greater than ourselves. The interaction of the divine and the soul remains an over-arching theme of humanity. The religious function itself is archetypal, and we continue to sacrifice at the altar of Ares in global conflict.
International quarrels are personified as the 'usual suspects', the characters and kings in the conflicting dramas of nation states, and identity, ethnicity, and power-struggle. Throughout most of European history, rulers battled with their own extended family members.
Whether we call that Ares/Mars, or not, it remains a living reality in international politics, as surely as anything passed to us all through the persistent legacy of the Roman Empire. Mars casts a very long shadow across individual and collective history. Only now, through the body and DNA itself, are we realizing we are multi-ethnic at the deepest level, and even contain other species of human, and less than human DNA.
Genealogy recognizes the malleability of history, marriage, and generation. It is a way of interacting and imagining beyond therapy or history, while maintaining the traceable and plausible family histories documented after the Domesday Book (William the Conqueror in 1086) through the 1500's when surnames were introduced. Genealogy marks the points where mythic thought ran headlong into religion and fundamentalism, and other systems of social control and engineering...Ares again. The conqueror still suggests, "I am in control because I am divine."
The Domesday Book marks the starting point of recorded history for most English villages and towns as organized by county. It is the first English census and provides a Middle Ages record of English social organization in the Anglo-Norman period. We still rely on census and civil records as the most reliable 'proofs' of descent, yet we often find family errors there, even in recent ancestry. Names and dates are shuffled according to the hearing and transcribing of census takers. Experts remind us, as a genealogical tool, even the Domesday Book's usefulness is limited.
The Domesday Book (or, colloquially, Domesday) is the expression used since the late twelfth century to refer to the record of the "Great Inquisition or Survey of the lands of England, their extent, value, ownership, and liabilities, made by order of William the Conqueror in 1086".[1] Two volumes survive in The National Archives: "Great Domesday" covers parts of Wales and most of modern England except for northern areas then under control of the then Kingdom of Scotland and "Little Domesday" which covers in more detail Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk.[2]
The Domesday Book is the starting point of recorded history for the majority of English villages and towns which are organized by county. This first English census, considered by some as the most remarkable administrative accomplishment of the Middle Ages, provides a record of English social organization in the Anglo-Norman period. As a genealogical tool, however, the Domesday Book's usefulness is limited.
There are, indeed, psychic powers within us that correspond to the divine -- and Ares/Mars is pre-eminent among them. The immortal soul in us surpasses the perishable individual significance.
We are links in the great chain of being, which is sometimes more like chainmail armor in its interconnections with ancestors and the gods. There remains a destructive impulse in ourselves and others that adds fire, vitality, passion, and power to life.
It is the mystery of brinksmanship -- the art or practice of pursuing a dangerous policy to the limits of safety before stopping, typically in politics -- power vs. empowerment. Personal sovereignty is the practice of trying to achieve an advantageous outcome by pushing dangerous events to the brink of active conflict to secure an advantage. But Mars will gladly bring the hammer down, too.
We have many possibilities for embracing power and genealogy remains a symbol of that human struggle, not only in war, but in class struggle, business competition, and love or sport. Genealogy gives the subject substance, "by showing us a broad experience of power, rooted in the body, the nind, and the emotions, rather than the customary narrow interpretation that simply equates power with strength." (Hillman)
In The Terrible Love of War, James Hillman noted that, "During the 5,600 years of recorded history, 14,600 wars have been fought -- 2 to 3 for every year of human history. War is a constant thing. And yet no one really understands why that is." He described his antidotes in Kinds of Power: A Guide to its Intelligent Uses (1997).
It is no accident we find Ares and the other gods at the roots of our genealogical lines. Hillman drills down into myth, into religion, and into the soul’s basement where the most basic impulses to war is seething. He suggests we, "listen to the language of the media, with its lexicon of war, battle, fight, compete, win, loser—all of these words pointing to conquest."
We have not even begun to wake up to the complex and nuanced power of the god of war. Nation-states find war a normal presence. But there is a deeper mythic and religious intention behind the fog of war and its purpose. It deepens the values we hold.
In our imaginative engagement with conflict, we need to maintain the place of psyche in genealogical interpretations, not cutting off the mythic past from our narrative with the sword of rationality and evidence or proof. Equivalent images remain dormant in our psyches if we do not recognize and establish the sacred connection between the sacred figures and our own psyche.
There is an irrational reality beyond the radical honesty of rationalism. It preserves even as it deconstructs our cherished notions about the past and self. It makes our lines no less 'real,' but it deliteralizes them, emphasizing soul's meaning is deeper connection, with or without metaphysical assertions.
We suffer collectively if we cut off those connections and psychological truths from our conscious and spiritual lives. Myth remains the key to 'the art of seeing.' Psyche remains full of obscurities and unsolvable riddles which press against our weak and often dull comprehensions.
As Jung claims, "We do not devalue statements that originally were intended to be metaphysical when we demonstrate their psychic nature; on the contrary, we confirm their factual character.
"But, by treating them as psychic phenomena, we remove them from the inaccessible realm of metaphysics, about which nothing verifiable can be said, and this disposes of the impossible question as to whether they are "true" or not.
"We take our stand simply and solely on the facts, recognizing that the archetypal structure of the unconscious will produce, over and over again and irrespective of tradition, those figures which reappear in the history of all epochs and all peoples, and will endow them with the same significance and numinosity that have been theirs from the beginning." (CW 14, Para 558)
Genealogy opens us to emotional experience, often of both sides of any historical conflict, suggesting we have a personal connection or stake in them all, which as humans we naturally do. Genealogy -- real, confabulated, or imaginal -- is the basis of the whole western world, or at least its public face and rulership.
We always remain both perpetrators and victims of forces eternally greater than ourselves. The interaction of the divine and the soul remains an over-arching theme of humanity. The religious function itself is archetypal, and we continue to sacrifice at the altar of Ares in global conflict.
International quarrels are personified as the 'usual suspects', the characters and kings in the conflicting dramas of nation states, and identity, ethnicity, and power-struggle. Throughout most of European history, rulers battled with their own extended family members.
Whether we call that Ares/Mars, or not, it remains a living reality in international politics, as surely as anything passed to us all through the persistent legacy of the Roman Empire. Mars casts a very long shadow across individual and collective history. Only now, through the body and DNA itself, are we realizing we are multi-ethnic at the deepest level, and even contain other species of human, and less than human DNA.
Genealogy recognizes the malleability of history, marriage, and generation. It is a way of interacting and imagining beyond therapy or history, while maintaining the traceable and plausible family histories documented after the Domesday Book (William the Conqueror in 1086) through the 1500's when surnames were introduced. Genealogy marks the points where mythic thought ran headlong into religion and fundamentalism, and other systems of social control and engineering...Ares again. The conqueror still suggests, "I am in control because I am divine."
The Domesday Book marks the starting point of recorded history for most English villages and towns as organized by county. It is the first English census and provides a Middle Ages record of English social organization in the Anglo-Norman period. We still rely on census and civil records as the most reliable 'proofs' of descent, yet we often find family errors there, even in recent ancestry. Names and dates are shuffled according to the hearing and transcribing of census takers. Experts remind us, as a genealogical tool, even the Domesday Book's usefulness is limited.
The Domesday Book (or, colloquially, Domesday) is the expression used since the late twelfth century to refer to the record of the "Great Inquisition or Survey of the lands of England, their extent, value, ownership, and liabilities, made by order of William the Conqueror in 1086".[1] Two volumes survive in The National Archives: "Great Domesday" covers parts of Wales and most of modern England except for northern areas then under control of the then Kingdom of Scotland and "Little Domesday" which covers in more detail Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk.[2]
The Domesday Book is the starting point of recorded history for the majority of English villages and towns which are organized by county. This first English census, considered by some as the most remarkable administrative accomplishment of the Middle Ages, provides a record of English social organization in the Anglo-Norman period. As a genealogical tool, however, the Domesday Book's usefulness is limited.
Descent From Antiquity
Genealogy was used to support the claims to nobility of individual families, both to differentiate them from commoners and in rivalry with other families either within the same national group or outside it.
Always when such genealogies are recorded by Christian writers (e.g. Bede, Historia EcclesiasticaI 15), the gods that appear in them will have been interpreted euhemeristically, i.e. as great kings or heroes who came to be worshipped as gods after their deaths. Descent from such great and successful men would have been regarded as a claim to nobility, while heathen gods themselves could hardly have been regarded with anything but abhorrence. Since the gods in genealogies were considered to have been really mortals, there was moreover felt to be no inappropriateness in continuing the genealogical lists back beyond them, sometimes even as far as Noah and Adam.
Biblical genealogy encouraged medieval scholars to compile genealogies stretching back to the remote past. If genealogies were taken back to the gods in heathen times, they were presumably closely associated with the kind of legend that survives in the Eddic poems quoted above, and may have implied that those who could claim such descent were different from ordinary mortals. But if the gods were only introduced into genealogies after the coming of Christianity, then the euhemeristic interpretation of the gods must have preceded the construction of the genealogies. This latter view makes it easier to explain certain aspects of the extant genealogies, for instance the fact that many of them conflict with each other, so that there appears to have been no fixed tradition about the relationships of the gods and their human sons, and the even more striking fact that the family relationships of the gods in genealogies are very different from those they have in mythology.
It must be regarded as uncertain how common it was for genealogies in heathen times to go back to the gods, in Christian times it became almost universal. Some juxtapositions make for uncomfortable conflict both with the mythological tradition and historical plausibility. (Descent from the Gods)
Genealogy was used to support the claims to nobility of individual families, both to differentiate them from commoners and in rivalry with other families either within the same national group or outside it.
Always when such genealogies are recorded by Christian writers (e.g. Bede, Historia EcclesiasticaI 15), the gods that appear in them will have been interpreted euhemeristically, i.e. as great kings or heroes who came to be worshipped as gods after their deaths. Descent from such great and successful men would have been regarded as a claim to nobility, while heathen gods themselves could hardly have been regarded with anything but abhorrence. Since the gods in genealogies were considered to have been really mortals, there was moreover felt to be no inappropriateness in continuing the genealogical lists back beyond them, sometimes even as far as Noah and Adam.
Biblical genealogy encouraged medieval scholars to compile genealogies stretching back to the remote past. If genealogies were taken back to the gods in heathen times, they were presumably closely associated with the kind of legend that survives in the Eddic poems quoted above, and may have implied that those who could claim such descent were different from ordinary mortals. But if the gods were only introduced into genealogies after the coming of Christianity, then the euhemeristic interpretation of the gods must have preceded the construction of the genealogies. This latter view makes it easier to explain certain aspects of the extant genealogies, for instance the fact that many of them conflict with each other, so that there appears to have been no fixed tradition about the relationships of the gods and their human sons, and the even more striking fact that the family relationships of the gods in genealogies are very different from those they have in mythology.
It must be regarded as uncertain how common it was for genealogies in heathen times to go back to the gods, in Christian times it became almost universal. Some juxtapositions make for uncomfortable conflict both with the mythological tradition and historical plausibility. (Descent from the Gods)
Medieval Europe
Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Benedictine monk living in the 12th century AD, wrote a fabricated history of the kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae). In this history Britain is said to receive its name from Brutus, the first of its kings. According to him, Brutus was the son of Silvius and the grandson of Aeneas. While on a hunting trip with his father he accidentally shoots him and so flees Italy. First, Brutus goes to Greece and gathers Trojan companions who join him on his journey to Britain, where he takes the island from a race of giants.[58]
Benoît de Saint-Maure names Charlemagne as a descendant of the mythical Francus, thus linking the Plantagenet family to Aeneas.[59] Francus, like Aeneas, survived the destruction of Troy and traveled to find a new home. He installed a territory with other Trojans comprising the entire Rhine and the Danube and founded a powerful village named Sicambri.[60]
The ancient historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus is believed to have invented the Alban chronology to fill the gap of centuries between the fall of Troy and the founding of Rome. This could have been achieved by him taking the Roman history as it was, comparing it with the Greek, and inserting Greek Olympiads or Athenian archons.[61] This method would have made the Greek histories seem contemporary with the people and events in the Roman history of his time.
The names of the kings are often based on places around Rome, such as Tiberinus, Aventinus, Alba, and Capetus. Others are rationalizations of mythical figures, or pure inventions to provide notable ancestors for status-seeking families.[10] In the Aeneid, Virgil invents characters into living beings not unlike the heroes of Homer. The events described toward the end of the Aeneid were a nationalistic interpretation of perceived historical events in Roman history.[62] However, despite being a later invention, the Silvian house or gens Silvia, likely did exist.[63]
The pagan content of mythology was codified in the mid-fourteenth century Latin text by Giovanni Boccassio -- Genealogia deorum gentilium (1360), or, On the Genealogy of the Gods of the Gentiles. This is a mythography or encyclopedic compilation of the tangled family relationships of the classical pantheons of Ancient Greece and Rome.
In 1548 it was followed by another compilation of mythical genealogy by Giglio Gregorio Giraldi, De deis gentium, The Gods of the Nations, widely read in England and France. Such genealogies were linked to those of prospective medieval royals to justify their potency and divine right to rule. Reliability is irrelevant in this "as if" reality, but we need not take it literally to find meaning there.
When the Europeans converted to Christianity, a problem arose. Their royal families were only a few generations removed from the old gods. Further, exposed to Roman arts and sciences, they discovered the idea of “historical time.” The world was older than they had ever thought.
Their royal pedigrees weren’t long enough to go back to the creation of the world, so monks struggled to formulate lines to the gods, and back to Biblical Adam and Eve to legitimize their rulers. They would appeal to their ancient past for the right to rule.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Benedictine monk living in the 12th century AD, wrote a fabricated history of the kings of Britain (Historia Regum Britanniae). In this history Britain is said to receive its name from Brutus, the first of its kings. According to him, Brutus was the son of Silvius and the grandson of Aeneas. While on a hunting trip with his father he accidentally shoots him and so flees Italy. First, Brutus goes to Greece and gathers Trojan companions who join him on his journey to Britain, where he takes the island from a race of giants.[58]
Benoît de Saint-Maure names Charlemagne as a descendant of the mythical Francus, thus linking the Plantagenet family to Aeneas.[59] Francus, like Aeneas, survived the destruction of Troy and traveled to find a new home. He installed a territory with other Trojans comprising the entire Rhine and the Danube and founded a powerful village named Sicambri.[60]
The ancient historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus is believed to have invented the Alban chronology to fill the gap of centuries between the fall of Troy and the founding of Rome. This could have been achieved by him taking the Roman history as it was, comparing it with the Greek, and inserting Greek Olympiads or Athenian archons.[61] This method would have made the Greek histories seem contemporary with the people and events in the Roman history of his time.
The names of the kings are often based on places around Rome, such as Tiberinus, Aventinus, Alba, and Capetus. Others are rationalizations of mythical figures, or pure inventions to provide notable ancestors for status-seeking families.[10] In the Aeneid, Virgil invents characters into living beings not unlike the heroes of Homer. The events described toward the end of the Aeneid were a nationalistic interpretation of perceived historical events in Roman history.[62] However, despite being a later invention, the Silvian house or gens Silvia, likely did exist.[63]
The pagan content of mythology was codified in the mid-fourteenth century Latin text by Giovanni Boccassio -- Genealogia deorum gentilium (1360), or, On the Genealogy of the Gods of the Gentiles. This is a mythography or encyclopedic compilation of the tangled family relationships of the classical pantheons of Ancient Greece and Rome.
In 1548 it was followed by another compilation of mythical genealogy by Giglio Gregorio Giraldi, De deis gentium, The Gods of the Nations, widely read in England and France. Such genealogies were linked to those of prospective medieval royals to justify their potency and divine right to rule. Reliability is irrelevant in this "as if" reality, but we need not take it literally to find meaning there.
When the Europeans converted to Christianity, a problem arose. Their royal families were only a few generations removed from the old gods. Further, exposed to Roman arts and sciences, they discovered the idea of “historical time.” The world was older than they had ever thought.
Their royal pedigrees weren’t long enough to go back to the creation of the world, so monks struggled to formulate lines to the gods, and back to Biblical Adam and Eve to legitimize their rulers. They would appeal to their ancient past for the right to rule.
The Franks
Later monks, perhaps competing for prestige with the Franks, decided to dump Noah and take Woden’s ancestry back to Troy, then connect the Trojans to the Jewish scriptures. The Grandes Chroniques de France (13th - 15th centuries), a vast compilation of historic material, refers to the Trojan origins of the French dynasty, but modern DNA testing shows no Middle Eastern ethnicity in the Merovingians.
Frankish monks linked Francus to the kings of Troy. The Chronicle of Fredegar (7th century) mentions the legend. It was elaborated in the Liber historiae Francorum (probably 727). Successive generations continued adding new details.
The Franks claimed to be the distant cousins of the Romans, who claimed descent from the Trojan, Aeneas. This political propaganda fit nicely with two things the Franks needed to emphasize: (1) their equality as cousins of the Romans, and (2) their legitimate succession to the Roman empire through that bloodline connection.
In 1541, Johannes Trithemius compiled De origine gentis Francorum. describing the Frankish ancestors as originally Trojans. They were called "Sicambers" or "Sicambrians" after the fall of Troy. They were forced into Gaul after being expelled from the mouth of the Danube by the Goth invasion in 439 BCE (1:33). He recounts each of these kings and their battles with Gauls, Goths and Saxons—including Francus (43:76), the Franks' namesake.
To have soul is the whole venture of life, for soul is a life-giving daemon who plays his elfin game above and be low human existence, for which reason—in the realm of dogma—he is threatened and propitiated with superhuman punishments and blessings that go far beyond the possible deserts of human beings. Heaven and hell are the fates meted out to the soul and not to civilized man, who in his nakedness and timidity would have no idea of what to do with himself in a heavenly Jerusalem. Carl Jung, CW 9i, Para 56
Later monks, perhaps competing for prestige with the Franks, decided to dump Noah and take Woden’s ancestry back to Troy, then connect the Trojans to the Jewish scriptures. The Grandes Chroniques de France (13th - 15th centuries), a vast compilation of historic material, refers to the Trojan origins of the French dynasty, but modern DNA testing shows no Middle Eastern ethnicity in the Merovingians.
Frankish monks linked Francus to the kings of Troy. The Chronicle of Fredegar (7th century) mentions the legend. It was elaborated in the Liber historiae Francorum (probably 727). Successive generations continued adding new details.
The Franks claimed to be the distant cousins of the Romans, who claimed descent from the Trojan, Aeneas. This political propaganda fit nicely with two things the Franks needed to emphasize: (1) their equality as cousins of the Romans, and (2) their legitimate succession to the Roman empire through that bloodline connection.
In 1541, Johannes Trithemius compiled De origine gentis Francorum. describing the Frankish ancestors as originally Trojans. They were called "Sicambers" or "Sicambrians" after the fall of Troy. They were forced into Gaul after being expelled from the mouth of the Danube by the Goth invasion in 439 BCE (1:33). He recounts each of these kings and their battles with Gauls, Goths and Saxons—including Francus (43:76), the Franks' namesake.
To have soul is the whole venture of life, for soul is a life-giving daemon who plays his elfin game above and be low human existence, for which reason—in the realm of dogma—he is threatened and propitiated with superhuman punishments and blessings that go far beyond the possible deserts of human beings. Heaven and hell are the fates meted out to the soul and not to civilized man, who in his nakedness and timidity would have no idea of what to do with himself in a heavenly Jerusalem. Carl Jung, CW 9i, Para 56
British Royal Descent from Woden
One of the earliest British attempts to create genealogy linked to antiquity is the Historia Brittonum by the 9th century Welsh monk Nennius, who recorded the following Biblical genealogy root:
(1) Noah, his son (2) Japheth, his son (3) Joham, his son (4) Jobath, his son (5) Bath, his son (6) Hisrau, his son (7) Esraa, his son (8) Ra, his son (9) Aber, his son (10) Ooth, his son (11) Ethec, his son (12) Aurthack, his son (13) Ecthactur, his son (14) Ecthactur, his son (15) Mair, his son (16) Semion, his son (17) Boibus, his son (18) Thoi, his son (19) Ogomuin, his son (20) Fethuir, and his son (21) Alanus.
Nennius then tied Alanus to Rome by making him a husband of Rhea Silvia, whose twin sons Romulus and Remus are said to have founded Rome in 753 BCE. The spurious connection is historically inaccurate, but allowed grafting ancestors of the northern Europeans onto classical tradition by making them brothers of Romulus, the alleged ancestor of the Romans.
Though problematical, the commonly used list for the descent of British kings from Woden through the Hebrews and Trojan kings is the following:
(1) Judah, ancestor of the tribe of Judah, his son (2) Zara, his son (3) Darda, his son (4) Erichthonious, his son (5) Tros, his son (6) Ilus, his son (7) Laomedon, his son (8) Tithonius, his son (9) Memnon, his son (10) Thor, his son (11) Einridi, his son (12) Vingethor, his son (13) Vingener, his son (14) Móda, his son (15) Magi [Noe], his son (16) Sceaf [Seskef], his son (17) Bedwig [Bedvig], his son (18) Hwala, his son (19) Hrathra [Annarr], his son (20) Itermon [Ítermann], his son (21) Heremod [Heremód], his son (22) Heremod [Heremód], his son (23) Beaw [Bjárr], his son (24) Tætwa, his son (25) Geat [Ját], his son (26) Godwulf [Gudólfr], his son (27) Finn, his son (28) Frithuwulf, his son (29) Frealaf [Fridleifr], his son Frealaf [Fridleifr], his son (30) Freawine, his son (31) Frithuwald, and his son (32) Woden, descent through Vikings to William "Longsword."
One of the earliest British attempts to create genealogy linked to antiquity is the Historia Brittonum by the 9th century Welsh monk Nennius, who recorded the following Biblical genealogy root:
(1) Noah, his son (2) Japheth, his son (3) Joham, his son (4) Jobath, his son (5) Bath, his son (6) Hisrau, his son (7) Esraa, his son (8) Ra, his son (9) Aber, his son (10) Ooth, his son (11) Ethec, his son (12) Aurthack, his son (13) Ecthactur, his son (14) Ecthactur, his son (15) Mair, his son (16) Semion, his son (17) Boibus, his son (18) Thoi, his son (19) Ogomuin, his son (20) Fethuir, and his son (21) Alanus.
Nennius then tied Alanus to Rome by making him a husband of Rhea Silvia, whose twin sons Romulus and Remus are said to have founded Rome in 753 BCE. The spurious connection is historically inaccurate, but allowed grafting ancestors of the northern Europeans onto classical tradition by making them brothers of Romulus, the alleged ancestor of the Romans.
Though problematical, the commonly used list for the descent of British kings from Woden through the Hebrews and Trojan kings is the following:
(1) Judah, ancestor of the tribe of Judah, his son (2) Zara, his son (3) Darda, his son (4) Erichthonious, his son (5) Tros, his son (6) Ilus, his son (7) Laomedon, his son (8) Tithonius, his son (9) Memnon, his son (10) Thor, his son (11) Einridi, his son (12) Vingethor, his son (13) Vingener, his son (14) Móda, his son (15) Magi [Noe], his son (16) Sceaf [Seskef], his son (17) Bedwig [Bedvig], his son (18) Hwala, his son (19) Hrathra [Annarr], his son (20) Itermon [Ítermann], his son (21) Heremod [Heremód], his son (22) Heremod [Heremód], his son (23) Beaw [Bjárr], his son (24) Tætwa, his son (25) Geat [Ját], his son (26) Godwulf [Gudólfr], his son (27) Finn, his son (28) Frithuwulf, his son (29) Frealaf [Fridleifr], his son Frealaf [Fridleifr], his son (30) Freawine, his son (31) Frithuwald, and his son (32) Woden, descent through Vikings to William "Longsword."
Roma, Museo d. civiltà romana - Sarcofago Mattei Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto, 12-Apr-2008.jpg Museo della civiltà romana a Roma (Eur) - Room 6 (Origins of Rome) # 6 - Cast of the "Sarcofago Mattei" (dating from around 220 AD), whose relief shows Mars about to rape Rhea Silvia. The original artwork is divided between the Vatican Museums (flanks) and Palazzo Mattei Palace (front).
Picture by Giovanni Dall'Orto, April 12 2008.
The copyright holder of this file allows anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright holder is properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work, commercial use, and all other use is permitted.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:0453_-_Roma,_Museo_d._civilt%C3%A0_romana_-_Sarcofago_Mattei_Foto_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto,_12-Apr-2008.jpg
Picture by Giovanni Dall'Orto, April 12 2008.
The copyright holder of this file allows anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright holder is properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work, commercial use, and all other use is permitted.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:0453_-_Roma,_Museo_d._civilt%C3%A0_romana_-_Sarcofago_Mattei_Foto_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto,_12-Apr-2008.jpg
REFERENCES
Ancelin Schützenberger A., (1998). The Ancestor Syndrome: Transgenerational Psychotherapy and the Hidden Links in the Family Tree. London: Routledge.
Dalai Lama, The Reality of War, http://www.dalailama.com/messages/world-peace/the-reality-of-war
Faulkes, Anthony, Descent From the Gods
http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Descent-from-the-gods.pdf
Homer, (1999), The Iliad & The Odyssey, Barnes & Noble Books
Prof. Franco Livorsi, "Psyche and history"
Miller, Iona, (2016), Ancestors & Archetypes, http://ancestorsandarchetypes.weebly.com/
Miller, Iona, (2015), Jungian Genealogy, http://jungiangenealogy.weebly.com/
Seznec, Jean The Survival of the Pagan Gods: The Mythological Tradition and Its Place in ..., Bollingen, https://books.google.com/books?id=YOISgWIQE7AC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Ares myths - http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/AresMyths.html
Rowland, Susan, PhD, Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies Vol.3, No. 1, 2007,
"Writing about War: Jung, Much Ado About Nothing, and the Troy novels of Lindsay Clarke"
Vergil, The Aeneid of Virgil, (Bantam Classics) Reissue Edition,
Ancelin Schützenberger A., (1998). The Ancestor Syndrome: Transgenerational Psychotherapy and the Hidden Links in the Family Tree. London: Routledge.
Dalai Lama, The Reality of War, http://www.dalailama.com/messages/world-peace/the-reality-of-war
Faulkes, Anthony, Descent From the Gods
http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Descent-from-the-gods.pdf
Homer, (1999), The Iliad & The Odyssey, Barnes & Noble Books
Prof. Franco Livorsi, "Psyche and history"
Miller, Iona, (2016), Ancestors & Archetypes, http://ancestorsandarchetypes.weebly.com/
Miller, Iona, (2015), Jungian Genealogy, http://jungiangenealogy.weebly.com/
Seznec, Jean The Survival of the Pagan Gods: The Mythological Tradition and Its Place in ..., Bollingen, https://books.google.com/books?id=YOISgWIQE7AC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Ares myths - http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/AresMyths.html
Rowland, Susan, PhD, Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies Vol.3, No. 1, 2007,
"Writing about War: Jung, Much Ado About Nothing, and the Troy novels of Lindsay Clarke"
Vergil, The Aeneid of Virgil, (Bantam Classics) Reissue Edition,
Iona Miller is a nonfiction writer for the academic and popular press, clinical hypnotherapist (ACHE) and multimedia artist. Her work is an omni-sensory fusion of intelligence, science-art, new physics, symbolism, source mysticism, futuring, and emergent paradigm shift, creating a unique viewpoint. She is interested in extraordinary human potential and experience, and the EFFECTS of doctrines of religion, science, psychology, and the arts. She serves on the Advisory Boards of Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research, DNA Decipher Journal, and Scientific God Journal, as well as the Board of Directors of Medigrace, Inc. & Calm Birth; a Miami-based Integral Medicine institute; and the Editorial Board of CRAFT (Community Resilience through Action for Future Transitions). She has served as a Dame and Senechal in heritage societies.
Ms. Miller is published by Phanes Press, Destiny Books (Inner Traditions), Autonomedia, Nexus Magazine, Paranoia Magazine, Alchemy Journal, Green Egg, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Jungian Analysis Journal (Moscow), ECODITION (Geneva), DNA Decipher Journal (DNADJ), Scientific God Journal (SGJ), Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research (JCER), Journal of Nonlocality & Remote Mental Interactions (JNLRMI), Science-Art Research Centre Australia (SARCA), Dream Network, Chaosophy Journal, OAK-Publishing, PM&E, DNA Monthly, Antibothis, Pop Occulture, and more.
Ms. Miller is published by Phanes Press, Destiny Books (Inner Traditions), Autonomedia, Nexus Magazine, Paranoia Magazine, Alchemy Journal, Green Egg, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Jungian Analysis Journal (Moscow), ECODITION (Geneva), DNA Decipher Journal (DNADJ), Scientific God Journal (SGJ), Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research (JCER), Journal of Nonlocality & Remote Mental Interactions (JNLRMI), Science-Art Research Centre Australia (SARCA), Dream Network, Chaosophy Journal, OAK-Publishing, PM&E, DNA Monthly, Antibothis, Pop Occulture, and more.
Virgil stresses Aeneas' devotion to his purpose: the founding of Rome.
The Aeneid, then, like the Odyssey, is a quest book: Odysseus has to overcome obstacles in order to return home safely, and Aeneas is struggling to fulfill the command of the gods that he establish a home for the Trojans in Italy.
There are powerful and related similarities and differences between the two men: Odysseus, as we saw, had to be purged of his war spirit and turned again into a father and a husband; Aeneas has to be purged of all of his attributes as a man in order to be turned into a god, the divine ancestor of Augustus Caesar.
Odysseus chooses humanity; Aeneas chooses divinity.
Kalypso offers Odysseus eternal life if he stays with her on the island; when he leaves her, he is choosing humanity over a godlike condition. It is important to remember that in the early stages of Greek religion heroes became gods, hero-gods.
Aeneas must steer his own way to godhood, and no other human being can help him do this. The personal vision of Aeneas must be replaced by a spiritual vision, and the individual must be subordinate to the vision.
http://legacy.owensboro.kctcs.edu/crunyon/e261c/08-Virgil/QuestMission.html
The Aeneid, then, like the Odyssey, is a quest book: Odysseus has to overcome obstacles in order to return home safely, and Aeneas is struggling to fulfill the command of the gods that he establish a home for the Trojans in Italy.
There are powerful and related similarities and differences between the two men: Odysseus, as we saw, had to be purged of his war spirit and turned again into a father and a husband; Aeneas has to be purged of all of his attributes as a man in order to be turned into a god, the divine ancestor of Augustus Caesar.
Odysseus chooses humanity; Aeneas chooses divinity.
Kalypso offers Odysseus eternal life if he stays with her on the island; when he leaves her, he is choosing humanity over a godlike condition. It is important to remember that in the early stages of Greek religion heroes became gods, hero-gods.
Aeneas must steer his own way to godhood, and no other human being can help him do this. The personal vision of Aeneas must be replaced by a spiritual vision, and the individual must be subordinate to the vision.
http://legacy.owensboro.kctcs.edu/crunyon/e261c/08-Virgil/QuestMission.html
Myth of the dragon Hedammu
http://compmyth.org/static/Robert.D.Miller.IACM.5th.Conference.Strasbourg.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumarbi
Kumarbi is the chief god of the Hurrians. He is the son of Anu (the sky), and father of the storm-god Teshub. He was identified by the Hurrians with Sumerian Enlil, and by the Ugaritians with El.
Kumarbi is known from a number of mythological Hittite texts, sometimes summarized under the term "Kumarbi Cycle". These texts notably include the myth of The Kingship in Heaven (also known as the Song of Kumarbi, or the "Hittite Theogony", CTH 344), the Song of Ullikummi (CTH 345),[1] the Kingship of the God KAL (CTH 343), the Myth of the dragon Hedammu (CTH 348), the Song of Silver (CTH 364).
The Kingship in HeavenThe Song of Kumarbi or Kingship in Heaven is the title given to a Hittite version of the Hurrian Kumarbi myth, dating to the 14th or 13th century BC. It is preserved in three tablets, but only a small fraction of the text is legible.
In another version of the Kingship in Heaven, the three gods, Alalu, Anu, and Kumarbi, rule heaven, each serving the one who precedes him in the nine-year reign. It is Kumarbi's son Tešub, the Weather-God, who begins to conspire to overthrow his father.[3]
From the first publication of the Kingship in Heaven tablets[4] scholars have pointed out the similarities between the Hurrian creation myth and the story from Greek mythology of Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus.[5]
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sitchin/guerradioses/guerradioses05a.htm
https://www.google.com/search?q=modern&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=Myth+of+the+dragon+Hedammu
1250 BC Hurrian-Hittite myth of the storm god Teshub's defeat of the dragon Hedammu. Here the dragon is seduced by the goddess Sauska with music [again], .
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sitchin/guerradioses/guerradioses05a.htm
HISTORIC AGES OF ANATOLIA
PALEOLITHIC AGE - Early Stone Age ( 600000 - 10000 B.C.)
MESOLITHIC AGE - Mid Stone Age ( 10000 - 8500 B.C.)
NEOLITHIC AGE - Late Stone Age ( 8500 - 5000 B.C.)
CALCOLITHIC AGE - Copper Age ( 5000 - 3000 B.C.)
BRONZE AGE ( 3000 - 2000 B.C.)
HATTI CIVILIZATION ( 2500 - 2000 B.C.)
TROY-II SETTLEMENT ( 2500 - 2000 B.C.)
HATTI and HITTITE PRINCIPALITIES PERIOD ( 2000 - 1750 B.C.)
GREAT HITTITE KINGDOM ( 1750 - 1200 B.C.)
HURRI CIVILIZATION
TROY-VI CIVILIZATION ( 1800 - 1275 B.C.)
AEGEAN MIGRATION AND INVASION FROM BALKANS ( 1200 B.C.)
THE ANATOLIAN PRINCIPALITIES DURING THE IRON AGE ( 1200 - 700 B.C.)
URARTU CIVILIZATION ( 900 - 600 B.C.)
THE CIVILIZATION OF PHRYGIA ( 750 - 300 B.C.)
LYDIA, CARIA and LYCIA CIVILIZATIONS ( 700 - 300 B.C.)
ION CIVILIZATION ( 1050 - 300 B.C.)
PERSIAN CONQUEST ( 545 - 333 B.C.)
HELLENISTIC and ROMAN AGE ( 333 B.C.-395 A.D.)
BYZANTINE CIVILIZATION ( 330 - 1453 A.D.)
SELJUK CIVILIZATION ( 1071 - 1300 A.D.)
OTTOMANS ( 1299 - 1923 A.D.)
http://compmyth.org/static/Robert.D.Miller.IACM.5th.Conference.Strasbourg.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumarbi
Kumarbi is the chief god of the Hurrians. He is the son of Anu (the sky), and father of the storm-god Teshub. He was identified by the Hurrians with Sumerian Enlil, and by the Ugaritians with El.
Kumarbi is known from a number of mythological Hittite texts, sometimes summarized under the term "Kumarbi Cycle". These texts notably include the myth of The Kingship in Heaven (also known as the Song of Kumarbi, or the "Hittite Theogony", CTH 344), the Song of Ullikummi (CTH 345),[1] the Kingship of the God KAL (CTH 343), the Myth of the dragon Hedammu (CTH 348), the Song of Silver (CTH 364).
The Kingship in HeavenThe Song of Kumarbi or Kingship in Heaven is the title given to a Hittite version of the Hurrian Kumarbi myth, dating to the 14th or 13th century BC. It is preserved in three tablets, but only a small fraction of the text is legible.
- tablet A. KUB 33.120 + KUB 33.119 + KUB 36.31 + KUB 48.97
- tablet B. KUB 36.1
- tablet C. KUB 48.97
In another version of the Kingship in Heaven, the three gods, Alalu, Anu, and Kumarbi, rule heaven, each serving the one who precedes him in the nine-year reign. It is Kumarbi's son Tešub, the Weather-God, who begins to conspire to overthrow his father.[3]
From the first publication of the Kingship in Heaven tablets[4] scholars have pointed out the similarities between the Hurrian creation myth and the story from Greek mythology of Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus.[5]
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sitchin/guerradioses/guerradioses05a.htm
https://www.google.com/search?q=modern&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=Myth+of+the+dragon+Hedammu
1250 BC Hurrian-Hittite myth of the storm god Teshub's defeat of the dragon Hedammu. Here the dragon is seduced by the goddess Sauska with music [again], .
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sitchin/guerradioses/guerradioses05a.htm
HISTORIC AGES OF ANATOLIA
PALEOLITHIC AGE - Early Stone Age ( 600000 - 10000 B.C.)
MESOLITHIC AGE - Mid Stone Age ( 10000 - 8500 B.C.)
NEOLITHIC AGE - Late Stone Age ( 8500 - 5000 B.C.)
CALCOLITHIC AGE - Copper Age ( 5000 - 3000 B.C.)
BRONZE AGE ( 3000 - 2000 B.C.)
HATTI CIVILIZATION ( 2500 - 2000 B.C.)
TROY-II SETTLEMENT ( 2500 - 2000 B.C.)
HATTI and HITTITE PRINCIPALITIES PERIOD ( 2000 - 1750 B.C.)
GREAT HITTITE KINGDOM ( 1750 - 1200 B.C.)
HURRI CIVILIZATION
TROY-VI CIVILIZATION ( 1800 - 1275 B.C.)
AEGEAN MIGRATION AND INVASION FROM BALKANS ( 1200 B.C.)
THE ANATOLIAN PRINCIPALITIES DURING THE IRON AGE ( 1200 - 700 B.C.)
URARTU CIVILIZATION ( 900 - 600 B.C.)
THE CIVILIZATION OF PHRYGIA ( 750 - 300 B.C.)
LYDIA, CARIA and LYCIA CIVILIZATIONS ( 700 - 300 B.C.)
ION CIVILIZATION ( 1050 - 300 B.C.)
PERSIAN CONQUEST ( 545 - 333 B.C.)
HELLENISTIC and ROMAN AGE ( 333 B.C.-395 A.D.)
BYZANTINE CIVILIZATION ( 330 - 1453 A.D.)
SELJUK CIVILIZATION ( 1071 - 1300 A.D.)
OTTOMANS ( 1299 - 1923 A.D.)
