| The purpose of this work is to examine the soul and its primary archetypal movement---the movement that I am calling leave taking---in literature, poetry, mythology, and depth psychology. Often researchers and writers in these fields speak of leave-taking only in terms of its unpleasant consequences and emotions---the sequelae of, among other leavings, illness and death, grief, divorce, separation, and isolation. Few seem to have noticed that there might be something in the partings and separations---the leave-takings---themselves that is soulful and soul-building, archetypal, and pregnant with meaning if only the leavings could be held more gently, examined and followed, rather than seen as problems to solve or surmount.; I have called this movement leave-taking, because it is as if the soul is always, and in all ways, drawing oneself away from a place of physical and/or emotional comfort, clement familiarity, relative safety, and instead plunging one into situations filled with potentially great risk, terrible psychic danger, and utter confusion. To leave one place for another is to leave the known and the comprehended for the unknown and the never dreamt of. The leave-taking movement of the soul virtually defines life and living, in fact leaving the safety and comfort of the womb is the first activity of a life in the world, the first experience any of us has of our elemental nature, of our humanness. One's birth is simply the first egress of a lifetime littered with leavings.; In this work I will examine some of the more persistent and enduring ideas about the qualities of soul, and examples of the soul's connection to leave-taking will be interposed. An examination of the leave-taking dynamic present in depth psychology, mythology, and literature will follow and help to demonstrate the ubiquitous, embedded nature of leave-taking in these areas of human concern.; Finally, I have composed a small volume of original poetry to accompany the theoretical portion of this work, which approaches the theme of leave-taking in ways both explicit and implicit. |
