Mourning Becomes Her: Dark Archetypal Exploration into the Genesis of an Era

Abstract

The purpose of this historical-humanistic hermeneutic inquiry is to explore the psychological and cultural emergence of the head huntress of the Holy Scriptures, Salome, daughter of Herodias, princess of Judea, as evidenced through the Modern era circumscribed by the turn of the 20th century, showcasing the lives and creative output of Oscar Wilde and C. G. Jung. Both subjects are distinguished through their subjective alliance with the dark goddess archetype and the decadent culture that bore her. This journey portends to reveal the chthonic and veiled feminine aspects of their psychogenic associations. Within a fantasy of opposites, the Jungian tradition suggests that Anima becomes the carrier and image of wholeness, both psychologically and biologically. She is first encountered through the dream figures, emotions, symptomatic complaints, obsessive fantasies, and projection of Western men. The dark goddess in the guise of archetype, anima, maximal persona, or shadow is recognized to be all of these things and more. This study modified from a historical examination of reorganizing times into the subjective experience of the Salome narrative, of Oscar Wilde, C. G. Jung, and including this researcher. Commonalties marshaled their own agendas to the forefront pertaining to relationship, emotional upheaval, as well as posttraumatic injury sourced through family histories. Trauma as toxin revealed an antidote within the soul work of Donald Kalsched and others, examining the effects upon the body, brain, and psyche—a sentient transposition into consciousness.