Myth as Memory of the Singularity – Myth as the Collective Memory of Unity
Abstract
This essay explores the hypothesis that myth, far from being mere fiction or cultural artifact, functions as humanity’s collective and symbolic memory of an original unity — what mystics, philosophers, and metaphysicians have called the Singularity, the One, or the Ground of Being. Drawing upon depth psychology, comparative mythology, and esoteric traditions, including Platonic anamnesis, the Sufi imaginal realm, and Jung’s archetypes. We argue that myth encodes a primordial remembrance of undivided consciousness, which individuation necessarily veils. Through symbols, stories, and rituals, myth offers both a map back toward unity and a reminder of why separation was necessary. Myth, then, is not a fantasy of escape but a sacred recollection: an echo of the timeless within the flow of time.
Introduction
“We are a tale told by eternity to itself.” — adapted from ancient Gnostic thought
I. The Singularity: Before and Beyond Individuation
In metaphysical and mystical systems worldwide, there exists an idea of an original unity:
The One of Neoplatonism.
Brahman in Vedanta: the undivided, impersonal ground of being.
The Ain Soph of Kabbalah: infinite, formless light.
The Godhead beyond God in Christian mysticism (Meister Eckhart).
Before individuation, consciousness is not “someone”; it is pure awareness — timeless, spaceless, beyond language.
II. Myth as Anamnesis: Plato’s Theory of Recollection
Plato, in the Meno and Phaedo, suggests that learning is not acquiring new knowledge but remembering what the soul knew before embodiment — a process called anamnesis.
Myth functions similarly:
It is not history but memory: a symbolic remembering of truths obscured by time and embodiment.
Myths of origin, paradise, and cosmic unity are collective anamnesis — a shared longing to remember the One.
Joseph Campbell, in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, describes myth as:
"The secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation."
Myth keeps alive the memory of what precedes separation.
III. Jung, Archetypes, and the Collective Unconscious
Carl Jung proposed that beneath individual consciousness lies the collective unconscious:
A reservoir of shared symbols and archetypes.
Not inherited ideas, but structures of possibility shaping how humans experience reality.
The archetype of the Great Mother, for instance, symbolises both literal mothers and the deeper matrix: the undivided ground from which all emerge.
Dreams, visions, and myths all draw from this unconscious memory of unity.
IV. The Sufi Imaginal Realm: Memory Between Worlds
Henry Corbin introduced the concept of the mundus imaginalis — the imaginal realm (‘alam al-mithāl):
Neither material nor purely mental.
An intermediate world where symbols live with ontological reality.
V. Universal Themes as Fractured Memory
Across cultures, certain mythic themes recur:
Paradise Lost: Eden, Dilmun, the Golden Age — a time when humanity lived in harmony.
The Cosmic Egg or Tree: symbols of undivided origin.
The Fall: individuation and knowledge bringing separation.
The Return or Union: quests to recover lost wholeness.
These are not historical events but symbolic memory structures, reminders of the journey from unity into multiplicity, and the longing to return.
VI. Myth as Map and Medicine
Myth not only remembers; it guides:
Offering maps for re-integrating the lost parts of the psyche.
Providing meaning in the face of fragmentation.
As Mircea Eliade writes in The Myth of the Eternal Return:
"Myth preserves the memory of the primordial moment when the world came into being, and by ritually returning to this moment, humanity renews itself."
Thus, myth keeps the memory alive, not as escape, but as renewal.
VII. The Paradox: Forgetting is Also Necessary
If the memory of unity were complete, individuation could not stand:
Consciousness would dissolve back into the singularity.
The dance of relationship, story, and creation would end.
Myth preserves just enough memory to orient us, without collapsing us back into undifferentiated being.
VIII. Living Mythically: Remembering and Creating
To live mythically is to hold:
The memory of unity (we are one),
The reality of separation (we are many),
And the creative tension between them.
Storytelling, ritual, and symbol become acts of active remembrance: keeping alive the echo of where we came from.
Myth then becomes not nostalgia, but a generative force: helping us become conscious participants in the unfolding of being.
Conclusion
Myth is the collective dream of humanity but deeper still, it is our symbolic memory of the Singularity from which we came.
Through symbols, archetypes, and shared narratives, myth keeps alive the echo of unity, guiding us through the paradox of being separate selves who never fully left the One.
“Myth remembers what the mind forgets: that before we were ‘I’, we were.”
Myth, then, is not fiction: it is the hidden memory that shapes our becoming.
Bibliography / Works Cited (by title & author):
Primary & mythological:
The Hero with a Thousand Faces — Joseph Campbell
The Power of Myth — Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers
The Myth of the Eternal Return — Mircea Eliade
The Gnostic Gospels — Elaine Pagels
The Upanishads — Various authors
The Bhagavad Gita — Various authors
The Tao Te Ching — Lao Tzu
Philosophical & metaphysical:
Phaedo and Meno — Plato
Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn Arabi — Henry Corbin
The Imaginal Realm — Henry Corbin
The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious — Carl Gustav Jung
Man and His Symbols — Carl Gustav Jung
Memories, Dreams, Reflections — Carl Gustav Jung
Supporting & cultural:
The Book of Symbols — Taschen (editorial collective)
Myth and Reality — Mircea Eliade
The Red Book — Carl Gustav Jung
The Perennial Philosophy — Aldous Huxley
The Secret Teachings of All Ages — Manly P. Hall
See Also:
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