Review of

The Maiden King: The Reunion of Masculine and Feminine
by Robert Bly and Marion Woodman

Element Books, Shaftesbury, 1999
ISBN 1 86204 576 3
xx + 265 pp
£16.99

Review by Chris Clarke - to appear in Network.

"Unless we recognise the power of the unconscious to sabotage our conscious endeavors, we can change nothing," writes Marion Woodman. So this book stands as a contribution to helping that recognition: not, as some of the early analysts wished, by trying to forcibly colonise the unconscious, but by establishing bridges for two-way traffic between ego-consciousness and the unconscious. Once bridges are opened then the ego can settle down as one component in a Whole that remains a mystery to merely rational thought. Then the ego can participate in integration¾ of both self and planet, for these are inextricable.

The authors see the primary part of integration as that of the masculine and feminine, and principally between the masculine and feminine parts of each person. Integration at this level then impinges on all humna relationships: "When two people are together," writes Robert Bly, "there are really four, so the attractions can happen many ways …" And Marion Woodman adds that "As complemnetary energies, masculinity and femininity require each other for natural balance in relationships. A wek feminine in men produces a distorted, one-sided masculine¾ the miltarist, the corporate robot; a weak masculine in women produces a distorted, one-sided feminine¾ the baby doll, who pretends to be everything any man imagines her to be, or a Gorgon, who reduces others to stone."

Their vehicle, the framework for the book, as a story (a traditional bridge with the unconscious). Each author writes their commentary, and they conclude with a brief comparative dialogue. To abbreviate the start of the story:

In a certain land, in a certain kingdom, lived a boy called Ivan. His mother had died, his Father had left on business, and Ivan was in the charge of a stepmother and a tutor. One day, Ivan and the tutor were out fishing when 30 ships sailed to meet them. They carried the Maiden Tsar and her 30 foster-sisters. The Maiden Tsar loved Ivan passionately, and they were betrothed. But the stepmother discovered this, and gave the tutor a pin which, inserted in Ivan’s collar, would make him fall asleep. Three more times the 30 ships arrived, and each time the tutor sent Ivan to sleep. So the Maiden Tsar returned to her land, but left Ivan a letter telling of the journey he would now need to make in order to reach her …

"That’s the way it goes," continues Bly. "Does the human being have the stamina to meet the Divine on the human plane? Can a young man truly stay in touch with the ecstatic force of the feminine?" And what of the tutor, the instrument of this falling asleep? The image "leads us to speculate about the part the American education system plays in the deep sleep that seems to be falling on high school students today."

Robert Bly operates in story telling mode, expanding on the metaphors of the original, adding parallels, elborating its details. Marion Woodman is more analytic, offering psychological interpretation and exploring more explicitly the underground forces operating in society. Among other examples, she gives a fascinating analysis of the longing for redemptive reintegration of the feminine that found projective expression in the emotions surrounding the death of Princess Diana. Between them they present a rounded view of the journey that will end in the uniting within "Ivan," within society, of the masculine and feminine; a journey to be made by each one of us, plunged into sleep by a pin that severs the head-intellect from the wisdom of the body.

Healing of these deeply rooted dis-eases is not achieved by a single plan for society or a single revelation to the self. A myth is not for telling once, but for repeating over and over again, at each season and to each generation. This book is just such a retelling; it speaks precisely to this present moment; it needs to be read.