Clearly the prevailing mythologies—personal and cultural—are no longer serving us. We are not isolated, independent individuals, and our healing cannot be sustained in isolation from others, nor in face of the prevailing cultural myths that shape the very depths of our being, our behaviors, and attitudes. The sustainable healing of the inner child requires our looking beyond our personal wounding to the larger context in which that wounding occurs. Framing our personal wounding within the context of our mythology—personal and cultural—offers a profound means of doing this. It allows us to get some distance from our wounding, so that we can recognize it as simply a wound, and not the whole of our being. While it may be difficult to ever fully heal our wounds, we can create new mythologies, new contexts in which to view and engage with our wounds as gateways to transformation.

To be aware of living mythically is to understand your life as an unfolding drama whose meaning is larger than your day-to-day concerns. It is to nurture a ripening appreciation of your cultural and ancestral roots. To live mythically is to seek guidance from your dreams and imagination, and other reflections of your inner being, as well as from the most inspiring people, practices and institutions of your society. To live mythically is also to cultivate an ever-deepening relationship with the universe and its great mysteries. —D. Feinstein and S. Krippner, Personal Mythology

It is through our personal mythology that we interpret the past, understand the present, and find guidance for the future. It is a lens through which we organize our experience. It is influenced by early childhood experiences, accumulating daily experiences, prevailing societal norms, and visions that arise from our unconscious.

As long as we are unaware of our mythology, it carries us blindly on its way. As we become aware of our personal mythology and that of our culture, we can begin to recognize the myriad ways in which we blindly follow beliefs and images inherited from our family and culture that are no longer serving us and turn instead towards trusting the creative guidance of our own inner world in interaction with the outer. We are then consciously participating in the evolution of our mythology, the healing of our deepest wounds. As we change a guiding myth, we change our perceptions, feelings, behaviors.

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