The Moon Palace Narrative.
This is the story of disassociation and escaping from the brutality of an over-dominant father figure. This is a story about the “refusal of suitors” by his daughter which he unconsciously encourages. There is a special relationship between him and his daughter. Not necessarily sexual as we would assume today but psychically. There are agreements between them. These agreements while they are in force exclude outside relationships and the forming of alternate agreements.
This over-dominant father is not only the physical father but also the psychological dominant patriarchy of society and the Status-quo for all of us men and women. Yes men as well, because you are a male does not make you bulletproof from the indoctrination of the Status-Quo, rather, more is expected of you as a male to maintain the Status-Quo and check there is no backsliding by other males as Bell Hooks suggests.
Disassociation is a defense mechanism of the psyche to protect the Ego from being overwhelmed. The Ego’s job is the one of a warrior patrolling the boundaries of the psyche only allowing in what the emerging Ego can handle at any given time. This could also be seen as denial, but for me it’s not quite the same thing.
The moon Palace . The narrative.
Once upon a time, there was a mother and father who had a daughter. They live in a very cold country. In their old age it was very important that they have a young man in the family who will catch the food that they need to eat. The mother and the father were very concerned that their daughter did not have a young man in her life, and they wondered what would become of them in their old age.
The daughter, for her part, did not seem interested in the young men that were around the village. In fact, she found them quite stupid and generally unattractive. One day the young girl was walking along the tundra. What did she find on the ground? A head. She was amazed to see a Head lying there on the ground. It was obviously alive and so she began a conversation. They spoke for a short time or long time or for however long that takes. They had such a wonderful conversation that the girl decided to take the head home with her she bent down, picked up the head and put it under her arm. They went walking across the tundra talking together in this manner.
When she got home, the daughter took the head into her bedroom and they carried on their long conversation. Mother and father were in another part of the house, and they heard the conversation coming from the girl’s room. They smiled at each other for at last the daughter had brought a man home or so they thought.
The strange thing was that the daughter never introduced the man to the mother and father. The sounds of conversation came from their daughter’s bedroom, but they never saw the man neither did the daughter never mentioned him.
This went on for a short time or a long time or however long time that takes…
The father became so curious that one day when the daughter was out he went into her bedroom so he could meet this man. Can you imagine his surprise when on the pillow of her bed all he saw was a head? He became so enraged he went outside and seized his ice axe, came back into the bedroom, and struck the head in the eye with his axe. The narrative says that the head rolled off the bed, out of the bedroom, out of the house, across the ice, and into the ocean.
When the daughter came home, she went into her bedroom to talk to her head. When she got there, the head was missing, but a trail of blood told her what had happened. She raced out of the house following the trail of blood across the ice until she reached the ocean, she saw that the trail of blood led down to the depths of the ocean.
Without hesitation, she dived into the water and swam down to the bottom of the ocean, following the trail of blood. When she got to the bottom of the ocean she found a house. Inside she saw her Head sitting on the table, surrounded by her Head’s mother and father, sisters and brothers. All were all heads. She went inside and asked her head why he had left. He said, “your father hit me with an ice axe so I thought it was best I leave”. She asked him “please come back with me”. He replied,” I don’t think your father likes me very much so I don’t think that that’s a good idea”.
“What you should do is go back to your father and sort out this problem with him.” She replied, “if I can’t go back with you I won’t go back at all.” He spoke to her urgently now and he said to her “you must go back to your father. If you don’t go back to your father you’ll end up in the Moon Palace. Go back to your father. Don’t go straight up.” The girl said, “if you won’t come back with me, then I’m going to go straight up.” And so she did and she ended up in the Moon Palace.
The daughter stayed in the Moon Palace. For a short time or a long time or however long time that takes.
Then one day she was looking over the edge of the Moon Palace and she saw the young fishermen from the village in their boats, getting ready to go fishing. It was the custom in the village for the young men to offer a prayer before going out to fish. They would take a small cup and they would scoop up some water from the ocean and they would throw it high into the air. The one whose water reached up the highest point would have his prayer answered.
One young man threw his water so high it reached the outstretched hand of the young girl in the Moon Palace. She felt the wetness and the coldness of the water she felt the coldness of the water. She smelt the salt in the water and it brought back memories of food, and of fish. Of seals and of icy water. Of playing and of swimming, of boat rides and times with her mother and father when she was growing up. So she began to wonder about the people she had left behind then she began to wonder how she could get down from the Moon Palace. She asked around and was advised that the wise old woman of the Moon Palace would be able to help her.
She went to the wise old woman and asked her if there was any way that she could get down from the Moon Palace. The old woman said “this is not a difficulty take this rope here and throw it over the edge of the Moon Palace and let it down until it reaches the earth. Then you climb down the rope until you can see that you’re fairly close to the ground”.
“Now, this is the really important part. “At this point, you must close your eyes, and, when you feel the heat of the earth, that you’re just about to touch the ground you must let go of the rope and fall the last couple of meters to the ground. Have you got that?” “Oh yes” said the girl “That’s easy. Climb down the rope until I’m fairly close to the ground. Close my eyes. When I feel the ground coming up let go of the rope and fall the last couple of meters to the ground.
So, she took the rope and threw it over the edge and began to climb down a strange thing happened. As she began to climb down the houses and people the villages and the landscape that had all seemed so far away, now seemed quite close. She was so fascinated by what she saw that she forgot to close her eyes and fall the last couple of meters. As she touched the ground she turned into a spider. From that spider all the spiders in the world today are borne. That’s the end of the story called The Moon Palace and the beginning of the story for many of us.