The Mystical Marriage. Chapter 26 And they lived happily ever after.
Here is an audio file of us dealing with the final Chapter of Iron John. The Mystical wedding. The destination of the whole story, and “They lived happily ever after”.
The Mystical Marriage is the story ending we all remember, with those most annoying fairy tale words “and they lived happily ever after” This phrase in itself is enough to give these stories bad press and good reason not to perhaps take them seriously. As we live in a very literal world and as we lose our connection with nature we are no longer as familiar with metaphor. We miss the deep truth of that line. Possibly a good thing too, as the intellectuals and lawmakers completely ignored these stories so they were handed down to us almost intact although the influence of 2000 years of Christianity modified some of them.
I have made rather a big thing of this Mystical Marriage and here is why. This marriage describes the union between the Soul and Ego. The soul being the bride and the groom the Ego. I have used a capital E for Ego as I am treating it as a proper noun to give Ego its proper place and respect, especially if a marriage of equals is to take place. To understand our Ego’s journey starting at birth we need to view that life experience with some perspective and a lot of self-compassion.
Not like the fish that came home from school as asked his mom hey mom what’s this I learnt about water? Mum’s response was, “shut up and drink your beer”. We are often not aware of the waters we swim in and take a huge amount for granted.
Because these stories deal in metaphor we are all the hero the Ego of these stories, you and me. While it may seem that stories deal with an external person, it is because we can relate to the Hero outside of ourselves through projection the story can take us on a journey into the other world. It is souls’ ability to relate that constantly drives the story forward both in the narrative and in our own lives. Projection being our first encounter with our own Shadow and other people’s Shadow.
This is where it gets tricky, in the royal wedding that we were collectively so interested in, is a metaphor for the Mystical marriage. To labor the point why were we and the whole of the western world so fascinated and invested in this wedding? Di’s face only had to appear on magazines cover to ensure sales. I believe it’s because we have a memory of this wedding from the other world, another time, and the promise of “and they lived happily ever after”. Marriage they say is a failed institution, so why do we keep doing it, some inner drive keeps offering us the promise?! “And they lived happily ever after” Soul the Iron John story tells is waiting patiently for its lover to return to the enormous forest, to be reunited like the Hunters who never returned to Castle Quo. To approach the iron cage that binds the Wildman with the stolen key and release our Soul in the form of the lost Golden ball. The Golden ball is our birthright which we traded for the apparent security of the status quo. What a terrible but necessary bargain.
“We do not go quietly into that good night.” What if? all those love songs That teenagers love so much were not about people but raging against the loss of our own Soul? The loss of our golden ball. Listen to this Barry White song from that point of view.
What if? all the anger surely passive-aggressive behavior of teenagers is the last stand against the status quo and the observed hypocrisy of the whole status quo system. Parents, teachers, schools, politicians, universities, the military, and the police. And the corruption of that whole system.
What if? The memory of our own denied Soul and the angst of willingly cutting away from ourselves to accept the bargain of the status quo. Fuels deep-seated anger and rage. Our daily newspapers report on the effect of this rage on communities, businesses, trust in institutions, and violence against women and children.
What bargain? Give up your Soul, give up your independence, give up your rights, be obedient, and conform. We will tell you where to work, what work to do, who to marry, and how many children to have, the status quo will keep you safe, create your reality through our belief systems, offer the carrot of status and wealth, and show you the stick of not conforming by removing privileges. We the Status quo will keep you safe from everything except death, which we won’t talk about.
The journey to the royal wedding is a long and arduous one from the Castle quo, our Ego has to go through many transformations before it is ready to be first a King and then a bridegroom. The stories on this site and in particular Iron John deal with that journey and lays out the steps and processes the Heroic Ego needs to take. For movies, plays, books, theater, and some stories sometimes only deal with part of the journey, especially those that end in death. death in a story is not a physical death and only indicates the initiation process failed before completion.
In these stories, the bridegroom is the inner King, becoming king is not easy and we know our love will wait for us. In the story of the Maiden Zar or the pin, she, our Soul speaks to us. “Ivan, I love you, I have always loved you since the beginning of time, I love you so much I want to be with you I am so happy to see you, Oh Ivan I love you so much. We are to be married, I will return tomorrow.”
To book Two Chapter 25 Being invited to the King’s court, revelation, the proposal, the marriage. Redemption.
Iron John The mystical marriage Chapter 26 The whole point of the story.