Cryptonarratives Part 2: Narcissism and Mourning
Crypto-mining the stories of Narkissos and Abraham for hidden truths
So everyone’s a narcissist now!?!?
It would be nice if we could all back off on this new Narcissism trend, and rethink the Narcissus story. Lately it seems to me like every time a jilted lover has a problem they go online and make a post about how their ex, or the person they were trying to talk to, was such a narcissist! Just because someone doesn’t love you anymore, or because they’ve decided to walk away from the relationship, doesn’t mean they’re a narcissist! People walk away for a number of personal reasons, and they have the right to, without being informally diagnosed by a biased ex! And, lets face it! Jilted lovers are not the best judges of their own character or mistakes!
Misunderstanding Narkissos!
When examining the least-known version of Narkissos’ story, we see that he’s lost in his grief, not in vanity. He’s looking into the pond because it’s the only way for him to see and remember his soulmate and twin. When we realize that he’s mourning lost love, we understand how gazing into his reflection in the pond might have brought him comfort in grief. People mourn in strange ways, and if gazing at his sister’s face in the reflection of the water brought temporary solace, who are we to judge?
Perhaps Narkissos imagines Medioluteus in the water, gazing at him and talking to him.
His twin sister is unnamed in historical records, so I’m just going to name her Medioleteus, since the Medioleteus flower is a twin companion to the Narcissus flower.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 31. 7 - 9 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
“In the territory of the Thespians is a place called Donakon (Donacon, Reed-Bed). Here is the spring of Narkissos (Narcissus). They say that Narkissos looked into this water, and not understanding that he saw his own reflection, unconsciously fell in love with himself, and died of love at the spring. But it is utter stupidity to imagine that a man old enough to fall in love was incapable of distinguishing a man from a man’s reflection.
Self indulgence or Mourning?
This cryptonarrative is one of mourning the loss of love, not indulging in self-obsession. Although gazing into the pond gives him comfort at first, it inevitably traps him. The crypto-moral of the story is to be compassionate towards those in mourning and show empathy, but we must also urge people to move on eventually, otherwise they’ll miss life’s blessings. Most people are unable to receive love in such a state. But eventually they must overcome their grief and move forward. When other characters misunderstand him or are unaware of Narkissos’ grief, they label him a narcissist and develop reasoning that lays the blame at his feet. When we don’t know what’s really going on, we also tend to invent an explanation that lays the blame at another’s feet.
Perhaps jumping to conclusions and gossip gave us the dominant narrative of the narcissist that we have today. In that rationale, Narkissos is a self-absorbed soul. He ignores the needs of others because he’s in love with himself, which would be the words muttered on the tongues of neighbors. The judgmental narrative that blames Narcissus has become far more popular than the empathetic narrative that qualifies his actions through grief. The persistent acceptance of the narcissistic narrative suggests that people easily accept simpler narratives, as dire as they might be, rather than nuanced narratives that reflect the complexity of the human experience.
I still find this flaw persistent in modern psychology, even after some two thousand years. It’s easier for most people, even though they may have some understanding of the human mind, to believe that another’s psyche is simply defective or devolved. Most people would accept that conclusion, rather than decode the cryptonarrative behind a real person’s actions. The idea of seeking out the nuanced but verifiable reasoning behind the individual’s behavior is lost on most, and instead of probing deeper to understand illness, we tend to stick labels on people and move on with our lives.
Cryptonarrative #2
The Story of Abraham, Isaac, and the Slaughter of the Goat.
This might be a controversial one because I’m commenting on religion, but I’m just sharing with you the ideas of Ibn Al Arabi, as written in the text The Bezels of Wisdom. If anything I’ve said bothers you, you might take it up with the 12th-century mystic who is respected throughout the Muslim world for his writings and wisdom.
We all know the Biblical, Jewish, and Koranic narrative of Abraham and Isaac, (They are all consistent with one another). Here, Abraham believes that God has asked him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, as a sign of devotion to the one God. The main narrative is that Abraham binds Isaac to an altar and is about to actually sacrifice him, when the angel Gabriel intervenes to replace Isaac with a ram. In the Judaeo-Christian tradition, God commends Abraham for his devotion and willingness to sacrifice his firstborn and relieves him of such a dire responsibility. Muslims celebrate the Eid Al-Ahda festival in commemoration of the Abrahamic event, with sheep and cattle sacrificed to feed the hungry throughout the Muslim world.
The mainstream narrative is a story of devotion to God. Yet, the Abrahamic event has a cryptonarrative known to the few who follow the works of the Sufi Master, Ibn Al Arabi. He writes about Abraham’s sacrifice in Al Fusus Al Hikma, known in English as The Bezels of Wisdom. By the way, the fusus (Arabic), or facets in English, are just the flat sides or (faces) of the diamond, and the word probably has the same origin as the word facade.
Ibn Al Arabi was a well-respected Sufi whose knowledge of mundane and mystic Islam earned the respect of the majority of Islamic scholars. During his time, they called him Muyaddin (the reviver of the religion), and today he’s known as Al Sheikh Al Akbar (The Greatest Master).
There’s a wonderful cryptonarrative in Fusus Al Hikma on the topic of Abraham. It’s covered in the following chapters: The Bezel of Wisdom of Ibrahim, al-ḥikma al-qalbiyya fī kalimati Ibrāhīmiyya (The wisdom of the heart in the Abrahamic words). and the subsequent chapter: The Wisdom of the Heart of Isaac.
