When you feel lost, where do you turn?

In these monthly reflective blogs I take a look at life through a Jungian lens. Carl Jung studied many cultures through their stories and myths to see if any archetypes (characters) transcended through them; he found that across them all we share very similar archetypes, their traits and their journeys. We have a collective ancient wisdom that has guided us for generations - this is our shared inheritance. I explore how we can use these to help us navigate our contemporary world.

There is a good chance that if you work in the corporate world you have been in a meeting where someone has used the phrase golden thread; highly likely while standing in front of a flip chart and talking strategy. Your colleague probably isn’t aware that when they do so they are invoking the ancient story of Theseus, Ariadne and the way through the maze.

The phrase comes from the nuanced, layered and uneasy story of the Minotaur locked in the labyrinth and the young man who slays the creature and goes on to escape the tangled trap. For now we will set aside the many twists and turns we could follow and concentrate on a single, simple detail; in the dark of the maze, with the monster slain, Theseus held in his hands a fine golden thread given to him by the Princess Ariadne.

Without this thread all his heroics would be meaningless. He would be doomed to die in the darkness alongside the minotaur, lost beyond recall. I find this moment of the story, this image of the golden thread, asks a powerful question of us: how can we find our way back to where we belong?

In this snapshot of our bloodied protagonist the absent character of Ariadne is absolutely essential to the scene. Without the deeply feminine gift of the golden thread, there would be no return from the darkness for Theseus. She placed into his hands the thing that would become the most essential to adventure – the ability to return home. ?

Not all adventurers were initially so lucky. Lost in the woods, Hansel and Gretel scattered the wrong trail, hoping to find their way home through the breadcrumbs they cast behind them. Many of us grew up hearing this tale. We internalised the message about not eating other people’s houses and hopefully we didn’t internalise that cooking geriatric witches is an acceptable move. But the fulcrum on which the story turns is the moment that they become lost. Let’s pause on that instead. The moment they choose the wrong stuff to mark their trail. The moment they lose themselves in the woods. ?

Two stories. Two moments where the way home was crucial. Two choices of how to find your way back. One wise, one na?ve. It makes me wonder what the properties of a way marker should be? How we can pick the things that shine even in the darkness to know who we are and where we must go, how we can be careful to not scatter breadcrumbs and trust we’ll still find our way home through a hostile wood. ?

Values are an overplayed concept, not unlike golden threads. But properly explored, they can become the thread you hold in the darkness so that the way home is clear, however lost you feel. A value properly understood will make choices almost inevitable and tell you which way to turn when the stakes are unspeakably high.

The trick is that they must be yours – truly yours. It’s not a pick and mix list at the back of a corporate book, it’s not some breadcrumbs you can carelessly toss over your shoulder and think they will still be there to lead you home. For it to work, it has to be finely woven and strong. It comes from careful interrogation of who you are, and where home is and how to find your way back there. ?

Rilke writes ‘You sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing… Don’t let yourself lose me.’ ?

The invitation and instruction in those simple lines takes my breath away. The tension of stepping beyond the place where you remember who you are, to experience everything but also to hold onto something crucial, something essential; the invitation to step into the darkness but also to hold the golden thread. It is essence of each of our stories. What is it you must step out into the world or into the unknown to do? What is it you must not lose, what is it you place into your hand to guide you home again? ?

What are the values or the maxims that are your golden threads?