“Could by any chance culture be the meaning and purpose of the second half of life?”—Carl Jung, as quoted from Joseph Campbell’s Primitive Mythology

Deep in our psyche lies the image of a bearded wizened old man, the sage, the tribal elder dispensing timeless ancestral wisdom. Call it a universal archetype, he manifests himself for us Westerners in Greek Zeus, Celtic Merlin and Germanic Woden, the prophets and patriarchs, Saints and Santa Claus, Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings and Dumbledore in Harry Potter.

In the above quote Joseph Campbell in his Primitive Mythology is remarking on the fact that there is very little waste in Nature. When The Great Passing Through is achieved and the new generation is launched on its course… towards what else but Passing the Living Flow baton on in their turn to yet another generation… the older parental group wilts and returns to the earth, or ashes so to speak. That is, the whole aim and purpose of Life IS the Passing Through, the individuals—you and I—merely a vehicle of the Flow!

So why, Campbell and Jung ask, after say giving birth to children in our twenties and early thirties and even sticking around for the all important raising of them to say our mid-fifties, do we continue to live on long past the time when our offspring are successfully launched and even having children of their own?

And the answer, these unbearded sages put forward, is in HOW our human species accomplishes The Great Passing Through. For each of the millions of species—microscopic to macroscopic—on planet earth have a specific manner and means of seeing to the transmission of Life, the continuance of the Flow. Our’s just happens to be highly and spectacularly adaptive communities with the unique learning and ritual lore that comprises their specific cultures.

Which brings us back to the above quote and the image implanted in our psyches of the bearded old sage and carrier of the cultural heritage of the group.

“Could by any chance culture be the meaning and purpose of the second half of life?”

Yes indeed!

Only a new task lies ahead for us old guys…

The awakening of a new communal consciousness…

Spanning the entire globe…

And ALL Life….!