A young girl needs to find her own identity and spiritual heritage. In the movie Whale Rider, Paikea is orphaned at birth. From an early age she feels drawn to the old traditions of her tribe, but to her this is taboo terrain as she is a girl. She calls out to the whales, and they respond by beaching themselves. She is reproached and criticized by her elders, but she climbs on the back of the largest whale. She coaxes it to re-enter the ocean, leading the entire pod back to safety. She is feared drowned, but she survives and accepts her calling, and is accepted. (1)
Like Jonah of old, Paikea is carried off by a whale into the “belly” of the ocean. The whale and the ocean are both symbols of the unconscious. Jung compares the hero in the belly of the whale to the hero being swallowed by the dragon; it indicates “a diminution or extinction of consciousness.” (2)
By descending into the unconscious, consciousness puts itself in a perilous position, for the conscious mind may be overpowered by the archaic forces of the unconscious. (2) It is therefore natural to feel resistance, and to dread this descent. On the other hand the unconscious may mesmerize the conscious mind, like a snake hypnotizes its prey. The danger involved in the descent is real, but necessary, for this is where the “treasure hard to attain” is to be found. (3)
The whale deposited Jonah on dry land after three days and three nights. During this period the heat of the process in the belly of the whale is intense, a process of incubation or “self-heating” lasting “three days and three nights;” it is like Christ’s descent into hell.
Jung continues: “By this is… meant a state of introversion in which the unconscious content is brooded over and digested. During this operation all relations with the outside world is broken off… but deep inside the psyche the wheels go on turning, performing those cyclic evolutions which bring the mandala of the total personality, the ground-plan of the self, closer to consciousness.” (4)
Image credit: Whale Rider (2002) from photo gallery IMDb, edited.
References:
1. Synopsis of Whale Rider from Wikipedia.
2. CG Jung, Psychology and Alchemy par 437 – 8
3. CG Jung, Psychology and Alchemy par 439
4. CG Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis par 262