Tap into you dark side
Imagine a great man: strong and handsome and wise, two-third god and one-third man. The epic tale of Gilgamesh was written in the beginning of the civilization in Mesopotamia. After 4 thousand years nothing has fundamentally changed about human nature. Indeed, Gilgamesh was so arrogant in his glory that the gods created a double for him to be a comrade equal to him in strength. This twin-self of Gilgamesh was called Enkidu and was born to break Gilgamesh’ pride by showing him he is only a man.
As the matter of twinness, Enkidu and Gilgames were like quite the opposite of each other: Gilgamesh was the hyper-man, who stood above nature, Enkidu was like an animal, knowing nothing of human civilization. Eventually they met and the struggle began. They were wrestling furiously, but as matching halves they recognized each other as equals. So they stopped fighting, and became friends.
The fantasy trip begins here, assuming that everyone has their own Enkidu as another half. If we don’t embrace our a hidden self, our life becomes unsatisfying like a neurotic nightmare. All the significant battles are waged within the self. So we all have to have a fight with the specter of a double who represents something in us that we would rather say ‘no’ to. What would your double be like? For someone strong, it would be a soft, helpless self. When this strong person wants to connect to other people, he needs to embrace his weak and passive double. Otherwise no one could connect to him in a gentle and tender way.
I am, for example, the good girl, always helpful, polite and respectful. My Enkidu is a ruthlessly dangerous double fed by my undiscovered rage. If I don’t want to live a life of self-degrading appeasement, I have to free my mind to assert myself when I need to. My fantasy trip leads me to imagine being someone bad (whatever it means by my definitions), hoping that evenually I will make peace with both sides, neither being good or bad, but just me. My passive, caring, emphatic, submissive and compliant side needs to be completed by my other half that is disobedient, headstrong, resisting and unruly, who spares noone standing in her way. When I embrace my double, I will understand that a person like my Enkidu can be loved and I can allow myself to get closer to the whole self of mine, not just a half.
Have you already embraced your Enkidu?
