Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief

by Jordan B. Peterson

Mythological representations of the world-which are representations of reality as a forum for action-portray the dynamic interrelationship between all three constituent elements of human experience. The eternal unknown-nature, metaphorically speaking, creative and destructive, source and destination of all determinant things-is generally ascribed an affectively ambivalent feminine character (as the "mother" and eventual "devourer" of everyone and everything). The eternal known, in contrast-culture, defined territory, tyrannical and protective, predictable, disciplined and restrictive, cumulative consequence of heroic or exploratory behavior-is typically considered masculine (in contradistinction to "mother" nature). The eternal knower, finally-the process that mediates between the known and the unknown-is the knight who slays the dragon of chaos, the herD who replaces disorder and confusion with clarity and certainty, the sun god who eternally slays the forces of darkness, and the "word" that engenders cosmic creation.