ward or back. There may be impossible barriers in either direction.
Or she may need to solve a riddle before a way will open. What
should she do now, when what she consciously knows is not enough?
Or when her ambivalence in the situation is so strong that a decision
seems impossible? When she is caught between the rock and the
hard place?
When the heroine-choicemaker finds herself in an unclear situ-
ation, where every route or choice seems potentially disastrous, or
at best a dead-end, the first trial she faces is to stay herself. In every
crisis, a woman is tempted to become the victim instead of staying
the heroine. If she stays true to the heroine in herself, she knows that
she is in a hard place and may be defeated, but she holds on to the
possibility that something may change. If she turns into a victim,
she will blame others or curse fate, drink or take drugs, attack herself
with demeaning criticism, or give up completely, or even think of
suicide. Or she may abdicate as heroine by becoming immobilized,
or by becoming hysterical or panic stricken, acting impulsively or
irrationally until someone else takes over.
Whether in myth or life, when a heroine is in a dilemma, all she
can do is be herself, true to her principles and loyalties, until some-
thing unexpectedly comes to her aid. To stay with the situation, with
the expectation that an answer will come, sets the inner stage for
what Jung called “the transcendent function.” By this he means
something that arises from the unconscious to solve the problem or
show the way to an ego (or heroine) who needs help from something
beyond itself (or in herself).
For example, in the myth of Eros and Psyche, Aphrodite gave
Psyche four tasks that required more of Psyche than Psyche knew
how to do. Each time, she was initially overwhelmed, and then help
or advice came—via ants, a green reed, an eagle, and a tower. Simil-
arly, Hippomenes knew that he must compete in the race to win
Atalanta’s hand because he loved her. But he knew he couldn’t run
fast enough to win and so would lose his life trying. On the eve of
the race, he prayed for help to Aphrodite, who helped him win the
race and Atalanta. And when the brave rabbits in Watership Down
got in a tight spot, Kehaar, the noisy gull, arrived in the nick of
time—as Gandalf the Magician did for the hobbits. All
Goddesses in Everywoman