Korean Creation Myth: Fears and Hopes of Primitive Humanity

Introduction: Dreaming of Order in the Midst of Chaos

How did the world begin? This question started from the fundamental ‘ontological anxiety’ of humans standing before giant, incomprehensible nature, even before scientific curiosity. Korean creation myths, especially stories like ‘Cheonjiwang Bonpuri’, show dramatically how the initial chaos was organized and order established.

In this post, we will look at how the unconscious of early humanity perceived and structured the world through Korean creation myths.

1. Two Suns and Two Moons: Unbearable Stimuli

One characteristic of Korean mythology is the setting that there were originally two suns and two moons each. Because of this, it was too hot in the day and too cold at night, making it hard for all things to live. Psychoanalytically, this can symbolize an infantile psychological state exposed to ‘excessive stimuli.’

• Overload of Senses: When information from the external world and internal instincts pour in without being filtered yet, the ego feels great confusion and fear. The two suns symbolize uncontrolled powerful energy, and the process of organizing them into one means the process of the ego acquiring the ‘ability to filter and regulate’ to a level where it can endure the world.

2. Confrontation Between Cheonjiwang and the Two Sons: Process of Establishing Order

Daebyol-wang and Sobyeol-wang, two sons of the king of heaven, Cheonjiwang, engage in a bet to occupy the world of the living and the world of the dead. The trickery and wisdom shown in the process reflect the tension between ‘desire’ and ‘moral order’ in the human mind.

• Separation of the Living and the Dead: Distinguishing between life and death, and right and wrong, is an important function of the ego. The separation in which Daebyol-wang takes charge of the afterlife and Sobyeol-wang takes charge of the living world is the beginning of ‘boundary-making’ moving from the ambiguous world of the unconscious to the civilized world of consciousness.

3. Struggle Between Mireuk and Seokka: Change of Initiative

In ‘Changsega’, a shamanic myth from Jeju Island, a confrontation between ‘Mireuk,’ who first created the world, and ‘Seokka,’ who later appears to take the world away, is depicted.

• Primitiveness and Civilization: If Mireuk symbolizes an original primitive state occurring naturally, Seokka symbolizes a more secular and rule-centered stage of human civilization. Their struggle for dominance is also interpreted as a power struggle between the instinctive ‘True Self’ and the social mask ‘False Self’ within us.

Conclusion: Myth is a Wrapping Cloth that Assures Us

To primitive humanity, the world was a fearful and fickle place. But through myth, they gave names to that chaos and gave order to who was in charge of what.

Creation myths are not simply the process of the world being created. It is a great psychological chronicle showing how the minds of humans trembling with anxiety built an ‘ordered world’ and found stability. If your mind is chaotic today, try rewriting your own creation myth. New creation will begin in an ordered mind.

In the next post, we will look at the ‘idealized objects’ settled in our people’s unconscious through the Dangun myth.