- Type: NeFi
- Development: ll--
- Attitude: Seelie
Oh, @bera, I looooooooove Metta! I’ve actually believed for a long time that Metta is an Fi archetype! (I.e. that it is an activation or cultivation of Fi ‘energy’.) And I do think they are related: Guan Yin is from the Tibetan tradition too (who I believe are the source of Metta as a practice, though I can’t be sure) where they know her as ‘White Tara’. The Thais too and the Japanese all have her in their practices.
I find she’s the most similar to the Madonna in the East (compared to other religions/deities/myths in the East) because she was a human being, like Mary. She is basically a saint who is enlightened but who rather than ‘ascend’, chose to stay with ‘her children’ to help them as they try to become enlightened. They are not really ‘her children’ but that sense of staying to watch over and help the ‘little ones’ (those still struggling) gives it that “her children” feel.
The virgin is also believed to be sinless and has been ‘glorified’ already (Catholics and Orthodox both believe in the ‘dormition’ (Orthodox) or the ‘assumption’ (Catholic)–wherein her body was taken to heaven after the end of her life, and glorified along with her soul) but rather than seen as one just enjoying the delights of heaven, she’s seen as one deeply connected to the concerns and lives of those ‘still on the journey’. Like Guan yin, she’s constantly watching over ‘her children’ who are still struggling. Stories abound of her apparitions, constantly coming to warn people and things.
They are just so similar (IMO), it’s quite striking.
I think they are an Fi archetype. Both of them. And I believe the same about the practice of Metta. I think there is Fi femininity, Fe femininity, but also Fi motherhood vs Fe motherhood. I think the Marian/GuanYin motherhood is the Fi compassionate motherhood kind/archetype. (I’m thinking of @auburn’s noting of Fi propensity for caring for ‘little’, vulnerable things and valuing of life qua life.)
As an aside, my favourite depiction of a goddess in popular media is the Sidney animation Movie, Moanna. Tefiti, the goddess of Life. I think the reason she was so ‘touching’ (to me) is that she’s portrayed in that same Madonna/Guan-Yin sense: Filled with ‘life’ (which makes her ‘mother’) and compassion, but zero war-like or active/Je qualities. She’s all about freely giving life for its own sake and doesn’t talk much or command and is very gentle (Tefiti).
