Let’s follow the same life stages, but this time tracking how the same myth (or type of myth) may be construed differently at different points of individuation:
1. Childhood: Myth as Enchantment and Frame
At this stage, myth is often construed as magical narrative—full of wonder, transformation, and moral clarity. It offers symbolic orientation: who is good, what is dangerous, what counts as ‘real.’
🔮 The function here is framing: myth establishes the basic symbolic architecture of meaning. The child construes it literally, but within that literal construal is a foundational semiotic training.
The dragon is real, the hero is good, the forest is dangerous.Meaning is located in externalised symbols.
🧠Pedagogical effect: It trains the nervous system to distinguish patterned potential (fairytale grammar) from random noise.
2. Adolescence: Myth as Identity and Aspiration
Now the myth is construed not as truth but as mirror. The adolescent recognises the symbolic dimension—and begins to identify with the role of the hero, the rebel, the chosen one.
🔥 The function here is aspirational individuation: the myth is construed as a model for how to become someone.
I could be the one who slays the dragon.Meaning is located in symbolic identification.
🧠Pedagogical effect: The myth helps the young meaner configure themselves within the field of social potential. It scaffolds the early phase of individuation through symbolic projection.
3. Adulthood: Myth as Conflict and Cost
As responsibilities emerge, the construal shifts again. Now the myth is no longer a simple script to follow—it becomes a map of tensions: between duty and desire, belonging and autonomy, sacrifice and survival.
⚖️ The function here is ethical navigation: the myth is construed as a site of conflict, where every choice entails a loss.
The dragon may be within; the hero might become the tyrant.Meaning is located in negotiated consequence.
🧠Pedagogical effect: The myth becomes a symbolic mirror of the adult’s dilemma: how to instantiate meaning in a world of competing systems.
4. Crisis: Myth as Disintegration and Descent
When meaning structures collapse—whether through personal trauma, disillusionment, or existential reckoning—the myth is re-construed as descent. Now the dragon is not an enemy—it is a part of the self. The underworld is not a journey—it is the current condition.
🌀 The function here is semiotic undoing: the myth is no longer instructional, but invitational—into the unmaking of old construals.
There is no map; only descent.Meaning is located in liminality and ambiguity.
🧠Pedagogical effect: The myth helps the meaner hold space for semiotic uncertainty. It allows consciousness to disassemble outdated systems without falling into nihilism.
5. Eldership: Myth as Pattern Recognition
With time, the meaner begins to see through the particular myths to the semiotic systems behind them. The construal shifts from story to grammar. Myth is no longer about identity or heroism—it becomes a tool for interpreting others’ construals.
🕸 The function here is systemic awareness: the myth is construed as a diagram of the relational field.
This is how people make meaning. These are the patterns that reoccur.Meaning is located in meta-construal—in recognising the choices others are making from the system.
🧠Pedagogical effect: Myth is now used not for personal individuation, but for guiding others in theirs. The elder becomes mythic not by what they say, but by how they see.
6. Dying: Myth as Release
At the end of life, myth may be re-construed once again—not as instruction or reflection, but as letting go. The old tales become gentle echoes of systems one no longer needs to hold. There is no longer a need to be the hero. The myth becomes a rhythm—a patterned breathing out.
🌑 The function here is surrender: the myth is construed as a symbolic easing into dissolution.
The dragon sleeps. The journey is complete. The world no longer needs my construal.Meaning is located in acceptance of the whole field.
🧠Pedagogical effect: The myth soothes the final tension between potential and instance, offering a patterned closure to the semiotic life cycle.
The Myth Doesn’t Change. The Meaning Does.
Across the lifespan:
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The child construes myth as reality.
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The adolescent construes it as identity.
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The adult construes it as struggle.
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The elder construes it as system.
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The dying construe it as grace.
In each case, the same myth is actualised differently—because the meaner is differently situated in relation to potential. The story hasn’t changed. You have.
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