Tobit and the Inner Journey
The Book of Tobit and the Inner Journey
Conrad E. L’Heureux
The Bible provides an extremely rich storehouse of fascinating narratives. These stories have frequently been studied with a view to understanding what historical or theological information they contain. For contemporary readers, however, it is a psychological approach which is most likely to make the biblical material come to life in a way which can help meet people’s spiritual needs. A valuable tool to facilitate such psychological exploration is Joseph Campbell’s analysis of the hero myth. In The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Campbell argues that a great number of myths, legends and folk-tales from all over the world are variations on a single basic pattern which he calls the “mono-myth.” He views the hero’s journey and adventures as a metaphor for the process of spiritual transformation as understood in the psychology of Carl G. Jung. In the pattern of the mono-myth, the ordinary everyday life experience of the hero is interrupted by events which lead to a call to set out on an adventure. After finding a guide, the hero crosses over into the mysterious land in which the journey will take place. In Jungian terms, this crossing of the threshold symbolizes the descent into the Unconscious, the inner world where the personal transformation, which is the real subject of the story, takes place. The crossing is marked by traumatic experiences such as battle with dragons, conflict with brothers, dismemberment, descent into the sea or the dark forest. The hero now undergoes a series of tests in which various helpers come to offer their assistance. The climax of the journey is expressed in different ways: the finding of a treasure such as the holy grail; reconciliation with a divine parent; or marital union with the spouse for whom the hero was destined. These are all metaphors for the integration, the wholeness, the oneness with the Self (or with God), which are the object of the spiritual quest. Here the unique life of this individual, the like of which has never existed before, is brought to fulfillment. The hero then returns to the world of ordinary reality, crossing the threshold again and bringing to the external world the elixir or other boon which has been gained during the adventure. In other words, the healing of the individual becomes a source of blessing for the whole human community.
Many stories within the Bible fit Campbell’s mono-myth pattern, though perhaps no other fits it as well as the Book of Tobit. The latter is one of the works found in the Catholic Bible but not accepted as canonical by Jews and Protestants. It is generally regarded as a work of fiction composed about two centuries before the beginning of Christianity. The story itself, however, has its setting shortly after Israelites of the northern kingdom were conquered, exiled and dispersed by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.
At the beginning of the book, the elderly Tobit tells us in his own words that he was one of the Israelites exiled to Nineveh. He details his fidelity to the law, his piety and his works of mercy. A crisis arose in Tobit’s life however. After caring for the corpse of a fellow countryman who had been killed by the Assyrians and left unburied, Tobit lay next to a wall on which birds were nesting. Fresh bird droppings fell into his eyes and blinded him. Reduced to dependence on his wife Anna for financial support, he unjustly accuses her of stealing. In her reply to his accusation, she taunts him with the contrast between his vaunted righteousness and his present condition. Stung by the reproach, he wants to die and even asks God to take his life.
Putting his affairs in order, Tobit wishes to reclaim a treasure of ten talents of silver he had left on deposit with a certain Gabael in the distant city of Rages. To achieve this goal he commissions his son Tobiah who thus receives the call to adventure. For, as it sometimes happens in these stories, the journey undertaken by the son will lead to the healing of the father. Since the journey is dangerous, a guide is sought. A young man named Azariah appears in order to take this role. The reader knows that this is really the angel Raphael (“God heals” in Hebrew) in disguise. On the first night, the travellers stop at the river Tigris. Here the crossing of the threshold takes place. Tobiah is attacked by a great fish. With the advice of his guide, however, he subdues the fish and takes from it the heart, liver, and gall which are said to have medicinal properties. The two feed themselves from the flesh of this fish.
On the way to Rages they must pass Ecbatana where Sarah lives. The young woman has been married seven times. But on each occasion the husband died on the wedding night, killed by a demon named Asmodeus. Since Tobiah is the closest surviving relative, it is his right and duty to marry her. The test presented by the demon in the bridal chamber is passed with the help of Raphael who instructs him to burn the heart and liver of the fish to repulse Asmodeus who is then caught and bound by Raphael. The bride and groom are thus safely united, fulfilling the real goal of the journey. The reclaiming of the treasure, having become secondary in importance, is delegated to Azariah/Raphael. Tobiah now returns to the world of ordinary reality (that is, Nineveh) with his bride, the ten talents of silver, and the generous gifts of his father-in-law. He still has the gall of that great fish which he uses to heal his father’s blindness. There is great rejoicing, for two elderly couples who had only-children will now see their posterity because of this marriage.
It is apparent that on the level of plot, the story in the Book of Tobit contains all the structural elements of the mono-myth. This correspondence suggests that it might be profitable to approach the biblical story along the lines suggested by Campbell, as a metaphor of the inner journey of an individual’s life. When this avenue is followed, a number of themes significant for the psychological and spiritual development of the individual begin to emerge. Six such themes are discussed below.
1. The fall of Tobit and the beginning of the journey.
Though old Tobit had known difficult times before, the experience of blindness had an especially shattering effect on his life. Moreover, his wife’s rebuke, driving home the incongruity between his former piety and his present condition raised questions which, like Job, , he could not answer. The crisis was so unbearable he wished to die. In a sense, therefore, he experienced a fall from innocence–the comfortable idea that “being good”, in a conventional sense, would assure favored treatment from God was no longer tenable. At the same time, what began to emerge was the Shadow aspect of his personality. That is the part of the personality which one rejects because it is judged as “bad” and is kept hidden from others and even from one’s self. Tobit, the man of piety and virtue, it turns out, is also capable of being judgmental and self-righteous; his relationship with his wife is profoundly disturbed; his depression is so great as to destroy the desire to live. The book of Tobit thus reflects central and universal truths about human life: the fall from innocence and the inability to continue to suppress the Shadow stand at the beginning of the journey of spiritual growth. The pain, the upset, the confusion may seem “bad” to the protagonists. But without them, the journey will not begin, no growth will take place.
2. Finding the Guide. As soon as Tobiah seeks a guide for his dangerous journey, he just happens to meet a young man named Azariah who not only knows the way, but is familiar with the Gabael with whom Tobit had deposited the money. The human appearance of this guide is, however, only an illusion. In reality he is the angel Raphael, a spiritual guide for a spiritual journey. His presence seemed to be fortunate coincidence, but was in reality an arrangement of divine providence, what Jungian psychologists call synchronicity. The episode brings up a cluster of significant issues: learning to discern and trust the spiritual guidance which comes to us (the “still small voice”); identification of external guides (spiritual director, book, support group, therapist) which facilitate our tuning in to the inner guide; willingness to acknowledge purpose and meaning behind events which may appear to be mere coincidence.
3. The river, the fish, and the descent into the Unconscious.
The person who would journey towards holiness, or wholeness, must be prepared to go beyond what our culture defines as “reality.” This entry into the world recognized by spirituality, the realm of the Unconscious, has a negative aspect (the fish attacks Tobiah) and a positive aspect (the fish provides nourishment and its inner organs have medicinal properties). The negative aspect neans that the hero must confront Inner demons, everything within the psyche which is feared, hated, resented and rejected. One’s own Shadow must be faced, accepted and integrated in order to be transformed into a condition of wholeness. The positive side means that the Unconscious, though we may be terrified of it at first, ends up being the source of creative energy which guides us along the path and brings us the healing which we need and long for. Spiritual direction, then, can be described as the process of leading modern Tobiahs towards the banks of the great river; to be with them as they encounter whatever arises from the depths; to assure them that in spite of their fears they will not be harmed by the fabulous beings which seem ready to devour them; and to help them discern the healing powers which will aid them along the path.
4. Facing the demon in the bridal chamber. The sexual aspect of personal development includes learning how to accept and deal with our own sexuality, how to relate in a fully human way with persons of the opposite sex, how to enter into and maintain an intimate relationship with one specific individual. These are difficult tasks, because the many fears which surround the whole area of sexuality can often be crippling in their effects. A person who enters into a sexual encounter without knowing how to handle these fears can be destroyed by them. This is why so many myths and initiation rituals deal with the mortal threat posed by the sexual encounter. That is to say, there really is the potential for demons to lurk in the bridal chamber. The experience of fear in relation to sexual issues affects both men and women who then tend to project them onto the opposite sex. Thus in the Book of Tobit, the demon Asmodeus is thought to be attached to Sarah so that she is blamed for “killing her husbands.” However, Sarah’s prayer demonstrates that she correctly understands her innocence. She is not responsible for the deaths of those seven young men. What brought about their downfall was their own unfaced fears, their own un-integrated Shadows. Tobiah, however, who has begun the journey into the unconscious has learned to face his fears and his Shadow. He invites Sarah to join him in prayer. With this cooperation of the masculine and the feminine, the threat of Asmodeus is neutralized.
5 Union with the Spouse. Union with the destined sexual partner (“the beloved of the soul”) symbolizes the total integration of the personality. The opposites are united, masculine and feminine, yin and yang form a whole. In another sense, the hero is united with the Self–the deepest aspect of the psyche where the boundary between the created individual and the creative God is most difficult to define. Of course, in mystical thought, union with the spouse is union with God, the culmination of the spiritual quest. Here is the rapture, the ecstasy, the indescribable joy. It would be a mistake to place the psychological and the mystical understandings of the symbol in opposition to one another. As human beings we are inseparably physical, psychological, social and spiritual beings. To be in total harmony with our inner selves and to be in total harmony with God must therefore amount to the same thing. We have here the essence of the hero’s journey. Enlightenment, fulfillment ,wholeness—this is what the stories are really about.
6. The Gift for the Community. Finally, Tobiah comes back to the real world, bringing the silver, the bride and the medicine which will heal his father. The healing which takes place goes beyond the mere curing of blindness–it entails blessing for the whole family, indeed, the whole community. The Tobit story is quite typical here and simply exemplifies the profound wisdom embodied within the hero myth, namely, that the transformation undergone by the hero is of such a kind that it demands by its very nature to be shared with the wider human community. The hero himself, or herself, would not be complete without this final step. The journey begins with a focus which may seem individualistic. That is to say, the journeyer is seeking his or her own personal development. In the final analysis, however, the issue of selfishness and unselfishness is a false problem. It is only by undertaking our own journeys and undergoing our own process of growth or individuation that we can ever be of any real help to anyone else. Conversely, once we are in touch with our own wholeness, we are inexorably led to share that blessing with others.
Examining biblical stories such as Tobit in psychological terms suggests a large number of themes, of which the above are just examples, which allow a contemporary reader to identify with the story. One might say, “yes, like Tobit I am seeing some things about myself which are uncomfortable and would like to avoid. But like Tobiah I am on the journey, I have a guide, I am beginning to trust the inner healing gift which is available to me.” Persons realize that the book of Tobit is not just a fictional story set in the distant past. It is a story about themselves. They identify with the pattern in the life of Tobiah and of other heroes. It is helpful to see the pattern within an ancient story because that provides guidance as to how we must journey and it gives hope that the outcome makes the pain and effort which may be encountered all worthwhile. On the other hand, the rewards are great: the sense of empowerment that comes from responding to one’s call; the ability to love and trust one’s path; the enjoyment of loving companionship of others on the way; the excitement of adventure; the boon which brings blessing to others. And finally, one is buoyed up by the realization that the entrance into the dark forest is also the gateway to love, joy, and the ecstatic dance of life.