The Tao and Mother Goose

Using a Jungian filter, and with reference to the works of Bruno Bettelheim ("The Uses of Enchantment"), Joseph Campbell ("The Hero With a Thousand Faces"), and others, Carter examines the embedded symbolism found in a sampling of children's nursery rhymes. Carter connects the rhymes' imagery with Jungian archetypes, and their meanings with the lessons found in the Tao Te Ching.His analyses are thought-provoking. For example, the popular lullabye "Hush-a-bye Baby" employs the image of a child cradled in a tree. Historically, the tree has been a symbol of motherhood. The lullabye traces, in a few economical lines, the path of maturation: from infancy (child safely nestled in tree), to early childhood/preadolescence (the "winds" of change and emerging independence cause the child's cradle to rock, i.e., the tree's/mother's grip on the child to loosen), and finally adolescence/pre-adulthood (the bough breaks and the cradle falls, i.e., the child reaches independence and separateness from the mother).In a related vein, Carter argues that in "Mary Had a Little Lamb," the lamb represents Mary's unconscious, child-like aspect, while the school (from which the lamb is barred), her emerging consciousness and entry into the "real," adult world. In the rhyme, the lamb waits for Mary to return from school, thus suggesting that although Mary will be able successfully to negotiate the "real" world, she will also stay connected with her creative/emotional side.Carter weaves the strands of Taoist philosophy, Jungian psychology, and theories of childhood development into an innovative and provocative thesis, one which leaves ample room for disagreement, but which will inspire further study of these topics. One will never think about Little Bo Peep and her lost sheep in quite the same way again!