Osiris, founder of state, becoming willfully blind, is basically the same story as King Oedipus blinding himself after learning the truth of the reason for the plaque in his City. Later in Kolonos, the old and blind father figure of Oedipus, guided by her daughter, finally enters the cave of underworld, for his final restorative rites.
The tension between
class society of state, and on the other hierarchy in the true meaning of the word is what the myths discuss. Hierarchy means holy order, holy rule, holy principle. The unholy and the unsustainable inherent character of the class society can't be denied, but can't be openly recognized, so the willful blindness. Also JP is very careful to talk about hierarchy, and very seldom if ever about class society, in his own willful blindness, which diverts the discussion of the social myth, used mainly as state propaganda but also to question class society, into individualist psychology. This is not criticism, to comprehend a myth we need to live it.
The shamanic journey to the Underworld, the processes of dissolving, transforming, integration and individuation into the social institution of a tribal shaman, the "attentive avatar of your culture", is the underlying contrast of the myth, which in it's political propaganda layer of willful blindness tries to convince that the Pharao, the King, is always a true shaman, integrated servant manifesting the collective consciousness of the social body and it's balanced harmony and renewal
with the Cosmos. Yet anyone who travels deep enough and looks with the Eye of the Horus and sees the whole landscape, can't unsee the untruth of the political propaganda layer of the myth. The contradiction is real and remains unresolved. Yes, we can hold that tension with love, as Lou says, but it creates also a general drift, a flow of way finding towards creative resolution, which can't be resisted on collective level. The river flow which the prophecy of Hopi Elders speak about, the flow of our times, the flow of
We are the ones we've been waiting for.
"And do not look outside yourself for your leader." In the myth of our times, which Tolkien tells as new version of the Osiris and Oedipus, the hidden king travels through the underworld, wins the great battle with the army of dead, but the real battle is elsewhere, inside the little hobbits and their journey to the Underworld of Mordor (Underworld not in a cave but spreading on Earth), now unaided by the Wise and the Strong, as they were in the Underworld of Moria. It is made explicit that the big battles in the external are just gas lighting, Maya squirted by Isis to divert the attention of Seth and Sauron. And in the new myth evolution, as his real his coronation, the new king bows to the hobbits.
Of course the liberal individual, a product of mass psychology of class society, exists. And it's good and necessary that JP speaks to it and it's transformation into something else on a leveled way, traveling the same journey in the same boat. The real challenge is emancipation from class society, where ruling class of scribes, aka professional managerial class aka the deep state, sees itself as the collective parent and power dynamics rests on keeping the masses (including and especially the individual members of the ruling class!) in the infantile state of a man-child, the Peter Pan individual. Rejuvenation of the state keeps happening by imprisoning people in the juvenile Peter Pan syndrome that refuses to grow up to accept responsibility and freedom. Emancipation from class society is a pretty big process which involves also this viral pressure of collective dark night of the soul to open our eyes to new light.
In the Eye of Horus, tears keep flowing. Good tears, that is how we release tension, giving tears both to sorrow and joy. Having cried enough, we can rotate the Eye of Horus half a turn and see in a new way.