Dissecting a myth
One of the foundational myths in the Human collective unconscious is the Mesopotamian creation myth, the battle between Tiamat and Marduk, symbolically a battle between order and chaos, and lately also good and evil. It is re-told in many modern myths, such as the Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Legend of Zelda, the Terminator franchise, Star Wars, and so on. It is also told differently across cultures: the serpent in the garden, Suzano and Orochi, Apollo and the Serpent of Delphi are a few. I don't know that Jung ever did or did not theorize that it was a metaphor for the Human battle to achieve consciousness, but if he didn't, I suspect he'd have much to say about such a hypothesis.
Some time ago, I posted my analysis of the evolution of the Zombie Apocalypse myth. I intend to follow a similar structure here. please note that below, I mix metaphor and literalism a lot, and it may be confusing at first, so if you find yourself asking, "does he really believe Tiamat caused XX in history?!" the answer is no, or at least not literally. Assume I am speaking in metaphor wherever aplicable.
It starts with the battle, where Tiamat defeats Marduk, Humans achieve consciousness, and it goes from there:
Graves level shift from 1 to 2: The hunter-gatherer stage. Humans had achieved consciousness, broken free of Tiamat's unconscious stranglehold, and were concerned with one thing: survival. The division between Tiamat and Marduk was very real, very present, and not at all metaphorical. Inside the circle of light created by the campfire, order existed. Humans could congregate in peace and live their lives. Outside that circle, they would be eaten.
But inside that circle of light was only a Human order. Outside it, the wolves lived their pack life according to their own order, as did all of nature. Furthermore, any sense of good and evil we might impose in retrospect was also illusory. The snakes and scorpions out in the wild were just going about their merry way, doing what they do.
The only difference was conscious choice. Marduk was awake, conscious, but Tiamat was flowing with the chaotic waters of the only world she had ever known. She still smarted from the blow given to her by Marduk, and she knew those conscious Humans would be trouble some day, but all that was on her mind was living in her orderly chaotic world.
There is no art to exemplify this. In the Hunter-Gatherer world, you either understood it, or the world swallowed you.
2 to 3: But Tiamat found a willing vessel among the Humans, someone not content with his lot in life, and willing to lend her the gift of Consciousness in exchange for the power of her bottomless reservoir of natural power. Among Christianity, this is when Cain took up the mantle of the Chaotic Natural Order and slew Abel because he wanted what Abel had. A more historical look would posit that this was the invention of war. Some chieftain, now a warlord, took upon himself to be the avatar of Tiamat (consider how many conquering kings boasted that they were chosen of some god, like the Pharoahs, the emperors of Japan and China, or Hammurabi himself).
The once orderly tribal Humans could not stand against that. Marduk had no avatar but the scattered tribes. Tiamat had found her advantage. The Terminator series contains a hear-say example of this, when Kyle Reese and then seperately the protective T-800 describes Skynet becoming conscious. In that particular example, the Human help came in the form of the fact that we already thought we had an alliance with Skynet, and she used our own weapons to destroy us. Humanity was not satisfied with the mere protection of our own ingenuity, so we built Skynet to harness the power of a goddess. A better example might be the 2006 game The Bard's Tale, where Calleigh continually harnesses the power of a battery of naiive willing "Chosen Ones" to do her bidding and free her.
3 to 4: The advent of monotheism. This is the final apocalyptic battle: Jesus dies, battles Satan, and is resurrected. John Connor storms the fences, smashes Skynet, and sends his father back in time. Aang duels Fire Lord Ozai and neuters him. Link plunges the Master Sword into Gannon's skull, and Gannon says "I can hear the wind blowing..." before turning to stone. Gollum falls into the fires of Mount Doom with the One Ring.
In short, Marduk has found his avatar. Once again, he unites the tribes, collects the four winds, blows Tiamat's mouth open, and slays her. Social order ensues, and the chaos is conquered. Humans can walk from one edge of the known world to the other, with only the protection of two words: CIVIS ROMANUS. I am under the protection of Marduk, bitch.
The divine right of Kings becomes a sacred trust. The Catholic Church comes together. Education is invented and becomes wide-spread.
Peace reigns. Everyone is happy.
4 to 5: Or are they? What about the women? What about the Jews? What about the Gypsies? What about the heretic Protestants? The black slaves? The Irish? The Jacobites? The sailors pressed into service? The poor serfs? The Native Americans? The trade unions? The suffragettes? the Japanese stuffed into interment camps? The drinkers, and casual tokers of marijuana? Everyone falling through the cracks?
Marduk knows his reign is incomplete.
Tiamat has a plethora of willing vessels, but she can't just reprise her trick from Graves Level 3--Humans have already figured out Graves level 4, and have her contained. Tiamat is well and truly in exile, defeated, for all time, never again to return to the power she once enjoyed.
And the vessels know this. They don't come to her to be annointed her avatar. Instead, they come to her for tokens of insight. How did you do that thing where you breathed fire? How did you convince Cain to kill his brother? Gog and Magog used to work for you, how do I rein them in? The priests are lying to me about sex. My teachers are lying to me about westward expansion. My father is lying to me about how he got his money. What really happened?
Graves level five is the level where a person recognizes that the system works, mostly, but they're not getting everything they can out of it. They want more. More power, more efficiency, more money, more fame, more friends, more love, more breathing room, more knowledge, more truth. They don't want to destroy the conscious order--that would be counter-productive. They just want an edge. Artistic examples include John Connor realizing it won't be enough to send a human soldier back to protect himself--so he sends a co-opted Terminator. Or Frodo, realizing he can't navigate Mordor alone, accepts help from Gollum. Or season-5 Buffy, pressing a wad of bills into Spike's hand and demanding to know, "How did you kill those two Slayers?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBOgH5f36cQ
But the transfer of energy is not one-way: Tiamat is destitute, defeated, and humbled. She needs a drop of water on her tongue to cool herself, and Marduk offers it. With a grip full of Marduk's energy in hand, she happily obliges. The Terminator learns Human emotions. Gollum is treated as a person. Spike gets his money--and so Tiamat obliges her old foe and hated conqueror, just this once.
5 to 6: But it's never just this once. Marduk has had a taste of his old enemy's power, and he will keep coming back. Tiamat becomes accustomed to nursing herself from the gifts of her conqueror. Eventually, they start talking. Then, they start talking intimately.
And then they start dancing.
Eventually, Marduk figures out that all those disenfranchised people who were sacrified to make his system work have also been coming to Tiamat, and she has been kind to them. Marduk figures out that there are far more of them than he ever realized, and many of them are scared of him.
Historical paralels are difficult to draw, because we aren't fully there yet. Do I believe it's starting? Hell yes, but not based on any evidence that would be worth sharing (as in: I could be viewing some things through a lens of hope). Since I cannot draw historical paralells, I can only look to the art: Aang helps some Fire-Nation villages who are struggling with poverty, and fondly remembers his old fire-bender friend Kuzon. Luke Skywalker convinces his long-lost father to turn back to good. John Connor befriends a Terminator and trusts him as a father-figure. Season-Six Buffy trusts Spike with the intimate details of her trip through the afterlife, and he has proven himself a loyal protector of her family and interests in her absence.
6 to 7: There isn't even art yet that explores this transition very well (That I know of. I hope to be corrected on this point). I used to hope that the Terminator series was headed this way, but I fear the writers of the franchise now are stuck at Graves level 5. It is a shame, because the Terminator, of all the myths, has the most potential to really explore this transition.
I only really even have a hypothesis in the vaguest terms: Tiamat and Marduk have realized their love and their need for each other at Graves Level 6, but the marriage is not just to be a marriage of people--it's an alliance of kingdoms. Marduk's soldiers can walk in safety through the wild night, but not by razing it and building a walled city. Tiamat's wild children live in peace and comfort in the city, but not by destroying it, until eventually, no one can tell who was who to begin with. Only when this happens is Marduk's kingdom complete, and Tiamat's survival in her own world assured.