Robert Bly

All stories of the blacksmith with a wound—the Fisher King, the man whose wound won't heal—help us to see our own wounds in an impersonal way. And we know from the shaman stories that their wounds were impersonal. Wounds need to be expanded into air, lifted up on ideas our ancestor knew, so that the wound ascends through the roof of our parents' house and we suddenly see how our wound (seemingly so private) fits into a great and impersonal story.

Mythology helps to give weight to our private wounds. To feel the wound in a particular part of the body gives the wound weight, and to understand it as part of an ancient story gives it weight. Without the weight given by a wound consciously realized, the man will lead a provisional life.

-Robert Bly, Iron John page 45