Jungian Center News

Jung and the Numinosum

“Phoberon to empesein eis cheiras theou zontos.”
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Hebrews 10:31
“… the experience of the self is always a defeat for the ego.”
[italics in the original] Jung, Collected Works, 14, ¶778


The first of the above quotes was cited in the previous blog essay and in a note in that essay I indicated that the following essay would provide further discussion of the “Hebrews” quote. In that essay I noted how fear can be used to keep people under control and how those in power would have us believe that internalizing a locus of security through personal experience of the Divine is something to be feared.
Jung had much to say on this point. Most explicitly he made it clear in his statement quoted above that confronting the Divine is never a pleasant experience for the ego. This is because of pride: the ego “does not like to think consciousness might lose its ascendancy.” The ego fancies it is in control and is forced to face its smallness and limitations when the Self appears.
More broadly, Jung addressed this issue in his discussions of the numen, the numinous, the numinosum and numinosity. In this essay we will define these terms, provide some features and qualities of the numinous, then consider the experience of the numinous and how it has been experienced by some noteworthy historical figures. We will then examine Jung’s experience of it, and Jung’s assessment of our current predicament, now that Western civilization has lost many of its numinosities.

Some Definitions

Numen is a Latin word, deriving from the verb nuere, meaning “to nod.” Its original meaning was “a nod.” You might well wonder how it comes to have anything to do with the Divine, the Self and Jung’s concerns. It came to mean “divine will or divine power of the gods” from the Greek and Roman practice of going to a temple to consult the will of the gods, at times when a person confronted a serious decision. In the temple the supplicant would stand before a statue of the god, state his problem, ask the god for guidance and then watch the statue. If it seemed to nod, the person knew the god approved the tack he planned to take. Over time numen came to be synonymous with “deity,” “Godhead,” divinity or “divine majesty.”
The other 3 words mentioned above—numinous, numinosum and numinosity—Jung used frequently and all of them derive from numen. “Numinous” was an invented word, coined in 1917 by a German professor of theology, Rudolf Otto, in his book Das Heilige (translated in 1923 as The Idea of the Holy). Why the invention? Otto felt the need for a specialized word to describe the concept of “holy” without the “moral factor” or rationality that we usually attach to “holy.” He sought to describe “… this ‘extra’ in the meaning of ‘holy’ above and beyond the meaning of goodness.” To create his neologism Otto started with numen and then looked for analogies. He found one in “omen,” the adjectival form of which is “ominous.” The adjective form of numen thus would be “numinous.” Otto used “numinous” to describe categories of value within the sense of “holy,” and also to refer to a state of mind.
Modern English dictionaries define “numinous” several ways. It can mean “spiritual, holy, divine” and also “ethereal, nebulous, intangible.” In Otto’s and Jung’s usage, “spiritual,” “holy,” “divine” and “intangible” capture most accurately the qualities they mean.
Numinosum is a word Jung used repeatedly. He may have borrowed it from Otto; perhaps the original German text had this Latinized version of “numinous.” I have not found it in the English translation. In his essay “Psychology and Religion” Jung provides a definition of numinosum:
“… a dynamic agency or effect not caused by an arbitrary act of will…. The numinosum—whatever its cause may be—is an experience of the subject independent of his will…. The numinosum is either a quality belonging to a visible object or the influence of an invisible presence that causes a peculiar alteration of consciousness….”
In Jung’s thinking the numinosum is both a quality inherent to an object or an experience that comes over a person, often inadvertently.

Qualities and Features of the Numinous

Otto and Jung provide a wealth of explicit qualities people are likely to feel when in the presence of the holy. First, it must be noted that the numinosum is a paradox, containing both positive and negative, both of which we may experience simultaneously in any encounter with the Divine.
Some of the positive qualities of the numinosum include: sublimity, awe, excitement, bliss, rapture, exaltation, entrancement, fascination, attraction, allure and what Otto called an “impelling motive power.” Not so pleasant are other qualities like: overwhelment, fear, trembling, weirdness, eeriness, humility (an acute sense of unworthiness), urgency, stupor (blank wonder), bewilderment, horror, mental agitation, repulsion, and haunting, daunting, monstrous feelings that “overbrim the heart.” Otto speaks at length of the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, the fascinating mystery that makes us tremble (in awe). Because it “grips or stirs the mind,” such an experience is not one we forget.
But, while it is memorable, the numinous is not easily put into words. “Ineffable” is another of its features. The numinous “eludes apprehension in terms of concepts.” Being bigger and beyond oneself, it induces speechlessness. Being a mystery, it bewilders the rational mind. Being divine, it links us to the “ground of the soul.” Being “unevolvable,” it is not to be derived from any other feeling.
More frequently found in Jung’s works is “numinosity.” He used this term to refer to a quality inherent in archetypes, in complexes, in “curiosities which the logical mind cannot explain.” Found in Western alchemy, and in cultural symbols, numinosity is that quality that gives religious ideas their “thrilling power.” Much as with archetypes, we can’t grasp the meaning of the word without personal experience. True understanding here comes from a lived encounter.
This is very consistent with Jung’s empiricism: what is real is what one experiences. Rudolf Otto’s study of the concept of holiness appealed to Jung because Otto took it out of the realm of theory and brought it into the realm of feelings, sensory experience and personal events in individual lives. Otto gave Jung both the vocabulary to discuss this aspect of psychology and confirmation of Jung’s own personal experience when he had encountered the Divine. What was this experience? What might we expect to experience when we contact the numinous?

The Experience of the Numinous

A wide variety of historical figures have tried to put into words their experience of the numinous. In the 1st century A.D. St. Paul spoke of it as “… the peace which passes all understanding.” The author of Hebrews found it fear-inducing, as noted in the quote opening this essay. In the 14th century Meister Eckhart described it as the “primal bottom” grounding the soul. Two centuries later Martin Luther referred to the numinous as the deus absconditus et incomprehensibilis, the hidden and incomprehensible god. In the 18th century Friedrich Schleiermacher suggested the numinous was the “intuition and feeling of the infinite.” The 19th century cultural historian John Ruskin described the “instinctive awe, mixed with delight; an indefinable thrill…” that he got in the presence of the numinous. A later contemporary of Ruskin, the American psychologist William James, studied the varieties of religious experience and referred to the numinous as “a sense of reality, a feeling of objective presence, a perception of … something there.” Jung was another person who experienced the numinous in life. What did it mean for him?

Jung’s Experiences

In his analytic work, Jung witnessed every day the power and impact the numinous had in the lives of patients wrestling with their complexes, encountering archetypes and confronting the unconscious. Coming from the collective unconscious, the numinous is uncontrollable and “outside conscious volition.” Often linked to synchronicity, the feeling of numinosity would grow in patients as the number of synchronous events became more numerous.
Jung saw in his own life, and in the lives of his patients and colleagues, just how powerful an impact the numinous can have. It can feed the “hunger of the soul” and provide feelings of liberation and relief. As much as it is ineffable, the numinous is also ineluctable: it cannot be ignored. When people tried to ignore its dictates, Jung saw how things started to go badly, eventually leading to physical symptoms as the Self tried to get the individual’s attention.
Jung felt that the numinous controlled our fate and could work a major transformation in us, e.g. in conversion experiences, in situations that produce emotional shocks, or, more pleasantly, in moments of illumination. Common to all these experiences is “affectivity:” powerful feelings are always involved in any encounter with the numinous.

A Richer Translation of Hebrews 10:31

Jung understood that “to have fallen into the hands of the living God”—that is, to be confronted with the Divine—would produce an affect, a feeling response. Most translations of the Greek of Hebrews 10:31 use the word “fearful,” as the response brought up when a person confronts the Self. But the original Greek captures more of the rich quality of the numinosum. Let’s examine the verse word-by-word.
Phoberon comes from the verb phobein, “to put to flight; to strike with fear; to terrify, frighten, alarm; to be seized with fear; to stand in awe of.” So phoberon is what causes a person to flee or feel fear.
Empesein is an infinitive in one of Greek’s past tenses, with the meaning of “to have fallen upon/chanced upon/fallen into…”, suggesting inadvertence, or an unintentional event or act.
Theou zontos is the periphrastic genitive, literally translated as “of the living god,” or what Jung means when he speaks of the self.
So Hebrews 10:31, as a verse, is a description of the personal experience of contact with the Self. A fuller translation, more nuanced and attuned to Jung’s understanding of the role of the numinous in the process of individuation would be: “When one has fallen into the hands of the Self (the living god within), it causes one to stand in ‘holy dread,’ with awe, fear and trembling.”
Jung felt that organized religions, with their rituals and dogmas, provide a “defense” against this experience. But those on the path of individuation cannot avoid it.

Our Current Predicament

Nor should we try to. Jung was clear about this and in his writings he repeatedly lamented the loss of numinosity in the modern world. Facing the decay and dissolution of society, Western culture has lost its raison d’être, which depends on numinosity.
Jung recognized that most people in the Western world today are closed to the irrational, reluctant to engage mystery or to allow themselves to be overpowered by numinous feelings. “Caught in the toils of egohood,” most people are mistrustful of anything they can’t see, touch, count or quantify. They are disoriented and dissociated because they have lost their moral and spiritual traditions.
Most people in our world live now without true spiritual leadership because religious leaders are more interested in protecting their institutions than in understanding the shift that has occurred in the psyche of Western people. Unable to understand the character of mystical experiences, people these days deny mysticism’s numinous nature. Those still “contained” in religion are leery of the numinous because numinous experiences often give rise to doubt. Too busy, too hurried, too harried to take the time to understand the meaning of numina, people refuse to take the time to come to terms with them.
Those on the path of individuation take the time. They have to: numinous dreams, synchronicities, and life experiences confront them frequently, calling up that “holy dread,” reminding the ego of its modest place compared to the Self.
A “new dispensation” is aborning in the closing years of the age of Pisces. Jung recognized this and he felt that those who had worked on themselves, those who had taken up the task of crucifying the ego and giving over control of their lives to the Self—such people would become carriers of Spirit, open to the experience of the numinous. An examination of Jung’s sense of this new dispensation, and the central role individuated persons will play in it, is the subject of the next essay.

Bibliography

Edinger, Edward (1996), The Aion Lecture: Exploring the Self in C.G. Jung’s Aion. Toronto: Inner City Books.
Elder, George & Dianne Cordic (2009), An American Jungian In Honor of Edward F. Edinger. Toronto: Inner City Books.
James, William (1961), The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: Collier Books.
Jung, Carl (1956) “Symbols of Transformation,” Collected Works, 5, 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1966), “Two Essays on Analytical Psychology,” CW 7. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1960), ”The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche,” CW 8. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1970), “Civilization in Transition,” CW 10. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1969), “Psychology and Religion: West and East,” CW 11. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1953), “Psychology and Alchemy,” CW 12. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1967), “Alchemical Studies,” CW 13. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1963), “Mysterium Coniunctionis,” CW 14. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1954), “The Practice of Psychotherapy,” CW 16, 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1976), ”The Symbolic Life,” CW 18. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Lewis, Charlton & Charles Short (1969), A Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Liddell, H.G. & Scott (1978), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon. New York: Oxford University Press.
Otto, Rudolf (1958), The Idea of the Holy. New York: Oxford University Press.

Making Your Kitbag Workshop. March 13th, 10-1PM; $15; 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury.

A one-day experiential workshop that helps students identify those items, ideas and pieces of information that can support them in times of emotional and spiritual crisis. An invaluable adjunct to the spiritual journey and helpful for anyone who works with the unconscious or is in analysis. Led by Sue Mehrtens

The New Dispensation. March 25,April 1, 8 and 15, 2-4PM; $60; 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury.

Carl Jung recognized that a new form of spiritual expression was arising in anticipation of the Age of Aquarius—a form rooted in the psychologically conscious individual. Jung felt that such new spiritual developments grew out of older religions (the old “dispensations”), and this course draws on the wisdom contained in the New Testament and the life of Jesus to describe the form of this “new dispensation.” Led by Sue Mehrtens

Visioneering. March 21, April 11, May 2 and 23; 2-5PM; $75; 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury.

This workshop applies Bernoulli’s principle (the basis for all forms of aerodynamics) to the realm of personal life, to jump-start dreams and hopes we have for the future. Participants learn what vision is, the power it has, and how to use it in very practical, grounded ways, to bring about changes in their own lives. With over 30 exercises, and a modicum of readings, this 12-hour workshop runs over 3 months, to allow members the time to develop a vision, apply the principles and use the exercises to realize a dream. Led by Sue Mehrtens

Making Good Choices Workshop. April 7,14,21,28; 7-9PM; $60; 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury.

We are living in a time when the choices we make will have far more crucial and long-term consequences than at any time in the past. This course explores a variety of questions related to making good choices, e.g. “What does it mean to “choose”?” “What goes into making good choices?” “What assumptions underlie the choices we make?” and “What is going on now, in the larger context of our lives, that might impact our choosing?” Led by Sue Mehrtens

Creation of Consciousness. April 22, 29, May 6 and 13; 7-9PM; $60; 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury.

This advanced course offers an in-depth examination of 4 key documents that explore the basis of what Jung called the “new dispensation”--the Biblical book of Job, Jung’s “Answer to Job,” William Blake’s illustrations of the book of Job, and Edward Edinger’s The Creation of Consciousness—toward explicating Jung’s image of God and fostering an understanding of how we, as individuals, are meant to be carriers of the numinosum and co-creators with the Divine. Ideally students will have taken the Introduction to Jung and Esoteric Christianity courses prior to taking this course, but this is not required. Led by Sue Mehrtens.

The Divine Feminine. April 24; 12-5PM; $30; Best Western Motel, Waterbury.

How can we imagine Wisdom? Learn how to embody in the manifest world the inspirations that come from this exciting experiential workshop that opens your spiritual senses . Led by Kathy Warner, teacher and author; for further information, call Kathy at (802) 426-3987.

Art & Soul Workshop. Saturday, May 1; 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. $55 includes lunch; Morrisville Studio.

Inside the psyche of each and every person is an ember of creativity. Using movement and various creative techniques, we will help you to fan that ember into a flame of creative expression. Learn to nurture your soul through the expression of joy, creativity, self-love and acceptance. Facilitated by Lisa Buell, business/life coach and JourneyDance ™ Facilitator, and Sara Waskuch, teacher, writer and creative coach. Call Sara 888-3802 to register and for directions.
The Life Mission Institute Open House. April 25th; 1-5PM; free; Best Western Motel, Waterbury. We’ll be introducing the work of the Life Mission Institute and the LMI team in this afternoon opportunity where you can meet exciting people, enjoy refreshments and have a chance to socialize with like-minded people.

Finding Your Mission in Life. May 5,12,19,26; 7-9PM; $120; 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury.

Every person alive has a unique soul mission, a special way he or she is meant to make a difference in the world. When we discover our purpose we open our lives to greater joy, meaning and wonder. Melding the work of Carl Jung and Edgar Cayce, students participant in a variety of exercises and processes to help them identify their purposes for living. They also meet the Life Mission Institute team and choose one member of the team from whom they get a free reading. Also included in the cost of the course is a personal interview designed to foster the student’s integration of the reading, course materials and insights. Led by Sue Mehrtens and the Life Mission Institute team.

Developing Your Intuition. (weekend format) June 19 & 20, 9-5PM, lunches included; $75; 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury.

The tumultuous times we live in are making it obvious that many of our old ways of thinking, living and working don’t function very well any more, and change is happening faster than ever before. How might we cope? By using the whole of our brains—right as well as left sides, the intuitive as well as the rational mind. Because the intuitive mind operates outside linear time, it is particularly powerful in dealing with the future, allowing us to anticipate what is to come, to make realistic plans, and to stay safe from harm. This workshop opens with a brief introduction to the various forms intuition takes, followed by a short assessment of personal intuitive styles. Participants learn a variety of ways to access their intuition by working with personally relevant issues, coming away from the workshop with concrete information immediately applicable to their lives. They should bring to the workshop several questions about which they would like greater clarity or insight. Led by Sue Mehrtens.

Components of Individuation:
Part IV—Internalizing a Locus of Security

In the previous parts of this four-part essay we noted how we hold others responsible when we externalize a locus of control and how we expect others to take over responsibility for decision-making when we externalize a locus of authority. How might we expect reality to appear when we externalize a locus of security? We seek outside ourselves for sources of safety—parents, spouses, roles, jobs, savings, pensions, titles, ranks, a guru, being famous etc. Jesus speaks of this when he talks about “laying up treasures on Earth.” Like the other forms of externalization, none of these is reliable.
Why? because anything external is subject to loss. Parents die; spouses can die or serve us with divorce papers. Roles can disappear (just as children have the habit of growing up and moving away). Savings and pensions can be lost or rendered worthless in massive inflationary cycles. Ranks and titles come to mean little if/when the company bellies up. The guru can turn out to have feet of clay. Fame can transform into infamy if the public becomes disenchanted. Moths and rust might consume our stuff, and thieves can break in to steal what we clutch in order to feel safe.
Jung offers one common example of externalization of a locus of security when he describes marriage as a psychological relationship:
At this juncture things are apt to occur that bring the conflict [between a husband and wife] to a head. He becomes conscious of the fact that he is seeking completion, seeking the contentedness and undividedness that have always been lacking. For the contained [i.e. the wife] this is only a confirmation of the insecurity she has always felt so painfully; ... The hope of security vanishes, and this disappointment drives her in on herself, unless by desperate and violent efforts she can succeed in forcing her partner to capitulate, and in extorting a confession that his longing for unity was nothing but a childish or morbid fantasy. If these tactics do not succeed, her acceptance of failure may do her a real good, by forcing her to recognize that the security she was so desperately seeking in the other is to be found in herself....
Many, many marriages are built on the unconscious assumption that the partner will provide security—financial or emotional. A precarious situation, to be sure, in this time of rampant divorce.
So if true security cannot be found in having lots of money, owning one’s own home, acquiring a huge 401(k), being married to a rich spouse, or being a famous celebrity, where does it lie? Jesus tells us that true security lies in “laying up treasures in Heaven.” Jung agrees, but few people in the modern world understand what is meant by “treasures in Heaven.” Jung knew (from personal experience) that true security lies within us, closely related to the inner guru mentioned in Part III of this essay.
In fact, if we have developed a strong awareness of and connection to our inner guru, we are well on the way to creating for ourselves an inner locus of security. This is because, when we give up looking outside to authority figures, we are led
... by a natural route, back to ourselves as an actual, living something poised between two world-pictures and their darkly discerned potencies. This “something” is strange to us and yet so near, wholly ourselves and yet unknowable, a virtual center of so mysterious a constitution that it can claim anything... without moving us to wonder...
Jung then goes on in the next paragraph to name this center:
I have called this center the self... by definition it transcends our powers of comprehension. It might equally well be called the “God within us.” The beginnings of our whole psychic life seem to be inextricably rooted in this point, and all our highest and ultimate purposes seem to be striving towards it.
So the Self is both a goal of the individuation process and the source of inalienable security.
Sounds great! Let’s go for it! We’ll just find that Self within and we’ll be sitting pretty, right? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Go back to the quote from Jesus: we are told to “lay up treasures in Heaven.” While our materialistic mindset focuses on the “treasures,” both Jesus and Jung would have us focus on the verb, “lay up.” That is, the key to inner security is the years-long process of building a track record of trust in one’s inner guidance and contact with the Self.
Jung minces no words with regard to the long-term effort required to become aware of the Self and then to relinquish control of one’s life to it:
... the self has somewhat the character of a result, of a goal attained, something that has come to pass very gradually and is experienced with much travail. ...
The existence of a sense of inner security by no means proves that the product will be stable enough to withstand the disturbing or hostile influences of the environment. The adept had to experience again and again how unfavorable circumstances or a technical blunder or—as it seemed to him—some devilish accident hindered the completion of his work, so that he was forced to start all over again from the very beginning. Anyone who submits his sense of inner security to analogous psychic tests will have similar experiences. More than once everything he has built will fall to pieces under the impact of reality, and he must not let this discourage him from examining, again and again, where it is that his attitude is still defective, and what are the blind spots in his psychic field of vision.... Always we shall have to begin again from the beginning. From ancient times the adept knew that he was concerned with the “res simplex,” and the modern man too will find by experience that the work does not prosper without the greatest simplicity. But simple things are always the most difficult.
Time and again we take up the work, submit the ego to the Self and taste the bitterness of that experience, as Jung reminds us that “... the experience of the self is always a defeat for the ego.” And regardless of the pain, we have to go back to the beginning and start over and over. Eventually “... the whole of the conscious man is surrendered to the self, to the new center of personality which replaces the former ego....”
Painful years-long effort is only one drawback. Another challenge in internalizing a locus of security lies in our culture, which is ego-driven, run by unconscious men with a power-drive, men who have no use for soul, self or people with an inner locus of security. Fear—being sure that people feel afraid and insecure—is their meal ticket, the way they stay in power. So they assure us that “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Jung saw through this. He recognized that organized religions, with their dogmas, provide a defense against the personal knowledge and experience of the Divine. Only those no longer “contained” in religion are likely to encounter and develop a close relationship with the Self. One reason Jung appreciated the Gnostics was that they took a different approach, insisting on personal experience of the Divine, which is why the church fathers regarded them as heretics.
John Randolph Price, in The Abundance Book, echoed both Jesus and Jung when he identified our true source of “supply” (i.e. abundance, wealth, resources):
... my consciousness of the Presence of God within me is my supply... my awareness, understanding and knowledge of the all-providing activity of the Divine Mind within me is my supply.
Awareness might come in an epiphany or flash of insight. Knowledge can develop quickly if one works at it. But understanding takes time to develop. And against the forces of our materialistic culture—all clamoring for our attention and pulling us off a focus on things spiritual—we have to summon extraordinary determination to keep at this work of building a solid, personal relationship to the Self. But in nothing else do we have a true locus of security.
In many essays posted earlier to this blog, we spoke of the challenging times ahead, for us as Americans and for the world as a whole. In such times of massive, disruptive and discontinuous change, we cannot look to the old verities for security—not money, not fame, not personal contacts with the high and mighty, not physical strength nor beauty. Only that which lies within—the personal trust in the presence, guidance and wisdom of the Self, accrued over time—will provide the feeling of safety that cannot be lost. Students of Jung appreciate the wisdom of internalizing a locus of control (as the basis of inner work), a locus of authority (as the basis for an existence as an independent adult) and a locus of security, so as to feel safe in the world, regardless of what happens in the future.

Bibliography

Edinger, Edward (1984), The Creation of Consciousness. Toronto: Inner City Books.
________ (1966), “Two Essays on Analytical Psychology,” CW 7. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1969), “Psychology and Religion: West and East,” CW 11. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1963), “Mysterium Coniunctionis,” CW 14. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1954), “The Development of Personality,” CW 17. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1976), ”The Symbolic Life,” CW 18. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Price, John Randolph (1987), The Abundance Book. Boerne TX: Quartus Books.

Components of Individuation:
Part III—Internalizing a Locus of Authority

A few years ago my sister took to wearing a button on her shirt as she went through her days on the University of Vermont campus. The button said “Question Authority.” She didn’t wear the button for long, because she found people’s reaction to the button so dispiriting: Most people would see it, read it and then say, “What should I ask you?”
This sad story illustrates a fact about our culture: We are not encouraged to internalize a locus of authority. We grow up looking to our parents, our teachers, the clergy, the police, political leaders, doctors, lawyers, judges and others as authority figures, and we are taught to honor these authorities. Jung would not be pleased. While he was no revolutionary, he never encouraged people to give over ultimate authority for their lives to any external figure. He felt that doing so was essentially an alienation of the self, a sign of spiritual immaturity and an abdication of the personal task to search for the truth.
Not even analysts did Jung exempt on this point. Early in his essay “Principles of Practical Psychotherapy,” Jung admonished analysts:
When, as a psychotherapist, I set myself up as a medical authority over my patient and on that account claim to know something about his individuality, or to be able to make valid statements about it, I am only demonstrating my lack of criticism, for I am in no position to judge the whole of the personality before me.... If I wish to treat another individual psychologically at all, I must for better or worse give up all pretensions to superior knowledge, all authority and desire to influence.
My analyst describes the relationship of Jungian analyst to client as one where both parties are “in the soup together.” That is, both analyst and analysand are affected by the process and both must defer to the wisdom of the psyche.
Jung reserves some of his most sarcastic comments for those who externalize their locus of authority by becoming disciples of a guru. When discussing negative attempts to free the individuality in “The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious,” Jung wrote:
... the joy of becoming a prophet’s disciple... for the vast majority of people, is an altogether ideal technique. Its advantages are: the odium dignitatis, the superhuman responsibility of the prophet, turns into the so much sweeter otium indignitatis. The disciple is unworthy; modestly he sits at the Master’s feet and guards against having ideas of his own. Mental laziness becomes a virtue; one can at least bask in the sun of a semidivine being. He can enjoy the archaism and infantilism of his unconscious fantasies without loss to himself, for all responsibility is laid at the Master’s door. Through his deification of the Master, the disciple, apparently without noticing it, waxes in stature; moreover, does he not possess the great truth—not his own discovery, of course, but received straight from the Master’s hands? Naturally the disciples always stick together, not out of love, but for the very understandable purpose of effortlessly confirming their own convictions by engendering an air of collective agreement.
The result? Both master and disciples get inflated (since both are identifying with an archetype). The disciple looses his/her spiritual freedom. His individuality is injured. Life for both prophet and disciple is “full of sorrows, disappointments and privations,...” Put on a pedestal by his followers, the master/prophet teeters precariously and almost inevitably eventually succumbs to the moral evils of power, lust and/or greed. The disciple is infantilized and sorely disillusioned when his guru turns out to have feet of clay.
At the Jungian Center for the Spiritual Sciences, we got a first-hand look at this whole process this past Spring and Summer 2009, when one of our students got involved with the work of Dr. Zhi Gang Sha. Interested in his system of soul healing, she went to several of his workshops, came back and urged us to look into Sha’s work, because Sha is quite explicit in his belief that the soul is real, powerful and should be the “boss” of one’s life.
Aware of Jung’s conviction that the psyche (soul) is real, we jumped at the chance to investigate the work of someone else (from a very different, Oriental, not Western background) who recognizes the reality of the soul. So we offered to the public two workshops led by two students of Master Sha. In these workshops it was clear that they had tremendous respect for their master, even to the point of venerating his books (which were not to be put on the floor). Some of us began to be skeptical—what one student called “spotting a red flag.”
Then we were told that the Master could remove karma from past lives, as long as you bought $1,000 worth of his books. Another red flag.
Then came the pitch to attend the Master’s enlightenment retreat, at which one’s level of “soul standing” would be raised—for the cost of attendance, of course. Another red flag.
Finally, a group of us went to a workshop led by the Master himself. We saw people seeking to kiss his feet, to kiss the ground he walked on, to prostrate themselves, to wait on him hand and foot. More red flags.
But it was when Master Sha announced to the group that he had elevated Jesus, Mary and Buddha to a higher level of Heaven that we had incontrovertible proof of the inflation that Jung describes as one of the features of the guru syndrome. Jung would have none of this. We left the workshop on the spot.

The Positive Authority Figure

Jung had no good words for those who set themselves up as authority figures and then take their followers’ authority from them. But he was not completely opposed to gurus: they just had to be inner gurus. The medieval alchemists (especially Paracelsus) were Jung’s models here. The alchemical literature is full of references to “the stone,” “Christ,” “Khidri” —all symbols of the inner authority that develops over the course of the alchemical opus. Paracelsus was particularly adept at attacking the old authorities—Galen, Avicenna, Rhazes and others—and putting in their place the authenticity of his own personal experience of nature. Over the course of his experimentation Paracelsus developed an inner guru that he knew he could trust.
Jung did likewise in creating his body of psychological wisdom. He tried something and if it worked and helped his patients, it became part of his system, regardless of how the “authorities” in medicine, psychiatry, or psychology regarded it. Hence Jung’s open-mindedness about things like astrology and the I Ching. He worked with these ancient systems, saw first-hand how useful they can be, and so incorporated them into his armamentarium of techniques.
The positive authority figure lies within. This inner energy often shows up in our dreams of an Old Wise Man or Woman. Sometimes it can be the spirit of a long-dead figure, like the 8th-9th c. Hindu saint Shankaracharya. When your inner wisdom figure shows up you’ll know it, because, like all archetypes, this figure carries numinosity.
Internalizing this inner guru, Jung felt, is part of the process of becoming an adult. It takes effort and time to do so and Jung was aware that it is not something most people would have the maturity to do:
... mankind is, in essentials, psychologically still in a state of childhood—a stage that cannot be skipped. The vast majority needs authority, guidance, law. This fact cannot be overlooked. The Pauline overcoming of the law falls only to the man who knows how to put his soul in the place of conscience. Very few are capable of this (“Many are called, but few are chosen”). And these few tread this path only from inner necessity, not to say suffering, for it is sharp as the edge of a razor.
“Inner necessity” drives the mature person into this work, despite the suffering that is an inevitable part of it. Balancing the suffering are a wealth of benefits.

Benefits of Internalizing a Locus of Authority

Unlike disciples always looking to the master for direction, persons who “authorize their own lives” are able to make their own decisions. Jung regards those who externalize their locus of authority as “spectators” at their own lives, while those who live guided by an inner authority are active agents in the creation of reality.
A second benefit to authorizing one’s own life is that your guru is always present: you don’t have to go consult somebody else when you have to make a decision. No one else is running your life; no outside “other” is determining your fate. You have the opportunity (and the obligation) to decide for yourself.
Most importantly, internalizing a locus of authority benefits our self-esteem. We aren’t giving over the direction of our lives to someone else. We recognize our adult status and act like adults in the knowledge and awareness that we have an ever-present inner guidance system that we can trust.
Such an inner presence is of inestimable value in helping us feel safe in the world. This brings us to the final component of individuation: internalizing a locus of security, which is the subject of Part IV of this essay.

Bibliography

________ (1966), “Two Essays on Analytical Psychology,” CW 7. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1960), ”The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche,” CW 8. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1959), ”The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious,” CW 9i. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1959), “Aion,” Collected Works, 9ii. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1969), “Psychology and Religion: West and East,” CW 11. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1967), “Alchemical Studies,” CW 13. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1954), “The Practice of Psychotherapy,” CW 16. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1976), ”The Symbolic Life,” CW 18. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Keen, Sam (1992), “Dying Gods and Borning Spirits,” Noetic Sciences Review.
Sha, Zhi Gang (2006), Soul Mind Body Medicine. Novato CA: New World Library.
________ (2008a), Soul Communication. New York: Atria Books.
________ (2008b), Soul Wisdom. New York: Atria Books.
________ (2009), The Power of Soul. New York: Atria Books.

Winter Schedule and Upcoming Events

Course Offerings for Winter 2010

SHADOW WORK, Jan 9,16,23,30; 2-4PM; 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury; $60. Info, call Sue (802) 244-7909. Jung defined the shadow as “a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality,” a problem that can trip us up or cause all sorts of self-sabotage if we remain unaware of its activity within us. This workshop presents students with a variety of exercises that help to uncover the shadow, in both its good and bad guises, with the goal of expanding consciousness, and helping students to live more compassionately. In the final assignment of the workshop participants will create a Shadow mask which they will wear to the Shadow party (our February Psychology Club event). Led by Sue Mehrtens, teacher and author.

INTRODUCTION TO WORKING WITH SYMBOLS, Jan 10,17,24,31; 2-4PM; 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury; $60. Info, call Sue (802) 244-7909. Learn how to recognize, interpret and work with the images that form the basis of art, creativity and your dream life in this workshop created by students’ requests. Led by Dr. Sue Mehrtens, teacher and author.
A basic course designed particularly for the student of dreams, focusing on the features, functions, history and sources of symbols, types of symbols (e.g. the mandala), symbols in alchemy and methods of working with symbols that are used particularly in Jungian psychology. An excellent course for students preparing for advanced work in hermeneutics, psychology, art and art therapy and counseling.

INTRODUCTION TO ASTROLOGY, Jan 16,23,30; 9AM to Noon; 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury; $60. Info, call Patrick (802) 479-5017 or Sue (802) 244-7909. A basic course for the novice. Study the ancient symbol system of the stars and learn how it relates to your inner and outer life. Led by Patrick Ross.
A basic course for the novice with no prior training in astrology. The major components of the natal chart—the zodiac, planets, signs, houses and aspects—are identified and interpreted in depth. In addition, students will be introduced to computer programs that construct individual charts.

INTRODUCTION TO DOWSING AND METAPHYSICS, Jan 16 & 30th; 10AM to Noon; $55 (includes set of dowsing rods), $45 if you bring your own dowsing rods; Emerging, 49 Depot St, Stowe. Do you feel tired even after a full night's sleep? Or is there a room in your house or office that you avoid because it makes you feel uncomfortable? The cause could be geopathic stress. Geopathic stress is a natural phenomenon which affects certain places and can be damaging to our health. Dowsing is also a great tool for getting in touch with your intuition. Learn the basics in this experiential workshop.. Led by Rachel Chevalier, dowser and energy healer.

AWARENESS THROUGH CHAKRAS AND YOGA, Jan 30, 10AM-2PM; Geezum Crow Yoga Studio, Montpelier; $30. Info and directions, call Linda (229-9922) or Reenie (244-5250). Learn about and experience Awareness through the body’s chakras using tools and techniques and then apply these in basic yoga postures specifically designed for this class. Fun and interactive for all levels. Led by Linda Buckley, certified yoga instructor, and Reenie Sargent, Reiki master.

WORKING WITH THE I CHING, Feb. 13,20,27, Mar 6; 2 to 4PM; 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury; $60. Info, call Sue (802) 244-7909. One of Jung’s favorite mantic arts was the Chinese “Book of Changes,” or I Ching. In this hands-on workshop we will explore the worldview and principles underlying this ancient art, how best to use it and the role the oracle played in Jung’s own life and work. To get maximum benefit from this course, students should come with questions or concerns about which they want guidance. Led by Sue Mehrtens, teacher and author.

INTRODUCTION TO MEDITATION, Feb 14,21,28,Mar 7; 2 to 4PM; $60; 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury. Info, call Sue (802) 244-7909. This course provides a basic orientation to one of the most essential practices of the spiritual journey. Called “receptive prayer,” “contemplation,” “sitting,” zazen, and “the art of inner listening,” meditation offers manifold benefits to the spiritual seeker. We consider some of the schools of meditation as we work with over a dozen techniques drawn from Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Tibetan and Zen traditions. Because the purpose of the course is to equip students with this most valuable tool, the format is much more experiential than intellectual, although some readings are discussed and a lengthy bibliography is provided. The goal is both to inform and to immerse participants in meditation, to encourage the development of a regular, daily practice. Led by Dr. Sue Mehrtens, teacher and author.

MAKING YOUR KITBAG WORKSHOP, March 13; 10AM-1PM; 55 Clover Lane, Waterbury; $15. Info, call Sue (802) 244-7909. A one-day experiential workshop (with a personal chart reading afterwards) that helps students identify those items, ideas and pieces of information that can support them in times of spiritual crisis. An invaluable adjunct to the spiritual journey and helpful for anyone who works with his or her dreams. Led by Sue Mehrtens, teacher and author.

Psychology Club activities:
January 16: “A Matter of Heart” (movie about Jung)
Feb 6: Shadow party (led by Shadow workshop participants who will have just finished the workshop the week before)
March 27: Beth Rice will give a presentation on crop circles
April 24: Lynn McBrien will give a presentation on Celtic sacred sites
May 8: Michael Atkinson will speak on fairy tales
June 12: picnic and labyrinth party (details to follow in future newsletters)

Preview of Spring term courses:
Developing Your Intuition: Mar 20,27,Apr 3,10; 2 to 4PM
Visioneering: Mar 21, Apr 11, May 2, May 23; 2 to 4PM
Choosing Workshop: Apr 7,14,21,28; 7 to 9PM
Creation of Consciousness: Apr 22,29,May 6,13,20,27; 7 to 9PM
Finding Your Mission in Life: May 5,12,19,26; 7 to 9PM (led by a team of instructors


The Jungian Center is a tax-exempt 501c3 non-profit educational organi-
zation; for information about the full range of our activities, visit us on the Web, or contact us at the phone/address below.
Contact Us
55 Clover Lane
Waterbury, Vermont 05676
802-244-7909
info@jungiancenter.org
on the web: JungianCenter.org

Components of Individuation:
Part II—Internalizing a Locus of Control

In Part I of this four-part essay we noted that a pre-requisite for achieving individuation was internalizing a locus of control. What does this mean?

Defining “Locus of Control”

I encountered the term “locus on control” in the works of Jungian analyst and astrologer Liz Greene. It refers to the placement (locus) of one’s sense of responsibility or power. In the normal course of child development, the locus of control gradually shifts over time from the parents to the adolescent until the mature adult recognizes and takes up his/her responsibility for living as a well-functioning adult in society.
Jung’s consulting room was full of people whose personal development from child to adult was not normal. Jung’s clients had parents who were negligent, slothful, neurotically anxious or soullessly conventional. Or their parents were clingy, and, as a result “... exercise an extremely bad influence over their children, since they deprive them of every opportunity for individual responsibility.” Others of Jung’s clients were scarred from years of carrying their parents’ unconscious complexes, and, lacking the wherewithal to assimilate that complex, they remained stuck in “infantilism.” Other clients had lived unconscious lives, “carried by society and to that extent [were] relieved of [their] responsibility.” Whatever the personal history, the core situation was the same: externalization of a locus of control, an abdication of personal responsibility.

Jung on Responsibility, the “Blame Game” and the “Search for the Magical Other”

Jung’s writings are replete with calls for individuals to recognize and take up personal responsibility:
... the maturing personality must assimilate the parental complex and achieve authority, responsibility, and independence.
… you could treat yourself if you don’t succumb to the prejudice that you receive healing through others. In the last resort every individual alone has to win his battle, nobody else can do it for him.
... every man is, in a certain sense, unconsciously a worse man when he is in society than when acting alone; for he is carried by society and to that extent relieved of his individual responsibility.
The bettering of a general ill begins with the individual, and then only when he makes himself and not others responsible.
Making others responsible is what some call playing the “blame game.” When we play the “blame game,” we blame others for our current situation, and these “others” are most often our parents or other adults who played a prominent role in our upbringing. Jung provides an example of the blame game in “Symbols of Transformation:”
Faced by the vast uncertainty of the future, the adolescent puts the blame for it on the past, saying to himself: “If only I were not the child of my very ordinary parents, but the child of a rich and elegant count... then one day a golden coach would come and... take... his long-lost child back with him to his wonderful castle,...
Clearly, Jung was familiar with this fruitless fantasy. He probably had many patients who were into playing the blame game. He recognized it as a morally lazy and ultimately frustrating endeavor, as he explained to a Swiss Fräulein in a letter of 23 January 1941:
There are a whole lot of facts in your letter which you’ll just have to face up to instead of tracing them back to the faulty behavior of other people…. There are countless people with an inferior extraversion or with too much introversion or with too little money who in God’s name must plod along through life under such conditions. These conditions are not diseases but normal difficulties of life. If you blame me for your psychological difficulties it won’t help you at all, for it is not my fault you have them. It’s nobody’s fault. I can’t take these difficulties away from you, but have merely tried to make you aware of what you need in order to cope with them. If you could stop blaming other people and external circumstances for your own inner difficulties you would have gained an infinite amount. But if you go on making others responsible, no one will have any desire to stand by you with advice.
As long as we see our problems as “out there,” caused by others, as long as we focus on assigning blame, we are refusing to face our own responsibility for dealing with the hand that Fate has dealt us.
This is not to say that Jung absolved parents of blame. He was quite blunt that most children who were brought to him with psychological problems were not the people he really needed to treat. Most of the time “problem children” were carrying their parents’ complexes and
In a case like this what would be the sense of talking to the child?... Such a procedure would ... burden her with a responsibility which is not hers at all, but really belongs to her parents....
Jung would then try to treat the parent or parents, but sometimes the parents didn’t want to hear that their unconsciousness was the real cause of their child’s problem. Rather than take up analysis with Jung themselves, they would leave.
It is not uncommon for people to have experienced poor parenting. Lots of us have come away from our youth scarred, warped or injured from all sorts of tragic events. Jung was explicit that, whatever our personal histories, the key to successful living is accepting that, as adults, we are responsible for the rest of our lives. If in some way or ways our life is not working, blaming others will only keep us stuck in our “stuff.”
Likewise, searching for the “magical other” who will transform our reality and bring us happiness is another trap that will keep us stuck. James Hollis, Jungian analyst and prolific author, wrote on this “search for the magical other” in his book The Eden Project. He describes the “Magical Other” as that person who “will lift from us the terrible weight of our freedom and responsibility.” But he notes that “no one can ever do that.”
Given our “culture of longing,” we don’t want to hear this. I encounter many people in my work who continue to search, year after year, for a “magical other” who will solve their problems, relieve their loneliness, fix their finances, or serve as a buffer from the cold world outside. These people don’t want to hear that responsibility for all these complaints rests with themselves. They continue to externalize a locus of control.

Why does this matter?

There are several reasons why this matters. First, externalizing a locus of control infantilizes. Jung is explicit about this. Living without taking responsibility for one’s life keeps us immature. It stunts our growth and thwarts our development.
Second, externalizing a locus of control fosters our gullibility and impressionability, at a time and in a culture where a finely honed faculty of discrimination and a critical mind are essential. Lacking an inner locus of control, we become prey to sly politicians, lying business people, shrewd salesmen and slick con artists eager to sell us a line or bilk us of our fortune.
A third reason why internalizing a locus of control matters relates to the Jungian concept of projection. When we look at our life and see problems—situations that we don’t like, relationships that aren’t working—and then expect or demand that others change, we are projecting our own unconsciousness on to others. A very common example of this is the following: A Persephone woman comes into my office complaining that her husband is a wastrel, spends all the money, leaves her little to buy food and pay the rent, and acts more or less like a little kid (he’s a puer). Her response to this situation is to wait, hoping that he will grow up. She is expecting him to change. She is projecting her own power (and puer) on to the husband, refusing to see that she is the only person in this situation who is likely to bring about a change. Days, weeks, months, even years may go by in this classic scenario, until one of three things happens: the husband dies (possibly having bankrupted the family one or more times first); the finances become so precarious that, faced with the imminent loss of their home, the woman kicks the husband out and takes up the challenge of living her own life; or the woman wakes up to the reality of her projections, internalizes her locus of control, takes back the power she projected on to her husband, and sets about creating a reality that works for her. This last is, of course, better than the other possibilities, but also the least likely, given that it requires the Persephone woman to make a descent into her inner underworld to access and assimilate her power.
A final (and, to Jung, the most important) reason why internalizing a locus of control matters is that externalizing a locus of control precludes individuation. We will never be able to liberate ourselves from the wounds of parental complexes until we stop playing the blame game and take responsibility for healing our lives. We will never be able to move into the fullness of our being as long as we keep searching for the magical other who will remove all our problems and create a world of bliss. The most basic of all components of individuation is facing the reality that “My life is mine and nobody else’s; I am responsible for what my life becomes; I am in control of my destiny and I can determine my future.”
No change is possible unless we change. As Gandhi reminded us, “we must be the change we wish to see in the world.” No one else is going to make it happen but us. And no one but us can internalize our locus of control.
Just as important to individuation as internalizing a locus of control is internalizing a locus of authority. That is the subject of Part III of this essay.

Bibliography

Bolen, Jean Shinoda (1984), Goddesses in Everywoman. New York: Harper & Row.
Greene, Liz & Howard Sasportas (1987), The Development of the Personality. York Beach ME: Samuel Weiser.
Hillman, James (1979), The Puer Papers. Dallas TX: Spring Publications.
Hollis, James (1998), The Eden Project: The Search for the Magical Other. Toronto: Inner City Books.
Jung, Carl (1956) “Symbols of Transformation,” Collected Works, 5, 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1966), “Two Essays on Analytical Psychology,” CW 7. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1960), ”The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche,” CW 8. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1959), ”The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious,” CW 9i. Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
________ (1954), “The Development of Personality,” CW 17. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1976), ”The Symbolic Life,” CW 18. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Neumann, Erich (1956), Amor and Psyche: The Psychic Development of the Feminine. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Perera, Sylvia Brinton (1981), Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women. Toronto: Inner City Press.
von Franz, Marie-Louise (1970), Puer Aeternus. Boston: Sigo Press.

Components of Individuation:
Part I—What is Individuation?

“Individuation” is a term often associated with Jung and his psychology. In this four-part essay we are going to define “individuation” and discuss some of the benefits, elements and requirements for achieving individuation (Part I). Then we’ll examine several components of it, specifically the locus of control (Part II), the locus of authority (Part III) and the locus of security (Part IV).

What is “Individuation”?

Our English word comes from the Latin individuus, meaning “undivided” or “individual.” The dictionary defines “individuation” as “the process leading to individual existence, as distinct from that of the species.” This definition applies the term to both animals and humans. Jung’s usage focused on humans and the concept became central to his approach to psychology.
Jung recognized the importance he placed on individuation in his 1921 definition of the term:
The concept of individuation plays a large role in our psychology. In general, it is the process by which individual beings are formed and differentiated; in particular, it is the development of the psychological individual... as a being distinct from the general, collective psychology. Individuation, therefore, is a process of differentiation... having for its goal the development of the individual personality.
In later years, Jung amplified his definition in a series of essays, describing “individuation” as
... the process by which a person becomes a psychological “in-dividual,” that is a separate, indivisible unity or “whole.”
...the better and more complete fulfillment of the collective qualities of the human being,...
... practically the same as the development of consciousness out of the original state of identity.... It is thus an extension of the sphere of consciousness, an enriching of conscious psychological life.
... becoming an “in-dividual,” and, in so far as “individuality” embraces our innermost, last, and incomparable uniqueness, it also implies becoming one’s own self. We could therefore translate individuation as “coming to selfhood,” or “self-realization.”
Jung felt this process of “self-realization” was a “natural transformation,” something that “the unconscious had in mind,” something meant to develop our individual personality.
Jung also regarded “individuation” as a solution to what he considered one of the major problems facing modern people: How to link up consciousness to the unconscious; how to bring our ego mind (consciousness) into a working relationship with our inner terra incognita, our unknown inner terrain. Concern about this problem was not unique to Jung: thousands of years ago Taoist and Buddhist practitioners had also seen its significance. Jung recognized this when he noted that “... the individuation process ... forms one of the main interests of Taoism and of Zen Buddhism.” Coming from a Christian background, as the son of a Protestant minister, Jung also recognized a Christian relevance to the concept, when he described individuation as “... the primitive Christian idea of the Kingdom of Heaven which ‘is within you’.”
Aware of Western culture’s vaunting of individualism, Jung took pains to stress the difference between “individualism” and “individuation.” The former concept is ego-driven and fosters selfishness and lack of concern for others. (Think of the bumper sticker that celebrates “Looking out for #1!”). Individuation is very much the opposite: Over the years of inner work the process requires, the person experiences repeated crucifixions of the ego as the ego confronts and assimilates contents of the unconscious. This long-term process
... brings to birth a consciousness of human community precisely because it makes us aware of the unconscious, which unites and is common to all mankind. Individuation is an at-one-ment with oneself and at the same time with humanity, since oneself is a part of humanity.
So, far from being selfish, an individuated person feels deeper responsibility to support and serve others and to foster peace, wholeness and integrity in the world.

Some Requirements of the Process of Individuation

Mention of crucifying the ego brings up the subject of what individuation entails. It’s challenging, a task for heroes, not for the faint of heart or for those who can’t stand against the crowd and be different. Divisio (being divided not only from others but also within oneself), separatio (being separated not only from family, friends and collective society, but also from the person you used to be), solutio (watching the structures of your life dissolve), discrimination, self-knowledge, “a positive torture” —these are just a few of the hardships likely to be faced in this work. Jung was being honest about the task when he warned “...as always every step forward along the path of individuation is achieved only at the cost of suffering.”
Why such difficulty? Jung gives several reasons. First, we grow up under parents and society, striving to become what is expected of us and the result is what Jung called the development of the “persona,” or mask. In many cases, the persona is not our true self. We have had to compromise, adapt, even, in extreme cases, betray our authentic nature. The process of individuation requires getting wise to this mask, that is, we have to face the fact that for years (if not decades) we have been living a lie. And then we have to give up this lie, put down the mask and begin to change our life so as to live more aligned with our authentic being. Such change almost inevitably elicits remarks (maybe even protests) from those who know us best, those most deeply invested in how we used to be, those likely to be most affected by our shifting the parameters of daily life, i.e. our family and closest friends.
Second, individuation requires heroism because it is hard to be different, to step out of the mainstream conventional reality and march to one’s own drummer. The work is not a herd phenomenon. You aren’t going to find many people doing it. For this reason Extraverts, who tend to resonate with the collective and appreciate group activities, find the process harder than Introverts.
A third difficulty comes from the self-knowledge that is part of the process. “Self-knowledge” means becoming conscious of the unconscious: facing our shadow and becoming aware of the reality of our “inner partner,” the animus (for women) or the anima (for men). The work of individuation takes us through the “swamplands of the soul” in the nigredo phase mentioned in an earlier essay. While Jung was clear that the unconscious takes to us the attitude we take to it, for most people it takes a while (if it ever happens at all!) to develop a cheerful attitude toward the unconscious.
By this point you might well be wondering “Why bother?” Yes, Jung put great emphasis on achieving individuation but if it’s so difficult, why make the effort? Jung suggests multiple benefits.

Benefits of Achieving Individuation

Let’s mention the personal benefits first. Jung was explicit that the work of individuation was
... absolutely indispensable because, through his contamination with others, [the human being] falls into situations and commits actions which bring him into disharmony with himself.... there is begotten a compulsion to be and to act in a way contrary to one’s own nature. Accordingly a man ... feels himself to be in a degrading, unfree, unethical condition.... deliverance from this condition will come only when he can be and act as he feels is conformable with his true self.
Achieving individuation allows us to be and act in conformity with our true self.
There are other personal benefits. If we stay on the path, stick with the work, we come to enjoy a widened circle of consciousness. Our sense of separateness ends and we gain broader, more intense relationships with others.
We also experience the apocatastasis mentioned in the previous blog essay—that “restoration” or reconstitution of our being that makes the travail of the apocalypse seem well worth the suffering. Life works better. We feel deep in our bones that what we are doing, how we are living, with whom we are living (our new circle of friends) is what our soul intends for us. The quality of the people we draw into our life is better (“like finds like”). We know that the employment we take up has purchase on our soul. Our values mesh with our lifestyle and our actions speak our soul purpose.
We feel liberated from the unconsciousness of our parents, which permits our feeling “... a genuine sense of ... true individuality.” At the same time as we experience a greater feeling of freedom from our past, we also experience an “... absolute, binding and indissoluble communion with the world at large.”
Which brings us to the societal benefits of individuation. Time and again Jung stressed in his work that individuals matter (see the essay on “Jung’s Timelessness” in the archive of this blog). Anyone of us could be “the makeweight that tips the scales,” and so, in our taking up the task of individuating, each of us is undertaking “... a healing with with universal impact” and “... laying up an infinitesimal gram in the scales of humanity’s soul.” Given the critical nature of our time (as described in earlier essays), Jung would regard no individual activity to be more meaningful and useful than becoming individuated.
In the second part of this essay, we will examine one of the most basic components—a prerequisite—for individuation: internalizing a locus of control.

Bibliography

Hollis, James (1996), Swamplands of the Soul. Toronto: Inner City Books.
Jung, Carl Gustav (1971), “Psychological Types,” CW 6. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1966), “Two Essays on Analytical Psychology,” CW 7. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1959), ”The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious,” CW 9i. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1970), “Civilization in Transition,” CW 10. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1969), “Psychology and Religion: West and East,” CW 11. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1954), “The Practice of Psychotherapy,” CW 16. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Sharp, Daryl (1991), Jung Lexicon: A Primer of Terms and Concepts. Toronto: Inner City Books

The Apocatastasis of Global Civilization:
Seizing the Opportunity in the Archetype of the Apocalypse

“Apocatastasis.” It’s a five-dollar Greek word that Jung used repeatedly in his writings, drawing on earlier usage in the New Testament and the Gnostic gospels. It means a “re-establishment,” “restoration” or “reconstitution,” and, as we noted in the previous essay, it is part of the intentionality of the archetype of the apocalypse. No person goes through the apocalyptic process simply to experience the destruction of what he or she holds dear: the whole point is to clear away the detritus of a life that he or she has outgrown. In a similar way our collective global society is now being challenged to open up to radically new ways of thinking, so as to replace a civilization that has grown stale and inappropriate with a world that works for everyone.
The initial reaction of most people to this challenge is “Duh? Radically new ways of thinking? Replacing a civilization? A stale civilization? A Rip Van Winkle act sounds appealing right about now; let’s go to sleep for the next 40 years and wake up when all this is over!” Jung would not be amused; he would also not be surprised.
Jung recognized that most people will take the Rip Van Winkle approach, only they won’t need to go to sleep: they already are asleep, and they won’t want to hear any of the following. Jung was a realist: only a “leading minority” will have the maturity, the consciousness and the courage to transform the world. Fortunately, since Jung’s time, as the world has gotten more and more “stale,” more and more people have been taking up his challenge and have responded to the apocalypse archetype to restore and revitalize their own lives. As they have done so they have also taken up the task of envisioning a similar restoration for the collective. They have shared their insights and suggestions in a wealth of books and articles that inform the portrait of a civilization more supportive of the fullness of our human potential.
In this essay we consider what such a civilization would look like, its features, activities and paradigms (basic patterns that structure underlying beliefs and assumptions). Because this new “restored” civilization is growing out of the old, we must begin with a review of the basic features of the world we know. Then we can examine how that world is no longer appropriate, what might replace it and the form a global restoration might take.

Some Basic Features of Western Civilization

When we speak of “civilization” these days invariably we mean the life ways of the peoples of Europe, America and other “progressive” countries. Superficially this “Western” civilization means “high technologies” like television, cell phones and computers, and cultural artifacts like movies, pop stars, video games and the Internet. This civilization offers to the people of the world sophisticated forms of medical care—hospitals with their CAT scans and MRIs; germ theory, vaccines and the promise of the eradication of disease; “spare-parts” medicine, the evolution of super-bugs, and the prospect of global pandemics--pandemics made more likely because of growing urbanization, as more and more people flock to cities, turning them into megalopolises. It also has enmeshed the entire planet in corporate capitalism, with its credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations and other types of derivatives, etherealized money and massive economic inequality. Some other features of our current civilization include literacy, numeracy, digeracy, indoor plumbing, electricity, cars, trains, planes and supertankers.
All these are “superficial” because they are consequences of much deeper aspects of our Western civilization. These deeper aspects are so deep as to touch into what German-speaking societies mean when they speak of “culture” as distinct from “civilization.” The German tradition recognizes a difference between the artificial constructs of city living (“civilization” deriving from the Latin civitas, “city”) and the more organic growth of collective ways of living. The archetype of the apocalypse is asking us to address themes that have evolved organically over millennia—paradigms that are much deeper than our technological gadgets and ways of running our economic and political systems. To deal with such deep themes we must get to unconscious levels, to address and change things so basic that they seem “normal” or inevitable.
What are some of these deep themes that have grown organically over the last 6,000 years in the development of Western civilization? We will consider 6 of them, all closely interrelated, and we will do so by drawing on the insights of contemporary authors but also on the ideas of an enlightened human being who was 2,000 years ahead of his time.

How Our Current World is No Longer Appropriate

The six themes we will examine are: power relations, social relations, gender relations, racial and ethnic prejudice, economic injustice and our beliefs and attitudes around violence.
Power Relations. For many millennia the world has operated with a flawed notion of power. We think of power as “domination,” the ability to control, to force other people to do our will. The lust for control is very strong in our Western mindset, leading us to develop our left brain’s logic, reasoning ability and objectivity. Over many centuries this has grown into what we now term “science.” Francis Bacon (one of the fathers of modern science) was explicit about the desirability of gaining control over Nature, so we can bend her to our will.
Another feature of this power-driven mindset is dualistic thinking, which perceives reality in “either/or” terms. In this system power is a “zero-sum game:” If I have power then you don’t. This then creates competition and fear. Politically this evolved over many thousands of years into monarchies and tyrannies and, in our own day, into totalitarian regimes and “imperial Presidencies.” Power-as-domination also gave rise to colonialism and imperialism, in which collectives employ force and military might to control weaker groups for their own advantage.
Legally the power relations of Western civilization have led to the law being subverted to maintain the perquisites of the privileged few. This has been blatant in various monarchical regimes, more subtle in modern democracies. Certainly we have seen this recently in America, in the spectacle of Bernie Madoff enjoying his penthouse apartment rather than a jail cell.
In social terms, power-as-domination has given rise to an array of artificial distinctions among people, from slavery (in the ancient world and currently in parts of Africa and even the United States) to the rigid caste system in India. While most Americans like to think of our society as being class free, we too have privileged classes. Consider, for example, the corporate CEOs flying to Washington in their private jets, seeking handouts from Congress. Little was said about their having these jets; the complaints in the media spoke more to the inappropriate use of the jets at the very time they were crying poverty.
Such tone deafness on the part of these businessmen reflects another implication of the power-as-domination theme: egotism and narcissism. “Looking out for #1” has become a mantra in our modern world. “What’s in it for me?” is a common question people ask. Power as a zero-sum game comes accompanied by an overweaning sense of entitlement and other forms of narcissism, like lack of consideration for the needs and feelings of others, lack of compassion and empathy, and insatiable greed.
The lust for control early on tainted the spiritual expression of “civilized” people, leading to the rise of organized religions with their dogma about “original sin,” Hell, the Day of Judgment etc. —all concepts very effective in making people feel guilty, fearful and then disempowered.
Yet it was a figure connected with a Western religion, a figure deeply revered—and also profoundly misunderstood and misinterpreted—who saw through the power system of our culture, sought to upend its processes and called on his followers to do likewise. Here is what he said:
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matt. 23:8-12)
An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest.” (Luke 9:46-48)
Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” (Luke 22:24-27)
Jesus’ vision of the “servant leader” has inspired more recent commentators and businesspeople to apply his sense of power—power as “dominion,” power that is shared with others, power that empowers others—in modern life and work situations. Jesus understood that true power is like love: the more we give it away, the more power there is for everyone.
Social Relations. Our civilization has existed for thousands of years conceiving of relations between people in hierarchical ways. The most obvious form of this is that most masculine of environments, the military, with all its ranks and privileges, but all societies have differences in status and elaborate rules governing social etiquette and family obligations. Even in America, which purports to have a society where anyone can rise to the top, there are certain socially accepted behaviors, and Americans certainly celebrate one aspect of hierarchical social relations: competition. We live in a world with “winners” and “losers,” with “one-upmanship” and all sorts of “perks” that go along with “getting ahead.”
These “perks” are most likely material things, because we define “success” in material terms: money, status symbols like the corner office, the private jet, the membership in the country club etc. While “sumptuary laws” tried to regulate the display of status symbols in past centuries, today these laws have been replaced with “pay to play:” If you are rich enough, you can buy your way into the inner sanctum, get the cushy job, bribe your local politician to gain access to the “corridors of power.”
Ours is a civilization deeply sunk in materialism. Critics of Western culture decry our “conspicuous consumption,” with its excess and waste (with the United States being one of most wasteful of all modern societies). Ask anyone today what they think of when they hear the phrase “That man is very successful.” and they are likely to speak of his being rich, having a big salary, a powerful job, fame or celebrity and lots of stuff—all the “toys” that go along with the notion of “success.” What gets ignored in all this is the wealth that lies in things of the spirit.
Such materialistic preoccupations and social hierarchies Jesus castigated:
And he said to them, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.” (Mark 7:9-13)
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Mark 10:29-30)
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt 6:19-21)
Jesus understood that the only form of true security is spiritual, intangible, rooted within us, impossible for others to remove or destroy. Equally, he saw all our social and religious traditions as man-made, rather than rooted in the ways of the Divine. And he knew that those who put themselves first, who focus on social prominence, ranks and success ultimately wind up last.
Gender Relations. As many contemporary scholars have shown, with civilization came patriarchy. Agricultural surplus led to the rise of labor specialization and cities, and along with it came the notion of private property. There was more to this notion than just control over food: It also extended to control over women. Gender relations for the last c. 6,000 years have been patriarchal. Family training and example have perpetuated oppressive sex roles for hundreds of generations all over the world. We think we in the West are more liberal and progressive than cultures in, say, the Middle East or China, but even in America we have a host of cultural features that reflect our patriarchal bias.
For example, one deep assumption in our culture is “male is normal.” For years medical researchers developed protocols for drug studies using men, never thinking that perhaps this might reflect a certain bias. For years schools ran athletic programs for boys, never thinking that girls might also benefit from varsity teams and equal opportunity. Now this is changing, but some aspects of patriarchy have not changed: women are still objectified (think cosmetic ads, Victoria Secret ads, the Miss America pageant etc.); women still buy into being labeled “Mrs. John Smith;” women are still acculturated to feel incomplete without a husband.
More seriously we still see “sexploitation” (e.g. on cable TV stations like Spike); child abuse, domestic violence, rape and the rape of Mother Earth in activities like mining and oil drilling. There is still sex slavery and it is far more widespread around the globe than most Americans would like to think (including being found even in the U.S.A.). There are still repeated demands to control female sexuality, in public demonstrations against abortion, pornography and “vice.” The business world is not yet free of sexual harassment and “machismo” is still rampant in “action” flicks and many cultures.
As with other themes Jesus offered a new model for gender relations. He welcomed women into his circle of followers. Women were some of the greatest supporters of his work, housing him and his disciples, and supplying him with food and other essentials. Jesus defied both custom and social prejudice to talk with the Samaritan woman at the well. The first people Jesus appeared to after his resurrection were women. And it seems that Jesus inspired even the misogynistic Paul to admit that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The deeply-rooted paradigm that maintains gender inequality is another aspect of civilization that has become inappropriate.
Racial and Ethnic Prejudice is a fourth feature of our current civilization that is inappropriate. This feature is built on the dualistic thinking mentioned earlier—the “us/them” tendency we have to see things in divisive ways. Prejudice has produced tribalism, ethnocentricism, stereotyping and racial profiling—all of these undergirded by the unconscious belief that “difference is dangerous.” People that look different, act differently, believe differently pose a threat. The result? Pogroms, genocides, “ethnic cleansings” and holocausts. Less grave, but no less divisive are the nationalism and patriotism that are still very much features of our world.
It is long past time for us to put aside such nonsense, to recognize that nations are atavisms, that race is a canard, that ethnic differences are to be celebrated, not made the basis for purges and persecutions. Patriotism serves only to separate people and to emphasize superficial differences. We need now to focus on unity, how all the peoples of the planet are one. Jesus’ follower Peter came to recognize this:
“You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?” Cornelius answered: “Four days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’ So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right….” (Acts 10:23-35)
As a recent television ad reminds us, “We are all in this together.” “Us/them” thinking, and the prejudice that it sparks are no longer things we can afford. If we continue to feel and act from an “us/them” mindset, the world might experience the most dire manifestation of the archetype of the apocalypse!
Economic Injustice. Underlying the economic injustice that is endemic globally is the “scarcity model.” Embedded in this paradigm is another set of unconscious beliefs, some of which are: “There is not enough.” “I need to protect what’s mine.” “I have to get mine while the getting is good.” It leads to behaviors like hoarding, competition for global resources and war. It sparks feelings of fear and a host of insecurities that ripple through our culture now, as we experience an economic “slump.” What is never mentioned in the media is the why behind our current economic malaise. We hear lots of talk of reckless trading, too much risk-taking by the big banks, the misuse of computer models and sophisticated trading instruments like derivatives, but are these the real cause for our economic meltdown? No.
It never seems to occur to the pundits and commentators that our basic economic model is untenable. Capitalism must fail, because it is destroying the planet, with its extractive economies and “consumeritis.” It must fail, because it fosters extremes of wealth and poverty, with its reification of money. It must fail, because it warps our legal system, with its false values and assumptions.
Jesus was quite explicit about the dangers of misplaced values. He reminds us that
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Matt 6:24)
and he alerted us to the spiritual danger that lies in attachment to material “stuff:”
Jesus answered, “If you want to achieve spiritual completeness, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matt. 19:21-24)
Capitalism feeds on the fear, greed and materialism mentioned earlier and so is completely inappropriate for the new world that is aborning. Fortunately, while our economic models run deep in our unconscious worldview, Nature is helping us toward more viable systems through a variety of warnings, e.g. the wealth of storms, fires, floods, earthquakes and forms of pollution we are seeing around us now. The message we are meant to hear? We cannot go on living, working and running our planet as we have been.
Beliefs and Attitudes Around Violence. The final element buried deep in our Western consciousness is what underpins all the above: violence and the “myth of redemptive violence.” For millennia we have lived believing that violence can solve our problems. “Might makes right.” Peace is defined as “the absence of war” —a definition that implies war is the norm, peace something of an aberration. Once upon a time nations felt powerful if they had big armies; these days nations feel powerful if they have “the bomb.” Such madness could realize Jung’s worst nightmare: many parts of the planet devastated and uninhabitable.
Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. recognized the truth Jesus taught long ago: that only non-violent actions create genuine solutions to our problems. There is no virtue in fighting, no solace in conflict. Repeatedly Jesus provided examples of his commitment to peace:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. ...” (Matt. 5:43-44)
“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword….” (Matt.26:52)
When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him. (Luke 22:49-51)
For all 6 facets of our civilization—power relations, social relations, gender relations, racial and ethnic prejudice, economic injustice and the use of violence—Jesus advocated another way, a way that for 2,000 years has been ignored as millions of people chose to worship Jesus (something he never asked his disciples to do) rather than to follow him (something he repeatedly asked people to do). As we approach 2012 and the “end time” draws near, we can see that Jesus’ vision for the world closely parallels the Hopis’ description of the coming Fifth World with its universal peace, spirit of unity, love and joy.
Jesus and the Hopi give us a sense of what is meant to come into being to replace our stale, outmoded Fourth World. We are left to wonder about the how: How can we get from here to there? Fortunately we have the archetype of the apocalypse to assist us.

The Restoration Process on the Collective Level

In the previous essay I noted how all archetypes have intentionality: They want something to happen. They also have a certain autonomy: they call up behaviors and provoke responses in us. Thanks to Jung, we are able to recognize the archetype of the apocalypse with more conscious awareness than earlier generations had. So we don’t have to stumble through the restoration process in complete ignorance or solely under our own power. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and we don’t have to jettison all of the old “wheels” that have carried the old Fourth World this far. Nature and its processes are working with us, and, besides Jung, a variety of visionary thinkers can be our guides.
For example, in dealing with the shift in power relations we have the image of the “partnership model” of Riane Eisler to inspire us. Rather than people dominating and controlling others, Eisler notes how more people these days are waking up to the benefits of collaboration, cooperation and “mutual aid.” We are also seeing more people waking up to the fact that control is an illusion. Buckminster Fuller reminded us years ago that “We are not in control here.” Nature is also helping us, through events like Hurricane Katrina and the California wildfires.
Progressive business leaders like Tom Chappell, Paul Hawken and James Autry advocate the virtues of the “flat organization,” more egalitarian than old-style businesses and far more productive and effective. Such leaders remind us that the game of life is beginning to be played with a whole new set of guidelines and assumptions, replacing the old rules and regulations of the Fourth World). These guidelines are born out of trust, love and compassion and fidelity to our inner guidance. Along with these comes a new concept of “success,” a non-material definition based on alignment with one’s destiny and unique vocation.
Eisler’s “partnership model” envisions a partnership between men and women with full equality of the sexes. In the Fifth World, when all people recognize their unity, inequalities of any kind will be impossible (Does it make any sense to think of your hand as worth less than your foot?). Eisler joins the growing ranks of feminist thinkers calling for the elimination of all stereotypes and limited sex roles that truncate the full humanity of both men and women. As we work our way through the albedo phase of alchemy—holding the tension of opposites—we are slowly integrating the masculine in women and the feminine in men.
Closely linked with the integration of the feminine is environmental protection. Mother and Mother Earth are closely linked in our unconsciousness. How we treat women is paralleled by how we treat the Earth. Just as feminism is helping us toward a restoration of a more appropriate world so environmentalism and Nature’s signs in the form of pollution and species extinction are helping us toward lifestyles more in tune with natural laws and principles.
People seem to be voting with their feet on the issue of overcoming prejudice. There is not much written about this trend (beyond all the hyperbole around the “historic” election of America’s first black president) but we see it in survey results that speak of the growing numbers of people with no affiliation to an organized religion. More people are describing themselves as “spiritual,” rather than religious. Nation states, exclusive clubs, tribes and organized religions are the most divisive forces on the planet, and they will disappear as we work through the apocatastasis in the years ahead.
The scarcity model in our economic thinking will be replaced with an abundance model. Gandhi’s words—“There is sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed” —will be recognized as true: Everyone’s need will be met in the Fifth World. The deep drivers of greed—fear, competition and lust for control—will disappear as the current “leading minority” becomes more of a majority in the coming decades.
Lynn Twist reminds us of the “soul of money” —something all too often forgotten in our contemporary world. The spiritual essence of economic activity will inform our future, as more people recognize their role as co-creators with the Cosmos and put the full range of their talents into service to others. Everyone will do work that they love, and such work will occur within what Herman Daly has called “the steady state model.”
Whereas our current economy is built on a model of constant material growth, the new economic model will encourage constant spiritual, intangible growth. Material growth must be carefully controlled and limited, given that the material resources of the planet are finite. But growth in things like love, peace, joy and creative pursuits (music-making, the arts, poetry etc.) make few demands on the physical systems of Mother Earth and so will be encouraged.
In the steady state model, the mantra is “minimize flow-through, maximize utility.” So we can anticipate that the “4 R’s”—reuse, recycle, recondition and repair —will be keys to our future industrial processes. Even now, in the more progressive areas of the world like Europe, these are becoming more common. Manufacturing will occur with minimal environmental impact and all industrial processes will operate according to the laws of Nature. People will live by “right livelihood” and business organizations will be local and small in scale.
Perhaps the most significant change—one that subsumes all the others—will be the elimination of violence. As more people wake up, there is a growing worldwide movement toward peace. Will enough people come to this pacificist viewpoint in time to avert a global disaster? I don’t know, and Jung’s deathbed vision coupled with the Hopis’ prediction about the end of the United States government make me wonder if we citizens of planet Earth will have to experience some sort of major bellicose disaster before there is a widespread realization that war is just plain stupid, solving nothing and only begetting more violence.
The jury’s out on this question. What we can see going on now that gives me hope is the transformation of the military into a humanitarian organization. When the National Guard is mobilized to help disaster victims, when the United Nations sends in an army of peacekeepers, we are seeing the potential future usefulness of organized, readily mobilized teams of people to offer aid and comfort to others. This is the future face of the military in a pacific world.
As Edward Edinger said in his study of the archetype of the apocalypse, we are already seeing the archetype at work on the collective level. I think it is sparking the visions noted above that many people are offering up to help us have hope and inspiration, and in this way, to ease us into the Fifth World. Jung feared that a global catastrophe would result in “the end of civilization.” Even without a global catastrophe I think we are seeing signs of the end of our old civilization. Forty-eight years of global evolution since Jung’s death in 1961 have seen the rise of feminism, the growth of the global environmental movement, the expansion of the peace movement, more awareness of things like racial profiling, ethnic cleansing and the destructive futility of war—all of these harbingers of the better world to come, all of them indicators of how the archetype is working a transformation.
Growing numbers of indigenous peoples are speaking up and protesting the intrusion of Western civilization. Growing numbers of Western people are waking up to the limitations and negative aspects of our Western “civilized” world. Together native and Western peoples, in their different ways, are calling for a change—a change on a scale and to a degree more massive, deep and pervasive than anything seen in the last 6,000 years. Jung sensed this, when he spoke of our living in a kairos time. He would remind us that it is up to us as to how easily, safely and deliberately we move through this transition time.
We can do better than our current civilization. What we’ve got now is not suited to the reality that is evolving. Nature doesn’t like it. Native peoples see its destructiveness. Jesus points us toward a more viable form of civilization. It is now up to each of us to grow into the challenge of manifesting the new civilization, by taking up our own personal version of the archetype of the apocalypse and experiencing in our individual lives the revivifying impact of the apocatastasis.

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Jung and the Archetype of the Apocalypse

As we have noted in earlier essays, Jung was very intuitive. Thanks to his keen intuition he was able to sense shifts in the collective consciousness long before outer changes made these shifts obvious to others. One of the shifts he noted was the approach of the end time and the activation of what he called the archetype of the apocalypse. As early as the 1950’s Jung foresaw the approach of the “end time.”
Jung felt it was important for people to know about this archetype because he recognized the power each individual has to change the future. He knew that if enough people become aware of the apocalypse, as an archetype, understand its intentions and internalize its meaning in their own lives, the fate of the world might be more positive. In this essay we are going to discuss briefly the meaning and features of archetypes, with particular attention to the archetype of the apocalypse, and then consider how it relates to the individual and to the collective. We conclude with identifying some of the signs of the approach of the archetype in our world at the moment and Jung’s attitude toward apocalypticists.

The Meaning of “Archetype”

In a paper presented at a London symposium in 1919 Jung used the term “archetype” for the first time, to refer to the
a priori, inborn forms of “intuition,”... which are the necessary a priori determinants of all psychic processes. Just as his instincts compel man to a specifically human mode of existence, so the archetypes force his ways of perception and apprehension into specifically human patterns. The instincts and the archetypes together form the “collective unconscious.”
Earlier in his publications Jung had used the terms “primordial image,” and “the inborn mode of psychic apprehension...”. None of these definitions is likely to illuminate the meaning and value of the notion for the contemporary layperson devoted to Jungiana. So, eager to convey the utility of the concept to their students, later Jungian analysts have elaborated Jung’s definition.
One of the most thorough explications of the concept is found in Anthony Stevens’ Archetype Revisited: An Updated Natural History of the Self. In this revision of his earlier study of the concept, Stevens defines archetypes as
“innate neuropsychic centers possessing the capacity to initiate, control and mediate the common behavioral characteristics and typical experiences of all human beings, irrespective of race, culture or creed.”
What’s this mean? Let’s examine each of the components of this definition.
First of all, archetypes are “innate,” that is, they are part of our psychic makeup, much as our instincts are. We don’t have to learn them or do any sort of conscious work to make them part of our array of human traits: they already are within us, as a form of natural self-organization.
Next, Stevens describes archetypes as “neuropsychic centers.” They are part of our psyche and our nervous system. And they hold potential, i.e. they give rise to patterns of behavior. Archetypes help us to respond in the moment to experiences that arise in life.
One example that I use in my classes which helps students grasp the idea here is the situation where a person is walking along a sidewalk and comes upon a tiny infant all alone and crying. Virtually no one in such a situation would walk on by: It is part of our innate psychic makeup to stop, look around for the parents or caregivers and, if none seem to be present, to try to tend to the infant in some way. Such solicitude reflects the activation of our inner “mother” archetype, which predisposes all human beings to give nurturance, protection and comfort to infants in distress. The caregiving impulse is one pattern of behavior. As Stevens notes in his definition, the archetype “initiates” the behavior. In this case, it is the behavior associated with “mothering.”
A final feature of archetypes is their universal quality. As part of the “collective unconscious” they are common to all persons “regardless of race, culture or creed.” Every human collective has “mother,” “father,” “birth,” “death” etc. in its culture—these are universal features of human existence.
As “active living dispositions... that perform and continually influence our thoughts, feelings and actions,” archetypes are very significant in our lives. But they are not tangible: you cannot see the archetype itself but only the behaviors or patterns of feeling that the archetype gives rise to. Ultimately, Jung realized, archetypes cannot be defined (just as we cannot wrap our minds around the collective unconscious). We can best understand archetypes through our experiences as humans. We can grasp the archetype of “mother” from situations like the above example with the infant on the sidewalk.

Some Features of Archetypes

Several features we have mentioned above: Archetypes are universal and impersonal, as part of the collective unconscious which links us to all of humanity. They are also intangible--non-material--being part of our psychic makeup. We cannot see archetypes with our physical senses unless or until they spark some outer behavior or feeling. And this is another feature: Archetypes are generative, i.e. they spark actions on our part, as we noted in the example above of the “mothering” behavior that arises when we see a vulnerable infant exposed to danger. We don’t have to learn this behavior: It is innately part of our being human.
Archetypes get actualized through our personal experiences in life. In our example, the “mother” archetype gets actualized when we stop and seek help for the infant. The puer archetype is actualized when we spend time at play. The senex archetype shows up when we balance our checkbook and plan our budget for the months ahead. We will discuss how the archetype of the apocalypse shows up later in this essay.
Other features of archetypes are more subtle—their non-locality, for example. Being part of our psychic makeup, archetypes exist outside space and time. A mother’s concern for her child exists regardless of what time it is or where the child is. So it can happen that at 2 o’clock in the morning a mother in Iowa wakes up somehow knowing that her soldier son in Iraq is in some sort of danger, and several hours later she gets a call from the Army that he has been wounded and is being airlifted to the hospital in Germany.
Besides non-locality, archetypes have “a certain autonomy.” By this Jung means that archetypes will operate outside of our ego’s conscious will. In the example above of the infant on the sidewalk, we may be very busy and pressed for time, but even then, we are likely to stop and seek help for the infant. Something in us acts in spite of our desire to get to the meeting on time or to stick to the schedule.
Part of the reason archetypes have autonomy is that they have intentionality: they have a purpose; they call upon us to act in a certain way, to achieve a certain goal. In the example with the “mother” archetype, the intention is to protect the vulnerable new life, to nurture and foster. The “creator” archetype intends for us to bring something new into being. The “teacher” archetype intends for us to transmit our knowledge and wisdom to those receptive to receiving it. The archetype of the apocalypse also has intent, which we will discuss below.
Archetypes have many other features, only two of which we have space to discuss here. The first is their numinosity. Archetypes have a divine quality to them, a power and fascination that derive from their source in the collective unconscious. At times when an archetype motivates us to act we can feel caught up in something larger than ourselves. At such times it is essential that we remember not to identify with the archetype. The ego is not the archetype and can get inflated if it identifies with it. This is important to remember when we consider the archetype of the apocalypse, as we will explain below.
The second feature is the transformative potential archetypes hold. If we recognize and assimilate an archetype, it can change our lives and help us grow in amazing ways. For example, at the Jungian Center now we are seeing lives be enlarged and enriched as people recognize and assimilate the archetype of the creator. Our culture would have us believe that being creative means being gifted with the ability to paint like Picasso or compose like Beethoven. In restricting “creator” to the high arts and masterful performance, our culture has truncated our sense of creativity. But the archetype lives in each one of us and we are being creative in one way or other every day of our lives. Recognizing this and living our creativity consciously expands our reality and enlarges our lives.

The Meaning and Features of the Archetype of the Apocalypse

Before we tackle a definition of the archetype of the apocalypse, we need to understand the meaning of “apocalypse.” It comes from two Greek words, apo and kalypto, which mean “to take away” and “to cover or hide.” So “apocalypse” means literally to “take away the covering of something that has been hidden.” What’s been hidden? The truth, or more specifically, the truth about the future and what is to come. In the New Testament, the final book of the Christian Bible is often referred to the apocalypse or “revelation” given to St. John. John’s visions “took away the cover” of what previously been hidden, to reveal the future end times. Through centuries of Chrisitians’ usage referring to John and his vision the term “apocalypse” has become associated specifically with revelations that envision a “great, final catastrophe” to befall the earth.
Jung regarded apocalypse as an archetype because he recognized that such visions are not limited to Christians: they occur in every culture. Every culture has some sort of belief or account of an “end time” that will be (or has been) revealed. While the specifics vary from culture to culture, there are usually certain basic components of the archetype: Something is revealed about the future; some sort of judgment or evaluation occurs; there is destruction or punishment; and finally there is renewal, in the form of a new reality or world.
The apocalypse archetype shares some features with archetypes in general. It is, for example, what Jung called “preformed.” That is, its general form is already laid down in our unconscious psychic reality. We hear the word “apocalypse” and certain things spring to mind: judgment, destruction, cataclysm, the world not having a very good day! We don’t have to create this reaction; it just arises within us.
The apocalypse archetype is also dynamic: it provokes behaviors, feelings, thoughts and change. For most people who contemplate it, the prospect of apocalypse brings up a host of negative feelings. This is true for most people, but not all. We should note at this point that there are some people now who are actively hoping for the arrival of the apocalypse in a belief that, with the end of the world they will be “raptured” up into Heaven, leaving the “sinners” behind to experience the pain and suffering they deserve. We shall return to this apocalypticist attitude below.
Another key feature of the apocalypse archetype is intent. Like all archetypes, apocalypse is purposive. It wants something to happen. Another way to say this is that it has inherent meaning. It is not simply destructive for the sake of destroying, and this is crucial for us to remember.
What does it want to happen? What meaning might it have? We consider this on two levels: Its intention for us as individuals and what it means for the spiritual seeker; and its intention for the collective, what it means for the world.

How the Archetype of the Apocalypse Relates to the Individual

There are times in the lives of spiritual seekers when dreams arise of global annihilation, wholesale destruction, or interior landscapes of wastelands and wilderness, usually accompanied by feelings of dread, fear, gloom and doom. Sometimes these dreams take the form of images of fire or nuclear explosions, in the alchemical operation known as the calcinatio. At other times dreams show us “holding the tension of the opposites,” enduring the separatio until the transcendent function, or reconciling “third thing” appears. In other dreams we may see our world or situation from a higher perspective, in the sublimatio. Frequently we encounter repellent figures, threatening figures, people not at all like us, as we wrestle with our shadow side. No one who has stayed on the path of deep personal growth has escaped such visions, because the archetype is universal.
Throughout this process we are discomfited, and face a choice: We can resist the work, live in denial and dismiss our dreams as “trivial” or incomprehensible or inconsequential Or we can go with the flow and begin to change. This latter choice is not appealing because it entails allowing the ego to be confronted by the Self. This is not something the ego welcomes. Jung noted that “the experience of the Self is always a defeat for the ego.” The ego doesn’t like facing its own frailty. It wants to think it can run the show and be in control of life. It does not like being forced to confront its limitations. The feelings of anxiety, helplessness, despair and overwhelment that accompany our dreams when the archetype of the apocalypse is activated reflect just how much the ego is out of its depths. A key part of spiritual growth is coming to recognize how limited and inferior the ego is, compared to the wisdom and power of the Self.
When apocalpytic dreams arise spontaneously in our lives, what are we being asked to do? What is the meaning of the archetype for us, as individuals? First, we are being asked to recognize that the Self is coming into conscious realization. When it does, the inner landscape created by the wiles and worries of the ego is threatened, devastated, or shown up as inadequate and limited. We come away from these encounters feeling as if our world has been destroyed. We are being asked to recognize our limitations, see our mistakes, feel the pangs of conscience and come to sense the need to find more authentic and meaningful ways of being. Our world and worldview are shattered and this is precisely what the Self intends.
Only by losing our old world and ways of living can we experience the apocatastasis, the reconstitution or renewal that is at the heart of the archetype of the apocalypse. The Self is ever making “all things new.” It seeks our renewal. It enters consciousness—the world of the ego’s making—and shatters its conventions and images decisively, so as to permit a new inner reality more appropriate to our soul and the spiritual growth we have achieved. When the apocalypse shows up in our dream life, we must transition from our old ways of thinking and being into a more enlarged and authentic way. This process takes time (months, if not years) but the Self is patient. It is implacable, however: While it never lets us down and never lets us go, it also never lets us off! Best not to dig in one’s heels and refuse to cooperate with the Self at such times! Doing so usually forces the archetype to manifest in outer life, and then all manner of unfortunate things show up in life. The Self will not be gainsaid. If we don’t accede to the intentions of the archetype to renew and reconstitute our reality, it will force us to do so through loss of health, job, family, friends, or other painful experiences. While such experiences are terrible to endure, they pale compared to the manifestation of the archetype on the collective level. We consider that level next.

How the Archetype of the Apocalypse Relates to the Collective

On the collective level the archetype of the apocalypse seeks to reorient humanity away from the illusions of a civilization that has grown stale and inappropriate, so as to permit a new, more viable way of life. Since “civilization” is generally something about which we are unconscious, such a reorientation is a painful process, calling into question the host of assumptions we have about reality and how things are. These assumptions can be thought of as “paradigms”—unconscious beliefs, attitudes and mental constructs—that provide the bedrock of how we function in the world. In the next essay I will consider in detail some of these paradigms and how we are being asked to replace them with other models more suited to the next evolutionary stage of humanity as we look toward the future.
The shattering of paradigms is not an easy process. It presents the most severe challenge to life as we know it. We tend to think of Western Civilization as the apogee of human development and we revel in our high technology, sophisticated arts and culture, and the virtues of “modernity.” Rarely do we recognize that, in our lust for scientific progress and ever-more effective forms of control over nature, we have lost all connection to the sacred.
The collective Self is not amused. Nature will not tolerate such abuse much longer. We are seeing more and more evidence of this all over the planet. Just how the archetype of the apocalypse is showing up in our reality now is the subject of the next section of this essay.

Signs of the Archetype of Apocalypse in Our Contemporary Reality

Some signs of the activation of the apocalypse archetype on the collective level are obvious. The rise of apocalyptic cults and sects, like the Branch Davidians and Heaven’s Gate, are two examples of collectives whose leaders came to identify with the archetype and, as a result of their inflation, met their destruction and took all their followers with them. Another obvious sign is the heightening of tensions in international relations, due to the collective projection of the shadow. In this regard, the unconsciousness of global leaders does not help, e.g. George W. Bush’s repeated use of the phrase “axis of evil” to refer to nations he regarded as malevolent. “Bush 43” gave the world numerous examples of projection of the shadow in his profound unconsciousness. A third example of obvious apocalyptic energy is terrorism, reflecting the “invasion of pent-up demonic forces.” Such forces usually get activated in apocalyptic times. In light of our experience of 9/11 few people in the West would hesitate to identify the Islamic jihadists as “demonic.”
Other signs are less obvious. “Holding the tension of opposites” has been showing up collectively around the world in the last few decades: Rwanda, Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia in the 1990’s, Somalia, the Sunnis and Shi’ites in Iraq, the Jews and Palestinians in Gaza are just some of the examples of opposites in confrontation. International politics is full of enemies confronting each other as the opposites that are contained in the Self ask us, collectively, to become and remain conscious of our disparate energies and reconcile our differences.
Another sign is what Jung called the rise of “-isms.” This is a trait of our collective reality that goes back well into the 19th century. Socialism, communism, patriotism, nationalism, colonialism, imperialism—our language is rich in words that reflect our efforts to conceptualize, theorize and reduce individuality to some collective form. Jung found such efforts to depersonalize reality very offensive. Linked to this tendency is the rise of what Oswald Spengler called the “megalopolis,” or giant city—another collective form that loses sight of the individual.
Gigantic cities are possible, in part, because of our technological “advances.” Jung was not uniformly appreciative of modern technologies. He saw in many of them a huge ego inflation. Out of this inflation come our disregard for Nature and the belief that undergirds much of modern scientism: that we can run a viable society in contravention of natural laws. So we see manifold ecological disasters—wildfires, global warming with its rising sea levels and melting glaciers, changes in habitat and insect infestations. A corollary of environmental destruction is the passionate intensity of some environmentalists hoping to save the Earth. Their passion reflects the activation of the apocalypse archetype.
Another sign is the breakdown in the social and political structures that we associate with Western civilization. For example, the media mention these days the phenomenon of the “failed state,” referring to nations whose governments are unable to protect their citizens and provide the basics of safety, security, functioning law courts, markets and other essentials. We also hear analysts decry the “rise of the imperial Presidency,” the collapse of our traditional value system, and, most recently, the failure of free-market capitalism to provide jobs, access to credit and a sense of economic security for the citizens of the world.
In terms of physical health, Edward Edinger cites the AIDS epidemic as another sign of the apocalypse archetype. AIDS is a disease of the immune system; the body has, in effect, failed in its ability to defend its own borders. On a physiological level the epidemic mirrors the collective “invasion” of new elements that are harbingers of a new reality. Our collective mental health also shows signs of the activation of the archetype: inflations are endemic, from our belief in America of our “exceptionalism” to the Islamic jihadists’ belief that theirs is the moral code appropriate for everyone worldwide.
Contrary to the jihadists’ oppression of the feminine (which is part of their reaction to what they consider “modernity”), the West has supported a widening of the range of activities and roles open to women in the last century. In this we are slowly “reclaiming” the feminine. In an earlier essay I noted how this is part of the emerging albedo phase of the process of alchemical change. It is also a part of the apocalypse archetype in that it is opening us to radically new ways of thinking, as we will explore in the next essay on the apocatastasis of Western civilization.
Finally, there are numerous indicators of the activation of the apocalypse archetype in cultural phenomena. From UFO sightings (which Jung wrote about at length) to science fiction, from the best-selling “Left Behind” series of books about the end times to the crude sexuality and pornography on cable television, contemporary culture is full of examples indicative of the degradation characteristic of a civilization in its end stages. It is said that art anticipates the future and I was forcefully struck some years ago when I saw the movie version of Tom Clancy’s The Sum of All Fears, which was one of the first mainstream media events to include the explosion of an atomic bomb. Nuclear explosions are one of the most common features of apocalyptic dreams for persons in whom the apocalypse archetype is active. When such explosions begin to appear in the collective consciousness (i.e. in mainstream media) the student of Jung takes note. Clearly, “the world as we have known it is coming to an end.”

Jung on Apocalypticism

Jung could see the end coming but he was not at all an apocalypticist, nor did he appreciate apocalypticism. An apocalypticist is a person who believes the end is near and looks forward to it for the supposed release it will bring to him and his fellow believers. This anticipation for global annihilation might seem bizarre if you are not familiar with this strain of Christian fundamentalism, but it is commonly heard now, especially in America, where fundamentalists are more vocal than in other parts of the world.
Jung recognized that the archetype of the apocalypse exists and is now active in our collective unconscious. He understood that, because it is an archetype, the apocalypse has a certain fascination for us (because of its numinosity). But he objected to apocalypticism—i.e. to the quest or longing for the end—on several grounds.
First, he objected to Christian fundamentalists’ interpretation of the Biblical books (most notably Daniel and Revelation) in literal terms. Jung understood that these books, with their rich symbolism and metaphors, were to be handled rather like dreams: as symbolic accounts. They are not describing literal events that are to occur but are providing us with metaphoric images related to inner psychic states of being.
Second, he recognized that Christian fundamentalists operate with a truncated view of the Divine, i.e. that God is all good and that Satan is a force opposed to God and must be vanquished. Jung saw the Divine as All That Is, meaning that the Divine includes the bad and the good, and an encounter with the Divine is our opportunity to integrate the shadow, so as to enlarge our being and increase our capacity for compassion.
Finally, Jung was appalled at the fundamentalists’ eager anticipation of the destruction of Earth and all the life on it. Jung worked always and tirelessly to heal the world, to foster peace and to reconcile conflict. Toward that end he urged individuals to do their inner work, in the knowledge that all real change—change that transforms reality at a fundamental level—starts with and depends on individuals, you and me. Jung would say to us that, if we want to avert global catastrophe, if we want to seize the opportunity that the archetype of the apocalypse is now holding out to us, we must step up to the plate and do our inner work. Wise up to and integrate our shadow. Recognize our inner partner, the animus or anima. Subordinate the ego to our Divine core, the Self. Only by such individual efforts will we be able to utilize this apocalyptic archetype to turn our civilization into something more supportive of the fullness of our human potential. Just what that more supportive civilization would look like is the subject of the next essay.

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Jung’s Challenge to Us:
“Holding the Tension of the Opposites”

The last fifteen years of Carl Jung’s life were lived against the backdrop of the Cold War—that time in our global history when most of the nations of the world were aligned either with the “West” or with the “Communist bloc.” Intermittently throughout this time the people of the world held their breath as they watched confrontations between the United States and the Soviet Union heat up. During one such tense time members of the Psychological Club in Zurich asked Jung if he thought there would be an atomic war. Barbara Hannah recalled his reply:
“I think it depends on how many people can stand the tension of the opposites in themselves. If enough can do so, I think the situation will just hold, and we shall be able to creep around innumerable threats and thus avoid the worst catastrophe of all: the final clash of opposites in an atomic war. But if there are not enough and such a war should break out, I am afraid it would inevitably mean the end of our civilization as so many civilizations have ended in the past but on a smaller scale.”
In the 1950’s the “opposites” globally were the capitalist West and the communist East, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. The latter collapsed in 1989, seemingly leaving the United States as the undisputed leader of the world. But a nation as unconscious as the U.S. cannot exist for long without some external threat carrying its shadow, and it didn’t take more than a few years before another “opposite” emerged. What replaced Communism as our “opposite”?
Consider the major features of American society: We are a liberal, secular, ethnically diverse and pluralistic culture. We espouse democratic ideals and are progressive in the sense that we expect the future to be better than the past. We cherish free-market capitalism, an economic orientation well-suited to our materialistic bent. Many of our citizens enjoy high-tech forms of entertainment and urbane activities in a cultural milieu of moral debauchery.
The opposite of our society would be a culture that is illiberal, intolerant of diversity, theocratic and tribal. It would reject democracy and be oriented to the past, to traditions and history, rather than to the future. Such a culture would regard “progress” as a threat to its heritage, and would reject both capitalism and the materialism on which capitalism is built. It would be regressive, fanatically religious, dogmatic in its beliefs and rural in its orientation. Its citizens would live under a moral code that seems (to the “modern” West) almost medieval.
Do we see such an opposite in our world today? Clearly, the Islamic jihadists and, in particular, the Taliban, are just such a society. And, given their commitment to a bogus interpretation of jihad, they are eager to confront the United States. Since 1993 the world has witnessed increasingly destructive examples of the “clash of opposites” that Jung feared: the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center; the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa; the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon; the 2002 bombing of the nightclub in Bali; the 2004 railroad bombing in Madrid; and the 2005 bombing of the tube and buses in London.
In multiple messages the late Ayatollah Khomeini made it clear that he viewed the United States as the “Great Satan” and Osama bin Laden has demanded that we convert to Islam, give up our military bases in the Middle East, and change our way of life to conform to Islamic values. In this he is reflecting a deeper “opposite,” that is, a more fundamental clash of opposites, in what has been called the “clash of fundamentalisms.” Both Christianity and Islam lay claim to having the Truth. Each insists only its way is the right way. In an earlier essay I defined “cosmic vanity.” This idea that one religion is the sole proponent of truth is cosmic vanity. This way of thinking was the ideological basis for the crusades back in the Middle Ages. It comes as a shock to most Western people to learn that Osama and the jihadists are still operating with this medieval mindset and in their minds they have taken up the efforts to conquer the “infidel” that went on for over a thousand years.
In the essay on America’s shadow I noted how the United States is so strongly an ESTJ culture, Extraverted (oriented to the outer world), Sensate (focused on tangible, material things), Thinking (preferring rational argument and objective facts to feelings and subjective values), and Judging (liking closure, decisive leadership and rapid decision-making). Such a strong bias does not conduce toward introspection and reflection, so it is not surprising that we have to see our inner opposite “out there,” in outer reality, rather than recognizing it within ourselves. We are now facing our unconscious in our current confrontation with the Islamic jihadists, who are carrying the projection of our societal shadow. Failing to hold Jung’s “tension of opposites” within ourselves, we are forced to experience it in outer reality.
Given the fanaticism of the jihadists and the profundity of our Western unconsciousness, this projection presents us with the gravest of problems. Jung offers us some advice in this impasse:
“...I had learned that all the greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally insoluble.... They can never be solved, but only outgrown.”
Our current situation globally is not a problem to be “solved” with logic, reason, computer programs and other forms of left-brained processing. We are here dealing with a situation we must outgrow. The ego mind does not have the answers here. We can’t use our conscious mind to figure out what to do. Neither the predominance of our Thinking function, nor our Extraverted bias will be useful in dealing with our current challenges. “Outgrowing” our current challenges requires not cogitation but reflection, introspection and conscientious inner work.
On the individual level, we each must “stand the tension of opposites” in ourselves. Each of us is being asked by the realities of our world to take up the task of integrating the shadow, and it is not an easy task, for it requires engagement with the unconscious. The Extraversion that is so prevalent in America tends to ignore the unconscious and, indeed, anything having to do with inner life. So we can’t expect a majority of people to jump into this task; we’ll be fortunate if even a very small minority of people confront their shadow side, with its dogmatism, intolerance, regressive tendencies, judgmentalism, self-righteousness and insecurity.
Jung never expected the majority of people to “get with his program.” All he hoped for was “enough,” what he called a “leading minority.” If “enough can stand the tension of the opposites in themselves” we just might be able to “creep around the innumerable threats” and avoid global catastrophe. Are “enough” people doing the inner work? Is the “critical mass” growing to the point that we will be able to stave off the “end of civilization” that Jung feared would result if we failed? We don’t know. But this question—without an answer—should motivate each of us to continue our inner work all the more conscientiously.
While we work all the more diligently on ourselves, we must consider some hypothetical potentialities in this challenging time. Suppose the Taliban take over Pakistan with its 100+ nuclear bombs. Suppose AIPAC were to exert its considerable political influence on the U.S. government to defend Israel at all costs. Suppose a consortium of Christian fundamentalists, apocalypticists, super-patriots and politicians stupid enough to think a war could help pull us out of our economic doldrums coalesced and pressured the United States to get more deeply involved in Middle East politics. Suppose all these or similar nightmares came to pass and we, the people of planet Earth, failed to avoid “the final clash of opposites in an atomic war.” What then?
In his deathbed vision Jung himself envisioned large areas of the Earth completely devastated. If the confrontation with the jihadists took an atomic form, we might expect to see whole regions rendered uninhabitable due to radiation pollution. People, animals, vegetation, even the delicate ecological balances that sustain life—all would die. There would be a massive experience of death, the alchemical mortificatio.
We are currently living in a world in transition. The tenth volume of Jung’s Collected Works has the title “Civilization in Transition,” reflecting Jung’s recognition of this fact. Part of the process of transition is the mortificatio, when something dies. In his alchemical studies Jung recognized how essential the mortificatio phase is in any process of transformation: things have to die, so as to allow space for new things to emerge. On a global scale we may perhaps be approaching a mortificatio phase, when the old form of “civilization” as we have known it will end.
Something as long-lived, as cherished and as globally pervasive as our current civilization cannot be transformed without some major events that instigate the process. Jung clearly did not regard such an eventuality as a positive, but we might contemplate the prospect from a different vantage point, drawing on the work of many people who, over the last several decades, have been envisioning new possibilities for planetary existence —possibilities that require a clearing out of old ways, old habit patterns, and old assumptions about reality. What needs to be cleared out? And what sort of civilization might come into being? We consider these questions in a later essay. First, we need to consider the archetype that might clear the way for a new form of civilization to emerge. This is the archetype of the apocalypse.

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Jung’s Timeliness and Thoughts on Our Current Reality

Sometimes, in reading Jung, I encounter a passage that makes me think Jung wrote it just yesterday. Recently, while preparing a presentation for the Jung Society for Scholarly Studies symposium at Cornell University, I came across the following quote from “Civilization in Transition:”
Thanks to industrialization, large portions of the population were uprooted and were herded together in large centers. This new form of existence—with its mass psychology and social dependence on the fluctuation of markets and wages—produced an individual who was unstable, insecure, and suggestible. He was aware that his life depended on boards of directors and captains of industry, and he supposed, rightly or wrongly, that they were chiefly motivated by financial interests. He knew that, no matter how conscientiously he worked, he could still fall a victim at any moment to economic changes which were utterly beyond his control. And there was nothing else for him to rely on....
Jung wrote these words for a BBC broadcast he gave in 1946, but, given our recent history, they seem as relevant in 2009 as they were 63 years ago. How prescient Jung was! He could see the fragility of the industrial system and how vulnerable it has left the vast majority of people in the modern world.
Ever the clinician concerned to relieve suffering in the world, Jung was not content simply to diagnose problems; he offered suggestions as to what we might do to improve our situation. Some of these suggestions include wising up to the dangerous features of our current reality, addressing the problem of “mass-mindedness,” and achieving a metanoia, or fundamental mind change.

Wising Up to the Dangerous Features of Our Current Reality

Jung summarized many of what he felt were dangerous features of Western civilization in the above passage. In the manner of the French explication de texte, let’s draw out Jung’s wisdom phrase by phrase.
“Large portions of the population were uprooted...”: Jung regarded the rootlessness of modern people as “one of the greatest psychic dangers... a disaster not only for primitive tribes but for civilized man as well.” Why a disaster? Jung felt rootlessness would lead to “... a hybris of the conscious mind which manifests itself in the form of exaggerated self-esteem or an inferiority complex. At all events a loss of balance ensues, and this is the most fruitful soil for psychic injury.”
“herded together in large centers.”: Jung refers here to big cities, the megalopolises of the modern world, and he felt such “herding” of people caused all sorts of social and mental pathologies, a tendency to “thinking in large numbers” and the rise of “mass psychology” —all regrettable and dangerous features of modern life.
“...dependence on the fluctuation of markets and wages”: Jung recognized that we have become so dependent because of the “externalization of culture” —the result of the Extraverted bias of Western culture (most especially in America). Our “materialistic technology and commercial acquisitiveness” has led to “a loss of spiritual culture.” Jung was quite explicit about the dangers in such dependence on externals:
The man whose interests are all outside is never satisfied with what is necessary, but is perpetually hankering after something more and better which, true to his bias, he always seeks outside himself. He forgets completely that, for all his outward successes, he himself remains the same inwardly, and he therefore laments his poverty if he possesses only one automobile when the majority have two. Obviously the outward lives of men could do with a lot more bettering and beautifying, but these things lose their meaning when the inner man does not keep pace with them. To be satisfied with “necessities” is no doubt an inestimable source of happiness, yet the inner man continues to raise his claim, and this can be satisfied by no outward possession. And the less this voice is heard in the chase after the brilliant things of this world, the more the inner man becomes the source of inexplicable misfortune and uncomprehended unhappiness in the midst of living conditions whose outcome was expected to be entirely different. The externalization of life turns to incurable suffering, because no one can understand why he should suffer from himself. No one wonders at his insatiability, but regards it as his lawful right, never thinking that the one-sidedness of this psychic diet leads in the end to the gravest disturbances of equilibrium. That is the sickness of Western man, and he will not rest until he has infected the whole world with his own greedy restlessness.
The economic meltdown of 2008 brought home the truth of Jung’s insight: the “captains of industry” (most of them in the United States), “chiefly motivated by financial interests” did indeed “infect” the entire planet with their greedy materialism.
One concomitant of such materialism is “... the spiritual confusion of our modern world.” Another has been “the hollowing out of money, which in the near future will make all savings illusory...” . A third is the emptiness of Western materialistic values, which has led to the degeneration of the individual personality. Jung speaks to this in his reference to
“... an individual who was unstable, insecure and suggestible.”: Our Western over-valuation of logic, reason and science is both a result of and a further cause for our lack of self-knowledge and valuation of the inner man. We put great store on being “with it,” following fads and fashions with increasing susceptibility to the omnipresent influence of the media. Lacking inner anchors, we become more and more suggestible, especially as our cities get larger and larger: “The majority of normal people (quite apart from the 10 per cent or so who are inferior) are ridiculously unconscious and naive and are open to any passing suggestion.... The more people live together in heaps, the stupider and more suggestible the individual becomes.”
“...he could still fall victim at any moment to economic changes which were utterly beyond his control.”: Jung noted elsewhere “the longing for security in an age of insecurity.” Being “cogs in the wheel” of the industrialized world model, we feel disempowered, which is the essence of the “victim” archetype.
“And there was nothing else for him to rely on.”: In our world “full of trouble and disorientation,” “confusion and disintegration,” “uneasiness and fear,” we are without firm defenses. Jung felt this was in part due to “current trends in education that foster mass thinking and a collective orientation.” This was one of Jung’s major bugaboos, another key feature of our time and a theme Jung stressed over and over as a major danger we had to recognize and address.

Addressing the Problem of “Mass-Mindedness”

Jung regarded “mass-mindedness” as a danger, and mass psychology as a “dangerous germ.” Why? What’s so dangerous about large groups and crowds?
Jung felt crowds let loose “the dynamisms of the collective man... beasts or demons that lie dormant in every person until he is part of a mob.” Large groups blot out individual morality and cause individuals’ consciousness to sink to a lower level. Crowds stir up fears, which can lead to a whole population having “...a feeling of catastrophe in the air.” Crowds and groups induce “infantile behavior” in people who would otherwise behave in mature and responsible ways. Crowds cause “even the best man to lose his value and meaning,” and lead individuals to become “stultified” and their personalities to “degenerate.” Lacking any self-reflection, large groups of people make individuals “psychically abnormal.” Moved by impersonal, overwhelming forces, mobs produce “herd psychology” and the “mass man.”
Jung repeatedly decried the rise of “mass man.” Such a person is infantile in his behavior, “unreasonable, irresponsible, emotional, erratic and unreliable.” In the mass, the individual looses his value and becomes the victims of “-isms.” Claiming no sense of responsibility for his actions, mass man finds it easy to commit appalling crimes without thinking, and grows increasingly dependent on the state.
Jung felt that the larger the size of the group, the greater the dangers, because the lower the overall level of consciousness. The individual thrust into a large crowd would be hard put indeed to resist the pull into unconsciousness and would soon manifest “psychic abnormality.” Jung saw all this play out in the atrocities of World Wars I and II. He would not be surprised by similar events in the Iran-Iraq war, the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, and in the current “war” on terrorism.
Resisting mass-mindedness is not easy, but Jung provided us with some suggestions on how to do it. First, we must give up belief in “the sovereign remedy of mass action.” How tempting it is to focus on outer change, to reform what’s “out there”, to seek mass change! Jung would have none of that. He urges us not to depend on groups or large organizations, and most especially, not to look to the state or nation for our deliverance, since this only fosters more mass-mindedness. Rather we must resist trying any collective measures.
Second, he suggests we work to break up large organizations that “eat away at the individual’s nature.” How to do this? Jung is not specific but a simple personal response would be to refuse to join forces with such organizations: take work in small companies, join local groups (which may be affiliated with national or international groups), be self-employed. Support local businesses (most of which are smaller in size that the “big box” retailers and chains). Participate in organizations that understand the value of smallness, like the Jungian Center. We recognize the truth of Jung’s words here and put a premium on smallness. “Small is beautiful” is one of the Center’s stated values.
Most important in resisting mass-mindedness is the re-valuation of the individual. Jung urges us to emphasize and increase the value of the individual person. The individual life is the essential thing, Jung tells us. The salvation of the world lies in the salvation of the individual. We must recognize the whole man and begin with healing ourselves if we wish to heal the world.
To do this, of course, prompts a fourth suggestion Jung makes: work for a fundamental metanoia, or change of consciousness. What does Jung mean by this, and how might we go about achieving it?

Achieving a Metanoia

In this context, metanoia means for Jung changing our focus, our attitude and our values. In terms of our focus, we must shift from a focus on externals—on what’s out there—to a focus on internals—what’s going on inside me. Given the extraverted bias of American culture (with 75% of Americans being Extraverts, in the Jungian typology), this is not something that will come naturally. Most people will have to make a conscious effort to achieve this shift.
The external world does not hold the solution, since anything external is vulnerable to loss. Jesus reminds us of this in his admonition:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt 6:19-21)
Jung knew what Jesus meant by “treasures in heaven.” These are the eternal spiritual truths that lie rooted in the world within us. These include our awareness of the reality of the psyche and its wisdom; our recognizing that the psyche is real, wise, powerful and the source of our being. Jung went so far as to proclaim that “the psyche is the indispensable instrument in the reorganization of a civilized community.”
In terms of our attitude, we have to transform our stress on materialism and matter to one stressing intangibles and things of the spirit. Again, given the bias toward Sensation in American culture (with three-quarters of all Americans being Sensates, in the Jungian typology), this will not be an easy shift to make. But it is an essential shift because it fosters the discovery of our inner life, the reality of the psyche and the valuation of intuition.
In terms of our values, we have to give up the belief that “bigger is better.” Mass action is not the solution. State action is not the solution. Collective action is not the solution to what really ails our world, as we noted above, in the discussion of Jung’s warnings against mass-mindedness.
How to achieve the metanoia Jung calls for? One of the best ways, Jung felt, is working with dreams. A regular, disciplined dream work practice provides us with the necessary personal experience of our soul’s guidance, care, direction and love for us. This is the source of true stability and security, a “treasure” that can’t rust, be eaten or stolen from us. By internalizing a locus of security for ourselves we become psychologically free of dependence on externals, like those boards of directors and captains of industry and whatever antics, crimes or sins they may commit.
The regular practice of working with our dreams allows us to discover our inner life, and this discovery is a major counterweight to the materialism of our culture. When we watch the psyche’s creativity and insight unfold for us every night in our dreams no longer can we believe that matter is all there is in life. Nor can we remain as we were: we grow, we “individuate.”
An active dream practice also helps us to lead the “responsible life” that Jung saw as a consequence of individuation. As we become more and more who we truly are, in the process of individuation, we become more and more conscious of our duties to our community. The process, in other words, does not take us into isolation or estrangement from society, but rather makes us aware of how we all are one, in complex webs of interdependence.

Conclusion

There may be changes underway now in our global reality that seem far beyond our power as individuals to control or even to influence. But this does not mean that we should see ourselves as victims. Nor should we feel there is nothing for us to rely on.
Jung urges us to remember that we can rely on the psyche, our soul, our inner life, our inner guidance. We have within us what we need to feel safe, to prepare for whatever the future may bring, to thrive in the years ahead. The answers we need to the questions we have are not to be found without, in other people or the busy-ness and diversions of our society. Rather, our answers lie within. As Jung said, “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
The critical challenges of our time require us to be awake, to become conscious of the unconscious, to plumb the depths of our own hearts and to take the full measure of our being (which is always far, far more than what the ego mind thinks it is). We must turn to our inner wisdom, not to outside “experts.” In these times of widespread confusion and anxiety, it is not for us to be left feeling like Jung’s description of modern man, with “nothing left for him to rely on....”. The psyche is real. Your soul is real. You can rely on it. This is Jung’s great message for us in this challenging time.

Bibliography

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The Law of Cause and Effect and America’s Future

This is the final of three essays that focus on America and its current situation from a Jungian perspective. In this last in the series the subject is, as noted in the final sentence of the previous essay, “the size, cause, nature and deep background of the coming American catastrophe.” Since the “deep background” requires more explanation and elaboration we’ll consider that first.

The Law of Cause and Effect: The Deep Background to America’s Current Situation

If we want to understand the deep background of what is going on now in America, we have to consider several key concepts. The first of these is the principle of karma. Theosophy and Eastern religions like Buddhism consider karma to be part of the Law of Cause and Effect. The Dalai Lama has provided a good definition of this Law and the principle of karma:
The fundamental precept of Buddhism is Interdependence or the Law of Cause and Effect. This simply states that... cause gives rise to effect which in turn becomes the cause of further effect,... consciousness... flows on and on, gathering experiences and impressions from one moment to the next... a being’s consciousness contains an imprint of all these past experiences and impressions, and the actions which precede them. This is known as karma, which means ‘action.’
Karma comes from all of one’s acts, words and thoughts, which “determine a person’s fate in his next stage of existence;...” The dictionary offers “fate,” “destiny” and “kismet” as synonyms for karma, and relates the term to Buddhism and Theosophy.
But the concept of karma and the Law of Cause and Effect is not unique to Buddhism. The Bible is full of references to this law and the concept of karma:
Job noted that “... those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.”
Many years later the prophet Hosea expressed the same idea: “But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil,...”
Jesus advised his followers: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”
And the apostle Paul reminded the church in Galatia that “A man reaps what he sows.”
Jung wrote about karma in several places. In “Aion” he defined karma as “the fate earned through works in previous existences,” and he associated the term with Theosophy. He also recognized the importance of the concept in understanding the nature of archetypes:
When... psychic energy regresses, going beyond even the period of early infancy, and breaks into the legacy of ancestral life, the mythological images are awakened: these are the archetypes. [Here he appends an informative footnote:] This... is... a deliberate extension of the archetype by means of the karmic factor, which is so very important in Indian philosophy. The karma aspect is essential to a deeper understanding of the nature of an archetype...
Ever the man of science, Jung was quick to admit that concepts like karma cannot be proven:
...karmic illusion—that is to say, illusions which result from the psychic residue of previous existences...karma implies a sort of psychic theory of heredity...we cannot even conceive how anyone could prove anything at all in this respect... Hence we may cautiously accept the idea of karma only if we understand it as psychic heredity in the very widest sense of the word. Psychic heredity does exist--...
Jung offered a “Western version of a prenatal karma” in the “very ancient idea of what we might call an inborn bill of debt to fate...” . Our contemporary American culture has this idea, but we put it in a modern vernacular: “What goes around, comes around.” What you put out eventually comes back to you.
All the above remarks relate karma to the individual, but it has collective application as well. The Dalai Lama noted this in his autobiography, when he discussed the Tibetan invasion of China in the 8th century. Back then Tibet was a war-like place and the aggressive Tibetans actually seized the Chinese capital in 763 A.D. The killing, looting and destruction created a karmic debt, even though Tibet soon fell under the influence of Buddhism and became a very pacific and non-aggressive society. No matter. The karmic debt still had to be paid, and the process of doing so began in 1950, when China invaded Tibet. In 1951, just as the Tibetans did 1,188 years earlier to China, the Chinese took over the capital of Lhasa.
At this point you might be wondering what all this has to do with America, its current situation and the “catastrophe” mentioned above. We’ll get to that shortly. First, we must define another key concept: “cosmic vanity” or “ontological arrogance.”

The Concept of Cosmic Vanity

The terms “cosmic vanity” and “ontological arrogance” are not mine. I got the first from theologian Charles Davis, the second from business consultant Fred Kofman. They mean essentially the same thing: “... the claim to a privileged knowledge of the origin, structure and workings of the cosmos... a temptation that dogs all religion ... [is] cosmic vanity.” “Ontological arrogance is the belief that your perspective is privileged, that yours is the only true way to interpret a situation....” “Ontological arrogance [is] when I assume that my truth is the truth.”
We can define cosmic vanity situationally:
The vain man assumes that the world is as he sees it and also takes for granted that others should see things the way he does... Cosmic vanity occurs when men impose their social structure upon the cosmos as a whole, falling into the conceit of interpreting the entire cosmos in terms of the limited preoccupations and organization of a particular society and culture.
and we are reminded, by Kofman, that cosmic vanity has consequences:
Our history informs our understanding of the present and the decisions and actions through which we shape our future. We reap what we sow, not just materially but also mentally.
which links the concept with the notion of karma mentioned above.
Cosmic vanity, or ontological arrogance, has several important features. The person who is cosmically vain is unable to distinguish his identity from his opinions, and so feels personally challenged or offended by those whose opinions differ from his. A second feature is the host of faulty assumptions that accompany cosmic vanity, e.g. that my point of view is objective; that no mental models filter my perception; that those who differ from me are wrong and simply don’t want to see the Truth. Other features include: repression and power games; mistrust, miscommunication and antagonism among people; low motivation; fear, stress and anger; a general mood of anxiety, cynicism and resentment among those who have to deal with such arrogance; people feeling disempowered; demoralization, as people feel unable to control their destiny; authoritarianism, solemnity and smugness. The ultimate result, in organizations, is “organizational collapse.” In societies where cosmic vanity is prevalent, the eventual result is a “fall,” as the old adage warns us.
Is America such a society? Has America been such a society? Hark back to the early days of the Puritan settlers. Did they think they had the Truth? Were they confident that theirs was the only right way to live and think? Did they demand that native people conform to their ways? If you have read the previous essays in this series (on American exceptionalism and America’s shadow) you know that the answer to all these questions is “Yes.” America, as a collective, has been steeped in cosmic vanity for centuries. It is a core part of our Puritanical heritage. It is part of our psychic makeup and, despite many generations of growing ethnic diversity, a majority of Americans operate in the unconscious assumption that our ways—Christian, democratic, technological, capitalist—are better than any other peoples’. The “American way” is the only right way; American values, the only right values; our American system of democracy, the only right form of government; free-market capitalism, the only right way to organize the process of providing for the material needs of society—this is how people think who are sunk in cosmic vanity. You may not see yourself in this portrait, but there are many Americans for whom it is very accurate.

America’s Karma or What did America do in its collective past that has karmic consequences?

Historically it has been cosmic vanity that led European settlers in the New World:
to butcher thousands of native people (because we knew we were better than they were)
to remove whole tribes from their lands (because we knew our system of private property was superior to the communalism of native people)
to “warehouse” Indians on reservations (because we knew we had better uses for the land—especially the lands with the gold mines—than native peoples had)
to “assault” Indian tribalism in the allotment act (because we knew our white governmental system was better than tribalism)
to seize Indian children and forbid them to speak their language, wear their native clothing, and eat their customary foods (because we knew it was our Christian duty to save the souls of the “heathen” and offer them the benefits of “polite” society)
to prohibit the practice of Indian religions and rituals (because we knew that our religion was the only right religion and by prohibiting their religion we would be saving their souls).
In the prior essay on America’s shadow I discussed other actions of our government and individuals that created karma. For many generations there have been many official policies of the United States government—written into our Constitution and Supreme Court cases —that have created karma.
Some people will try to weasel the United States out of the karmic implications of these acts by assuring themselves that what was done arose from the purest and most altruistic of motives. Such rationalizations are just more cosmic vanity. Racists insist that we had to do such things because the “primitive” people could not cope with reality. Racism denies the truth Jung called us to remember:
“in the end there is one psyche which embraces us all.”
We’re all in this thing we call life together. We are all one. And what we do to another person we do to ourselves. What goes around, comes around.
And what we put out hundreds of years ago is coming back to us now. On this a wide array of sources—Western Indian, Eastern Indian, African, as well as Jung himself —agrees: America’s karmic debt is up for repayment. How is this showing up? And what does it bode for our longer-term future?

Repaying Our Karmic Debt: Forms and Features

Cause begets effect. This is the Law of Cause and Effect. More than just an effect, there is a close similarity between what was done and what gets returned. In the example above, the Tibetans seized the Chinese capital; later on, their own capital got seized. In the case of America, so much of what we did was done out of cosmic vanity. So we should expect to get back our “stuff” from people equally imbued with cosmic vanity.
This is exactly what we see. The Islamic jihadists have just as much conviction about the rightness and superiority of Islam as the Puritans did in 1630 about Christianity. Just as Christian missionaries forced native peoples to convert to Christianity, so Osama bin Laden’s first demand to us after the 9/11 attacks was that we convert to Islam. Just as the U.S. government and Christian missionaries took measures to destroy native cultures, so the Islamic jihadists are taking measures (turning our technologies against us) to destroy what they regard as the “Great Satan,” the United States.
This confrontation between Christianity and Islam would not surprise Jung. European that he was, he recognized how deeply the experience of the Crusades had imprinted the European psyche. He understood how Muslims carried shadow for Europeans and how the mutually exclusive claims of universality of the two faiths had to be confronted at some point.
The Puritans were from Europe; they carried this component of the European shadow to the New World and it lives on in modern Americans. It may provide one answer to the many questions that arose after 9/11, e.g. Why didn’t we take Islamic jihadists’ threats to the World Trade Center seriously, especially after the 1993 bombing? Why did we put New York City’s Emergency Command Center in the World Trade Center after the 1993 bombings? Why didn’t we develop a strong Arabist desk in the State Department when the oil-rich Middle East became so crucial to the economic well-being of the United States? Why for decades did officials at Aramco look scornfully at their Arab partners? Why do we even now treat many Arab governments in a patronizing manner?
As I noted in the essay on America’s shadow, our ESTJ temperament does not incline us toward introspection or self-reflection. As a result, we experienced 9/11 and failed to realize it was a “wake up” call. Rather than suggest we look within and ask ourselves what message this tragedy was offering us, our leaders told us to get out and shop, get on airplanes and take a holiday! Clearly our system is so broken and our collective consciousness is so asleep that it will require something much more major, much more consequential than 9/11 to get us to examine the current unsustainable order of things.
Just what this “something more consequential” might be has been spelled out in numerous native prophecies. The Hopis’ are some of the most detailed and graphic:
Today we, Hopi and white man, come face to face at the crossroads of our respective life... It was foretold it would be at the most critical time in the history of mankind. Everywhere people are confused. What we decide now and do hereafter will be the fate of our respective people... Now we are all talking about the judgment day...
[the U.S. government is] ... a government which had assumed the power of the Creator but had lost all sense of moral values.... According to... prophecy... the higher forces would mete out justice. World War III would break out. The United States would be destroyed by a foreign nation, just as it, a foreign nation, had destroyed the Hopi nation. Land and people would be contaminated and destroyed by atomic bombs.
... as the time nears the predicted behavior of the people accurately describes the people of today. Perhaps it is time to repent and pray that our earth will not be totally lost....
... the world is facing a new crisis. This is a war of retaliation against terrorism.
Eventually a “gourd full of ashes” would be invented, which if dropped from the sky would boil the ocean and burn the land, causing nothing to grow for many years.... it could bring an end to all life unless people correct themselves and their leaders in time.
... Revolution could erupt on our land.
... men will destroy each other savagely. The period of this age will close by the gourd of ashes... Only those who are obedient to the guidance of the Great Creator’s laws will survive.
... the bad side of humanity will become so corrupted that the closing of the Fourth Cycle will be necessary.
World War III will be started by those peoples who first received the light [the divine wisdom or intelligence] in the other old countries [India, China, Egypt, Palestine, Africa].
The war will be a spiritual conflict with material matters. Material matters will be destroyed by spiritual beings who will remain to create one world and one nation under one power, that of the Creator.
After a presentation I gave in October 2008, at a training session for Pachamama facilitators, I was asked if it might be possible for America to avoid the full brunt of our karma. I replied that it was possible, but only if we, as a collective, did the same thing that individuals can do to “burn” their karma consciously. That is, we would have to take the same steps as individuals: First, get out of denial. As long as we remain in denial—stuck in all the platitudes and self-congratulatory rhetoric of American exceptionalism—we will never see what’s really going on. Getting out of denial implies waking up to the truth that there is something profoundly dysfunctional about our American way of life. Jung would call “waking up” becoming more conscious. If enough people become conscious we might mitigate our karmic repayment. That is, the “catastrophe” facing us might not have to be so bad.
The “size” and “nature” of our karmic payback are yet to be determined. All the prophecies are in agreement on this. The Hopi remind us that “The present crisis of world events is an unfoldment of life cycles which we set in motion through our own behavior.” If enough of us change our behavior, if we correct ourselves, if we heed the warnings, if we give up “life as usual” and “return to the original divine laws of the Great Creator,” if we begin to live simply, practice self-denial and self-sufficiency, if we change our priorities and believe that we can rescue the world, we can lessen the pain that our karmic debt will require. Most of all, Jung and all the native sources agree, we must “shift our attitude.” The future is not cast in stone: “... we can, by following the Instructions and Warnings, alter the pace, intensity, and force of the closing of the Fourth Cycle... we can, by our actions, purchase the time we need...”
When my students ask me how I think the shift from our current “Fourth World” to the coming “Fifth World” will look, I remind them of 1989. Many of them were not even alive then so I have to describe how the people of Eastern Europe “woke up” and realized they no longer had to accept the domination of the Soviet Union, and the various components of the Soviet Union realized they could be free. And the result was a massive transformation without a single shot being fired, a completely non-violent “Velvet Revolution.”
The Hopi believe such a transformation is underway even now, begun “by the humble people of little nations, tribes and racial minorities” which is fostering a new attitude.
As we join together with a new attitude in following the instructions, the mood of the world will change with us. Without a single overt thing taking place, the transformation will be underway. At first, no one will even know it is happening... People will become more caring and sharing... Without a single formal meeting, divided peoples will lay down their guns and begin to cooperate....
The Hopi also offer us a vision of the emerging Fifth World, a world “blooming in peacefulness,” one world, one nation, under one power, the Creator, a world in which people can communicate without words, with both humans and animals, a world of peace, joy and love.
Jung was explicit that, if we want to help this transformative process along, we must not look outside ourselves, to some collective (and certainly not to the United States government!). His sole concern was always “... with the fulfillment of that will which is in every individual.... That is the whole problem; that is the problem of the true Pueblo: that I do today everything that is necessary so that my Father can rise over the horizon. That is my standpoint....”
It is up to us—you, my reader, and me, and other individuals who are waking up—to work on ourselves in the knowledge that our personal transformation is also transforming the world. Get wise to the perils of American exceptionalism. Recognize the forms of our collective American shadow. These are important subjects to know about for understanding what’s really going, and how we cannot, must not, look to government, to political leaders and the powers-that-be to bail us out. The karma of our past is coming down on us. It might prove immensely destructive, or it might be limited to taking out the government, while leaving the bounty of our land relatively unscathed. The size and severity of the coming American catastrophe is up to us, our degree of consciousness, our “waking up” to who we are, what we are meant to be and do, to how we are meant to align with the purposes of the Universe.

Bibliography of Sources

Ali, Tariq (2002), The Clash of Fundamentalisms. New York: Verso Publications.
Bacevich, Andrew (2008), The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. New York: Henry Holt.
Davis, Charles (1974), Temptations of Religion. New York: Harper & Row.
Deloria, Vine (1988), Custer Died For Your Sins. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Fisk, Robert (2007), The Great War for Civilization. New York: Vintage Books.
Gyatso, Tenzin, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (1990), Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama. New York: Harper Collins.
Jackson, Helen Hunt (1881/1965), A Century of Dishonor: The Early Crusade for Indian Reform. New York: Harper.
Jung, C.G. (1959), “Aion,” Collected Works, 9ii. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1963), “Mysterium Coniunctionis,” Collected Works, 14. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1965), Memories, Dreams, Reflections. New York: Vintage Books.
________ (1966), “Two Essays on Analytical Psychology,” CW 7. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
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________ (1970), “Civilization in Transition,” CW 10. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1976), ”The Symbolic Life,” CW 18. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Kirk, George (1949), A Short History of the Middle East. Washington DC: Public Affairs Press.
Kofman, Fred (2006), Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values. Boulder CO: Sounds True Press.
Lewis, Bernard (2003), The Crisis of Islam. New York: Random House.
Lewis, Jon ed. (2004), The Mammoth Book of Native Americans. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers.
Mails, Thomas E. (1997), The Hopi Survival Kit. New York: Penguin Compass.
Mann, Charles (2006), 1491. New York: Vintage Books.
Nichols, Roger (2003), American Indians in U.S. History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Stray, Geoff (2005), Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Ecstasy: A Complete Guide to End-of-Time Predictions. Lewes UK: Vital Signs Publishing.
Vogel, Virgil (1972), This Country Was Ours: A Documentary History of the American Indian. New York: Harper & Row.
Waldman, Carl (2000), Atlas of the North American Indian. New York: Checkmark Books.
Waters, Frank, Book of the Hopi. New York: Penguin, 1963.

The subject of this essay comes from a question posed to me in the Q&A after my presentation at the International Association for the Study of Dreams conference in July 2008. A member of the audience asked me to describe America’s shadow. I responded off the cuff, knowing this was a rich question worthy of a more thoughtful, in-depth reply. As with many essays on this blog, it has a Jungian component, and it relates closely to both the essay of last month and to the essay that will appear next month.
As I have done with other essays I will begin by defining the “shadow,” in Jungians terms; then I will consider the link between the shadow and the typological functions. After that I will consider the specific elements of America’s shadow and how our collective shadow manifests pathologically. Finally I will examine how it relates to American exceptionalism.

What does “shadow” mean?

As used in Jungian thought, the term “shadow” refers to the “hidden or unconscious aspects of oneself,” which the ego has either repressed or simply not recognized. It is “shadow” because we are “in the dark” about these parts of ourselves.
While we will focus primarily in this essay on the negative aspects of the shadow (which are more problematic than the positive) we should note that the shadow contains all the parts of ourselves that we don’t recognize as “us.” That is, there can be positive or good qualities, like creative impulses, realistic insights, and qualities that are not developed in our consciousness: things or activities we are not good at, or aspects of living where we are awkward or unadapted. So, for example, gross motor coordination (fine athleticism) is part of my shadow (I can’t walk and chew gum at the same time!). Athleticism is a good thing, to be sure, but it is not something I do well and it would be very difficult for me to develop my gross motor skills to a high degree. So we might say that athleticism is part of my shadow.
More difficult—what Jung called “a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality” —is to work with the negative forms of the shadow. We will focus on this form in the rest of this essay.
In its dark guise, the negative guise, the shadow includes all the things we are not proud of or would not want to see as part of us: repressed desires, uncivilized impulses, resentments, childish fantasies, morally inferior motives, behaviors that are anti-social or illegal. Because we don’t want to think poorly of ourselves, we very rarely actively seek to discover our shadow. Jung felt the shadow showed up, or confronted a person, at the outbreak of a neurosis. At such a time, we are confronted with both embarrassing insights into ourselves and also new possibilities (because the shadow offers the opportunity to enlarge our sense of self).
At this point we face a choice: We can take up the task of working with the shadow material OR we can willfully repress the shadow. But note this: repression does not make the shadow go away. It continues to exist in the unconscious and begins to express itself indirectly (e.g. in outer life) in situations that are not pleasant. Often in these situations we “project” the shadow out (unconsciously, of course) and then find ourselves having to deal with people who carry the projection. Life gets more difficult. Jung even uses the word “dangerous” at this point. The shadow wants to be reckoned with. Doing so produces change.
If we take the more prudent (but less palatable) course and confront the shadow, what happens next? Jung describes the process: We come to feel stuck. Many of the certainties in life come to seem doubtful. We find it hard to make moral decisions. We may feel ineffective or begin to question our convictions. In short, life does not get better immediately because the process of assimilating the shadow takes time.
Much as we might wish for a guaranteed “cookbook” approach to resolving the shadow problem, there isn’t any. Each person grapples with it in his/her unique way. It is always an individual process. But certain steps have been identified by Jungian analysts.
First, we must accept the shadow as part of us and take it seriously. Second, we must become aware of the shadow’s qualities and intentions. How to do this? By paying conscious attention to our moods, fantasies, impulses and dreams. Dreamwork is one of the most effective ways to get to know and monitor the shadow. Third, we hunker down for a long “process of negotiation,” what Jungians call (using the technical term in the German original) “Auseinandersetzung,” or “having it out with oneself.” In this process we metaphorically “wrestle” with ourselves inwardly, engaging the shadow material, then backing off, coming in again, withdrawing again and again. This phase of inner work can take months, but there is no set timetable and, as I remind my dream students, this is not a race: the work will take as long as it takes.
In discussing the shadow, we must mention a key point which relates to the quality of the shadow. By “quality” I refer to how dark or light the shadow is. This degree of darkness “depends on how much we consciously identify with a bright persona.” By this Jungians mean how highly we think of ourselves. If we think we are wonderful, superior to others, special, or gifted, our shadow is likely to be very dark and full of all sorts of stuff we are not likely to want to see or face. Why is this? Because the shadow stands in a compensatory relationship to our conscious sense of ourselves. This is important to remember when we examine America’s shadow in a later section of this essay. In the next section, we consider the link between the shadow and the type functions.

The link between the shadow and type functions

By “function” Jungians mean the 4 elements—Intuition (N)/Sensation (S), Thinking (T)/Feeling (F)—that Jung identified as the elements of personality type. This is not the place to get into a long disquisition on typology, so we will briefly describe the functions and then indicate how type relates to the shadow. Then we will relate all this to our collective American shadow.
Early on in his career Jung explored possible causes for his split with Freud and came to conclude that, to a degree, their falling out was due to a fundamental difference in personality. Jung realized that certain personality features are innate and he termed these “functions,” two being “rational” (i.e. able to be explained) —Thinking and Feeling—and two being “irrational” (i.e. not able to be explained through the use of reason) —Intuition and Sensation.
The rational functions, Thinking and Feeling, refer to how we make decisions, Thinking types preferring logic and reason and stressing objectivity, Feeling types preferring to use their feelings and values, with more of a subjective or personal focus. The irrational functions, Intuition and Sensation, relate to how we gain awareness or information about the world. Sensates use their senses, while Intuitives use something that circumvents the senses, their intuition.
In addition to the 4 functions, Jung recognized 2 personality attitudes, Extraversion and Introversion. These relate to the flow of psychic energy. In Extraverts, psychic energy tends to flow out to the external world providing the Extravert with more interest in outer reality than an Introvert usually has. In Introverts, psychic energy flows inward, giving the Introvert more awareness of his/her inner life than an Extravert usually has.
A final component of Jungian typology is the J/P distinction. “J” stands for “Judging” (not “judgmental”) and “P” for “Perceiving.” These terms refer to a person’s style of decision-making. Judgers prefer closure; they like to get things settled and agreed upon. They plan ahead and work well with deadlines and timeframes. Perceivers prefer to keep things loose and often find it a challenge to meet deadlines. They tend to resist closure and like to keep gathering information.
In Jungian convention, the types are described in a 4-letter system. So we speak of the ESTJ type, the INFP type and so on. If you are interested in pursuing the subject of Jungian types further, see the Bibliography. For our purposes, we must consider next the question of what the types have to do with the shadow, and, more specifically, what all this has to do with America’s shadow.
As we live our lives there often is a correlation between one’s type opposite and the shadow, especially if a person has a strong preference for an orientation and function. If, for example, a person is a strong ESTJ—highly oriented to the external world (E), operating strongly through the 5 senses (S), with a marked preference for objective, logical reasoning (T) and being decisive (J)—an encounter with a strong INFP (the type opposite) will be a confrontation with someone who carries some of his/her shadow qualities. Both parties might find it hard to work with, understand or resonate with the other (or, as often is the case with couples, both might find the other fascinating, albeit also mystifying, hard to fathom and, at times, exasperating).
My use of the ESTJ as an example is not haphazard: I chose it because the ESTJ is the type preference of nearly 75% of Americans. Given this marked preference in the American population, what sort of typological portrait can we paint of the typical American?
As an Extravert, the typical American is:
sociable and friendly
focused on outer circumstances
keenly aware of trends, fads and fashions
civic-minded
outgoing
a “joiner,” seeking to belong to groups around him/her
venturing easily into unknown situations
identifying the causes of things outside him/herself, e.g. “I’m moody because of the weather”
not given to much introspection or reflection
in Jung’s own experience of Americans (both his students in Zurich and on his multiple trips to America) he found the typical American to be talkative, business-like, unself-conscious, a “jolly fellow” in an “eager and excited collectivity.”
As a Sensate, the typical American is:
practical
sensible
down to earth
realistic
concerned with things
materialistic
concrete, with little patience for abstractions and theories
mechanical, with a gift for technical matters
the master of detail
security-seeking
the preserver of the status quo
distrusting of intangibles
loving new gadgets, with a creativity that is practical and technological
Jung found Americans had lots of physical endurance, and were efficient and very much focused on the “yellow god.”
As a Thinker, the typical American is:
objective
analytical
concerned about laws, principles and policies
“oriented to objective reality”
a poor listener
well-suited for business, industry, production, the sciences and law
Jung felt the typical American invested words with power and his thinking was simple and straightforward; with his feeling less adapted, Americans were inclined toward sentimentality and unrestrained emotions.
As a Judger, the typical American is:
punctual
decisive
good at planning and scheduling
comfortable with deadlines and timeframes
moralistic
likely to see the world in black-and-white terms
likely to jump to conclusions or to decide too quickly
likely to judge others according to his own rules and principles
likely to judge others without looking within, at his own actions
Jung regarded the American on this score as efficient, righteous, sectarian, promiscuous, impetuous and concerned with “conspicuous respectability.”
Given this description of the typical ESTJ American, what might we expect the American shadow to look like? Type theory would suggest that some of our collective shadow would be drawn from qualities found in the INFP type. Specifically, we might expect to find our collective shadow shows up in our:
giving little time to introspection
disinclination to do much inner reflection
preference for the superficial, with a tendency to project inner “stuff” on to others, leading to a poor or inaccurate assessment of reality
mistrust of intuition, with a denigration of right-brained activities (e.g. “Oh, that’s just your imagination!”)
falling into gross hedonism
putting a premium on things (“He who dies with the most toys, wins!”)
becoming susceptible to dark fantasies and suspicions
exploiting people and animals
failing to listen well; poor listening ability
projecting feelings, leading to jealousies, anxieties and suspiciousness
tough-mindedness, the flip side of which is denigration of caring and caretaking
fondness for talking of Truth, leading to a moralizing style full of “oughts” and “musts”
trying to force others into our mold or ways of doing things
having poor access to our feelings, producing poor relationships and crude tastes
believing that “the end justifies the means”
becoming hypersensitive, leading to pettiness, aggression and mistrust of others
becoming rigid and dogmatic
becoming fearful of doubt, which can lead to fanaticism
creativity becoming stagnant and regressive
falling into what Jung called “mental passivity”
having difficulties in handling moral ambiguity
jumping to conclusions
having naive attachments to religious movements
“grotesquely punctilious morality”
falling into “blatant Pharisiasm, religious supersitition and meddlesome officiousness”
Our ESTJ character well suits the businessman, entrepreneur, lawyer, scientist, academic, athlete and engineer. Shadow occupations, in our culture—those that require more of an INFP temperament—include child care worker, social worker, minister, psychotherapist, artist and counselor. Given the bias toward the ESTJ it is no wonder that the caring professions get short shrift and less pay.

What is America’s shadow?

We’ll consider this question from several angles: historical (how our national shadow has appeared in our past) and topical (how our collective shadow has affected our foreign and domestic policies, our personal lives and lifestyle choices, and our attitudes and habits of thinking).
We see one of the first examples of our shadow in history in the very earliest days of the Puritan settlement of New England. Our Puritan ancestors claimed to be chosen by God as moral exemplars to the world, and then went out and massacred the Pequot Indians. We Americans then spent the next 200 years systematically decimating millions of other native peoples and wiping out their cultures.
We waxed eloquently about human beings’ inalienable rights while we enslaved millions of Africans for the economic advantage slavery meant to us. We even went so far as to write slavery into our Constitution.
We fought a Civil War to settle the debate about slavery and after that war we enfranchised all men, but left one-half of our population out of the political process. It took women another 55 years to gain the right to vote and we are still waiting to see full equality.
We exult in our honor and moral probity, yet the United States government broke over 400 treaties made with its native populations. Clearly “keeping our word” counts only in some contexts.
We claimed we had a “manifest destiny”—called by God to “liberate” the people of the Philippines from Spain—and, in the process of doing so, we killed 600,000 Filipinos in 1899.
The Vietnam War was rife with examples of America’s shadow side, from the twisted logic of destroying villages to “save” them, to the massacre of civilians at places like My Lai.
Most recently, the Bush Administration determined it had a mission to free the Iraqi people from the yoke of the dictator Saddam Hussein, and in doing so we caused the death of tens of thousands of people, the looting of the antiquities of the country, and the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
Our wars afford numerous examples of our shadow. In other ways our foreign policy is also replete with shadow. In the previous essay on American exceptionalism we noted the principle of “exemptionalism,” in which the United States exempts itself from treaties, like the Kyoto protocol on climate change. We demand special treatment by other countries, even as our own court system disregards the legal decisions of other nations. In foreign policy, the United States plays by its own rules and the result is that the world sees us as “an exceptionally arrogant bully.” For our part, we are blind to how other countries perceive us. Our rhetoric in foreign affairs is high-minded, hiding our ulterior pursuits or actions. This causes other countries to charge us with hypocrisy. For example: we champion human rights and then produce an Abu Ghraib; we capture prisoners in Iraq and hide them from the International Red Cross; we deny Afghan prisoners the protections of the Geneva Conventions by classifying them as “enemy combatants,” but raise all sorts of objections if other nations fail to treat U.S. soldiers according to the rules. We force our system on other countries while undermining individual liberties at home. In trying to remake the world in our own image we run a foreign policy full of “imperial delusions,” but, in our unconsciousness, we fail to see what we are really doing. And finally, we rely on military power to conceal the problems caused by our domestic profligacy.
Our domestic policies provide numerous examples of our American shadow. Take health care. We run it under a business model, which reflects the failure (typical of the ESTJ type) to value caring and caregiving. So we put the health of the pocketbook before the health of people, and produce a disease-care system in which the human being is defined as “an income-generating biological structure,” or as a source for “spare parts” (kidneys, lungs etc.). We create a class and political system that favors the wealthy and powerful, resulting in a venal government that is more a plutocracy than a democracy. We maintain a host of civic myths—like the viability of the two-party system—at a time when our society is getting more and more multi-cultural and diverse and in need of multiple parties and a variety of forms of political expression. In our Extraverted tendency toward “group think” we suppress dissent. We regard violence as an appropriate way to solve problems and our culture (e.g. television, movies, video games) promotes violence. We incarcerate more people per capita than any other country in the developed world. When faced with an assault to our high-minded rhetoric (like Abu Ghraib) we refuse to engage difficult ethical issues, refusing to ask ourselves why such tragedies happen. We also refuse to recognize the fundamentally amoral nature of capitalism and the consequences this has on our body politic. We continue to use the death penalty, when the rest of the Western world recognizes its barbarity. Our Sensate nature promotes materialism, and this materialistic ethos has led to our living far beyond our means, on both the individual and collective levels. Our huge national debt is causing crises economic, political and military, thanks to “our national self-indulgence.” We fail to see how our political system is held hostage to corporate lobbyists, and we turn a blind eye to how “we are squandering our wealth and power now,” as we compromise our freedom. We fail to see how our federal government has become warped, with the rise of the “imperial Presidency.” Despite 9/ll and the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, we are unable to recognize how our national security system is broken: it cannot provide us with accurate, reliable intelligence. We cannot see how we are now contracting out the business of national security, and how the Pentagon has consistently lied about its capabilities. Our democracy now is “hollow” and “false:” we believe the two parties—Democrats and Republicans—are substantially different and that changing the party in power will really result in substantive change, but in reality the “elements of continuity far outweigh the elements of change.” This means stasis in our political system. The Sensation Judging type does not like change. Change is part of our American shadow. But change is also a central part of life and we Americans, with our ESTJ bias, resist change at our peril.
Our collective shadow also shows up in our lifestyle choices. Look at our poor dietary practices: the popularity of “fast foods” and junk foods, and the epidemic of obesity and diet-related diseases like heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. “Consumeritis,” “omnivorous consumerism,” leads us to “shop til we drop.” We are told by the media and powers-that-be that consuming is our civic duty. The materialism of the Sensate leads us to compulsive acquisition of stuff and this “getting and spending” that Wordsworth so decried has produced an unsustainable economic system and a soul-deadening focus on continuous material growth. Not that we have much time to enjoy all our gadgets and gizmos: “24/7, 365” is the emerging standard in the workplace, leading to widespread workaholism and lack of balance in our daily lives. Other forms of addiction are common too: abuse of alcohol and illicit drug use are growing problems. Our cultural definition of success is “the good life,” interpreted in strictly material terms: “status objects,” accumulated wealth and the “newest, new thing.” We ignore completely the truism that the best things in life are not things. Our refusal to live within our means has produced a national way of life that is both unsustainable and spiritually destructive.
Finally we see examples of our national shadow in our attitudes and habits of thinking. We claim to be the “land of opportunity” open to immigrants, but we have demonstrated prejudice against immigrants from the time of the “Know Nothings” up to our present resentment of Hispanics and illegal aliens. With our attitude of superiority we claim to have the best system, but refuse to recognize our flaws and foibles. The recent election saw numerous instances of racist rhetoric and racial slurs. Another example of a shadow attitude is our arrogance in thinking we are capable of operating a global war on terror. And we see shadow in our attitude of denial.
As I noted in the essay on Denial in the Wake Up/Leap Frog set of essays elsewhere on this Web site, denial is not that river in Egypt! Denial is a dangerous psychological defense mechanism that warps our perception, prevents healthy change and contributes to the growing pathology of our culture. Our national shadow has become pathological. Why pathological? Because it is producing suffering.
We are suffering, as a culture, from high rates of child mortality, child poverty, and failure in our schools. Poor single mothers and their families are suffering as we eliminate welfare for them, while fat-cat corporations get all sorts of bailouts and handouts from Washington. We suffer from high rates of crime, incarceration and gun ownership. We suffer from high levels of repression, causing a large percentage of our population to experience addictions, neuroses and psychoses. We suffer as we denigrate and devalue caring, compassion, vulnerability, feelings and weakness. Because denial blocks change we are not likely to shift our system any time soon. Stasis is even more likely due to the effect of American exceptionalism, which was the subject of the previous essay.

How American exceptionalism relates to our collective shadow

We mentioned earlier how the quality of the shadow is keyed to how much one identifies with a bright persona. If we think very highly of ourselves, if we see our public image in a very positive light, then our shadow will be the opposite: very dark. The brighter the conscious self-image, the darker the shadow.
As we noted in the essay on American exceptionalism, there is a tradition in the United States, especially among conservatives and Republicans, of regarding America as exceptional, in the sense of being more moral, a moral exemplar, superior, having the best system of government in the world. In short, our national persona is very bright. So our national shadow is very dark.
More than this, Jung regarded us as “one-sided.” In being willing to look only at our bright side, in our reluctance to examine our faults, even when, as in 9/ll and Abu Ghraib, they are thrown in our face, we are in denial. And this can have dire consequences.
Jung warned that such one-sidedness leads to the build-up, in the collective unconscious, of a huge enantiodromia. The term Jung took from the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus. It means “a running to the opposite,” and it refers to the compensatory nature of the unconscious. If our conscious orientation is very one-sided, the unconscious “compensates” by building up energy on the other side. Eventually this situation becomes unstable and there is a dramatic shift. In a collective, this has very severe consequences.
Jung recognized that Americans historically have projected our collective shadow on to our black and “Red Indian” populations, as well as on to Communists (during the Cold War). Were Jung alive, he would see we are doing the same thing now with jihadists and terrorists. To what end?
Jung was quite explicit on this score and we disregard his warning at our collective peril: In America, he said, “there seems to be an astonishingly feeble resistance to collective influences...” and collective action “... makes people unaware of themselves and heedless of risks.”
Heedless of risks. We are failing to heed Jung’s warning. The size, cause, nature and deep background of the coming American catastrophe is the subject of the next essay in this series.

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American Exceptionalism from a Jungian Perspective

“America is an exceptional country.”
Sarah Palin
“I do believe in American exceptionalism”
John McCain

The topic of this essay—American exceptionalism—may not be familiar to many readers of this blog as it is not something taught in schools, but in the last Presidential election both Sarah Palin and John McCain mentioned it. As we look ahead to the future, and particularly the future of the United States, the concept of American exceptionalism is important to understand, and we will mention it in the two essays that follow this one. In this essay we will define “American exceptionalism,” then examine how it has shown up in American history, consider some of its implications and then offer a Jungian “take” on it.

What does “American exceptionalism” mean?

A concise, as well as easily accessible definition is provided by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
American exceptionalism ... refers to the belief that the United States differs qualitatively from other developed nations, because of its national credo, historical evolution, distinctive political and religious institutions, ethnic origins and composition, or national ideals.
To understand what “differs qualitatively” means, we’ll consider each part of the definition:
“historical evolution” refers to the founding myth of the Puritan colonists, who felt they were charged with a special spiritual and political destiny to create in the New World a church and society that would be a model for the rest of the world. John Winthrop expressed this in his statement that he and his fellow colonists were creating a “city on a hill” that others in the future would be able to look to for inspiration on how to live an exemplary life. Believing they were chosen by God to be moral exemplars, the Puritans felt they were “blessed by Providence.” Later generations developed and extended this idea, as we shall see later, when we consider how American exceptionalism has manifested in our history.
“national credo” has been embodied or expressed in several ways: It appears in documents, particularly the Declaration of Independence (“...We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...”), the Constitution (“We, the people of the United States... do ordain and establish this Constitution...”) and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (“... this nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal....”). It frequently shows up in Presidential speeches (The United States is “mankind’s last, best hope,” a “beacon on a hill,” “God’s own country,” “the indispensable nation” and a “shining city on a hill.”). Finally, American exceptionalism as a national credo got carved in stone—on the Statue of Liberty, in a stirring poem by Emma Lazarus: “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore/Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:/I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Written, spoken or carved, words like these reflect the United States’ unique nature.
“ethnic origin and composition:” Mention of the Statue of Liberty and the message carved on its base reflects another component of the definition of American exceptionalism. More perhaps than any other country in the world, the United States draws its population from everywhere. There is no single predominant cultural origin here, and America for centuries has provided “upward mobility” without rigid castes or an official noble class. Its open social structure makes it unique.
“distinctive political and religious institutions and practices:” The official documents that established the United States separated church and state. There is no state religion in this country and such secularism is not the norm elsewhere. The absence of socialism and the failure of labor unions to organize into labor parties are also unusual. The most remarkable form of American exceptionalism is found in our diplomatic and foreign policies, in our isolationism, with our mistrust of entangling foreign commitments and the refusal of our federal judges to submit to the rulings of other jurisdictions; in our tradition of deprecating power politics and old-fashioned diplomacy; in the assumption we make that American values and practices are universally valid and appropriate for the rest of the world; and in our “exemptionalism,” in which U.S. courts exempt America from adherence to international treaties.
“national ideals:” We express our ideals in such statements as “America, land of liberty,” “The United States is the land of opportunity,” and “America, beacon of freedom.”
Clearly, American exceptionalism is a complex concept, including many aspects of our history and culture, with many facets and components. Some of these facets are positive, others negative. On the positive side, scholars of American history point to the following statements or claims:
The United States has a special role in the world.
The U.S. has a special destiny and mission.
The U.S. is the only nation founded on an ideal.
The U.S. is different from other nations in its underlying values.
The U.S. sees diversity as a strength.
The United States is distinctive.
The U.S. stands outside of history.
The U.S. is more patriotic than other lands.
American conservatives go farther in their claims, to offer a form of American exceptionalism that exalts the United States as superior to other nations, being richer, more democratic, more religious, and with the best values and institutions yet devised.
In reaction to this “triumphalism” other scholars remind us of the negative face, in such statements as:
The United States believes the rest of the world should adapt to American ways.
The U.S. thinks it can, and should, force its version of democracy on to others (e.g. Iraq).
The United States is ethnocentric.
The U.S. is hyper-nationalistic.
The U.S. is an arrogant bully.
The U.S. fails to listen to other countries.
The U.S. falls into a “double standard:” criticizing others while ignoring its critics.
The United States suffers from a “disease of conceit.”
The U.S. is blind to the misery its global crusades have caused others (e.g. Vietnam, Iraq).
The Vietnam and Iraq wars are only two of the many ways American exceptionalism has manifested in our history. We turn now to consider others.

How American Exceptionalism has manifested in U.S. history

From the 17th to the 21st centuries, American exceptionalism has appeared in every era of U.S. history. The Puritans in the 1630’s brought an “exceptionalist logic” to the New World. Feeling they were making a clear break with the corruption of Europe, they saw themselves in a covenantal relationship with God, charged with the special spiritual duty to lead other nations.
While the tradition of republicanism died out in Britain, it was taken up by the revolutionaries in America in 1776. The revolutionary pamphleteer, Thomas Paine, spoke of America as a “new land” with nearly unlimited potential. The Declaration of Independence abrogated the power of monarchy and described human beings as having inalienable rights. Twenty years later, the Constitution vested sovereignty in the people and put strict limits on ecclesiastical power in separating church and state. All of these served to make the United States unusual.
Fifty years later, the country’s uniqueness was obvious to foreign visitors. The astute Alexis de Tocqueville was the first to use the term “exceptional” in describing America and its society:
The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one. Their strictly Puritanical origin, their exclusively commercial habits, even the country they inhabit, which seems to divert their minds from the pursuit of science, literature, and the arts, the proximity of Europe, which allows them to neglect these pursuits without relapsing into barbarism, a thousand special causes, of which I have only been able to point out the most important, have singularly occurred to fix the mind of the American upon purely practical objects. His passions, his wants, his education, and everything about him seem to unite in drawing the native of the United States earthward; his religion alone bids him turn, from time to time, a transient and distracted glance to heaven. Let us cease, then, to view all democratic nations under the example of the American people, and attempt to survey them at length with their own features.
With his French background, inquiring mind and perspicacity, Tocqueville was well placed to observe the American experience with more objectivity than any native. In this succinct summary he identifies several ways in which America was/is exceptional:
our Puritanical origins; our focus on commerce (i.e. our penchant for making money—a quality that Jung also noted a century later); the practical bent of the American mind; our educational tradition oriented to problem-solving (praxis, not theory); and the “transient” diversion of religion. He concluded that America was incomparable and had to be taken on its own terms.
A few years after Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America, an American journalist, John O’Sullivan, coined another key term in the history of American exceptionalism: “Manifest Destiny.” Soon taken up by Jacksonian Democrats, the concept of manifest destiny was used as a rationale to acquire Texas, the Gadsen Purchase and the Mexican cession. What does “manifest destiny” mean? Essentially it was an extension of the Puritans’ original idea of being destined by God to create a better world in the new land. Now that they were here, with a growing population, there was a clear (i.e. obvious or “manifest”) destiny to expand geographically into the rest of the American continent. Some scholars suggested that the American spirit was created by the frontier, so it was divinely ordained that we were meant to push westward and bring the blessings of Providence to the “wilderness.”
In 1899 the Republican Party took up the idea of manifest destiny to justify the Spanish American War and the annexation of Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Philippines and Panama. President William McKinley claimed that he had been told by God to go to war to free these lands from the yoke of Spain. The Secretary of War, Elihu Root, reflected the idea of American exceptionalism in his touting of the American soldier as the “advance guard of liberty and justice, of law and order, and of peace and happiness.”
All this while, millions of immigrants were on the move. From the 1860’s on, the United States had become the goal for many of them. It was the land of freedom—freedom to choose an occupation; freedom to move around and relocate wherever one wanted; freedom to rise in social status; freedom to aspire socially, politically, economically. Successful immigrants like Carl Schurz and Andrew Carnegie offered examples of how America fostered social mobility. In gifting the United States with the Statue of Liberty France was recognizing how this country had become a magnet for dissidents, malcontents, persecuted, oppressed, beleaguered and restive peoples.
World War I and its aftermath revealed the streak of isolationism inherent in American exceptionalism. It took the sinking of American ships to get the country into the war, and afterwards the U.S. Senate refused to support Wilson’s internationalism, in its repudiation of the League of Nations. In the interwar years a growing “America First” movement sought to keep the United States out of involvement with Europe. Once again, it was only Pearl Harbor that overcame the isolationists’ reluctance to get involved in World War II. American exceptionalism became the subject of scholarly studies in the interwar years, and the focus of academic controversy between conservatives (who touted the country’s special nature) and liberals (who pointed up the darker side of the American experience).
After World War II, when the United States had emerged as the clear global leader, men like Henry Luce (the publisher of Time, Life and other major periodicals) declared the 20th century the “American century.” Luce suggested that the United States had the right to use its influence however it saw fit. Colleges and universities set up American Studies programs and the term “American exceptionalism” emerged, to reflect the uniqueness of the American experience and American culture.
The Cold War of the 1950’s-1980’s provoked lots of rhetoric about the freedom of the American way of life, in contrast to the tyranny of Communism. Many scholars and social analysts described the “American dream” of owning a home and becoming well off. During the Reagan/Bush years of the 1980’s American exceptionalism got more polished. Reagan, for example, added to the Puritans’ claim, talking in speeches of “the shining city on a hill.” By the 1990’s American exceptionalism had become a popular subject in scholarly circles, with more than 10 books on the subject appearing in that decade.
Which brings us to our own era. The election of 2000 saw another conservative in the Oval Office. Chosen by the Supreme Court, George W. Bush sparked a resurgence of the conservative form of American exceptionalism. The “neo-cons” trumpeted the United States “going it alone” in foreign policy. Following the principle of exemptionalism, we refused to join other nations in a host of treaties. We refused to submit to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. The Bush Administration articulated the doctrine of preemptive war, in the name of safeguarding our way of life and the spreading of liberty and democracy around the world —all with the unspoken assumption that the “American way” is better and appropriate for everyone in the world. The experience of 9/11 produced rampant hyper-nationalism, with a surge in sales of American flags, men joining the military to fight for our freedom, and ubiquitous bumper stickers extolling “pride in America,” “support the troops” etc.
In sum, American exceptionalism has manifested historically as:
national pride, with a sense of being chosen by God
a strong moral strain in the American character and political rhetoric
a colonizing attitude, in our expansion into the interior of North America
imperialism, in our overseas adventures in various wars
chauvinism, in the belief that ours is the best nation
attempts to remake the world in our image
Over the 400 years of our history the various facets of American exceptionalism have grown and developed. Now we will shift our focus from history to analysis, to consider what American exceptionalism implies.

The implications of American exceptionalism

For the sake of clarity, we can distinguish two types or classes of implications: domestic and international. Let’s consider the international implications first.
ethnocentricism: national chauvinism, with a strong sense of the superiority of our values and way of life, along with claims of the universality of our values and moralistic judgments of other nations.
imperialism: Teddy Roosevelt said “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” And we have often carried our “big stick” into other countries in the name of liberating them from dictators, Communists, tyranny—the list is long, the rhetoric always the same.
exemptionalism: we claim the right to opt out of treaties and conventions and, in our “legal isolationism,” our judges refuse to recognize the decisions of other courts.
unilateralism: the U.S. is willing to “go it alone” and invokes its divine mission to justify its actions, while, at the same time, wanting to have it both ways: we want to be able to drive our gas-guzzling cars with cheap gas, even though that gas comes from other countries.
The domestic implications are those internal habits, practices and behaviors that mark our country in an unusual way. These include:
character traits, e.g. optimism, self-reliance, independence, egalitarianism and individualism (which, in its stress on individual rights, breeds a tendency toward litigiousness).
a set of myths, e.g. that the United States lacks a class system (this is a “myth,” in that, while classes are not as obvious as in Europe, Americans certainly recognize social distinctions in background, education, tastes and lifestyle).
greater religiosity than in other nations: our Presidents invoke God as the guide for their actions; “God bless America” signs appear on buildings and the Kate Smith recording of the song plays at Yankee games, and polls consistently indicate that more Americans are regular church-goers than in most other countries.
normative assumptions and judgments: commentators regularly note the moralistic streak in American values, the moralistic judgments we make of other nations, the double standard and hypocrisy in the disconnect between what we do and what we say.
materialism: Tocqueville noted this nearly 200 years ago; it is no less a feature of our way of life now. We interpret the “American dream” in material terms. We have, as a society, a strong sense of entitlement. Our economy is built on consumerism and there is massive inequality in the distribution of our national wealth.
perceptual problems: We have a self-perception of uniqueness and moral superiority, along with “willful nationalistic ignorance of the faults committed by the American government.” Conservatives feel nostalgia for earlier times, while some analysts of the American character note how we deceive ourselves, blinded by our “conceit.”

A Jungian Perspective on American Exceptionalism

In our survey so far, we have spoken of pride, a sense of superiority, a sense of specialness, moralism, materialism, ethnocentricism, a sense of divine mission, blindness to our faults, deception and conceit. What do all these point to, from a Jungian point of view? Inflation.
What do Jungians mean by “inflation”? Daryl Sharp defines “inflation” as “a state of mind characterized by an exaggerated sense of self-importance, often compensated by feelings of inferiority.” Jung spoke of inflation as “a puffed-up attitude.” Certainly when our political leaders appeal to our patriotism, speak of our specialness, call upon our unique responsibilities, refuse to cooperate with other countries, and ignore treaty responsibilities, we are displaying a collective attitude of inflation.
Why such inflation? The Jungian analyst Edward Edinger provides us with an insightful list of causes: The American mind has been shaped by the American past, a past in which all but the indigenous natives have been immigrants. The experience of being uprooted is part of the psychic experience of all Americans. Most of us, in other words, go back to dissidents, malcontents, outcasts, or the rejected, persecuted and enslaved. The result in our deep unconscious psyche? We all have feelings of cultural inferiority, with a lack of the deep rootedness to a place that Europeans have. Edinger feels we compensate for these feelings of inferiority with arrogance, especially technological arrogance. This arrogance is a form of pride.
What follows pride? The Bible reminds us that “Pride goeth before a fall.” In collective terms, a “fall” would be “... a violent breakdown of the social order.”
Jungians would regard American exceptionalism, or at least the conservatives’ triumphalist form of it, as a dangerous feature of American life. It, and its implications, are things we must become aware of now. Jung was quite explicit about this:
An inflated consciousness is always egocentric and conscious of nothing but its own presence. It is incapable of learning from the past, incapable of understanding contemporary events, and incapable of drawing right conclusions about the future. It is hypnotized by itself and therefore cannot be argued with. It inevitably dooms itself to calamities that must strike it dead.
Our situation sounds pretty grim. But Jung was not a fatalist: he offered a way to avoid the destruction of the American polity:
... this state of unconscious possession will continue undeterred until we...become scared of our “god-almightiness.” Such a change can begin only with individuals, for the masses are blind brutes, as we know to our cost. It seems to me of some importance, therefore, that a few individuals, or people individually, should begin to understand that there are contents which do not belong to the ego-personality, but must be ascribed to a psychic non-ego.... Very few people care to know anything about this; it is so much easier to preach the universal panacea to everybody else than to take it oneself, and, as we all know, things are never so bad when everybody is in the same boat. No doubts can exist in the herd; the bigger the crowd the better the truth—and the greater the catastrophe.
The way out is through us: the “very few.” Jung is speaking to us. If you are reading this blog essay, you are hereby put on notice that you are one of the “few” he is speaking about. The change has to begin with us, with you. You need to be aware of American exceptionalism and the dangers it holds. You need to take up the task of creating more consciousness in the world. And Jung warns us that we must not, cannot look to political leaders (however much we might like and have high hopes for Obama). Our leaders are caught up in the mass movement; they have to be, to get elected. So we cannot expect them to see the reality of our situation. If we are to have a cooperative, humble, viable society, we have to take up the task of becoming conscious ourselves, working on ourselves, so we can be the “makeweight” that will tip the scales into a future world that works for everyone.

Bibliography


Anderson, Ron (2008), “Taking Exception to American Exceptionalism,” Tag Archives; available on the Web: URL: http://contexts.org/eye/tag/american-exceptionalism/
Bacevich, Andrew (2008), The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. New York: Henry Holt.
Carman, Harry, Harold Syrett & Bernard Wishy (1961), A History of the American People, 2nd ed., 2 v. New York: Alfred Knopf.
Economist, The (2008), ”Only in America;” available on the Web: URL: http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/PrinterFriendly.
Edinger, Edward (1984), The Creation of Consciousness. Toronto: Inner City Books.
________ (1995), Melville’s Moby-Dick: An American Nekyia. Toronto: Inner City Books.
Eland, Ivan (2004), “American Exceptionalism,” The Independent Institute (October 26, 2004); available on the Web; URL: http://www.independent.org/printer.asp
Frel, Jan (2006), “Could Bush Be Prosecuted for War Crimes?” (July 10, 2006); available on the Web: URL: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/38604
Ignatieff, Michael, ed. (2005), American Exceptionalism and Human Rights; abstract available on the Web: URL: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8080.html
Jacobs, Ron (2004), “American Exceptionalism: A Disease of Conceit,” Counterpunch (July 20, 2004); available on the Web: URL: http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs07212004.html
Jung, C.G. (1953), ”Psychology and Alchemy,” Collected Works, 12. Princeton: Princeton University Press (identified in the notes as CW 12)
________ (1966), “Two Essays on Analytical Psychology,” Collected Works, 7. Princeton: Princeton University Press (identified in the notes as CW 7).
Kohut, Andrew & Bruce Stokes (2008), “The Problem of American Exceptionalism,” Pew Research Center Publications (May 9, 2008); available on the Web: URL: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/23/the-problem-of-american-exceptionalism
Lipset, Seymour Martin (2000), “Book Review of American Exceptionalism by Deborah Madsen,” The Journal of American History, 87, 3; available on the Web: URL: http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/printpage.cgi
Monkerud, Don (2008), “Isn’t It Time for the U.S. to Rejoin the World?,” Counterpunch Weekend Edition (October 17/20, 2008); available on the Web: URL: http://mostlywater.org/american¬_exceptionalism
Seis, G. (2003), “American Exceptionalism.” URL: http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/courses/ed253a/american-exceptionalism.html
Sharp, Daryl (1991), C.G. Jung Lexicon: A Primer of Terms & Concepts. Toronto: Inner City Books.
Spiro, Peter (2000), “The New Sovereignists: American Exceptionalism and Its Fall Prophets,” Foreign Affairs (November/December 2000), available on the Web: URL: http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20001101facomment932/peter-j-spiro/
Thimm, Johannes (n.d.), “American Exceptionalism—Conceptual Thoughts and Empirical Evidence,” available online.
Tocqueville, Alexis de (1945), Democracy in America, 2 v., ed. Phillips Bradley. New York: Vintage Books.
Turner, Frederick Jackson (1890/1920), The Frontier in American History. New York: Henry Holt; also available in digital form on the Internet
Wikipedia, “American exceptionalism.” URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism
Zinn, Howard (1993-2006), “The Power and the Glory: Myths of American exceptionalism,” Boston Review; available on the Web: URL: http://bostonreview.net/BR30.3/zinn.html

The first part of this essay appeared in January, the second, in early February. Both parts are still on this Web site.

Part III: Our Current Situation in an Alchemical Context

In this part we will examine the 4 alchemical phases with reference to specific events in the daily newspapers that provide us with insights into the phases underway in this transitional time. Then we will consider what the next few years might hold for us, using alchemy as a guide to the future.

Pick up the daily newspaper and what do we read about? Major forest fires burning thousands of acres and leaving hundreds of people homeless. Massive hurricanes dissolving beaches, breaking down structures, flooding whole cities. Tens of thousands dying in large earthquakes and terrorist attacks. Currencies losing their value. The revelations of corruption at all levels of business and government, as Governors and Senators are forced from office for malfeasance, bribery, or other “high crimes and misdemeanors;” heads of state castigating other heads of state as “the axis of evil” and refusing to engage them on the world stage; Wall Street tycoons getting huge paychecks, CEOs claiming big bonuses, “golden parachutes” and salaries hundreds of times larger than those of ordinary workers; hot shot “dealmakers” fancying themselves “Masters of the Universe;” confusion, bewilderment, disorientation and melancholy as tens of thousands of people lose their homes in the mortgage crisis; hundreds of young people becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol each year; major banks collapsing, ratcheting up the anxiety level throughout our society.

Do we need to wonder what is going on? Clearly we are now in the nigredo stage as a society, experiencing the calcinatio (fires), solutio (floods), mortificatio (dying), inflation (both economic and personal), the putrefactio (corruption), confrontation with the shadow (which George Bush projected out in seeing others as “evil”), greed, confusion, sickness of spirit, and anxiety. This is not a good time in our collective reality! Some elements of our society would have us believe it is the beginning of the end, that we will soon witness Armageddon or the Apocalypse.

But Jung reminds us that the nigredo is not meant to be the end. It is only a phase, the hardest phase, admittedly, but one that we are meant to grow through. Using alchemy as our road map, we can also see signs of the albedo, the phase after the nigredo.

We see the strong passions and bitter hostilities that are characteristic of the albedo phase in the Obama-Clinton exchanges during the Presidential primaries. Other examples of this are: the hostilities between Sunnis and Shi’ites in Iraq, between Tibetans and Chinese in Tibet, and between the Islamic jihadists and the U.S. military in Afghanistan. There is growing awareness of the need to balance opposites like home and work, work and play, in, for example, the studies of Anne Wilson Schaef and others on the dangers of addictions (e.g. workaholism). In the rise of feminism, gender studies on college campuses, and the women’s rights movement internationally we see growing attempts, on the collective level, to integrate animus and anima. In the rising awareness of holistic health, eating disorders and the value of diet in health maintenance we see the redemption of body and matter. The popularity of the books by Marion Woodman speaks to the growing concern with the body and its connection to soul. Finally, the environmental movement is the modern form of Hildegard’s benedicta viriditas, the blessedness of “greenness” and life on this planet.

Signs of the rubedo phase are just emerging in our collective experience. Renewal seems to be showing up in the growing number of people who are now working on healing themselves, including becoming conscious of the unconscious. New attitudes are appearing: there is more respect now being given to indigenous peoples and what they can offer us; more people are waking up to how global capitalism is destroying the planet; reverence is being given to Mother Earth in more places and more ways; the push for peace is growing as more people wake up to the reality that violence never solves anything; we are seeing a more conscious holding of the tension of opposites, as more people recognize the “clash of universalisms” and realize that gravity—and the Source of gravity—truly does work for everyone (even those who profess a different religious belief). As more people “authorize their own lives” they look within for direction and recognize the wisdom that their inner Divinity offers. Finally, we are hearing messages (even in media like television that usually pander to the lowest common denominator) reminding us “we’re all in this together,” and in such venues we are seeing nascent visions of unity. “Nascent” because this phase is just beginning to emerge on the collective level.

The nigredo, by contrast, is well underway. What does it suggest the next few years are likely to hold for us?

Our Possible Future in an Alchemical Context

The years ahead are likely to see widespread confusion—times when people really aren’t clear as to what’s happening. Disintegration—where things fall apart—is also likely, in what George Land called the “breakdown” time (which makes possible the “breakthrough” later on). Another likely part of our future is aggression: anger against oneself, as well as with other people. All sorts of base passions are likely to rise up: rage and jealousy, resentment and frustration.

There is likely to be lots of death. In the mortificatio people experience the death of various aspects of themselves or the death of some important people in their lives, or the death of a phase of life, or the death of a job. Given the current round of layoffs reported daily in the news, we are witnessing lots of mortificatio now. Deaths from fires, earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes and tornados show up on the evening news with distressing regularity. We might also see widespread deaths from epidemics.

There are lots of dangers in the collective form of the nigredo, and these dangers are likely to continue until we have moved out of this phase. There are demonic energies at work, energies from our unreconstructed side, energies from those people in the collective who would cause disintegration and disharmony and who would try to break down whatever is whole and healing. This is part of our confronting the shadow in ourselves and in our culture.

There is, in this time, lots of projection of the shadow. I noted George Bush as a stellar example of this, with all his talk of the “axis of evil” in North Korea, Iran, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and Osama bin Laden. We are projecting the shadow out on to these people, rather than recognizing it in ourselves. Unless or until we, as a collective become more reflective and introspective, we are likely to continue to see the shadow outside.

Another quality of the nigredo phase is emotional outbursts, and it is very likely that we will see further expressions of anger and rage as more people become confused, disoriented and anxious. Many are likely to be highly emotional and volatile.

More and more people will recognize the old ways are inadequate (we have seen some of this already, in the enthusiasm with which people greeted Obama’s call for change). In the nigredo, on the individual level, it does eventually dawn on the person that the old way in which s/he has been living probably isn’t working very well anymore. In many cases people at this point fall into psychological depression. On the collective level it is very likely that we will fall into economic depression. Given the gross materialism of American culture, I think it is going to take something as severe as the Depression of the 1930’s to jog people out of the warped values our culture is mired in.
So, for those very much identified with their stuff, there is likely to be a sickness of spirit, manifested perhaps in acute despair. Many people will feel all is lost, all is gone, there is no hope etc. There may be suicides and homicides. A friend of mine recently lost his daughter when her husband discovered that his many millions of dollars had disappeared in the mortgage crisis. His response to that was to kill her and then jump off the Delaware Memorial Bridge. We are likely to see tragedies like this from people whose entire sense of identity is invested in material stuff.

Illusions are likely to be shattered. After 8 years of George Bush (with his 20% approval rating), there are not many people who still put their hopes in the federal government. It has become obvious that the federal government wouldn’t be able to find its way out of a paper bag. They’re certainly not going to save us. People looking to government for solutions will be disappointed and this may lead to uprisings and riots, perhaps even rebellion and revolution. Around the world people are likely to be forced by events to recognize that government does not have the solution, and this is not just in the United States. In general, governments are not going to be able to solve our problems. National governments are actually atavisms, that is, at a certain period of history they were appropriate but, as we have evolved collectively, as a global civilization, national governments are no longer appropriate. I think over the next 3 or 4 decades there will be growing recognition that national governments are yet another source of divisiveness and problems, being too big to solve local problems and too small to solve global problems.

There will be other illusions that have to be shattered as well. For example, Americans tend to think that we have the best country in the world, the best systems and all the answers. That illusion definitely has to be dispelled and years of neglect to our civic infrastructure may help to do this. We’re likely to see the breakdown of the systems that run the country: glitches in the electric grid, problems with transportation—subway systems, roads etc. We are already seeing this in Vermont where major bridges on federal highways (vital arteries, not back roads!) have been closed due to poor maintenance. This (and the enormous rise in the price of petroleum) will lead to widespread disruption in distribution systems and in the transportation of vital resources. In some locales there may be empty food shelves. If you live in an area very near farms and places where people can grow food this may not be as much of a problem. But in many of the major cities there will be problems from disrupted distribution chains.

The nigredo is a time when there is very little reflection or introspection, because the old mode of orientation to the outer world is still so entrenched. It’s only toward the end of this phase that the individual begins to make a habit of looking within. Then s/he becomes far more reflective and starts to wonder what’s going on at deeper levels. Prior to this the tendency is to try to figure out who can be blamed for the misery the person is experiencing.

On the collective level the early stage of the nigredo is likely to show up in accusations, of pointing the finger, of fixing blame on somebody or some group or agency of government. A current example is the Food and Drug Administration. We look to the FDA now to protect the safety and purity of our food and pharmaceuticals. So, in the face of e-coli outbreaks, contaminants in food and drugs, salmonella epidemics, etc. we want to find out who can be blamed.

The nigredo is not a pleasant time and prophecies from many sources warn us that it’s going to get worse before it gets better. As I noted in Part I, the last of Jung’s prophetic visions foretold the destruction of most, but not all, of the world. He felt this was 50 years in the future, which means he anticipated some sort of cataclysm in 2011. This date coincides with ancient Mayan prophecies that identify 2012 as the time of a major shift of perception. Some speak of this as “the end of time,” which might refer to the point at which human beings switch from living mostly out of the left brain (which is time-bound) to right-brain dominance (the right brain operates outside of linear time).

It will be very important in this nigredo phase, when things are going from bad to worse, that we remember this phase is not the end. It is merely a clearing-out phase. It is a phase meant to prepare us, as a society, for the albedo phase. If you are reading this blog posting you should be aware that you are doing so for a deeper reason than mere interest in the Jungian Center: on some level, whether you are conscious of it or not, you agreed to sign on to share this message with other people so that more and more people come to realize this is not the end. Although there may be mass destruction and global catastrophe, this is not meant to be the end. It is a transitional phase, just one phase (difficult, to be sure) but the necessary breakdown phase. It will clear away what has to be removed so that we can break through to a much better reality.

The nigredo prepares us for the albedo phase. As I noted earlier, in Part II, the albedo is easier than the nigredo. In the individual it is the time when a person begins to confront and deal very consciously with his or her contrasexual side. On the collective level this is likely to take the form of a re-evaluation and a re-appreciation of the feminine. The feminine, and women, will move much more into positions of equality, true equality with the masculine, with men. The feminine perspective will be integrated into all aspects of life. In doing this we will begin to differentiate our capacity to relate to our fellow human beings. We will resist falling into the herd phenomenon, and we will also have to work at transcending “bi-polar thinking,” i.e. seeing things in dichotomies, or the “us-them” way of thinking. In bi-polar thinking, it’s man versus woman. Rather than this “either-or” mode, we will have to learn to think more inclusively, with a “both-and” approach. As we learn to hold the tension of opposites we will see the emergence of what Jung called “the transcendent function,” the function that reconciles these opposites into the “mystic marriage,” where the animus and anima, the masculine and feminine, are integrated.

Given our thousands of years of history of bi-polar thinking, this new way will not be easy. It thwarts the will of the ego, which isn’t used to thinking like this. It isn’t used to treating the opposite gender in this way so there will be some struggle (especially for men), but it’s not going to be as difficult as the nigredo phase was. We can also anticipate that with the re-appreciation of the feminine will come a revering of Mother Nature, of planet Earth, and all things associated with The Mother. A real ecological consciousness will arise in people as part of the albedo phase on the collective level.

The albedo will eventually lead to the rubedo. This will be a breakthrough time. On the individual level it is a time when all the scattered pieces of life are accepted and integrated and we come to sense within the archetype of wholeness that, in the ancient world, was called the Anthropos. This is also the time when the body and matter are spiritualized. In other words, this is the phase when the individual recognizes that matter is not primary.

In our materialistic culture now we definitely operate under the assumption that matter is what’s real. This is an error, and people will begin to recognize this error in the next few years, during the nigredo phase, as their identification with matter and money and outer things falls away. The point of all the destruction in the nigredo phase is to get us to recognize that it is not matter that is primary: spirit is primary. We are fundamentally spiritual beings. While we are on earth we are having a physical experience. But we are not essentially matter. So, on the collective level in the rubedo phase, spirit will become recognized as primary and we will relinquish possessive attitudes. We won’t be so focused on “our” stuff; we won’t feel things have to be our “own.” Eventually there is likely to be complete sharing.

During the rubedo phase people will come more and more to recognize their inner divinity, the divine spark within them. In this stage of enlightenment matter will come to be sanctified. The Earth will be seen as sacred and we will begin to give respect to indigenous peoples’ sacred places and spaces. There will much more of a push for global peace and unity—the recognition that all peoples are in this world together.

In the final phase, the citrinitas, there will be no conflict. Peace will be the norm. The Hopi prophesy that everyone will be able to communicate telepathically, with animals as well as other humans. All limiting thought will be gone. Everyone will understand the cosmic plan and everyone will recognize our divinity as human beings. We will not believe in separation between humans and the world, or between people and their Creator. In other words, the current idea in Western civilization that humans are somehow separate from and superior to Nature—that they have “dominion” over Nature—will be recognized as an extremely destructive way of thinking and will be gone. Life will be directed by the Self (with a capital S). Life will not be ego-driven. The technologies that we use will serve the cosmos and the living Earth, and will not be driven by greedy corporations that have to constantly push stuff on to us to continue to expand their bottom line. Technologies will be very Earth-friendly. Love and joy will be experienced all the time. There will be no governments because there will be no need for governments. As Locke and Hobbes remind us, governments derive from a certain attitude or vision about the nature of human nature, and that, of course, will be seen in a very different way in the citrinitas phase, when the adaptation to a cosmic consciousness will be complete.

Conclusion

Why should we be hopeful as we look ahead? For several reasons: first, we must recognize that despair is disempowering, and the only thing that despair produces is more despair. The nigredo is likely to be a difficult time, but we must not fall into despair. The nigredo is just one phase and the others will be easier.

We should also remember that we have choices. John Perkins, the author of The World Is As You Dream It, reminds us that by the visions we set for reality we determine the kind of reality we have. We can choose to dream a positive dream or a positive vision for the future and the dream will make it so. If we choose to dream a negative dream, or if we choose to fall into despair, it’s going to worsen the conditions around us, and we could possibly put an end to the planet. This is a choice and it’s our choice to make. Each person counts here.

In The Undiscovered Self, which is one of the books Jung wrote for a lay audience, he said that each individual has to recognize that he or she could very well be the “makeweight,” that is, the crucial figure that tips us into a whole new mindset. Many decades later this was what Malcolm Gladwell called the “tipping point.” None of us knows who this crucial figure might be: it could very well be any one of us. If you are reading this blog posting, you are hereby put on notice that you count and you could be the crucial figure who tips us into a new reality.

I am often asked “How do you think we’re going to get there?” In response I go back to 1989. There are a lot of people that don’t remember that period. A lot of my students weren’t even born in 1989. But in 1989 there was a massive transformation of Europe and not a single shot was fired. There was no violence at all, but at some point the countries of Eastern Europe recognized that they were no longer under subjugation. They could leave the Soviet bloc and the Soviet Union fell apart. Now how did that happen? It happened because there was a fundamental shift of attitude on the part of most of the people. I think that, in time, people are going to wake up—they will make a major shift in attitude—and will recognize that the reality we have now is fundamentally unsustainable, extremely unjust and ecologically destructive. And in this recognition, our current reality will loose its legitimacy.

There are a whole series of indigenous cultures, in addition to medieval alchemy, that provide us with descriptions of what we are going through now. They describe the lay of the land in this phase of our journey. These cultures and alchemy, like ancient maps, note “Here be dragons.” “This is a danger spot.” “This is going to be a difficult interval.” They lay out forks in the road. These forks are choice that we must make. As Yogi Berra said, “When you get to the fork in the road, take it!” But there are a lot of people in our culture now, and certainly in the years ahead, who will take that fork but then they’ll wander around looking for the knife and the spoon as well. In other words, they’re not going to make a choice. They’re going to be dithering. They will be very reluctant to move on to a new, more viable reality.

Native cultures and alchemy describe the destination that Nature intends us to reach. In other words, the fork that we are meant to choose is toward a better world, a world of peace, a world of environmental reclamation, a world of harmony, a world of wholeness. This is the fork that we’re meant to choose. As Jung would remind us, our role as individuals is to become more conscious of our responsibility, to come to recognize who we are, what we are meant to be, how we are meant to serve, and how we individually can work for a world that works for everyone.

The culture today would keep us disempowered. It wants you to be locked down into fear—fear of terrorists, fear of illegal aliens, fear of losing your job, fear of losing your house—all sorts of fears. You can choose to go down that path but I guarantee you your reality and your future will not be nice. You can also choose to recognize what the authorities are trying to do: people that are fearful are very much easier to control. Then you can say to yourself, “I’m not going to buy that! I’m not going to allow the powers that be to disempower me! I am going to claim my choice, as an individual, to begin to serve the new, better reality which is coming.” Armed with the road map of alchemy and Jung’s prophetic visions, you can be prepared for the challenges and exciting future that is in store for us.

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Wagner, Suzanne (1998-1999), “A Conversation with Marie-Louise von Franz,” Psychological Perspectives, 38 (Winter 1998-1999), 12-39.
Waters, Frank (1963), Book of the Hopi. New York: Penguin Books.
Wolfe, Tom (1987), The Bonfire of the Vanities. New York: Bantam Books.
Woodman, Marion (1982), Addiction to Perfection. Toronto: Inner City Books.
________ (1993), Conscious Femininity. Toronto: Inner City Books
________ (1980), The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter. Toronto: Inner City Books
________ (1985), The Pregnant Virgin. Toronto: Inner City Books
________ (1990), The Ravaged Bridegroom. Toronto: Inner City Books

The first part of this essay appeared last month. Refer to the January 09 posting, which is still on this Web site.

Part II: Alchemy and Its Phases—A Road Map for Individuals and Cultures

“Alchemy.” The word conjures up medieval men hunched over flasks and fires trying to turn lead into gold. Historians of science regard alchemy as the precursor of modern chemistry. The dictionary defines it as “a combination of chemistry and magic studied in the Middle Ages, especially the search for a process by which cheaper metals could be turned into gold and silver...” It was part of Jung’s genius, born out of his respect for ancient ways and wisdom traditions, to recognize that the medieval alchemists were about something much more profound than making gold out of lead.

Rather than metallurgical transformation, alchemy is about the process of personal transformation. Lead is symbolic of the basic unconscious state that we’re in when we come into the world, and the gold is the achievement we reach when we have developed in ourselves what Jung called “individuation,” that is, when we have become fully and truly who we are meant to be. This process of change takes many forms, involves many processes and takes us through many phases as we work to individuate.

Jung and his followers (especially Marie-Louise von Franz) describe the phases of alchemical change using the terms developed by the early alchemists. These medieval researchers were fluent in the scholarly language of the day, Latin, hence the terms show up in forms that are foreign to the ears of most contemporary Americans.

The alchemical change process occurs in four major phases: the nigredo, the albedo, the rubedo and the citrinitas. In this Part II we will define and describe each phase in terms of an individual’s experiences. Then we will apply the phase on the collective level, in a general way. In Part III we will relate the phases to our current reality, with reference to specific events and phenomena we are witnessing now, and then look into the future.

The Nigredo

The first of the phases is dark, dismal, a very black time, well-labeled the nigredo, which comes from a Latin word (niger) meaning “black” or “dark.” For the person in this phase, life is not pleasant, as it is full of confusion and bewilderment, disorientation, sickness of spirit and confrontations with the shadow. Jealousy, envy, irritability, anxiety, self-righteousness, greed, melancholy and inflation are just some of the panoply of feelings that show up during this most difficult of the phases.

A variety of alchemical processes are part of this time, including:

the putrefactio, when we come to recognize some component of our existence is putrid, or rotten, with little or no energy left to feed our life.

the mortificatio, “death”—of people, things, parts of ourselves, in a metaphorical or (more rarely) literal sense—which leaves us with a sense of loss and grieving.
the calcinatio, “burning” or the “refiner’s fire” spoken of in the Old Testament, the process in which we experience the frustration of our desire nature, with the purpose of purifying or “refining” our will.

the solutio, or dissolution of one or more of the elements of our existence that give our life structure, a process during which we are flooded with affect.

These are just a few of the more than dozen processes that alchemists recognized and described. Since each alchemist wrote from his/her own experience, each alchemical text describes the order, sequence and processes differently, making close comparison difficult. But Jung saw the close correlation between their varied descriptions and what he himself experienced in his own development and in that of his patients.

The nigredo is the phase when we are still operating mostly unconsciously. Our complexes are mostly autonomous in this beginning phase. As a result, we suffer more acutely than in the later phases.

The Albedo

The term albedo comes from the Latin albus, meaning “white” or “bright.” Things begin to feel lighter, “brighter” in this phase, compared to the previous misery of the nigredo. The work of this phase is to become aware of our “contrasexual side” and make the acquaintance of our “inner partner.”

As we wrestle with our complexes and strive to domesticate them, we experience strong passions and bitter hostilities, within and without, in dealings with others (often those closest to us). The challenge is to balance the opposites and achieve an integration of the animus/anima. In the process of the sublimatio, we become more objective, able to rise above situations to see them from a transcendent perspective. In developing a conscious relation to the inner man (for a woman) or woman (for a man), we redeem the body and matter, and come to experience what the great 13th century abbess, Hildegard of Bingen, called benedicta viriditas, the blessedness of being alive.

In the albedo phase we work to bring up from the unconscious (that is, we “redeem”) attitudes and feelings about ourselves, our bodies, our sexuality, the opposite sex and the host of feelings we have around embodiment itself. The purpose here? To come ultimately to a deeper level of wholeness and a greater appreciation of life on the physical plane.

The Rubedo

The third phase means “reddening” in Latin and just as our face reddens in the process of blushing, so we experience a surge of renewal in the rubedo phase. After confronting the shadow in the nigredo and wrestling with our inner opposite sex in the albedo, we come to the third phase more able to hold the tension of opposites (good and bad, male and female). The process of the sublimatio has led to the development of new attitudes, and the deus absconditus (the hidden god within) becomes known. Through long-term conscious suffering the ego now becomes conscious of the Self: we begin to recognize the wise source of inner guidance. After numerous experiences of “crucifixion” the ego begins, in this rubedo phase, to subordinate itself to an authority higher than it. The Self becomes actualized, rather than just a potential within. And we begin to be able to sustain the paradox of recognizing our divine nature without identifying with it.

By this point in the spiritual journey life is feeling very different from where we were, and what we were feeling, when we set out in the nigredo phase. By this penultimate phase, life seems to be working better, we feel better—as if we are “getting our act together.” Stay the course and we come to the final phase.

The Citrinitas

The source of our English word for the yellow-green gemstone “citrine,” citrinitas is the alchemical term for the final phase of transformation, the fulfillment of the opus, or work, the metaphorical “gold.” A new day dawns. A new way of being lies before us, as we recognize ourselves as filii macrocosmi (children of the Universe). Fertilized by spirit, illuminated by repeated transmutations of our inner dross into the “gold” of consciousness, we participate consciously in the process of creation in this final phase. We consciously take up our role as co-creators with the Divine.

These four phases—nigredo, albedo, rubedo, citrinitas—describe the stages of alchemical change not only on the individual level. Jung recognized that “the collective psyche shows the same pattern of change as the psyche of the individual.” This being so, collective life would manifest the following:

in the nigredo phase: fires, floods, epidemics and natural disasters, plane crashes and other events that leave hundreds or thousands dead; inflation, in the economic sense of rising prices; the discovery of rot and corruption in the public sphere, in corporations and in government; greed, with the basic motivation being money, with people being “bought” in a variety of ways, and the political system held hostage by the plutocrats or moneyed interests; large segments of the population not understanding what’s going on in the world, experiencing confusion, disorientation, feelings of being “out of the loop,” shut out of public life; sickness of spirit, with many signs of spiritual malaise, e.g. widespread substance abuse, domestic violence, child abuse, sexual violence; anxiety and irritability, along with a rash of psychosomatic illnesses, a rise in mental illness and more minor forms of madness like “road rage.”

in the albedo phase: confrontations between the sexes; public debates about the role of women in the public sphere; protests and agitation for more equal rights for women and minorities; more push to integrate women and minorities into the mainstream of our collective life
in the rubedo phase: more discussion of unity, the interdependence of all beings (not just human beings), the preciousness of life, a growing reverence for life and Earth, our planet that sustains our life; and the appearance of new attitudes and concerns (e.g. the growing planetary awareness of global warming)
in the citrinitas phase: new ways of being and living that create a world that works for everyone, all beings, not just humans; the rise of a way of living and working that sustains natural systems, that provides spiritual fulfillment and economic justice to all. Visionaries in indigenous cultures hundreds of years ago have provided descriptions of this phase as a time of: peace (all sources of conflict are gone); union (all recognize that we are one); life directed by the Creator, with everyone understanding the cosmic plan; everyone being able to communicate with everyone and everything else (i.e. telepathy is the usual way communication occurs); a single currency, with no governments; love and joy being experienced all the time.

In general terms, this is how we might expect the alchemical stages to show up on the collective level. In Part III we get specific. Was Jung right? Can we see actual events in our current reality that might suggest just where we are along the alchemical road map? We will address these questions in our March blog posting.

Bibliography of Sources

Ardagh, Arjuna et al. (2007), The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies and Possibilities. Boulder CO: Sounds True.
Arguëlles, Jose (1987), The Mayan Factor. Santa Fe: Bear & Co.
Bacevich, Andrew (2008), The Limits of Power. New York: Henry Holt.
Birkhäuser-Oeri, Sibylle (1988), The Mother: Archetypal Image in Fairy Tales. Toronto: Inner City Books
Bond, D. Stephenson (2003), The Archetype of Renewal. Toronto: Inner City Books
Bosnak, Robert (1998), A Little Course in Dreams. Boston: Shambhala.
Boynton, Holmes (1948), The Beginnings of Modern Science. Roslyn NY: Walter Black.
Brussat, Frederic & Mary Ann Brussat (1996), Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life. New York: Scribner.
Calleman, Carl (2004), The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness. Rochester VT: Bear & Co.
Choate, Adam, Dana Rowzee & Jerred Tinsley (2005), “CEO Pay Rates: U.S. vs. Foreign Nations.” URL: www.cab.latech.edu/~mkroll/510_papers/fall_05
Conforti, Michael (1999), Field, Form and Fate. New Orleans: Spring Journal Books.
Crombie, A.C. (1959), Medieval and Modern Science, I. Garden City NY: Doubleday.
Dante Aligheri (1961), Paradiso, trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library.
Edinger, Edward (1985), Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy. Chicago & LaSalle IL: Open Court.
________ (1992), Ego and Archetype. Boston: Shambhala.
Fassel, Diane (1990), Working Ourselves to Death. San Francisco: Harper.
Gilbert, Adrian and Maurice Cotterell (1995), The Mayan Prophecies. New York: Barnes & Noble.
Gladwell, Malcolm (2003), The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Cleveland OH: Wheeler Publishing.
Hall, James A. (1983), Jungian Dream Interpretation. Toronto: Inner City Books.
Hannah, Barbara (1976), Jung: His Life and Work. New York: G.P. Putnam.
Harman, Willis (1988), Global Mind Change. Indianapolis: Knowledge Systems.
Harvey, Charles (2002), Anima Mundi: The Astrology of the Individual and the Collective. London: Centre for Psychological Astrology Press.
Jackson, Eve (1996), Food and Transformation: Imagery and Symbolism of Eating. Toronto: Inner City Books.
Jung, C. G. (1970), “Civilization in Transition,” Collected Works, 10. Princeton: Princeton University Press (hereafter listed as CW).
________ (1971), “Psychological Types,” CW 6. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1966), “Two Essays on Analytical Psychology,” CW 7. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1960), ”The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche,” CW 8. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1959), ”The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious,” CW 9i. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1970), “Civilization in Transition,” CW 10. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1969), “Psychology and Religion: West and East,” CW 11. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1953), “Psychology and Alchemy,” CW 12. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1967), “Alchemical Studies,” CW 13. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1963), “Mysterium Coniunctionis,” CW 14. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1974), Dreams. London: Ark Publications.
________ (1965), Memories, Dreams, Reflections. New York: Vintage Books.
________ (1958), The Undiscovered Self. New York: New American Library.
Keen, Sam (1992), “Dying Gods and Borning Spirits,” Noetic Sciences Review (Winter 1992).
Keirsey, David & Marilyn Bates (1984), Please Understand Me. Del Mar CA: Prometheus Nemesis Books.
Kristof, Nicholas (2008), “Talia For President,” The New York Times (November 16, 2008), 14WK.
Land, George (1986), Grow or Die: The Unifying Principle of Transformation. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
________ & Beth Jarman (1992), Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today. New York: Harper Collins.
Lewis, Bernard (2003), The Crisis of Islam. New York: Random House.
Mails, Thomas (1997), The Hopi Survival Kit. New York: Penguin Books.
Mander, Jerry (1991), In the Absence of the Sacred. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
Mattoon, Mary Ann (1984), Understanding Dreams. Dallas TX: Spring Publications.
McGeehan, Patrick (2004), “Masters of the Universe, Leashed (for Now),” The New York Times (July 18, 2004), 3WK.
Perkins, John (1994), The World Is As You Dream It. Rochester VT: Destiny Books.
Pinchbeck, Daniel (2006), 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. New York: Tarcher/Penguin.
Schaef, Anne Wilson (1985), Women’s Reality: An Emerging Femaile System in a White Male Society. San Francisco: Harper.
______ & Diane Fassel (1988), The Addictive Organization. San Francisco: Harper.
Sharp, Daryl (1991), C.G. Jung Lexicon: A Primer of Terms & Concepts. Toronto: Inner City Books.
Stevens, Anthony (2003), Archetype Revisited: An Updated Natural History of the Self. Toronto: Inner City Books
Stray, Geoff (2005), Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Ecstasy: A Complete Guide to End-of-Time Predictions. Lewes UK: Vital Signs Publishing.
Tarnas, Richard (2006), Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View. New York: Viking.
Van Eenwyk, John (1997), Archetypes and Strange Attractors. Toronto: Inner City Books
von Franz, Marie-Louise (1980), Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology. Toronto: Inner City Books.
________ (1997), Archetypal Patterns In Fairy Tales. Toronto: Inner City Books.
________ (1998), C.G. Jung: His Myth in Our Time. Toronto: Inner City Books.
________ (1998), Dreams. Boston: Shambhala.
Wagner, Suzanne (1998-1999), “A Conversation with Marie-Louise von Franz,” Psychological Perspectives, 38 (Winter 1998-1999), 12-39.
Waters, Frank (1963), Book of the Hopi. New York: Penguin Books.
Wolfe, Tom (1987), The Bonfire of the Vanities. New York: Bantam Books.
Woodman, Marion (1982), Addiction to Perfection. Toronto: Inner City Books.
________ (1993), Conscious Femininity. Toronto: Inner City Books
________ (1980), The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter. Toronto: Inner City Books
________ (1985), The Pregnant Virgin. Toronto: Inner City Books
________ (1990), The Ravaged Bridegroom. Toronto: Inner City Books

Jung’s Prophetic Visions and the Alchemy of Our Time:
A Three-Part Essay

Carl Jung, the inspiration behind the Jungian Center, was a highly intuitive person. Over the course of his long life he had many flashes of insight, premonitions and instant knowings that related to both his personal life and his professional work. One of the most intriguing of Jung’s vision was his last, occurring just eight days before he died, when (in the words of his close friend and student, Barbara Hannah) he was “largely concerned with the future of the world after his death.” This vision, Jung felt, was of the time 50 years hence, i.e. in 2011, and it is intriguing for what it foretells, and what inducement it can offer us to work on ourselves and create more consciousness in the
world. In this three-part essay (Part I posted in January ’09, Part II in February and Part III in March) we will examine Jung’s visions (Part I), his insights about the value and applicability of alchemy in understanding personal and collective change (Part II), and how these two—Jung’s visions and his use of alchemy—can help us re-perceive where we are now collectively and what the future might hold for us (Part III).

Part I: Jung’s Prophetic Visions

Carl Jung was known for many things: his work with dreams; his early work as a psychiatrist with association experiments leading to the concept of the “complex,” work that brought him to the attention of Sigmund Freud; his interest in archetypes, which became such a feature of his brand of psychology that it often is labeled “archetypal psychology.” What is not so well known is Jung’s very keen intuitive nature, which manifested in his quick assessment of his patients’ conditions and, outside the clinical arena, in both his personal life and his role as a public figure.

Intuition is that function that allows us to see around the corner of the future. Jung experienced this repeatedly in his personal life. In 1896, when he was 21 years old and living in Basel as a medical student, Jung was asked by his mother to pay a social call on an old family friend, Frau Rauschenbach. During this visit Jung had a fleeting glimpse of a young girl and he knew intuitively that he had seen his future wife. This was highly improbable, given that Emma Rauschenbach was then only 14, the daughter of a rich industrial family, and he was an impoverished medical student with many years of education ahead of him. But Jung never wavered and, once he achieved financial independence, he courted her persistently and married her in 1903.

Nineteen years later, in November of 1922, Jung had a dream in which his father (who had died in 1896) came to him with questions about marital psychology. At the time Jung found the dream obscure. But two months later, he had a disturbing dream, which he recounted in his autobiography, Memories, Dream, Reflections:
I was in a dense, gloomy forest; fantastic, gigantic boulders lay about among huge jungle-like trees. It was a heroic, primeval landscape. Suddenly I heard a piercing whistle that seemed to resound through the whole universe. My knees shook. Then there were crashings in the underbrush, and a gigantic wolfhound with a fearful, gaping maw burst forth. At the sight of it, the blood froze in my veins. It tore past me, and I suddenly knew: the Wild Huntsman had commanded it to carry away a human soul. I awoke in deadly terror,...
The following morning Jung got news that his mother had suddenly died, and he then remembered the dream of two months earlier and understood that in that dream his father had sent him a warning.

Another example of Jung’s intuition arose from his habit of painting mandalas. When he did so, Jung operated in what I have referred to as “allow mode.” In this mode, one’s intuition emerges out of the end of the pen or brush, without intermediation by the conscious mind. One mandala Jung painted in 1928 developed a Chinese character and Jung was puzzled at this. Within a few weeks he was approached by a Sinologist, Richard Wilhelm, who asked Jung to write a psychological commentary on The Secret of the Golden Flower, a Taoist-alchemical treatise.

A final example of Jung’s intuition operating in his personal life was his initial meeting in 1933 with Marie-Louise von Franz, who was to become one of his most diligent students, analysands and co-workers. The meeting came about through Jung’s interest in getting to know more about the young people of the day. Von Franz was the only girl in a party of 8 that Jung hosted with lunch and supper and, as he spoke to them of his psychology, he felt certain that von Franz had something to do with alchemy. His intuition prefigured reality a year in the future: In 1934 von Franz became Jung’s analysand and translator for him of Greek and Latin alchemical texts. Many years later, she wrote Alchemy, one of the definitive texts on alchemy and Jungian psychology.

Jung’s intuition was no less impressive about collective situations. In 1913, Jung sensed the “atmosphere” of Europe was “darkening,” and there was “something in the air,” something that felt oppressive in concrete reality, not just in his unconscious. In October of that year, Jung had a prophetic vision which he described in his memoir:
... I was suddenly seized by an overpowering vision: I saw a monstrous flood covering all the northern and low-lying lands between the North Sea and the Alps. When it came up to Switzerland I saw that the mountains grew higher and higher to protect our country. I realized that a frightful catastrophe was in progress. I saw the mighty yellow waves, the floating rubble of civilization, and the drowned bodies of uncounted thousands. Then the whole sea turned to blood. This vision lasted about an hour.... Two weeks passed; then the vision recurred, under the same conditions, even more vividly than before, and the blood was more emphasized. An inner voice spoke. “Look at it well; it is wholly real and it will be so. You cannot doubt it.”

When Jung was asked later in the year what he thought were the prospects for Europe’s future, he replied that he “had no thoughts on the matter,” but added that he had seen rivers of blood. In the Spring of 1914 he had three dreams in which Europe was covered with ice and all the vegetation was killed by frost. World War I broke out 2 months after the last of the three dreams.

During the 1920’s, while most people gave “the Roaring Twenties” its name with their partying and blithe lifestyles, Jung grew more and more aware that the “carefree optimism” was a “groundless illusion.” He began to warn his students to avoid living in fantasy: he intuitively sensed the tension building and, while he did not then know just where it would manifest, Jung was sure there would eventually be another war. This was more than a decade before World War II began.

In 1958 Jung warned people that “an archetype was stirring in a way that was characteristic for ‘the end of an era.’” He knew of the lore in mundane astrology that posits a shift from the Piscean to the Aquarian age and Jung spoke of the upheavals and great changes we can expect during such a major transition. Few people had listened to Jung previously, when he warned of the coming of the two world wars so he had no illusions that he would be heard in 1958, when Cold War concerns so preoccupied the collective mind. But he felt compelled to speak up.

Jung’s gravest warning came three years later, on his deathbed. Reflecting the concern for the well-being of the world that had been a constant feature of his life, Jung’s waning energies were focused not on his children, his psychology, the Institute he founded or his own reputation. Rather, he looked to the future of the world after his death. On May 30, 1961, eight days before he died, Jung dictated to his daughter his last visions, with instructions that the notes were to be given to Marie-Louise von Franz. The images were sobering: “I see enormous stretches devastated, enormous stretches of the earth. But thank God, not the whole planet.” And Jung made a drawing, with a caption under it that said, “The last 50 years of humanity.”

That was in 1961. Fifty years hence would be 2011. The date is interesting, given the Mayan prophecy that speaks of the end of an era in 2012. We have no indication in the historical record that Jung knew of the Mayan prophecies. That he got the same timetable as an ancient people might be another reflection of his keen intuition.

Jung’s last vision—foretelling the destruction of a large part (but not all) of the world—might leave us feeling gloomy, if not despairing. But that was not Jung’s intention: he always worked to support healing, for people and planet and, as part of that intention, he offered us a road map for change. This road map can set his final visions in a larger context. An explication of his road map is the focus of Part II of this essay, which will appear in this blog space next month.


Bibliography of Sources


Ardagh, Arjuna et al. (2007), The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies and Possibilities. Boulder CO: Sounds True.
Arguëlles, Jose (1987), The Mayan Factor. Santa Fe: Bear & Co.
Bacevich, Andrew (2008), The Limits of Power. New York: Henry Holt.
Birkhäuser-Oeri, Sibylle (1988), The Mother: Archetypal Image in Fairy Tales. Toronto: Inner City Books
Bond, D. Stephenson (2003), The Archetype of Renewal. Toronto: Inner City Books
Bosnak, Robert (1998), A Little Course in Dreams. Boston: Shambhala.
Boynton, Holmes (1948), The Beginnings of Modern Science. Roslyn NY: Walter Black.
Brussat, Frederic & Mary Ann Brussat (1996), Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life. New York: Scribner.
Calleman, Carl (2004), The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness. Rochester VT: Bear & Co.
Choate, Adam, Dana Rowzee & Jerred Tinsley (2005), “CEO Pay Rates: U.S. vs. Foreign Nations.” URL: www.cab.latech.edu/~mkroll/510_papers/fall_05
Conforti, Michael (1999), Field, Form and Fate. New Orleans: Spring Journal Books.
Crombie, A.C. (1959), Medieval and Modern Science, I. Garden City NY: Doubleday.
Dante Aligheri (1961), Paradiso, trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library.
Edinger, Edward (1985), Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy. Chicago & LaSalle IL: Open Court.
________ (1992), Ego and Archetype. Boston: Shambhala.
Fassel, Diane (1990), Working Ourselves to Death. San Francisco: Harper.
Gilbert, Adrian and Maurice Cotterell (1995), The Mayan Prophecies. New York: Barnes & Noble.
Gladwell, Malcolm (2003), The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Cleveland OH: Wheeler Publishing.
Hall, James A. (1983), Jungian Dream Interpretation. Toronto: Inner City Books.
Hannah, Barbara (1976), Jung: His Life and Work. New York: G.P. Putnam.
Harman, Willis (1988), Global Mind Change. Indianapolis: Knowledge Systems.
Harvey, Charles (2002), Anima Mundi: The Astrology of the Individual and the Collective. London: Centre for Psychological Astrology Press.
Jackson, Eve (1996), Food and Transformation: Imagery and Symbolism of Eating. Toronto: Inner City Books.
Jung, C. G. (1970), “Civilization in Transition,” Collected Works, 10. Princeton: Princeton University Press (hereafter listed as CW).
________ (1971), “Psychological Types,” CW 6. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1966), “Two Essays on Analytical Psychology,” CW 7. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1960), ”The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche,” CW 8. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1959), ”The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious,” CW 9i. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1970), “Civilization in Transition,” CW 10. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1969), “Psychology and Religion: West and East,” CW 11. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1953), “Psychology and Alchemy,” CW 12. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1967), “Alchemical Studies,” CW 13. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1963), “Mysterium Coniunctionis,” CW 14. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1974), Dreams. London: Ark Publications.
________ (1965), Memories, Dreams, Reflections. New York: Vintage Books.
________ (1958), The Undiscovered Self. New York: New American Library.
Keen, Sam (1992), “Dying Gods and Borning Spirits,” Noetic Sciences Review (Winter 1992).
Keirsey, David & Marilyn Bates (1984), Please Understand Me. Del Mar CA: Prometheus Nemesis Books.
Kristof, Nicholas (2008), “Talia For President,” The New York Times (November 16, 2008), 14WK.
Land, George (1986), Grow or Die: The Unifying Principle of Transformation. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
________ & Beth Jarman (1992), Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today. New York: Harper Collins.
Lewis, Bernard (2003), The Crisis of Islam. New York: Random House.
Mails, Thomas (1997), The Hopi Survival Kit. New York: Penguin Books.
Mander, Jerry (1991), In the Absence of the Sacred. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
Mattoon, Mary Ann (1984), Understanding Dreams. Dallas TX: Spring Publications.
McGeehan, Patrick (2004), “Masters of the Universe, Leashed (for Now),” The New York Times (July 18, 2004), 3WK.
Perkins, John (1994), The World Is As You Dream It. Rochester VT: Destiny Books.
Pinchbeck, Daniel (2006), 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. New York: Tarcher/Penguin.
Schaef, Anne Wilson (1985), Women’s Reality: An Emerging Femaile System in a White Male Society. San Francisco: Harper.
______ & Diane Fassel (1988), The Addictive Organization. San Francisco: Harper.
Sharp, Daryl (1991), C.G. Jung Lexicon: A Primer of Terms & Concepts. Toronto: Inner City Books.
Stevens, Anthony (2003), Archetype Revisited: An Updated Natural History of the Self. Toronto: Inner City Books
Stray, Geoff (2005), Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Ecstasy: A Complete Guide to End-of-Time Predictions. Lewes UK: Vital Signs Publishing.
Tarnas, Richard (2006), Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View. New York: Viking.
Van Eenwyk, John (1997), Archetypes and Strange Attractors. Toronto: Inner City Books
von Franz, Marie-Louise (1980), Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology. Toronto: Inner City Books.
________ (1997), Archetypal Patterns In Fairy Tales. Toronto: Inner City Books.
________ (1998), C.G. Jung: His Myth in Our Time. Toronto: Inner City Books.
________ (1998), Dreams. Boston: Shambhala.
Wagner, Suzanne (1998-1999), “A Conversation with Marie-Louise von Franz,” Psychological Perspectives, 38 (Winter 1998-1999), 12-39.
Waters, Frank (1963), Book of the Hopi. New York: Penguin Books.
Wolfe, Tom (1987), The Bonfire of the Vanities. New York: Bantam Books.
Woodman, Marion (1982), Addiction to Perfection. Toronto: Inner City Books.
________ (1993), Conscious Femininity. Toronto: Inner City Books
________ (1980), The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter. Toronto: Inner City Books
________ (1985), The Pregnant Virgin. Toronto: Inner City Books
________ (1990), The Ravaged Bridegroom. Toronto: Inner City Books

My definitions and usage of various terms in the following essay (e.g. “waking up,” “leap-frogging,” “The Force”) are found in the initial essays in this blog collection. See the entries posted as Front Matter and Introduction, Waking Up and Leap-Frogging.


Pitfalls of the Path

The previous essays in this collection have described waking up and leap-frogging as positive, desirable activities or states of being, and they are. But it would be disingenuous of me to suggest they are without pitfalls. This final essay considers some of the disadvantages, drawbacks or dangers associated with waking up and leap-frogging.

Our examination will take as a model of awakeness and leap-frogging the figure of Jesus. His life illustrates some of the hazards the path can present. We will consider these under six rubrics: general problems; frustrations; temptations; problems associated with lifestyle; problems related to relationships with other people; and the pitfalls linked to public activities (i.e. leap frog actions).
Some General Problems

Under this heading, I consider the inevitable consequences of either waking up or leap-frogging. Problems of this type are inescapable.

“Waking up” is a process of coming to realize that the psyche is real and that Spirit is primary. Therefore Spirit has purchase on one’s soul. Our spiritual commitment comes before all else. This is what is meant by the Biblical injunction against “having any other gods” but The Force. Nothing else can we worship. How is this a problem? Because the Second Wave world lives in the materialistic confusion that ignores Spirit and denigrates the soul. We are “odd man out” when we put Spirit first in our lives.

Doing so—living with Spirit primary--implies living on faith and trust. In practice, this means holding or containing the left brain’s lust to know, to plan, while we hold or contain the ego’s fears and anxieties in the face of unknowing. This is painful, and hence, another peril.

Pain and suffering are unavoidable on this path. Jesus and the Buddha recognized this. But, as was noted in an earlier essay, suffering can be reperceived when we consciously recognize its meaning and purpose. But sometimes, especially when we are struggling alone, feeling isolated, without guidance or support, it can be very difficult indeed to know the point or purpose. And even when we do see the meaning, the ego is not likely to be happy. It does not like being crucified. This is what Jesus referred to when he spoke of “taking up one’s own cross” and following him. We face crucifixion whenever we must hold the “tension of opposites” in the struggle toward integrating them, as part of the individuation process.

The ego also hates self-denial. It does not appreciate having its desires thwarted. This is part of the task of “losing one’s life” that Jesus mentioned as being a part of his followers’ task. Relinquishing the things we want, so as to have higher, spiritual blessings, is never easy, for the whole Second Wave world pressures us to buy, consume, compare, compete, and “keep up with the Joneses.” It requires a strong inner locus of determination and independence of thought, as well as repeated contacts with The Force, to come to the point of knowing the truth that we do find life only when we consciously give it up.
Pitfalls of Frustration

Then there are the pitfalls associated with frustration. Frustration is an omnipresent feature of waking up and leap-frogging. Again, Jesus’ life can provide multiple examples. Frustrations come from many sources, e.g.
from being misunderstood. This is likely, perhaps inevitable, from those who are very asleep, because of the wide difference in level of consciousness between those awake and those very asleep. But even our closest contacts and aspirants—people who work with us and spend lots of time with us—may not be able to get on the wavelength at times.

from literalism and fundamentalism. Those stuck in the old way, following the letter of the law, will always misintepret what is said by those awake. Jesus experienced this with Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a well-known, recognized teacher and leader. Jesus knew this. Yet, for all his training and knowledge, Nicodemus was not able to rise above literalism in thinking that “rebirth” meant some literal process of being reborn. People who are not into spiritual things will not “get it,” and this will cause frustration in the face of the seemingly unbridgeable gulf.

from the refusal of some people to wake up, or even to recognize that their lives are not working. This is likely to be the most common frustration. Lots of people in the Second Wave world are in denial, thinking that “denial” is that river in Egypt. When we encounter these folks, what is patently obvious to us won’t even be “up” on their radar screens. This will provoke intense frustration unless we take Jesus’ advice: leave; move on. We don’t subject ourselves to lower levels of consciousness. There will be other, more challenging tasks to address, including another pitfall. This is the pitfall of temptation.

The Pitfall of Temptation

There are many types of temptation, but three are particularly common in the lives of people who are waking up. Again, we can look to the life of Jesus to illustrate these types. Perhaps the most omnipresent, given the consumerist cultures of the West, is the temptation of materialism. Where “getting and spending” are seen as virtues, and keeping alive the “throwaway” economy is a civic duty, it is hard to resist falling into this temptation. Even if we do manage to escape “consumeritis” by consciously choosing lives of “voluntary simplicity,” we can still fall into this temptation in its more subtle form: regarding “security” in monetary terms. This form of materialism would have us feel “safe” by having a regular paycheck, or savings in the bank, or health insurance, or other such external sources of income. Such thinking is another form of projection, or externalization, in which we shift our loyalty from The Force to the world, from trust in Divine provision to Mammon. Those waking up are learning to live relying on Spirit (i.e. living out the truth that Spirit is primary), knowing that all material, physical needs will be met. One of the lessons in this learning is to be able to distinguish between need and greed (that is, between what is really essential and what we simply want). The Force will provide for our need, but not for our greed. Nor will it provide for careless or wanton wastefulness, which brings us to a second type of temptation.

This is testing the limits of Divine protection. Much as the Devil suggested Jesus throw himself from the Temple roof, relying on God to save him, we can be tempted to push the boundaries of our spiritual protection. When we are living our mission, The Force will protect us, but not if we deliberately do foolish things. Here’s an example from my own experience. I travel frequently to Africa, always by directive dreams. Going where I am sent, I feel safe everywhere. But I consciously avoid falling into the temptation to test The Force: In hotel rooms I use the safes provided by the hotel and I refuse to walk alone in downtown Johannesburg, Karachi, Mexico City or Moscow at 2 A.M. Nor would I venture into the malarial swamps of the Okovango River without shots and pills.

A third temptation is the most insidious, as well as the most harmful and common: the temptation of power and pride. Ego inflation and ego aggrandizement are constant perils on the path to waking up. The ego lusts for control, wants power and wants to think highly of itself. Our inner demon/shadow is constantly tempting us to turn from a focus on Spirit to focus on it. How does this show up? Many ways, e.g.: setting our own agendas, without first seeking inner guidance on how to allocate our time falling back into the values and thinking patterns of the world (i.e. becoming “of the world”) looking outside for approval or approbation from others, so as to feel sure or good about ourselves or our actions
thinking of ourselves as “better” than others. This is the most serious form of pride. This is a form of ego inflation that arises from the very fact of having a higher level of consciousness, even as that higher consciousness makes us realize we are all one, that none is “better” than another. Just as our hand is not better than our foot, so no person is better than another. This temptation is fostered by the left brain’s tendency to dichotomize, or fall into bi-polar thinking, seeing the world in “us-them” terms. This is false.

There is considerable confusion on this point. Saying we are equal is not equivalent to saying we are all the same. We are all equal. We are not all the same. Those awake live lives that work better than the lives of those who are asleep. Those awake are able to perceive more accurately (without distortion) than can those asleep. Those awake get on in personal relationships better than do those asleep. Those awake function more effectively. But these distinctions do not mean the awake are better intrinsically in the eyes of The Force.

These are just three of the many types of temptations that cross our path. While we might wish to eliminate temptations, we should remember the purposiveness of The Force. Temptations are put in our way for a good reason: to stretch us and help us grow. The etymology of “temptation” (from the Latin temptare, to stretch oneself) makes clear that by facing temptations and growing past them, we stretch our willpower and evolve spiritually.

Pitfalls Associated with Lifestyle

There are also problems that relate to lifestyle: how we live in daily reality. The most noteworthy pitfall here lies in the fact that our lives are no longer our own. That is, living is not under the control of the ego and left brain. Thus the ego is not able to plan. This is especially hard on J types (and I speak as one) who love to plan and organize. Waking up means focusing on the Now moment, not in the past, nor in the future. There is a certain measure of spontaneity required in this lifestyle.

We don’t often think about what it means not to “own” our lives. Jesus provides an example. He had very little free time—time when no one sought him out or noticed his absence. He was constantly in demand. He also had very little privacy and opportunity for solitude. For people waking up, time alone for inner work is like manna: It feeds the spirit. Yet such times are rare due to external demands.

Another pitfall of lifestyle is that of inconvenience. The “call” can come at any time. Again, the Gospels provide an example. At one point in Jesus’ ministry, one of his disciples learned his father had died. Jewish law is quite explicit about the responsibility of a son to tend to the proper burial of his father. But Jesus had a very different set of priorities, and he told the man to follow him and “leave the dead to bury their own.” When social convention demands we be some place, or do something, we must be willing to throw all of it over to obey the Divine call, no matter how inconvenient. So often, the ego will want to make up some really good excuse to justify turning a deaf ear. For the work of leap-frogging, we must be prepared to be inconvenienced.

Embedded in the pitfall of inconvenience is the pitfall of new priorities and values. As the above Gospel story indicates, The Force does not necessarily value what we value, or what our society values. We are likely to have to change, to develop another set of values. Our needs will be met, as I noted above, but our greeds will be frustrated. Intangible, spiritual values will have to become the motivating drivers of our lives. Love, courage, fidelity, trust, creativity etc. must replace control, power, wealth, gratification, speed, success. And living with such a different set of values will result in many people who are still stuck in Second Wave thinking wondering about your sanity.

A final lifestyle pitfall is the rootlessness inherent in being part of the “spiritual army.” Jesus noted how he had “no place to lay his head.” Living “on call” to The Force can mean we move around a lot. I know this peril well: I was moved ten times in one 53-month interval! In such situations, “home” has to be redefined spiritually, to be a psychic connection and rootedness in The Force, rather than in some geographic location, physical structure, or connection to family or friends. Like so much else of the wake up process, this will seem very curious to many people we encounter.

All the above pitfalls pale in comparison to the last two types: problems with relationships, and perils in public life.
Pitfalls of Relationship

Jesus’ life is a vivid illustration of these pitfalls. We get no honor among those who know us best. “Only in his home town and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” Yes. Waking up fosters prophetic awareness, as we begin to access and trust our intuition. But we must not expect family and long-time friends to see us in a new light and give heed to what we say. In fact, we must expect just the reverse: family and close friends are likely to be resistant to and resentful of our changing.

Jesus warned of this explicitly. He said that he came to turn sons against fathers, mothers against daughters, children against their in-laws. It is not a happy picture of domestic bliss that he paints in Matthew 10:34-37. Our enemies will be those people in our own household.

Why are family conflicts inevitable in this process? Because waking up implies getting wise to the dysfunctions in our natal family system. We begin to see all the forms of denial our relatives (and we ourselves) have been living in. As we wake up, we stop denying, and that changes the whole dynamic of the system. We change. We recognize the proverbial “elephant” in the living room, and we begin to talk about it, to bring it out into the open. The web of relationships gets tweaked and destabilized, and this causes discomfort to the rest of the family members. People dislike being discomfited. They also dislike having their defense mechanisms pointed out. They bitterly resent having us withdraw the projections we put on them. Such actions are like challenges to their sense of reality. Anger, complaints, and snide comments are likely. In many cases (especially when the family system is seriously dysfunctional) the person waking up will find it easier to move away, to provide the necessary “space” to continue growing without constant criticism.

Old friends tend to react like family—with bewilderment, resentment and accusations like “You’ve changed!” (implying that that is a bad thing). If old friends are not also on the path of waking up, they will eventually fall away, let you down, or become difficult to be around. This, of course, assuming they don’t betray you (as Jesus’ friends did).

A final form of relationship pitfall is the criticism that is likely from others who will project their flaws on us. The Pharisees were constantly doing this with Jesus, always criticizing him for this or that infraction of the law, all the while thinking so self-righteously of themselves. It is very common to find people project their “stuff” on us, either positively or negatively. Negative projections will show up as criticisms, often very vitriolic (reflecting their own shadow “stuff”). Positive projections cause others to set us up as some sort of guru or special person. I call this the “pedestal syndrome.” It is very common. When people do it to me, it makes me acutely uncomfortable, because I know I am very human, and that pedestal space is very small. People projecting their own power, wisdom and Divine guidance come to feel very disillusioned and disappointed when we do something that forces them to take back the projection. In neither negative or positive projection is the person able to see us: he or she is really just looking at the projection.

In sum, it is prudent, when we undertake the wake up process, to expect relationships to be fraught. But we can take comfort in the Universal Law of Attraction: “like attracts like.” As we become more conscious, we will find like-minded people on the path whose level of consciousness is closer to our own. And relationships with such people will be much more rewarding and mutually gratifying. At this time in the evolution of the human species, such people are not in the majority, so expect to experience loneliness, isolation, and lack of understanding at times.
Pitfalls of Public Life

The last pitfall is the most problematic, in terms of physical well-being. By “public life” I don’t meant politics, but rather any form of activity that puts us out in public, to be seen by others. Since leap-frogging means a doing “out there,” in some sort of work that strives to create a better world, it is a “public” activity. As such, it is full of pitfalls. Jesus’ life again affords some examples.

There is the pitfall that takes the form of outcries about our defying social conventions or traditions. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, advocated the ignoring of filial obligations (like not burying one’s father), and threw the money changers out of the Temple. Such activities did not win him friends. Leap-froggers also defy convention, and can expect to hear arguments, naysaying, criticisms and protests.

Then there is the pitfall of being tested by doubters. Any form of innovation brings out the conservatives, who cling to the old ways as their clutchhold on security. Novelty is threatening to such people. Challenge their beliefs and assumptions and they will demand “signs,” i.e. proofs that we have some special kind of power (which then presumably would make us more “credible”). They are the people we hear say, “I’ll believe when I see it.” But they will never see it, because they have the whole thing backwards: in this business of spiritual development and waking up, you see it only if you first believe. When people demanded signs from him, Jesus called them “a wicked and adulterous generation.” And he refused to give them signs. In environments where we confront widespread doubt, we must ignore the demands and move on to more open, receptive venues.

And where are such places? The law of the retarding lead gives us clues. Those open to leap-froggers’ messages are not likely to be the rich, powerful politicians and leaders. Those folks are likely to be “retarded” by virtue of their leadership positions. Rather than looking to the leaders to be receptive, look to the marginalized, those with the most incentive to see things change.

So, in leap-frogging work, expect to spend time among the poor, the needy, the outcasts. Sacrifice any illusions about prestige or “making it,” in terms of conventional definitions of “success.” I speak about the redefining of success in another essay in this collection. Imperiled here will be the ego, if it fancies its status in terms of the company it keeps.

A final pitfall relates to the reactions that can come from the society’s leaders. Leap-frogging can threaten the status quo. Some leaders will interpret leap-frog actions as challenges to their position, authority, or beliefs. So we must expect fear reactions, e.g. demonization from some (who project their own fears and failings on to us); challenges and confrontations; even (in extreme cases) punishment, imprisonment or persecution. To the extent that leap-frogging offers a challenge to some official’s “turf,” we can expect irrational responses to it.

What to do in such cases? Inner work, first and foremost. We must be sure that what we are doing is what The Force intends for us (rather than acting out of ego). Once we are certain that we are acting fully aligned with our Divine purpose, we can relax in the promise we have been given: “… take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Conclusion

The foregoing are just some of the pitfalls that can show up as part of the process of waking up and leap-frogging. Whatever pitfalls present themselves, we can be certain that they will not prevail if we remain centered in The Force. This is why a regular regimen of inner work (meditation, prayer, dream work etc.) is essential, because only this will keep us centered.

The path has pitfalls, but all of them pale when compared to the joys and blessings provided by waking up and leap-frogging. Becoming more conscious and serving others in fulfillment of our divine mission offer so many benefits that the pitfalls seem minor indeed.
Some Questions for Reflection
What is your reaction to the idea that there might be pitfalls on this path? Do some of those discussed here bother you more than others? If so, which seem most troubling?
Can you think of other pitfalls?
Do you feel deterred by the reality that waking up and living out your life mission may bring problems?

For Further Reading
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich (1959), The Cost of Discipleship, rev. ed. trans. R.H. Fuller. New York: Macmillan.
Buckingham, Jamie (1976), Risky Living: Keys to Inner Healing. Plainfield NJ: Logos International.
Edinger, Edward (1984), The Creation of Consciousness: Jung’s Myth for Modern Man. Toronto: Inner City Books.
Elgin, Duane (1981), Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich. New York: William Morrow.
Jung, Carl (1969), “Answer to Job,” Collected Works, 11. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
May, Rollo (1975), The Courage to Create. New York: Bantam Books.
Moelaert, John J. (1974), “The Epidemic in Our Midst,” Earthkeeping: Readings in Human Ecology, ed. C. Juzek and S. Mehrtens. Pacific Grove CA: The Boxwood Press.
The four Gospel accounts in the New Testament also give much food for thought on the issue of spiritual blessing in the midst of pitfalls and problems.

My definitions and usage of various terms in the following essay (e.g. “waking up,” “leap-frogging,” “The Force”) are found in the initial essays in this blog collection. See the entries posted as Front Matter and Introduction, Waking Up and Leap-Frogging.


Allow Mode

There’s an old saw that goes, “Don’t just stand there! Do something!” The subject of this essay is almost the reverse of this: “Don’t just do something (mindless action)! Stand there (mindfully)!” Note the parenthetical additions. Most Second Wave activity, especially in response to crises or pressing circumstances, is mindless: not reflective, not well thought out, not based on sound principles. There is a marked denigration of inaction/non-action in the Second Wave world, as if not doing is to be equated with passivity or an inability to take action. “Allow mode” is part of Third Wave reality in its assumptions, goals and effects. We will examine what I mean by this, but first I need to define the concept, and within this, examine the connotations of “allow.”
Definitions of “Allow”

Dictionaries define “allow” in terms of letting, giving, admitting, acknowledging, and “permitting to happen, especially through carelessness or neglect.” Note the negative implication. We are not using “allow” in this negative sense in this essay. Rather, we are drawing more on the classical Greek senses of “allow.”

The ancient Greeks thought of “allow” in terms of giving, granting or offering something to the gods, or devoting oneself to something (worthy of such devotion). They put stress on a yielding or subordination of ego to something higher, a higher force, power or principle. This inclusion of a higher power is central to the concept of “allow mode.”
Definitions of “Allow Mode”

“Mode” is a way of being or responding. I am thinking now of the current computer techno-jargon, “sleep mode,” when a computer is not fully functional, but is “resting” in an energy-conserving state. Similarly, “allow mode” is a way of being or responding to life.

The term is not my creation. I was introduced to it when I studied energy healing at the Barbara Brennan School. It was used there to refer to one of several possible ways of working with energy. “Push,” “pull,” “stop” and “allow” are four ways energy healers can handle energy. “Allow mode” is the mode in which the healer simply holds the energy field with the conscious intention not to “do” anything. That is, the ego mind is not in control. The logical left brain is not trying to diagnose, prescribe or “make” a cure happen. Rather, the healer, by holding the field, creates a “space” for The Force to work, to bring the patient whatever he or she needs. By non-doing, the healer gets his/her ego out of the way and serves as a conduit for a higher wisdom to work. In my experience, allow mode is the most powerful of all the modes of energy work.

Note that allow mode is not pure passivity, because it requires a certain type of action. This action takes the form of mentally setting an intention. It focuses the will to be fully present, attentive, responsive and responsible (i.e. able to respond to the patient). The healer consciously puts his/her skills, talents, time and energies at the disposal of The Force, and deliberately resists the desire to intervene. A further form of action is the courage required to move into that psychic “space” where we (ego mind) don’t know when, where or how we will be put to use.

Allow mode also requires trust, because we don’t know. We operate, when in allow mode, relying that we will be guided, at the right time, to the right place, to connect with the right people. We trust that we will be given all that we need to do the task we are given.

The opposite of allow mode is “making it happen.” The Second Wave world is addicted to “making it happen.” The Second Wave world insists on control, being in control, staying in control, because of its illusion that we are in control and can control the world. The Second Wave world believes not only that it can “make it happen,” but that it can know what it should do or make happen. This is the cause of many, if not all, of the problems in contemporary life.
How Allow Mode Relates to Waking Up and Leap Frogging

A key facet of waking up is subordinating the ego to the Self (our Divine core). This is difficult because the ego doesn’t like to relinquish control. Every such experience feels, to the ego, like a defeat. To become conscious of the Self, to become aware of how our ego operates, and to place the ego under the Self takes effort.

Jesus spoke of this effort when he talked of those worthy of him taking up their cross and following him, and “losing their lives for his sake.” The consequence of such loss is finding one’s life. This paradox bears a bit of examination.

Spiritual reality is paradoxical. Jesus knew this. He often confounded the priests, scribes and teachers of the law with his habit of talking in paradoxes. The one in Matthew 10:38-39 is classic:

“…anyone who does not take his cross and follow after me [i.e. use my life as a model] is not worthy of me. Whoever invents/creates his life [on the material plane], will ruin/destroy it [on the spiritual plane] and whoever gives up his life [on the material plane] for my sake [i.e. to follow Divine guidance] will gain it [on the spiritual plane].
Allow mode is closely connected to crucifying the ego and making the conscious choice to use Jesus as a model. Doing so involves giving up or “losing” one’s (ego-driven) life. When we make this sacrifice, we “find” life on the spiritual plane. With his repeated deference to Divine will, Jesus is a model for us of living in allow mode.

When we set our will consciously to “lose” our life, we give up trying to make happen what we think needs to happen. Thereafter we begin to get guidance, through dreams, through intuitions, through synchronicities (meaningful coincidences) in daily life.

Part of being awake is being attentive to these ways that The Force directs us to our mission, how we are to serve others, and what specifically we are meant to do. This then leads to leap-frogging.

Part of leap-frogging is allowing ourselves to be conduits for The Force. We do this recognizing that we are “God’s love with arms on it.” We function very much as messengers (the original Greek for which, aggelos, has taken on a lot more associations: we think of “angels” as much more than simple “messengers”). But we are meant to be messengers of Divine love and caring to others.

To be such messengers, we cannot operate out of ego, trying to control. We cannot be “attached” to some outcome. We cannot be “invested” in helping others.

To function in allow mode, we must not be afraid of being regarded as different or unconventional. We must not hesitate to try something new, or to question convention. We must not hold back from challenging or questioning traditions, especially those that disempower, harm or limit groups or individuals.

Living and working in allow mode clearly is not easy, or comfortable. It challenges much of what the Second Wave mind-set holds dear. And it will often tax our patience and challenge our faith. But to do otherwise—to try to “make it happen”—sets us on a sure-fire course toward disaster.

Questions for Further Reflection

Can you recall a time when you acted upon an intuition without knowing why, or without having logical reasons to do so? If so, how did you feel? What was the result?
Do you live in an environment that recognizes and supports intuitive ways of thinking and living? If not, how might you make your environment more supportive of intuitive modes of living?

What is your reaction to the idea of “losing your life” for the sake of serving The Force?

Can you recall a time in your life when you acted in “allow mode,” as described in this essay? If so, what did it feel like?
For Further Reading

Hitchcock, John (1991), The Web of the Universe: Jung, the “New Physics” and Human Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press.

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching (The Way of Life), trans. R.B. Blakney. New York: New American Library.

Smith, Huston (1991), “Taoism,” The World’s Religions. San Francisco: Harper.

My definitions and usage of various terms in the following essay (e.g. “waking up,” “leap-frogging,” “The Force”) are found in the initial essays in this blog collection. See the entries posted as Front Matter and Introduction, Waking Up and Leap-Frogging.


The Forms and Value of Death

The Second Wave mind-set would regard the title of this essay as bizarre because, to the Second Wave world, death is an obscenity, something to be feared, denied, and postponed with all the herculean measures allopathic medicine can muster. In this, as in so much else, the conventional view is very confused and mistaken, as well as impoverished in its understanding.

By “impoverished,” I refer to the one-dimensional sense given to “death” in Western society, with its materialistic bias. Death, from this perspective, is extinction. It blots out life, ending all personal existence. “Life,” in this view, is tied to having a physical body.

A Third Wave view is much richer, in part because “death” is recognized as having many forms and meanings. There is Death, the archetypal experience found in all cultures and experienced by all life forms. Imagistically, this form is often depicted as a skeleton in black, with a scythe: the “Grim Reaper.” Then there is death as transition, the form recognized in the ancient wisdom of many cultures (Egyptian, Tibetan, the kabbalah of Jewish mysticism, etc.). This is the form of death that the dictionary defines as “any ending that is like dying.” And there is the death that is part of the process of living. This death, with its multiple stages, has been well described and delineated by medieval alchemists.

In the Third Wave mind-set, death is not an unmitigated disaster to be denied, avoided or resisted. It is recognized as natural, inevitable and frequent. That is, everyone dies multiple times (and I don’t imply here a belief in reincarnation). I’m talking about this life you have now. Each of us dies many times, and part of waking up is getting wise to when we are going through another death, what it is about and how we can realize the potential in the process.

In this essay I am going to examine the archetypal and alchemical stages of death, and then consider the transitional meanings of death. The goal is to demystify the concept, and to illustrate how death is central to living and growing.
Death as Archetype

Archetypes are timeless, universal symbols that “live” in human beings. Jung believed that there are as many archetypes as there are experiences we can have. “Father,” “Mother,” “child,” “sun,” “birth,” “suffering”—all are examples of archetypes. Since the experience of death is common to all cultures, death is also an archetype.

Halloween has made most of us familiar with the images, colors and accessories associated with the archetype of Death: the skeleton (loss of embodiment depicted as lack of flesh); the color black; a tool of harvest (e.g. scythe) representing the sense of Death collecting the energy of the no-longer-living; cemeteries; and midnight (the cusp time, when one day’s allotment of time has run out, parallel to the depletion of the time given to one life). Feeling associations run all to the negative: fear, grief, terror, anxiety, powerlessness.

But archetypes are purposive. That is, they arose for some purpose or serve some universal need. What could be the purpose of death?

To the Second Wave thinker, this is an idiotic or obscene question. Death being the enemy, it has no good or purpose about it. But Second Wave thinking is wrong, as we can see from the ancient wisdom of other cultures.
Death as Seen through the Lens of History and Eastern Cultures

Western people have not been as confused and mistaken about death as we are these days. The ancient Egyptians, for example recognized death as part of life. From their “Book of the Dead” to their elaborate funerary arrangements brought to light by archeology, we can see just how much thought, time and energy the ancient Egyptians gave to the process of dying and the care of the physical remains. To them, death was no obscenity, but the gateway to another life.

Ancient Greeks had no qualms about facing death. They thought of death as the twin brother of sleep. Just as we experience sleep on a regular basis, so we experience death. The mystery religions of the Greco-Roman world also addressed the forms and processes of death, and understood it as one of the great “mysteries” of reality.

After the fall of Rome, the subject of death was taken up in Western Europe by two groups. One, the medieval alchemists, we will consider later. The other, the Roman Catholic Church, developed elaborate rituals and teachings, in part because of the prevalence of death in this time when good hygiene was generally lacking and no one knew about germs as the cause of disease. In certain periods, like the time of the Black Death of the 14th century, pandemics led to death being uppermost in the minds of most people, as up to half of the population succumbed in some regions of Europe.

With such death rates, the experience of death was unavoidable, so the medieval church developed a set of spiritual exercises and rituals known as the ars boni moriendi, “the art of dying well.” Using the “memento mori,” e.g. a human skull, and other visual aids, the church encouraged people to contemplate death, and in particular, their own coming death. People kept watch over corpses (a residual legacy of which lingers now in the phenomenon of the “wake”) and watched dead bodies decay. Through such exercises (which strike most modern Western people as ghoulish), medieval men and women became acquainted with the process of dying and deadness in vivid ways—ways that helped them to dis-identify with their bodies.

Unlike most 21st century Westerners, medieval people did not assume they were only their bodies. The belief in the soul was almost universal. The “art of dying well” prepared the mind for the moment when it would separate from the body, and the soul would be free to return to God. Being Platonists at heart, medieval theologians regarded this as a liberation of the soul.

Medieval thinkers were not the only ones stressing the importance of death and the potential it held out for salvation or liberation. Eastern cultures like those of Buddhist Tibet and Japan also put a premium on conscious preparation for death. The Tibetan Book of the Dead (especially in its modern translations) is quite explicit about the passage of the soul through the various stages of the Bardo, and how careful attention—learning, inner work, study under a master, etc.—can help the soul recognize what is really going on during the death process, and thus make the correct choices that will assure its liberation from the wheel of reincarnation.
Alchemy and the Stages of Death

Just as Buddhism recognizes many stages of death in the Bardo state, so medieval alchemists worked out a series of stages, or forms of death that occur while we are still embodied. Before getting into the particulars here, I should note that alchemy is not some bogus precursor of chemistry, as most Second Wave people think. This became clear to Carl Jung, who discovered in the works of the medieval alchemists a very insightful science of psychic change and development. In this science, death plays a central role.

As students of how the soul evolves, the alchemists recognized that “life” (the process of taking on embodiment) is inevitably subject to corruption (echoing The Buddha’s teaching that “all compounded things decay”). The alchemists recognized that this corruption took various forms and they gave it various names, depending on the way the body/mind suffered.

Rather than lament this process of corruption, the alchemists welcomed it, because they understood that it made growth possible. By the “putrefying” of the old, the new was born. And the product of these stages of decay is a conscious connection to the Self, our Divine core. We die (i.e. experience the decaying of life’s outworn forms) so as to savor true life (knowing the Self). The medieval alchemists were very clear that, without death, there would be no change, no growth, no development during the time of embodiment that we call “life.”

Many generations of alchemists studied the phases and forms of death. In a very simplified presentation of their complex and subtle ideas, I will describe some of these forms below. Understand that this is not some old historical curiosity, but rather a description of what is going on within us now. All of these forms (and others not included here) are going on throughout our lives, showing up in different combinations in different people at different times. Part of becoming awake is getting wise to which ones you are experiencing at the moment.

In no particular order, these forms of death are:
- the mortificatio. Source of our English words “mortification” and “mortify,” this term comes from Latin mors and facio, literally “to make death.” Our sense of “mortify,” with all the embarrassment it implies, suggests the assault to the ego that is involved when we move through the mortificatio stage. The process takes us on a journey through the valley of the shadow of death. It is never something we choose; rather, it is imposed on us by life. Associated with darkness, defeat, torture and mutilation, mortificatio is not a happy time. We feel frustrated, especially in our demands for power and pleasure: We experience impotency, helplessness, and painful agony—all of it designed to achieve the core soul work of this stage: the slaying of egocentricity. Yet, as with all the stages of death, there is a gift here: In this time of black mourning we are brought to self-knowledge. This was the stage Jesus referred to when he said “Blessed are those that mourn.” Mourning in mortificatio brings blessing because it confers the “comfort” of self-awareness and an acceptance of the reality of death.
- the putrefactio. Source of our English words “putrefaction” and “putrid,” this term comes from the Latin putris and facio, literally “to make rotten.” The stinky, disgusting rottenness of decay makes possible the generation of every new form. When we undergo the putrefactio, we are brought (under duress, to be sure) to recognize those aspects of our lives that are worn out, outmoded, no longer serving our welfare. With disgust and resentment, we begin the slow, evolutionary process of dying that leads us to give up the old and move into the new.
- the solutio. Source of our English words “solution” and “dissolve,” this term comes from the Latin solutio, a “loosening.” What gets loosened? The structures of our lives, especially anything that we have been holding on to tightly. Associated with tears, water, and the free flow of feelings, this stage of death brings us to formlessness. For those (few) souls who live rather formless lives, this is not a difficult time. But it tends to be especially difficult for “rigid” types with highly structured lifestyles, fixed routines, and a love of order. The death stage of solutio melts these structures as readily as a sugar cube dissolves in hot coffee. As you might imagine, this melting of life’s structures can cause intense discomfort, anxiety and insecurity, all designed, of course, to develop a deeper, more valid sense of inner peace and safety.
- the calcinatio. The death work here is the burning up of our desire nature. Marked by intense frustration, we experience the death of what we most desire. Our ego will is thwarted at every turn, all for the purpose of encouraging the development of an attitude of openness to Divine direction (i.e. “allow mode”). Calcinatio work is what is meant when the Bible speaks of the “refiner’s fire.” We come through this death phase tempered, toughened and “refined” (i.e. purified). Where the solutio was especially hard for rigid types, this stage is particularly difficult for two types: those with strong desire natures (hot-blooded passionate types used to getting what they want); and those who are Thinking types (in the Myers-Briggs typology), for whom the desire nature is in the shadow or unconscious. The Thinker, as a type, tends to have a very strong, but primitive desire nature, and so finds this stage hard because it forces him or her into the inner depths. As difficult as this is, it holds more potential for becoming conscious than is true for those who began with more awareness of their desire nature.
- the separatio. Source of the English term “separation,” this stage is a time of dismemberment, when we experience an intense dis-integration that is very painful. Life feels chaotic, disordered, depressing. The point of this death stage is to free us from attachments. Krishnamurti, the 20th century Indian sage, recognized the value of this stage when he said that “Each day I die a little.” Separatio can be a daily action, if we are fully awake and intent on fostering the growth of our soul. Most of us are not at Krishnamurti’s level of consciousness; we find it a hard slog. Separatio can be especially difficult for “oral” types who unconsciously seek out dependency relationships. During this stage, such relationships are usually destroyed, and, in the experience of separation, we have to find our own way, live our own life, take up the life tasks and responsibilities that unconsciously we projected on to others (who, in all likelihood, are now no longer available to us). This is a stage of taking back projections and developing self-reliance. It holds the potential to give birth to independence and a greater ability to access and hone our inner strength.

All these stages are forms of death holding the potential for birth. That is the whole point: birth is not possible without death. We cannot grow if aspects of ourselves do not first die. We are always in transition, and one face of this transition is what we call “death.”
Death as Transition

Ancient wisdom regarded death as a transition. The thirteenth card of the Tarot (one version of archetypal wisdom) is called Death, and in some versions of the deck the card is labeled “Transition.” We are constantly in transition because the essence of life is change. We could then also say that we are constantly dying to the old of us, and birthing the new.

“Transition” embodies this process of constant change. It comes from two Latin roots (trans and ire, lit: “to go/be between”) that reflect the fact that we are always in between. Life is not stasis but movement, and in order to navigate these moves properly, we have to be able and willing to give up (relinquish attachment to) the old, move into the between, and then take up the new. The between is where we experience death, just as The Tibetan Book of the Dead describes in great detail.

Think about all the major transitions you have lived: infancy to toddler stage, child to adolescent, teenager to adult, perhaps adult to elder. Eventually we will all experience the transition from incarnate state to dis-incarnate state. We also experience transition daily, as we move from sleep to wakefulness, stupor to alertness, ego to Self, attachment to non-attachment, daydreaming to mental focus. Living and dying are processes of constant transition.
How This Relates to Waking Up and Leap-frogging

Those who are awake know how to die. They regard death as a normal part of the process of living, a transition time. They also know how to die well: They consciously prepare for death, taking up the various forms of death consciously and working with them to realize their potential for growth and greater consciousness.

This might seem very theoretical, so let me give a concrete example from my own life. This is an example of the calcinatio stage. Not coincidentally (since we live in a holographic Universe, in which the Law of Correspondence operates, so that the placement of the planets reflects inner psychic reality quite closely), this stage occurred for me when Pluto came to an exact transit in square to my Venus. Venus is the planet representing our desire nature, especially with regard to love, romance and relationships. Pluto is the planet of deepest drives, regeneration and implacable change. Put these two together, in a square (i.e. difficult) contact, and the stage was set for a most painful time of “frustration of the desire nature.” How this showed up in my life was in the death of my fiancé quite agonizingly (from a stroke that left him a “vegetable,” whom the M.D.s then euthanized). The whole process (being a transit of Pluto, the slowest moving of all the planets) took months, and I experienced not only the death of the man I loved, but the death of my dreams for romantic happiness (for this man, my beloved Hubie, had been the epitome of the man of my dreams). I knew that this was a death stage, and that meant I had lots of work to do, inner work, work with my dreams and imageries. Clearly, I was meant to learn and grow, but initially I had no stomach for it (and, in fact, I spent the better part of every day for a while throwing up—purging my system of what had to leave, I suppose). As time passed (weeks into months), I began to get some clarity about the illusions I had had about myself and my life that had to die. I had to do lots of work taking back what I had projected—on to Hubie, on to my mother, on to other people. What was birthed in this process was a whole new world within that I had not previously recognized in myself. I came to realize that no death is without a subsequent birth (both metaphorically, for me in my life, and literally, for Hubie, in his new life, as he came to me in dreams to tell me about his life on the other side). Death opens the portal for the new. We need death to open us to life.

Much as I would rather not experience such dyings, I know they are an essential part of life. As long as we limp along at our current (low) level of consciousness, we have little choice about such things. Our realm of choice lies in how we respond to what Destiny puts on our plate. I can’t say my experience of the calcinatio was pleasant. Hardly! But I can say now (years later) that it was positive, important, meaningful, and necessary to my development. I can also see that it birthed a compassion and groundedness that I had never known before, and those gifts are very important and precious to me.

Now, back to the topic of relevancy. How do the forms of death relate to leap-frogging? Leap-froggers are change agents. They must know how to change, and all change involves transitions, that is, deaths. Part of what leap-frogging entails is welcoming change, welcoming death. So the “art of dying well” is a good skill for leap-froggers to have.

Some Questions for Reflection

If it were possible for you to know when you were going to die, would you want to know?

It has been said that the most omnipresent fear human beings have is about their own death. What is your greatest fear about death?

Envision the final days of your life. What would you want this time to look like?

Are you familiar with the Tibetan notion that we can consciously prepare for death in ways that help the soul transit through the after-death state? Are you interested in doing this?

Imagine that you could read the obituary written about your life. What would you want it to say?

Have you ever had an experience that convinced you, beyond any shadow of doubt, that life goes on after death? If so, how did this affect your attitude toward death?

For Further Reading
Connolly, Eileen (1990), Tarot: A New Handbook for the Apprentice. North Hollywood CA: Newcastle Pub. Co.
Edinger, Edward (1985), Anatomy of the Psyche. Chicago & LaSalle IL: Open Court Press.
Evans-Wentz, W.Y. (1960), The Tibetan Book of the Dead. New York: Oxford University Press.
Goldberg, Bruce (1997), Peaceful Transition: The Art of Conscious Dying and the Liberation of the Soul. St. Paul: Llewellyn Pubs.
Greene, Liz (1976), Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil. York Beach ME: Samuel Weiser.
________ (1984), The Astrology of Fate. York Beach ME: Samuel Weiser.
Greene, Liz & Howard Sasportas (1987), The Development of the Personality. York Beach ME: Samuel Weiser.
Hitchcock, John (1991), The Web of the Universe: Jung, the “New Physics” and Human Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press.
________ (1988), Dynamics of the Unconscious. York Beach ME: Samuel Weiser.
Jung, Carl (1953), “Psychology and Alchemy,” Collected Works, 12. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1963), “Mysterium Coniunctionis,” Collected Works, 14. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1965), Memories, Dreams, Reflections, ed. Aniela Jaffe. New York: Vintage Books.
Keirsey, David & Marilyn Bates (1984), Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types. Del Mar CA: Prometheus Nemesis Books.
Lidell, H.G. & Scott (1978), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
Lowen, Alexander (1975), Bioenergetics. New York: Penguin.
Myers, Isabel Briggs, with Peter Myers (1980), Gifts Differing. Palo Alto CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
National Gallery of Art et al. (1976), Treasures of Tutankhamun. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Nichols, Sallie (1980), Jung & Tarot: An Archetypal Journey. York Beach ME: Samuel Weiser.
Pierrakos, John C. (1987), Core Energetics: Developing the Capacity to Love and Heal. Mendocino CA: LifeRhythms.
Smith, Huston (1991), The World’s Religions. San Francisco: Harper.
Sogyal Rinpoche (1993), The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. San Francisco: Harper.
Stevens, Anthony (1983), Archetypes: A Natural History of the Self. New York: Quill.
Thurman, Robert (1994), The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Liberation through Understanding in the Between. New York: Bantam Books.
White, John (1980), A Practical Guide to Death and Dying. Wheaton IL: Quest Books.