Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C. G. Jung (5/5)
A Commonplace Commentary
Click here for Part Four of this series.
PAGES 327 - 359
Jung says on page 327,
Any Biography of myself must, I think, take account of the following reflections. It is true that they may well strike others as highly theoretical, but making "theory" of this sort is as much a part of me, as vital a function of mine, as eating and drinking.
True, these pages are theoretical however, they prove to be a professional's opinion on matters of our current mythic situation on a timescale of millennia, which highlights what the Abrahamic-Christian myth exposes about our psychological development, where psyche began to move beyond the framework provided by Christianity, how Christianity failed to integrate this evolution in the psyche, the dramatic problems this causes, and a potential way forward.
Our Myths Fail Us
To Jung, the Judeo-Christian story concerns consciousness: Its manifestation, development, and relation to our spiritual practices and God Himself. Jung sees God as needing humanity as much as humanity needs God.
If the creator were conscious of Himself, He would not need conscious creatures.
Page 339
It is not that "God" is a myth, but that myth is the revelation of a divine life in man.
Page 340
In Jung's mind, a concept like this is not the least incompatible or heretical to Christianity.
Their Christianity slumbers and has neglected to develop its myth further in the course of the centuries. ... a myth is dead if it no longer lives and grows.
Pages 331-332
Nietzsche meant this when he proclaimed God is dead in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In Jung's mind, there is no higher calling as a devoted Christian than to expand upon Christianity, enabling it to think to take on a new life and more profound meaning within the minds of Christ's followers.
What indications are there that Christianity has failed to evolve with our consciousness?
"A hubris of consciousness," (page 328), an addiction to idealism (page 329), "a moral code which pretends to know precisely what is good and what evil" (page 329), a "glorious naivete" for how the shadow operates, and a general overlooking of the psyche (page 331).
Dogmatic rigidity has proven a successful tactic for replication, but like cancer, this replication may prove to be a slow suicide. It fails to rearrange its mythic structure and, therefore, fails to properly attend to humanity's development over the previous 500 years, roughly speaking. It fails dramatically in the nurturing of man's decision-making and one's self-knowledge, or capacity to develop self-knowledge at all.
Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.
Page 329
Jung sees the story of man's relation to God as nested within man's story of evolving consciousness. He considers consciousness and unconsciousness as inextricably linked; if one changes, so does the other. One example is Jung's thought on UFOs; he says, "They [UFOs] are the symptom of a universally present disposition," in other words, Jung sees UFOs as the collective subconscious pushing itself into collective reality. Because, as we ignore the maintenance and development of our myths we slowly push mythic experience into the subconscious and, since conscious and subconscious are inextricably linked, the subconscious pushes something back into consciousness manifesting, at times, as UFOs.
UFOs have been confirmed as literally real since Jung's death. However, they certainly won't be confirmed to the extent that they have been reported. So, the theory remains solid: our psyches can spontaneously invent myths if we don't have mythic structures that satisfy the deep need for myth. We aren't honoring the collective psyche in our mythic world. This problem has yet to be alleviated since Jung was writing. People have been increasingly burdened with images invented by others with whom they share few connections. We're bombarded by advertising, TV, video games, and social media to the point where most of us forget to make personal images, myths, and stories. It's been going on for so long that many have forgotten that it's even possible for them. We leave it to the professionals instead of doing it ourselves. Not to mention how constant distractions keep us from thinking deeply about anything.
The secular narrative (i.e., myth) that globalization and progress will save us, along with dead religions' offers of salvation, have replaced our ability to make sense of the world in a meaningful way. Meaning-making is necessary for finding and maintaining peace of mind in a confusing and incomparably complex world. Jung would say that the lack of relevant myth-making will lead to phenomena such as UFOs creeping into conscious reality to give us new stories, a place in the universe, or purpose in a desperate attempt to make sense of the world. The secular myth has failed to address climate change, the mental health crisis, religious stagnation, etc., and the old gods have been equally unable to keep up with our evolving society and consciousness.
Myth is the revelation of a divine life in man
Page 340
Since the beginning of the modern age science has been chipping away at the divine life in man. As wonders about the world around us have been dismantled and explained, often very accurately, we marvel at less and replace it with a sense of certainty found within the Google search bar. As our current age threatens to remove the final aspects of the divine life from the physical world most are using models of the divine, which, in many cases, are hundreds of years out of date and, in other cases, unreconcilable to broader social cohesion and humanistic society. If carried on for too long, this discrepancy in the human psychological life has existential risks (see The Master and His Emissary, Iain McGilchrist, 2009).
Meaninglessness inhibits fullness of life and is therefore equivalent to illness.
Page 340
Fortunately, it seems our ability to emerge into new maps of the "divine life in man" is something many people have an inherent drive towards. When people engage with and spread what they've learned about their spirituality, it shows the mythic drive. There may not be a straightforward answer, but a good solution for stagnancy is positivism, generativity, and open-mindedness. Every person who engages with their spiritual needs is one small cut into the key that solves the metaphysical conflict with the hard sciences and dogmatism. Our old institutions have failed to keep people engaged with the divine life and, in some cases, weaponized people's need for spirituality for their own gain. Some organizations and institutions have remained relevant and can lead to the realization of the divine life. From local churches to psychoanalysis, there are multiple options. Many of these groups are small; perhaps that's how it should be.
There is the general feeling, to be sure, that we have reached a significant turning point in the ages, but people imagine that the great change has to do with nuclear fission and fusion, or with space rockets. What is concurrently taking place in the human psyche is usually overlooked.
Page 334
Consciousness and Individuation
All comprehension and all that is comprehended is in itself psychic, and to that extent we are hopelessly cooped up in an exclusively psychic world.
Page 352
For Jung, the goal of all personal-psychological learning and practice is individuation, "to differentiate himself from all the others and stand on his own feet." (Page 342).
The point of origin is wherever one finds themselves, and the intermediate stages are as vague and varied as personalities. Jung offers some clues, "the secret society is an intermediary stage" (page 342) because, in such a society, one must rely on more advanced members to guide one's development. Therefore, the secret society can only be of little help to the individuation process.
Jung does not entirely dismiss secret-based traditions; he builds on top of them, advocating for a personal secret-based method:
The need for ostentatious secrecy is of vital importance on the primitive level, for the shared secret serves as a cement binding the tribe together.
Page 342
This primitive level exists within all of us at any stage of development. Therefore, a shared secret is still an important aspect of psychological fulfillment. Jung goes on to speak about what a personal secret could look like:
Like the initiate of a secret society who has broken free from the undifferentiated collectivity, the individual on his lonely path needs a secret which for various reasons he may not or cannot reveal. Such a secret reinforces him in the isolation of his individual aims. A great many individuals cannot bear this isolation. They are the neurotics, who necessarily play hide-and-seek with others as well as with themselves, without being able to take the game really seriously. As a rule they end by surrendering their individual goal to their craving for collective conformity.
Page 343
The need for such a secret is in many cases so compelling that the individual finds himself involved in ideas and actions for which he is no longer responsible. He is being motivated neither by caprice nor arrogance, but by dira necessitas ['cruel necessity' (Horace)].
Page 344
This secret is "one which he fears to give away, or which he cannot formulate in words, and which therefore seems to belong to the category of crazy ideas." If discussed, he "would become a deviant from the collectivity."
The man, therefore, who, driven by his daimon, steps beyond the limits of the intermediary stage, truly enters the "untrodden unreadable regions" (Faust, Part Two)
Page 344
The daimon is critical to understanding what this personal secret should be, the key to differentiating the secret which enables individuation and the secret which enables mental illness. The Greek Daimon is similar to the Roman Genius and the Christian Guardian Angel; they are all an invisible personal force that guides one on their path. Therefore, one shouldn't haphazardly choose any secret that isolates us within individual aims. The secret must be at the core of our life purpose. Something worth forgoing desire and pleasure for. Something sacred, an ideal or mission, would allow us to pick up our cross and endure hardship to actualize it.
Those who do not have to leave father and mother [that is, "the safe fold and the warm cocoon"] are certainly safest with them. A good many persons, however, find themselves thrust out upon the road to individuation. In no time at all they will become acquainted with the positive and negative aspects of human nature.
Page 346
What is the purpose of such a lonely, individualistic path through life? Evolution. Evolution's foundation is the freak accident, the mutation, the adaptation. Jung suggests that one may not be able to choose such a path; it is thrust upon them. On the grand timescale of evolution, conformity is extinction. Diversity is the strength of a species. This applies to the mental realm as much as Darwin's Finches. So, thankfully, some have been "thrust out upon the road to individuation."
Consciousness is phylogenetically and ontogenetically a secondary phenomenon. ... Just as the body has an anatomical prehistory of missions of years, so also does the psychic system.
Page 348
Simply finding a secret or grand purpose is not enough to become individuated. Such a secret is only the prima materia in the process. Many processes can be undertaken with varying effects.
The key process in working with the prima materia is the "confrontation of opposites" (Page 345) as "all energy proceeds from opposition." (Page 346) This is the Way, the reconciliation of yin and yang; walk in it.
Thesis is followed by antithesis, and between the two is generated a third factor, a lysis which was not perceptible before.
Page 351
Psychically, opposition to the conscious attitude comes from the subconscious, which manifests itself as archetypes, "which are pre-existent to consciousness and condition it" (Page 347). The archetypes are the lysis, an intermediary phase between conscious and unconscious.
Myth is the natural and indispensable intermediate stage between unconscious and conscious cognition.
Page 311
The path of individuation doesn't arrive anywhere; one can only live on the path of individuation. For some, the option is either to stay on the path of individuation or fall down a path of destruction with little middle ground. This precariousness is shown in the lives of many artists, from Kurt Cobain to Fyodor Dostoevsky from Elvis to Van Gogh.
The older I have become, the less I have understood or had insight into or known about myself.
I am astonished, disappointed, pleased with myself. I am distressed, depressed, rapturous. I am all these things at once, and cannot add up the sum. I am incapable of determining ultimate worth or worthlessness; I have no judgment about myself and my life. There is nothing I am quite sure about. I have no definite convictions--not about anything, really. I know only that I was born and exist, and it seems to me that I have been carried along. I exist on the foundation of something I do not know. In spite of all uncertainties, I feel a solidity underlying all existence and a continuity in my mode of being.
Page 358