Man and His Symbols
Carl G Jung
20. Thus a word or an image is symbolic when it implies something more than its obvious and immediate meaning. It has a wider “unconscious” aspect that is never precisely defined or fully explained. Nor can one hope to define or explain it. As the mind explores the symbol, it is led to ideas that lie beyond the grasp of reason.
21. Man, as we realize if we reflect for a moment, never perceives anything fully or comprehends anything completely.
23. There are, moreover, unconscious aspects of our perception of reality. The first is the fact that even when our senses react to real phenomena, sights, and sounds, they are somehow translated from the realm of reality into that of the mind. Within the mind they become psychic events, whose ultimate nature is unknowable (for the psyche cannot know its own physical substance). Thus every experience contains an indefinite number of unknown factors, not to speak of the fact that every concrete object is always unknown in certain respects, because we cannot know the ultimate nature of matter itself.
The relation to the Self
212. Nowadays more and more people, especially those who live in large cities, suffer from a terrible emptiness and boredom, as if they were waiting for something that never arrives. Movies and television, spectator sports and political excitements may divert them for a while, but again and again, exhausted and disenchanted, they have to return to the wasteland of their own lives.
#rideintothesun
212. Trying to give the living reality of the Self a constant amount of daily attention is like trying to live simultaneously on two levels or in two different worlds. One gives one’s mind, as before, to outer duties, but at the same time one remains alert for hints and signs, both in dreams and in external events, that the Self uses to symbolize its intentions—the direction in which the life-stream is moving.
212. One text says that one should allow no other thoughts to intrude, but one’s attention should not be too sharp—nor should it be too dull. There is exactly the right level of perception.
212. Thus, in the midst of ordinary outer life, one is suddenly caught up in an exciting inner adventure; and because it is unique for each individual, it cannot be copied or stolen. #authentic
213. Another threat to the inner balance comes from excessive daydreaming, which in a secret way usually circles around particular complexes. In fact, daydreams arise just because they connect a man with his complexes; at the same time they threaten the concentration and continuity of his consciousness.
The second obstacle is exactly the opposite, and is due to an over-consolidation of ego-consciousness. Although a disciplined consciousness is necessary for the performance of civilized activities… it has the serious disadvantage that it is apt to block the reception of impulses and messages coming from the center.
213. The contemplation of a mandala is meant to bring an inner peace, a feeling that life has again found its meaning and order.
214. Landscape paintings usually express indefinable “moods”—as do symbolic landscapes in dreams. #dreamscape
215. Landscapes in dreams (as well as in art) frequently symbolize an inexpressible mood. #dreamscape
215. Among other things “right” often means, psychologically, the side of consciousness, of adaptation, of being “right,” while “left” signifies the sphere of unadapted, unconscious reactions or sometimes even of something “sinister.”
215. The round table, incidentally, is a well-known symbol of wholeness and pays a role in mythology.
215. In fact, whenever a human being genuinely turns to the inner world and tries to know himself—not by ruminating about his subjective thoughts and feelings, but by following the expressions of his own objective nature such as dreams and genuine fantasies—then sooner or later the Self emerges. The ego will then find an inner power that contains all the possibilities of renewal.
(216) But there is a great difficulty that I have mentioned only indirectly up till now This is that every personification of the unconscious—the shadow, the anima, the animus, and the Self—has both a light and a dark aspect. We saw before that the shadow may be base or evil, an instinctive drive that one ought to overcome. It may, however, be an impulse towards growth that one should cultivate and follow. In the same way the anima and animus have dual aspects: They can bring life-giving development and creativeness to the personality, or they can cause petrification and physical death. And even the Self, the all-embracing symbol of the unconscious, has an ambivalent effect…
The dark side of the Self is the most dangerous thing of all, precisely because the Self is the greatest power in the psyche. It can cause people to “spin” megalomaniac or other delusory fantasies that catch them up and “possess” them. A person in this state thinks with mounting excitement that he has grasped and solved the great cosmic riddles; he therefore loses all touch with human reality. A reliable symptom of this condition is the loss of one’s sense of humor and of human contacts.
Thus the emerging of the Self may bring great danger to a man’s conscious ego.
217. To follow in the steps of a great spiritual leader does not mean that one should copy and act out the pattern of the individuation process made by his life. It means that we should try with a sincerity and devotion equal to his to live our own lives.
The barber with the mirror, who vanishes, symbolizes the gift of reflection that Hatim loses when he wants it most; the rising waters represent the risk that one may drown in the unconscious and get lost in one’s own emotions. In order to understand the symbolic indications of the unconscious, one must be careful not to get outside oneself or “beside oneself,” but to stay emotionally within oneself. Indeed, it is vitally important that the ego should continue to function in normal ways. Only if I remain an ordinary human being, conscious of my incompleteness, can I become receptive to the significant contents and processes of the unconscious. But how can a human being stand the whole universe, while at the same time he is only a miserable earthly human creature? If, on the one hand, I despise myself as merely a statistical cipher, my life has no meaning and is not worth living. But if, on the other hand, I feel myself to be part of something much greater, how am I to keep my feet on the ground? It is very difficult indeed to keep these inner opposites united within oneself without toppling over into one or the other extreme.
218. Dreams show the dreamer how each detail of his life is interwoven with the most significant realities.
218. If you listen to your unconscious and obey it, you must expect constant interference with your conscious plans. Your will is crossed by other intentions—intentions that you must submit to, or at any rate must strongly consider. This is partly why the obligation attached to the process of individuation is often felt to be a burden rather than an immediate blessing.
219. A child and a sphere are both universal symbols of totality.
When a person tries to obey the unconscious, he will often, as we have seen, be unable to do just as he pleases. But equally he will often be unable to do what other people want him to do. It often happens, for instance, that he must separate from his group—from his family, his partner, or other personal connections—in order to find himself. That is why it is sometimes said that attending to the unconscious makes people antisocial and egocentric. As a rule this is not true, for there is a little-known factor that enters into this attitude: the collective (or, we could even say, social) aspect of the Self. #hermit
(220) From a practical angle, this factor reveals itself in that an individual who follows his dreams for a considerable time will find that they are often concerned with his relationships with other people.
220. But it also happens at times that dreams genuinely tell us something about other people. In this way, the unconscious plays a role that is far from being fully understood. Like all the higher forms of life, man is in tune with the living beings around him to a remarkable degree. He perceives their sufferings and problems, their positive and negative attributes and values, instinctively—quite independently of his conscious thoughts about other people.
Our dream life allows us to have a look at these subliminal perceptions and shows us that they have an effect upon us.
221. The consciously realized process of individuation thus changes a person’s relationships. The familiar bonds such as kinship or common interests are replaced by a different type of unity—a bond through the Self.
221. Through these unconscious ties those who belong together come together.
221. Practical experience and accurate observation show that one cannot influence one’s own dreams.
222. Berlin #loureed
223. An unconditional devotion to one’s own process of individuation also brings about the best possible adaptation. #relationship
224. If a single individual devotes himself to individuation, he frequently has a positive contagious effect on the people around him. It is as if a spark leaps from one to another. And this usually occurs when one has no intention of influencing others and often when one uses no words.
225. For, in most cases, what restores the old order simultaneously involves some element of new creation. In the new order the older pattern returns on a higher level. The process is that of the ascending spiral, which grows upward while simultaneously returning again and again to the same point.
Nowadays more and more people, especially those who live in large cities, suffer from a terrible emptiness and boredom, as if they were waiting for something that never arrives. Movies and television, spectator sports and political excitements may divert them for a while, but again and again, exhausted and disenchanted, they have to return to the wasteland of their own lives.
he frequently has a positive contagious effect on the people around him. It is as if a spark leaps from one to another. And this usually occurs when one has no intention of influencing others and often when one uses no words.
213. Another threat to the inner balance comes from excessive daydreaming, which in a secret way usually circles around particular complexes. In fact, daydreams arise just because they connect a man with his complexes; at the same time they threaten the concentration and continuity of his consciousness.
220. But it also happens at times that dreams genuinely tell us something about other people. In this way, the unconscious plays a role that is far from being fully understood. Like all the higher forms of life, man is in tune with the living beings around him to a remarkable degree. He perceives their sufferings and problems, their positive and negative attributes and values, instinctively—quite independently of his conscious thoughts about other people.
Our dream life allows us to have a look at these subliminal perceptions and shows us that they have an effect upon us.
229. the modern discovery of the unconscious shuts one door forever. It definitely excludes the illusory idea, so favored by some individuals, that a man can know spiritual reality in itself. In modern physics, too, a door has been closed by Heisenberg’s “principle of indeterminacy,” shutting out the delusion that we can comprehend an absolute physical reality. The discovery of the unconscious, however, compensates for the loss of these beloved illusions by opening before us an immense and unexplored new field of realizations, within which objective scientific investigation combines in a strange new way with personal ethical adventure.
But, as I said at the outset, it is practically impossible to impart the whole reality of one’s experience in the new field. Much is unique and can be only partially communicated by language. Here, too, a door is shut against the illusion that one can completely understand another person and tell him what is right for him. Once again, however, one can find a compensation for this in the new realm of experience by the discovery of the social function of the Self, which works in a hidden way to unite separate individuals who belong together.