Jung
knew dream study was central to discovering spirit, soul and mind
Carl Jung
-- Of Dreams, Spirituality and the I Ching
by Kathleen
Falken
Jung began
with Dream Interpretation and the study of Mythology and went beyond
those with studies of Spirituality that are only now being seen for
their profound insight and importance to all of us.
"The further
we delve into the origins of a Collective Image (or, to express it
in ecclesiastical language, of a dogma), the more we uncover a
seeming unending web of archetypal patterns that, before modern
times, were never the object of conscious reflection. Thus,
paradoxically enough, we know more about mythological symbolism than
did any generation before our own. The fact is that in former times
men did not reflect upon their symbols; they LIVED them and were
unconsciously animated by their meaning." -Carl G Jung
It was Carl
Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961) who intensified the modern understanding
of Eternal Symbols. Jung knew that the greatest study was of the
PSYCHE ("Psyche" means "spirit" and "soul" and "mind" and it is this
sense that, to us, Dream Study is central to the discovery of all
three: Spirit, Soul and Mind).
Jung taught
about the importance of dreams. Out of his exploration came the
revelation that each of us has his or her own Personal Mythology --
both a part of and separate from the Collective Mythology.
Jung uncovered the characters and
story-lines that make up our dreams. He told us of Heroes and hero
makers, the archetypes of Initiation and Transcendence, the Shadow
within each of us, the Anima (the Feminine) and Animus (the
Masculine) -- and the Wise Old One. Jung admitted that it was always
in him to grow up to play the Wise Old Man. There are worse role one
can play.
Although best
known for his influence on psychotherapy and dream study, Jung also
studied Spirituality and brought to it his gift of profound insight.
In
"Transformation in the Mass." Jung concluded:
"The Mass thus
contains, as its essential core, the mystery and miracle of God's
transformation taking place in the human sphere, his becoming Man,
and his return to his absolute existence in and for himself. Man,
too, by his devotion and self-sacrifice as a ministering instrument,
is included in the mysterious process. God's offering of himself is
a voluntary act of Love, but the actual sacrifice was an agonizing
and bloody death brought about by men... The terrors of death on the
Cross are an indispensable condition for transformation. This is in
the first place a bringing to life of substances which are in
themselves lifeless, and, in the second, a substantial alteration of
them, a Spiritualization, in accordance with the ancient conception
of PNEUMA as a subtle material entity... This idea is expressed in
the concrete participation in the body and blood of Christ in the
Communion."
In his Forward
to the "I CHING, or Book of Changes" Jung said:
"The ancient
Chinese mind contemplates the cosmos in a way comparable to that of
the modern physicist, who cannot deny that his model of the world is
a decidedly psychophysical structure. The microphysical even
includes the observer just as much as the reality underlying the I
CHING comprises subjective, i.e. psychic, conditions in the totality
of the momentary situation... The I CHING does not offer itself with
proofs and results; it does not vaunt itself, nor is it easy to
approach. Like a part of nature, it waits until it is discovered. It
offers neither facts nor power, but for lovers of self-knowledge, of
Wisdom -- if there be such -- it seems to be the right book. To one
person its spirit appears as clear as day; to another, as shadowy as
twilight; to a third, dark as night. He who is not pleased by it,
and he who is against it is not obliged to find it true. Let it go
forth into the world for the benefit of those who can discern its
meaning."
In his
Commentary on the "BARDO THODAL: the Tibetan Book of the Dead," Jung
said:
"The Soul is
assuredly not small, but the radiant Godhead itself. The West finds
this statement either very dangerous, if not downright blasphemous,
or else accepts it unthinkingly and then suffers from a theosophical
inflation. Somehow we always have a wrong attitude to these things.
But if we can master ourselves far enough to refrain from our chief
error of always wanting to DO something with things and put them to
practical use, we may perhaps succeed in learning an important
lesson from these teachings, or at least in appreciating the
greatness of the BARDO THODOL, which vouchsafes to the dead man the
ultimate and highest truth, that even the gods are the radiance and
reflection of our own souls. No sun is therefore eclipsed for the
Oriental as it would be for the Christian, who would feel robbed of
his God; on the contrary, his soul is the light of the Godhead, and
the Godhead is the soul. The East can sustain this paradox
better..."
Jung's
exploration of the emerging New Spirituality was intensified with a
dream...
At age 69,
Jung suffered a heart attack. While unconscious, he had a vivid
dream: "Far below I saw the globe of the Earth, bathed in a
gloriously blue light. Far below my feet lay Ceylon... I knew that I
was on the point of departing from the Earth. The sight of the Earth
from this height was the most glorious thing I have ever seen. I had
the feeling that everything was being sloughed away. Everything I
aimed at or wished for or thought, the whole phantasmagoria of
earthly existence fell away or was stripped from me -- an extremely
painful process..." But it was then in his dream that he saw his
personal physician who told Jung that he had been sent from those of
Earth "to tell me there was a protest against my going away.
Profoundly disappointed -- now I must return to the 'Box System'
again."
Jung came to
and continued to contribute to his fascinating studies for another
17 years.
It was Jung's
major contributions in the studies of Myth, Dreams and Spirituality
that helped us see that we don't have to live in the Box System.
That by exploring and embracing the New Spirituality, by learning
first from our own dreams, then by seeing the wisdom in the dreams
of our fellows, that our lives on Earth can go outside the Box.
For more
articles on psychology, dream-study, sexuality and marriage therapy,
see
The GoArticles of Kathlene Falken
About the
author: Kathleen Falken has been a marriage counselor and sex
therapist for over 25 years. To read more about modern marriage
therapy, see
SAVE
MY MARRIAGE TODAY
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