In Jung’s memoir he states that the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. The conclusion of a lifetime directed toward the learning of soul development through a process he called individuation. The goal of the individuation process was to find the divine Inner Child, a single lone star in the sky which is not only our primordial state, but the symbol for the unity of soul as our soul’s final resting place. These concepts occurred to Jung during a long career of investigating the psyche and its associated constructional patterns, through western and eastern thought and are explored personally throughout his personal memoir and journals. The Inner Council has been committed to developing the constructions, alchemical processes and methods of these original ideas. We believe that Jung was interpreting a natural background process of the psyche and that even though we can understand primarily through the comprehensive literature of his legacy, psychic transformation requires a pioneering attitude in understanding and a development of tools which allow each individual to navigate their unique path of personal content and interpretation.
Individuation
In 1939 Jung published The Integration of the Personality, originally written as lectures given at the Eranos meeting at Ascona, Switzerland, which included a study in the process of individuation. Jung explained that during the individuation of the self there required a method of overcoming the opposing paradoxical rational/irrational syzygies between the conscious and subconscious. Jung overcame this barrier by suggesting that the self be re-centered (to a new centre of gravity) as an overseer or caretaker whose function is merely to interface with the world and manage the outcomes objectively as the emotional centre merges into communication with the subconscious through way of symbol. Jung describes this encounter between conscious and unconscious as “an irrational life-process”. As the exchange between the ego and the unconscious proceeds, the locus of consciousness moves from the functional ego to what Jung considered to be the totality of the psyche, both conscious and unconscious, as long as they are both considered relevant constituents. The goal of this process is to differentiate the opposites that stand on each side of the psyche and in doing so, cancelling each other out, or emerging from duality. Jung saw the reconciliation and integration of the opposites as not merely an individual task, but as the task of the current aeon, that is, the Platonic month of the age of Aquarius.
The process can be imagined as traversing through a thick jungle, hacking and slashing until the undergrowth thins out and the self emerges onto a sunny savanna. Where the emotional centre is representative of the uninitiated child, the idea is synonymous with indigenous initiation practices that encourage the child’s transformation into adulthood and elder status. Jung believed this process could be completed through active imagination.
Jung’s analogy was that of Abraxas, the non-dual, personal godhead who’s natural energy or raw psychological force drives up an island of individuality from the subconscious ocean, while at the same time a divine star is pulling us from above with gravitational guidance, confidence and significance. Yet another analogy would be in that of the life tree, (the Yggdrasil of Scandinavian lore, the Sephirothic tree of the Kabbalists, and the sacred oak tree of the Druids), drawing its nourishment from the deep roots of the subconscious while at the same time reaching up into the lofty divine. Jung stated that “no tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell”. – Aion, Researches into the phenomenology of the self.
The processes that have been experienced by our Inner Child practitioners generally align with the theories put forward by Jung’s individuation process. Wholeness as a goal of integration is achieved through the individuation process where the ego-conscious differentiates the opposites with the unconscious.
The Child Archetype
Jung wrote “The Psychology of the Child Archetype” in 1940 in which he describes the Inner Child (as opposed to a real child) as more than just a “vestigial memory of one’s own childhood”. The child represents the synthesis of the contents of the consciousness and the unconscious and is the symbol of the unification of opposites and the realisation of the self and heralds the potential future and anticipates a nascent state of consciousness and the resulting transformation of personality. Jung stated that myths not merely represent, but are psychic life and Jung himself used the anima as a mediator for the unconscious before he developed a clear relationship with the unconscious content directly from his dreams.
Jung noted that there is a possibility at any stage of life to become conscious that an “arbitrary persona has taken over our original character” that is both artificial and unchildlike. In order to reconnect to our roots we have a favourable opportunity for confrontation with a primary truth. The child motif is a picture of certain forgotten things in our childhood, this journey of integration is part of a soul journey that leads to the re-discovery of oneself. When one sets out on the journey of integration, an energetic enthusiasm must be present to begin the adventure and it is with that idea that the child motif begins to take its form as the most likely protagonist for the undertaking. “A meaningful but unknown content always has a secret fascination for the conscious mind.”
The divine symbol of the child-god and the semi-divine symbol of the child-hero give an essence to the potential synthesis within the motifs, that they are, by nature, symbols of transformation towards unity. Jung stated that “This motif represents not only something that existed in the distant past but also something that exists now.” and “the motif is a system functioning in the present whose purpose is to compensate or correct, in a meaningful manner, the inevitable one-sidednesses and extravagances of the conscious mind” and raise them to “the highest pitch of clarity”.
Jung warned that if we repress the collective child archetype in totality then our unconscious content will overwhelm the conscious aim and inhibit, falsify and even destroy its reality. This is where we see our progressivism, outrunning valid critique, constantly piling up a debt which is “paid off from time to time in the form of hideous catastrophes”.
As the child paves the way for a future change of personality, it is therefore a symbol which unites the opposites, a mediator, bringer of healing, one who makes whole.
Jung’s symbol of unity, the child-hero.
The Psychology of the Child Archetype
On the Invincibility of the Child
The phenomenology of the “child’s” birth always points back to an original psychological state of non-recognition, i.e., of darkness or twilight, of non-differentiation between subject and object, of unconscious identity of man and the universe. This phase of non-differentiation produces the golden egg, which is both man and universe and yet neither, but an irrational third. To the twilight consciousness of primitive man it seems as if the egg came out of the womb of the wide world and were, accordingly, a cosmic, objective, external occurrence. To a differentiated consciousness, on the other hand, it seems evident that this egg is nothing but a symbol thrown up by the psyche or—what is even worse—a fanciful speculation and therefore “nothing but” a primitive phantasm to which no “reality” of any kind attaches.
Present-day medical psychology, however, thinks somewhat differently about these “phantasms.” It knows only too well what dire disturbances of the bodily functions and what devastating psychic consequences can flow from “mere” fantasies. “Fantasies” are the natural expressions of the life of the unconscious. But since the unconscious is the psyche of all the body’s autonomous functional complexes, its “fantasies” have an aetiological significance that is not to be despised. From the psychopathology of the individuation process we know that the formation of symbols is frequently associated with physical disorders of a psychic origin, which in some cases are felt as decidedly “real.” In medicine, fantasies are real things with which the psychotherapist has to reckon very seriously indeed. He cannot therefore deprive of all justification those primitive phantasms whose content is so real that it is projected upon the external world. In the last analysis the human body, too, is built of the stuff of the world, the very stuff wherein fantasies become visible; indeed, without it they could not be experienced at all. Without this stuff they would be like a sort of abstract crystalline lattice in a solution where the crystallization process had not yet started.
The symbols of the self arise in the depths of the body and they express its materiality every bit as much as the structure of the perceiving consciousness. The symbol is thus a living body, corpus et anima; hence the “child” is such an apt formula for the symbol. The uniqueness of the psyche can never enter wholly into reality, it can only be realized approximately, though it still remains the absolute basis of all consciousness. The deeper “layers” of the psyche lose their individual uniqueness as they retreat farther and farther into darkness. “Lower down,” that is to say as they approach the autonomous functional systems, they become increasingly collective until they are universalized and extinguished in the body’s materiality, i.e., in chemical substances. The body’s carbon is simply carbon. Hence “at bottom” the psyche is simply “world.” In this sense I hold Kerényi to be absolutely right when he says that in the symbol the world itself is speaking. The more archaic and “deeper,” that is the more physiological, the symbol is, the more collective and universal, the more “material” it is. The more abstract, differentiated, and specific it is, and the more its nature approximates to conscious uniqueness and individuality, the more it sloughs off its universal character. Having finally attained full consciousness, it runs the risk of becoming a mere allegory which nowhere oversteps the bounds of conscious comprehension, and is then exposed to all sorts of attempts at rationalistic and therefore inadequate explanation.
On the Child as Beginning & End
Psychologically speaking, the “child” symbolizes the preconscious and the post-conscious essence of man. His pre-conscious essence is the unconscious state of earliest childhood; his post-conscious essence is an anticipation by analogy of life after death. In this idea the all-embracing nature of psychic wholeness is expressed. Wholeness is never comprised within the compass of the conscious mind—it includes the indefinite and indefinable extent of the unconscious as well. Wholeness, empirically speaking, is therefore of immeasurable extent, older and younger than consciousness and enfolding it in time and space. This is no speculation, but an immediate psychic experience. Not only is the conscious process continually accompanied, it is often guided, helped, or interrupted, by unconscious happenings. The child had a psychic life before it had consciousness. Even the adult still says and does things whose significance he realizes only later, if ever. And yet he said them and did them as if he knew what they meant. Our dreams are continually saying things beyond our conscious comprehension (which is why they are so useful in the therapy of neuroses). We have intimations and intuitions from unknown sources. Fears, moods, plans, and hopes come to us with no visible causation. These concrete experiences are at the bottom of our feeling that we know ourselves very little; at the bottom, too, of the painful conjecture that we might have surprises in store for ourselves.
Primitive man is no puzzle to himself. The question “What is man?” is the question that man has always kept until last. Primitive man has so much psyche outside his conscious mind that the experience of something psychic outside him is far more familiar to him than to us. Consciousness hedged about by psychic powers, sustained or threatened or deluded by them, is the age-old experience of mankind. This experience has projected itself into the archetype of the child, which expresses man’s wholeness. The “child” is all that is abandoned and exposed and at the same time divinely powerful; the insignificant, dubious beginning, and the triumphal end. The “eternal child” in man is an indescribable experience, an incongruity, a handicap, and a divine prerogative; an imponderable that determines the ultimate worth or worthlessness of a personality.
Conclusion
I am aware that a psychological commentary on the child archetype without detailed documentation must remain a mere sketch. But since this is virgin territory for the psychologist, my main endeavour has been to stake out the possible extent of the problems raised by our archetype and to describe, at least cursorily, its different aspects. Clear-cut distinctions and strict formulations are quite impossible in this field, seeing that a kind of fluid interpenetration belongs to the very nature of all archetypes. They can only be roughly circumscribed at best. Their living meaning comes out more from their presentation as a whole than from a single formulation. Every attempt to focus them more sharply is immediately punished by the intangible core of meaning losing its luminosity. No archetype can be reduced to a simple formula. It is a vessel which we can never empty, and never fill. It has a potential existence only, and when it takes shape in matter it is no longer what it was. It persists throughout the ages and requires interpreting ever anew. The archetypes are the imperishable elements of the unconscious, but they change their shape continually.
It is a well-nigh hopeless undertaking to tear a single archetype out of the living tissue of the psyche; but despite their interwovenness they do form units of meaning that can be apprehended intuitively. Psychology, as one of the many expressions of psychic life, operates with ideas which in their turn are derived from archetypal structures and thus generate a somewhat more abstract kind of myth. Psychology therefore translates the archaic speech of myth into a modern mythologem—not yet, of course, recognized as such—which constitutes one element of the myth “science.” This seemingly hopeless undertaking is a living and lived myth, satisfying to persons of a corresponding temperament, indeed beneficial in so far as they have been cut off from their psychic origins by neurotic dissociation.
As a matter of experience, we meet the child archetype in spontaneous and in therapeutically induced individuation processes. The first manifestation of the “child” is as a rule a totally unconscious phenomenon. Here the patient identifies himself with his personal infantilism. Then, under the influence of therapy, we get a more or less gradual separation from and objectification of the “child,” that is, the identity breaks down and is accompanied by an intensification (sometimes technically induced) of fantasy, with the result that archaic or mythological features become increasingly apparent. Further transformations run true to the hero myth. The theme of “mighty feats” is generally absent, but on the other hand the mythical dangers play all the greater part. At this stage there is usually another identification, this time with the hero, whose role is attractive for a variety of reasons. The identification is often extremely stubborn and dangerous to the psychic equilibrium. If it can be broken down and if consciousness can be reduced to human proportions, the figure of the hero can gradually be differentiated into a symbol of the self.
In practical reality, however, it is of course not enough for the patient merely to know about such developments; what counts is his experience of the various transformations. The initial stage of personal infantilism presents the picture of an “abandoned” or “misunderstood” and unjustly treated child with overweening pretensions. The epiphany of the hero (the second identification) shows itself in a corresponding inflation: the colossal pretension grows into a conviction that one is something extraordinary, or else the impossibility of the pretension ever being fulfilled only proves one’s own inferiority, which is favourable to the role of the heroic sufferer (a negative inflation). In spite of their contradictoriness, both forms are identical, because conscious megalomania is balanced by unconscious compensatory inferiority and conscious inferiority by unconscious megalomania (you never get one without the other). Once the reef of the second identification has been successfully circumnavigated, conscious processes can be cleanly separated from the unconscious, and the latter observed objectively. This leads to the possibility of an accommodation with the unconscious, and thus to a possible synthesis of the conscious and unconscious elements of knowledge and action. This in turn leads to a shifting of the centre of personality from the ego to the self. In this psychological framework the motifs of abandonment, invincibility, hermaphroditism, and beginning and end take their place as distinct categories of experience and understanding. [1]
Mental and moral attitudes in the psychic processes
Jung said that humanity needs difficulties in order to maintain a balance of health. There is, however, a problem when there is an overburdening of difficulties and it may be better to be adjustable rather than consider an analytic treatment for each bout of challenges that arise. The adjustment process from ego to self during treatment appears to be a durable transformation that makes adaptation to change more manageable by those who have already found advantage from such a shift. As we begin to understand the danger of grasping toward polar attitudes, we can approach new ideas with the caution necessary not to allow the idea to define us, which at a later state will be a challenge to adjust. If all polarisation is ought to pass away, then the sensible attitude placement would be one of emotional distance and balanced consideration. If we feel we are already emotionally invested in an aspect of a new idea, then we have a workable approach for softening the arising challenge. Similar to the principle of equilibrium in the natural world, Jung defines enantiodromia as “the emergence of the unconscious opposite in the course of time.” Which means that as we are traversing the psyche, there is a tendency that we will find ourselves at some point on the opposing side of our previous idealist standpoint. We can then also enjoy the polarisation and the adventure in thoroughly representing the position before we shift into the juxtaposition of its counter. There are those who are vehemently invested in their current idea only as a waypoint through a much larger thesis of understanding. As our unconscious undoubtedly holds opposites by design, the congruence of integration is much aided when we are invested in an attitude that is approachable. Once we are situated in an attitude that can grasp the paradoxical aspects of the opposites, we put ourselves into the position ripe for psychic transition to a higher level of consciousness. This is where we find Jung’s transcendent function, which is the function that allows the dialectically opposed ideas between the unconscious and conscious “organically possible”.
Working with the Inner Child instead of an analyst can have a multitude of advantages in these aspects. We have an innate sense of familiarity with the Inner Child character who overcomes the predicament of transference in that:
- The Inner Child is an eternal and permanent feature of the participant and not subject to the limitation of appointments, although we may regularly schedule a time to work with our Inner Child.
- Fear of dependencies on both sides are eradicated.
- We feel encouragement and validation for the liberating attitudes of our co-joined inner essence, without having to emotionally validate the personality of another.
The Transcendent Function
The contents of the unconscious are in a complementary or compensatory relationship with the contents of the consciousness-or perhaps in opposition to it-and the self-regulating nature of the psyche attempts to facilitate a dialogue between these counter-positions with a view to integrating them.
Jung describes the transcendent function as an “ongoing dialogue between the conscious and unconscious that involves a”shuttling to and fro of arguments and affects”. The confrontation of the two counter-positions which results in an energetic tension out of which a “living third thing” emerges “not a logical stillbirth… but a movement out of suspension between a living birth that leads to a new level of being”, after the death of the conscious and unconscious attitudes, a new attitude arises that, rather than merely combining or rejecting the two, leads to a third thing that is greater than the sum of the parts. A bridge that binds the counter-positions together in a unity.
The goal of the transcendent function is the transformation of consciousness at both the personal and collective levels and a realisation of integration by the personality. “if two make peace with each other in one house, they will be able to move the mountain”.
The transcend function is a creative integration which leads to a living third thing that includes and transcends both. The transcendent function as a creative synthesis unlocking a state of polar opposition through a psychic transition into a reconciling symbol of unity. The transcendent function is a resolution of conflict resulting in a higher, transpersonal state of consciousness. Identity does not make consciousness possible; it is only separation, detachment, and agonising confrontation through opposition that produce consciousness and insight. If the opposites of the conscious and unconscious in an individual remain unintegrated then the world “must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposing halves”.
Constellations
A key component of Inner Child work consists of regression and trigger management, of which both consider emotional-energy as a tangible substance. During regression we are reducing the charge of the energy and therefore its influence towards future Jung identified that ‘in each person’s past there are elements of different value which determine the psychic “constellation.”’ Memories can be differentiated between those that awaken strong emotions and those that have little influence on our thoughts or actions. The following terminology was used in assessing the associated energy.
Complex – Feeling-toned content
Emotionally charged complex – sum of ideas referring to a particular complex
Constellation – psychic elements grouped around complexes
Constellating force – used to determine associations complexes
Nuclear element – The overall charge of the spirit (made up of environmental/innate)
Secondarily Constellated Associations – surrounding elements that may induce complexes
This rather tricky arrangement of vocabulary was introduced to make association assessments in which Jung organised lists of random words and initially recorded hesitations in associated word responses. Later working from a smaller list of words and assessing changes in breathing and comfort, change of position or movement of body etc. In Inner Child work we identify the same intensities of emotionally charged energies, but we do not assess or take direction unless additional somatic practices are introduced into the sessions. It may be useful to understand the brush that Jung was using to paint an image of the personality in the client. Jung said that every great experience in life, every profound conflict, evokes the accumulated treasure of these images and brings about their inner constellations. Understanding constellations was not only a means of assessing emotional charge associations but understanding an energetically charged picture of the individual’s character and disposition. Jung further imagined energy levels and an overall nuclear force as a life assessment to understand the road to individuation, heavily influenced by the I Ching and The Secret of the Golden Flower, brought about by Jung’s meetings with Richard Wilhelm. In Inner Child work we are not assessing constellated energy states but we are passively reviewing responses and tensions within the space.
Another area of charged interest also exists in Inner Child work when we scan through our past to identify objects, names, places and other details that made a strong impression on us, especially in the years from 7-14. These were the years that the personality is selecting influences and ambition from the options that are presented by our culture.
Active imagination
The very basis of the Inner Council’s framework for Inner Child work is discovering and exploring the spaces of active imagination and nurturing mutual trust relationships, through what Jung describes as fidelity. Jung posited that the fantasy-making activity of the unconscious produced symbols that could be engaged by consciousness to induce the transcendent function in creating psychological change. Fantasy produces the symbol that is the input into the dialogue between consciousness and the unconscious in reconciliation with the opposites. Jung claimed that the greatest problems in life cannot be solved, only outgrown, insofar as a higher level of awareness was achieved through the unifying symbolism achieved in unifying the opposites. The meaning and value of these fantasies are revealed only through their integration into the personality as a whole, at the moment when one is confronted not only with what they mean but also with their moral demands. An awareness of opposition also needs to be understood as Jung states that “Experience in analytical psychology has amply shown that the conscious and the unconscious seldom agree as to their contents and their tendencies. This lack of parallelism is not just accidental or purposeless, but is due to the fact that the unconscious behaves in a compensatory or complementary manner towards the conscious. We can also put it the other way round and say that the conscious behaves in a complementary manner towards the unconscious.” The reasons for this relationship are stated as:
(1) Consciousness possesses a threshold intensity which its contents must have attained, so that all elements that are too weak remain in the unconscious.
(2) Consciousness, because of its directed functions, exercises an inhibition (which Freud calls censorship) on all incompatible material, with the result that it sinks into the unconscious.
(3) Consciousness constitutes the momentary process of adaptation, whereas the unconscious contains not only all the forgotten material of the individual’s own past, but all the inherited behaviour traces constituting the structure of the mind.
(4) The unconscious contains all the fantasy combinations which have not yet attained the threshold intensity, but which in the course of time and under suitable conditions will enter the light of consciousness.
This readily explains the complementary attitude of the unconscious towards the conscious.
Psychological readiness
The first step in the process of active imagination is to obtain the unconscious content that gives expression to the unconscious counter-position to the conscious attitude. As has been noted above, Jung initially felt that dreams were not the best source of the unconscious material for the active imagination and the generation of the transcended function. Instead he preferred to access unconscious material by means of fantasy, either spontaneously received or actively induced. Once the unconscious fantasy material has been obtained. Jung stated that neither the interpretation nor the understanding of the fantasies was the most important thing, rather, the most important thing was to experience them.
Active imagination requires an active, feeling-toned and visceral engagement with the imagination, it is from this experience that the content can be understood.
Where Jung was ambiguous in his statement around the importance of understanding I believe was due to the fact that different experiences require different levels of understanding and in order for the subconscious to supply us with the correct content at the time, a given symbol may be instantly recognisable, another may take a life-time to integrate. What is important is that the fantasy material must be considered and treated as real and not as made up. “You may call us symbols. But we are just as real as your fellow men. You invalidate nothing and solve nothing by calling us symbols” – The Red Book
Jung’s imaginal apparitions were self-generating and autonomous and he conversed with these figures as he would with another person and they responded in ways that he would never have thought of. In order to fully differentiate the counter-position of the unconscious and to create the energetic polarity needed for the transcendent function Jung took the psychic reality seriously. His definition of real was alongside their effectual nature.
Through a mutual give-and-take in which one side is prepared to give some ground and then the other, the integration of the insights presented by the fantasy figures proceeds.
Of all the potential dangers that Jung expressed regarding the imaginary processes, it is a lack of personal authority when it comes to owning and making sense out of the content that led him to express incertitude.
Shifting the centre of gravity
As individuation proceeds through the action of the transcendent function, the centre of gravity of consciousness shifts from the ego towards the self, Jung describes this process as one in which, as more and more content from the unconscious is assimilated, the centre of the total personality is no longer coincident with the ego but take up “a point midway between the conscious and the unconscious”. The opposites must be brought together and held in a state of dynamic tension in order to maintain consciousness of them and engender the transcendent function.
Jung stated that “our psyche is set up in accord with the structure of the universe, and what happens in the macrocosm likewise happen in the infinitesimal and most subjective reaches of the psyche”
– The Hermetic Rule
The differentiation of the opposites leads to a psychic split in which the resulting tension of the opposites seeks compensation in unity. If the individual can resist the tension of the opposites, which can strain the psyche to its breaking point, then the solution appears as the transcendent function, in the form of a symbol of wholeness. Jung claims that this can feel like grace or ‘A symbol of wholeness drawing the individual towards it’.
Synchronicity
Although there is reference to Carl Jung and synchronicity, Jung hesitated in the spiritual interpretation around meaningful coincidences and preferred to give examples. In Inner Child work we are opening suggestions to the world around us by trusting our intuition which does phenomenologically, lead to increased meaningful coincidences. We can invite our clients to be observant of these during Inner Child mentoring as an opening of the intuition. Jung did go so far as to identify that an initial mood of faith and optimism makes for good results. Susceptibility and safety leading to these exact conditions are an important part of developing the trust relationship with one’s Inner Child.
As Jung was more comfortable in describing instances rather than causes, here is his most famous example of synchronicity working in the therapeutic environment.
My example concerns a young woman patient who, in spite of efforts made on both sides, proved to be psychologically inaccessible. The difficulty lay in the fact that she always knew better about everything. Her excellent education had provided her with a weapon ideally suited to this purpose, namely a highly polished Cartesian rationalism with an impeccably “geometrical” idea of reality. After several fruitless attempts to sweeten her rationalism with a somewhat more human understanding, I had to confine myself to the hope that something unexpected and irrational would turn up, something that would burst the intellectual retort into which she had sealed herself. Well, I was sitting opposite her one day, with my back to the window, listening to her flow of rhetoric. She had had an impressive dream the night before, in which someone had given her a golden scarab—a costly piece of jewellery. While she was still telling me this dream, I heard something behind me gently tapping on the window. I turned round and saw that it was a fairly large flying insect that was knocking against the window-pane from outside in the obvious effort to get into the dark room. This seemed to me very strange. I opened the window immediately and caught the insect in the air as it flew in. It was a scarabaeid beetle, or common rose-chafer (Cetonia aurata), whose gold-green colour most nearly resembles that of a golden scarab. I handed the beetle to my patient with the words, “Here is your scarab.” This experience punctured the desired hole in her rationalism and broke the ice of her intellectual resistance. The treatment could now be continued with satisfactory results.
Jung and the Hermetic Circle
Jung identified a phenomenological order within the collective unconscious which was identified as the hermetic circle (understood better through his friendships and correspondences with Herman Hesse and Miguel Serrano). This arcane information was seen as the natural background process of the psyche that made itself known through unusual energy states. The Hermetic principles that have been passed down for thousands of years were close at the heart of Jung’s personal work and his psychological models and concepts and have provided a backbone for the documented work of the Inner Council.
The Principle of Mentalism
THE ALL is MIND; the Universe is Mental.
The Principle of Correspondence
As above, so below; as below, so above.
The Principle of Vibration
Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates.
The Principle of Polarity
Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.
The Principle of Rhythm
Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates.
The Principle of Cause and Effect
Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the Law.
The Principle of Gender
Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes.
Glossary
Active imagination (method) An alchemical process required for discovering the inner self through dialogue between the conscious and unconscious, an internal exploration of meaningful symbols and archetypal content.
Complex – an unconscious manifestation of psychic energy that can be unlocked or integrated through bringing full understanding into conscious.
Differentiation (process) – integration of the opposites (fundamental principle of Jung’s psychology), through energetic tension or alchemical solve et coagula (dissolve and coagulate)
Divine spark (metaphysical concept) – Initially with us in the pleroma and guiding us back to our celestial abode through a magnetic force or gravitational pull
Fidelity (application or quality of attitude in dialogue) – finding balance of loyalty and respect in mutual trust relationships. Etiquette, manners or form.
Individuation (alchemical process) – the alchemical processes or reconciling of the conscious attitude and the unconscious content of the individual.
Shadow – In Jung’s psychology, the shadow is the generally unconscious, inferior part of the personality embodying everything that an individual does not want to acknowledge about himself or herself, consisting of the personal and collective “psychic elements which, because of their incompatibility with the chosen conscious attitude, are denied expression in life and therefore coalesce into a relatively autonomous ‘splinter personality’ with contrary tendencies in the unconscious” ego/shadow are opposites. The only way to escape from the shadow is to step into it, to accept it and assimilate its contents.
Synchronicity An acausal connecting principle
Transcendent function (application of individuation)
The transcendent function – The differentiation and reconciliation of the opposites
Wholeness (concept) – Ego-consciousness must differentiate itself from the contents of the unconscious before integration, we as the victims of the pairs of opposites must cancel out these differences through differentiation.
Notes
[1] The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Volume 9 of the Complete Works of Carl G. Jung. First published in 1959.
All images are from Jung’s Red Book Illuminated Manuscript which he forbade from publishing.
