Personification of Opposites
I often take photos that mix elements such as this one where I capture water and earth, the union of separate elements. I decided to use a filter to bring a hint of black and white while still managing to capture a bit of green, a sense of life in what would otherwise be a dark, shadowy swampland. For me, this is a symbolic union of conscious and unconscious, the union of the masculine and feminine.
Of course, I am thinking of this union as something that happens within one rather than what happens between self and other, between man and woman.
That said, there is no question that what happens in the outer world will be reflected in the inner world, at least in opposite energies where what is denied in the outer world is given life in the inner world even if we are never conscious about what is going on within our own depths.
Jung calls this union of opposites, Mysterium Coniunctionis, the central theme of Collected Works volume 14. Listen to his words on the Personification of Opposites:
Our reason is often influenced far too much by purely physical considerations, so that the union of the sexes seems to it the only sensible thing and the urge for union the most sensible instinct of all. But if we conceive of nature in the higher sense as the totality of all phenomena, then the physical is only one of her aspects, the other is pneumatic or spiritual. The first has always been regarded as feminine, the second as masculine. The goal of one is union, the goal of the other is discrimination. Because it overvalues the physical, our contemporary reason lacks spiritual orientation, that is, pneuma. (Jung, CW 14, par 104)
There is so much more that Jung says, but that will have to wait. There are things here that I want to chew on for a bit, especially the bit about urges of physical versus the pull towards the spiritual. Somehow I get the feeling that midlife is a ripe time for this pull towards opposite urges to come to the forefront. The realisation that youth has been left behind and that our bodies are determined to remind us that we are changing is a crisis in itself. There is little doubt that one has begun a downward slide. Focusing on returning to an exercise regime lets one soon know that we can backtrack a bit, but we can never reverse the direction. Then, the shit starts to fly.
Why? What’s the whole purpose of the struggling in the first half of life? The kids are grown up, work is done, retirement is in place – so now what? Is that all there is? The only answer that can give any hope is that there is something deeper than what appears on the surface of life. There has to be meaning, there has to be a purpose for the second half of life that goes beyond taking up space and using up precious planetary resources. And in looking within, one gets to sense the presence of an answer, an answer that can’t be found on the outside, at least for me. It is this that draws me into something spiritual, something bigger than the sum total of my life.
RGL you wrote:
“. . .There has to be meaning, there has to be a purpose for the second half of life that goes beyond taking up space and using up precious planetary resources. And in looking within, one gets to sense the presence of an answer, an answer that can’t be found on the outside, at least for me. It is this that draws me into something spiritual, something bigger than the sum total of my life.”
What this implies is that you somehow are at “the sum total of my life.” What if that is not the case at all? What if, instead, you asked what have I missed to date? What has been denied me that is rightfully mine? How would things seem to you if you simply re-framed the question, to wit: “”the sum total of my life.” and added the words, “to date.?”
Jung advises us:
“. . .For a young person it is almost a sin, or least a danger, to be preoccupied with himself: but for the ageing person it is a duty and a necessity to devote serious attention to himself. After having lavished its light upon the world, the sun withdraws its rays in order to illuminate itself. Instead of doing likewise, many old people prefer to be hypochondriacs, niggards, pedants, applauders of the past or else eternal adolescent – all lamentable substitutes for the illumination of the self, but the inevitable consequences of the delusion that the second half of life must be governed by the principles of the first.”
J. Ferric
17 Feb 10 at 12:06 PM
I agree with this completely. That is one of the problems of writing without careful re-reading. That said, I am also writing in “general” terms, words that could have been spoken by my father, my grandfather, elderly neighbours … anyone who looks back and wonders about purpose and meaning that goes beyond simply (not so simple) being present in life.
Thanks for this. I am living in a gated community here in Costa Rica where these “old people” are avoiding at all costs the work required. They are searching for any substitute for this – drugs, alcohol, sex … maybe all at the same time.
Robert G. Longpré
17 Feb 10 at 5:58 PM
Can you say something about the “something bigger” you write about? What does that refer to???
J. Ferric
17 Feb 10 at 9:06 PM
I guess that you could say that it could be characterised as the ONE, the SELF, GOD, . . . . I don’t have the words, though I do feel the pull towards more than what I can sense is “self.” It is a pull to something that transcends “self” and finally gives meaning.
Robert G. Longpré
20 Feb 10 at 1:41 PM