Through a Jungian Lens

I took this photo late last spring when my grandsons were visiting.  I had thought of how this photo would be good for this blog site in terms of camouflage, but in letting the photo sit, a different reason has sort of come to the surface.  Camouflage seals with masks, hiding what is present in order to protect.  Now, I want to look at the bird that is within.  What is hidden behind the mask?

Of course, in this case it is a bird waiting for the right moment when it can be born into the outer world.  In our human condition, this is often the case as well.  We build a shell around ourself, somewhat like a cocoon so that we are protected in our local community.  At some point, one has to break out of the cocoon in order to become more than the possibility that lies within the cocoon.

“The bird is struggling out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever wants to be born must first destroy a world.” ( Hesse, Damian, as translated by W. J. Strachan)

Yes, there is some destruction in going forward.  There are deaths as we cast off the old for the new.  There are also possibilities that are destroyed in making a choice to follow one path versus another path.   Doing nothing also destroys worlds, the worlds of “what might have been.”

So, as I looked at this egg, I knew that this perfect world within a world would soon be destroyed whether or not a bird would emerge to begin a new life, to create new possibilities and prepare the cycle again in the creation of new life in new eggs, either as father or mother.  Should the bird not emerge, that perfect world would be destroyed none-the-less.  There is something vital to learn from this and apply it to our own lives.  As the old saying goes:

“We are damned if we do; and, we’re damned if we don’t.”  Not to choose, not to be conscious is a choice with its own versions of hell.