Through a Jungian Lens

inside looking out

It has been a few days since my last post.  I have had the time for posting even though there was a visitor to our home in China.  But, the will wasn’t there.  Words wouldn’t come.  In truth, other than teaching and entertaining, all that surfaced was “reaction” to the political fracas that is called an election campaign back in Canada via Twitter.  For the first time in my adulthood, I will not be voting.  Being in China makes the process of voting difficult, almost impossible.  Finding this photo which I took just three days ago helps me to illustrate the “feeling” of being locked out.

Of course, it is only a feeling and there is a way passed it.

It is curious for me to note the co-existence of two separate moods within myself as though I am existing on two planes at the same time.  With the new contract signed, I am feeling a sense of relief and release, a sense of going forward with a smile on my face.  Yet, the mood of foreboding in terms of what is happening in Canada weighs heavily on my spirit at the same time.  I don’t want to turn this blog into a political rant, so I find myself struggling for words to help myself understand what is going on psychologically within my “self.”

I sense that it has to do with outer world taking on strident polarized voices, where both sides see the “other” as symbols of darkness and evil.  The events in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Gaza, Israel, Afghanistan, and so many other places are echoed in the voices in America and Canada.  Good versus evil.  Ego, one’s conscious self is good, the other (projections of one’s own shadow) is evil.  I realise this intellectually, but for some reason, find myself caught up in taking sides in the eruptions of conflict that continues to emerge on the world and national scenes.  I find myself seeing the darkness of others and wondering if this is indeed my projected shadow or destructive outbreaks of the collective unconscious.

In response to this inner debate, this inner confusion, I find that I am almost forced to concede that there are people and collective groups who are possessed by the collective unconscious and powerful archetypes and that they are almost desperate in their attempts to control and constrict freedoms for all and any individuals.  And with this thought emerging, I dare not let my voice be silent.  And so I speak, if only to a few on Twitter and Facebook, in defense of individual freedom.