Through a Jungian Lens

In search of consciousness and self in Vietnam

I am overwhelmed with so much at this point.  Having allowed the barriers to fall down, at least a little, has allowed a bit of light to enter. That is good, but it isn’t necessarily very comfortable. In truth, perhaps the lies one tells to oneself is preferable to the truth. I have been dreaming a lot more than usual, something that I expected as I re-entered analysis, but still something that at times seems to be too much. Looking at these dreams points to both dark and light aspects of myself in my relation to the world, to others and to that inner core of my own being.

So, as a diversionary tactic, I have become a bit more present on Twitter where I soon found myself “engaged” and “present” in the drama of individuals begging to bring light into the darkness of Canadian and American politics as well as with issues of child abuse and mental health. It didn’t take me long to realise that this wasn’t a diversionary tactic at all, but about participation with others in a search for truth, objectivity and meaning – again an issue of dark and light; good and evil. Somehow the drama of my dream world, the stuff coming out of analysis and the interactions on Twitter were lining up together as if to make a point, a lesson for me to hear and take note of.

In response I shifted to Facebook which is usually “lighter” filled more with meaningless “status updates” and “he said, she said” kinds of messages. And there I found this YouTube link, Love, Reality and the Time of Transition which had been placed there by one of my Jungian Twitter and Facebook friends, Terre Spencer who is a therapist with an orientation to Jungian psychology as well. The video begins pleasantly enough with John Lennon and the Beatles singing “All you need is love” and then the video moves on to look at the word love and what it really means in a big picture kind of way.  There it was again, more and more and more – all joining together as if in a cabal, a conspiracy to have me open my eyes and finally learn something of value.

And realising that I don’t have all the answers, that I don’t know the truth of everything and that I need to be open to becoming more conscious, more aware and more present – I am humbled and submit to the truth that I need to open up and let the world in rather than build a box around myself in which to hide from that world.

Holding seeds that hold new life

I have always been drawn to feathery scenes involving nature, a face of nature that is gentle in comparison to the pounding waves of a rough surf. There is a sense of peacefulness, a sense of sleeping and dreaming. But the image also points to death as well as rebirth; both co-exist.

I am currently upset with some of the politics of the world, especially the politics of my home country where soul seems to have died leaving a vacuum, a long pause in limbo before there is a renewal of soul. I was grateful to find these words in James Hollis’ book which helped me frame the current situation in the world.

“Where once a peasant could look forward to the towers of the medieval cathedral embodying sacred authority, or the castle expressing secular authority, now the powers of miter and mace are exhausted, replaced by the authority of the state and populist ideologies, fads and fevers – all of which are haunted by a mythological vacuum. The beatific vision is converted to an early retirement on the Sun Coast, the Madonna of Chartres is replaced by the Madonna of MTV, and salvation is found through Halcion, angel dust and the form of crack cocaine called Ecstasy.” (Hollis, Tracking the Gods, p. 25)

One could easily now suggest that the power of mace that was replaced by the state has now been replaced by the corporate entity and the economy. The mitre has shifted more and more to an ever-expanding burst of churches, New Age philosophies and practices and fundamentalist and repressive theologies, as well as drugs, virtual reality and every sort of addiction and fanaticism one could ever imagine.

This is all so depressing. Thankfully this image reminds me that in the deepest part of the winter, in the bleakest part of the human psyche, there is rebirth, the renewed promise of light, of hope, of animation in which the human soul is recovered.