Through a Jungian Lens

I have to admit, dragonflies always seem to catch my attention as they hover just over the surface of the water or the edges of the shoreline like this magnificent looking guy.  He is a graceful insect, one that has a long history before he is allowed to fly free.  For all of life before this freedom to fly, the dragonfly lives in the water feeding.

If I take this dragon fly as a symbol, it tells me that most of life is lived unconscious and that the process of making that unconscious, conscious is what is required if I am to have a moment of glory, flying in relative freedom.  I use the word “relative” deliberately as in truth, that freedom doesn’t soar too far away from the water, from the larger universal unconscious.

I deliberately choose to name the larger unconscious as a universal or world unconscious.  A world soul, anima mundi, is an accepted idea while the unconscious is not typically viewed as a world shadow, but more of a collective shadow.  If I extend the shadow to embrace everything that is unconscious, then the totality of that is closest to what I could call a god, similar to the soul/spirit that is universal.

I don’t believe that we can yet say there is a universal consciousness.  For us as a people to arrive at that state, we have to do our individual work towards becoming more conscious.  And at that time where there exists a universal consciousness that is in a harmonious balance with the universal unconscious, our task as a species is complete.  For only at that point can we say we know ourselves, that God has finally discovered the fullness of him/her SELF, a self in which we are a part.

For now, I work hard to hover just above the surface of my personal unconscious which is embedded in the collective unconscious.  And for a brief time, add to the slowly evolving universal consciousness.