- 8/23/18 01:05 pm
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Kāds cilvēks internetā pēc "Man and His Symbols" izlasīšanas glīti sasummējis Junga domu graudus. Jungs - tas sanāk bezmaz vai kā self help autors, ne? Ja vairāk cilvēku mūsdienās būtu iepazinušies ar Jungu, būtu mazāk problēmu.
Accidently, I read Carl Gustav Jung’s “Man And His Symbols” a few years ago. It changed my life and I reread this book many times; like I read plenty of his work. Some say rightly that reading Jung will rewire your brain structure. Here is what I learned:
Every human is a world with an inner infinity. (And the world can be seen like a single human being). It means that your soul is rich. You can think about a tiny speck and you can have infinite thoughts about it. Not only that! Everything you can make a concept off exists within you. Every thought that came into your mind was already there. You, your family and friends, your barkeeper and hairdresser, your boss, all the world’s politicians, the princess of a fairy tale and every thinkable creature takes a part of your inner infinity. The story this world is living is what makes your personality. And the same principle can be applied to the real world! A society can be read and interpreted as a single organic entity. A war-drunken country could be like a single man, who’s unconscious runs the narrative of storm god, who wants his country back. A loving family could be like a single man, who’s unconscious runs the narrative of a good-hearted judge. Take care: The narrative, the plot and the setting can change from seconds.
A story is running in your unconscious. And it determines your being in this world. Think of all the fairy-tales existing, think of all the stories, poems, songs and of all archetypal stories in this world. All of them could close to the narrative your unconscious is playing. Unconsciously, the people around you treat you according to this story. How you react to your environment will tell you, what story rules you.
Your conscious tries to compensate this story. Think about all the people, who act like they are superior but in reality, they aren’t. Superior people probably act like they are the most unloved and disvalued people in this world. Think about all the saviors of mankind, who started the greatest cruelties. And think about how you mistreated someone the last time and about the inner forces that made you do so. And think about the times you treated people the best you could. It’s hard to figure these things out for the first time. But you will start to see patterns.
Your dreams will tell you what you don’t want to hear about yourself. Dreams are brutally honest with you. They are messages from your unconscious and will guide your inner growth. You can lie to yourself consciously and other people can lie to you but your dreams will never lie. Dreams are the bridge between conscious and unconscious. And the Dream’s language is the universal language of symbolism.
Not only your unconscious doesn’t lie, it knows everything you can possibly know. Therefore, Dreams were considered as holy. It’s just this tiny lifespan in human existence, where people don’t care about dreams. In the ancient world, people who wouldn’t dream were “lost by the Gods”. Dreams were considered as the space, where you would meet the Gods. And when I say that your unconscious knows everything, I mean it! It knows what the expression of a person's face means, it understands what people talk in the room next to you, it absorbs the radio talkshow you don't care about while driving your care. It knows about nature's principles. And we are born with social laws. Take advantage of the girl next door because it's her decision to be stupid? It will backfire. Take advantage of an innocent animal for pleasure? It will backfire. In fact, we are destroying our planet because we ignore the social laws we are born with. Will it backfire? We will see. Be careful when you mistreat people (we all do... well maybe a few of us are holy... but... how many?). It will backfire for sure because our unconscious is born with what true morality is about. Unconsciously, we know the truth.
The human psyche is governed by two main forces: the feminine and the masculine. Every archetype, every symbol, every thought and it’s expression can be reduced to these two sacred principles. Not only that! The unconscious of men is ruled by a female force (called: Anima) and the unconscious of women is ruled by a male force (called: Animus). In European Alchemy it’s said that the life energy of men flows in the opposite direction compared to the women’s life energy. It’s important to know that men and women have an equal amount of male and female energy. It’s just flowing in the different direction.
Your unconscious wants balance. Everyone’s task is to have a balanced psychic dynamic. Not too masculine, not too feminine. Surely, balance will never be reached and would mean death. Life only is because of the opposites. If you want to know how’s the state of your mental well-being: observe how you treat the two sexes in your everyday life. How do you feel about your mother and father? How do you treat your spouse? How do you feel about marriage?
Marriage is the principle of life. The health of a society can be seen in the health of the society’s marriages. How men and women treat each other represent how the male and female energy is harmonizing. Whenever male and female forces meet each other, something new is created. Watch out for male, female symbolism on your dreams, watch out how the media shows men and women, watch out your relationship to the sexes. The insights will tell you worlds about the currents state of your psyche.
Every human has an individual and a collective unconscious. Remember your own inner world and that a world (or society) can be interpret like a single human being. Remember that your inner world influences the inner world of your fellow men. We are all connected through the collective unconscious, which makes Dream language universal; also the language of symbolism. We are also connected with the people of our nation, of our city and of our family through a collective unconscious. It’s called participation mystique. Not only do we inherit the struggles, strengths and dreams of our ancestors. Your personal problems could be directly linked to an unsolved problem of an ancestor some hundred years ago. But we are also connected through the interaction between everyone’s unconsciousness.
To proof Jungian psychology is to make a relationship with your unconscious. The good thing is that you don’t need other people to tell you what’s right and what’s wrong. Your own experience and your own opinion matter. To use and to understand Jungian psychology means to take responsibility for your own life. It’s not for lazy people and not for pseudo-intellectuals. It’s about: you are more than your consciousness. It’s about looking behind the tricks your unconscious has to offer.