What is it, in the end, that induces a man to go his own way and to rise out of unconscious identity with the mass as out of a swathing mist? Not necessity, for necessity comes to many, and they all take refuge in convention. Not moral decision, for nine times out of…
Becoming Human “This process of becoming human is represented in dreams and inner images as the putting together of many scattered units, and sometimes as the gradual emergence and clarification of something that was always there. The speculations of alchemy, and also of some Gnostics, revolve around this process. It is likewise…
Self-reflection, or – what comes to the same thing – the urge to individuation, gathers together what is scattered and multifarious and exalts it to the original of the One, the Primordial Man. In this way our existence as separate beings, our former ego nature, is abolished, the circle of consciousness is widened, and…
“To find out what is truly individual in ourselves, profound reflection is needed; and suddenly we realize how profoundly difficult the discovery of individuality in fact is.” The Portable Jung Edited by Joseph Campbell, Relation Between the Ego and Unconscious Page 103
“If our religion is based on salvation, our chief emotions will be fear and trembling. If our religion is based on wonder, our chief emotion will be gratitude.” Carl Jung ___________________ “If the only prayer you ever said in your whole life, was, thank you, that would suffice.” Meister Eckhart
“The aim of individuation is nothing less than to divest the self of the false wrappings of the persona on the one hand, and of the suggestive power of primordial images on the other.” Collected Works 7 The Function of the Unconscious Paragraph 260
One cannot individuate without being with other human beings. One cannot individuate on top of Mt. Everest, or in a cave where one doesn’t see anyone for seventy-years; one can only individuate with or against something or somebody. Being an individual is always a link in a chain. Nietzsche’s “Zarathustra”: notes of the seminar given…
“That the self is understood to be an old sage is also an Eastern idea. There is a Chinese text for example, handed down in philosophical literature, which says, “If though thinketh thou art alone and canst do what one pleases, thou art forgetting the old sage that dwelleth in thy heart and knoweth of…
“The alchemists saw it in the transformation of the chemical substance. So if one of them sought transformation, he discovered it outside in matter, whose transformation cried out to him, as it were, “I am the transformation!” But some were clever enough to know, “It is my own transformation-not a personal transformation, but the transformation…