Symbolism: Eye

This is the first of the aggregator posts on various symbols. Ideally, these posts will contain an overview of the symbol (in the vein of previous posts on symbols) along with links to both outside resources and to posts on 2BiaT of quotes from various Jungian and other books that amplify the symbol. But, seeing how much time and effort writing these overviews takes, many of these will be uploaded without the overview and I will try write one up in the future. This is the first post like that - about the symbol of the eye - I will write up a full overview as soon as I am able.

A similar thing will be done for glossary posts, both future ones and those that have already been done: any posts that relate to a particular topic will be linked to in the glossary post in question.

Posts:

"Telepathy"

"Telepathy"

Many gods and demons of various mythological culture groups have such a large eye on their breast; thus they see everything that takes place on earth. This motif points to the fact – which we can observe time and again in the analysis of the drams of patients – that the unconscious in us often seems to possess a knowledge of things which were previously inexplicable and which, seen rationally, we cannot know. Such terms as “telepathy” do not explain the phenomenon. But we are able to recognize every day that dreams speak to people of things which they obviously cannot know. The unconscious seems to have something like a diffuse intuitive knowledge which reaches into our surroundings, and which Jung called “absolute knowledge” (because it’s detached from consciousness) or the “luminosity” of the unconscious.

- Marie Louise von Franz, Dreams, p. 9

Only the individual can heal the individual, and only the individual can be healed

[T]the medical investigator, thanks to his knowledge of archetypal processes, is in the fortunate position of being able to recognize in the abstruse and grotesque-looking symbolisms of alchemy the nearest relatives of those serial fantasies which underlie the delusions of paranoid schizophrenia as well as the healing processes at work in the psychogenic neuroses. The overweening contempt which other departments of science have for the apparently negligible psychic processes of “pathological individuals” should not deter the doctor in his task of helping and healing the sick. But he can help the sick psyche only when he meets it as the unique psyche of that particular individual, and when he knows its early and unearthly darkness. He should also consider it just as important a task to defend the standpoint of consciousness, clarity, “reason,” and an acknowledged and proven good against the raging torrent that flows for all eternity in the darkness of the psyche – a _____ [Greek phrase] that leaves nothing unaltered and ceaselessly creates a past that can never be retrieved. He knows that there is nothing purely good in the realm of human experience, but also that for many people it is better to be convinced of an absolute good and to listen to the voice of those who espouse the superiority of consciousness and unambiguous thinking. He may solace himself with the thought that one who can join the shadow to the light is the possessor of the greater riches. But he will not fall into the temptation of the law-giver, nor will he pretend to be the prophet of truth: for he knows that the sick, suffering, or helpless patient standing before him is not the public but is Mr. or Mrs. X, and that the doctor has to put something tangible and helpful on the table or he is no doctor. His duty is always to the individual, and he is persuaded that nothing has happened if this individual has not been helped. He is answerable to the individual in the first place and to society only in the second. If he therefore prefers individual treatment to collective ameliorations, this accords with the experience that social and collective influences usually produce only a mass intoxication, and that only man’s action upon man can bring about a real transformation.

- Jung, Aspects of Masculinity, p. 103

PSA: New directions for 2BiaT

Apologies to my readers for the hiatus - it was a combination of exhaustion from doing some heavy duty posts, researching material for new posts, getting ready for school, and doing summer stuff (which has included weddings and their attendant festivities). At any rate, I probably won't be able to maintain the two posts per week schedule, especially since I'm starting school this week (Psychology! Hopefully to continue on to my training as a Jungian analyst).

I'm also adjusting the focus of this blog a little. I'd like this to be more of a resource for people doing Jungian-ish kind of work: the glossary and the posts on symbols are great, but I'm also going to do more aggregator-style posts. The two things in particular that I really want to work on - that I really feel would be an amazingly useful resource for people - are posts of quotes about the symbols; analyses of dreams from Jung, von Franz and others; quotes about fairy tales, myths - basically a one-stop-shop for anyone who wants to explore various symbols to interpret their dreams or for other purposes. These posts will be works in progress that expand as I find new material to include.

I'm in the process of gathering information right now but I will be starting to posting these within the next few weeks. Good luck, and I hope you enjoy your Labor day weekend!

The need for self discipline and a patient attitude

When an impulse from the unconscious comes up, it is always accompanied by a drive to realize it in a concrete manner. This is a general truth. We see this most often, for example, when transference phenomena occur during psychological treatment. When one is a patient and falls in love with one’s doctor and dreams of making love, it is a sign that one needs to experience greater human closeness, a better human contact. But most often a patient gives it a more concrete interpretation and would like to realize it immediately. This is not because of stupidity, but rather we know that “it” within us is driving us. It is a certain demoniacal force, but if it were to be realized in such a concrete manner, the patient would be the first to be disappointed. But one is unable to restrain oneself and does not notice that it is meant to be understood symbolically. This is how it is with most contents from the unconscious. They are always accompanied by this hasty drive to carry the thing out immediately. This is the demon. This means that one must always first of all think about it and say, “Just a moment. Let’s wait and see what wants to be realized.”

In a letter, Jung even went so far as to say “Demonic powers are archetypes in an initial stage of moving toward consciousness.” This means that all archetypes, as they begin to move toward consciousness, have demoniacal aspects. It is only after the threshold into consciousness has been broken through and the content has been integrated that its positive meaning becomes apparent. This also means that that which is demoniacal is not something absolute. Rather, it is a stage to be passed through for those unconscious contents which are moving up toward consciousness. And this explains why it is that creative people are very closely exposed to demonic, devilish forces, for in them, archetypal contents are breaking through the threshold into consciousness. This is also why one very often sees that before there is a creative concretization, there is a creative disturbance and certain demoniacal impulses appear.

... [O]ne has to know that there is a charge inside oneself, but one should not let it take a wrong path, but must contain it until it comes out in the right way. But, of course, this requires strong self-discipline.

Marie Louse von Franz, Creation Myths, p. 151

Jung Was Not a Mystic, and Jungianism Is Not Mysticism

Laura London: And it’s important to look at [Wolfgang] Pauli’s dreams because you mention that creative discoveries are usually preceded by the processes appearing in dreams.

Gary Sparks: That’s a whole nother discussion right there. One of the things he tried to do – I’m taking that question and making it a little more specific – the idea that we’re dealing with here is “Is there a way to live that is not based on imposing our will on somebody else?” Technology is basically about imposing our will on matter. And he was interested in seeing is there a way we can live without imposing the will. I think what his dreams are articulating is the critical importance of doing that.

LL: You said that our way of looking at things is going to go through another development.

GS: Yeah, I think it has to. We’ve got to find another way to live, other than the imposition of will; the imposition of will over matter or nature.

LL: And that science and spirituality are going to have to come together. The unconscious says that they’re the same, and that’s where we get stuck. What do you mean by that?

GS: Well, for example Pauli dreamt of going into his lab and a mass was being conducted. Or going into a church and the priest was doing a scientific experiment. In the unconscious there’s no difference between science and religion. I think for me the answer has to do with symbolic living.

The error is thinking that science is a linear, logical process on the scientific side; and on the religious side, that it’s a metaphysical experience beyond rational critiquing. But what Pauli showed, getting back to your earlier question as well, scientific ideas start with an image. He wrote an essay trying to show how some of his theories came out of dream images. So that the symbolic life can be seen at the foundation of science. And a genuine religious life is not belief, but it’s religious experience, based on images that appear within the psyche. So that giving up the idea of science as rational and that religion is metaphysically unarguable, both have to change for the adoption of the symbolic life.

LL: You said that Pauli had a foot in both worlds. Would you say that the same was true of Jung?

GS: Yes, definitely. More toward the end of his life, I think. As I mentioned he would necessarily have devoted his attention to the psyche. At the end of his life... you now they have that tower down in Bollingen? He added the tower, the highest point in the structure, because he realized he hadn’t given enough credence to the ego. He worked intensely on the inner world and then, toward the end of his life, realized the crucial point is how that relates to the outer world. But he needed to focus on the inner world because that was where his research could bear the most fruit, but then toward the end of his life, as I mentioned in that quote of von Franz, said, “Now, how does that relate to the outside material world?”

LL: One of Pauli’s dreams that you look at in your book is his dream of the world clock. You say that the dream was trying to show Pauli that he could not understand life without accepting it’s complexities. .

GS: There’s a [heart] and a vision in the dream of a clock which is on a horizontal plane, and there’s a clock which is on a vertical plane, and they intersect… I think the two are resting on the back of a bird. The Greeks had that all figured out, and we’ve forgotten it, but I think Pauli was dreaming of it. Time has both a qualitative and a quantitative aspect. We’ve lost the idea of the qualitative aspect. That’s what a synchronicity is. And the complexity is revealing we have to both have our feet firmly in time and space; deal with the problems that we’re facing, deal with emotions, deal with conflict. Deal with rage, lust, problems, conflicts. On the one hand that is the horizontal clock. And yet there is a timeless dimension of that, which is the vertical clock would represent.

There are qualitative moments in our life which, if we don’t understand them, we will lose the meaning of everything that happens in that horizontal circle. And the art of living is living with the knowledge of the importance of time and space, and also what transcends time and space.

LL: You said of that dream, “It has been suggested that Pauli looked very closely at the events of his life, and took responsibility for his role in them. This is what ego development is about; absorbing behavior and taking responsibility for it.”

GS: That’s the horizontal clock. That’s why Jung was not a mystic. You know; paying rent, paying mortgages, getting your car fixed, arguing with the car mechanic. As Jung said, I wonder what Christianity would be like if Jesus had three kids to put through college? All of that is very important. It’s only when we are living responsibly to those demands that spirituality really can reach it’s full extent.

LL: And that dream of Pauli’s that we were just speaking of, the one of the world clock, is in a section of the book called “Dual Mandala”.

GS: Yes.

LL: You said, “A dual mandala is a living image which portrays that a single life is made up of two parts: the here and now, and something else.”

GS: Yeah, that something else is that vertical clock. It’s those kairos moments in which we are guided toward our own development, in a way which we cannot rationally understand. Until we can recognize the tension between the two – or similarity between the two – the synching between X, Y, and Z, between the two, we’re only living half a story. Or a very split story.

  - Speaking of Jung, Episode #2: J. Gary Sparks,  38:22 (Laura London)