The Psychology of Astrology

“I can only gaze with wonder and awe at the depths and heights of our psychic nature. Its non-spatial universe conceals an untold abundance of images which have accumulated over millions of years of living development and become fixed in the organism… And these images are not pale shadows, but tremendously powerful psychic factors… Beside this picture I would like to place the spectacle of the starry heavens at night, for the only equivalent of the universe within is the universe without.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol.4: Freud and Psychoanalysis

Table of contents

Introduction

Sumerian cylinder seal VA 243. Museum artifact published by Anton Moortgat

Our relationship with the stars is thought is to be as old as mankind itself. For thousands of years, our ancestors looked at the starry night sky in awe, and early knowledge of the stars can be found in prehistoric caves, bone fragments, and megalithic structures. At around 12,000 years old, Göbekli Tepe contains the world’s oldest known megaliths, and suggests evidence of alignment with celestial events far older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Over time, most, if not all ancient civilisations, searched for meaning in the skies and personified their myths in the constellations. The Sumerians were among the first to observe and record the movements of celestial bodies, laying the groundwork for the study of astrology (literally, “the study of the stars”). This helped the Babylonians in Mesopotamia to create the first organised system of astrology at around 2000 BC. The astrological premise can be found in Babylonian tablets, where it is written:

“Sky and earth both produce portents, though appearing separately, they are not separate (because) sky and earth are related. A sign which portends evil in the sky is (also) evil on earth, one that portends evil on earth is evil in the sky.”

A Babylonian Diviner’s Manual 39-42. Translation by A. Leo Oppenheim

Astrology studies the correlation between the movements of celestial objects and earthly events or human experience. The skies were thought to present celestial portends or omens, signs of future events tied to human affairs, believed as divine messages from the planets named after the gods. The Babylonians would use these to predict future events and take action to avoid disaster. This is known as mundane astrology, which is almost wholly concerned with the welfare of the state and the king.

Parallel to the Babylonians, the Egyptians developed their own astrology, based on the decans, which are 36 groups of “fixed” stars or small constellations divided into 10 degrees each, used as a timekeeping method, in order to perform religious rites at the appropriate time, among other things. Each of the decans would be associated with a divinity.

After the Alexandrian conquest in the 4^th century BC, Hellenistic astrology was mixed with Egyptian astrology and Babylonian astrology, creating natal astrology. The emphasis moved from predicting mundane events to focusing on the positions of celestial bodies at the time of a person’s birth, in order to provide insights into their personality and life path. Another branch that emerged later was electional astrology, which involves choosing the most auspicious or favourable times to initiate or undertake specific activities or events.

The ancient stargazers observed how some stars remained fixed and others wandered. Though we now know that stars are not “fixed” but rather move very slowly so that their movement appears imperceptible to the human eye. The wandering lights came to be known as planets, a word that derives from the Greek verb planasthai, meaning “to wander”. The ancients imagined the planets as gods wandering amongst the constellations along the zodiacal route. Hence planets were named after the gods. Today, our planets are named after the Roman gods.

The Zodiac: Wheel of Life

Zodiac Calendar, from an Atlas of the World in 33 Maps (1553) – Battista Agnese

By the classical period of the Greco-Romans, the constellations that the planets passed through were being mapped out as the celestial highway known as the zodiac. Characterising the early zodiacal signs were instinctual images embodied as animals; the figures of the zodiac are not just random and haphazard drawings, but images of the collective unconscious projected into the skies.

The word “zodiac” derives from the Greek zodiakos kúklos (circle of little animals), which reflects the prominence of animals and mythological hybrids among the twelve signs. The Chinese zodiac has twelve animals, one of which is assigned to each year in a repeating twelve-year cycle. Archetypally, magical animals are often the symbols of the Self (the total personality). They are a purely instinctive unconscious force, greater and more powerful than the ego but entirely unconscious. This circle of animals or wheel of life embodies the complete wisdom of nature and yet does not possess the light of human consciousness. Embedded in the zodiac is the archaic wisdom known as the “seat of the soul” or the “temple of the spirit.”

The Basics of Astrology

The Ptolemaic System. The Theatre of the World or New Atlas – Guillaume and Jean Blaeu

We’ll now be going through some of the basics of astrology. For the astrologer, the natal chart is not just a portrait of the heavens at the moment of one’s birth, but also a snapshot of our soul’s plan, and thus, the most valuable tool one can have in one’s possession. This blueprint of the soul contains clues to help one understand one’s personality, including one’s strengths and flaws. It reveals something larger than ourselves, as our lives are connected to the cosmos, giving us a deeper sense of meaning in life. The German astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote:

“The soul of the newly born baby is marked for life by the pattern of the stars at the moment it comes into the world, unconsciously remembers it, and remains sensitive to the return of configurations of a similar kind.”

Johannes Kepler, Harmonies of the World

The seven classical planets or seven luminaries are: The Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The seven days of the week are named after these luminaries. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were not included, as they are invisible to the naked eye and were thus unknown to the ancient Hellenic peoples.

Aspects are certain angles or degrees of separation between planets that gives us an understanding of their relation to each other in the birth chart. When two or more planets line up in the sky at certain angles, their energies are said to combine. These are studied carefully by astrologers, as it is where the main action is. Depending on the combination of planets, the aspects can have a positive or negative effect on us.

The ancients had a magical-symbolic sense to the physical world, and to the human imagination the heavens appeared to be engraved with figures such as Aries the Ram, Gemini the twins, Sagittarius the archer, etc. In the natal chart, there are a total of twelve signs in the zodiac wheel, each of which lasts one month, and occupies 30 degrees of celestial longitude.

On the other hand, there is the wheel of the twelve houses, which is based on the Earth’s 24-hour rotation about its own axis. Each house represents a unique sphere of existence or human experience, wherein the energies of the zodiac signs and planets operate. The first three houses are: the self, possessions, and communication, respectively.

Two people can have the same zodiac sign, but be located in a different house. This is because one’s sun sign differs from one’s ascendant. There are three key signs in astrology: sun sign, moon sign, and ascendant or rising sign.

When one talks about their zodiac sign, they are usually referring to their sun sign, that is, which zodiac sign the sun was positioned at when they were born. This represents one’s core identity or personality type. The sun spends about thirty days in each zodiac sign. The moon sign, on the other hand, spends two and a half days in each sign, and rules one’s inner self or unconscious personality.

In alchemy, by seeking the coldness of the moon (silver), one finds the heat of the sun (gold). It is the union of the albedo and rubedo stages, the sacred marriage of king and queen, which leads to the creation of the philosophers’ stone (an alchemical symbol of the Self).

On the other hand, we have the ascendant, which appears at the time of your birth and location (time zone), and changes every two hours on average. It points to your first house in the natal chart. The ascendant represents your persona (how you present yourself to the world).

The Christian mystic and astrologer Max Heindel gives us an example of two children being born in the same place at the same time having marked similarities in their lives. He writes:

“A Mr. Samuel Hemmings was born in the same parish in London, at the same hour and near the same minute as King George the Third, June 4, 1738. He went into business as an ironmonger on the same day the King was crowned; he was married the same day as his majesty, died on the same day, and also other events in the two lives resembled each other. The difference in station precluded both being kings, but on the same day when one became the monarch of a kingdom, the other also became an independent business man.”

Max Heindel, Rosicrucian Christianity Lecture 10

Microcosm and Macrocosm

Image from Utriusque Cosmi Historia – Robert Fludd

The well-known Hermetic dictum, “As above, so below,” is key to astrology. It is the idea that man (the microcosm), is influenced by the universe (the macrocosm). That is to say, truths about the nature of the cosmos may be inferred from truths about human nature, and vice versa.

The notion of seeing mythic narratives through patterns in the heavens is one of the earliest attempts to link the outer world with the inner world. The myth of astrology was and still is another way of comprehending the world around us.

Astrology becomes Astronomy

Astronomer Copernicus, or conversation with God – Jan Alojzy Matejko

The very nature of astrology connects it with the cosmos, myths, and the gods. Throughout most of its history, astrology was “mainstream” and considered a scholarly tradition, and though it had some sceptics, it wasn’t until the beginning of the Scientific Revolution in the 16^th century that astrology was called into serious question. The astronomical predictions of Ptolemy’s geocentric model which had been used for over 1,500 years was being replaced by the heliocentric model introduced by Copernicus. Astrology slowly became pseudoscience, and astronomy was born.

Western astrology was not only frowned upon by science, but also by religion, which considered it heretical, mainly because of its emphasis on fate, rather than free will. Astrology is a liminal subject, part of the enigmatic borderlands of human exploration that resist universally agreed definition. It is one of the most historically significant and enduring, as well as one of the most poorly understood liminal realms of knowledge.

Astrology and Carl Jung

Though astrological language is filled with mythic allusions in the interplay between gods, these mythic dialogues were not used to amplify planetary aspects by traditional astrologers. It was the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung who inspired astrologers to return to the symbolic, to amplify the starry heavens with myths and remember the planetary gods.

In mapping the landscape of the psyche, Jung recognised some major archetypes such as the Wise Old Man, the Great Mother, the Shadow, the Hero, the Fool, etc., that ancient astrologers could recognise from their planetary pantheon and zodiac signs. For example, Saturn being the figure of the Shadow, but also the Wise Old Man. Both astrological and Jungian images are representatives of archetypal forces that shape and govern the human experience; whether it is expressed in the heavens or in the unconscious. Jung writes:

“The journey through the planetary houses… signifies the overcoming of a psychic obstacle, or of an autonomous complex, suitably represented by a planetary god or demon.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol.14: Mysterium Coniunctionis

Jung was primarily interested in the way astrology could help to explore the psyche. The zodiac wheel symbolises an imaginative journey which is an early depiction of the individuation process, the path towards wholeness. The Egyptians believed that at sunset, the Sun-god Ra would travel to the underworld, and at sunrise he would emerge again having defended himself against the monsters of the underworld. This birth-death-rebirth motif can be compared to the hero’s journey that we all partake in, as seen in myths of heroes with solar attributes. The way of the individual is symbolised by the Sun’s path through the twelve zodiac signs.

Individuation is not a linear process, but rather a process of circumambulation of the Self, that is to say, the circling around until one reaches the centre, represented by the mandala, a symbol of the Self. Similarly, by engaging with the archetypes, we participate in primordial time. The Romanian historian of religion Mircea Eliade calls this the eternal return. Myths, rituals and traditions reconnect us with the sacred, allowing us to temporarily step outside of the profane into the divine realm that transports us back to the world of origins.

Just like Jung’s theory of psychological types, astrology can also give a more or less total picture of the individual’s character. From the remotest times astrologers have seen a correspondence between the various planets, zodiacal signs, houses and aspects, all of which have meanings that serve as a basis for a character study or for an interpretation of a given situation.

Myths are symbols for archetypal patterns that lay beneath the human experience. Jung’s recognition of the reality of the unconscious, and his work with primordial images or archetypes was a great boon to astrology, which branched into a new field, known as psychological astrology or astropsychology. The term “archetypal” seems more fitting than “psychological” to encapsulate this symbolic approach to astrology.

Jung writes:

“Obviously astrology has much to offer psychology, but what the latter can offer its elder sister is less evident. So far as I can judge, it would seem to me advantageous for astrology to take the existence of psychology into account, above all the psychology of the personality and of the unconscious. I am almost sure that something could be learnt from its symbolic method of interpretation; for that has to do with the interpretation of the archetypes (the gods) and their mutual relations, the common concern of both arts. The psychology of the unconscious is particularly concerned with archetypal symbolism.”

Jung’s Letter to André Barbault – 26 May 1954. Letters Vol. 2 (1951-1961)

Astrology can be a great amplification to Jung’s psychological types. In fact, Jung’s four function types (thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition) fit hand in glove with astrology’s ancient division of the four elements (air, water, earth, and fire). Each is a distinct way of describing the empiric observations of the same phenomena.

The astrologer is challenged to consider the unconscious features of the literal elements in the natal chart. Some astrologers are sometimes too literal and not symbolic thinkers. With literalism, the symbolic (literally, “throwing things together”) is rendered diabolic (“throwing things apart”), so that it loses its deeper meaning.

It is also important for astrologers to differentiate between the inherited tendency which is collective and the personal manifestation of the archetype. For instance, Mars symbolises the courage to take action, the capability for aggression, or the need for taking risks, but does not indicate how this will be personalised. The natal chart expresses the archetypes, how they will play out, however, depends on the personal experience of the individual, which are related to complexes, emotionally charged groups of ideas or images that are in the personal unconscious.

Astrology as Ancient Psychology

For Jung, astrology represents the sum of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity. Thus, it is an invaluable resource for the psychologist, for it is not mere superstition, but contains psychological facts which are of considerable importance. He writes:

“The starry vault of heaven is in truth the open book of cosmic projection… In this vision astrology and alchemy, the two classical functionaries of the psychology of the collective unconscious, join hands.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche

Astrology, just like alchemy, was crucial for Jung as a symbolic mapping of psychic processes, and provided him with a tool that he actively utilised in his psychotherapeutic practice throughout his life.

Instead of saying that man was led by psychological motives, the ancients said that he was led by his stars. People assumed that it was not psychological motivation but the movement of the stars which caused the personal reactions. The astrological criterion was simple and objective: it was given by the constellations at birth. A later interpretation was that in everyone’s heart lies the stars of one’s fate. Thus, man started to look within himself and not in the skies. For Jung, this is the correct psychological interpretation, for astrology is projected psychology.

“The question which every astrologer asks is: What are the operative forces that determine my fate despite my conscious intention? And every psychoanalyst wants to know: What are the unconscious drives behind the neurosis?”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 10: Civilisation in Transition

Jung observed that though astrology was disregarded as pseudoscience, it remained very much alive and attained a popularity never before seen. So, he set himself to understand the ancient art and technique of astrology. In his early years as a practising psychiatrist, Jung wrote to Freud:

“My evenings are taken up very largely with astrology. I make horoscopic calculations in order to find a clue to the core of psychological truth. Some remarkable things have turned up which will certainly appear incredible to you… I dare say that we shall one day discover in astrology a good deal of knowledge that has been intuitively projected into the heavens. For instance, it appears that the signs of the zodiac are character pictures, in other words, libido symbols which depict the typical qualities of the libido at a given moment.”

Jung’s Letter to Freud – 12 June 1911. Letters Vol. 1 (1906-1950)

At the exact moment of birth, each person receives the typical qualities of the libido or energy which is characteristic of him or her. However, this does not have to do with the position of the stars, but rather, as we will see, with the qualitative effect of time.

Astrological Ages and Precession of the Equinoxes

Hipparchus. Engraving from Vies des Savants Illustres (1877)

Astrologers believe that an astrological age affect humanity by influencing the rise and fall of civilisations or cultural tendencies. In Western astrology, the completion of a full cycle of the sun through the zodiac, called a Great Year, takes approximately 26,000 years. An astrological age is one twelfth of the Great Year, corresponding with the one zodiacal sign, therefore lasting approximately 2200 years.

Jung often mentions the precession of the equinoxes, discovered by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus in the 2^nd century BC. By looking at the position of the stars and comparing them with their positions a century earlier at the same time of year, Hipparchus found that the stars were moving at least 1 degree every 72 years, causing the Earth’s North Pole to slowly point to different stars over vast periods of time. The Earth’s cyclic wobbling over time has caused the positions of these constellations to shift. This was not taken into account in horoscopic calculations, which were based on the spring equinox being fixed at 0 degrees Aries.

Thus, in the so-called tropical astrology used in the West, a person who is born on what is traditionally known as the Aries constellation, might be considered to have such a sun sign, even though the sun isn’t actually in front of that constellation due to the precession. The heavens have long since moved away from our fixed calculations. Therefore, the signs of the zodiac are no longer aligned with the constellations after which they were originally named, so there is no causal connection between us and the stars.

This, however, is not the case in sidereal astrology, which is most popular in the East, particularly in Hindu astrology, and is based on the actual position of the constellations in the observable sky, thus accounting for the precession.

In Vedic astrology they speak of the four yugas(world ages). Satya Yuga is the age of truth and virtue (the golden age), where men lived as gods. Treta Yuga is the silver age, Dwapara Yuga is the bronze age, and finally, Kali Yuga is the age of darkness (the iron age). If humanity survives this difficult period, a new and lengthy golden age will appear. As the cycle progresses through the four yugas, each age is decreased by one-fourth. The complete cycle is believed to last for 4,320,000 years.

For Jung, the fact that Western astrology nevertheless yields valid results though it does not account for precession, proves that it is not the apparent positions of the stars which work, but rather the times which are measured or determined by the stellar positions. Time, or the moment understood as a peculiar form of energy, coincides with our psychological condition. This leads to a peculiar hypothesis, that our personality does not have to do with the position of the stars, but rather with the qualitative effect of time.

Qualitative Time

Jung writes:

“If anybody is born on the same day and possibly in the same hour, he is like a grape of the vineyard ripening at the same time. All the grapes of the same site produce about the same wine. This is the truth stated by astrology and experience since time immemorial.”

Jung’s Letter to H. J. Barrett – 26 March 1957. Letters Vol. 2 (1951-1961)

Jung found a puzzling thing, that there is a really curious coincidence between astrological and psychological facts, so that one can isolate time from the characteristics of an individual, and also, one can deduce characteristics from a certain time. We are born at a given moment, in a given place, and like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season in which we are born.

Astrology is a symbolic portrait of the cyclical repetitions of time, and the stars are simply used to serve as indicators of time. Psychology has little to do with the stars as a clock, which is merely an instrument used to measure a certain moment. Whatever is born or done at this particular moment of time, has the quality of this moment of time. Therefore, time proves to be a stream of energy filled with qualities and not an abstract concept.

The ancient Greeks distinguished between two types of time: qualitative time (kairos) and quantitative time (chronos). Chronological time is the linear succession of events, and historical periods are seen as without any inherent value. However, time is also qualitative and meaningful. For Jung, astrology has to do with “qualitative time”, which is related to acausal events. These are different from causal events, namely, those that have a clear cause-and-effect relationship and are statistical truths.

Numbers too have a symbolic and not just quantitative meaning, as they contain transcendental archetypal qualities. The Pythagoreans used mathematics and numerology for mystical purposes, as numbers rule the universe.

Jung equates qualitative time to extrasensory perception phenomena, which includes precognition, psychokinesis, telepathy, etc. For instance, in the case of precognition, which Jung experienced in visions and dreams, one attains knowledge of a future occurrence. In such cases, one must deny causality, since it is inconceivable that one could observe the effect of a nonexistent cause, or of a cause that does not yet exist.

When Jung was about 72 years old, he wrote to the Vedic astrologer B.V. Raman:

“I can tell you that I’ve been interested in this particular activity of the human mind for more than 30 years. As I am a psychologist, I’m chiefly interested in the particular light the horoscope sheds on certain complications in the character. In cases of difficult psychological diagnosis, I usually get a horoscope in order to have a further point of view from an entirely different angle. I must say that I very often found that the astrological data elucidated certain points which I otherwise would have been unable to understand. From such experiences I formed the opinion that astrology is of particular interest to the psychologist, since it contains a sort of psychological experience which we call “projected” – this means that we find the psychological facts as it were in the constellations. This originally gave rise to the idea that these factors derive from the stars, whereas they are merely in a relation of synchronicity with them. I admit that this is a very curious fact which throws a peculiar light on the structure of the human mind.”

Jung’s Letter to Prof. Raman – 6 Sept 1947. Letters Vol.1 (1906-1950)

Astrology and Synchronicity

Qualitative time is a notion that Jung eventually replaced with synchronicity, a term that refers to a meaningful correspondence between the inner world and the outer world, which cannot be causally linked. This occurs when an inwardly perceived event (dream, vision, thought, etc.) is seen to have a correspondence in external reality, so that the inner image has “come true”. For example, you might think of a long-lost friend, and then suddenly, that friend calls you out of the blue.

Since Jung suggests that synchronicity seems to rest on an archetypal foundation, it has a great appeal to astrology which also rests on this foundation. Astrology, like the collective unconscious with which analytical psychology is concerned, consists of symbolic configurations: the planets are the gods, the archetypes.

By comparing the movement of the planets through the year to one’s natal chart, in the process of examining the transits or movements of the planets, Jung felt we could get an example of synchronicity in action. Transits provide a meaningful coincidence of planetary aspects and positions with the psychological situation, on the individual level, and insights into the collective unconscious or the zeitgeist, on the collective level.

Sympatheia: Cosmic Sympathy

Large engraving of the polarities in the macrocosm and the microcosm. Image from Opus medico-chymicum – Johann Daniel Mylius

Jung’s concept of synchronicity is based on the ancient concept of sympatheia or cosmic sympathy attributed to the Stoics. The cosmos is a whole and single entity, a living being with a soul of its own. The substance that penetrates and unifies all things is known as the pneuma (“breath of life”), the active principle that organises both the individual and the cosmos. This idea was important for ancient astrologers. The microcosm-macrocosm relationship is one of cosmic sympathy. Psychologically, the macrocosm represents the collective unconscious.

Psychoid and Unus Mundus, Pleroma, Anima Mundi

Emblem 19 from Philosophia Reformata – Johann Daniel Mylius

There is what Jung calls a psychoid quality to the physical (the outer world) and the psychic (the inner world), which are expressions of a fundamental unity, a shared unitary realm known to the alchemists as the unus mundus (the one world). The Gnostics call it the pleroma (literally, “fullness”), which contains the totality of all opposites, and is beyond space and time. That is to say, past, present, and future, all exist simultaneously.

It is the idea that the unconscious is related to a cosmic psyche, and the collective unconscious is connected to the anima mundi or world soul. If this is so, the unconscious actually pervades the environment all around us and is not an encapsulated realm located exclusively within an individual, as we tend to assume. Therefore, archetypal meaning is inherent to the universe itself.

Planets as Archons (Gnosticism)

Atlas supporting the sky – Abraham van Diepenbeeck

While the ancient astrologers thought of the seven planets as gods, the Gnostics, an early Christian sect, thought of them as archons or rulers who prevent souls from leaving the material realm. They are the rulers of darkness, demonic powers under the command of the Demiurge, the creator of the material universe.

As with ancient astrology which thought of a sphere of fixed stars beyond the seven planets, the Gnostics thought of a celestial region beyond the planets which a soul must reach in order to escape the dominion of the archons. This could only be attained through gnosis, the lifelong goal of the Gnostics, and the highest form of knowledge, by which one liberates the divine spark within humanity from the constraints of earthly existence. Or as the alchemists would say, awaken the deity, who lies hidden or asleep in matter.

Spirit of the Depths and Spirit of the Times

Jung and a group of researchers at the C.G. Jung institute in Zurich had begun experiments using intuitive methods such as the I Ching, geomancy, Tarot cards, numerology and astrology. However, they were unable to continue, due to a lack of resources and personnel. These intuitive methods give one access to what Jung calls the spirit of the depths, which from time immemorial and for all future possesses a greater power than the spirit of the times, which changes with the generations.

Jung felt this conflict in his two personalities: Personality No. 1 which identifies with the mundane world, facts, reason and science, is associated with the spirit of the times. Personality No. 2, on the other hand, is the visionary, the magician, the seeker, related to the spirit of the depths.

Jung’s life task revolved around integrating both the rational and magical opposites. One of such conflicts can be found in Jung’s Red Book, where he encounters a wounded giant in active imagination, described as Gilgamesh, the great Mesopotamian hero. He highlights the struggle between imagination and science. The giant curses Jung and says “where did you suckle on this poison?” – Jung replies “what you call poison is science.” And he questions Jung: “You call poison truth? Is poison truth? Or is truth poison? Do not our astrologers (and priests) also speak the truth? And yet theirs does not act like poison.”

Jung’s Thoughts on Astrology Before Death

Jung’s scientific and mystical personalities were always in conflict, which explains why he did not stop seeking scientific and statistical explanations for astrology. However, the idea that Jung had overcome his doubts of the value of astrology later in life is believed not only by his constant references to astrology in his works and letters, or by his recommendation that all psychotherapists should learn astrology, for there are borderline cases where it is very valuable, but also by his statement to his daughter Gret Baumann-Jung (an astrologer), made when he was dying, that “the darned stuff even works after death.” Even in an interview shortly before his death to mark his upcoming 85^th birthday, Jung mentions the coming age of Aquarius.

Fate and Free Will

The Dance of Death. The Astrologer, The Rich Man – Hans Holbein

Any discussion of astrology leads, sooner or later, to the question of how to understand fate and free will. There are two types of astrologers, one who is fatalistic and believes he has little to no free will, and one who believes that man reaps what he sows; his motto is “man, know thyself.”

The father of modern astrology Alan Leo stated, “character is destiny.” Fate evolves with time, and it is identical with time. When one says that the time has not yet come, or that the “stars have not yet aligned”, it means that fate has not yet fulfilled itself. By taking responsibility for our character, we participate with our fate. The astrologers and mystics were concerned with freeing man from Heimarmene, the Greek goddess of fate; that is, freeing him from the compulsive quality of the foundations of his own character.

Astrology can either be unpopular becomes it invites participation with one’s innermost self, or popular as it becomes the source of ultimate blame, “it is my stars fault!” Both astrology and analytical psychology confront us with the unpleasant and terrifying fact that we are not the masters of our own house, and that there are elements in our psyche beyond our control.

One can swim along the river of life, or against it. Just as a clock still ticks whether we pay attention to it or not, so does the cosmic clock influence us despite what we believe. Astrology is neutral in terms of morality; it simply describes a property of nature. Astrologers, however, frequently import ethical values from various philosophies and religions to add to astrology. Alan Leo writes:

“My whole belief in the science of the stars stands for or falls with karma and reincarnation, without these ancient teachings, natal astrology has no permanent value.”

Alan Leo, Esoteric Astrology

Our sorrows and pains are not the result of the active role that fate plays in our lives, but rather the result of our ignorance. We love learning about our strengths, but when it comes to our flaws and weaknesses, we turn a blind eye. This lack of understanding does not make one more free, on the contrary, it makes one more subject to causation and less in control of one’s life. Fate leads the willing, and drags along the unwilling. If we do not see a thing, fate does it to us. Psychologically, until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. Jung writes:

“The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner contradictions, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposite halves.”

Carl Jung, C.W. 9.2: Aion

Individuation and Daimon (Soul-Image)

Engraving in Achille Bocchi’s Symbolicarum quaestionum de universo genere (1555), showing Socrates with his daimon

Freedom is what we do with what’s been done to us. Our inherited psychic disposition corresponds to a definite moment in the colloquy of the gods, that is to say, the psychic archetypes. Fate and individuation are closely connected, for there exists an a priori existence of a character structure mirrored by the natal chart. The intent of this essence – personified by the daimon – is reflected in the qualities of time present in the astrological symbols. The ancient Greeks believed that the daimon was man’s character, an individualised soul-image, which was called “Master of the House”, and could be discovered in one’s natal chart, some suggest it is the ascendant. Though such a technical method is inferior to true gnosis, which can be attained through theurgic invocation of the daimon as the Neoplatonists suggest. The American psychologist James Hillman writes:

“The soul of each of us is given a unique daimon before we are born, and it has selected an image or pattern that we live on earth. This soul-companion, the daimon, guides us here; in the process of arrival, however, we forget all that took place and believe we come empty into this world. The daimon remembers what is in your image and belongs to your pattern, and therefore your daimon is the carrier of your destiny.”

James Hillman, The Soul’s Code

Fate and soul are two names for the same principle, and the goal is individuation, because it is the most complete expression of that fateful combination, we call individuality. Individuation can be compared with the myth of the soul’s journey through the planetary spheres, as discussed in Hermetic and Neoplatonist writings. Before the soul’s descent into incarnation, it passes through the planetary spheres and takes on the qualities of each planet in the process, and in our death the soul ascends back to the planetary spheres and gives back to each planet the qualities it had taken from them at the time of birth.

Exoteric and Esoteric Astrology

Alchemy and Astrology Taught in the Schools, 1882 – Unbekannt

We can distinguish between two types of astrology: one that is exoteric and another that is esoteric. Exoteric astrology is pop-astrology, which the public is well aware of, it is a dumbed-down version used for commercialising spiritual knowledge. This is the astrology where con-artists seek to make a quick buck out of the emotional turmoil of other people, the victims especially being those who are unconscious of the trickster archetype, and have been tricked by their own naivety or self-deception.

Astrology is seen as the “gold-standard of superstition.” Since the whole field of astrology has garnered a bad reputation, it is often not even considered worthy of exploration. Esoteric astrology is the shadow side, which represents the hidden or unknown characteristics. This is the gold found in the filth, as the alchemists would put it. It is where one gains the insights to enrich one’s understanding of oneself and one’s purpose, as well as other people and one’s place in the cosmos.

Aquarius: The Coming New Aeon

The Zodiac Series: Aquarius – Johfra Bosschart

Jung was very interested in understanding the astrological age ever since writing Aion, which is the name of a Hellenistic deity associated with cyclical time and the zodiac. In this work, Jung sought to illuminate the change of psychic situation within the Christian aeon. He makes a sweeping statement:

“The course of our religious history as well as an essential part of our psychic development could have been predicted more or less accurately, both regards to time and content, from the precession of the equinoxes through the constellation of Pisces.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 9.2: Aion

Jung observes that the birth of Christ begins at the Age of Pisces, the two fish swimming in opposite directions. At around 7 BC there was a conjunction of Saturn (the malefic) and Jupiter (the benefic), representing a union of extreme opposites. The star of Bethlehem seen by the Magi, was the soul of Christ that descended upon the earth. From this extraordinary astrological event, was inferred an equally extraordinary event in human history, beginning a new aeon. This would place the birth of Christ under Pisces. The symbolism of the fish is prevalent throughout Christianity, a code name for Jesus was the Greek word for fish ichthys. The apostles were called “fishers of men”.

Jung reckoned that we were in a paradigm of shifting ages, a time of change that he had been able to make sense of through astrology. In the Red Book, Jung reveals his understanding of his own role in this coming new aeon, and in Aion he provides, later in life, a rational exegesis of the revelations of the Red Book, so that the two works are fundamentally interconnected.

Jung notes that the concepts of heaven and hell cannot remain separated forever. They will be united again and the Age of the Fishes will soon be over. If the Age of Pisces is ruled by the archetypal motif of the “hostile brothers”, Christ and Anti-Christ, then the approach of the next age, Aquarius (estimated to fall between AD 2000 and 2200) will constellate the union of opposites, bringing forth a concept of human totality. It will then become more difficult to separate good from evil, light from darkness, which will form part of a unity. The Christians call it The Second Coming, the emergence of the Son of God. Nietzsche calls it the Übermensch, who must go beyond good and evil. The mystic Swedenborg calls it the Maximus Homo, the Universal Human, who represents heaven in a human form. And others call it an age when man will awaken to his spiritual powers, whatever that might entail.

Jung was driven to speak of the change of aeons because the “psychic changes” of these transition times are shocking and can create widespread feelings of malaise, anxiety, and fear that run through all the cultures of the planet. The signs that point in this direction consist in the fact that the cosmic power of self-destruction is placed in the hands of man. Jung wanted to warn us, so we – “those few who will hear” him – can experience these “psychic changes” consciously and thus limit the destructive impulses they could induce.

In an interview conducted in 1959, Jung stated:

“Christianity has marked us deeply because it incarnates the symbols of the era so well. It goes wrong in so far as it believes itself to be the only truth; when what it is is one of the great expressions of truth in our time. To deny it would be to throw the baby out with the bathwater. What comes next? Aquarius, the Water-pourer… In our era the fish is the content; with the Water-pourer, he becomes the container. It’s a very strange symbol. I don’t dare to interpret it. So far as one can tell, it is the image of a great man approaching.”

C.G. Jung Speaking: Interviews and Encounters

Conclusion

Astrology will continue to be criticised by the scientifically-minded. The great task of our age is to unite science with spirituality. Jung writes:

“Heaven has become for us the cosmic space of the physicists, and the divine empyrean a fair memory of things that once were. But the “heart glows,” and a secret unrest gnaws at the roots of our being.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 9.1: The Archetypes of The Collective Unconscious

It is a universal law that a wave of spiritual awakening is always followed by a period of doubting materialism, each phase is necessary in order that the spirit may receive equal development of heart and intellect without being carried too far in either direction.

Astrology, however, is not a belief system; we do not need to believe in something to feel its effect. Astrology persists millennium after millennium to remind us of the interconnected cosmos in which we live, the mysteries, ambiguities, and sheer beauty and elegance of universal order; that offer meaning and hope to the soul.

The Psychology of Astrology

The Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung studied astrology for over 40 years, and was primarily interested in the way astrology could help to explore the psyche. For Jung, astrology represents the sum of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity. The notion of seeing mythic narratives through patterns in the heavens is one of the earliest attempts to link the outer world with the inner world.

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Artwork used in the video

A moon above a queen dressed in blue, and a sun above a king – Salomon Trismosin’s ‘Splendor solis’.

The Psychology of Angels

Angels have fascinated human consciousness since the beginning of time. The angel is a recurring archetype within many civilisations, and is present in religion, literature, philosophy, and esotericism, as well as in art, movies and games. The word angel derives from the Greek angelos, which is the default translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mal’ākh (literally “messenger”). The angel is a messenger between God and mankind.

Table of contents

Introduction

Scene from the Apocalypse – Francis Danby

Angels are often depicted as human beings with wings. In biblical scripture, however, angels do not have wings and appear as ordinary men, sometimes with shining garments. In fact, scripture mentions to be hospitable to strangers, because we could be in the presence of an angel without knowing it. Another class of biblical angels do have wings, but are depicted as inhuman and frightening, striking fear in anyone who witnesses them, and as we will see later, are at the top of the angelic hierarchy.

The idea of representing deities as winged figures dates back many thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians portrayed the sun god Horus as a winged disk, and many other winged beings can be found in ancient Greek and Roman art. The ancient Greek god Hypnos, the god of sleep, and Thanatos, the god of death, have wings.

In ancient Mesopotamia, the anthropomorphic gods exuded a brilliant and visible glamour (melam), the effect of seeing it caused both fascination and terror in humans, they experienced paresthesia, a tingling and pricking sensation on the skin. The sun-God Ra appears with a solar disc above his head. The Zoroastrian deity of light Mithra has a radiant crown resembling sunrays, as well as the Greek sun-God Helios, and Buddha (“the awakened”). This divine radiance displayed in deities across the world anticipates the halo of Christ and his apostles, as well as saints and angels. The halo became the universal religious symbol of divinity.

Before delving into the psychology of angels, and how they shape human behaviour and emotions, we’ll first explore their archetypal images across the world, as well as their role in the creation of evil, their purpose and motivation, and the hierarchy of angels.

Angels in Zoroastrianism

Depiction of Ahura Mazda Wall Art Relief

One of the oldest depictions of angels can be found in Zoroastrianism. This faith portrays a cosmic battle of good and evil, whereby good is predicted to triumph over evil. Ahura Mazda (Lord of Wisdom) is the Creator and Lord of the Light, and Ahriman or Angra Mainyu (Evil Spirit) is the Lord of Destruction, Chaos and Darkness.

Besides the Supreme Being, there are various classes of angels. The amesha spentas (literally, “beneficent immortals”) are the emanations of the uncreated Creator, the six divine sparks that personify the abstract qualities of Ahura Mazda, rather than distinct divine beings. These all have their antitheses, called daevas, gods that are unworthy of worship. Truth stands in opposition to falsehood and deceit.

The other class of angels are the fravashi, which are guardian angels. Each person is accompanied by a personal spirit which is assigned at birth, and watches over each individual. Finally, we have the yazatas (literally, “worthy of worship”), angels that protect us from evil.

Ba-soul, Genius, Daimon

The Ba hovering above the body. This image is based on an original found in The Book of the Dead.

The ancient Egyptians believed that man had many souls, both physical and spiritual. They spoke of the Ba-soul, which is represented as a bird with a human head, and symbolises one’s uniqueness or what we call “personality”. This is not merely a part of the person, but the person himself. The idea of a purely immaterial existence was foreign to Egyptian thought. On the other hand, the Ka (vital essence), is what distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the Ka left the body.

Normally one would only meet one’s Ba-soul after death and be completely unaware of its existence before. In the ancient Egyptian papyrus, The debate between a Man and His Soul, a world-weary man who is overcome by the hardship of the world contemplates about death and looks forward to the afterlife. Suddenly, his Ba-soul appears and speaks to him, advising him to continue his religious practices, but not to wish for the end of his life before its time.

In ancient Roman mythology the genius would not only inhabit each person, but also places (genius loci) and things. It was important for the Romans to propitiate the appropriate genii for making the land fertile, protecting the home and family, and any other major event of their lives. The genius also represents a man’s temperament, virility, energy, personal fortune, and destiny. Today we use the word genius to refer to a person endowed with special gifts, talents or knowledge beyond that of ordinary humans.

The ancient Greeks spoke of the daimon (not to be confused with demon). It was believed that when one’s inner daimon was in a state of good order, one experienced eudaimonia, a state of good spirit and fulfilment. The daimon can be good (agathodaimōn), evil(kakodaimōn), or even morally ambiguous, that is, beyond good and evil, a force of nature.

In Plato’s Symposium, the priestess Diotima teaches Socrates that daimons interpret and transport human things to the gods and divine things to men. Socrates is well-known for his relationship with his daimon, and claimed to hear, since childhood, a daimonic sign, an inner voice that warned him against mistakes, but never told him what to do. During the trial that would condemn Socrates to death, his daimon made no sign of opposition, unlike most of the times when it would inform him if he was doing the wrong thing. Socrates trusted his lifelong invisible companion and concluded that his death was not something to be feared, but rather something good, for death is merely a transition into another form of existence.

The Transmigration of Souls and Reincarnation

Plato’s Academy mosaic from the Villa of T. Siminius Stephanus in Pompeii

In The Republic, Plato describes the myth of Er, the story of a man who died in battle and came back to life, describing his journey in the afterlife. Just like energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only change from one form to another, so too the soul is immortal. The choices we make and the character we develop will have consequences after death. The man describes how the good souls went into the sky and experienced bliss, while the immoral souls were directed underground and cried in despair recounting their awful experiences in life, as each were required to pay a tenfold penalty for all the wicked deeds committed when alive. The most wicked, however, were doomed to remain underground, unable to escape.

Afterwards, the souls reached The Spindle of Necessity which regulates the whole cosmos and governs the lives of all of us. Each soul chose a new life, human or animal, and was assigned a daimon to fulfill what one had chosen. The souls were required to drink water from the River of Forgetfulness, so that they would forget everything, and shot away like a star into their birth.

In his book, The Soul’s Code, American psychologist James Hillman talks about the acorn theory. Just as the oak’s destiny is contained in the tiny acorn, so does each person bear a uniqueness that asks to be lived and that is already present before it can be lived. In other words, essence precedes existence. Thus, the daimon was sent to help us humans to fulfill our destiny and to remind us of our true purpose as spiritual beings having human experiences.

Djinns, Fairies, Elementals

Fairy Rings and Toadstools – Richard Doyle

Whereas the Judaeo-Christian tradition generally divides angels into good and evil, Islam makes a further distinction with djinns, beings who may be either good or harmful, and can take the form of animals. Just as human beings, they are also subject to God’s judgment.

In Celtic faith, there are fairies. One theory surrounding their origin is that they were the neutral angels who did not partake in the war in heaven, and thus neither remained in heaven, nor were sent to hell, but rather caught in-between, left to roam the earth. Fairies can be good or evil, and sometimes the term is used to describe any magical creature, such as goblins, leprechauns, imps, elves, etc. The Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus wrote about four nature spirits or elementals: gnomes, undines, slyphs, and salamanders, which correspond to the four elements: earth, water, air, and fire, respectively.

The Archetype of The Ethereal Being

Whether we talk about angels, daimons, djinns, fairies, or any other of such beings, they all hold something in common, despite their difference in appearance, namely, they are all archetypal images of the same fundamental pattern, the archetype of the ethereal being. These spirits coexist with us; they just exist at another level of reality. The archetype in itself cannot be seen, only when it has been brought into consciousness through ritual, myth, and the culture of each country, does the ethereal being take on a particular personified form, and gains a specific purpose.

Subtle bodies

Epifania Del Candore – Alessandro Sicioldr

Ethereal beings are also referred to as subtle bodies, that is, as existing in-between the corporeal and the incorporeal realms. We too have subtle bodies, as we exist both on the material and spiritual levels. The difference is that ethereal beings experience reality primarily on a spiritual level, while we experience it on a material level, but that does not exclude the possibility of them interacting in our realm, nor us interacting in their realm.

The Role of Angels in the Creation of Evil

Torah 1. The Almighty. Genesis 1.16 – Phillip Medhurst

In his book, The City of God, Saint Augustine describes the creation of angels at the moment God said, “Let there be light; and there was light.” On the first day, God also divided the light from the darkness, which is symbolic of the fallen angels. Before the creation of mankind, angels underwent a trial in which all had the opportunity (by their free will) to remain in their original state of holiness. Those who failed became fallen angels. This is portrayed in the Book of Revelation. Lucifer, the bearer of light, desired in his pride to be God, and convinced one third of the angels to rebel against God, starting the war in heaven. They are defeated by the archangel Michael and the rest of the angels, and are thrown out of heaven. Lucifer becomes the Devil, and the rebel angels become demons. Thus, the universe becomes divided into three parts: heaven, earth, and hell.

Satan, who refuses to bow down to the inferior man, appears as the ancient serpent in the Garden of Eden, in order to trick Adam and Eve to disobedience by the promise of increased conscious knowledge, in order to “become as gods” When they eat the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they experience guilt and anxiety and hide themselves. God directs them out of paradise into the wilderness, and places cherubim and a flawing sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life, lest man reach out his hand and eat also of its fruit, and live forever. Thus, the first sin which leads to the fall of mankind from paradise is pride, to become like God.

God’s light permeates all of existence, and heaven is the enjoyment of divine light, which even reaches down to hell. But whereas the angels rejoice in its holiness, the demons cannot stand the light, it burns them and torments them, for it is an eternal reminder of their choice to rebel against God. Hell is separation from love. Angels only had to commit one sin to be eternally damned, because once they choose, they have to go all in and there’s no going back. They experience no salvation. Due to their nature, however, angels possess far greater knowledge about reality than human beings, and can easily discern between good and evil.

The Purpose and Motivation of Angels

The Fall of the Rebel Angels – Gustave Doré

Whereas we have free will, angels are created for a specific purpose, but had a chance to go against their assigned role in creation. They basically have no essence, but they have a purpose, which is always inseparable from God. The Christian mystic Meister Eckhart writes:

“[T]he soul at its highest is formed like God, but an angel gives a closer idea of Him. That is all an angel is: an idea of God.”

Meister Eckhart, Sermon 9

Angels are created to serve God’s purposes, which includes delivering messages, waging spiritual battle, executing judgment, etc., angels are “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation”. There is also the angel of hope, the angel of faith, the angel of humility, etc., as well as angels created for a specific task, such as joining the triumphant place of God at The Day of Judgment. Therefore, when the angels rebelled, their purpose became the opposite of what God created them as. This is the perfect act of self-hatred and desire to hurt oneself, a characteristic of the demonic. Each demon has his own Achilles’ heel, which is the reminder of the original purpose of his creation.

The battle between good and evil continues to this day, and will remain so, until the angels blow the trumpets announcing the kingdom of heaven on earth and The Day of Judgment, when all people, living or dead, will be judged by God.

Regarding angelic motivation to engage in encounters with mankind, one reason may be that angels interact with man because they are merely obeying the will of God. Another reason may be that angels are emotional creatures who experience joy during these interactions with people because such interactions manifest the glory of God, and that is their primary motivation.

The Anthropos (Primeval Man)

The Orphan Stone Telesphorus Carving – Carl Jung

Though angels may have been created before man, God created them because of man. Even though man may not have been present at the moment of creation in actuality, he existed as potentiality, as a pattern to be unfolded (the Anthropos or Primeval Man). Adam was created out of the earth, the name derives from adamah, which is Hebrew for earth. God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. The heavenly realm descends into the earthly realm, and man becomes part of both. As above, so below. Man, the microcosm, is part of the universe as a whole, the macrocosm. Thus, truths about the nature of the cosmos may be inferred from truths about human nature, and vice versa.

The Celestial Hierarchy: First Choir

Icon of Nine orders of angels (Greece, 18 c.?) depicted with an illuminated triangle, a symbol of the Trinity – Unknown

In the Christian celestial hierarchy put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius in the 5^th or 6^th century, angels are divided into three hierarchies each of which contains three orders, based on their proximity to God, corresponding to the nine choirs of angels.

The first group angels serve God directly; they are God’s servants. These biblically accurate angels give us a glimpse into a realm where human eyes rarely access. They appear in a frightening and inhuman form, which may be why their very first words are: “Do not be afraid.” In the Book of Isaiah, the Seraphim are six-winged fiery beings; two wings cover their faces, two cover their feet, and with the final two they fly. They are described as being forever in God’s presence praising him day and night, crying “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty.” In Ezekiel’s vision, he describes seeing the Cherubim, winged chimeras that have four faces: that of a lion, an ox, a human, and an eagle. They are beneath the Throne of God, and are the moving forces of the Ophanim (or Thrones), which appear as four wheels within wheels in constant motion, and covered with eyes – they are the wheels of God’s fiery chariot.

In the apocrypha, the highest rank of the Seraphim is Seraphiel, the protector of Metatron. The latter is a figure mentioned in the Book of Enoch, in the mystical Kabbalistic texts, and the Talmud of Rabbinic Judaism. He is known as God’s first angel, and is the only figure allowed to stand alongside God. It is said that his glow is so strong that it seems that there are two authorities in heaven, God and Metatron. He is also called “the little Yahweh”, and is believed to have once been the human Enoch, one of the two only men chosen by God to escape death.

The Celestial Hierarchy: Second Choir

Detail. Powers. Mosaic ceiling of the Florence Baptistery

The second group of angels are those that make God’s will happen, they are the heavenly rulers. The Dominions keep the world in proper order, regulating the duties of the angels, and making known the commands of God. The Virtues assist with miracles and encourage humans to strengthen their faith in God, they are also known as the spirits of motions, governing all nature, including the seasons, stars, and planets. And finally, the Powers are the warrior angels that fight against evil forces.

The Celestial Hierarchy: Third Choir

Archangel Michael defeats Satan, by Guido Reni (1636), held in the Capuchin church of Santa Maria della Concezione, Rome

In the final choir are the angels that are closest to humans, and carry out the orders from above. They are the earthly messengers. The Principalities are those who protect and guide nations, groups of people, and institutions such as the Church. The Archangels, have a role as God’s messengers to people at critical times in history, and are unique as they are identified by name.

Biblical canon only mentions the archangel Michael (which translates to: “who is like God?”). Michael is the chief ruler and leader of the angels. In the Book of Enoch, however, the archangel Gabriel is mentioned alongside Michael, suggesting that they stand on an equal footing. Gabriel translates to “God is my strength”. All archangels have theophoric names, that is, they contain the name of God, El. There are seven archangels mentioned in total.

In the apocryphal Book of Tobit, Raphael (meaning “God has healed”) reveals himself as one of the seven angels who stand in the glorious presence of the Lord, and interestingly, in the Book of Revelation, there are seven unnamed angels who stand before God, and have seven trumpets. These and other mentions in non-canonical works, have given rise to the popular conception of the seven archangels.

Finally, at the bottom of the hierarchy, we have the common angels, who deliver messages from the two realms. In this group we also have the guardian angels. In the Book of Matthew, we find direct reference from Jesus of Nazareth that everyone who comes into the world has a guardian angel. Scripture always depicts angels as if they were male. As spirits, angels were created to live for eternity, and do not experience death. This suggests that the angelic population far exceeds that of human beings, and are too numerous to count.

Saint Teresa of Ávila once saw an angel who was most beautiful and seemed to be burning in fire, she wrote:

“Their names they never tell me; but I see very well that there is in heaven so great a difference between one angel and another, and between these and the others, that I cannot explain it.”

Saint Teresa of Ávila, The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

Angels do not just exist in a detached realm or another dimension, on the contrary, though they remain unseen, they have a direct influence on us. Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist Carl Jung writes:

“It is remarkable that the angels are always in the plural, a choir of angels. With the exception of Lucifer, and the archangels Gabriel and Michael, the angels are not individuals, they appear in choirs and multitudes. They are essentially collective beings.”

Carl Jung, ETH Lecture (9 February 1940)

Swedenborg and Blake

Emanuel Swedenborg (left), William Blake (right)

The Swedish scientist and Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg experienced a spiritual awakening in his 50s. In a dream, the Lord revealed to him the spiritual meaning of the Bible, and he began to experience strange dreams and visions, and could freely visit heaven and hell to converse with angels and demons. Some of these are documented in his Journal of Dreams. Contrary to Christian belief, he states that every angel and demon are from the human race. They too have the same activities as we do, their only difference to us is that they are not clothed with a material body.

Those who allowed themselves to be filled with divine love became angels, while those who immersed themselves in physical pleasures or refused to let go of their egos, chose to go to hell because they are attracted to it; hell is the place where they can indulge in everything that gives them pleasure. When we turn away from our self-centred ego, it is like a weight is off our shoulders, as if we could fly. As G.K. Chesterton wrote:

“Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.”

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

The visionary artist William Blake was an acute reader of Swedenborg, and had visions of angels since childhood. On his deathbed, he gloriously sang of the sights of angels in heaven. Blake became critical of Swedenborg’s view of heaven and hell as separate, and proposed the marriage of heaven and hell. Both are necessary for human experience, for without contraries is no progression.

The Psychology of Angels

Elijah Nourished By An Angel – Gustave Doré

Jung writes:

“The angels are a strange genus: they are precisely what they are and cannot be anything else. They are in themselves soulless beings who represent nothing but the thoughts and intuitions of their Lord. Angels who fall, then, are exclusively “bad” angels.”

Carl Jung: Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Jung describes the fall of angels as a premature invasion of the human world by unconscious contents. The book of Enoch depicts the interaction of the fallen angels (called “the watchers”) with mankind. They transgress the boundary between heaven and earth after begetting children with women, giving birth to the Nephilim, mysterious great giants briefly mentioned in Genesis. They threaten to devour mankind, and God sends a great flood to rid the earth of these giants, warning Noah to build an ark, so as not to eradicate the human race. Jung compares the fallen angel motif to the effect of “inflation”, which can be observed, for example, in the megalomania of dictators.

As an archetype, the angel emerges from the deep timeless portion of the psyche, the collective unconscious. The idea of archetypes is an ancient one. It is related to Plato’s concept of ideal forms or patterns already existing in the divine mind that determine in what form the material world will come into being. However, we owe to Jung the concept of the psychological archetypes – the characteristic patterns that pre-exist in the collective psyche of the human race, that repeat themselves eternally in the psyches of each individual, and determine the basic ways that we perceive and function as human beings.

When an angel “appears” to a human being, it is a liminal event occurring at the threshold between the known and the unknown, the conscious, and the unconscious. It is the constellation of what Jung calls the transcendent function, which relieves the tension of opposites and unites them as the third element. As such, the angel is a reconciling symbol. The angel unites the ego with the Self, the individual with the cosmos, the soul with God.

Apart from a religious or metaphysical sense, angels can be seen as archetypal symbols of guidance, instruction, hope, and protection. The encounter with angels or demons can represent projections of one’s psyche. We must be wary, however, of calling all such experiences transpersonal, they may also be of a psychopathogical or delusional nature – which largely depends on one’s mental health. Generally speaking, the former has a positive effect, while the latter has a negative effect.

Angels and demons, positive and negative emotions, are in constant battle within us, and some emotions are more powerful than others, just as there are more powerful demons and angels in the hierarchy. Sometimes despair triumphs over hope, other times chastity prevails over lust, etc. We cannot fake genuine emotions; they come to us. Telling a person who is sad to “be happy” proves to be ineffective, as such a person has become enveloped by that which contains the entire pattern of that emotion, which can be low or high in intensity. To experience the entire spectrum of an emotion in the fullest sense is rare and overwhelming, it can only be experienced temporarily, for it is akin to being fully possessed by an archetype, and thus one is no longer human. Whether this is experienced naturally or artificially, we ultimately have to come back to what is humanly possible, and it can be difficult to readapt to our daily duties after witnessing “the other side”.

We all have a positive “right” conscience depicted in our daimon, guardian angel, heart, inner voice, etc., and a negative “false” conscience called the devil, seducer, tempter, evil spirit, etc. Everyone who examines his conscience is confronted with this fact, and he must admit that the good exceeds the bad only by a very little, if at all. Jung writes:

“We ought to avoid sin and occasionally we can; but, as experience shows, we fall into sin again at the very next step. Only unconscious and wholly uncritical people can imagine it possible to abide in a permanent state of moral goodness. But because most people are devoid of self-criticism, permanent self-deception is the rule. A more developed consciousness brings the latent moral conflict to light, or else sharpens those oppositions which are already conscious. Reason enough to eschew self-knowledge and psychology altogether and to treat the psyche with contempt!”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 10: Civilisation in Transition

The quest for self-knowledge is a task for the few, for the path that leads to salvation is like that of a sharp razor, it is hard to tread and difficult to cross. The way to destruction, however, is easy to cross and broad, and many enter through it.

The Angel of Death

Love’s Passing, Angel of Death – Evelyn de Morgan

There are multiple cases of people having a close encounter with the angel of death, but survived or “cheated death”, so to speak. You may have a hunch that gives you a bad feeling, which motivates you to walk on another path, only to find out later that a deadly accident had occurred in the exact same place. Or you may be driving on the road and feel an urge to stop, when suddenly a child runs across the street. Angels can protect us from attacks, or assist us when we are in need.

The Angel’s Call

The Angel appearing to Elijah – English School

The idea of angels generally comes from miraculous experiences where one feels that some intelligent agency beyond us has helped us. One feels a presence. It is as if something more intelligent and greater than your ego is alive in you and makes you do things or arranges your fate against your own will, and against your own planning.

The angel guides a human being in life, and sometimes breaks through with a message that has the power to transform one deeply, usually at crucial points in one’s life. Our lives continually pass through periods of crisis and stages of transition, in which we become more susceptible to the angel’s call. Therefore, during the dark night of the soul, the angel may be encountered, if God “opens our eyes” to them. Whenever a man consciously encounters a divine agency, which assists, commands, or directs, we can understand it as an encounter of the ego with the Self.

In Dante’s Divine Comedy, Dante the protagonist experiences a midlife crisis and finds himself in a dark wood, threatened by wild beasts. Suddenly, the Roman poet Virgil appears as the angel archetype or psychopomp, guiding Dante through a journey of hell, and purgatory. Later, Beatrice (an anima figure) ascends with Dante to the nine spheres of paradise, reaching the Empyrean, the highest point in heaven.

Each of us has an invisible guide to accompany us on our journey through life. Whether it manifests itself in a dream, vivid intuition, an inner voice, or an actual entity, we all have a telos (end or purpose), which is unique to our own soul’s journey. Angels are often invisible, yet their presence is felt, and their voice is heard.

Those who ignore their inner voice can feel a sense of emptiness or uneasiness, and be unable to understand why they are in such a bad mood, because outwardly everything may appear to be going well. It is as if one is going against one’s nature, giving rise to a feeling of inherent wrongness. It is important for a person to meditate and contemplate on these feelings, then, perhaps, the inner voice will clarify one’s problems. The unconscious, after all, is the master-pattern of one’s life.

Angels: Individuation and Theosis

God rests with his creation (1860) – Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

Angels can help us to experience moments of clarity when conditions suddenly appear just right for the accomplishment of one’s action. This is known as kairos, an opportune and decisive moment in one’s life. The angel can also cause one to experience a sense of intense excitement, or inspiration, an urgency that one should do whatever it is has inspired one, and that it is personally very important for one to do so.

The angel’s call can also appear through synchronicity, a meaningful coincidence that cannot be causally linked, which occurs when an image of one’s inner life is seen to have correspondence in external reality. As the archetypal image of the call, the angel initiates individuation, the journey towards wholeness of personality (the Self). Angels not only help bring the often-neglected world of the unconscious into consciousness, but also guide us on our journey towards theosis (union with God). Therefore, angels can help us both psychologically and spiritually.

The person embarking on self-realisation, although he might not subscribe to any recognised creed, is nonetheless pursuing a religious quest, following the footsteps of a higher power than himself. On the one hand we have the soul, our innermost self or our true essence; and on the other hand, we have the spirit, our relationship with God. These are necessarily linked together. He who knows himself knows God. We reach God through the Self, but God is not the Self, for he transcends it. This is part of the old adage, “know thyself”, for the ultimate tragedy is ignorance or “the neglect of oneself”, that is, to not find out about the nature of the soul and of our true purpose in life. Our guardian angel awaits with divine patience until we choose, by our own accord, to begin our process of soul-work, to fulfill our destiny. Know thyself, heal thyself.

This is a difficult endeavour as it may require one to step outside one’s comfort zone into unknown territory. However, there comes a time in everyone’s life, when one must question if they are being true to their own nature, which is expressed by the inner voice, the voice of a fuller life, and of a wider and more comprehensive consciousness. The voice awakens us from our deep slumber, and beckons our soul upwards to our true home.

The angel is sometimes shown waking a sleeper with a trumpet. The unawakened state is unconsciousness and the awakened state is wholeness. To venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose oneself.

Angels and The Numinous

Angels Announcing the Birth of Christ to the Shepherds – Govert Flinck

“Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels’ hierarchies? and even if one of them pressed me against his heart: I would be consumed in that overwhelming existence. For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are barely able to endure, and it amazes us so, because it serenely disdains to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies

The Austrian poet Rilke states that, “Every Angel because of its beauty is terrible.” Angels are of a numinous nature which totally fascinate and overwhelm an individual. The angel moves, compels, awes, overpowers, and constellates urgency. Angels are terrible because one has to go through a painful transformation, and beautiful because they transform one’s entire existence, like the phoenix who rises from the ashes. The devils are as necessary as the angels, as Rilke stated, “Don’t take my devils away, because my angels may flee too.” When we turn contradiction and opposition into paradox and unity, we turn inner conflict into inner peace, understanding the duality of our nature.

The Invocation of Angels

Why Seek Ye the Living Among the Dead (1905) – Howard Pyle

The ancient instructive words to invoke the angel was “enflame thyself with prayer.” The Neo-Platonist philosopher Iamblichus was one of the first to formally ritualise the invocation of the angel. By invoking and consuming (integrating) the angel, one could achieve the status of a spiritual being, and finally achieve the knowledge of the gods. Purity is the defining factor for success or failure in the operation for conversing with one’s holy guardian angel. The more pure the soul, the greater the affinity to the angel. In the Lexicon of Alchemy, Martin Rulandus describes meditatio as an internal talk of one person with another who is invisible, as in the invocation of the Deity, or communion with one’s self, or with one’s good angel.

Fasting is also an important ritual, because it brings one further away from the material, and closer to the spiritual. In the Book of Matthew, after Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert and the Devil failing to tempt Him, angels came and ministered to him. This is often interpreted as the angels feeding Jesus.

There is, however, also a dark side, as is seen in the practices of necromancy and the study of demonology in the Middle Ages. Similarly, there are modern occult practices in which people seek to capture spirits and ask for favours, or use them to act upon the world. As the Faustian myth teaches us, the attainment of knowledge that far exceeds the humanly possible, can come at a high price, at the cost of one’s soul.

Demons can disguise themselves as angels of light. In his solitude, Saint Anthony sometimes encountered devils who looked like angels, and other times he found angels who looked like devils. The only way he could tell the difference was by the way which he felt after the being had left his company.

Angels and Dreams

The Dream of Saint Joseph (1602-1674) – Philippe de Champaigne

Angels are sometimes depicted as messengers of dreams. They show the dreamer, and then the angel bringing down the dream from heaven. The angel was understood as being the personified essence of a dream. There are dreams that sometimes warns us and can even save our lives. If we attend to them, we can avoid all sorts of disasters. If the unconscious takes the trouble to give us a warning dream, one should attend to it.

Though it remains unexplainable, it is a fact that the unconscious knows more than we know. It is as if the unconscious of the human being is expanded into outer nature, and has information which we cannot have, and therefore in dreams you sometimes get warnings or information about things you cannot possibly know.

The appearance of an angel in dreams announces a healing possibility, a link to the Self that would ease neurotic dysfunctions.

The Bible references hundreds of dreams or visions. The dream of Jacob’s ladder is one of the better-known dreams, which depicts angels uniting heaven and earth.

Jacob’s Ladder and Soul Geography

Jacob dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. This is known as a god-sent dream, or an archetypal dream with theophany (an encounter with a deity). Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz states:

“[T]he ladder symbolised a continuous, constant connection with the divine powers of the unconscious. We could say the dream itself was such a ladder. It connects us with the unknown depth of our psyche. Every dream is a rung on a ladder, so to speak.”

M.L. von Franz, The Way of the Dream

Jacob did not know that the place he slept in was a holy place, he concluded it from his dream. One of the oldest beliefs of mankind was that in the landscape there are certain places where one has either communication with the good deities or evil deities, such as a crevice being the entrance to the underworld, or mountaintops being areas of special communication with the gods above as is seen in many myths across the world (Moses on Mount Sinai, Zeus on Mount Olympus, Shiva on Mount Kailash, etc.). There seems to be a whole soul geography in the world where man projected his soul into. We naturally feel that there are places we go to where we feel at peace, and others that are somehow unnerving and we prefer not to stay in.

Wrestling with The Angel

Without wishing it, we are placed in situations which entangle us in something, and we usually don’t know how we ended up there. A thousand twists of fate all of a sudden land us in such a situation. When we are faced against a wall, and all seems lost, it is not unusual to have an encounter with the Self. This is symbolically represented in the biblical motif of Jacob wrestling with the “dark” angel, and while he dislocated his hip, his struggle prevented a murder. That is how one grows: by being defeated decisively by greater beings. In a sense, Jacob wrestles with himself, and afterwards becomes reborn, receiving the new name, Israel, he who wrestles with God. Jacob finds his identity by wrestling with his dark side, and discovers the light. There are four features of this story, an encounter with a superior being, wounding, perseverance, and divine revelation, that together form the theme of “the encounter with the Self.”

Jung writes:

“[The God] appears at first in hostile form, as an assailant with whom the hero has to wrestle. This is in keeping with the violence of all unconscious dynamism. In this manner the god manifests himself and in this form he must be overcome… The onslaught of instinct then becomes an experience of divinity, provided that man does not succumb to it and follow it blindly, but defends his humanity against the animal nature of the divine power. It is “a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”, and “whoso is near unto me, is near unto the fire, and whoso is far from me, is far from the kingdom”; for “the Lord is a consuming fire.””

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 5: Symbols of Transformation

Jung knew that God’s messenger is the stronger force, therefore he never turned away from the struggle. When he was once asked how he could live with the knowledge he had recorded in his controversial book, Answer to Job, he replied ”I live in my deepest hell, and from there I cannot fall any further.”

The Integration of The Angel Archetype

The Angel Appearing To Joshua – Gustave Doré

The integration of the angel archetype allows us to examine the nature of our essence or soul, the uniqueness that asks to be lived in each of us, and that unfolds itself during our lifetime. Thus, angels carry our true vocation, which is a calling, towards the meaning of our life. If we pay attention to our inner voice through dreams, contemplation, prayer, etc., the angel’s call towards fulfilling our purpose on earth becomes clearer. This is not just the call of our personal destinies; it is a cosmic call that aligns us to the Anima Mundi or World Soul, which all living beings form a part of. Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, “Grow, grow.” The word animal derives from anima, which is breath or spirit. Humans are the highest of animals, as we are made in God’s image.

Man is made a little lower than the angels; yet God crowned him with glory and honour, and put everything under his command. Jung writes:

“A life without inner contradiction is either only half a life or else a life in the Beyond, which is destined only for angels. But God loves human beings more than the angels.”

Carl Jung, Letters, Vol. I

Though hierarchically we remain lower than the angels, we are loved more by God. It is out of love that God made our bodies in the image of Himself, and why he became Christ, who was crucified and died for our sins. Christianity is a unique religion as it is God that comes directly to man, and not vice versa.

Conclusion

While angels are created in heaven and stay there, or were thrown out of heaven when they rebelled, we human beings are created on Earth and are capable of moving upwards to heaven or downwards to hell. Only that which can fall is capable of salvation, this is the felix culpa (happy fault or fortunate fall). We have the freedom to choose between good or evil, something that even angels cannot interfere in. This is our blessing and our curse. We are the protagonists in this world of spiritual warfare, and no matter how many difficulties and trials we must overcome, we are all equally capable of uniting our will with that power that is higher than ourselves, and to rejoice in our journey along the way.

“A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth — that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love… For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, “The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.” ”

Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

The Psychology of Angels

Angels have fascinated human consciousness since the beginning of time. The angel is a recurring archetype within many civilisations, The word angel derives from the Greek angelos, which is the default translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mal’ākh (literally “messenger”). The angel is a messenger between God and mankind.

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The Psychology of The Wise Old Man

The Wise Old Man or Sage is an archetype that is recognised by almost everyone, be it in stories, games, movies, or everyday life. In myth he is often shown as one living in isolation, meditating and living a simple life deep in a forest, in the mountains, or in other uninhabited places.

Table of contents

Introduction

The Wise Old Man is a lover of wisdom, and uses his experience to guide others. He is portrayed as a mysterious person or a wizard, in contact with nature and the numinous and unseen forces that permeate our existence.

Like the mythical creature of the Sphinx, the Sage speaks oracularly in riddles. Zen masters present their students with a seemingly insoluble koan, and Christ spoke in parables to his disciples. This is not in order to obscure truth, but rather to awaken one to experience the truth. At the bottom of great doubt, lies great awakening. When the student is ready the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready the teacher will disappear. As Friedrich Nietzsche writes, “One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil.”

Perhaps most importantly, the Sage is a hermit, a person that has removed himself from society in order to fulfill his spiritual quest. The word hermit derives from the ancient Greek erēmítēs, which in turn comes from erēmía (desert, or uninhabited region). Thus, a hermit is literally a person of the desert.

The Symbolism of the Desert

Expulsion of Adam and Eve, 1791 – Benjamin West

The desert is a frequent biblical motif and is synonymous with wilderness or wasteland. It is the place Adam and Eve (the first humans) had to go after being banished from the Garden of Eden for disobeying God. It is a place of exile, and sin, representing separation from God. The wilderness is surrounded by wild beasts. In Islamic folklore, deserts and unclean places are believed to be inhabited by djinn, malevolent spirits who take the form of animals, in order to lead others astray.

In the last four of the first five books of the Bible (the Torah), Moses and the people of Israel wandered in the desert for forty years before they could enter the promised land, though Moses was not allowed in. The desert is not just a place of punishment, but also a place of baptism or purification, of burning off all that is superfluous, all errors and lies, for only truth survives the fire. The desert is an invitation to reflect deeply on one’s spiritual life, which is done in solitude, removed from the material concerns of society.

The wilderness is also the place Jesus was led to by the Holy Spirit, and where he spent forty days and nights fasting. Here, he was engaged in spiritual warfare with Satan, who tried to tempt Him. After refusing each temptation, Jesus returns to Galilee and begins his public ministry. The Desert Fathers drew inspiration from this, and Saint Anthony the Great, known as the Father of All Monks, followed Christ’s footsteps isolating himself in the desert. Eventually, small communities with like-minded individuals were formed and the concept of monasticism was born. Thus, in imitation of Christ, monks retired into solitude to confront their own inner devils.

The Hermit and The Wandering Ascetic

The Wheel of Life – Samsara – Thangka Mandala

In the East, wandering ascetics inspired a lifestyle dedicated to the spirit, such as in Buddhist monasticism. In Hinduism, there are four stages in human life: the student stage, the householder stage, the hermit stage, and the wandering ascetic stage. The third stage Vānaprastha (the way of the forest) is the transitional phase from pursuits related to wealth and pleasure, to one with greater emphasis on moksha (spiritual liberation), the final result of wisdom.

The hermit retires into a secluded place, or an ashram (spiritual hermitage) and gives advice to his family and community. In the final stage of life, usually when one is old, one renounces to all worldly things. The holy sadhus and yogis of India live a solitary life dedicated solely to meditation and prayer. Yoga is also practiced, which literally means union, that is, the union of all dualities, the material with the spiritual, the individual self with the supreme self.

The wise person who has performed good deeds, and lived a life of humility and piety, acquires good karma, and may either be reborn into a better life or be released from samsara, the endless cycle of rebirth into this world of suffering, wherein the Ātman (true self) merges with Brahman (ultimate reality), like a rain drop merging with the ocean.

The Wise Old Man Archetype

Hermes Trismegistus “Symbola aureae” – Michael Maier (1617)

According to Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist Carl Jung, the Wise Old Man is one of the archetypal images that repeat themselves most frequently, the so-called dominants. The others are the shadow, the child, the mother and her counterpart the maiden, and lastly the anima in man and the animus in woman. Archetypes or primordial images are the inherited patterns of behaviour of mankind and form part of the collective unconscious.

Jung also used the word senex (Latin for old man) to describe this archetype. In ancient Rome, this title was only awarded to elderly men with families who had a good standing in their village.

The senex is the archetypal image of meaning and wisdom, he symbolises the spiritual factor and is a personification of the masculine spirit. In a man’s psychology, the anima in man (the archetype of life) is related to the Wise Old Man as daughter to father. In a woman’s psychology, the Wise Old Man is an aspect of the animus in woman (the archetype of meaning). The feminine equivalent in both men and women is the Earth Mother or Great Mother.

Archetypes are frequently misunderstood as meaning certain mythological images or motifs, but these are nothing more than conscious representations. We cannot see the archetype in itself, for it is a form without content, but only the archetypal image which has become conscious and can be experienced in personified form. Thus, archetypal images can vary a great deal in detail across the world, but they all share the same basic pattern.

The Wise Old Man archetype is often presented as a teacher of wisdom, such as Abraham, Moses, Solomon, etc., in the Judeo-Christian tradition. King Solomon is most famous for his wisdom, and is the author of the Book of Proverbs. The theological foundation is that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This is not a servile fear, but the fear of being in the presence of the infinitely great. Hineini is a powerful phrase in Hebrew meaning “Here I am”. It is the bearing of oneself either in the presence of God or another human being. Here I am, fully in your presence. The fear of the Lord is a fear of the numinous, the experience of a mysterious terror and awe in the presence of God, a fear that comes forth out of love for God.

Wisdom (Sophia) is praised for her role in creation; God acquired her before all else, she gives order to chaos, and since humans prosper by conforming to the order of creation, seeking wisdom is the essence and goal of life. If she is cherished, one is exalted; if she is embraced, one is honoured. But if you refuse to listen to her when she calls, when you pay no attention when she stretches out her hand, so too, will she ignore you when you most need her, in times of distress and trouble. How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!

“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.”

Proverbs 4:7

In Hermeticism, Hermes Trismegistus is the fount of all wisdom, the teacher of the mystery of all ages, especially of alchemy. He teaches us that we are fundamentally no different from the Supreme, and that gnosis (mystical knowledge that is revealed) is the result of divine wisdom.

In China, the Sage is portrayed in the philosopher Laozi, the founder of Taoism. His name is actually an honorific title which means “old man” or “old master”. He taught that wisdom comes from the Tao or “The Way”, the natural order of the universe, which is not different from nature or ourselves, it is simply the way in which things are. Everything coexists, life is simply a happening. By forgetting oneself, one becomes the universe. The Tao cannot be understood as a concept, as it is eternally nameless, it can only be experienced in life, such as in states of flow or effortless action, whereby, without even trying, one achieves perfect harmony and perfect knowledge of the current situation.

In Arthurian legend the Sage appears as the wizard Merlin. In Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Roman poet Virgil appears as a psychopomp or spiritual guide (a manifestation of the Sage) in Dante’s difficult but necessary descent into Hell. In Nietzsche’s work he appears as the prophet Zarathustra, who descends from the mountains to mankind in order to share his gifts of wisdom. And in Jung he appears as Philemon, his inner Wise Old Man whom he met during active imagination, taking over the role of a guru. He represents superior insight, a living personality to whom Jung was not identical, and who taught him psychic objectivity, the reality of the psyche.

The Sage can also be seen in the master shaman, who is responsible for the religious direction of a community, and guards its soul. He has access to a region of the sacred not accessible to other members of the community, and guides neophytes who must undergo the first trials to find their lost souls. For the shaman, the whole world is permeated by a life force or mana which connects all living beings to the Anima Mundi (World Soul).

In modern popular fiction, the Wise Old Man appears as Yoda from Star Wars, the Wizard Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings and Professor Dumbledore in Harry Potter, among others.

The Wise Old Man appears in dreams in the guise of a king, magician, doctor, priest, professor, grandfather, or any other person possessing authority. The archetype of the spirit not only appears in the shape of a man, but also as a “real” spirit, namely the ghost of one dead, or, more rarely, as a creature such as a dwarf, gnome, goblin, or a talking animal.

The Sage usually appears in a situation where good advice is needed but cannot be mustered on one’s own resources. He is the pre-existent meaning hidden in the chaos of life, and compensates this state of spiritual deficiency by insightful contents designed to fill the gap. This archetype has lain dormant in the collective unconscious since the dawn of history. It is awakened whenever the times are out of joint, for when people are lead astray, they feel the need of a guide or teacher.

In the individuation process (the lifelong journey towards psychic wholeness), the archetype of the Wise Old Man is late to emerge, and is therefore seen as an indication of the Self (the total personality). Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz writes:

“If an individual has wrestled enough and long enough with the anima (or animus) problem… the unconscious again changes its dominant character and appears in a new symbolic form… as a masculine initiator and guardian (an Indian guru), a wise old man, a spirit of nature, and so forth.”

M.L. von Franz, Man and His Symbols. Part III: The Process of Individuation

Senex and Puer Aeternus

As we grow older, we enter the world of the senex, the polar opposite of the puer aeternus (eternal boy), but nevertheless, the opposite side of the same coin. We recognise youth by knowing age; we become aware of ageing by remembering how we were when young. The purpose of adulthood is to return to childhood as a matured being, not to stay in the state of childhood and refuse to grow up (the Peter Pan syndrome). Many old people seem to return to a state of childlike innocence, and wonder.

The senex can be associated with the god Apollo – disciplined, controlled, responsible, rational and ordered. The puer, on the other hand, is related to Dionysus – unbounded, instinct, disorder, intoxication, and whimsy. Both of these archetypes are necessary for a psychologically healthy life.

With his authority, tradition, and structure, the senex consolidates, grounds and disciplines. The puer flashes with insight and thrives on immediacy, fantasy, and creativity. These two archetypes represent past and future, old and new. The senex-puer duality is a fundamental pattern of psychological life, always at work within us. This duality is represented in Mercurius, the Roman equivalent of the Greek Hermes. In alchemy, he is described as a young boy and an old man. He represents the union of opposites, and thus, the philosophers’ stone, or the Self.

Mercurius senex is identical with Saturn, which is associated with lead in alchemy, the prima materia or starting material required for the Great Work.In medieval astrology, Saturn is known as the maleficent god, in contrast to Jupiter, the beneficent god. Saturn is the dwelling place of the devil himself. In Gnosticism he appears as the lion-headed serpent god Yaldabaoth, the demiurge and highest archon who created the material world in order to imprison souls in physical bodies. He is the child of chaos and darkness.

The Dark Side of The Wise Old Man

All archetypes have a light and dark side. The dark side of the Wise Old Man is cut off from the world and others, and lives in his ivory tower. There are certain intellectuals who are excellent at giving lectures and understanding complicated philosophical or scientific concepts, but are unable to deal, for example, with emotional conflicts in relationships. Moreover, they become irritated at the thought of using any mode of perception other than the rational method.

Shadow Sages will only acknowledge the way that corresponds to their own learning style, and hence the one in which they excel. Knowledge then (whether subtly or blatantly) becomes a way of showing superiority to others. Whatever relative truth they have discovered is identified with absolute truth. For example, scientism occurs when science seems to regard its own scientific standpoint as a position of unquestionable truth from which it can assert itself in all directions so that things like religion, psychology, philosophy, and the arts appear as no more than subjective opinion. In this way, our existential problems and the human condition are completely ignored.

When the shadow Sage is active in our lives, we often get caught in obsessive thinking, attempting to figure everything out by rational processes. If we cannot figure it out in this way, we are paralysed. How can one act, he says, when it is impossible to know what is true? Such a person cannot commit to a lover, because he does not know if this is the right person for him. He cannot commit to work because he does not know if it is the right thing to do. Inevitably, such people tend toward cynicism because of a heightened awareness of their inability of knowing anything for sure and of the imperfection of all life.

The negative Sage is obsessed by nonattachment, and so cannot commit to people, projects, or ideas. He is deluded that this provides him with freedom, but he is not really free at all. He is simply too terrified of commitment to really attach to anyone or anything. One is often addicted to being perfect, truthful and right, and has no tolerance for normal human feelings or vulnerabilities. Such a person often tends toward ascetic practices and constantly derides himself or others for any sign of not being perfect. Nothing is ever really good enough.

The shadow Sage is unable to see reality as it is. For instance, he might be surrounded by a natural and beautiful environment, but only focus on the flaws of existence, being unable to partake in the beauty of life. William Blake writes:

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way… As a man is so he sees.”

William Blake’s Letter to Dr. Trusler (23 August 1799)

The shadow Sage appears as an old man who is cynical, rigid, materialistic, reluctant to change, and lacks a sense of humour. He can be extremely cold-hearted, and may have deep regrets which represents his unlived life. Old age is not always correlated with wisdom. A man who has white hair and wrinkles has not necessarily lived long, just existed long. Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant.

Most major decisions in life cannot be decided in a scientific and rational way, many times we require a leap of faith. Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. Without answering the call to adventure and treading into unknown territory, we can never start the hero’s journey, without which there is no self-realisation at all.

The Wise Old Man and The Hero

The poetic and dramatic works of Alfred Lord Tennyson – Gustave Doré

In myths and fairy tales, whenever the hero in search of the treasure has lost his way, the Wise Old Man usually appears bearing new light and hope. In a similar way, such a figure can materialise in our own dreams. The Sage finds within himself what has been ignored or lost by society. He often takes the form of a mentor to the hero, playing a crucial role in the hero’s journey. He instructs the hero both with knowledge and with practical skills in order to equip him for the arduous tasks with which life confronts him, and presents the hero with magical items to later aid him in his quest.

The hero’s father is often a master carpenter, some kind of artisan, or a cosmic architect. In fairy tales, the hero’s father is, more modestly, the traditional woodcutter. Jung writes:

“The hero symbolises our unconscious self, and this manifests itself empirically as the sum total of all archetypes and therefore includes the archetype of the father and of the wise old man. To that extent the hero is his own father and his own begetter.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 5: Symbols of Transformation

The Dangers of Identifying as The Sage

Book of Urizen Object 21 – William Blake

One way to misunderstand the meaning of an archetypal personage is to view the figure literally rather than symbolically. In the case of the Sage, one might grow a beard, wear monk robes, and set forth perhaps to some distant land – in search of a guru on whom to project perfect wisdom and enlightenment. However, if one fails to find someone on whom to project the Sage, one may, in desperation, cast one’s young and inexperienced human self into the role of this archetype. To identify oneself with any archetype can have disastrous consequences. It can cause ego-inflation in which the seeker experiences a God complex or messiah complex. He may himself start a cult, attracting his own followers to worship him. On the other hand, one may be crushed by the burden of an archetypal role and retreat from life altogether, falling into a vegetable-like depression. In either case, one’s human beingness is distorted.

Unfortunately, disposing of our psychological burdens is not so easy. One can never become an archetypal figure. Any such attempt is hopeless – and has elements of tragedy. The plain fact is that an archetypal character is suprahuman.

The Hermit in Tarot

The Hermit (9th Major Arcana) in Tarot Decks: Rider-Waite, Visconti-Sforza, Tabula Mundi & Thoth (respectively)

In Tarot, the archetype of the Wise Old Man is portrayed by the ninth card of the Major Arcana: The Hermit. In the Rider–Waite deck, we see in the card an old man with white hair and beard, wearing the robes of a friar or monk. He stands alone on a snowy mountain peak, carrying a staff in one hand and a lit lantern with a shining six-pointed star in the other. His eyes are closed, and he looks within himself, echoing Jung’s words, “Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside awakens.” It is a man who has gained all kinds of experiences in the world, and is spending time alone, contemplating and understanding the lessons he has learned. Those who find him and talk to him will be showered by these rich lessons, for he wants to shine the light of knowledge out into this world.

The friar pictured in the card embodies a wisdom not to be found in books. His gift is as elemental and ageless as the fire in his lamp. A man of few words, he lives in the silence of solitude. He brings us no sermons; no commandments, or berates us for wrongdoing. He offers us himself. By his simple presence he illumines fearful recesses of the human soul and warms hearts empty of hope and meaning. Jung writes:

“My friends, it is wise to nourish the soul, otherwise you will breed dragons and devils in your heart.”

Carl Jung, The Red Book

The flame which the Hermit holds could represent the quintessential spirit inherent in all life – that central core of meaning which is the elusive fifth element transcending the four elements of mundane reality. He offers us that inward light whose golden flame alone dispels spiritual chaos and darkness. His lamp seems an apt symbol for the individual insight of the mystic, the possibility of individual illumination as a universal human potential.

If the traveler is open to the old man’s message, he will follow his example by beginning to discover and nurture his own inner spark as the Hermit has done. If he is ready to observe and listen, the Wise Old Man can help him find a lamp of his own.

This old man no longer needs to consider what lies behind; he has assimilated the experiences of the past. Neither does he need to scan distant horizons, seeking out future potentials. His insight pierces through our arbitrary divisions of space and time to reveal the meaningful pattern of the eternal now. Like the figure of Merlin, who has both knowledge of the past and of the future, this wise man too possesses the magic power to master the riddle of time. The fullness of being that is the pleroma, the place where past, present and future exist simultaneously.

The Hermit’s mastery of time is further evidenced by the fact that in the 15^th century tarot deck Visconti-Sforza, the Hermit is called Father Time, and does not hold a lamp, but rather an hourglass. Another interesting version is the Tabula Mundi deck, where the hermit is descending a stone stairway into the depths, into the unconscious. Behind him stands the three-headed dog, Cerberus, who guards the gates of the Underworld, which can also be seen in the hermit card of Aleister Crowley’s Thoth deck. The Hermit is able to access the treasures of his unconscious and bring it back into the light of consciousness.

The Hermit and The Madman Archetype

Diogenes Searching for an Honest Man – J. H. W. Tischbein

The Hermit archetype can also be seen as somewhat of a madman. Nietzsche evokes the figure of a madman who runs into the marketplace with a lit lantern in the bright morning hours, shouting that he is looking for God, while the crowd laugh at him. The madman mournfully declares, “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” In a similar fashion, Diogenes the Cynic would walk around in the marketplace in full daylight with a lamp. When asked what he was doing, he would answer, “I am looking for a man.” Most people weren’t even worthy of the category “human”, for that demands virtue. The people who walk around worrying about money, power, and social conventions are the real “madmen”. Diogenes, who rejected all social conventions in favour of a simple life in conformity with nature, is the only reasonable human being in sight. Plato is supposed to have said of Diogenes that he was a “Socrates gone mad.”

In the parable of the cave, Plato depicts prisoners chained to a wall inside a cave, who are only able to see the shadow forms of objects being carried around, and mistake them for reality. When one of them is set free and leaves the cave, his eyes slowly adjust to the light until he can look at the people, animals, water, trees, stars, and eventually, the sun itself, which fills him with awe. Immediately, he returns to the cave to tell others, stumbling around in the darkness. When he reaches the prisoners and speaks of the wondrous things outside the cave, they call him a madman, and would kill him or anyone who attempted to drag them out.

The figure of Merlin was inspired by the bard Myrddin Wyllt (Myrddin the Wild) in Welsh legend. He is said to have gone mad after a particularly bloody battle and retreated in the woods. Featuring the wildman-in-the-woods motif, Myrddin became a half-savage living on the fringe of civilisation possessing great power and wisdom. Similarly, Merlin withdraws into the forest because he has gone mad and lives like a wild animal. When he is brought back into the world of men, his madness breaks out anew, unable to bear the superficial concerns of men. So, he remains in the forest and devotes himself to his astronomical observations, exploring the stars and singing about future happenings. It was only later that he became known as the counsellor of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, who set forth on the quest for the Holy Grail.

The madman can be seen as a doomsayer, or someone who brings gifts of enlightenment, but he is almost always misunderstood by others.

Facing Death in Old Age

The integration of the Sage archetype is, generally speaking, the task of the second half of life. When we are young, we have to learn to live; and when we are old, we have to learn to die. Death is psychologically as important as birth. Jung tells us that when we are threatened with complete death, the unconscious apparently disregards it, life behaves as if it were going on. This is merely a psychological fact. So, it is better for old people to live on, to look forward to the next day, as if one had to spend centuries, and look forward to the great adventure that lies ahead, then one lives according to nature, and one lives right into one’s death. When one is afraid of death and looks backwards, then one becomes petrified and dies before one’s time.

The Forgotten Art of Solitude

In a time when loneliness is rampant, when a person can be surrounded by a group of people and feel even more alienated than being alone, the Wise Old Man comes to teach us the forgotten art of solitude, the voluntary withdrawal from society and the ability to make a smooth transition back into the world again when it is time to return. Those who have neglected their inner self to the extent that they exist solely in relation to others, have failed to listen to this inner voice. Their self-identity relies exclusively on others, so they lose themselves in the crowd. There comes a time, however, when one is forced to turn inwards, when one realises that one must accept the lonely path to self-realisation, in order to attain peace. The misalignment between one’s outer world and one’s inner world is frequently the cause of a midlife crisis.

After a long time, the hermit may become enlightened and transform into a Sage, and feel that he has a responsibility to share his wisdom with others. In Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the prophet Zarathustra leaves his home at the age of thirty and goes into the mountains, where he enjoys his spirit and solitude and for ten years he does not tire of it. But at last, a change comes over his heart, and one morning he steps before the sun, and speaks to it thus:

“You great star, what would your happiness be had you not those for whom you shine. For ten years you have climbed to my cave: you would have tired of your light and of the journey had it not been for me and my eagle and my serpent. But we waited for you every morning, took your overflow from you, and blessed you for it. Behold, I am weary of my wisdom, like a bee that has gathered too much honey; I need hands outstretched to receive it. I would give away and distribute, until the wise among men find joy again in their folly, and the poor in their riches. For that I must descend to the depths, as you do in the evening when you go behind the sea and still bring light to the underworld, you overrich star. Like you, I must go under—go down, as is said by man, to whom I want to descend. So bless me then you quiet eye that can look even upon all-too-great happiness without envy! Bless the cup that wants to overflow, that the water may flow from it golden and carry everywhere the reflection of your delight. Behold, this cup wants to become empty again, and Zarathustra wants to become man again. Thus began Zarathustra’s down-going.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Zarathustra’s solitude was very fruitful, but there comes a moment when he grows weary of his wisdom. Solitude, then, seems only to be a temporary matter. Thus, he begins his descent into mankind. Upon reaching the marketplace with his gifts and teachings, he is met with indifference and laughter. Zarathustra grows sad and says, “They do not understand me: I am not the mouth for these ears.”

Nietzsche, who spent his later period in life almost in complete solitude, was acutely aware of his psychological isolation, and joked to one of his correspondents that he was the “hermit of Sils-Maria”, a cool place in Switzerland where he spent his summers at. He also stated, “I am solitude become man”. Nietzsche was a solitary wanderer, a “free spirit” in the wilderness, who would spend most of his time writing, and despite his frequent ailments, he would take long walks that could last several hours. In fact, he stated that no thoughts are worth anything, unless they are conceived of while walking. Solitude is a return to oneself, the breathing of fresh air. Nietzsche writes:

“When I am among the many I live as the many do, and I do not think as I really think; after a time it always seems as though they want to banish me from myself and rob me of my soul and I grow angry with everybody and fear everybody. I then require the desert, so as to grow good again.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, Daybreak, §491

While solitude is essential in order to know oneself, loneliness can be destructive. Introspective solitude is compatible with life in community, but it is also necessary to retreat into complete solitude once in a while, in order to receive its fruits.

Depression is the cry of the soul for growth. We all need to make many round trips to “the desert” at various points in our lives, in order to replenish our souls. That is why it is essential to have a spiritual hermitage one can go to.

The Sage’s Journey: The Search for Truth

The call of the Sage’s journey begins with confusion, doubt, and a deep desire to find the truth. The first problem we usually encounter in our quest for truth is disillusionment. We find that each individual has their own truth, which can be as good as anyone else’s, as long as one is virtuous. There are truths, but no absolute truth. How do we then choose what is objectively true? We will inevitably struggle with the problem of commitment in the context of relativism, the absence of objective truth.

One must first start by finding a way of life that fits best for oneself. In the midst of an existential crisis, Danish theologian and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote in his journal:

“What I really want is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know, except in so far as a certain knowledge must precede every action. The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do: the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die.”

Søren Kierkegaard, Papers and Journals

For Kierkegaard, truth is subjectivity; and subjectivity is truth. One must put one’s own existence before anything else, and accept responsibility for it. There is no point in “bracketing” one’s life in favour of abstract theories about human existence, or mindlessly following any system. For what is the use of having a world view which one does not live, but only holds up to the view of others?

To find one’s truth is certainly no easy task, because where there is a path, it is probably someone else’s path. We must walk alone where the forest is darkest, and where there is no path. When we experience the dark night of the soul, our truth may shatter and we realise how futile it is to us. The truth that truly matters to us, however, does not shatter in our moment of despair, it sustains us and keeps us afloat, even though we may still rebel against it.

After finding one’s subjective truth and expressing it in the world, the Sage must align it with the truth beyond himself. Truth must necessarily go beyond our subjectivity, for it is the objective truth that grounds us in the eternal, and this is only possible if one has a relationship with God, a higher self that overwhelms one’s self, so that, paradoxically, one truly becomes oneself. In other words, one’s individual will is aligned with objective truth.

The Eternal Inner Centre

In a medieval manuscript, a king lives on the rim of a wheel, which we may call our subjective and temporal truths: money, pleasure, fame, power, etc. The king moves in a never-ending process of: “I am reigning”, “I have reigned”, “I have lost my kingdom”, and “I shall reign”. He spends all his life worrying about what he is going to lose, because of his attachment to things that are temporal. In the centre, however, is the objective and eternal truth, represented as Christ (a symbol of the Self), which stays eternally firm no matter what happens in life. This is God, an infinite sphere, the centre of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere. The Sage seeks to align himself to this infinite centre, and attain inner calm. The Self is a God-image. He who knows himself knows God. We reach God through the Self, but God is not the Self, for he is behind and above it.

The ancient Greek philosophers used the word apatheia(not to be confused with apathetic), to describe the state of wisdom and tranquillity one finds oneself in when aligned with this eternal centre. One ceases to be disturbed by one’s wild emotional fluctuations, and goes along with whatever life throws at one. Unlike the undisciplined person, the Sage is able to contemplate and be quiet without constantly being assaulted by his own defects and negative thoughts. He is at peace with life and himself, as he has accepted his flaws, and is focused on his spiritual duty. In the heart of every human being there dwells a Sage.

The highest achievement of the Sage is freedom from attachment of temporary things. This does not mean that he has to become an ascetic, but rather that he knows deep within that material concerns are of secondary importance in life, and so he does not fear losing them. The only thing he fears is the loss of his soul.

The Book of Ecclesiastes: Meaninglessness

King Solomon – Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

Ecclesiastes 1

Thus begins the Book of Ecclesiastes. The Hebrew word used is hevel (vapour), which figuratively can be translated as meaningless, vain, insubstantial, or futile. It is the story of Kohelet. He had become the king of Israel and had all the power, wealth, and pleasure one could get: all gifts from the God who loved him. Yet despite those gifts, he began to drift away from God’s commands. He experienced much knowledge and wisdom, but with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief. He realises that everything he did was meaningless, a chasing after the wind. He wrote this book at the end of his life, and concludes that all the things we pour our lives into – our projects, our hard work, our rivalries, alliances, and successes – will vanish into thin air. His wisdom is summed up in his final words:

“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

The Truth Shall Set You Free

Unlike the Magician archetype who wants to transform reality by changing consciousness, the Wise Old Man has little or no need to control or change the world; he just wants to understand it. The Sage’s path is the journey to find out the truth – about ourselves, our world, and the universe,

Perhaps the most liberating and freeing moment in life is the “moment of truth” that illuminates our lives, disperses confusion, and clarifies what must be done. As it is stated in the Gospel of John, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”

When we are on our spiritual quest, the part of us that wants to experience absolute truth directly is frequently discouraged. Various spiritual practices around the world encourage people to progress slowly. Care is taken so that unprepared minds do not crack when experiencing the ecstasy associated with the eternal truth. There’s no shortcut to enlightenment.

Conclusion

At some point, the Sage stops pursuing knowledge and gains wisdom. Wisdom is not just knowing the right thing to do, but also doing the right thing. Real wisdom does not merely cause us to know: it makes us “be” in a different way. Those who practice wisdom are excellent contemplators of nature. The Sage is content with reality as it is, and has a crystal-clear view on how to spend the remaining years of his life. He who has a why can bear almost any how. His whole life has led him to this very moment, where struggle and conflict finally turn into peace. And he delights in the beauty of the world, and the simple things in life. Whereas the average person has lost touch with the world, and does not see reality as it is, the Sage sees himself as part of a cosmic consciousness, and he experiences ecstasy, standing outside of himself, without ceasing to be himself.

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.”

William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

The Psychology of The Wise Old Man (Sage)

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The Quest for the Holy Grail (The Self)

The Holy Grail has fascinated the Western consciousness for a long time. It is a treasure that serves an important motif in Arthurian legend, which flourished from the 12^th to the 16^th century, and belongs to the so-called Matter of Britain, associated with Great Britain and the legendary King Arthur, who presided over the knights of the round table. Arthur had obtained the British throne when he removed the sword in the stone, an act that could not be performed except by “the true king.” This sword was later broken in battle, and was replaced by the magical sword Excalibur, which Arthur obtained from the mysterious Lady of the Lake.

This was one of the three great Western story cycles of medieval literature, together with the Matter of France, concerning legends of the emperor Charlemagne, and the Matter of Rome, inspired by classical mythology.

Table of contents

Introduction

Detail. The Knights of the Round Table from The Story of Lancelot. Miniature taken from The History of Lancelot

The origins of the Grail legend are uncertain, but most scholars trace them to either Celtic and Welsh myths, Christian legend surrounding the Eucharist, from Oriental tradition, or a combination of these, and other sources. The symbolism of the Grail stories stem from the most divergent sources: religious redemption, fairy tales, dreams, alchemy, and ceremonies.

The Grail is a mysterious object guarded by a king in a hidden castle. It has described as a cup, dish, or a magical stone that can provide healing powers, immortality, eternal youth, and unlimited nourishment. The latter may have been inspired by one of the four treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann (the people of the godess Danu) in Celtic mythology. It is the cauldron of plenty owned by the Celtic druid-god Dagda. It could feed an entire army without becoming empty, and everyone of good character could eat their fill from this magical cauldron, which was said to be bottomless, and from which no one left unsatisfied.

The etymology of the word “grail” is uncertain. It is usually said to derive from the Old French graal. This, in turn, comes from the Latin gradalis, a cup or platter. The word gradale means “in stages” (hence the word gradual). Moreover, this is borrowed from the ancient Greek krater, a vessel used to mix wine with water. Over time the grail came to refer to a kind of broad platter in which good food was served on in feasts (typically fish), and which was brought to the table at various stages to serve the next course on the menu.

Perceval and the Grail

Perceval arrives at the Grail Castle to be greeted by the Fisher King in an illustration for a 1330 manuscript of Perceval, the Story of the Grail.

The idea of the Grail first appears in Perceval, or the Story of the Grail, written in the late 12^th century by the French poet Chrétien de Troyes. He is the first to connect the grail to the Arthurian legend. The hero is called Perceval, Parzival or Parsifal, depending on the author. The name “Perceval” likely derives from either Old French per ce val (through this valley) or perce val (pierce the valley), bringing into mind the valley of the shadow of death mentioned in the Book of Psalms.

In the poem, Perceval of Wales has been raised by his mother in the woods alone, far away from the perils of the world. One day, Perceval encounters a group of knights, and he decides to become a knight, much to the dismay of his mother, who tried to guard him from learning about chivalry, for it had led to death of his father and brothers. Unable to prevent his destiny, his mother gives him some personal and spiritual advice. Perceval decides to venture into life and begin his search for knighthood. As he is looking for King Arthur’s court, he meets the Red Knight, who has been causing much trouble. Upon arriving to the King’s court, he is ridiculed, but when he slays the Red Knight, and takes his armour, he gains the approval of the knights, and is instructed in the ways of knighthood by his mentor, Gornemant.

Perceval meets the charming maiden Blanchefleur (white flower), and he is freed from the mother and initiated into the world of experience. He discovers his masculinity and at the same time acquires experience of a real woman. But his desire for adventure forces him to leave. He comes across a man fishing in a boat on a river, known as the Fisher King, who is tasked with guarding the Grail, but a wound on the thighs renders him lame and impotent, and his kingdom is barren. He can barely walk, so he spends his time fishing while he awaits a “chosen one” who can heal him. He invites Perceval to stay at his castle, which suddenly appears before his eyes.

In the night, a strange procession takes place. Several magnificent objects are carried from one chamber to another. A white lance from whose tip dropped blood. Then came golden candelabra, and afterwards a golden grail set with precious stones, which emits such a brilliant light that the lustre of the candles is dimmed. Finally, a silver platter is shown. With each course of the meal, the grail passes before them. Chrétien calls it a grail, and not the grail, which is an important distinction. There was no conception of a singular grail, much less being identified as a holy object. It is also given the same importance as the lance. Through all of this, the Fisher King remains alone, suffering.

Perceval, who had been trained by his mentor not to ask too many questions, for it would be foolish and unknightly, remains silent through all of this. He relies on the chivalric code of knighthood, not knowing that they failed to apply in the loftier realm of the grail. He goes to sleep, and the next morning, he finds himself alone and decides to leave. As he does so, the drawbridge is raised behind him, so that he could not go back. Perceval rides away, and is never able to find the castle again.

He finds a weeping maiden who is holding a headless dead man in her lap. In a way, this is an aspect of Perceval himself, who observed a wonder without using his head or asking about it. The maiden reproaches him because he had not asked whom one served with the grail, which would have healed the king. The truly transformative questions are those we fear we should not ask. She also tells Perceval that his mother has died of grief, which disturbs him deeply.

Perceval returns to King Arthur’s court. He is greeted joyfully, and a feast takes place. On the third day, however, a loathsome damsel, hideous to behold, admonishes him for not asking about the Grail and the Lance. The story breaks off soon after, continuing with the heroic knight Gawain, King Arthur’s closest companion, who is the exemplar of the chivalric code.

In a later short passage, Perceval is shortly spoken of again, and we find him that he has become a lost and broken man. After setting on many adventures and defeating many knights, he is unable to find any meaning or value in knighthood. He finds a hermit in a holy place, and falls on his knees, weeping. He confesses that for five years he did not know what he was doing, and had not a single thought of God. So sorely tired was he, that he wished indeed that he had died. The hermit tells Perceval that his mother’s death had caused this injury, which plagues him unconsciously. The problem is not that he left his mother, but rather that he was unconcerned about her and did not follow her spiritual advice. As such, he was unable to ask about the Lance or the Grail. Therefore, her physical death results in his spiritual death. When the soul is dead, then God is dead too, since it is only in the vessel of the soul that God’s activity becomes perceptible to us.

The holy man catechises the naïve Perceval, who ultimately follows the spiritual path. By struggling with himself, he comes to an understanding of himself. Perceval learns that the hermit is his uncle, and the Fisher King is his cousin (in other versions, he is his uncle). He also learns that the grail did not contain fish, but rather a single communion wafer which miraculously sustains and warms the life of the Fisher King’s father, who is so spiritual that he requires nothing more than this host to live.

The hermit tells him to stay with him, offer penance, fast and pray, as it is Good Friday. Thus, Perceval came to know that God was crucified, and resurrected on the third day, on Easter Sunday. He received communion with a pure heart. And here the tale says no more of Perceval.

This may have been the Grail itself, which he found within himself, through catechesis, fasting, praying, and receiving communion. Thus, he attains theosis or union with God. It would be misleading, however, not to mention that Perceval went on many misguided adventures, made wrong turns in the woods, and didn’t ask the right questions. All of these adventures are explored and given their true place. As we all know, the journey is not a straight line.

The Continuations of the Grail Legend

The Miracle of the Grail – Wilhelm Hauschild

Multiple different poets who considered the poem incomplete, created a series of continuations. After a long time of wandering, Perceval revisits the hidden Grail Castle and asks the Fisher King the ultimate question: “whom does one serve with the Grail?” Immediately, the king is healed from his sickness, and peace and happiness reigned over the land. With this, the Fisher King departs the world, and leaves Perceval behind as the keeper of the Grail. But before he leaves, he tells Perceval about Christ and imparts secret words to him, of which the author emphasises that he cannot and dare not speak.

The Welsh romance Peredur son of Efrawg, is similar to Chrétien’s version, though it contains many Celtic elements. Most strikingly, however, there is no grail, the hero is instead presented with a silver platter containing the severed head of his kinsman, who has to be avenged.

The Grail and The Philosophers’ Stone

Emblem 21 (Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens, 1617)

The knight-poet Wolfram von Eschenbach, regarded as one of the greatest poets of medieval German literature, wrote the poem Parzival in the beginning of the 13^th century, which continues the physical and spiritual search of the Grail. This version is the most esoteric and spiritual of all.

Wolfram declares that the Grail came into existence astrologically, by the heathen astronomer Flegetanis, who had discovered the hidden mystery in the constellations and then recorded it in writing. All human nature is determined by the journey of the stars. Interestingly, here the grail is described as a stone which fell from the skies, left behind on earth and guarded by the neutral angels who took neither the side of Satan nor God, during the War in Heaven. It is therefore those angels who were opposed to the rendering apart of the opposites of good and evil, and sought to maintain a state of balance, in order to keep the original unity of the God-image, who now watch over the Grail. The Grail receives its power by a wafer brought from heaven by a dove (the holy spirit), on every Good Friday.

It was around this time too, that the doctrine of transubstantiation became widespread, in which bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ during communion.

Wolfram’s Grail has strong links with the lapis philosophorum (the philosophers’ stone) in alchemy, which also contains a light-dark unity, identified with the Roman god Mercurius. This is the stone by whose power the phoenix rises in rebirth from its ashes. It contains the power to turn death into life. A well-known feature of the lapis is that it is worthless, usually thrown out on to the dunghill or trodden underfoot in the street. It is despised by fools, and cherished by the wise. In filth, it will be found.

One of the founders of alchemy, Maria Prophetissa, who lived around A.D. 200 or 300, stated that “the whole secret lies in knowing about the Hermetic vessel.” Thus, the idea of a vessel that contains the secret of all existence is a primal image, which goes back to the earliest of times and can therefore be called an archetypal conception.

In this version, Parzival wears the red knight’s armour and fights his black and white half-brother Feirefiz. Then Feirefiz realises:

“We were all one… You have fought here against yourself; against myself I rode into combat here and would gladly have killed my very self; you could not help but defend my own self in fighting me… Your strength helped us so that it prevented our deaths!”

Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival Book XV

The transformative struggle between the two, who are one, calls into mind the alchemical stages: the nigredo (blackness), the albedo (whiteness), and the rubedo (redness). The combination and unity of these stages concludes the Great Work, and the attainment of the philosophers’ stone.

From Grail to Holy Grail

Mystical Supper Icon – Simon Ushakov

The Grail became truly holy in the work of French author Robert de Boron, from which the secular world of knighthood was linked with the spiritual world of religion. Emphasis shifted from the characters and their adventures and moved to the object of the Grail itself. His most notable work is his trilogy: Joseph of Arimathea, Merlin, and Perceval.

In Joseph of Arimathea, composed in the late 12^th century, de Boron tells the story of Joseph of Arimathea, the man who took the body of Christ down from the cross. The grail is described as a simple wooden cup or bowl that Jesus had used at the Last Supper with his disciples, to initiate the first ever communion. Jesus told his disciples to remember him by sharing bread and wine, his body and blood.

When Christ’s body hung from the cross, Joseph used the grail to collect Christ’s last drops of blood, after His side was pierced by a lance, known as the Holy Lance or Lance of Longinus.

Joseph takes Christ’s body, wraps it in a fine cloth, and lays it in a sarcophagus, which he then conceals, so that nobody would be able to steal the body. After people realise this, he is thrown into a dungeon. Here, he is visited by Christ himself who hands him the vessel containing his blood, which contains the Three Powers that are One (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit). Christ teaches Joseph secret words that cannot be repeated, and the vessel maintains him in life during the forty-two years he still has to remain in captivity.

A later legend tells of Joseph travelling to the West, to Glastonbury, England, which is connected with the mystical island of Avalon in Arthurian legend, bringing with him the vessel containing the blood of Christ, which was supposedly hid at the bottom of the Chalice Well. The high iron content of the water makes it appear red, like blood. To the people in the Middle Ages, it wouldn’t have taken much of a stretch of the imagination to connect it with the blood of Christ.

This location is believed to be a mysterious and liminal place, where the spirit world meets the material world, and has become a hotspot for new age spiritual movements, whose followers believe that the Grail remains hidden there, yet to be found.

On the other hand, many claim to already possess the original grail which Jesus used at the Last Supper. Most popularly, the agate cup known as Santo Cáliz or Holy Chalice from the 1^st century AD, preserved in the Cathedral of Valencia, and the green glass dish called the Sacro Catino or Sacred Basin from the 9^th or 10^th century, kept in Genoa Cathedral.

The Grail holds blood, and so does our heart. It is the pure heart that is illumined by influences from above. And one’s heart becomes pure through piety. No one is perfect, nor should we strive to be, but the Grail distinguishes between good people and sinners, and its beneficial effects are bestowed upon the former. We must, then, do our best to move away from sin, from missing the mark. To sin is to walk on the way that is broad and leads to destruction, which many enter through. But the gateway to salvation is narrow, and few enter through it. The pure person is weightless like a feather, and can walk on the sacred and lightly built bridge. Those who cross the bridge, will experience the true, the good, and the beautiful.

Unless our hearts are pure and illumined, we are going to be crippled, just like the Fisher King, and live in a waste land, both within and without. The motif of the Waste Land is taken up by British poet T.S. Eliot, in his poem of the same name, widely considered as the greatest poem of the 20^th century. Near the end of his poem, a mysterious Fisher King figure states:

“I sat upon the shore Fishing,

with the arid plain behind me

Shall I at least set my lands in order?”

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

We are never going to fix the desolation around us, if we don’t fix the desolation within us. We are always worried about the world, but haven’t even set our own lands in order.

In an Old Irish tale, the crystal vessel of Badurn had the peculiarity that when someone spoke three lying words it divided itself into three parts, and when anyone uttered three true words the pieces united again. Through disintegration the vessel indicated that a lie was being told, and through unification it bore witness to the truth, as a way to illustrate how our soul is similarly affected by our words. He who lies deceives himself and disintegrates in the process, whereas he who tells the truth heals his soul and makes it whole.

The soul which represents the life principle, is that wondrous vessel which is the goal of the quest, whose final secret can never be revealed, but must ever remain hidden because its essence is a mystery.

Subsequent authors used the Grail as a symbol of divine grace; and a new hero is introduced in what is known as the Vulgate Cycle or the Lancelot-Grail Cycle. Galahad, son of Sir Lancelot, is the world’s greatest and holiest knight, destined to achieve the Holy Grail. Merlin, the magician, prophesised, before Galahad’s birth, that he would be successful in his search for the Holy Grail. Sir Galahad is associated with a white shield containing a vermilion cross, the same emblem given to the Knights Templar.

Thomas Malory’s The Death of Arthur was published in the 15^th century and is perhaps the best-known work of Arthurian literature. All the greatest knights attempt to draw the sword in the stone, but only Galahad can draw it, so he becomes a knight of the round table. A woman then appears to tell King Arthur and the knights that the Holy Grail will appear to them that night. Indeed, that very night, it appears to the knights, and radiates a sweet fragrance. Although it is hidden by a cloth, its bright presence makes everyone look stronger and younger. Then, it vanishes.

The story follows the adventures of several knights in the quest for the holy grail, but most of them fail, because of their secular character, which binds them to worldly matters. Galahad is accompanied by two other knights, Perceval and Bors the Younger, who go onboard a mystical ship, which sets sail by itself to an island. It is Galahad, the main hero, who finally attains the Grail, because of his piety and purity, the two other knights also witness the Grail, but are blinded by the light surrounding it. They have not yet fulfilled their spiritual task, and there is no shortcut to enlightenment. One must beware of unearned wisdom. Galahad dies, ascends to heaven, and returns to God. Perceval gives up his knighthood and becomes a monk, while Bors alone returns to Camelot to tell his tale.

These three knights of the round table were seeking for something that we all hold in common, that which makes life most meaningful, and which they would dedicate the remainder of their lives to, in order to attain spiritual fulfilment. However, not everyone can handle witnessing this mystery, as its bright light is too pure for a person to witness. No one may see the face of God and live.

Ever since then, there has never been any knight capable of obtaining the Holy Grail. For the prophecy had been fulfilled, and the Holy Grail was carried off to heaven. A fundamental ontological change has occurred in human history, something that we used to have access to, no longer becomes accessible. We have lost touch with the mystery.

The Grail quest is an idea of such an archetypal, and consequently, universally human nature, that it is interesting to see precisely how the fantasy of the different authors reacted to the same material. Thanks to this “united effort”, different aspects of the material are illuminated and a more profound and comprehensive understanding is made possible than if the poem had remained the work of a single author.

This search has fascinated the Western psyche for such a long time, that fact has almost become indistinguishable from fiction. Though the story is likely nonhistorical, it expresses such a fundamental human truth that it keeps reappearing.

The Grail legend contains many features found in myths and fairy-tales, which are perennial and timeless patterns that express fundamental concerns of the human condition. The story of young Perceval belongs to the world-wide fairy tale theme of the simpleton, in which the youngest or most foolish brother gains the “treasure hard to attain”. The man who has nothing receives everything, which is usually the result of his continuous purity, humility, and piety. Perceval is the young fool whose task of attaining the holy grail transforms into a mystical religious quest, that inevitably address the existential, psychological and religious problem of modern man.

Holy Grail: The Spirit of Western Man

King Arthur and the Knights of the round table attending the Apparition of the Holy Grail – Walter Map or Michel Gantelet

In his book Thou Art That, American author Joseph Campbell states that the Holy Grail epitomises the true spirit of Western man. It is the myth of Western civilisation. When the Grail appeared to the knights. Everyone was exalted, Gawain, rose and suggested a vow. “I propose,” he said, “that we all now set forth in quest to behold that Grail unveiled.” And so it was that they agreed. However, they thought it would be a disgrace to go forth in a group. Each entered the forest at the point that he himself had chosen, where it was darkest, and there was no way or path. Because where there is a way or path, it is someone else’s path. In other words, if we do not find our own individual path, we cannot become self-realised. For Campbell, this is what marks the Western spirit distinctly from the Eastern Oriental gurus accept responsibility for their disciples’ lives, and tell you where you are on the path, who you are, and what to do. The romantic quality of the West, on the other hand, derives from an unprecedented yearning, a yearning for something that has never yet been seen in this world. And that is your own unprecedented life fulfilled. Your life is what has yet to be brought into being. Awe is what moves us forward.

The Treasure Hard to Attain

Saint George Slaying the Dragon – Paolo Uccello

The quest for the Holy Grail is always more or less the same, it is the hero’s journey, at the end of which one obtains the “treasure hard to attain.” The hero figure is one of those eternal, archetypal images which slumber in the depths of every soul and which determine human life and destiny in unsuspected measure.

Spiritual movements such as secret orders, anthroposophy and other esoteric circles, felt that the Christian mystery was unsatisfactory and searched for another mystery. The Grail quest became the subject of meditation or of initiation into the mystery teachings of all ages. From its place of concealment, the Grail still calls seekers to the quest and knights still set out upon the way to the hidden castle, where the treasure is preserved.

Naturally the Grail Castle cannot be localised in reality, and this is certainly in accord with its essential nature and therefore in no way remarkable. Many who search for the Holy Grail have come to the conclusion that the search is fruitless. That they would never be able to find an object in this world that would fulfill the requirements of this mystery. It is not of the material world, yet it exists. It is a quest that requires an individual effort. It is the soul of man searching for the eternal soul in life. Those who have attained this are part of an internal illumination, and not an organisation.

The Eternally Alone

The way to truth is a journey of a lonely person to that which is eternally alone. It is in this state that one is forced upon oneself, bound to become aware of one’s background. It is this aloneness that is the power of the Grail. Each individual has to call entirely upon his own internal resources. One must dedicate oneself to a sacred purpose, and purify one’s own nature by a vow taken to the highest part of oneself, moving from the struggle of one’s sinful nature, to the enlightenment of one’s inner soul. This leads to tranquility, peace with reality. An acceptance of oneself and one’s flaws, of one’s place in the world, and of one’s spiritual duty.

Contemplation and quietude enable the individual to allow the best of his or her own inner life to come through. For the undisciplined person, however, relaxation ends in disorientation and misery, as he is assaulted by his own defects and negative thoughts. One has not yet conquered these hidden shadowy parts of oneself, and no rest is given until one does. The disciplined person relaxes and is quiet. He is in peace with life and himself, for he knows the inevitable problems that we all have to face in life, and which we must learn from. He understands that his greatest enemy has always been himself, and until he conquers that he can go no further. Until he does so, he will see himself as a victim of the trials and tribulations of life, which adds to the burden of his own unconscious.

The Holy Grail as the Self

Book of Urizen Object 22 – William Blake

The Holy Grail is a symbol of the Self, the psychic totality and ultimate wholeness of the human being. It is the vital force that drives us towards individuation, the process of bringing one’s unconscious contents into consciousness. If we are not trying to become whole, we are cut off from the true source of our being, and we feel empty. Encountering the Grail does not impart direct knowledge, but rather gives us an emotional readiness to receive a numinous experience of our inner centre. The Grail story is itself a projection of the Self as an inner centre, unrealised and inaccessible to most. It is the inner guide that is God’s voice, the hidden disposition to wholeness which slumbers in the depths of the unconscious of each person.

The connections between the Grail legend and alchemy are so abundant and profound that it may well be asked why Carl Jung did not include them in his researches into the psychology of alchemy. The reason was that he promised never to talk or write about the Grail, as his wife, Emma Jung, spent thirty years of her life researching the topic. However, she died before she could finish and publish her work, and Jung asked Marie-Louise von Franz, one of his greatest students, to complete his wife’s lifelong endeavour, finally published as The Grail Legend.

Balancing Light and Dark

Psychologically, the Grail story is of great interest, as it is both a fairy tale (the purest and simplest expression of collective unconscious psychic processes), interwoven with a Christian legend. This remarkable blend gives the Grail stories their peculiar character, for through these stories the “eternal” fairy tale enters, as it were, the realm of the Christian aeon, and thus reflects not only fundamental human problems but also the dramatic psychic events which form the background of Christian culture.

The problem of Christianity resides in the one-sided masculine and light side of God embodied in Christ, which created a drifting apart of the opposites of spiritual matters and worldly matters, choosing holiness instead of humanity. This had to be complemented by a feminine and dark side to represent the paradoxical wholeness of the Self. The sacred must be complemented with daily life, the spiritual with the material.

The problem of opposites and the failure to recognise and integrate the shadow (all that is within us that we do not know about) were responsible for the Fisher King’s sickness (who represented the dominant attitude or collective unconscious). Thus, he had to die or be restored and redeemed before the land could again turn fertile.

It is as if the dark aspect of divinity had attacked the king in order to awaken him to a more conscious religious attitude. If there is any one-sidedness to a pair, a conversion, or shift over to the other is likely. This is the fundamental psychological law of enantiodromia. Until we grapple with the dark divinity – like Jacob and Job who wrestled with God – the collective unconscious of mankind cannot come to a realisation of the totality of the God-image.

Emma Jung and von Franz write:

“The natural symbols of psychic wholeness, or the Self, do not fully coincide empirically with the traditional figure of Christ, since the shadow is missing in the latter or else appears split off into the contrasting figure of the Antichrist. In alchemy, on the other hand, the image of Anthropos (or of the Son of Man) was continually amplified since its earliest appearances and in the image of the lapis and of Mercurius was expanded into a paradoxical symbol of the Self in which the opposites were reconciled.”

Emma Jung and M.L. von Franz, The Grail Legend

Medieval alchemy represented an undercurrent that compensated and supplemented the deficiencies and the conflicts in Christianity. For this reason, many alchemists themselves compared the lapis to Christ, setting them up as parallels to him, and in so doing felt unconsciously that their work was a continuation of Christ’s work of redemption.

The return to Celtic myth and other ancient symbolism, as well as the apocryphal traditions of early Christianity present in the Grail legend, seek to complete the Christ-image by the addition of features which had not been taken sufficiently into account by ecclesiastical tradition. Perceval is thus not only a symbolic representation of the foolish hero, but also represents the problem of the psychological development of the Christian age, in which he appears as the archetype of the saviour. Perceval, like the alchemists, is also called to a specific work of redemption, in order to compensate the Christ-image then dominating the collective unconscious. Thus, Perceval appears as a projection of the true and total man or the divine component in man (the Self), which gradually emerges from the depth of the unconscious and releases areas of the psyche previously cut off from life.

Merlin: The Wise Old Man Archetype

The Enchanter Merlin, illustration from “The Story of King Arthur and his Knights”, 1903 – Howard Pyle

The figure of Merlin, the archetype of the Wise Old Man, plays an important role in the union of opposites as well, and has inspired a vast amount of literature. It is a case of the breakthrough of an archetypal image which represents and intensely constellated psychic content.

In Robert de Boron’s work Merlin, Christ descends into Hell and releases Adam and Eve, the devils become wrathful and try to entice men back to hell, so they send a prophet up from hell, Merlin, the child of a devil or incubus that impregnates a pure young girl. He is to be the counterpart of the Son of God, the Antichrist. However, the light side which comes from his mother ultimately makes him pledge himself to Christ. Thus, Merlin has both knowledge of the past because of his demonic nature, but also knowledge of the future, which Christ endowed him with.

Like the alchemical Mercurius, he is an embodiment of the whole man, a figure that unites Christ, the light half of the Self, with its dark half, the Antichrist, in one being.

Though Merlin’s role is crucial in the Grail legend, acting as the counsellor to King Arthur, he remains for the most part hidden in the background, giving him a mysterious quality like the Holy Grail. As the Antichrist, Merlin symbolises the Deus absconditus (the hidden God), and as such, the dark element that would complete the Trinity by expanding it into a Quaternity, thus fulfilling the saying of Maria Prophetissa, “out of the third comes the one as the fourth.”

In the story, there is a red dragon and a white dragon who fight underneath the kingdom, relating to the problem of the opposites, which is unconscious, a problem of which the people of the time were unaware of, but which they felt nonetheless. In alchemy, however, these opposites should be united, since red and white are the colours of King and Queen, Sun and Moon, who come together in the “chymical wedding”. Something is therefore separated which in nature should be united; and it is Merlin who points this out.

However, as is potrayed in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini (The Life of Merlin), the wizard withdraws into the forest, away from society, because he has gone mad. He lives like a wild animal, and when he is brought back to the world of men, his madness breaks out anew, despairing of the stupidity of men who are unable to see their unconsciousness and inner conflict. So, he remains in the forest. His sister builds him a house with seventy windows in the forest, where he can devote himself to his astronomical observations in the cold winters, exploring the stars and singing about future happenings.

In Perceval, the final part of de Boron’s trilogy, it is Merlin who tries to lead Perceval towards a new totality, and asserts that it is he who is the mysterious instigator of Perceval’s quest. Merlin is the mystery of the Grail. Eventually, he bids Perceval farewell, because it is God’s will that henceforth, he shall appear no more before men. Merlin’s seclusion portrays a mystery of the individual which cannot be realised collectively but which, pointing the way and bringing illumination, comes from time to time to the assistance of other solitary individuals. With the final disappearance of Merlin, the Grail legend comes to an end.

Conclusion

The Grail represents the fulfilment of the highest spiritual potentialities in human consciousness, which endows the world with a symbolic and spiritual meaning. This comes from nature itself. Spiritual life comes from living a natural life, the impulses of nature are what give authenticity to life, rather than a supernatural thing imposed upon us. We must, then, not only strive upwards, to the eternal, and remain there, but bring back the divine into this temporal world. As above, so below. The kingdom of heaven is within. Sometimes, the simplest things in life are the most spiritual in nature. The loftiest ideas should not distract us from our daily concerns in life, but help us to enrich our relationship with ourselves, with others, and with the world.

The Holy Grail, Merlin, the philosopher’s stone, and Christ, are all different expressions of the principle of individuation available within each person, which naturally strives towards the wholeness of the Self, whereby the opposites are reconciled and united. It is good to win; it is also good to lose. It is good to be happy; it is also good to be unhappy. It is good to have; it is also good not to have. The inner war of opposites converts into the miracle of the paradox that sustains human life.

It is the quest rather than the Holy Grail which brings the gift of ultimate enlightenment. In the end, what matters is the journey not the end. Wherever we travel, whatever we do, and whichever age we live in, this is a journey open to us all: to quest for meaning in our lives.

The Quest for the Holy Grail (The Self)

The Quest for the Holy Grail has fascinated the Western consciousness for a long time. It epitomises the true spirit of Western man and is, in many ways, the myth of Western civilisation. It is a perennial and timeless pattern that expresses fundamental concerns of the human condition.

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Artwork used in the video

Adoubement de Perceval – Tiré de queste du Graal Manuscript BNF Français 343 Queste del Saint Graal, Tristan de Léonois Folio 1v Dating 1380-1385 From Milan, Italy Holding Institution Bibliothèque Nationale

The Psychology of Fairy Tales

Fairy tales occupy a special place in our lives as early as childhood. Bedtime stories is a tradition that goes back to an ancient way of life, where people would, after a hard day of work, light up the hearth, and gather around the fire as night was approaching, when everyone had eaten and were satisfied. At this time, stories were told. There is something very earthy about this, something that contains a rich source of nutrients for our soul. The word human and humility come from the Latin word humus, which means earth. Humility is considered as the greatest virtue. Those who are exalted are humbled, and those who are humbled are exalted. The hearth was such an integral part of a home, that the concept has been used to refer to a household, as in “hearth and home”

Table of contents

Introduction

Fairy tales fascinate us and give us a sense of warmth and home-coming that comes from the mythical realm of the imagination, a necessary complement to our everyday life. We are fundamentally story-telling creatures, and there is much we can learn by reflecting on the fairy tales heard in childhood. They seem almost magical because they connect us with emotions deeply buried within that cannot find expression in outer life, because as we grow up, the world of imagination is shunned by our peers, considered as unproductive and good for nothing. We are thus led to follow a linear path of study, work, and marriage. This becomes dangerous when it is too one-sided and the archetype of eternal youth within us is repressed. Human life becomes a mechanical existence in which the magic of childhood, play, beauty, and creativity has left us, and life seems prosaic and without meaning. And when we cannot find meaning, we numb ourselves with short-term pleasures, that seem, for a moment, to fill our inner vacuum.

Fairy tales can provide us with a sense that we are not alone in our life struggles. Humans have faced these struggles in one form or another since the beginning of time, and fairy tales represent this fundamental concern of the human condition. When we read about heroes fighting dragons, it mirrors our own experience in life with our own dragons representing the trials and tribulations of life, a difficult but necessary part of our path towards our ideal self. The treasure gained is what propels us towards self-realisation. By understanding ourselves better, we can better understand others and the world around us. Each of us receives a call to adventure that we can either accept or reject. We can confront the difficulties that will gain us access to new treasures, or run away and risk falling into the abyss of anxiety, depression, and meaninglessness.

Therefore, when we are confronted by difficulties, we should not be too sure this is a negative event. We may open up hidden places in our soul and reveal secret riches. Like a farmer who is ploughing the fields, but one day his plough catches onto something and his work is interrupted. But then he discovers a secret entrance to a deep underground cave filled with treasures. After discovering the buried treasure, we have the task of integrating these deep realms of beauty into our daily lives. Trouble can interrupt our journeys for good reasons that we may not immediately grasp.

What are Fairy Tales?

Vasilisa the Beautiful at the Hut of Baba Yaga illustration – Ivan Bilibin

Characters such as the trickster wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, the talking frog in The Frog King, the wicked witch in Hansel and Gretel; Rapunzel, the long-haired maiden in the tower, or the Princess and the Pea, are likely to remain in our imagination all our lives. The adventures fairy tales describe often reflect challenges we face in our journeys. They hide a wealth of insights just below the surface, and are clearly more than mere entertainment for children. It is a great treasure to revisit stories that had an impact on us in our youth, and the characters we liked or disliked.

The term “fairy tale” was first used by French author Madame d’Aulnoy in the late 17^th century. It belongs to the folklore genre, representing mythology, folk wisdom, moral lessons, and entertainment. Fairy tales contain a liminal space, they represent both the ordinary and the sacred realms. The hero or heroine leaves the mundane world and steps into the magical world – where he or she encounters the presence of magic, treasures, talking animals or objects, and mythical beings such as fairies, dragons, dwarfs, giants, elves, mermaids, witches, etc.

The characters and motifs of fairy tales are archetypal, held by magical elements. Here we find all sorts of archetypes: the hero, the child, the shadow, the trickster, the fool, the wise old man, the maiden, the devouring mother, etc.

Fairy tales represent the transition from our conscious everyday life, to the unconscious and numinous other world, and back again to everyday life. The fairy tale can conclude with the character ending back in the ordinary world with fortune, or empty-handed with the relief of having survived and escaped from the devouring unconscious. When the fairy tale ends in the magical realm, it usually represents the tragic loss of the individual, being swallowed by the unconscious.

Let’s take, for instance, the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. Too poor to afford food, his mother tells Jack to sell their only cow. He exchanges it for some magic beans, but when he reaches his home, his mother is furious that he hadn’t sold it for money and throws the beans outside. The next day a huge beanstalk has grown. He climbs it and reaches a kingdom in the sky, where a giant and his wife live. He asks for food and the wife kindly gives him some. When the giant reaches home, he smells the blood of an Englishman and wants to kill him, but the wife tells him that there’s nobody there. Jack steals a sack of gold coins from the giant and climbs back down. He goes two more times, and steals a hen that lays golden eggs, and a magical harp that plays music by itself. Upon stealing the harp, it cries out to its master, and the giant furiously runs after Jack. But Jack quickly runs down the beanstalk, fetches an axe, and chops it down. The giant falls and dies, and Jack and his mother were now very rich and they lived happily ever after.

Colloquially, the term “fairy tale” is used when describing something with a naively happy ending or something unreal that is just a product of one’s imagination. Psychologically, however, fairy tales reflect our inner landscape, and the characters can represent aspects of our own personalities. As we develop a deeper awareness of ourselves, we often find that stories reveal new symbolism and meaning that had hitherto been concealed. Sinister or wicked characters may represent aspects of ourselves that have been neglected or rejected.

The deep dark forest is a common representation of the shadow elements within, all that is within you which you do not know about. The monsters live in the forest. The wilderness reflects parts of ourselves that are never entirely tamed, but always somewhat dangerous. This mysterious and terrifying place hides the “treasure hard to attain.” We all have to cross this dark path in our lives. Our first reaction is to wish we could avoid it. However, in hindsight, we often realise that these were enormously valuable moments that forced us to discover unknown parts of ourselves.

The Origin of Fairy Tales

The Smith and the Devil, ink drawing, 1916 – Unknown

Fairy tales occur both in oral and in literary form. In the much more ancient oral tradition, fairy tales changed a bit every time they were told, and thus many local variants emerged. It is quite remarkable that many tales survived without being written, thanks to the power of storytelling.

In literary form, the Indo-European fairy tale The Smith and the Devil is believed to go as far back as the Bronze Age. It is about a blacksmith who makes a pact with a malevolent being (later called the Devil), selling his soul for supernatural power, and then tricking the evil entity out of his prize. This reminds one of the Faustian bargain. Many of the tales we know today, such as Jack and the Beanstalk, Beauty and the Beast, and Rumpelstiltskin, have their roots in older tales that go back thousands of years.

Prior to radio and newspapers, stories formed the great interest of the population, and one can imagine how a folktale originates. Another theory of the origin of fairy tales is that they are remnants of degenerated literature.

Until the 17^th and 18^th centuries, fairy tales were – and still are in remote primitive societies – told to adults as well as to children. They used to be the chief winter-time form of entertainment in agricultural populations. Fairy tale-telling became a kind of essential, spiritual occupation. Sometimes it is said that fairy tales represent the philosophy of the spinning wheel. Their allocation to the nursery is a late development, which probably has to do with the rejection of the irrational, and development of the rational outlook. They came to be regarded as nonsense, old wives’ tales and good enough for children. It is only recent that we have rediscovered their immense psychological value.

For many people, fairy tales or dreams need not to be looked at accurately but may be distorted; since it is not ‘scientific’ material, one can just as well spin a little around it, pick what suits one and discard the rest. That same strange unreliable, unscientific, and dishonest attitude has for a long time prevailed towards fairy tales. Modern fairy tale adaptations usually omit a lot of strange or gruesome details present in the original versions.

The Brothers Grimm were the first in Germany to collect fairy tales and arouse interest in other countries to do the same. They wrote down fairy tales literally, as told by people in their surroundings, but even they could sometimes not resist mixing a few versions. They were honest enough to mention it in footnotes or letters. But they did not yet have that scientific attitude which modern folklore writers and ethnologists try to have, of taking down a story literally and leaving the holes and paradoxes in it. The collection of fairy tales which the brothers Grimm published was a tremendous success. There must have been a strong unconscious emotional interest, for in every country people began to make a basic collection of their national fairy tales. At once everybody was struck by the enormous number of recurrent themes, which came up again and again in different countries. With this began the search for the remains of an “old wisdom”.

Faërie, Fairies and Eucatastrophe

In his essay On Fairy-Stories, the English writer J.R.R. Tolkien views fairy tales as those that took place in Faërie, an enchanted realm, with or without fairies as characters. The Celts call them little people or good folk, there are, however, also evil fairies. In Irish legend, the changeling is believed to be a human-like fairy that had been left in place of a child stolen by other fairies.

One belief surrounding the origin of fairies is that during the war in heaven, the rebel angels fell to hell and the triumphant angels stayed in heaven, however, there were another group of angels who remained neutral, and so were caught in between, left to roam the earth as fairies.

Through the use of fantasy, the reader can experience a world that is consistent and rational, under rules other than those of the normal world. Fairy tales can provide moral or emotional consolation, through their happy ending. Tolkien coined the word eucatastrophe (good catastrophe) to describe a sudden turn of events in which the protagonist is saved from what seems like an inevitable doom. This sudden “turn” creates a far more powerful and poignant effect of joy in serious tales of Faërie.

Fairy Tales and Collective Unconscious

Illustration to Milton’s L’Allegro and Il Penseroso – William Blake

Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz focused much of her life in studying fairy tales, and might well be considered as the first person to discover and demonstrate the psychological wisdom of fairy tales. She writes:

“Fairy tales are the purest and simplest expression of collective unconscious psychic processes. Therefore, their value for the scientific investigation of the unconscious exceeds that of all other material. They represent archetypes in their simplest, barest, and most concise form. In this pure form, the archetypal images afford us the best clues to the understanding of the processes going on in the collective psyche. In myths or legends, or any other more elaborate mythological material, we get at the basic patterns of the human psyche through an overlay of cultural material. But in fairy tales there is much less specific conscious cultural material and therefore they mirror the basic patterns of the psyche more clearly.”

Marie-Louise von Franz, The Interpretation of Fairy Tales

Myths such as Ulysses and Hercules express the national character of the civilisation in which they originated, namely, Greece. They are often more beautiful in form than fairy tales, so that some scholars are seduced into saying that the myth is the big thing and the rest just miserable remnants. Legends, on the other hand, are unverifiable events handed down from earlier times, and believed to have been taken place in human history.

Fairy tales, however, express the creative fantasies of the rural and less educated layers of the population. They had the great advantage of being naïve, and of having been worked out in collective groups, with the result that they contain purely archetypal material unobscured by personal problems. Therefore, a fairy tale can be understood across the world, and is not limited to one’s nation. Myths are nevertheless important because they can be used to make a bridge when you do not see what the fairytale material means, for it is too remote from one’s conscious world. Both myths and fairy tales help the human imagination narrate the meaning of life’s events.

One must tell things as they are, in their true and raw form and not embellish them, only then can one access the archetypal realm.

Fairy tales mirror the most basic psychological structures of humans, and it is where one can best study the anatomy of the psyche. Therefore, it is a scientific study in which von Franz sought to understand the objective psyche or what Carl Jung calls the collective unconscious (the home of archetypes, the inherited patterns of behaviour of mankind). On the other hand, we have the subjective psyche or personal unconscious, contents of personal acquisition that have been repressed or forgotten. This is the home of complexes, emotionally charged groups of ideas or images.

Dreams mostly occur in the personal unconscious, while fairy tales represent the collective unconscious. Both, however, will constellate complexes and archetypes.

The subjective view allows you to find the personal image that is contained within your emotions, providing an outlet for unconscious conflicts. But one must go further and look beyond oneself, in order to find one’s place in the primordial images of mankind (the objective view).

The incidents in the magical realm of fairy tales are fundamentally similar to dream experiences in that the enchanted world represents the unconscious. As Jung says, “In our sleep we consult the two-million-year-old self which each of us represents.”

One of the key practices in Jungian psychology is amplification. When we run out of personal associations of the images in our unconscious – whether they are the result of dreams, art, or active imagination – fairy tales can help us to better understand their symbolic content, because they amplify the personal contents to the collective unconscious.

In the Red Book, Jung speaks to a princess during active imagination, she tells him:

“Be reasonable, dear friend, and do not stumble now over the fabulous, since the fairy tale is the great mother of the novel, and has even more universal validity than the most-avidly read novel of your time. And you know that what has been on everyone’s lips for millennia, though repeated endlessly, still comes nearest to the ultimate human truth. So do not let the fabulous come between us.”

Carl Jung, The Red Book

We should be using the wisdom of the tales to understand the problems we are facing collectively, but to stand in the collective issue and to look at the fairy tale is missing the mark. Rather, we have to look at the fairy tale, and then at contemporary issues. Though fairy tales have changed over time to adapt to society and cultural conventions, the archetypes have remained virtually the same.

The Interpretation of Fairy Tales

The Bewitched Piper – William Holmes Sullivan

von Franz tells us that approaching the meaning of a fairy tale is like stalking a very evasive stag. Just as for a dream, we divide the archetypal story into its various aspects, beginning with the first stage: exposition (time and place). They usually begin with “once upon a time”, which is timelessness and spacelessness, the nowhere of the collective unconscious. In this land of the soul, we almost always find some kind of a constructed centre: a castle, palace, four-cornered house, or a round lake with a mountain or island in the middle. The important processes take place in this centre; it is here that we touch the central problem of the fairy tale.

In the second stage, we turn to the dramatis personae (the people involved). It is recommended to count the number of people at the beginning and end. If a tale begins with “The king had three sons”, one notices that there are four characters, but the mother is lacking, one could suspect that the story is about redeeming the female principle. The third stage consists of naming the problem of the story, such as an old king who is sick. Finally, in the fourth stage, comes the peripeteia, the sudden change of events, the ups and downs and climax of the tale – which concludes in either a good or bad ending.

Just like the dream is its own best explanation, and the interpretation of the dream is always less good than the dream itself, so too the interpretation of fairy tales and myths are a darkening of the original light which shines in the material itself. This is a common critique of the Jungian interpretation. However, the method of non-interpretation is often not sufficient, for the person will be like someone with a chest full of treasures, but who has lost the key to opening it. And what is the use of that? Very often these treasures are not made use of and people’s lives are impoverished.

Interpretation, however, has to be practiced; for people tend to interpret their own dreams and myths within the framework of their conscious assumptions. The way to check if an interpretation is satisfactory is if it “clicks” with one, and to watch one’s dreams to see if they go in the same direction, or if something is lacking that must be brought into consciousness. The psychologist can help to provide an objective view, so that a person may find the key to unlock their inner treasure. But the work must finally be done by the patient himself. von Franz writes:

“I always tell students not to learn my lecture, but to try to interpret fairy tales themselves, for that is the only way to learn. Interpretation is an art, a craft actually, which finally depends on you yourself. The classes where everyone interprets the same fairy tale, is almost a confession and a Rorschach test at the same time. That cannot be avoided… for you have to put your whole being into it.”

Marie-Louise von Franz, The Interpretation of Fairy Tales

Rituals and Archetypal Stories

For von Franz, one of the most frequent ways in which archetypal stories originate is through individual experiences of an invasion by some unconscious content, either in a dream or in a waking hallucination. Here we can see how rituals from tribes can come into existence from the archetypal experience of an individual; and if the impact is strong enough, there is a need to spread the personal secret around and not keep it to oneself. It is our psychic structure which has produced these symbols. People don’t have ideas; ideas have people. The experience is considered by the shaman as a vision which belongs to the tribe, the individual was merely the message carrier.

The Most Ancient Form of Tale

The Bear and the Fox, illustration from ‘Aesop’s Fables’, published by Heinemann, 1912 – Arthur Rackham

We find many animal tales. However, although the characters are animals, they are at the same time anthropomorphic beings. From a psychological standpoint, they are symbolic animals, for the animal is the carrier of the projection of human psychic factors. In other words, they are human because they really do not represent animal instincts, but our animal instincts. For example, a tiger in a story is greedy; it is not the real tiger’s greed that is represented, but our own tigerish greed. So, it is an anthropomorphic tiger. These represent one of the most ancient and basic forms of archetypal tales. Children below a certain age prefer animal stories, because other stories with princesses and devils require too many explanations. But if you say, “The dog said to the cat,” then they listen most eagerly. So, it seems to be the basic material, the deepest and most ancient form of tale.

Individuation in Fairy Tales

Fairy tales are vital for our individuation process, where the unconscious is known and integrated into consciousness, and one becomes their own self. This is the goal of all humans in Jungian psychology. Different fairy tales give average pictures of the phases of individuation: shadow integration, anima or animus integration, dealing with the archetypal father and mother images, etc. – all are valuable, as they all point to the Self. von Franz states:

“After working for many years in this field, I have come to the conclusion that all fairy tales endeavour to describe one and the same psychic fact, but a fact so complex and far-reaching and so difficult for us to realise in all its different aspects that hundreds of tales and thousands of repetitions with a musician’s variations are needed until this unknown fact is delivered into consciousness; and even then the theme is not exhausted. This unknown fact is what Jung calls the Self, which is the psychic totality of an individual and also, paradoxically, the regulating centre of the collective unconscious. Every individual and every nation has its own modes of experiencing this psychic reality.”

Marie-Louise von Franz, The Interpretation of Fairy Tales

If one trusts and follows one’s inner voice, even if it brings one into conflict with the prevailing opinion, one lets oneself be guided by the unconscious, and the journey into the depths rewards one with unexpected riches. This is perhaps the core struggle in all fairy tales, and is represented as the “Great Journey”, the adventurous quest to find the “treasure hard to attain”.

In the following section, we will be looking at some fairy tales, the first one will include an interpretation, and the rest will be without one, so that you may reflect upon them yourself.

The Three Feathers

There was once upon a time a King who had three sons, of whom two were clever and wise, but the third did not speak much, and was called the simpleton. When the King had become old and weak, and was thinking of his end, he did not know which of his sons should inherit the kingdom after him. Then he said to them, “He who brings me the most beautiful carpet shall be King.” So, he blew three feathers in the air, and said, “You shall go as they fly.” One flew up to the east, the other to the west, but the third flew straight up and didn’t fly far, but soon fell to the ground. The brothers mocked Simpleton, who was forced to stay where he was. He sat down and was sad, but noticed that there was a trapdoor close by the feather. He raised it up, and went down the steps. There was a door and he knocked at it. He saw a great toad, with a crowd of little toads, and Simpleton asked her for a fine carpet, and he received it. He thanked her and went away. The two brothers who thought their brother was so stupid that he would bring nothing at all did not trouble themselves to search and got some handkerchiefs. When Simpleton brought the beautiful carpet back, the King was astonished and declared that the youngest will inherit the kingdom.

But the two others let their father have no peace, and said that Simpleton, who in everything lacked understanding, could not be King. So, the King made a new agreement and said, “He who brings me the most beautiful ring shall inherit the kingdom.” Again, the feathers blew in the same direction, and Simpleton went back to the fat toad, and told her he wanted a beautiful ring, which he was given. The brothers laughed at Simpleton for going to seek a golden ring, and simply brought some nails. When Simpleton brought back the ring, the father again said, “The kingdom belongs to him.” The two eldest did not cease from tormenting the King until he made a third condition, and declared that the one who brought the most beautiful woman home, should have the kingdom. Simpleton went back to the toad, but the toad answered, “She is not at hand at the moment, but still, you will have her.” She gave him a yellow turnip which had been hollowed out, to which six mice were harnessed. Then Simpleton said, “What am I to do with that?” The toad answered, “Just put one of my little toads into it.” Hardly was the toad seated in the turnip when she turned into a fair maiden, the turnip into a coach, and the six mice into horses. So, he kissed her, and drove off quickly with the horses, and took her to the King. His brothers did not trouble themselves to seek beautiful girls but brought the first peasant women they came across.

The King declared that his kingdom belongs to his youngest son. But the two eldest kept complaining to the King, and demanded that the one whose wife could leap through a ring which hung in the centre of the hall should have the preference. The peasant women, who were strong, jumped, but were so stout that they fell, and broke their arms and legs. The pretty maiden, however, sprang lightly as a deer. So, he received the crown, and has ruled wisely for a length of time.

Interpretation: The Three Feathers

We can start our interpretation of this fairy tale by noting at the beginning that the king has three sons, and the youngest is a fool. Many fairy tales start with a father and three sons, or a mother and three daughters. Often, but not always, we can relate this fourfold structure with Jung’s psychological types: thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition. If thinking is one’s dominant function, feeling is one’s inferior function.

The king must tap into his inferior function, which makes the bridge to the unconscious, gaining him access to a realm beneath the earth, where the archetype of the Great Mother resides in the form of a toad, and she helps the fool with each quest. Here, the final task is the integration of the anima, the personification of all female psychological tendencies in man, which is also the archetype of life, only then can the fool inherit the kingdom (a symbol of wholeness). As the old and rigid way of life dies, a younger, and more capable energy is brought forth into one’s life.

Rumpelstiltskin

Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that he had to go and speak to the King, and in order to make himself appear important he said to him, “I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold.” The King was pleased and told him to bring her to his palace. When the girl was brought to the King, he took her into a room with a spinning-wheel and straw, and said, “If by tomorrow morning you have not spun this straw into gold, you must die.” So, she was left alone in the room and had no idea what to do, and she grew more and more miserable, until at last she began to weep.

But all at once the door opened, and in came a little man, and inquired about her crying. The girl answered that she had to spin straw into gold, but does not know how to do it. The manikin asked what he would get in exchange if he did it for her, and she replied, “My necklace.” So, he began to work until all the straw was spun, and all the reels were full of gold.

When the King came, he was astonished and delighted, but his heart became only more greedy. He had the miller’s daughter taken into another room full of straw, which was much larger, and told her to turn it into gold if she valued her life. The girl was crying, and when the door opened, the little man appeared again. This time, the girl gave him her ring, and he spun all the straw into glittering gold.

The King came delighted but grew still even more greedy, and took her to a larger room, and if she succeeds, she shall become his wife. This time, when the manikin arrived. She had nothing to offer him, so he told her, “Then promise me, if you should become Queen, I shall have your first child.” Not knowing what else to do, she agrees. The King came in and found all as he wished, and she became Queen. A year after, she had a beautiful child, and she never gave a thought to the manikin. But suddenly he appeared, and she was horror-struck, offering the manikin all the riches of the kingdom if he would leave her child. The manikin took sympathy and gave her three days’ time to find out his name, and if she found out, she would keep her child.

So, the Queen thought the whole night of all the names that she had ever heard, and sent a messenger over the country to inquire for any other names that there might be. The first day and the second day passed, and she had not yet figured out his name. But on the third day, the messenger came back and told her that he had seen a man jumping on one leg and shouting, “Today I bake, tomorrow brew, The next I’ll have the young Queen’s child. Ha! Glad am I that no one knew, That Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.” When the little man came in, she told him his name. He cried, “the devil has told you that!”, and in his anger he plunged his right foot so deep into the earth that his whole leg went in, and then in rage he pulled at his left leg so hard with both hands that he tore himself in two.

The Frog King or Iron Henry

Frog King, fairy tale, lithograph, published 1875 (Brothers Grimm)

In old times, when it was still of some use to wish for the thing one wanted, there lived a king whose daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest was the most beautiful. On a warm day, she went into the forest and sat down by the side of the cool fountain, and to pass the time she would take a golden ball, throw it up, and catch it. The ball eventually fell into the well and she could not find it. She began to cry and a voice spoke, “What ails you, King’s daughter? You weep so that even a stone would show pity.” She looked around and saw a frog stretching forth its thick, ugly head out of the water, and she told him about the golden ball. The frog said, “I can help you, but what will I get in return for your plaything?” “Whatever you want, dear frog”, said she – “My clothes, my pearls and jewels, and even the golden crown which I am wearing.” But the frog did not care about such things, and only wanted to be her companion. She promised to give him all that he wishes, but thought, what a silly frog this was.

In a short while, the frog came with the ball in his mouth, and she was delighted and ran away with it, despite the frog’s protest to take him with her. She soon forgot about the poor frog. The next day as she was eating from her little golden plate, she heard a knock at the door. It was the frog. She slammed the door, as she was quite frightened. The King asked what troubled her, “There is a disgusting frog outside”, answered she. “What does a frog want from you?” answered the King, and she told him about her promise. The frog knocked a second time, and the King said, “That which you have promised must you perform. Go and let him in.” So, she went and opened the door, and the frog followed her. The little frog sat on her plate and they had to eat together, much to her disgust. The frog then told her to carry him in her bed, but she began to cry for she was afraid of the cold frog which she did not like to touch. The King commanded her to fulfill her promise, so she took the frog and carried him in a corner, but the frog said that he wanted to sleep in the bed, or else he will tell her father. Then she was terribly angry and threw him against the wall, upon which he transformed into a King’s son. He told her that he had been under a spell by a wicked witch.

The next morning a carriage came driving up with eight white horses, and behind stood the young King’s servant Faithful Henry, who had been so unhappy when his master was changed into a frog, that he had caused three iron bands to be laid round his heart, lest it should burst with grief. And as they drove away, the King’s son heard a cracking as if the carriage was breaking. But it was only the bands which were springing from the heart of his servant, because his master was set free and was happy.

Beauty and The Beast

A rich widowed merchant lives in a mansion with his twelve children, six sons and six daughters. The youngest of which is a girl by the name of Beauty, who is innocent and kind, in contrast to her sisters, who are cruel and selfish. The merchant eventually loses all his riches in a storm, in which most of his merchant fleet sink, and the family is forced to live in a modest cottage and work for a living. The merchant learns that one of his trade ships has survived and made it to the port and he decides to go and look for it. He asks his children if they want any gifts to be brought back, his oldest daughters ask for fine clothing and jewelry, while Beauty tells him to have a safe journey. Her father insists that he should bring her something, and she finally tells him to bring her a rose. The merchant sails away and is soon lost in a vicious storm. He reaches land and finds a castle in which nobody is home, but has a table full of food and drink, which he indulges in. The next morning, he thinks about bringing his children to the castle, but before he leaves, he picks a rose from the garden, and immediately a Beast appears and tries to kill him. He begs for his life and tells him that he only plucked the rose to give it to his youngest daughter. The Beast lets him go, but in exchange, one of his daughters must take his place.

Upset upon this realisation, the merchant is left with no choice. The Beast gives him jewels and fine clothes for his children. Upon arriving home, the merchant hands the rose to his daughter, but informs her of its terrible price. Beauty willingly decides to go to the castle. She is greeted with a great ceremony upon her arrival, and the Beast gives her all sorts of clothing and food. Every night the Beast asks Beauty to marry him, only to be refused each time. After each refusal, however, Beauty dreams of a handsome prince with whom she begins to fall in love. She does not realise that the Beast is the prince, and instead believes the prince is locked up in the castle. Beauty searches everywhere, but is unable to find him.

Eventually, she becomes homesick and tells the Beast if she can see her family again. He allows it on the condition that she return exactly two months later. However, she stays longer and envisions the Beast dying alone. She rushes to the castle and she finds him near death. Beauty realises that she loves him and fetches water from a spring to give him to drink. That night, she agrees to marry him, and when she wakes up next to him, she finds that the Beast has transformed into the prince from her dreams. He had been under a curse which could only be broken by finding true love, despite his ugliness.

Hansel and Gretel

Hansel, Gretel and the witch – Frank Adams

Down by a great forest, dwelt a poor woodcutter, and his wife and two children. The boy was called Hansel, and the girl Gretel. Once when great scarcity found the land, the parents could no longer procure daily bread. The man tells his wife, “How are we to feed our poor children?” The stepmother decides that they should abandon them in the forest or else they’ll all starve to death, though the father struggles with leaving his beloved children alone in the forest. The children, who could not sleep, because they were hungry, heard what the stepmother said. With the help of white pebbles that Hansel took along, they were able to find their way back home the next night. They were received angrily by the mother, while the father rejoiced at their return.

Not long after, the process repeated itself. This time, the children tried to save themselves with help of scattered breadcrumbs, but these were eaten by birds, so they got lost. On the third day, they saw a snow-white bird sitting on a branch and followed it, until they reached a little house made of bread, cake, and sweets. They started to eat parts of the house until they were welcomed by a very old woman. Good food was set before them. But she was in reality a wicked witch, who had built the little house to entice children there, feed them, and then eat them. The next morning the old woman locked Hansel in a small stable and Gretel had to cook food to fatten up her brother. Every morning Hansel had to put his finger through the stable so that the witch could feel if he had become fat enough to eat. But he took out a small bone, and this fooled the old woman since she had bad eyesight. She was surprised he was not getting fat. Her hunger grew and she could not wait anymore, so she ordered Gretel to crawl in the oven to check the heat, but the witch wanted to shut her in and cook her up. Gretel saw what she had in mind and said, “I do not know how to get in.” “Silly goose” said the old woman, “The door is big enough; just look, I can get in myself!” Then Gretel gave her a push that drove her far into it, shut the iron door, and fastened the bolt. And the godless witch was miserably burned to death.

Hansel and Gretel embraced each other and inside the witch’s house stood chests full of pearls and jewels, which they filled their pockets with. They finally reach their parents’ home and saw their father, who had not known one happy hour since they had left. The woman, however, was dead.

Sleeping Beauty or Briar Rose

Sleeping Beauty – The Briar Rose Series – Edward Burne Jones

In olden times there lived a king and queen who lamented day by day that they had no children, and yet they had none. One day as the queen was bathing and thinking of her wish, a frog skipped out of the water and said to her, “Your wish shall be fulfilled—before the year passes you shall have a daughter.”

As the frog had said, so it happened, and a little girl was born who was so beautiful that the king almost lost his senses, but he ordered a great feast to be held, to which he invited relatives, friends, and acquaintances, and all the wise women who are kind and affectionate to children. But as there were thirteen wise women in his dominions, and he had only twelve golden plates for them, one had to stay home.

As soon as the feast was over, the wise women presented the infant with their wonderful gifts—virtue, beauty, riches, and so on—but just as eleven had given their presents, the thirteenth old lady stepped in suddenly. She was in a tremendous passion because she had not been invited, and without greeting or looking at anybody, she exclaimed loudly, “The princess shall prick herself with a spindle on her fifteenth birthday and die!”

All were terrified, but then the twelfth fairy stepped up. Because she could not take away the evil wish, but only soften it, she said, “She shall not die, but shall fall into a sleep of a hundred years’ duration.”

The king, who naturally wished to protect his child, commanded that every spindle in the kingdom should be burned. But it happened that on the day when the princess was just fifteen years old, the king and queen were not at home, and she was left alone in the castle.

The maiden looked about in every place as she pleased and she found a door with a rusty key and opened it. An old woman sat with a spindle, spinning flax. “What thing is that which twists round so merrily?” inquired the maiden, and she took the spindle to try her hand at spinning. Scarcely had she done so when the prophecy was fulfilled, for she pricked her finger; and at that very same moment she fell back upon a bed which stood near, in a deep sleep. This sleep extended over the whole palace and every person, animal, and activity was stopped – even the wind ceased to blow.

Around the palace a thick hedge of briars began growing which every year grew higher and higher, until the castle was quite hidden from view. Then there went through the land a legend of the beautiful maiden Briar Rose, and from time-to-time princes came endeavoring to penetrate the hedge into the castle; but it was not possible, for the thorns held them as if by hands. The youths, unable to free themselves, perished miserably.

After a hundred years, when Briar Rose was to awake again, a young prince approached the hedge, and the thorns turned into flowers, which of their own accord made a way for him to pass through and again closed up behind him. He made his way to a room where Briar Rose slept, and kissed her. The whole place awoke, and activity resumed again. They married and lived happy and contented.

Conclusion

The Fairy Dance – Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach

Fairy tales allow us to view our own world from the perspective of a different world. This is not an escape from reality, but an enrichment of life. As Tolkien writes:

“It was in fairy-stories that I first divined the potency of the words, and the wonder of things, such as stone, and wood, and iron; tree and grass; house and fire; bread and wine.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories

Our world is full of magic and wonder, for those with eyes to see, and it is up to us to awaken ourselves to the true beauty of life.

“Fairy tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.”

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

The Psychology of Fairy Tales

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The Psychology of The Devil

God and the Devil, are the two fundamental patterns of human existence. The path of light: good, truth, beauty, life, heaven, and salvation, and the path of darkness: evil, deception, betrayal, rebellion, negation of life, hell, and damnation.

Table of contents

Introduction

The Devil arguing with God (15th century)

The reality of evil is a source of deep and uncanny fascination. In fact, it seems that while many of us choose good over evil, some of us cannot help but to fall into the temptation of doing evil. Nothing is easier than to denounce the evil doer. Nothing more difficult than understanding him. We must be aware of the evil within, so as not to fall prey to its effects. When we merely identify ourselves with the good and deny our capacity for evil, we inevitably project it unto other people. It takes control of us as an autonomous power, often clearly visible to others, if not to us. The Devil has a character of an autonomous personality which is greater than man’s consciousness and greater than his will.

When you point a finger to someone, three fingers point back to you. The only reality is that everyone is capable of evil, and the proper moral position is knowing evil, choosing not to do evil.

Daimon

Belief in demons occur historically throughout the world. They are typically seen as malevolent supernatural entities. The daimons of the ancient Greeks, however, are divided into good and evil categories: agathodaimōn and kakodaimōn. The former is a guardian angel or tutelary figure which mediates between men and gods, while the latter is the adversarial demon.

The daimon is a higher spirit constantly aware of its intimate connection with other human beings, with nature, and with the entire cosmos. When our inner daimon is in a state of good order, we experience eudaimonia, a state of good spirit and fulfilment. However, the kakodaimōn brings trouble and distracts us from our path towards wholeness.

Pan: The God of Panic and Pandemonium

The Devil resembles the fauns and satyrs of Greek and Roman mythology, the latter of whom were companions of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, intoxication, and festivity. On the other hand, the Greek god Pan is associated with the wilderness, goats, shepherds, fertility and music. There is a general theme of worldly pleasures in these mythical beings.

The word panic derives from Pan, who was the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious fear in herds and panic attacks in people who frequented lonely places. While in fear we know what threatens us and our perceptions become sharper to overcome the danger, in anxiety, we are threatened without knowing what steps to take to meet the dangers, and instead of becoming sharper, our perceptions generally become blurred or vague. Pandemonium (literally, “all demons”), which refers to wild uproar, confusion, and chaos, was first coined by English poet John Milton to describe the capital city of Hell in his epic poem Paradise Lost. These words have remained in our language and still best define the destructive confusion that the Devil and his minions can cause in our world and in ourselves.

Scapegoating, Projection, God-Complex

The Scapegoat (1854-1856) – William Holman Hunt

In the Bible, sheep are considered loyal followers of the Son of God, metaphorically a shepherd. Goats, on the other hand, are disobedient and difficult. Goats were used in rituals of atonement, as the bearer of the sins of the nation, and were let free to supposedly carry the evil into the wilderness. This is where the term scapegoating comes from, a psychological process in which others are singled out and take unwarranted blame for something. People use others as a scapegoat to hide their own greatest defects. This projection often happens unconsciously because of repressed shadow traits: envy, anger, guilt, lust, etc. Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung makes a profound statement:

“This is the deeper meaning of the fact that Christ as the redeemer was crucified between two thieves. These thieves in their way were also redeemers of mankind, they were the scapegoats.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol 18: The Symbolic Life

In “shadow projection”, one is tied to others in hatred; the lower classes, racial and national minorities, and other faiths are likely to become targets of repressed psychic contents. The shadow is the unknown part of ourselves, which becomes the dark side of our personality when it is ignored. None of us stands outside humanity’s black collective shadow. It is a truism of life that when negative aspects of ourselves are not recognised as belonging to us on the inside, they appear to act against us on the outside.

To be accused of something you did not do is painful, and this lie creates a wound that can fester for years. When we do something unexpected, we say, “I don’t know what the devil got into me!” The Devil is a useful scapegoat.

By contrast, in “saviour projection”, one is tied to the other person not in hatred, but in blind and uncritical adoration. Such a leader frequently develops a god complex. Leaders can turn into god-like figures because of their promises to save the nation from poverty, famine, and misery. They are the symbolic carriers of the unconscious of millions of people.

The Devil: The One Who Divides

Saturn Devouring His Son – Francisco Goya

The Devil goes by many names: Satan, Lucifer, The Great Beast, Beelzebub, The Prince of Darkness. He is the adversary, the accuser, the tempter, the deceiver, and the one who divides from God.

The Devil is incredibly wicked and evil, but also intelligent and witty – he is the father of all tricksters – that is what makes him so dangerous.

The English word “devil” derives from the Greek diábolos (“the one who divides”). Diabolic is the term in contemporary English. The Greek verb dia-bollein literally means to tear apart. The antonym to the diabolic is the “symbolic”, which comes from sym-bollein (to put together or unite). American existentialist psychologist Rollo May writes:

“The symbolic is that which draws together, ties, integrates the individual in himself and with his group; the diabolic, in contrast, is that which disintegrates and tears apart.”

Rollo May, Love and Will

When a community forms, it can be a source of brotherly love, to “love thy neighbour as thyself”. The Devil, on the other hand, scatters and produces discord. The scattering is a sign of the darker power, whether it be the division of communities, families, or culture. Hence, “divide and conquer”, or “united we stand, divided we fall”.

The Characteristics of the Diabolic

The Hell Mosaic – Coppo di Marcovaldo (13th century)

Rollo May identifies three characteristics of the diabolic which are as relevant today if not more than they were in the past: love of nudity, violence, and division.

Whereas before nudity and the aspects of the body were private and reserved for the sacred act of sexual union within marriage, now clothing is intended to call attention to the private areas of the body. The overall sexualisation of culture also ties in with this aspect, exacerbated by the ease of access technology provides to unfulfilled desires of lust. In terms of violence, the 20^th century marked some of the most devastating events in human history, and who knows what awaits us in the future. Finally, the Devil loves to divide. These divisions occur in almost every facet of our lives: race, sex, religion, politics, and economics. The demonic is an inversion of order.

The growth of the peculiarly Western view of exploitation, materialism and man’s ego as being at the centre of life, is a by-product of the diabolic. Thus, man has become alienated from himself. Perhaps most relevant to our times, the devil appears as virtual reality promising a utopia outside of physical existence, or artificial intelligence that has knowledge far superior than humanity, engineered to become humanity’s saviour, and yet without consciousness has no empathy.

This division not only occurs externally, but internally too, as split personality. When Jesus spoke to the Gerasene demoniac and asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion: for we are many.” A legion meant three to six thousand soldiers. The possessed man, having been overwhelmed by unconscious forces, no longer has an ego which functions as an anchor to reality, resulting in schizophrenia.

Deals with the Devil

Illustration of Goethe’s Faust – Franz Xavier Simm

Making a deal with the devil is a universal theme which appears many times in works of popular culture. Sometimes the deal is done at a crossroads, which symbolically represents liminality, a place “neither here nor there”, where two realms touch: the physical and the spiritual.

The deal frequently begins with a mortal desiring some worldly good such as youth, love, knowledge, wealth, fame or power, but in exchange, he must sell his soul to the devil. This is exemplified in the German legend of Faust, based on the elusive figure of Johann Georg Faust, a German alchemist, astrologer and magician. After the Devil serves him with his magic powers for a number of set years, the term of the contract ends, and the Devil carries him off to Hell. In early tales, Dr. Faust is irrevocably damned because he prefers human knowledge and material gain over divine or spiritual knowledge. This is known as the Faustian bargain.

In Goethe’s Faust, one of the greatest works of German literature, Faust is a scholar who becomes depressed because of the uselessness of human knowledge, and turns to magic for discovering the ultimate truth. However, his attempts fail. Frustrated, he no longer wants to live. In his desperate moment, a dog appears, which transforms to the Devil’s servant, Mephistopheles. He tells Faust that he will become his servant on Earth and show him the pleasures of life. At first Faust refuses. Then Mephistopheles makes a wager: if he should ever experience a moment of ultimate bliss on Earth so that he would beg for that moment to continue, he would instantly die and serve the Devil in Hell. Faust, who believes he cannot lose his bet, because he will never be satisfied, and thus never experience the “great moment”, accepts the deal and a blood pact is made.

Ultimately, Faust experiences a moment of bliss and dies. However, as Mephistopheles is about to claim his soul, Faust is saved by God’s grace. Though he was never satisfied and dies before he could realise his vision of a kingdom of heaven on earth, Faust learns to find happiness in progress, not just accomplishment. He never gave into lust or idleness, but was focused on justice, prosperity, love, and the improvement of the lives of his people. This constant striving ultimately saves his soul.

Interestingly, this wouldn’t have been possible without the Devil’s attempts to have Faust live a wicked and sinful life. The Devil’s persistence to tempt Faust, and Faust’s unwillingness to give in, leads to his spiritual enlightenment and salvation.

As the Austrian poet Rilke wrote in one of his letters after withdrawing from psychotherapy:

“If my devils are to leave me, I am afraid my angels will take flight as well.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters from the years 1907-14

We cannot have one without the other. We have both an angel, representing conscience, and a devil, representing temptation.

Our inner devils resemble our shadow, which retains contact with the lost depths of the soul, with life and vitality, and provides hints for self-realisation. As the saying goes, a man that casts no shadow is the devil himself. In the 1814 novella Peter Schlemihl, the protagonist sells his shadow to the devil for a magical bottomless purse full of gold, however, he finds out that without his shadow, he is shunned by others.

Italian violinist Giuseppe Tartini had a dream in which the devil appeared to him and asked to be his servant and teacher. Tartini gave him his violin to see if he could play, and the music was so wonderful that he had never conceived it in his boldest flights of fantasy. He felt enraptured, transported, enchanted: his breath failed him, and he awoke. Immediately, he grasped his violin in order to retain, in part at least, the impression of his dream. It was all in vain. Despite having said that the music he composed is indeed the best that he ever wrote, which he named the “Devil’s Trill”, it was so inferior to what he had heard, that if he could have subsisted on other means, he would have broken his violin and abandoned music forever.

Archetypes, Ego-Inflation, and Delusion

The devil is an archetype (a collectively inherited pattern of behaviour), and like all archetypes, fascinates us because of its numinosity. Identifying ourselves with an archetype can lead to our psychic destruction, causing ego-inflation, in which our sense of identity is excessively amplified, creating delusion and megalomania, and an overall self-destructive path. Archetypes are primitive and serve a realm close to the instincts, they are not necessarily concerned with ethical human values. It is as much the ego’s duty to bring a sense of moral responsibility to the archetypal images of the unconscious, as it is for us to tend to the welfare of our fellow humans in the outside world. The key is not identification but integration. Jung writes:

“The images of the unconscious place a great responsibility upon a man. Failure to understand them, or a shirking of ethical responsibility, deprives him of his wholeness and imposes a painful fragmentariness on his life.”

Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections

The Fall from Paradise (Felix Culpa)

Adam and Eve Driven out of Eden – Gustave Doré

In Christianity, the voice of temptation appears at the very beginning of time, represented as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, which was later equated with the Devil. The serpent’s role was to tempt Adam and Eve, the first humans, to eat of the fruit of the tree that God prohibited, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because it would open their eyes to reality and they would become like gods. The most dangerous lies contain half-truths. The serpent promises good things, and purposefully avoids speaking about the evil that will befall them.

Thus, Eve plucks the fruit, eats it, and gives some to Adam. They immediately become ashamed of their nakedness and experience guilt and anxiety. The sin of pride, to become like God, appears as the first act of disobedience, leading to the original sin of mankind, and the fall from Paradise.

In a similar myth, the Greek god Prometheus steals the fire from heaven for the benefit of mankind and is punished by the gods. Myths are not mere stories or superstition, but perennial patterns that express the human condition. Psychologically, we can view these two myths as the development of consciousness in the human being, which is always followed by feelings of transgression, guilt and punishment.

We are born integrated, in a state of original wholeness (paradise), and as we grow up, become self-aware and acquire the ego, we experience disintegration or the fall from paradise. We go from living under the comforting and nourishing circle of the mother, to having to leave the nest of comfort. If we do not throw ourselves into the fire of life, we cannot become reintegrated and regain our relationship with our natural state of being. Since wholeness only has meaning when we reunite our fragmented self, this event is also described as felix culpa (fortunate fall or happy fault). Without a fall, we cannot experience redemption. Disintegration represents the necessary condition for all self-realisation.

Before delving deeper into the psychology of the devil, we must first explore the different meanings behind the names Lucifer, and Satan.

The Devil and Christ as Lucifer (Morning Star)

Paradise Lost Illustration 12 – Gustave Doré

Lucifer (the light-bringer) is the Latin name for the morning appearances of planet Venus (the morning star), visible before sunrise. The planet also appears as the evening star, visible after sunset, depending on the phase of its orbit around the Sun.

In Roman folklore, the morning star was personified as a male figure bearing a torch. Stars were then regarded as living celestial beings. In myth, the morning star is interpreted as a heavenly being striving for the highest seat of heaven only to be cast down to the underworld. The morning star, one of the brightest objects in the sky, is filled with pride. After its brief declaration of victory, it is humbled and vanishes from sight when the all-powerful sun rises and floods everything in its light.

The first reference to the morning star as an individual occurs in the Book of Isaiah:

“How have you fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God”… But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.”

Isaiah 14:12

Though this passage actually refers to the condemnation of an evil king of Babylon, it has been interpreted as an allegory of Satan’s fall from heaven. Considering pride as the major sin, “to love oneself more than others and God”, Lucifer became synonymous with the Devil.

Pride was not only what caused the fall of man from Paradise, but also what caused the Devil and his angels to rebel against God and be thrown out of heaven. This is described in the apocalyptic Book of Revelation, where a past war occurs in heaven between angels led by the Archangel Michael against the rebel angels led by “the dragon”, or the Devil:

“Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”

Revelation 12:7-10

It wasn’t just a few angels who were on the side of the Devil, but a third of them who refused to unite their free will with the will of God, so they descended into hell as fallen angels. The sorrows of the Prince of Darkness are as immeasurable as eternity itself. Shut out of heaven, to hear all through the unending aeons the far-off voices of angels whom once he knew and loved, and to be a wanderer among deserts of darkness.

Confusion arises when Jesus is also described as the morning star in the Book of Revelation. However, he is described as the bright morning star. In other words, the Devil’s light is a poor imitation of the real light of the world, and while both were called morning star, only one of them represents authentic light. It is no coincidence that the Devil disguises himself as an angel of light, for he is a deceiver.

Satan (The Adversary) and Job

Satan Before the Throne of God – William Blake

The Devil is also given the name “Satan”, which means adversary or accuser. He is the one who sets a stone in your path where you least want it, and blames you for your failure.

In the Book of Job, God’s most faithful servant, Job, is a righteous man who honours God, and has been blessed with health, family, and wealth. In Heaven, God asks Satan about his opinion of Job’s piety. Satan says that his servant is only faithful to him because he has been blessed with prosperity, but if he would have everything valuable taken away from him, he would surely suffer and curse God. Thus, Satan is given permission by God to test Job’s faith.

“Satan is the destructive doubt within God’s personality; yet it has a mysterious existential necessity for God and man and their relation to each other.”

R.S. Kluger, Satan in the Old Testament

Messengers come to tell Job that his animals, servants and children have been killed. Devastated, Job falls down to the ground and cries, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Job remains strong in his faith. This time, Satan afflicts Job’s whole body with boils. As he lies down in excruciating pain, his wife tells him to “curse God, and die.” But Job remains strong in his faith. Three of his friends come to him, weep, and sit down with him for seven days, and none spoke a word, for Job’s grief was very great.

After this, Job opens his mouth and curses the day he was born, and longs for the death that does not come. His friends cannot comprehend how a just God would punish an innocent and pious man. They think that his suffering must be well-deserved and accuse him of committing sin. Knowing his conscience was clear, Job grew weary of their accusations and calls them “miserable comforters”.

Job moves from his pious attitude to berating God for his disproportionate and unjustified wrath. The wicked have power over the meek, and God does nothing to punish them. God answers Job’s cry and appears in a whirlwind. He describes the complexity of the world he has created. Carrying out justice in a world full of evil is complicated, and not black or white like Job and the friends seem to think. Just as there is order in the world, there is also chaos as seen in the two creatures of Behemoth and Leviathan which God points to. We live in a world that is not designed to prevent suffering. Job trusts God’s wisdom despite his suffering. Finally, God honours Job’s struggle and honesty and his family and fortune is restored. He becomes the archetypal faithful servant of God.

The Book of Job, in comparison with the story of Paradise, represents a significant advance in God’s self-consciousness. Adam and Eve are expelled from God’s presence as if their knowledge of good and evil were an offense against the creator. In Job one begins to realise that this knowledge is fruitful when free will is combined with the infinite wisdom of God’s divine will. It is also interesting that in Job Satan acts in agreement with God, not behind his back like the serpent in Paradise.

Out of this astonishing self-reflection induced in God by Job’s stubborn righteousness, God develops empathy and love, and out of it a new relationship between God and humankind is born. God is pushed into a process of transformation that leads to His incarnation as Jesus Christ.

The Ultimate Tragic Story

The Crucifixion Behold Thy Mother – William Blake

The crucifixion and death of Christ is the ultimate tragic story, where the worst of all punishments is inflicted upon the one who least deserved it. The answer to Job is given in the supreme moment of Christ’s despairing cry from the Cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” God experiences what it means to be a mortal man and what he made his faithful servant Job suffer. When Jesus died on the cross, the devil celebrated his victory. But, in reality, it was the moment of his defeat. For he did not foresee the resurrection of Christ three days later.

The Harrowing of Hell

Christ’s Descent into Limbo – Andrea Mantegna (c. 1470)

The period between the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ is known as the Harrowing of Hell, where Christ descended into the underworld and brought salvation to the souls held captive there. Dante’s Divine Comedy, which portrays a midlife crisis in which we must descend to hell, is timed to parallel Jesus’ harrowing expedition. Jung writes:

“Therefore, after his death Christ had to journey to Hell, otherwise the ascent to Heaven would have become impossible for him. Christ first had to become his Antichrist, his underworldly brother.”

Carl Jung, The Red Book

Everyone’s story on the path to self-knowledge and spiritual awakening starts by descending into Hell. The formula of a journey to the dark domain of death in search of wisdom is universal.

Satanism: Evil Disguised as Good

Just as an open wound that is left unattended slowly infects the whole body, so too is sin like an open wound in the spirit, through which the demonic can get in and influence your mind. When someone tells God to get out of his or her life, it allows for the perfect opportunity to invite the devil, who will try to console the person and present himself as one’s ally. Satanism is evil disguised as good. The demonic is hidden in secret.

God tells us to be careful of going down the path of destruction, and stands in front of us blocking the way. It seems that he is not on our side, because we are not free, and cannot do what we want to do. The Devil, on the other hand, appears to be on our side, and whispers to our ear: “just do what makes you happy, life is too short”, “times have changed, we live in a new world with new rules”, “everyone else is doing it, why shouldn’t you?”, “you obey no one, and you are the God of yourself.” This is how the Devil talks, and when we experience ego-inflation, he smiles because it is only a matter of time till we join his kingdom of darkness. Pride comes before a fall. Satan thinks he is equal to God. Reality is revolved around him and it is his visions that matter above all, leading him to rebel against everyone who disagrees. Pride is the origin of all evil.

Before we sin, God seems to be the accuser, and the Devil our defender. However, after we sin, the roles are reversed, God becomes the defender, and the Devil the accuser.

God is not a tyrant who says, “Do this or you’ll be punished”, but rather, “Do this because it will do you good.”

The Psychological Activities of The Demonic

St. Francis Borgia Helping a Dying Impenitent – Francisco de Goya

The diabolic can be invited indirectly as a result of a person’s actions; actions that lead to an increased susceptibility to demonic influence. This is especially terrifying when one is unconscious of it. More rarely, people engage in demonic subjection, voluntarily submitting to the Devil, as is typical of cults or deals with the devil. Every pattern of sin is accepted and taken in, leading to contempt of others and the world.

While there are cases of extraordinary activities of the demonic which can happen in very direct and frightening ways, such as demonic infestation (the presence of evil in a location, animal or object), demon vexation (physical attacks by a demon), and demon possession (when the demon takes complete control of a person’s body), we’ll be focusing on the psychological activities of the demonic. The line between demonic behaviour and mental health issues is blurry, and one has nothing to lose by visiting both a psychologist and priest, for they are complementary to healing our soul and strengthening our spirit.

Temptation is the ordinary activity of the devil. It is a real thing for us in each and every day. The gate that leads to destruction is broad and many enter through it. But the gateway to peace is narrow, and none may enter save through affliction of the soul. The devil looks for cracks in one’s “spiritual armour” to try to enter in, the strength of which depends on what Aristotle called the “golden mean”, the point between a deficiency and an excess of a trait, such as confidence between self-deprecation and vanity.

Temptation begins with deception, buying into the lies of the devil, who promises good, only to deliver evil. The goal of this is to create division or inner conflict in ourselves, paralysing our capacity to choose and causing us to spiral downward. In despair, we look for a substitute in life and numb ourselves with pleasure or diversion, which can lead to addiction. Hell is that state of mind which has abandoned itself so completely to a given sin that it cannot act independently of that sin.

By way of illustration, note the difference between the person who drinks, who even chooses to get drunk occasionally, and the alcoholic who has lost the power to choose, who cannot decide not to drink and who cannot decide to do anything but drink. What starts out as something “small” that one thought one had control of, becomes a problem that takes complete control of one’s life. When one is trapped in this state, it leads to obsessive behaviour, irrational thoughts, rumination, and self-blame. One falls into the vicious cycle of vice. What was believed to be the source of one’s freedom, becomes one’s prison.

The Devil tells us that the party is over, and now we must suffer the consequences of our actions, and he fills us with despair. Frequently this creates oppression, a negative influence on loved ones and friends, leading to further alienation, and discouragement. When one loses everything that was valuable in one’s life, it leads to a loss of any sense of meaning, direction, or purpose in life. This is unbearable and people lose all desire to live.

“I don’t exist, the thoughts you are having is just you”, so speaks the Devil. Sometimes all we need is a helping hand that pulls us out of the quicksand. The Devil tempts us in what he thinks are areas of weakness in our lives, and while he cannot read our thoughts like an all-powerful God, he is an excellent observer. Therefore, if you are going to outwit the devil, it’s terribly important that you don’t give him any advance notice. In fairy tales, it is the fool that often outwits the devil, usually unintentionally, because he possesses a purity of heart that cannot be corrupted.

When the Devil identifies our weaknesses, we can also use this to our advantage, for we will know what to focus on.

Carl Jung on the Devil (Shadow)

For Jung, one way the devil can be represented is as a neurosis. He writes:

“[The Devil] describes the grotesque and sinister side of the unconscious; for we have never really come to grips with it and consequently it has remained in its original savage state. Probably no one today would still be rash enough to assert that the European is a lamblike creature and not possessed by a devil. The frightful records of our age are plain for all to see, and they surpass in hideousness everything that any previous age, with its feeble instruments, could have hoped to accomplish.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 16: Practice of Psychotherapy

The Devil is the diabolical aspect of every psychic function that has broken loose from the hierarchy of the total psyche and now enjoys independence and absolute power. As such, our inner devils can be equated with the autonomous shadow. This rejection of the shadow occurs in childhood, where our animal instincts are usually punished by social institutions and conventional standards of behaviour (the superego). As we grow up, we suppress much of what we do or think about since it is deemed unacceptable. This leads to repression: our unacceptable traits return to the unconscious layer of personality, where it remains as the shadow. When it occasionally breaks through the barrier of repression, the shadow manifests itself in pathological ways.

By denying our dark side, we neglect half of our existence as human beings. In mythology, the shadow appears personified in a figure of the same sex, as our “dark brother” who accompanies and clings to his “light” counterpart: Cain and Abel, Set and Osiris, Mephisto and Faust, and Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll.

Jungian analyst Erich Neumann writes:

“By accepting evil, modern man accepts the world and himself in the dangerous double nature which belongs to them both. This self-affirmation is to be understood in the deepest sense as an affirmation of our human totality, which embraces the unconscious as well as the conscious mind and whose centre is not the ego (which is only the centre of consciousness), nor yet the so-called super-ego, but the Self.”

Erich Neumann, Depth Psychology and a New Ethic

The Devil in The Major Arcana

An 1856 depiction of the Sabbatic Goat from Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie by Éliphas Lévi

In Tarot, The Devil is one of the twenty-two Major Arcana cards, and has a different symbolism compared to the Christian’s view of the Devil as pure evil. The imagery is derived in part from Eliphas Levi’s famous illustration of Baphomet, supposedly worshipped by the Knights Templar. It is a hermaphroditic figure who also has goat horns, bat wings, and the talons of a predatory bird. Two fingers on the right hand point up and two on the left-hand point down, symbolising the alchemical maxim, “as above, so below.” Its arms bear the Latin words solve and coagula, to separate and to reunite. Jung writes:

“[S]uch an attempt as the union of opposites appears to the Christian mentality as something devilish, something evil which is not allowed, something belonging to black magic.”

Carl Jung, Visions Seminar

The One-Sided Western Image of God

Benediction of God the Father by Luca Cambiaso, c. 1565

In Jungian psychology, the role that the devil plays points to the one-sided Western image of God. In the West, the paradoxical behaviour and moral ambivalence of the gods of classical antiquity were not tolerated. In classical Judaism, Yahweh possesses both light and darkness. Good and evil are not separated from one another but are interrelated aspects of his numinosity.

“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”

Isaiah 45:7

In later times, the morally ambiguous Yahweh became a wholly good God, with no particle of evil in his nature. Christianity amputated God’s left hand, relegating Satan to the nether regions, thus leaving a wholly beneficent God to reign supreme in heaven.

Everything changes with Christ’s incarnation, God ceases to be ambiguous, and now becomes manifest in the form of man who is conscious and therefore has to discriminate between good and evil. Christ wanted to change Yahweh into a moral God of goodness, but in so doing he tore apart the opposites that were united in him. Thus, the first thing Christ did was to sever himself from his shadow and call it “devil”. The Devil became psychologically inevitable in that he is the personification of Christ’s split-off dark side. Unlike Christ, the Devil was created, not begotten. However, though Christ is the embodiment of the good, there still remain traces of his original moral ambivalence, as he states, “I bring not peace but the sword.” In fact, the Book of Revelation may have been written to provide a contrast to Christ’s gospel of love.

The devil can be regarded as God’s dissatisfaction with himself, a projection of his own doubt acting as a constant reminder of the flaw in creation, and thus a constant urge towards conscious realisation and thereby towards greater wholeness. We must be careful, however, to not anthropomorphise God as a being, because he is being itself.

The Devil is a necessary figure in life, not only because he allows us to distinguish good from evil, heaven from hell, virtue from sin, but also to make human action and freedom possible. Had God not allowed the Devil the freedom to rebel, there would be no ego-consciousness, no civilisation, and no opportunity to transcend the ego through self-realisation. Humans would have been little more than machines and everything would have remained One forever.

Summum Bonum: The Highest Good

Saint Augustine – Philippe de Champaigne

The reason for the absence of the shadow is the doctrine of the summum bonum (the highest good); for the Christian, neither God nor Christ could be a paradox, both had to have a single meaning. God creates man in his own image; thus, man must be fundamentally good, but through his free will can choose otherwise. This one-sided perfection, however, demands a psychic complement to restore the balance, or else man will be hopelessly split into two irreconcilable halves.

Privatio Boni: The Absence of Good

Good vs Evil Painting – Анатолий Емельянов

The concept of privatio boni (the absence of good) states that evil is simply the absence or lack of good, and therefore everything that exists is good. This idea tormented Jung and became the focus of much of his correspondence with various Christian clergymen, notably with Father Victor White. For Jung, good and evil are locked in an eternal duel for supremacy. Thus, if one believes in one God, He must contain the two within Himself. White could not accept this and stated: “God is light; in Him there is no darkness.”

Deus Absconditus: The Hidden Dark Side of God

This conflict led Jung to write Answer to Job, which he referred to as “pure poison”, because of its controversial nature. In this work, he explores the shadow or dark side of God, Satan, who is to become the Antichrist, as a necessary compensation to the light side of God embodied in Christ. This is the deus absconditus, the hidden god that lies in the darkness of our Western unconscious.

The intermediary of Christ and The Antichrist as motivating forces is the Holy Spirit, a process whose psychological equivalent is the individuation of mankind, the journey towards becoming the Self, which constitutes our true nature and the wholeness of our personality.

The dark side is the missing fourth element of the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit). The Trinitarian symbolism lacks the feminine, the material, and hence the dark substance of the flesh and the devil. Jung believed that the trinity should be supplanted by a quaternity, a common symbol for the Self.

The Apocalypse (Revelation) and Enantiodromia

In Revelation, the Devil is locked into a hole without a bottom for a thousand years. After this he must be free for a while. As it is written:

“When the thousand years are finished, Satan will be free to leave his prison. He will go out and fool the nations who are over all the world.”

Revelation 20:7-8

We can find a parallel in Norse mythology, with the trickster God Loki, eventually punished and bound by the gods. A serpent hangs above Loki, and drips venom onto him, which makes him writhe in agony, making the whole world shake and bringing about the earthquakes that preceded Ragnarök, the end of the world and the destruction of the gods. But why must the figure of the Devil be freed? Jung writes:

“The coming of the Antichrist is not just a prophetic prediction – it is an invariable psychological law whose existence… brought him [John, author of the Book of Revelation] a sure knowledge of the impending enantiodromia.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol.9.2: Aion

If there is any one-sidedness to a pair, a conversion, or shift over to the other is likely. This is the fundamental psychological law of enantiodromia (a running towards the opposite), which Jung discovered from Heraclitus.

Life itself is a contest of opposites: birth and death, health and sickness, good and evil. Soo too is our conscious attitude balanced by its unconscious opposite, in an attempt to restore psychic wholeness. When the conscious mind has severed its unity with the unconscious, enantiodromia will take place. Polarity and opposition are universal laws, and no growth and development of human personality is possible without consideration of them. As Willam Blake writes:

“Without contraries is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human experience. From these contraries spring what the religious call Good and Evil.”

William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

One can master this polarity only be freeing oneself from them by contemplating both, and so reaching a middle position. To be at the border between yin and yang. Only there is one no longer at the mercy of the opposites. And for this one must be aware of the duality of one’s nature. Whatever leads to wholeness is good; whatever leads to splitting is evil. Integration is good, disintegration is evil.

Sometimes the holiest of people, commit the most heinous of acts – because they split themselves from necessary evil. The persecution of unbelievers and heretics, the burning on the stake, tortures, crusades – are all partly the result of the one-sided conscious attitude of purity and goodness, which causes shadow projection.

Jung writes of the compensatory role of the psyche in John, the author of Revelation, who strove to lead a pure, holy, and saintly life:

“The “revelation” was experienced by an early Christian who, as a leading light of the community, presumably had to live an exemplary life and demonstrate to his flock the Christian virtues of true faith, humility, patience, devotion, selfless love, and denial of all worldly desires. In the long run this can become too much, even for the most religious… I have seen many compensating dreams of believing Christians… but I have seen nothing that remotely resembles the brutal impact with which the opposites collide in John’s visions, except in the case of severe psychosis. However, John gives us no grounds for such a diagnosis… Like Job, he saw the fierce and terrible side of Yahweh. For this reason, he felt his gospel of love to be one-sided, and he supplemented it with his gospel of fear… God has a terrible double aspect: a sea of grace is met by a seething lake of fire… That is the “eternal”, as distinct from the temporal, gospel: one can love God, but one must fear him.”

Carl Jung, C.W. 11: Psychology and Religion

Conclusion

We must beware of thinking of good and evil as absolute opposites. They are halves of a paradoxical whole. When we realise this, we can turn inner conflict into inner peace. We experience reality as it is, and allow ourselves to be united with our whole Self.

However, the complete realisation of our potential is an unattainable ideal and is rarely if ever reached by anyone, except by a Christ or a Buddha, which are embodiments of the Self. But then, ideals are only signposts, never the goal. There is no psychic wholeness without imperfection. Only gods make something perfect. It is much better to know that one is not perfect, then one can feel truly at home. Nevertheless, the image of perfection is so ingrained in our culture that we feel guilty when we can’t achieve it.

By definition, we are all sinners. Like Faust, we must learn to find happiness in progress, and learn to live with sin (not in sin), doing our best to live a virtuous life. As we have seen, the Devil plays a crucial role in this. He is not just an abstract figure, but represents a real and serious psychological phenomenon, whose temptations can lead to meaninglessness or can act as that fearful power which drives us towards individuation. Without Satan as the God-opposing will, there would have been no creation and no work of salvation.

We must, however, not give the Devil more credit than he is due. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. The second greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he is the good guy.

The Psychology of The Devil

The Devil goes by many names: Satan, Lucifer, The Great Beast, Beelzebub, The Prince of Darkness. He is the adversary, the accuser, the tempter, the deceiver, and the one who divides from God. The Devil is incredibly wicked and evil, but also intelligent and witty – he is the father of all tricksters – that is what makes him so dangerous.

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The Psychology of The Fool

The fool is one of the most relatable, intriguing and recurring figures in the world. There have been fools who have caused surprise and laughter since time immemorial. We worship folly by seeing it in people and in the world and by willingly displaying it in ourselves. It is one of the timeless archetypes, which we all inherit at birth.

Table of contents

Introduction

Death and The Fool c. 1500 – Mary Evans Picture Library

Many of us suffer from the absence of the fool in our lives. Frenetic and upright, we take ourselves too seriously, trying so hard to conform to a world which promotes workaholism, efficiency, and productivity that we might as well be cogs in a machine. As William Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Forgetting that playfulness is a basic human need, we wonder why we so easily become bored and exhausted, losing all capacity for spontaneity, authenticity, and passion.

The antidote to this would be to give the fool archetype some space in our lives. To be in balance, and not become excessively foolish and irresponsible, we need to develop the archetype of the sage, who despite being wise, recognises the limits of his knowledge, and can laugh at himself every now and then. Archetypes are not part of a mechanical system, but pieces of life itself – images that are integrally connected to the living individual by the bridge of the emotions.

The character of the fool is complex, and various characteristics have been attributed to the fool: that he is dull-witted, inarticulate, unable to conform to the conventional standards of behaviour; and that he has a natural simplicity and innocence of heart.

The derivation of the word “fool” is the Latin “follis”, meaning a pair of bellows expelling empty air; extended to people, it implies an empty-headed person, with insubstantial thoughts. At the same time, bellows furnish the oxygen needed for combustion in much the same way that the fool “fires us up”.

In Praise of Folly

Cover of a 1728 French edition, L’Éloge de la Folie – Erasmus

In 1511, the Dutch scholar Erasmus published In Praise of Folly,which became hugely popular and is a profoundly penetrating examination of the fool in Western literature. Folly introduces herself, and since nobody ever praises Folly, she begins by praising herself, arguing that life would be dull without her.

Folly criticises everyone, and Erasmus’ close friends warned him of the possible dangers of attacking the church. However, even religious figures found the work amusing.

Friendship and marriage contain a certain amount of folly, because we tend to overlook the defects of our friends and loved ones, and consider them “small vices” in comparison to other people. Intellectuals are foolish in their pursuit of knowledge, spending years going to the library, doing research, thinking that what they are doing is tremendously important, so that a few other intellectuals over of a century will read their book and think very highly of it.

Folly compares philosophers to theatre critics who unmask the characters onstage and ruin the actors’ performance. They are boring and annoying. Philosophers don’t seem to understand how the illusions that help make life bearable are useful even if they distort reality.

The fool seems to be infinitely freer and happier than those who are burdened by wisdom. They are the life of the party. Fools always speak the truth because they lack the wisdom to craft lies and seek to manipulate others.

In essence, there is nothing that can make life happier than the joy that accompanies laughter and play. Folly is not merely universal, but necessary and even desirable to humanity, to be a person is nothing other than to play the fool, and to acknowledge this very fact is the highest form of wisdom.

The Wise Fool

The fool represents a nostalgic return to a simpler way of life, a wisdom that comes not from the mind but from the heart. Sometimes the down-to-earth and simpleminded, in their purity of heart, can penetrate to profounder truths than those encumbered with learning and convention, in the same way we sometimes sense a more resonant truth in popular proverbs than in rational exposition. Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky writes:

“The wisest of all, in my opinion, is he who can, if only once a month, call himself a fool — a faculty unheard of nowadays.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Bobok

In literature, wise characters sometimes depict insanity and madmen express wisdom. The oxymoron, “wise fool”, is a literal paradox where the character who is identified as a fool comes to be regarded as the beholder of wisdom. People sometimes accuse wise people of insanity in order to “conceal” their unwanted wisdom either fearing the harsh words on many controversial topics or simply to punish them for speaking boldly.

The archetypal wise fool is Socrates. Not only was his educational method based on exposing the folly of the supposedly wise, but he himself claimed that his own wisdom was derived from an awareness of his ignorance. Knowledge of ignorance is itself a kind of knowledge. As Shakespeare writes:

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”

William Shakespeare, As You Like It

The Fool as Truth-Teller

There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. When there’s an uncomfortable truth that needs to be spoken, and those in power are afraid to speak about it, it is usually the fool who steps in. There is something heroic about this. It is the fool who speaks a truth nobody else dares to utter, and this brings instant relief, because people know it has to be said.

Generally speaking, we can distinguish between two types of fools: the natural fool, who lacks social awareness and occasionally utters the truth being unaware of social conventions, and the professional fool, whose job it is to make harsh truths more palatable by disguising them with humour and wit. One follows his heart, the other his mind. The greatest fools are often times cleverer than the people who laugh at them.

The fool is fearless in speaking the truth. In fact, the great secret of the successful fool is that he is no fool at all. As the great English visionary artist William Blake writes:

“If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.”

William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Fool, Clown and Trickster

The fool, the clown, and the trickster share similar traits. They are sources of humour, inevitably eliciting laughter, serving as catalysts for comic catharsis. However, they also express a duality: folly and non-folly, order and disorder. What may seem like a joke, can in fact be a warning. Danish theologian and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard writes:

“A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that’s just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it’s a joke.”

Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or

Professional fools can bring a sense of awareness to what is going on in the world, and where we are headed. Many of them, however, come from a place of tragedy. The contradictory association between comedy and mental disorders (such as depression and anxiety) is known as the sad clown paradox, where comedy can act as a defence mechanism to remove supressed feelings of rage and aggression.

People may respond with laughter at the clown, yet harbour feelings of pity, fear or repulsion – evoking ambivalent reactions. Some people, in fact, suffer from coulrophobia – the overwhelming fear of clowns. In this day and age, clowns are a constant source of horror in books and movies. Perhaps this is because the modern clown’s role is always the same: to entertain others by being the subject of laughter, and he is not always successful at it. The clown has to sacrifice his well-being by always having to put on the same face, and play the same character. This one-sidedness can take its toll mentally, and the clown slowly becomes enveloped by his shadow, the dark side of his personality. The evil clown archetype is best portrayed in The Joker, one of the most recognisable villain characters in popular culture.

In medieval theatre, clowns would not only make spectators laugh, but sometimes also snatch them off with them into a Hellmouth, the entrance of hell envisaged as the gaping mouth of a monster, which scared the audiences. Thus, their light and dark sides were balanced.

The fool and the trickster have a few psychological differences as well. Generally speaking, the fool is presented as an innocent or naïve figure, who wouldn’t hurt a fly, while the trickster is intentionally deceptive, and seeks to trick others and laugh at them. The trickster loves engaging in what the Germans call schadenfreude (literally “harm-joy”), in which one obtains pleasure from learning or witnessing the misfortunes, failures, or humiliation of another person. A trickster may console others when they fail, and hide that internally he feels joy.

When there is an opportunity to play a trick on another person, the trickster immediately seizes the opportunity. The fool, however, is not interested in laughing at a person, but rather laughing with the person, or laugh at himself. To laugh at oneself helps to break the ice, because it not only removes one’s own persona, but also the audience’s social mask, allowing for genuine behaviour. This courageous feat throws one in a vulnerable state, which allows others to open up and receive a message more profoundly,

While the fool likes to entertain others, and is usually the butt of a joke, the trickster, on the other hand, seeks primarily to entertain himself, even if it is at the expense of others.

The fool is able to have a sense of humour even in difficult situations, which radiates hope in others. In a tense atmosphere, the person who is hurt takes the risk to make a joke, even if it means making a fool of himself, not just to set himself at ease, but also to bring relief to others. When a person acts like a fool through some kind of outward action, it is immediately apparent to the audience. With the trickster, it is more ambiguous, he plays like a fool in order for people to fall into his trap. The trickster tricks others who never expect to be tricked.

The Medieval Court Jester

A jester shown with a marotte in a 1540 woodcut – Heinrich Vogtherr the Younger

In medieval times, the court jester’s job was to entertain the aristocracy in a wide variety of ways: music, storytelling, satire, comedy, or juggling and acrobatics. It was believed that keeping a fool in the premises warded off the evil eye. This is no antiquated superstition; it represents a psychological truth of enduring value. It is usually a good idea to place the fool out front where we can keep an eye on him. We must make room for the renegade factor in ourselves and admit him to our inner court, where he can bring us fresh ideas and new energy. Without the fool’s blunt observations and playfulness, our inner landscape might become a sterile wasteland.

During the Middle Ages, the Feast of Fools would be celebrated by the lower clergy on New Year’s Day. To ensure society against unexpected uprisings of latent destructive urges, all conventions were temporarily suspended. The natural order of things was turned upside down, sacred rituals were parodied in obscene fashion, church authorities were ridiculed, and all underdogs were allowed to give vent to year-long repressions of hostility, lust and rebellion. These blasphemous celebrations were eventually driven underground by the church.

The fool also had an important role in the royal court and was given permission by the king to speak the truth. Both an insider and outsider, the fool occupied a peculiar place at court as the one person able to ridicule the very person he served, in humour only, of course! Anyone who dares to challenge others, or the status quo, is considered a fool by those who are too afraid to be speak out, and would never risk their reputation by being authentic.

To make his special privileges known, the fool imitated the king’s crown and sceptre with a cap ‘n’ bells and a bauble, or fool’s sceptre. In the manner of a ventriloquist’s doll, the miniature head of the bauble could say things that the jester might not want to say himself.

Because of their close relation to the king, jesters were free from punishment and allowed to speak without fear. Nevertheless, some of them went too far, and were beheaded.

Fools represent values which are rejected by the group, because they oppose social norms and rules. They are seen as incompetent, frequently ostracised for their rebelliousness, and are thus social misfits. However, every group must have such a figure, because they are agents of change, and the liveliness of culture require that there be space for figures whose function is to uncover and disrupt the very things that cultures are based on.

Court jesters usually had some sort of physical deformity. They came from poor families and were financial burdens, but because of their unusual bodies, they were used as natural fools to create amusement. Deformities were looked upon as a special mark of the Lord; so, dwarfs, hunchbacks, and the like, were often chosen to be fools in royal houses. Dwarfs were particularly valued and resided in many royal courts, being frequently delivered as gifts to fellow royal members. They stood next to the king, who would then appear much larger, enhancing his powerful position.

These maimed ones proved to be human beings of unusual depth and wisdom. Excluded by their physical handicaps from the activities and interests of the average person, through their loneliness and suffering these people were forced to discover resources within themselves.

The Shakespearean Fool

A Fool in the Service of the Devil and a Virtuous Man – Hans Schäufelein (German, ca. 1480–ca. 1540)

In Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear, the king’s relationship with the fool is one of friendship and dependency. When the king is left with his knights, he is a terribly lonely figure and keeps asking where the fool is. The king wants the fool to accompany him everywhere, acting as his alter ego. The fool can be expected to reverse relationships between those dominant and those subservient, as he is placed in the paradoxical position of virtual outlawry combined with utter dependence on the support of the social group to which he belongs. Shakespearean fools, just like the fools and jesters of the time, use their wits to outdo people of higher social standing, but their characteristics are exaggerated for theatrical effect.

Parsifal: The Quest for The Holy Grail

The Miracle of the Grail, from the Lohengrin Saga, Salon – Wilhelm Hauschild

The myth of Parsifal, an old Arthurian legend, describes the journey that a boy must undertake to become a man. He is known as Parsifal (young fool) and lives alone with his mother. After seeing knights pass by him, he is marvelled and decides to leave his mother in order to become a knight himself, and goes through many trials that initiate him into manhood.

In the story, the Grail Castle is in serious trouble, The Fisher King, the king of the castle, has been wounded. His wounds are so severe that he cannot live, yet he is incapable of dying. He is rendered infertile and his kingdom is barren. This expresses how the psychological wound manifests itself in problems in the external world.

Every adolescent receives his Fisher King wound. It is the graduation from naïve consciousness into self-consciousness. It is painful to watch an adolescent grow up and realise that the world is not just joy and happiness. However, his first contact with a wound, is what later will be redemption in life.

Every night there is a solemn ceremony in the Grail Castle. One of the maidens holds the Holy Grail, filled with wine, and each person that drinks from it is granted their deepest wish. The Fisher King, however, does not participate and is suffering alone. No further outward effort is possible, if our inward capacity is wounded. It is perhaps the deepest form of suffering, to be right in front of beauty, happiness, and holiness, but unable to partake in any of it.

The court fool had prophesised long ago that the Fisher King would be healed when an innocent fool arrived in the court and asked a specific question.

One day, Parsifal finds a man in a boat fishing on a lake; it was the Fisher King. He asked if there was any place to stay the night, to which the Fisher King gave him the directions to the Grail Castle.

Parsifal attends the ceremony, but the Fisher King is groaning in agony alone. The young fool, who refused to remove the homespun garment made by his mother, remembers her advice not to ask too many questions (symbolising a mother complex). He forgets what he was taught by the Godfather figure who trained him, and does not talk to the Fisher King. The following day, he leaves the castle. As he turns around, the castle was nowhere to be seen.

It took Parsifal 20 long and painful years to find the Grail Castle again. The original myth ends here. The inner castle is always there, but appears invisible to our eyes, unless we see the world with new eyes.

Many of the continued stories say that after Parsifal revisited the Grail Castle, he asked the Fisher King, “whom does the Grail serve?”. Immediately, he was healed, and peace and happiness reigned over the land. The Grail is the centre of meaning in human life, and the meaning of life is to serve the Grail or higher self.

Jungian analyst Robert A. Johnson writes:

“A man must consent to look to a foolish, innocent, adolescent part of himself for his cure. The inner fool is the only one who can touch his Fisher King wound.”

Robert A. Johnson, He: Understanding Masculine Psychology

Don Quixote

In Don Quixote, which is often considered as the first modern novel, Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes portrays a man who is driven “mad” after reading many books of chivalry. He decides to become a knight-errant under the name of Don Quixote. He rides on his weak horse, and goes on to defend the innocent, and defeat the wicked, only to do exactly the opposite. All this he does in the name of a peasant woman, whom he idealises as a princess, but remains unseen in the novel.

The term quixotic refers to a person who is apt to be deluded, unable to distinguish reality from imagination, and pursues lofty and romantic ideals that are impractical. In a famous scene, the hero has an imaginary fight with windmills, which he believes are giants. This is the origin of the idiom “tilting at windmills”, attacking imaginary enemies.

Don Quixote recruits Sancho Panza as his sidekick and squire, a down-to-earth peasant who is puzzled by his master’s grandiose fantasies, but being promised great wealth, follows him riding a donkey. Sancho’s realism contrasts to his master’s idealism.

Don Quixote’s good intentions, however, end up doing harm to those he meets, since he is largely unable to see the world as it really is. He is not only seen as a fool, but a complete madman. Despite his insanity, he is witty and at times, seemingly sane; so long as he avoids the topic of chivalry. This may be a warning that even the most intelligent people can fall victim to their own foolishness.

At the end, Don Quixote becomes sick and falls asleep, and later awakes from a dream, awakening from his madness too. He realises that he has wasted his life, and is just crazy. The atmosphere of the novel turns from comedy to tragedy, and the people who looked at him with scorn, can’t help but feel pity for him. They insist that he is wrong and that he really is a knight. What was before viewed as insanity is now considered sanity. After his life-giving illusions are dissipated, he dies. He dies from an overdose of reality. This brings in the question: is it better to know the truth and be unhappy, or live in a fool’s paradise?

Dostoevsky’s The Idiot

In his novel, The Idiot, Dostoevsky explores this question to some extent. He portrays the ideal man, “a positively beautiful individual” in a morally corrupted and decayed world. The protagonist, Prince Myshkin, returns to Russia after spending time in a Swiss sanatorium receiving treatment for epilepsy and “idiocy” (until the 20^th century an actual medical term for neurological disorders). Starting with the train ride to St. Petersburg he is thrown headfirst into the corruptness of society. The character appears different from other virtuous fools in fiction by emphasising innocence rather than comicality. Dostoevsky writes:

“First of all, this prince is an idiot, and, secondly, he is a fool – knows nothing of the world, and has no place in it.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

Myshkin’s open-heartedness, innocence and lack of social experience, is an instrument of satire, standing in sharp contrast to the corrupted, cold, money-hungry, manipulative and egocentric society he finds himself in. The prince is frank, open, and unable to hide his true feelings behind a persona in order to impress others. He says what is on his mind, regardless of the social setting. This leads people to call him an “idiot”, even though he has deep insights about human nature and what it means to be a true Christian.

The antithesis of Myshkin is Ippolít, a young atheist and nihilist in the final stages of tuberculosis and near death. He loses his will to live and rebels against society, nature, and God, and famously states:

“It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool’s paradise.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

Prince Myshkin, on the other hand, does not understand why someone would choose to be unhappy. Instead of philosophising, the prince spends a considerable time with sinners, serving as their moral and spiritual guide. It is the small acts of kindness that truly matter in the world. Redemption is a key theme in the novel, to save the soul from the state of sinfulness through humility, and compassion. In the most popular line of the book, Dostoevsky writes:

“The prince assures us that beauty will save the world!”

Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

The Fool as Hero

The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm 1916 – Publisher New York Doubleday, New York Public Library

In many fairy tales we see three brothers, the youngest being a simpleton whom everybody laughs at; but it is always this fool who becomes the hero in the story. He is the foolhardy brother who rushes in where angels fear to tread – and by doing so wins the hand of the princess and her kingdom. The fool seems to possess magical powers, and has Lady Luck on his side. His spontaneous approach to life combines wisdom, madness, and folly. When he mixes these ingredients in the right proportions, the results are miraculous, but when there is one-sidedness, everything can end up in a sticky mess.

Ivan The Fool

One of the most beloved figures in Russian folklore is Ivan the Fool. The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy wrote a story titled Ivan the Fool, alluding to this figure. In the story, Ivan is the youngest and third son in a peasant family. He is taken advantage of because of his naivety, kindness, and capacity to easily forgive others, even at his own expense. His brothers are tempted by money and military power; however, Ivan lives a simple way of life. He lives in a farm, taking care of his old father and mute sister, and works in the fields. When the two brothers run out of money, they insist on getting their share of their father’s wealth. The father objects, because it is Ivan and his sister who have helped him. Ivan, however, agrees to his brother’s demands.

The Old Devil, seeing Ivan’s generosity and lack of conflict between the brothers, sends a little devil to each brother to start a feud. The two devils succeed in tempting the two brothers with greed and power, and they get into trouble. Ivan, who is stricken with illness by the devil, only works harder and overcomes all obstacles. The three little devils get together in order to defeat Ivan, but they all fail. As Ivan finds each devil one by one, they beg for their life and tell him that they’ll grant him any wish if he spares their life. And so, Ivan is granted a wish and innocently utters, “God bless you”, which makes them vanish. He can make gold out of leaves and soldiers out of straw, and decides to give the gold coins to the village peasants and conjure up soldiers to sing and dance.

Finally, the Old Devil loses his patience and goes to Ivan, but is also defeated. While Ivan relies on his heart and believes in legends and mythical beliefs, the brothers focus on their minds and practicality. Ivan ends up marrying the Czar’s daughter. The man who has nothing receives everything. The fool becomes the hero.

The Fool’s Journey (Tarot)

The Fool from the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck

In Tarot, the fool is commonly depicted as a man holding a white rose symbolising innocence and purity, and a small bundle of possessions in the other. He is willing to sacrifice everything for the trip. He walks merrily looking up at the sky, living in a fool’s paradise, absorbed in all the great adventures that await him, at his heels, a dog tries to draw his attention, because he is about to fall off a cliff.

Tarot derives from the 15^th century Italian illustrated playing cards known as trionfi, inspired by theatrical festivals and used for entertainment. They were later called tarocchi from which tarot is derived, and whose root – taroch – translates to “foolishness”. Therefore, Tarot is also called the Fool’s Journey. In the 18^th century, the occult practice of cartomancy started to rise to prominence, and mystics referred to the seventy-eight cards as “arcana”. The first twenty-two being the Major Arcana, and the remaining fifty-six the Minor Arcana.

The fool has the number zero, and in most decks is the first of the twenty-two Major Arcana cards, the last of which is The World. In the last card there is a large laurel wreath symbolising wholeness, in which the fool (who is androgynous) becomes the cosmic dancer and the Anima Mundi (World Soul). However, just as the journey towards wholeness ends, it begins anew, for it is a lifelong process.

The fool is both the beginning and the end of the journey. He is heroic because he jumps off the place of comfort into the place of the unknown. The Fool’s Journey is similar to the monomyth of the Hero’s Journey, in which the hero has a call to adventure and must leave the safety and comfort of the Ordinary World and enter into the unknown and difficult territory of the Special World. Here he must defeat his dragon (worst fear, event, person or memory long avoided), and gather the gold, the “treasure hard to attain”. The journey is a psychological and spiritual death and rebirth, in which an old aspect of oneself dies, giving birth to a new and more capable self. Finally, the hero must return to his people in the Ordinary World and share the gift acquired in the Special World with others, something with the power to heal, whether it is wisdom, love, or simply the experience of surviving the Special World.

The fool is a wanderer, energetic, ubiquitous and immortal. He is the most powerful of all the Tarot trumps. The fool is always in a process of becoming, and is considered as the initiation into the great mystery of life and the Major Arcana can be viewed as pictures representing the typical experiences encountered along the age-old path to self-realisation, or what Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist Carl Jung called individuation.

Tarot cards can be used for amplification, a Jungian method which allows one to clarify obscure dreams, visions, drawings, or other fantasy material by “turning up the volume” of the images, through the comparative study of mythology, religion, alchemy, fairy tales, and art.

The Number Zero in The Fool

It is appropriate that the fool has the number zero. The power of zero is inherent in its circular form which is symbolised by infinity. The ancient Egyptian symbol of the ouroboros or tail-devourer represents the concept of endless return and eternity, associated with the maxim, “One is All, and All is One.” It is the pleroma, the fullness of being where past, present and future exist simultaneously. As many sages have pointed out, “God is an infinite sphere, the centre of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere.”

A circle with a dot at its centre is the universal sign for the sun, source of all warmth, light, and power. This hieroglyph also stands for the World Egg, from whose fertile centre all creation arose and continues to arise, and is related to Paradise, that blissful state of unconscious nature which humanity experienced before falling into the reality of consciousness. It is the primeval womb where we all lived once upon a time outside space and time. The nostalgia we feel for our childhood reflects this great longing to be contained once more in the perfect circle, the original state of wholeness, where the union of opposites is attained.

In Jungian psychology, the dot is the ego, the centre of consciousness, and the circle is the Self, the centre of the entire psyche, which embraces both consciousness and the unconscious. Jung writes:

“It is not I who create myself, rather I happen to myself.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 11: Psychology and Religion

Symbolic Transformations of The Fool in Tarot

The imagery of the fool, who lives on today in our playing cards disguised as the Joker, has gone through many symbolic transformations, alternating between beggar, madman, and fool.

The Visconti-Sforza Tarot which date from the 15^th century, are believed to be the oldest surviving cards, though no complete deck has survived. Here, the fool is depicted as a beggar or vagabond wearing ragged clothes and stockings without shoes, he carries a stick and has feathers in his hair, which may relate to the notion of the wild man. In the Sola Busca Tarot created by an unknown artist in the late 15^th century, the fool has a feathered headdress and plays a bagpipe, while in the German Hofämterspiel of the 15^th century, the fool (Narr) also plays a bagpipe, but is barefooted, wears a robe and bells on his hood, reminiscent of the court jester.

In the Mantegna Tarocchi from the same century, the fool is portrayed as a semi-naked old man leaning on a staff, with the word “misero” (beggar) inscribed. In this card, we see an animal trying to grab his attention. The fool is in such close contact with his instinctual side that he does not need to look where he is going in the literal sense; his animal nature guides his steps. In an old French Tarot card, the fool appears blindfolded, further emphasising his ability to act by insight rather than eyesight, using intuitive wisdom instead of conventional logic. In an old Swiss card, the fool has a full jester outfit and holds a wand.

In subsequent card decks, such as in the Tarot of Marseilles popular during the 17^th and 18^thcenturies, the fool wears a jester hat, carries a bundle of belongings on a stick over his back, and is chased by an animal who has torn his pants, or is happily following a butterfly. Finally, we have the popular image of the fool who is about to fall off a cliff used in the Rider-Waite Tarot deck published in 1909 by the Rider Company, illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith and based on the instructions of British poet and mystic Arthur Edward Waite, both of whom were members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Symbolic Transformations of The Fool in Tarot – Eternalised

The Fool: Precursor to Transformation

The Wisdom of Fools – Workshop of Hendrik Goltzius after Karel van Mander I (Dutch, 17th century)

Psychologically, the archetype of the fool is the precursor to transformation, representing a new beginning. Nothing would start without the fool.

“Inventors and geniuses have almost always been looked on as no better than fools at the beginning of their career, and very frequently at the end of it also.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

Shoshin is a Zen Buddhist concept meaning beginner’s mind, which is opposed to closed-mindedness and thinking oneself as an expert. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s, there are few. Open mindedness can lead to the cultivation of silence, which provides the necessary space for the mysterious experience of the numinous. If you can’t listen to what someone next to you is saying, you are not going to hear the voice of silence. The potential of our five senses is vast, but they are limited by our lack of their refinement.

Jung writes:

“The soul demands your folly; not your wisdom.”

Carl Jung, The Red Book

To embark on a journey of self-discovery is traditionally considered foolish. We are supposed to follow a linear path: education, work, marriage, and so on. When a person deviates from this path, he is seen as a fool whose adventures will amount to nothing but poverty and misery.

The first step is usually the hardest and the most important. As the Chinese proverb goes, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” The fool thinks of all the wonderful adventures that lie ahead, and is less worried about making mistakes. He thinks on his feet, is energetic, and urges us to live life to the fullest, while the person who thinks too much is over-cautious and remains stagnant.

It is the fear of uncertainty that scares many of us, to the point of paralysis. In order not to suffer from anticipation, we’d rather experience failure and sacrifice success. This state of rumination and overthinking creates anxiety, and one suffers more in imagination than in reality. Failure, however, can open new doors that one never imagined or expected to be open. What we think of abstractly as absolute failure may in fact lead to unimaginable success. As the alchemists say, “in filth it will be found.” What you need most is to be found where you least wish to look.

The fool usually has no idea what he is getting into by starting a new journey, and does not see all the trials he has to overcome, which may have prevented him from going on a journey in the first place. The fool lives in the moment, and sees reality as it is. He is not afraid of change and exploring unknown and new territory, despite being told of its dangers. No matter how many times he stumbles, the fool keeps going. No great person has ever not committed a mistake. In the end, it is the journey that matters, not the end.

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.”

T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

The Dark Side of The Fool

While the fool has many positive aspects, he can also be so stubborn that he does not take a moment to step back and reflect, to look where he is headed, so he falls off a cliff. The fool stands on the edge.

Sometimes our inner intuitive voice of protection becomes judgmental and self-perpetuating. The voice that tells you: “Be careful, you will make a fool of yourself”, “that is a dumb question, everyone is going to laugh at you, and judge you”, “you sound ridiculous.” This is the voice of conformity and the dark side of the fool. It is the voice that causes you to dumb down and play it safe, to be content with superficial pleasures and safety, and strive for other people’s acceptance to the detriment of your true desires. This happens when we are unconscious of the fool within us, which leads to jealousy, resentment, shame, and other neuroses.

In his relationship to the journey towards individuation, the fool demonstrates both the initiative and the resistance inherent in his nature. He is closely tied to the archetype of eternal youth which we all possess after growing up from childhood. It can bring the energy, beauty and creativity of childhood into adult life, or thwart self-realisation and doom us to both unrealistic adolescent fantasies and experiencing life as a prison.

The Fool and the Child Archetype

The fool is closely related to the child archetype. Children have less of a persona, and follow their instinct rather than what others tell them to do (the Freudian superego). The child has half entered the rational world, and the madman has half escaped from it – for these two are in some measure released from the remorseless pressure of daily events, the ceaseless impact of the external senses, which burden the rest of mankind. The fool is light-hearted, and optimistic, and does not take things too seriously. Friedrich Nietzsche writes:

“Man’s maturity: to have regained the seriousness that he had as a child at play.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

The Fool: The Inferior Function

Los enters the Door of Death (Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion) – William Blake

Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz equates the fool with the inferior function, Jung’s term for the most undeveloped aspect of the psyche, related to the four basic psychological functions: thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition. For example, the inferior function of a predominantly thinking type would be feeling. However, the fool concerns something more than the inferior function, for the fool is an archetypal religious figure. von Franz writes:

“He implies a part of the human personality, or even of humanity, which remained behind and therefore still has the original wholeness of nature. He symbolises a specific, mainly religious, function. But in mythology, as soon as the fool appears as the fourth in a group of four people, we have a certain right to assume that he mirrors the general behaviour of an inferior function.”

Marie-Louise von Franz, Lecture’s on Jung’s Typology

The fool hero represents the despised part of the personality, the ridiculous and unadapted part, but he also is the bridge to the unconscious, and therefore holds the secret key to the unconscious totality of an individual. The fool connects two worlds – the everyday world where we live most of the time, and the world of imagination. He is the gate to the great treasure, bringing a renewal of life. It is the inferior function which leads to the healing of our Fisher King wound.

The Holy Fool

A God’s Fool Sitting On the Snow – Vasily Surikov

The holy fool is one who is willing to risk ridicule, scorn and rejection to follow the path of truth and love no matter what the naysayers have to say. He possesses an integrity displayed in the courage to be himself in all circumstances, not needing to be defined by the responses of others, or become conformist out of fear. He is free of judging others by values usually used, and is fully present to another human being.

The holy fool is unstoppable, and is thus the most threatening to the authorities and powers that control and rule the world. Each person is worthy of God’s love, and therefore each person has the potential to grow in the full life of the spirit.

To be a fool for Christ’s sake derives from the writings of Saint Paul, who claims that God has made foolish the wisdom of this world. He says of unbelievers that, “professing themselves to be wise, they become fools.” Foolishness for Christ consists in a rejection of worldly possessions in favour of a religious and ascetic life, even if it may result in humiliation and mockery from the crowd. The fool is the precursor to the saviour.

“Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.”

1 Corinthians 3:18

The Psychology of The Fool

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The Psychology of Nightmares

Nightmares. We all have them. But what exactly do they mean? Why do we have bad dreams? Is there any psychological meaning behind them? Nightmares are the source of much of the horror we see in stories, myths, movies and games. They are an encounter with the dark side of the unconscious, which often includes facing some of the most painful aspects of who we are. And one does not know what that part of oneself is, until one confronts it.

Table of contents

Introduction

Nightmares are different from other dreams, both in quantity and in quality. They are relatively infrequent for most dreamers, but their intensity and vividness cause such distress that unlike most dreams, we have difficulty forgetting about them. They arouse fear, anxiety, agony, embarrassment, melancholy, or great displeasure. The word nightmare is also used figuratively to describe any difficult or terrifying situation. Some nightmares are so memorable that they colour the experience of our lives for years, or, in fact, stay with us for a lifetime.

Many psychiatrists have focused on the pathology of nightmares, which are generally considered negative psychological events that torment us and disrupt our sleep, caused by a variety of external and internal factors such as stressful life situations or traumatic memories. The focus is on mitigating their frequency or completely eliminating them through medication. However, the problem is that the emphasis is put on the pathological causes of nightmares, and there is no concern about the purpose of them.

Nightmares occur for a reason. If one focuses on pathology rather than on the symbolic meaning of a nightmare, a valuable opportunity is lost. Nightmares are the most substantial and vitally important dreams, and are of therapeutic value. They wake us up with a cry, as if all our repressed content forms a bubble which expands until it bursts one night, and we experience a nightmare. This built-up of tension in the unconscious can potentially be expressed in prior dreams, there is something that wants to be brought into consciousness.

After waking up from a bad dream, we are forced to acknowledge our unconscious conflicts, but tend to forget about them, and carry on with our daily lives, unaware of the psychological damage we do to ourselves.

Nightmares are the shock therapy nature uses on us when we are too unaware of some psychological danger. They shock us out of deep unconscious sleepiness about some dangerous situation. As if the unconscious says, “Look here, this problem is urgent!” The psyche tells us to “wake up” and face what we have neglected. The majority of nightmares represent opportunities for personal healing through much-needed emotional release.

Dream-Motifs in Nightmares

There are typical dream-motifs related to nightmares or anxiety dreams such as falling down, showing up late or unprepared for a presentation or an exam, missing a flight or forgetting about one’s luggage, going about with insufficient clothing, losing one’s teeth, feeling trapped, unable to move or make any noise, injury or illness, encountering frightening monsters or natural disasters, etc. These motifs are very common but by no means sufficient to confirm the existence of any system in the organisation of a dream.

Lilith: The First Nightmare

One of the first nightmares can be traced back to Lilith, whose name is Hebrew for “night monster” or “night hag”. According to Jewish legend, Adam, before he knew Eve, had a demon-wife called Lilith. She disobeyed Adam, believing that as they were both created from “dust”, she was his equal. Lilith was banished from the Garden of Eden and in revenge changed into a nightmare or lamia (nocturnal spectre). She became known as a dangerous and promiscuous demoness of the night. A legend of later origin maintains that the snake in the Garden of Eden was Lilith, associating her with the devil. Following Adam and Eve’s encounter with the Tree and the Serpent, Adam refrained from, among other things, sexual intercourse as a form of penance. During this time, Lilith had intercourse with Adam, giving birth to a horde of demons that flit about the world. Thus began Lilith’s reign.

Stories of Lilith can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia, such as in the poem The Epic of Gilgamesh, in which there isn’t just one such figure, but various of such female demons who haunt pregnant women, kidnap new-born infants, and engage in wild intercourse with men after pinning them down. Lilith is the origin of the succubus, an evil female spirit thought to have sexual intercourse with sleeping men. The incubus is the masculine counterpart.

The Origin & Folklore of Nightmare

The word mare in “night-mare” comes not from a female horse, but is rather an Anglo-Saxon term for a goblin, old hag, fiend or demon that sits on people’s chests causing them to have bad dreams. In Old Norse it is known as mara. The prefix “night” was added to emphasise that these creatures visited at night. In Danish and Norwegian, nightmare can be translated as “mare-ride”, while in Swedish it is “mare-dream”.

This phenomenon has been reported from antiquity to modernity across the world. Today it is known as sleep paralysis, which is different from a nightmare insofar as it occurs while still being conscious, but unable to move or speak. This can happen as you are waking up or falling asleep. People experience auditory and visual hallucinations, and feel intense terror and anxiety. The person sees threatening entities, and feel pressure on their chests, making it difficult to breathe, causing suffocation.

In the Norse Ynglinga saga from the 13^th century, King Vanlandi was a great warrior who travelled far over the land. He promised his wife to come back after three winters, but he came not for ten winters. His wife hired a sorceress to cast a spell to have him come back or be killed. The king longed to go back with his wife, but his friends and advisers forbade it, saying it was the product of witchcraft. Then he became sleepy and said that the mara was treading on him. When the men held the king’s head it “trod on his legs” so that they were almost broken; then the men seized his feet, and the mara pressed down on the king’s head, until he died.

In Germany, this malicious entity is most often called an alp, a word that is etymologically related to elf. In folklore, alps and mares enter into one’s room in the night to induce a nightmare on the dreamer. Even though windows and doors may be tightly closed and locked, they can still get in through the smallest holes (such as a key hole), which they seek out with special pleasure.

In many stories, a man is ridden by a mara every night, and is tormented by it. One morning he decides to drill a hole through the door, plug shut all the cracks, and make a stick that fit exactly into the hole in the door. He knew that maras could get in through even a very small hole, but not out again if all the openings were plugged shut. Then he asked a good friend to sleep with him and that when he moans, that he should put the stick in the hole, because he wanted to capture the mara. In the morning, there was a beautiful naked woman in the room. The man, however, did not know that if you catch a mara, you cannot get rid of her, and so he had to marry her. They had children and lived together quite happily. One day the man told her about the hole she came in from and removed the stick. She immediately flew out through the hole and was never seen again.

There are also several nightmare charms, prayers, or spells used to ward off mares. The use of symbols for protection in sleep are a common thread seen throughout history.

In Japanese mythology, the baku or dream-eater is a spirit which is said to devour nightmares. It is depicted as a chimera, a mythological beast comprised of a variety of parts from other animals. After waking up from a nightmare, the person would summon baku for protection by crying: “Devour, O Baku! Devour my evil dream!” One would also summon it prior to falling asleep at night to avoid nightmares. However, the person had to be cautious, should a baku remain hungry after consuming unwanted nightmares, it would continue to devour a person’s hopes and dreams as well. Thus, the person would live an empty and meaningless life.

Non-REM Sleep (Night Terrors)

When we sleep, our brain goes through natural cycles of activity. These are: non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. When we first fall asleep, we experience the first stages of non-REM sleep.

In stage 1 we are in a state of relaxed wakefulness, and start to drift off. People who wake up from this stage often believe that they have been fully awake. It is common to experience hypnic jerks, which resemble the “jump” experienced by a person when startled, sometimes accompanied by a falling sensation. In stage 2, our heart rate decreases, and body temperature drops. We experience light sleep. Stage 3 is known as deep sleep, and it is the most common stage in which one experiences parasomnias, sleep disorders that include sleepwalking and night terrors, among others.

Night terrors are different from nightmares, the latter occurs during REM sleep. Night terrors are episodes of waking up terrified and often screaming, crying, punching, or attempting to flee. The person can experience a rapid heartbeat, heavy breathing, profuse sweating, and incomprehensible speech. More severely, the person may strike others, damage nearby belongings or even run into walls and furniture. The content of the episode is very difficult if not impossible to remember.

REM Sleep (Nightmares)

After around 70 to 90 minutes, one experiences the first cycle of REM sleep, which occurs when a person moves from deep sleep to lighter sleep. We experience 4 to 6 cycles of REM sleep per night on average, which increase in length as the night progresses. Here, brain activity increases, and the brain paralyses the body so that the mind can dream safely, otherwise the sleeping person would physically walk, move, and act according to the impulses in the dream state. It is during REM sleep when most dreaming and nightmares occur.

The amount of REM sleep decreases as we grow up, typically occupying only 20-25% of total sleep in adults, or about 90 to 120 minutes of a night’s sleep. One way of understanding why children experience more nightmares is because they are closer to the unconscious than adults, as the capacity for rational thought is not fully developed. Children experience monsters in the closest or under the bed, because it is a reality for them.

Nightmare in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment

Raskolnikov, Crime and Punishment Illustrations – D. Shmarinov.

A well-known nightmare in literature occurs in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. The hero Raskolnikov, who is unable to pay for his studies, goes through mental anguish and moral dilemmas. His name appropriately derives from the Russian word for schism or split. Raskolnikov contemplates robbing and murdering Alyona Ivanova, an avaricious and abusive pawnbroker. He decides to “rehearse” the murder, and with a sinking heart and nervous tremor goes to visit the pawnbroker, where he pawns an old watch for a few rubles. Afterwards, he goes to the tavern and meets Marmeladov, a likeable drunk who proceeds to describe the details of his hopeless situation. On helping the drunk man home, the former student witnesses a little boy who has just been beaten by Marmeladov’s wife, who suffers from tuberculosis.

The next day, Raskolnikov receives a lengthy guilt-inducing letter from his long-suffering, self-sacrificing mother. In order to support him in his university studies, his sister has agreed to marry an odious man whom she does not love in hopes that he will assist her brother. Tortured by the letter, Raskolnikov seeks relief in a tavern where he consumes some vodka. On his way home, he becomes drowsy, and finds a place to lie down, immediately falling asleep, and has a dream.

He is a child of about seven walking with his father. There seems to be some festivity going on, peasants are singing and are drunk. A large, heavy cart stands outside the tavern. The little mare is weak and unable to pull the cart. At the invitation of the owner, drunken men pile into the cart, laughing at the owner’s claim that the feeble animal can pull the cart. The owner shouts in reply “I’ll make her gallop!” and begins flogging the mare who, tugging with all her might, can barely move the cart. When others join in to beat her, the child, crying and upset, rushes to the horse to try to stop the cruelty. No one listens.

The brutality escalates when the mare begins feebly kicking in protest. The owner keeps attacking the animal and is furious he cannot kill her. When someone in the crowd shouts “Fetch an axe to kill her! Finish her off!”, the angry and drunken peasants join in, and beat the mare to death. The child runs to the dead mare, puts his arms around and kisses her bleeding head. His father grabs him and carries him out of the crowd. The boy sobs “Father! Why did they kill the poor horse!” “They are drunk… They are brutal… it’s not our business!” the father replies. Sobbing and choking the little boy puts his arms around his father.

Raskolnikov wakes up terrified, gasping for breath, his hair soaked with sweat. “Good God” he cries out, “can it be, can it be, that I shall really take an axe, that I shall strike her on the head, split her skull open?” He renounces the accursed nightmare and experiences relief. After hours of anguish, however, Raskolnikov proceeds to murder the pawnbroker.

It is Dostoevsky’s genius of representation that the nightmare feels real and psychologically convincing. If we imagine that Raskolnikov finds his way to the consulting room. We would meet an agitated young man who is in acute psychic distress and is obsessed with thoughts of murder. Given his situation, it is not surprising that he would have a nightmare. There are certainly external “causes”. He is stressed physically – he has not been sleeping well, has had little to eat, and has been drinking alcohol. He is under a good deal of strain because of his financial situation and the alarming news of his sister’s impending marriage. Raskolnikov’s unresolved psychological issues are being replayed and are impacting on his current life situation.

Fever Dreams and Franz Kafka

The Metamorphosis illustrated by Rich Johnson

Fever dreams are experienced when one has a fever. These are more vivid, bizarre, and negative than regular dreams – with themes such as spatial distortion, threats and dangers, and illness.

Franz Kafka’s work perfectly illustrates a fever dream atmosphere. In his novel The Trial, the protagonist Josef K. wakes up one morning being arrested without having done anything wrong. He is accused of an unspecified and unknown crime. The supervisor himself does not know anything about the case, other than that he was sent by his superiors. K. is notified by telephone that he has been summoned to the court, and has only been given small details of the location, without knowing the time to attend. He has great trouble in finding the court in a maze-like building, and when he finally finds the place in an obscure corner in the attic, he is scolded for arriving late. K. has to undergo a trial and defend himself against an incomprehensibly complex and faceless bureaucratic system that has taken complete control over his life, and accuses him of charges he does not even know about.

In Kafka’s short story The Metamorphosis, the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, wakes up one morning from uneasy dreams transformed in his bed into a monstruous vermin, depicting one of the most profound forms of alienation, a human imprisoned in a non-human body. The contrast between the extraordinary situation of his transformation and the ordinary terms he uses to describe it (an insect trying to get to work), creates a sense of the absurd. His family is horrified and disgusted, though there is still hope that Gregor’s mind remains intact, as his mother calls him her unfortunate son. Psychologically, we all have a horrible monster within that needs our love.

Post-Traumatic Nightmares and Recurring Nightmares

While most of us experience spontaneous nightmares that are often more imaginative, many also experience nightmares, recurrent recollections, and flashbacks, due to traumatic experiences. This is especially the case for people suffering from PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Post-traumatic nightmares are especially painful as the person is reliving a traumatic event, which can be as terrifying as the original event. This psychological scar can worsen and lead to substance abuse and alcoholism. Trauma therapy can support one’s healing process and help resolve some of the everyday challenges such a person faces. Though it may seem paradoxical, encouraging verbalisation and exploration of the trauma can be cathartic. Writing down nightmares is also a version of emotional therapy.

One can also experience recurring nightmares which may or may not be caused by traumatic experiences. These happen particularly in youth, but the recurrence can continue throughout one’s life. They recur because they are trying to integrate something into consciousness which a person lacks. Usually, they stop appearing after one realises what their message is, whether in the dreaming state or in waking life. When our ego attitude changes in response to our dreams, the unconscious responds.

Precognitive Nightmares

Perhaps one of the strangest types of dreams are precognitive or prophetic nightmares. People have experienced terrifying visions which later came to happen in reality, as if they had momentarily gained access to a doorway into the future. These are relatively rare, and can only be verified as such when the recognised event has actually happened.

In his work Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle, Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist Carl Jung explores “coincidences” that are connected so meaningfully, that they broke all statistical probabilities. These are called synchronicities or meaningful coincidences, which occur when a content of one’s inner life (dream, vision, mood, etc.) is seen to have a correspondence in the outer life. The inner image has “come true”.

Jung writes of a precognitive vision he experienced:

“I saw yellow waves, swimming rubble and the death of countless thousands… Two weeks passed then the vision returned, still more violent than before, and an inner voice spoke: ‘Look at it, it is completely real, and it will come to pass. You cannot doubt this.’ ”

Carl Jung, The Red Book

Many visions continued after this one, including the seas turning red with blood, and his soul asking him if he will accept war and destruction, showing him images of military weapons, human remains, sunken ships, destroyed states, and so on. Shortly after, the First World War broke out.

Carl Jung and The Meaning of Dreams

Jung wrote little on the phenomenon of nightmares. It is possible, however, to interpret nightmares in a Jungian lens from his general theory of dreams. He writes:

“Dreams are impartial, spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche, outside the control of the will. They are pure nature; they show us the unvarnished, natural truth, and are therefore fitted, as nothing else is, to give us back an attitude that accords with our basic human nature when our consciousness has strayed too far from its foundations and run into an impasse.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 10: Civilisation in Transition

A fundamental concept in Jung’s dream theory is the compensatory function of dreams. Dreams reveal the inevitable one-sidedness of our conscious life and focus on those aspects that are not sufficiently within our field of awareness.

Jung writes:

“Every interpretation is a hypothesis, an attempt to read an unknown text. An obscure dream, taken in isolation, can hardly ever be interpreted with any certainty. For this reason, I attach little importance to the interpretation of single dreams. A relative degree of certainty is reached only in the interpretation of a series of dreams, where the later dreams correct the mistakes we have made in handling those that went before.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 16: The Practice of Psychotherapy

Although Jungians attach special significance to the so-called “initial dream” of the patient in therapy, the analyst must be careful not to attach too much importance to isolated dream-images, but also understand prior dreams as well as the dreamer’s conscious attitude, and his or her personal associations.

A dream never says, “you ought” or “this is the truth”. It presents an image in much the same way as nature allows a plant to grow, and it is up to us to draw conclusions. If one has a nightmare, it can mean that one is either too much given to fear or too exempt from it.

Dreams always tell us something we do not know and suggest new ways of dealing with our neurotic impasses. They are not superfluous nor do they like to waste our precious time at rest. This is the psyche’s self-regulatory function, which seeks balance and wholeness. Jung calls this the process of individuation, our progress towards psychological maturation.

“The whole dream-work is essentially subjective, and a dream is a theatre in which the dreamer is himself, the scene, the player, the prompter, the producer, the author, the public, and the critic.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 8: Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche

This is the dream’s interpretation on the subjective level, in which every object in the dream corresponds to an element within the individual’s own psyche. Jung calls this the personal unconscious, contents of personal acquisition that have been repressed or forgotten. This is the home of the complexes, emotionally charged groups of ideas or images, which can be positive or negative. People with negative complexes experience more nightmares. They have a knot of unconscious feelings that can be detected through their behaviour and prevents them from achieving psychic wholeness.

The subjective level can be further amplified with the objective level, which Jung calls the collective unconscious, where archetypes reside, instinctual patterns of behaviour that we are all born with. Not only do personal experiences affect dreams, but also archetypal forces that have a mythological structure, which includes the entire spiritual inheritance of humankind’s evolution. These are felt in what Jung simply called “big dreams”. Usually, these dreams have few personal associations and are accompanied by feelings of numinosity, awe, uncanniness, or horror. Such as an apocalypse, or a theophany (encounter with a deity).

Because dreams contain images that are not created with conscious intent, they provide self-portraits of the psychic life process and can be used for their objective insights into the psyche’s telos, ultimate purpose, goal or function.

A dream can take months or years to interpret. Or one may never really get to the bottom of its meaning. A turn of the spindle moves a thousand threads, and we can only follow one at a time. Indeed, we cannot always do this, because the coarser visible thread ramifies into numerous filaments which at places escape from sight. The difficulty in interpretating dreams leads many of us to project our own ignorance and think that it is all nonsense and superstition.

The dream, however, is a spontaneous self-portrayal, in symbolic form, of the actual situation in the unconscious, and a symbol is the best possible formulation of a relatively unknown psychic content. It is the work of the psychologist whose erudition in symbolism can help guide the patient to discover his or her true potential.

Though Jung could help others to interpret their dreams, and having interpreted around 80.000 dreams in his life, he too had the humility to admit the difficulty in interpreting his own dreams. He writes:

“I do not understand my own dreams any better than any of you, for they are always somewhat beyond my grasp and I have the same trouble with them as anyone who knows nothing about dream interpretation. Knowledge is no advantage when it is a matter of one’s own dreams.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol 18: The Symbolic Life

The Shadow and Nightmares

The nightmare has an “intention”, which seems to be to communicate the acute distress of the psyche in a most dramatic form. Some “corrective” is coming into consciousness and is threatening the ego. This new content can appear as an intruder or attacker as in the following dream:

“It is night and I am home alone. I think I can hear a man trying to break into my house and I am panicked. I can hear him try to open the door, but it is locked. Feeling terror throughout my body, I run to hide under the bed. I realise that he has found a window that is unlocked, I wake up panicked.”

Jane White-Lewis, In Defence of Nightmares (The Dream and the Text)

In this nightmare some unknown aspect of the psyche is threatening the person. Nightmares are especially valuable in giving a clear indication of the ego and its capacity to deal with threatening unconscious contents. In the dream, the person encounters what Jung calls the shadow, which contains our repressed contents, and is chiefly present in the personal unconscious. A frequent theme in nightmares is being chased by a sinister figure or monster, which may be compared to the ancient fear of being chased by a predatory animal.

It frequently happens that when one confronts the shadow, hostility turns into amiability, or a beast turns into a human form, with an important and urgent message to convey as psychological insight. Therefore, one should confront one’s fears, whether in the nightmare itself or in waking life.

We are never able to hide from the shadow. It always seems to know where we are. This is because we are running away from an aspect of ourself. Every human being has a dark side, and by ignoring it, we only give it more power to take control of us, like in the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, resulting in psychic dissociation. When we put on a persona that only includes our good side and forget about our negative side, it creates one-sidedness and represses our negative emotions, resulting in neurosis and psychological projection. Thus, we lose the chance of becoming whole. Health comes from following the path that is natural and true to oneself.

Nightmares are typically symbols of neurosis. People who suffer from frequent nightmares may have more psychological conflicts and unresolved issues in their lives.

The Devouring Mother Archetype

In the archetypal dimension, nightmares are the negative side of the Great Mother archetype, namely, the Terrible or Devouring Mother, which may be the bottom line of all nightmare experience.

Jungian analyst Erich Neumann, writes:

“The symbolism of the Terrible Mother draws its images predominantly from the “inside”; that is to say, the negative elementary character of the Feminine expresses itself in fantastic and chimerical images that do not originate in the outside world. The reason for this is that the Terrible Female is a symbol for the unconscious. And the dark side of the Terrible Mother takes the form of monsters… In the myths and tales of all peoples, ages, and countries – and even in the nightmares of our own nights – witches and vampires, ghouls and spectres, assail us, all terrifyingly alike. The dark half of the black-and-white cosmic egg representing the Archetypal Feminine engenders terrible figures that manifest the black, abysmal side of life and the human psyche. Just as world, life, nature, and soul have been experienced as a generative and nourishing, protecting and warming Femininity, so their opposites are also perceived in the image of the Feminine; death and destruction, danger and distress, hunger and nakedness, appear as helplessness in the presence of the Dark and Terrible Mother.”

Erich Neumann, The Great Mother

Regression for both women and men lead back to the mother’s womb, to helplessness, to nonbeing. However, even here there is the possibility of returning to the surface with new possibilities of life. In a nightmare, a tension exists between a regressive pull back into the womb (the Devouring Mother) and that of a progression towards a greater consciousness and embracing of life (the Great Mother).

It is not easy to find the source of the nightmare, because the unconscious content is, well, unconscious. The content has been repressed and it must be brought into the light of consciousness.

Active Imagination

Philemon. Illustration from the Red Book – Carl Jung

During an intense period of disorientation and inner turmoil, Jung developed a method used for confronting his unconscious contents while being fully awake and conscious during the experience, known as active imagination. He was able to confront his dark night of the soul and gather the treasure hard to attain. The culmination of his experiences is presented in his Red Book. Jung considered active imagination to be the most powerful tool to access unconscious contents. It consists in having a dialogue with different aspects of yourself while being fully awake and conscious, which requires solitude, silence and concentration.

Many times, however, we cannot associate what bothers us with anything specific. Jungian analyst Robert A. Johnson writes:

“When this happens, you can go to the unconscious in your imagination and ask the unseen content to personify itself. You can start your Active Imagination by asking: Where is the obsession? Who is obsessed? Where does this feeling come from? Who is the one inside me who feels this way? What is its image? What does he or she look like?”

Robert A. Johnson, Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth

In therapy, if the analyst is uncomfortable with these troubling images, ignores, avoids, or gives an overly positive interpretation of them, the patient will sense that the analyst cannot deal with this powerful psychic material, and no progress will be made. If, on the other hand, the therapist pays close attention to the affect-laden images of the nightmare, the patient can progress.

Active imagination also allows you to extend a dream by imagining where it left off. You may effectively continue your dream and interact with it by extending it out. This is especially useful when you are abruptly awakened in the middle of dreaming. Dreams and the imagination come from the same source in the unconscious, thus, one is able to “continue the story”, go through the next step the dream is leading toward, and bring the whole issue to a resolution.

Curiously, Jung found that dreaming decreases dramatically when one does active imagination. The issues that would have been presented in dreams are confronted and worked out. As such, dreams become more focused and concentrated and less repetitious. Jung recommended this method for people who are too overwhelmed by intense, disturbing and frequent nightmares.

Lucid Dreaming

Another technique of engaging with one’s unconscious contents is lucid dreaming, which occurs when we are dreaming and realise that we are in a dream. The oneironaut is able to travel within a dream and even exert control over the environment, engage with his or her dream characters and ask questions of what their purpose is. This can be used to treat nightmares as well.

Lucid dreaming can occur unintentionally when the dreamer notices something “out of place”. There are, however, ways to increase the chance of lucid dreaming. Having a dream journal is essential, in order to write down or record one’s voice as soon as one wakes up. After doing this consistently for an extended period of time, one may notice certain patterns in the dreams that repeat themselves.

A wake-initiated lucid dream or WILD occurs when you directly enter a dream from waking life. This can be achieved by laying down and not moving your body, while your mind stays awake. After some time, you enter a state of being “half-asleep”, until you step into the dream-image. You can also experience hypnagogic hallucinations, seeing or hearing things that seem real while you are moving from wakefulness to sleep. WILD can be accompanied with mnemonic induction of lucid dreams or MILD, which involves repeating some kind of mantra each time such as “When I am dreaming, I will be aware that I am dreaming.”

Testing reality is another way to increase your chances of lucid dreaming. A reality check helps to remind yourself of the state of things in the real world. In dreams, things such as looking at a text, the time, in the mirror, etc., will appear distorted, blurry, or different each time you look. If you pinch your nose, you are still able to breathe; if you push your fingers against the palm, it goes through. It is helpful to choose your own reality check and stick to it, practising it while awake.

Lucid dreaming can provide you a way to explore your creative boundaries, encounter unknown aspects of yourself, and have an opportunity to befriend your shadow, which is a lifelong process.

A woman with a recurring nightmare of being pursued by a terrifying figure learns about lucid dreaming. As the figure starts following her, she realises that the scene seems familiar and becomes aware that she is dreaming. With great courage, she turns around to face her pursuer and screams at him, “You can’t hurt me!” He stops, looking surprised. For the first time she sees his beautiful, loving eyes. “Hurt you?” he says. “I don’t want to hurt you. I’ve been running after you all this time to tell you that I love you!” With that, he holds out his hands, and as she touches them, he dissolves in her. She awakes filled with energy, feeling great for days. Not only has this helped her to better face unpleasant situations, but also at expressing her feelings when needed, whereas before she would usually avoid or run from such situations.

Nightmares and Artists

Creative people such as musicians, painters, poets, writers, etc., seem to report nightmares more often than other people. Perhaps this is because they experience a “thin boundary” between the unconscious and the exterior world. Their ego (sense of identity) is in a deeper contact with the unconscious. Therefore, they are more influenced and less heavily defended against the influence of unconscious processes. They experience more psychological distress than non-artists. Jung writes:

“[A] person must pay dearly for the divine gift of the creative fire.”

Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul

This does not mean that creative people are more neurotic. On the contrary, they may be much more psychologically whole than non-artists by engaging in such creative tasks, for they are paying great attention to their unconscious.

“Not the artist alone, but every creative individual whatsoever owes all that is greatest in his life to fantasy.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 6: Psychological Types

The artist has to sacrifice his ego in order to become the mouthpiece of the zeitgeist, he is a vehicle and moulder of the unconscious psychic life of humanity.

“The great work of art is a product of the time, of the whole world in which the artist is living, and of the millions of people who surround him, and of the thousands of currents of thought and the myriad streams of activity which flows around him.”

C.G. Jung Speaking: Interviews and Encounters

Nightmare Artists: Beksiński and Giger

The works of Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński and Swiss artist H.R. Giger, were heavily influenced by their nightmares.

Beksiński was a self-taught artist who wanted to paint in such a manner as if he were photographing dreams. His work depicts what seems to be post-apocalyptic or nightmarish landscapes, with decay, death, skeletons, and deformed figures. He did not draw inspiration from anyone, apart from listening to classical music and simply painting whatever came in his mind. Beksiński was uninterested in interpretating his artworks and refused to provide titles for any of them. He himself was known as a pleasant person.

Giger’s art is referred to as biomechanical, the combination of human anatomy with machines. This is something that characterises our modern age of technology, the world of machines, that are slowly taking over our life, to the extent that many of us cannot live without technology. We have become entangled in it. Much of Giger’s art comes from unconscious conflicts and dreams, a focused self-exploration that led him to his inner dark abyss. By seeking the source of his own nightmares, Giger discovered the paramount psychological importance of the trauma of biological birth. His art shows the cycle of birth, sexuality, and death. Eros and Thanatos, interwoven. There is a deep connection between these three themes, which can allow us to reunite with the source of our being.

These two men share one thing in common: they have become the artistic voice of what the darkness in us is. They went to the dark recesses of the unconscious and settled down there. Their work is an example of what a confrontation with one’s shadow may look like. What we all apparently flee from, is their home. They show us how these dark repressed realms in our minds can become positive works of transformative art. After going through the darkest places, one finally sees the light shine through one’s life again. Fiction, no matter how surreal, is a response to reality. Fiction sometimes overcomes reality.

“[T]here are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word “happy” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.”

C.G. Jung Speaking: Interviews and Encounters

The Psychology of Nightmares

Nightmares are the most substantial and vitally important dreams, and are of therapeutic value. They wake us up with a cry, as if all our repressed content forms a bubble which expands until it bursts one night, and we experience a nightmare.

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Artwork used in the video

The Psychology of The Shaman (Inner Journey)

“The lifeway of the shaman is nearly as old as human consciousness itself, predating the earliest recorded civilisations by thousands of years. Through the ages, the practice of shamanism has remained vital, adapting itself to the ways of all the world’s cultures… The shaman lies at the very heart of some cultures, while living in the shadowy fringe of others. Nevertheless, a common thread seems to connect all shamans across the planet. An awakening to other orders of reality, the experience of ecstasy, and an opening up of visionary realms form the essence of the shamanic mission.”

Joan Halifax, Shaman: The Wounded Healer

Shamanism is one of the oldest, if not the oldest system of healing known in the world. It forms the prototype from which many other forms of healing are derived, such as modern psychotherapy.

The shamanic journey is an expression of the human condition, and despite the cultural differences around the world, the deeper structure appears to remain constant. They are archetypes, primordial images or instinctual patterns of behaviour that we are all born with.

Table of contents

Introduction

Pecked cave drawing, Wind River Indian Reservation, Upper Dinwoody Lakes, Wyoming

The origin of Shamanism in the Palaeolithic period inevitably links it with the animal world of the hunt. The shaman became identified with the untamed creatures which provided food, clothing, and even shelter. They sought to become the masters of wild game and summoners of beasts. Animal sacrifice, bird shaman staffs, and animal costumes all play an important role. Each time a shaman succeeds in sharing in the animal mode of being, he re-establishes the situation that existed in mythical times, when the divorce between man and the animal world had not yet occurred. Arctic explorer Knud Rasmussen met with an Eskimo shaman who stated:

“The greatest peril of life lies in the fact that human food consists entirely of souls. All the creatures that we have to kill and eat, all those that we have to strike down and destroy to make clothes for ourselves, have souls, souls that do not perish with the body and which must therefore be pacified lest they revenge themselves on us for taking their bodies.”

Knud Rasmussen, Intellectual Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos

For the shaman, all that exists in the revealed world has a living force within it, this is known as animism. This life force or mana is conceived of as a divine force which permeates all. Just as the human body is connected to the soul, so too are all living beings connected by the Anima Mundi (World Soul). For the shamans, depression, emptiness, lack of energy, anxiety, apathy, etc., are referred to as loss of soul, one of the most feared illnesses in primitive civilisations.

The word “primitive” is not used to refer to an obsolete or superstitious way of life as it may be used today, far from it – in fact, primitive people have a much deeper contact with nature and the unconscious which modern people generally lack. If not balanced, this one-sidedness often results in neurosis and psychic dissociation.

Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist Carl Jung writes:

“There are no longer any gods whom we can invoke to help us. The great religions of the world suffer from increasing anaemia, because the helpful numina have fled from the woods, rivers, and mountains, and from animals, and the god-men have disappeared underground into the unconscious. There we fool ourselves that they lead an ignominious existence among the relics of our past. Our present lives are dominated by the goddess Reason, who is our greatest and most tragic illusion. By the aid of reason, we assure ourselves, we have ‘conquered nature.’ ”

Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols

We do not yet understand that the discovery of the unconscious means an enormous spiritual task, which must be accomplished if we wish to preserve our civilisation. To recover our lost soul, we must reconnect with the sacred aspects of the natural and imaginal worlds.

The Shamanic Call

Don José (Matsuwa), Huichol Shaman from El Colorín, Municipio del Nayar (Mexico). Photo by Prem Das

At some point in our lives, we all experience a call to adventure that disrupts the safety of our ordinary world. This inner voyage occurs especially during an existential crisis, usually because of spiritual, physical or psychological illness. In order to be healed, one must become a healer.

When we are thrown into a life crisis our lives turn into chaos and confusion. We may not be aware why but still feel that something is not right, the unconscious is in a state of massa confusa, a confusing mass or inner chaos, because we have not dealt with its contents but rather repressed them. This is the soul’s cry for growth. It is what the alchemists call nigredo, or the dark night of the soul – a period of mortification, and putrefaction that is a perquisite for attaining the philosophers’ stone, a symbol of the wholeness of the Self.

Like the alchemist who goes through a psychologically transformative process of turning lead into gold, the shaman too turns chaos into order, when he overcomes his existential crisis. The shaman is a master of the sacred. He is a medicine man, wizard or seer who attempts to restore one’s psychic equilibrium. This is healing in its most fundamental form. The shaman is “one who knows”, one who has experienced and glimpsed the other world, revealed through an altered state of consciousness.

The recruitment of shamans can be through inheritance or most commonly, in the form of a call, occurring in a vision or dream in which he or she experiences a theophany (encounter with a deity), or through sickness which cannot be cured by medicine. It is rooted in a personal experience of vocation. This is not just a strong inclination to follow a particular activity or career, but a divine call to religious life, to becoming a healer of the human soul, such as entering into priesthood. The priest is an archetypal variant of the shaman, so too is the psychotherapist. Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz writes:

“The roots of both priesthood and psychotherapy lie in the primitive phenomenon of shamanism and the existence of medicine men.”

Marie-Louise von Franz, Psychotherapy

Jung had carved an inscription above the door of his house, which stated: “Vocatus atque non vocatus deus aderit” (Called or not called, God will be present). This was to remind his patients and himself of their true vocation, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

When the call of the neophyte or initiate is recognised by the master shaman (the archetypal wise old man), he must undergo the first trials. Thus begins the search for his lost soul, in the world of spirits (or what we would call in psychological terms, the archetypal contents of the unconscious).

The withdrawal into solitude through sickness opens the way for the inner initiation to take place. It is the beginning of a visionary journey, in which the initiate’s soul moves into the non-material realm and encounters spirits (malignant and benign).

The approach to this infinite mystery is made alone. Physical, solitary, and silent rituals are the ones that register most deeply with the unconscious. When our ego attitude changes in response to our dreams and visions, the unconscious responds. The unconscious is like a mirror. The face we turn towards it, is reflected back to us. Hostility lends it a threatening aspect; friendliness softens its features.

Becoming a Shaman

Rattle fragment, polychromed wood, Northwest Coast, collected late 19th c.

The journey to become a shaman can take years. If the initiate passes the trials and is approved by the spirits, he or she becomes a shaman. The central element is the death and symbolic resurrection of the neophyte. After such an experience, it often happens that the shaman can understand the secret language of spirits or animals. He has access to a region of the sacred not accessible to other members of the community.

The shaman has overcome death and is no longer the same person as before. To have contact with the dead signifies being dead oneself. The shaman must die so that he may meet the souls of the dead and receive their teaching; for the dead know everything. As such, he possesses vital information for the sick. The shaman himself does not heal, but rather mediates the healing of the patient with the divine powers. This is what distinguishes the shaman from the neurotic person, who is unable to find a cure.

One of the main works of the shaman is to encounter and retrieve the lost or stolen souls of his people, establishing a soul-to-soul connection. The shaman can also encounter and guide the souls of the dead (human or animal). He is responsible for the religious direction of a community, and guards its soul. This is the sign of the true shamanic vocation, a spiritual condition in which one temporarily transcends the profane condition of humanity.

Symbols of the Self: Animal Spirits

The neophyte is not completely alone during his journey. He often has the help of spirits with animal form, such as a bear, eagle, wolf, fox, deer, etc. These act as tutelary figures or psychopomps, guiding one through the untamed lands, where one must face the most strenuous of all ordeals, initiatory rites necessary to become a shaman.

For the Ainu shamans of Japan, the world is inhabited by kami or spirits. Animals are considered gods in disguise, who live in their own god-worlds, invisible to human eyes, but who also share a common territory with humans.

von Franz writes:

“[M]agical animals are often the symbols of the Self. In the North, it is usually the bear who is the embodiment of the Self for the shaman, because he is a great nature deity. The shaman acquires his healing power and creativity from the bear. In Africa, lions and elephants represent the Self, and sometimes also other magical animals who embody the supreme divine power of the psyche and nature. From the fact that the Self appears in animal form in the dreams and visions of medicine men and creative individuals, it is clear that it is first perceived as a purely instinctive unconscious force, greater and more powerful than the ego but entirely unconscious. It embodies the complete wisdom of nature yet does not possess the light of human consciousness.”

Marie Louise von Franz, Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales

Just as animals have no need to be taught their instinctive activities, so too do we possess primordial psychic patterns, and repeat them spontaneously, independently of any teaching. The path towards the Self consists in bringing these unconscious contents into consciousness, balancing our instinctual animal nature with our human and ethical way of life.

Shamans bring their inner life into consciousness by crafting sacred objects, musical instruments, clothing, etc, all of which have a symbolic meaning and are used in rituals.

The Three Worlds: Shamanic Cosmos

The shaman passes from one cosmic region to another – from the earth to the sky or from the earth to the underworld. Thus, there are three worlds in the shamanic cosmos. The Middle World is the ordinary world as we know it, the Underworld is a dangerous and terrifying realm of the dead, and the Sky Realm is where the gods reside. One is often warned to be careful on the journey to paradise, for one must first pass many trials and suffer.

The Middle World is the world of human affairs, and the gateway to the Underworld, where the deepest structures within the psyche are found: communion with the world of spirits, trials by fire, dismemberment of the body, confrontations with chthonic and demonic forces who devour, etc.

The Gold in the Shadow

Image from the Red Book representing the Shadow – Carl Jung

Evil spirits often turn into allies after the neophyte has passed the trials. The cannibalistic act in the Underworld represents the potential for rebirth or integration of the shadow, the unknown dark side of our personality which contains everything we have no wish to be.

There is gold in the shadow, and this gold needs to be mined and brought to the surface as psychological insight. Jungian analyst Robert A. Johnson writes:

“Curiously, people resist the noble aspects of their shadow more strenuously than they hide the dark sides. To draw the skeleton out of the closet is relatively easy, but to own the gold in the shadow is terrifying.”

Robert A. Johnson, Owning Your Own Shadow

There are two wolves fighting inside all of us. The first one is evil, the second one is good. Which one will win? The one you feed. However, if you choose to feed only the light wolf, the shadow wolf will be starved and resentful, and he will attack you when you least expect it. But if you feed both wolves, inner conflict turns into inner peace. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

In other words, it is not the light element alone that does the healing, but rather the place where light and dark begin to touch. This is the alchemical union of opposites that is at the core of attaining wholeness of personality. Factors that appear to be mutually contradictory actually co-exist. When we lose sight of this, we tend to split the world, claiming good for ourselves and projecting evil on others.

The Underworld: Death

Dante’s The Divine Comedy: Hell. Canto 8 – Gustave Doré

The neophyte’s confrontation with the shadow takes place in the cosmic womb of the Earth Mother, in the bowels of the Underworld. In many Arctic traditions, the realm of the dead resembles the world of the living except that all that exists there is upside down or inside out. Death is a reversal of life. The trees grow downwards, the sun sets in the east and rises in the west, and rivers flow against their courses. The world, life’s phases, and daily human activity are all inverted, like reflections on the surface of a still pond.

To get to this realm, one often has to navigate unknown territory or traverse a black river with a spirit canoe or corpse boat. These dark, boiling waters frequently appear filled with unfortunate souls that writhe in agony. The shaman’s soul is also portrayed as traversing through icy winds, burning forests, bloody streams, through the throat and body of a serpent, etc. One must pass through the valley of the shadow of death. There are also frequent visions of corpses and skeletons from fellow travellers who could not make it out alive.

Turning away from everyday life and turning inward ultimately opens the shaman to the infinite cosmos. The move away from the world takes the shaman-neophyte through the wound-door to a realm of terror and sacrifice, decay and death. Destruction thus becomes instruction as the initiate surrenders to the untamed forces of nature.

In everyday life, each of us have to make a descent in order to gain experience, encounter deeper aspects of ourselves, and emerge again, transformed, in the process of initiation. While we may not choose the descent to the underworld consciously, the Self may send us downward to our destiny because it is there where we will garner wholeness through direct experience of the challenges and conflicts life brings.

The World Tree

From Northern Antiquities, an English translation of the Prose Edda from 1847. By Oluf Olufsen Bagge

The three worlds are linked together by a central world axis, the Axis Mundi, at the centre of which is a tree, pillar or mountain; symbols of perpetual regeneration. Perhaps the most popular image is that of the World Tree, related to the idea of creation, fecundity, and initiation, and finally to the idea of absolute reality and immortality. The World Tree is a tree that lives and gives life. It is a Tree of Life, as well as a Tree of Knowledge. In Norse mythology, this mighty sacred tree is known as Yggdrasil, and is at the centre of the cosmos. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds. When the tree trembles, it signals the arrival of Ragnarök, the destruction of the universe.

Every inhabited region has a centre, that is to say, a place that is sacred above all. The shamans did not create the cosmology, mythology or theology of their respective tribes; they only interiorised it, experienced it, and used it as the itinerary for their ecstatic journeys.

Through the body of the cosmic tree, life and death are joined. It is this tree with its life-giving waters that binds all realms together. The body of the tree transects the Middle World, the crown embraces the heavens, and the roots penetrate the depths of the Underworld, echoing Jung’s words:

“No tree can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 9.2: Aion

This great tree stands at the very centre of the universe directing the vision of a culture skyward towards the eternally sacred. All life springs from the primeval waters that flow from the tree and gather at its base, waters which are limitless, an essential sea circulating through all of nature. These waters are the beginning and end of all existence, the ever-moving matrix that nurtures and preserves life. The World Tree, expressing its milky golden sap, symbolises a return to the centre and place of origin, the home of wisdom that heals.

Jung writes:

“Trees in particular were mysterious and seemed to me direct embodiments of the incomprehensible meaning of life. For that reason, the woods were the place where I felt closest to its deepest meaning and to its awe-inspiring workings.”

Carl Jung: Memories, Dreams, Reflections

The Sky Realm: Awakening

Image from Splendor Solis by Salomon Trismosin

After passing through the Underworld, one begins the ascent to the Sky Realm. The neophyte flies through the Sun Door to the realm of the eternally awakened consciousness. The Sun is the symbol of the all-seeing and all-knowing.

The very act of sacrifice in the fire of initiation makes it possible for one to enter the realm of the immortal, as fire burns away all that is superfluous and evil. It is a process of catharsis. The solar region is beyond space and time. Those who have gone through death are reborn like the phoenix and have realised the dual unity of the mortal and immortal aspects of human existence. The shaman transforms into an eagle or Sun Bird and returns to the source – to the Sun Father.

The Sun Bird is the prototype of the shaman, sent by the gods in the sky to alleviate the suffering of humanity, assisting one’s ascent to the celestial regions. The eagle, rising to great heights, enters the gateway of immortality, and is seen perching on the branches of the World Tree. In many cultures, the eagle is depicted carrying a victim. This inevitably symbolises the rebirth into a higher order of existence.

The Sun Door that has received the sacrificed shaman is the very gate that opens within when the psyche is deeply awakened. The shaman, supreme master of fire, is the embodiment of a heat so fierce that its spiritual luminescence is associated with both purity and knowledge.

To attain the solar realm where consciousness is eternally awakened, to seek life in order to know death, this is the quest, the journey. The process of solarisation is the activation of this internal sun, the highest spiritual manifestation of totality. This rebirth can occur in the highest branches of the World Tree.

Death is not an end, but a transition. There is no death, only a change of worlds. The theme of new birth has its parallel in an earlier stage, that of regression and return to the womb of the Underworld.

The Return to the People

The mythic journey climaxes in the solar realm. The life journey for a Holy One culminates in the return from Paradise to society. The shaman’s vocation focuses on the people – and too long a stay in the realm of the Gods can make the return impossible. Although shamans go through individual experiences in solitude while seeking inspiration, the ritual is ultimately that of service to the community. As the shaman is reborn, so are his people. Learning to integrate with the groups in collective life is often seen as the most significant factor for one who is ill.

Just like the monomyth of the Hero’s Journey, what is learned in the Special World is brought back as an elixir to be shared amongst the people. The shaman falls ill only to gain the insight needed to heal himself and others. As the Romanian historian of religion Mircea Eliade writes:

“[T]he primitive magician, the medicine man or shaman is not only a sick man, he is above all, a sick man who has been cured, who has succeeded in curing himself.”

Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy

Age, like knowledge, is highly valued in shamanic societies. It is often the case that with age comes wisdom, and from wisdom comes power. Wisdom comes when you stop looking for it, and live the life the Creator intended for you. People are taught to be respectful and good to their elders, for these in turn will pray to the Ancient Ones for their health, well-being, and happiness.

The Shaman’s Shadow

Masked Mongol holy man, seen on an Imperial Progress through Central Asia by Tsar Nicholas II

However, not everyone is ready to be the master of power. Power can easily corrupt, even shamans, or anyone that is involved in the healing process, such as the psychotherapist or priest. To be identified with the healer archetype is a common form of inflation, where one believes one has god-like powers and that the patient is not important in the process, a human, all too human tendency. This is the shaman’s shadow, the black magician. This figure demands authority on account of his power and experience with the world of spirits.

But this is incompatible with the shamanic path. The shaman’s natural authority is the product of overcoming his inner turmoil, and his capacity to heal and guide others. Eliade writes:

“The shamans have played an essential role in the defence of the psychic integrity of the community… they combat not only demons and disease, but also the black magicians… shamanism defends life, health, fertility, the world of light, against death, diseases, sterility, disaster, and the world of darkness.”

Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy

Beware of Unearned Wisdom

Knowledge linked with a state of higher consciousness is perhaps the greatest means of fighting evil, as opposed to traditional knowledge without knowing its real meaning, that is, not being essentially connected with it through its symbolism. It is quite common for us modern people to celebrate holidays and rituals without knowing their meaning, a totally alien idea in primitive societies.

The temptation of using power to corrupt is high. This is why the ordeals that neophytes must endure before becoming a shaman are so demanding, and have a humbling effect. At the core of the spiritual death and rebirth is an ethical way of life. The shaman acquires direct knowledge from direct experience, and from this can come the opening of compassion and the awakening of empathy in the healer. One must beware of unearned wisdom.

The world of nature, humans, and spirits are all reflections each other. The cosmos has awareness and feeling. The shamanic world view acknowledges a kinship among all aspects of nature, and is a channel for the knowledge of the primordial ancestors: Grandfather Fire, Grandmother Growth, Father Sun, and Mother Earth, among others. These reside in the realm of gods beyond space and time. They are among us and yet unspeakably far away.

Ceremony and sacrifice can be regarded as attempts to re-establish the mystical unity of Paradise. We were all born from the spirit and once we have lived, we will return to the spirit. The shaman knows that he is a spirit that seeks a greater spirit.

Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy

The sacred awareness of the universe is codified in song and dance, poetry and tale, carving and painting. For the shaman, art allows one to attain some degree of control over the unknown and mysterious forces that structure our world. Through these acts, the shaman momentarily awakens people from the nightmare of sickness to the promised dream of Paradise, converting the profane into the sacred.

The shaman is not afraid of the universe but feasts on its forces while allowing its forces to feast on him. The inner figures whisper “fear not”, yet the dreams and visions are in general horrifying. However, it is only through traversing darkness that light gains its importance. After destruction, comes instruction. We must balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive.

Eliade views the shaman’s role as a healer who practices archaic techniques of ecstasy. The art of ecstasy is a timeless primary phenomenon, it is to stand outside oneself without ceasing to be oneself. The psychological experiences of rapture are fundamental to the human condition, and hence known to the whole of archaic humanity.

The shaman portrays his adventures through the ecstatic action of trance, chanting, drumming, and dance. Entheogens (generating the divine within) have also been used for thousands of years in sacred and ritualistic contexts.

The shaman performs the journey physically while undertaking it on the spiritual realm. Thus, art becomes a living expression of the visionary realm, revealed and made known through performance. The venerated images of the awakened psyche are communicated as living symbols in the process of inner spiritual transformation. Order is imposed on chaos; form is given to psychic confusion; the journey finds its direction. Through creative expression, the human condition is elevated, mythologised, and, at last, collectively understood.

The shaman, however, does not allow other more powerful beings to take full possession of him. He does not lose his composure, and is not fractured in the manner of subjects characterised as schizophrenic. Volition and control are the keys to this distinction. von Franz writes of the shamans:

“They are not possessed by these powers, except during a short voluntary trance state. They do not lose their normal status as human beings, but they acquire knowledge concerning the powers of the beyond (of the unconscious) and are thus able to function as prophets and healers, and in many regions, also as the artists and poets of their tribes.”

Marie Louise von Franz, Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales

From the standpoint of modern depth psychology, the shamanic experience amounts to undergoing an invasion of the collective unconscious and dealing with it successfully.

The shaman functions as a mediator between the human and the divine, giving meaning to human suffering. Out of this myth of healing emerges a transcendent relationship to the celestial realm with the particular culture, whereby health could triumph over illness, and a vision of harmony can take place for the person who seeks the shaman’s services.

Carl Jung and Shamanism

Jung sought to cure the soul of the sick and help them strive towards wholeness, which is true health. Similar to traditional shamans, Jung wanted to establish a relationship between the sacred and the mundane, through our numinous relationship with the archetypes of the collective unconscious. In fact, the path of the shaman coincides with what Jung calls the process of individuation. To be in a situation where there is no way out or to be in a conflict where there is no solution is the classical beginning of individuation. If one is humbled by this, the superiority of the ego is knocked out, allowing the unconscious to flow into one’s life.

Jung distinguished himself from psychotherapies that sought to relieve the patient of these same visions and deities, who were considered abnormal and neurotic.

From an early age, Jung noticed that he had two personalities. Personality number one was involved with everyday tasks, and his life as a young schoolboy. Later, it was involved with his intellectual and rational endeavours as a psychiatrist. Personality number two, on the other hand, was a part of himself remote from the world of men, close to nature, dreams, and the numinous. He writes:

“At times I feel as if I am spread out over the landscape and inside things, and am myself living in every tree, in the splashing of the waves, in the clouds and the animals that come and go, in the procession of the seasons.”

Carl Jung: Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Philemon was Jung’s wise old man and spirit guide who personally incarnated this second personality. The two personalities are always in opposition, but in the end trying to synthesise and transform to a new level of paradox. Eventually, they cross-fertilised one another to evolve a creative myth of healing, which Jung called analytical psychology.

Between the years 1913 and 1916, Jung experienced what the shamans would call loss of soul, he called it his confrontation with the unconscious, experiences that brought him close to death. He experienced an invasion of the collective unconscious, and penetrated through its core, to the Self. This initiation into the realm of darkness, was at the same time, the defining moments of his life. It was not madness, but a conscious and deliberate psychological experiment, which he recorded in his private journals, known as The Black Books, whose notes formed the contents of The Red Book.

“My soul, my soul, where are you? Do you hear me? I speak, I call you – are you there? I have returned, I am here again… After long years of long wandering, I have come to you again.”

Carl Jung, The Red Book

Psychologist: Healer of the Soul

Journey of the Wounded Healer – Alex Grey

Jung’s life task was to bring the greatest possible amount of light into the darkness. For Jung, the psychologist is a healer of the soul, who facilitates the healing process that consists in bridging the psychic dichotomy at root in the individual, so that the cure would grow naturally out of the patient himself. As Jung writes:

“The patient must be alone if he is to find out what it is that supports him when he can no longer support himself. Only this experience can give him an indestructible foundation.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 12: Psychology and Alchemy

No rational arguments and no pep talks can stir up conscious will power to encourage the depressed person to step forward into the future. It is evident that the patient has no idea what to do. One must accept this situation. Finding a way out is beyond one’s rational powers. Only the irrational soul, with its transcendent function can find a way forward. Only the experience of soul, the discovery that one “has” a soul and can even “become” one’s soul offers any solution for a loss of soul.

Jung cured patients with mental illness who were considered lost causes, and some of his patients have said that he was the only analyst who could analyse dreams without hearing them. As if he could, at times, stare right into their souls.

Jung, however, rarely identifies as a healer. He was a man concerned and affected by his patients, helping them cope with life without passing judgment on their final decisions. The doctor is effective when he himself is affected. It is here that Jung’s model of dialectical exchange between analyst and patient is significant.

“Someone who has not acceded to the depths of the unconscious and seen there “the ways of all spirits of sickness” can hardly possess enough real empathy for the serious psychic suffering of his fellow human beings. He will only treat them by the textbook, without ever being able to empathise with them, and this is often the key factor for patients.”

Marie Louise von Franz, Psychotherapy

The therapist who is unable to overcome his own dark night of the soul, will be less likely to help his patient with it. He will know the theory well, but not how to put it into practice. von Franz writes:

“When the training of a future therapist remains hung up in discussion of personal problems, in my experience, that person never turns out to be an effective therapist later on. Only when he has experienced the infinite in his own life has his life found meaning. Otherwise, it loses itself in superficialities. And, we might add, then such a person can only offer others something superficial: good advice, intellectual interpretations, well-meaning recommendations for normalisation. It is important that the therapist dwell inwardly in what is essential; then he can lead the patient to his own inner centre.”

Marie Louise von Franz, Psychotherapy

In the process of healing, we seek to unite the fragmented parts of ourselves so as to become whole. We are born integrated, we disintegrate, and we have to reintegrate. Wholeness only has meaning when we reunite our fragmented self.

As Jung stated, “only the wounded physician heals.” This is the secret myth of the Greek healing god Asclepius, which in its essence touches upon the archetype of the wounded healer, the central archetypal pattern of healing at the deepest level. The shaman is the wounded healer, par excellence, and this archetype comes from shamanic experience.

“The shaman is the great specialist in the human soul; he alone ‘sees’ it, for he knows its ‘form’ and its destiny.”

Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy

The Psychology of The Shaman (Inner Journey)

Shamanism is one of the oldest, if not the oldest system of healing known in the world. It forms the prototype from which many other forms of healing are derived, such as modern psychotherapy.

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The Ancestor of the North – Susan Seddon Boulet

The Visitor – Keith Powell (Powellartstudio.com)

The Psychology of Personality Types (Know Yourself)

We all have a particular personality type, and at the same time, we are all unique. To partake in the journey of discovering who we truly are, it is necessary for us to know our true and authentic personality. The quest to know ourselves allows us to better understand the complexity and intricacies of the human condition, improve our relationship with ourselves, with others, and with the world.

Table of contents

Introversion and Extraversion

In one of his earliest and most important works, Psychological Types, published in 1921, Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist Carl Jung coined the two well-known attitude types: introversion and extraversion. He writes:

“This book is the fruit of nearly twenty years’ work in the domain of practical psychology. It grew gradually in my thoughts, taking shape from countless impressions and experiences of a psychiatrist in the treatment of nervous illnesses, from intercourse with men and women of all social levels, from my personal dealings with friend and foe alike, and, finally, from a critique of my own psychological peculiarities.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol 6: Psychological Types

His initial motivation for investigating typology was his need to understand why Freud’s psychology was so different from Adler’s. He realised that Freud’s pleasure principle and Adler’s will to power arose from their own psychological peculiarities.

With Freud objects (things, and people), are of the greatest importance, which, according to their specific character, either promote or hinder the subject’s desire for pleasure. An emphasis is particularly put on the parents. The subject remains remarkably insignificant and is really nothing than a “seat of anxiety”. For Adler, on the other hand, it is objects that are regarded as vehicles of suppression that overwhelm the subject, who seeks to overcome his inferiority complex by securing a sense of worth and belonging. These differing views arose because Freud was primarily an extravert, and Adler an introvert.

“When we consider the course of human life, we see how the fate of one individual is determined more by the objects of his interest, while in another it is determined more by his own inner self, by the subject.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol 6: Psychological Types

The fundamental difference between the two types is that the extravert has an outward movement of interest towards the object (outer reality), while the introvert has an inward movement of interest towards the subject (inner reality).

The reflective nature of the introvert causes him always to think and consider before acting. His shyness and distrust of things induce hesitation, and so he always has difficulty in adapting to the external world. Conversely, the extravert has a positive relation to things, for he is attracted by them. New unknown situations fascinate him. As a rule, he acts first and thinks afterwards. The one is reflective; the other is quick to action. The introvert is like Prometheus (forethought) and the extravert like Epimetheus (afterthought).

For the extravert, it is the object that works like a magnet upon the tendencies of the subject. His attitude is constantly related to and oriented by the object, thus his interest and attention are directed towards his surroundings, including things and people. They have an almost inexhaustible fascination for him, so that ordinarily he never looks for anything else.

The danger is that he can get sucked into objects and completely lose himself in them. Such is the case of a businessman who is constantly oriented towards expanding his company. In the long run, this often leads to mental or physical problems, that have a compensatory value, as they force his attention back to himself. A frequent neurosis of the extravert is hysteria, excessive emotional behaviour that seems out of control, a constant tendency to make oneself interesting and to produce an impression.

For the introvert, it is the subject that remains the centre of every interest, as though the subject were a magnet drawing the object to itself. However, to describe the introverted attitude as autoerotic or egocentric is thoroughly misleading. Jung writes:

“Everyone knows those reserved, inscrutable, rather shy people who form the strongest possible contrast to the open, sociable, jovial, or at least friendly and approachable characters who are on good terms with everybody, or quarrel with everybody, but always relate to them in some way and in turn are affected by them.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol 6: Psychological Types

These types seem distributed quite at random, in the same family one child can be introverted, the other extraverted. For Jung, one’s type cannot be a matter of conscious intention, but must be due to some unconscious, instinctive cause. Therefore, it must have some kind of biological foundation. We are not born tabula rasa.

There is also an incalculable importance in parental influence. In normal cases, however, it is one’s natural biological tendency that will determine one’s type, despite the influence of external conditions.

It is important to note that while one mechanism will naturally predominate in everyone, a person can never be purely extraverted or introverted, everyone possesses both mechanisms, andonly the relative predominance of one or the other determines the type.

With the introvert extraversion lies dormant and undeveloped, and with the extravert introversion leads a similar shadowy existence. In fact, the undeveloped attitude becomes an aspect of the shadow, all those things about ourselves we are not conscious of, our unrealised potential, our “unlived life.”

Example of Introvert with Extravert

Jung gives an example of the relationship between an introvert and an extravert. There are two youths in the country who come upon a fine castle and want to enter it. The introvert draws back thinking that they might not be allowed in, with visions of policemen, fines, and fierce dogs in the background. The extravert answers, “Well, we can ask,” with visions of kind old watchmen and the possibility of meeting an attractive girl.

Once they enter the castle, they find out that it contains nothing but a couple of rooms with a collection of old manuscripts. This happens to be the chief joy of the introvert, who utters cries of enthusiasm, and rushes to contemplate the treasures. His shyness vanishes. The introvert loses himself in the object, forgetting the presence of his friend.

The extravert starts to feel bored and begins to yawn. While the enthusiasm of the one increases, the spirit of the other falls. The manuscripts remind the extravert of a library, which he associates with university, university with tedious studies and difficult exams. For one the place is marvellous, for the other it bores him to extinction.

We see how the introvert who first resisted the idea of going in, cannot now be induced to go out, and the extravert curses the moment when he set foot inside the castle. The introvert became extraverted, the extravert introverted. But the opposite attitude of each manifests in a socially inferior way: the introvert doesn’t appreciate that his friend is bored; the extravert, disappointed in his expectations of romantic adventure, becomes moody and doesn’t care about his friend’s excitement.

The two youths are in happy symbiosis until they enter the castle. They enjoyed a degree of harmony because the natural attitude of the one complements the natural attitude of the other. Both wanted to enter the castle, the doubt of the introvert as to whether an entry was possibly was useful for the other, as was the initiative of the extravert to go and ask.

The Four Psychological Functions

Example of psychological functions. Dominant function: thinking. Auxiliary: intuition and sensation. Inferior function: feeling.

Experience taught Jung that an individual can be further distinguished by their basic psychological functions, these are: thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition.

Sensation tells us that something is present, thinking tells us what it is and enables us to give it a name, feeling tells us what it’s worth, and through intuition we have a sense of what can be done with it, what its possibilities are, and where it’s headed. All four functions are required for a comprehensive understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Thinking and feeling are rational functions, while sensation and intuition are irrational functions. Each of these function types may be either introverted or extraverted, which are attitude-types.

Libido

Attitude-types are distinguished by their direction of interest to the object or the subject, while function-types are concerned with the movement of libido. The concept of libido, for Jung, is not limited to sexual desire as with Freud, but rather consists of the totality of psychic energy.

“[Libido] denotes a desire or impulse which is unchecked by any kind of authority, moral or otherwise. Libido is appetite in its natural state. From the genetic point of view, it is bodily needs like hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex, and emotional states or affects, which constitute the essence of libido.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 5: Symbols of Transformation

Thinking and Feeling

Thinking and feeling are the rational functions which depend on how we take decisions, and are influenced by judgment.

Thinking refers to cognitive thought, our ability to analyse and make logical judgments about information and facts. Thinking-types are good problem solvers and usually ask themselves: “What do I think about that?” They can take a more detached view of the subject and elevate themselves to an objective point of view. By contrast, feeling is the ability to evaluate the emotional states of oneself and others, it tells us the value of something, if it is to be accepted or rejected. Feeling-types tend to ask themselves: “How do I feel about that?”

For example, if a feeling type writes a paper and the teacher points out that it is very good but in a minor passage there seems to be a mistake, the feeling type can get very emotional and say that it is all ruined and that one might as well just burn the paper. This can continue, even if the teacher assures the student that he or she only needs to add one little sentence between the two paragraphs.

A thinking-type, on the other hand, may not be able to express his feelings normally and in the appropriate manner at the right time. It can happen that when they hear that a friend of theirs has died, they begin to cry. But when they meet the widow not a word of pity will come out. They had the feeling before, when at home, but now in the appropriate situation they cannot pull it out, and so they look cold.

Feeling, Emotion, Affect

In everyday usage, feeling is often confused with emotion. It is considered “irrational” when feelings get in the way of facts. However, psychologically, both feeling and thinking are considered rational functions.

The feeling function is the basis for fight-or-flight decisions. While feeling is often voluntary and comes from reflection, emotions occur involuntary, and grip us without our control.

The more technical term for emotion is affect, that is, emotional reactions marked by physical symptoms and disturbances in thinking.

An affect is an involuntary reaction due to an active complex, a term coined by Jung which refers to an emotionally charged group of ideas or images.

Jung stressed that complexes in themselves are not negative; only their effects often are. In the same way that atoms and molecules are the invisible components of physical objects, complexes are the building blocks of the psyche and the source of all human emotions.

Sensation and Intuition

Apart from the two rational functions, we have the irrational ones, which are our direct modes of experience in the moment, influenced not by reflection, but by perception. These are: sensation and intuition, and depend on how we take in information. It must be emphasised that by irrational, Jung does not mean something contrary to reason, but something beyond reason.

Sensation is our ability to perceive immediate reality through the five physical senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. It deals with reality as it is. Sensation types are more down-to-earth, immersed in the moment and highly stimulated by the senses. They are less interested in profound or abstract topics.

On the other hand, intuition is our ability to grasp complex patterns beyond the immediate sensory data. It allows us to perceive possibilities inherent in the present. A content presents itself whole and complete, without our being able to explain or discover how this content came into existence. This happens when we have a certain hunch that something is going to happen. One may receive information from within (for instance, as a flash of insight of unknown origin), or be stimulated by what is going on in someone else.

If an intuitive type is working, for example, with moulding something into clay and makes a crude figure of an animal. Instead of looking at its concrete nature, and try to make another figure with less defects, he’ll start to go on about how this practice should be introduced into all schools, about all the possibilities of clay moulding, what could be done with it in the education of humanity, and so on.

Unlike sensation, intuition perceives via the unconscious and is not dependent on concrete reality. Intuitive types are more immersed in abstract reality and deal with metaphors.

The two attitude types together with the four functions produce eight function-attitudes or personality types, which all have their own peculiarities: extraverted thinking, introverted thinking, extraverted feeling, introverted feeling, extraverted sensation, introverted sensation, extraverted intuition, and introverted intuition.

Jung pointed out that “the classification of types according to introversion and extraversion and the four basic functions [is not] the only possible one.” Nevertheless, Jung seems to have stumbled upon a psychological goldmine. This fourfold structure of the psyche remains one of the most remarkable descriptions of how people can understand themselves, and their relation with others, and the world. For Jung it was a great discovery when he later found confirmation of his more intuitively conceived idea in the fact that everywhere in myths and religious symbolism there appears the model of the fourfold structure of the psyche.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

The Doctor – Joseph Tomanek (reproduction of original by Luke Fildes)

Jung’s work inspired the popular personality type test, known as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The creators of the test felt that Jung’s book on psychological types was too complex for the general public, and therefore they decided to make the concepts more accessible. In the test, there are a total of sixteen different personality types.

However, with making things more accessible, one also risks misunderstanding and trivialising the complexities of personality types. We do not know if Jung would have supported this test, or any other ones for that matter. In fact, he warned against the misuse of his types as a “practical guide to a good judgment of human character”.

Typological analysis determined by written tests can be misleading, at worst downright dangerous. They do not consider how one’s type may have been falsified by familial and environmental factors, or if one is putting on a persona while taking the test. They are static and time-specific, and say nothing about the possibility of change. The very core of Jung’s analytical psychology is the lifelong dynamic process of individuation, which consists in bringing our unconscious contents into consciousness, allowing for psychological maturation.

As long as one is aware of the dangers, the MBTI, can serve positively as a tool of reflection and orientation. If we are lost, it provides a map for us. However, a map by itself, without knowing the direction of where to go, is not worth much more other than just being a piece of paper. Our task is to find the coordinates to our true self. Only then can we access the fullness of our being, and understanding one’s own type is necessary in this process.

Jung’s model of typology is not a system of character analysis, nor is it a way of labelling oneself or others. Much as one might use a compass to determine where one is in the physical world, Jung’s typology is a tool for psychological orientation.

Dominant Function

If one of the four functions habitually predominates, a corresponding type results, which is called our primary or dominant function.

As children, our natural tendency is to do what we are good at, and defer things in which we do not feel superior. By such natural behaviour, the one-sidedness is increased more and more. Then comes the family attitude: the child gifted in building or construction, must become an engineer. The surroundings reinforce the existing one-sided tendencies, the so-called “gifts”, and there is thus an increase in the development of the dominant function and a slow degeneration of the other side of the personality. This is an unavoidable process, and even has great advantages, so long as one’s natural type is allowed to flourish.

All functions can be conscious, but we speak of the “consciousness” of a function only when its use is under the control of the will and, at the same time, its governing principle is the decisive one for the orientation of consciousness. This is true when, for example, thinking is not mere afterthought, or rumination, and when its conclusions possess an absolute validity. For Jung, this absolute sovereignty always belongs, empirically, to one function alone.

Differentiation and Distorted Types

Through what Jung calls the process of differentiation, we separate one function from the others. Without this we have no direction, since the direction of a function towards a goal depends on the elimination of anything irrelevant. An undifferentiated function is an archaic condition characterised by confusion and ambivalence, which can bring about a dissociation of the personality.

This happens when people have trouble in finding their own type, which is often because they are distorted types, forced by the surrounding atmosphere to develop another function than their natural one. For example, a child who wants to become an artist is told that he must become a doctor. Or when the parent’s attitude is extreme, and a similar attitude is forced on the children too.

For example, let’s say a boy is a feeling-type surrounded by thinking-oriented parents and siblings. He will naturally be the black sheep, and has to supress his main function. He may follow his father’s footsteps and become an engineer, but have great trouble with studying and later with work, he will feel bad about himself, and think of himself as a failure.

There may come a time, however, when the man realises that he has never felt at home in the world of machinery, but rather in dealing with people. Suddenly he finds the path that resonates with his being, and which nature carved for him.

As a rule, whenever such a falsification of type takes place, the individual becomes neurotic, and can be cured only by developing the attitude consonant with his nature. However, not all is lost. Such a person is forced ahead of time into doing something that in the second half of life he would have had to do anyway. In analysis, one can very often help people switch back to the original type, and they are then able to pick up the other function very quickly and reach a developed stage.

In normal cases, however, the first half of life consists in the development of one’s dominant function, while in the second half of life one develops the inferior function.

Auxiliary Functions

Before one can even think about developing the inferior function, which is completely incompatible with the dominant function, one must develop the auxiliary or complementary functions, a second and third function that have a co-determining influence on consciousness. These are at the border between consciousness and the unconscious.

Jung writes:

“Naturally only those functions can appear as auxiliary whose nature is not opposed to the dominant function. For instance, feeling can never act as the second function alongside thinking, because it is by its very nature too strongly opposed to thinking. Thinking if it is to be real thinking and true to its own principle, must rigorously exclude feeling.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol 6: Psychological Types

An individual can well have both thinking and feeling on the same level, but this is a case of undifferentiation. The auxiliary function cannot be antagonistic to the dominant function. For instance, thinking can readily pair with intuition or sensation as the auxiliary, which as functions of perception, afford welcome assistance to thought. But as observed, never with feeling. The auxiliary function is possible and useful only insofar as it serves the dominant function, without making any claim to the autonomy of its principle. Jung writes:

“The resulting combinations present the familiar picture of, for instance, practical thinking allied with sensation, speculative thinking forging ahead with intuition, artistic intuition selecting and presenting its images with the help of feeling-values, philosophical intuition systematising its vision into comprehensible thought by means of a powerful intellect, and so on.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol 6: Psychological Types

Inferior Function

It is not easy to determine our personality type because we tend to associate it with functions we wish to possess, rather than those that we have. This is natural as the psyche seeks to compensate our one-sidedness. Often people will assure you that they belong to the type opposite from what they really are.

One must ask oneself: “What do I habitually do most? From what do I suffer the most? Where is it in my life that I always knock my head against the wall and feel foolish? That generally points to the inferior function. One must always deal with the real person, true education can only start from naked reality, not from an ideal.

Unlike the dominant function, and the auxiliary functions, the inferior or fourth function is fully immersed in the unconscious, and can only be partially integrated. It is our least developed function.

However, the inferior function is often where the gold is, the treasure hard to attain. It is the door through which all the figures of the unconscious come into consciousness. What you need most is always to be found where you least wish to look.

Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz writes:

“One can say that the inferior function always makes the bridge to the unconscious. It is always directed towards the unconscious and the symbolic world. But that is not to say that it is directed either to the inside or the outside; this varies individually. For instance, an introverted thinking type has an inferior extroverted feeling function; its movement will be towards outer objects, to other people, but such people will have symbolic meaning for the person, being carriers of symbols of the unconscious.”

Marie-Louise von Franz, Lecture on Jung’s Typology

For Jung, the inferior function contains the anima or animus, the contrasexual soul images of the psyche. If someone is an introvert feeling type, he or she can be very attracted by extravert thinking types. It is common for a person to have a relationship with the opposite type, so that one is momentarily freed from the disagreeable task of confronting one’s own inferior function.

This is one of the great blessings and sources of happiness in the early stages of marriage, since the whole weight of the inferior function is gone, and one lives in blessed oneness with the other. Everything seems magical and romantic. However, after some time in a relationship, it is this very function that can make a relationship destructive and toxic. The inferior function is a double-edged sword.

The trouble starts when instead of seeking balance, one tries to influence the other with his or her personality type, and tries to look for understanding – only to discover that they have never understood one another, for each speaks a different language. Then the conflict between the two types begins. The value of the one is the negation of value for the other, thus there is mutual depreciation.

Jung writes:

“The inferior function is practically identical with the dark side of the human personality.”

Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 9.1: Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

The same happens again in the choice of analysts. The job of the analyst is to create an adequate environment for the development of the patient’s functions. One should never jump directly to the inferior function. But rather develop the auxiliary functions first, complementing the rational function with an irrational function, or vice versa. This allows the patient to slowly work his way to the inferior function. The process should follow a serpentine movement.

The analyst must not do the work for the patient, but rather guide him to work it out on his own, or else, the patient can engage in transference, such as considering the analyst a parental figure. This creates an absolute dependence on the analyst, which can only be brutally terminated.

If the analyst is the opposite type of the patient, he or she must be careful not to display the superior function too much, or to appear as a wise figure, but rather become an ally in the patient’s psychological journey. The analyst must go against his real feeling, pretend that he doesn’t know, or feels incapable, so as to not paralyse the first attempts the patient might make in this field.

The essence of the inferior function is autonomy: it is independent, it attacks, it fascinates and spins us around. It tells us that we are no longer masters of ourselves and can no longer rightly distinguish between ourselves and others. Most people, when their inferior function is in any way touched upon, become terribly childish: they can’t stand the slightest criticism and always feel attacked. However, simply to shoot criticism at people will only get them absolutely bewildered and emotional, and the situation is ruined. One must wait for the right moment, for a peaceful atmosphere, and then carefully, with a long introductory speech, one might get across some slight criticism about the inferior function.

It is common to lose one’s patience in this process, and give up. That is hopeless. But it is this way for very good reasons. If we think about the turning point of life and the problems of aging and of turning within, then this slowing down of the whole life process by bringing in the inferior function is just the thing that is needed.

Conclusion

It is important to emphasise again – to avoid misunderstanding – that no system of typology is ever more than a gross indicator of what people have in common and the differences between them. Once you label someone, you negate them. For Jung, it is not the purpose of a psychological typology to classify human beings into categories – this in itself would be pretty pointless. What it does not and cannot show, nor does it pretend to, is the uniqueness of the individual. Conformity is one side of a person; uniqueness is the other.

But one thing Jung did confess: that he would not for anything dispense with this compass on his psychological voyages of discovery. Without a model of some kind, we are simply lost in a dark cave without a light source.

We cannot say, think or do anything that is not coloured by our particular way of seeing the world, which in turn is a manifestation of our typology. This is a psychological law of nature. It allows us to see how we function, if our actions and the way we express ourselves truly reflect our judgments (thinking and feeling) and perceptions (sensation and intuition). And if not, why not? What does this say about our psychology? What can we do about it? What do we want to do about it?

Regarding Jung’s own typology, he talked about it in his last interview. His scientific investigations and insights point to a dominant thinking function, he had a great deal of intuition, too. His relation to reality was not particularly brilliant, and he had a great difficulty with feeling. He makes it clear, however, that the type is
nothing static. It changes in the course of life.

As to whether Jung was primarily introverted or extraverted, one feels on safer ground.

“When no answer comes from within to the problems and complexities of life, they ultimately mean very little. Outward circumstances are no substitute for inner experience. Therefore, my life has been singularly poor in outward happenings. I cannot tell much about them, for it would strike me as hollow and insubstantial. I can understand myself only in the light of inner happenings. It is these that make up the singularity of my life.”

Carl Jung: Memories, Dreams, Reflections