Jung relates his work on the traditional archetypes with a theory of the nature of the Self. He begins with the role of the unconscious in the human mind, “The contents of the collective unconscious are invariably archetypes that were present from the beginning…. The archetypes most clearly characterized from the empirical point of view are those which have the most frequent and the most disturbing influence on the ego.” For Jung, an understanding of the archetypes is necessary for any understanding of Self, “The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge…. Examination of the dark characteristics—that is, the inferiorities constituting the shadow—reveals that they have an emotional nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly an obsessive or, better, possessive quality…. It is not the conscious subject but the unconscious which does the projecting…. 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 opposite, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposing halves.”
Much of Jung’s book relates archetypal symbols to Christian and Gnostic theology. Jung posits, “As the highest value and supreme dominant in the psychic hierarchy, the God-image is immediately related to, or identical with, the self, and everything that happens to the God-image has an effect on the latter.” Elsewhere, he expands, “Modern psychology is therefore confronted with a question very like the one faced by the alchemists: Is the self a symbol of Christ, or is Christ a symbol of the self? In the present study I have affirmed the latter alternative. I have tried to show how the traditional Christ-image concentrates upon itself the characteristics of an archetype-the archetype of the self…. The Christ-image is as good as perfect (at least it is meant to be so), while the archetype (so far as known) denotes completeness but is far from being perfect. It is a paradox, a statement about something indescribable and transcendental…. The individual may strive after perfection (“Be you therefore perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect.”) but must suffer from the opposite of his intentions for the sake of his completeness…. Christ is the perfect man who is crucified. One could hardly think of a truer picture of the goal of ethical endeavor.”
Jung next explains the notion of the world-soul, “The ocean is the “spirit of the world”…. The “spirit of the world” is a somewhat unusual term, because the expression more commonly used was the “anima mundi.” The world-soul or, in this case, the world-spirit is a projection of the unconscious…. This idea is nothing more than an analogy of the animating principle in man which inspires his thoughts and acts of cognition. “Soul” and “spirit,” or psyche as such, is in itself totally unconscious. If it is assumed to be somewhere “outside,” it cannot be anything except a projection of the unconscious…. In alchemy “our sea” is a symbol for the unconscious in general, just as it is in dreams…. The symbol of the self appears here as an “extremely small” fish in the vast ocean of the unconscious, like a man alone on the sea of the world.”
In general, for Jung, the symbols in myth play a large role in digesting the meanings of the unconscious. “Cosmogonic myths are, at bottom, symbols for the coming of consciousness…. The dawn-state corresponds to the unconscious, in alchemical terms, it is the chaos, the masa confusa or nigredo…. Oxen stand for the motive power of the plough. In the same way, the fishes represent the driving forces of the coming world of consciousness. Since olden times the plough has stood for man’s mastery over the earth: wherever man ploughs, he has wrested a patch of soil from the primal state and put it to his own use. That is to say: the fishes will rule this world and subdue it by working astrologically through man and moulding his consciousness…. The alchemical work starts with the descent into darkness (nigredo), i.e., the unconscious.”
For Jung, alchemy was the precursor to modern science. He puts heavy stock into alchemy’s symbols and what they foretell about man’s probing of the unconscious and the Self. “Dorn was the first thinker to recognize with the utmost clarity the extraordinary dilemma of alchemy: the arcane substance is one and the same, whether it is found within man or outside him. The “alchymical” procedure takes place within and without. He who does not understand how to free the “truth” in his own soul from its fetters will never make a success of the physical opus, and he who knows how to make the stone can only do so on the basis of right doctrine, through which he himself is transformed, or which he creates through his own transformation…. Dorn came to realize the fundamental importance of self-knowledge…. The expectations you put into the work must be applied to your own ego…. The secret is first and foremost in man; it is his true self, which he does not know but learns to know by experience of outward things…. Anyone who seriously tries to know himself as an object is accused of selfishness and eccentricity. But such knowledge has nothing to do with the ego’s subjective knowledge of itself…. The distinction between “quis” and “quid” is crucial: whereas “quis” has an unmistakably personal aspect and refers to the ego, “quid” is neuter, predicating nothing except an object which is not endowed even with personality…. The difference between knowledge of the ego and knowledge of the self could hardly be formulated more trenchantly than in this distinction between “quis” and “quid.”… Causes and ends thus transcend consciousness to a degree that ought not to be underestimated, and this implies that their nature and action are unalterable and irreversible so long as they have not become objects of consciousness. They can only be corrected through conscious insight and moral determination, which is why self-knowledge, being so necessary, is feared so much.”
Jung expands his theory of the Self by further relating the symbols of fairytales, myths, and religious dogma, “That is why it is so extremely important to tell children fairytales and legends, and to inculcate religious ideas (dogmas) into grown-ups, because these things are instrumental symbols with whose help unconscious contents can be canalized into consciousness, interpreted, and integrated…. For the alchemist it was clear that the “centre,” or what we would call the self, does not lie in the ego but is outside it, “in us” yet not “in our mind,” being located rather in that which we unconsciously are, “the quid” which we still have to recognize. Today we would call it the unconscious, and we distinguish between a personal unconscious which enables us to recognize the shadow and an impersonal unconscious which enables us to recognize the archetypal symbol of the self…. The centre was paradoxically in man and yet at the same time outside him.”
Modernity and tradition do not mix. Today, there has been a tendency to toss out the irrational and the arcane. Jung states, “Like a snake changing its skin, the old myth needs to be clothed anew in every renewed age if it is not to lose its therapeutic effect.” He feels that modernity has gone terribly awry. “Naturally the present tendency to destroy all tradition or render it unconscious could interrupt the normal process of development for several hundred years and substitute an interlude of barbarism.” Elsewhere, he expands, “The destruction of the God-image is followed by the annulment of the human personality. Materialistic atheism with its utopian chimeras forms the religion of all those rationalistic movements which delegate the freedom of personality to the masses and thereby extinguish it.”
Jung puts great stake in the role of opposition in the formation of the Self. “Most people do not have sufficient range of consciousness to become aware of the opposites inherent in human nature. The tensions they generate remain for the most part unconscious, but can appear in dreams. Traditionally, the snake stands for the vulnerable spot in man: it personifies his shadow, i.e., his weakness and unconsciousness. The greatest danger about unconsciousness is proneness to suggestion. The effect of suggestion is due to the release of an unconscious dynamic, and the more unconscious this is, the more effective it will be. Hence the ever-widening split between conscious and unconscious increases the danger of psychic infection and mass psychosis. With the loss of symbolic ideas the bridge to the unconscious has broken down. Instinct no longer affords the protection against unsound ideas and empty slogans. Rationality without tradition and without a basis in instinct is proof against no absurdity.” Jung expounds on the symbol of the snake, “Since the shadow, in itself, is unconscious for most people, the snake would correspond to what is totally unconscious and incapable of becoming conscious, but which, as the collective unconscious and as instinct, seems to possess a peculiar wisdom of its own and a knowledge that is often felt to be supernatural. This is the treasure which the snake (or dragon) guards, and also the reason why the snake signifies evil and darkness on the one hand and wisdom on the other.”
Finally, Jung relates that the Self is ever-changing, “Consciousness and understanding arise from discrimination, that is, through analysis (dissolution) followed by synthesis, as stated in symbolical terms by the alchemical dictum: “Solve et coagula” (dissolve and coagulate)…. The formula presents a symbol of the self, for the self is not just a static quantity or constant form, but is also a dynamic process.” The circle is the proper symbol, “The alchemists were fond of picturing their opus as a circulatory process, as a circular distillation or as the uroboros, the snake biting its own tail…. That is why the lapis, as prima materia, stands at the beginning of the process as well as at the end.”
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