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To expand a bit on what grant and Ev have said:
Arioch: Ah! My stupid question, do the anima and shadow in jungian psychology adopt and wear myths? and if they do are these cultural (collective) as well as personal?
Short answer: yes.
"Jung distinguishes between two different forms of the shadow, although he uses the same term for both. The first form is that of the 'personal shadow,' containing psychic features of the individual which are unlived from the beginning of his life or only scarcely lived. The second is the 'collective shadow'. It belongs together with the other figures of the collective unconscious and corresponds to a negative expression of the 'Old Wise Man' or the dark aspect of the Self. It symbolizes, as it were, the 'back' of the prevailing Zeitgeist, its hidden antithesis. Both forms of the shadow are operative in the human psyche.
"Whether the manifestation is of a personal or collective nature depends on whether the shadow pertains to the realm of the ego and the personal unconscious or to that of the collective unconscious. Thus it may appear to us as a figure from our sphere of consciousness, as our elder brother or sister, our best friend, or, for example, as that person who represents our opposite, such as Faust's famulus, Wagner, or--when the projected contents spring from the collective unconscious--it may appear in mythical form, for example, as Mephistopheles, a faun, Hagen, Loki, etc." (Jacobi 111-112)
Jacobi also notes that the anima "can equally well take the form of a sweet young maiden, a goddess, a witch, an angel, a demon, a beggar woman, a whore, a devoted companion, an amazon, etc" (116).
And, about your dream, Arioch...
The demons were defending the child in me in my waking vision/dream
Interesting. So who are these 'enemies' that beset the child?
The idea of Saturn at the centre comes from a theory of saturn being the night sun, or the centre of the night sky and refers to the cosmology of sumerian and other cultures.
Saturn would also correspond to the "negative expression of the 'Old Wise Man' or the dark aspect of the Self" mentioned by Jacobi.
they [angels and demons?] appear to only want to protect the child within me from its enemys. As if both the shadow and the anima are united in protecting me.
You seem to be identifying yourself implicitly with your inner child, or the child-self in your dream.
I think the trauma from my childhood has my mind locked into a childhood state where by i still have a very clear imagination like a child, i can literally immerse myself into a world where card board boxes are a steam train as i did when i was a child.
The challenge now is not to use that as a crutch or coping mechanism and learn to employ the talents it has given me to forge ahead. Making the internal convergence an external one, giving it release.
Indeed. The inner child's power of imagination must be channeled into some form of creative work in the world, or else you'll end up drowned in the constant flood of fantasy pouring out from the unconscious. So it's probably good that you're making art.
Aside from all that, I don't know what to make of the other aspects of your dream, as Qabalah is not my forte. Jung wrote about mandala symbolism though, and how sometimes diagrams like the Tree of Life in your dream might be a symbolic representation of the structure and dynamics of your psyche. What might the Qabalistic symbolism in your dream say about you and where you are at on your path?
Ev: By the way, if I could editorialize for a moment, I strongly recommend that magical practitioners leave off working with the "night side of the tree," demons, and other stereotypically nasty beasties until they Genuinely Get Their Shit Together. At least for the most part.
I think Jung would agree. Despite the fact that he considered the integration of the shadow to be the single most fundamental task in the process of individuation, he also warned that this process should not be begun until the individual has developed a strong, healthy ego structure and completed the tasks of the first half of life, in other words developing a successful career, finding a long-term partner and maybe starting a family, etc. In other words, yeah, getting your shit together. Although there might be exceptions to this rule.
Arioch: I have added the book to my wishlist, i will get around to it eventually. What do you make of the work of Joseph Campbell and his presentation of Jungs ideas?
In my opinion, Campbell focuses too much on the hero myth. As I see it, the hero myth is only one archetypal pattern among many. His work is interesting in its own right, but if you want to understand Jung, I would just go ahead and read Jung, and maybe some of his personal students like Marie-Louise von Franz. In addition to the book Ev recommended, I would definitely add The Psychology of C.G. Jung by Jolande Jacobi, which I have quoted here. Jacobi was another personal student of Jung's. But the single best introduction to Jung's life and work is his "autobiography," Memories, Dreams, Reflections. |
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