Welcome to episode 2 of our 8 part series
from 6senses.nz
Carl Gustav Jung wrote that modern man feels
himself isolated in the cosmos.
This is because he is no longer involved in
nature.
This is our contemporary dilemma.
Humanity has degraded the environment.
The natural world is stretched to breaking
point.
Why did we do it?
And why do we keep on doing it?
Largely because we dont know how to live as
an animal.
Both science and religion have done this.
Philosophy also.
In science we were taught to see ourselves
as the pinnacle of evolution.
We have a unique capacity for thought and
reason.
This allows us to control the natural world.
We find a similar concept expressed in the
Old Testament.
In Psalm 8 we hear that the humanity is only
a little lower than the angels.
We are also crowned with glory.
Humanity has dominion over the animals.
The Greek philosophers also expressed this
view.
Man is the measure of all things.
We can say this is a powerful expression of
logos.
Logos is usually translated as word but with
a capital W.
It means much more than just word or words.
It means a way of organising and relating
and ordering.
Today we call it left brain thinking.
But it was not only the ancient Greeks philosophers
at fault.
Descartes rather famously said I think
therefore I am.
He also proposed that animals do not have souls.
They are incapable of experiencing anguish
and pain as humans do.
All of these ideas are the product of human
reasoning about the human condition.
In a nut shell they convey a sense of Logos.
Jung believed the Logos embedded a fundamental
error.
It denies us finding our true place in the
world.
He asked are we really the pinnacle of evolution?
His answer was no.
We are not the pinnacle.
He felt that African mythology is nearer the
truth about humanity.
The elephant is at the top then the lion crocodile
and then the human and other creatures.
In Jung's mind quote
the animal is more pious than man unquote
That is quite striking.
Why is the animal more pious than the man?
Because it finds its life and destiny without
effort.
The animal does not need to wonder about its
existence.
It is its existence.
Christianity by and large no longer talks
about our animal side.
Instead it has concentrated its approach on
the idea we are spiritual beings on a journey
through life.
Life is the journey and heaven is our final
resting place.
It still resonates with many Christians today.
But Jung saw a different sun and moon when
he stood on African soil.
Astarte the moon goddess glowed in the night
sky.
The Old Testament thundered against her that
she was an abomination.
The moment of insight came on the Athi Plains
in Africa 1925.
Let me paraphrase Jung.
It became clear to him that it was not I think
therefore but rather I am therefore.
Like Moses before the burning bush Jung was
found by the I am.
Or I will be what I will be.
From then on Jung travelled widely.
He was well versed in the myths and legends
of lands he visited.
His travels and studies gave rise to a startling
and transformative truth to him.
The myths of the world conveyed rich and deep
symbolism.
In them were images of what it means for the
human creature to beconnected to all nature,
all life.
And he was startled to realise it was from
this inner world that we are now adrift.
And, being cut off from the myths which nurture
our inner life, we have become flat.
Without the myths that nurture us we are one
dimensional creatures without a soul.
In 1937 Jung was invited by the British Indian
government to to visit India.
This was to be the last of Jung's major explorations
of myths in the context of place.
The Hindu religion is, of course, polytheistic,
acknowledging many gods.
It is also a religion which puts syncretism
at the centre.
Syncretism is an unusual concept.
It has a great and unacknowledged occurrence
in Christianity.
The church refuses to talk about it but it
happens.
All the time, in every age and era.
It involves fusing or uniting different and
often quite contradictory aspects of religion.
We can see this in many European cathedrals.
With delight the stone masons have carved
the Green Man into many a Christian pulpit
or sacred place.
The Green Man is the cult pagan figure of
the nature religions.
Syncretism was never a problem in India.
The Hindu religion relies on syncretism.
Local gods for local people.
In Hinduism the aim is to reach the state
of bliss.
There the self is absorbed into the Divine
so completely that personal consciousness
ceases.
And in Buddhist thought the aim is to free
oneself from the illusion of suffering.
Jung believed that suffering is real and must
be lived and must be lived through.
But Jung saw in India and Africa and America
what western Christianity had lost.
He asked what if western thought could find
a way of reconnecting to the myths which sprang
up from its soil, its context?
Then it would reconnect our lost inner life,
with our outer life.
In India he had one of the great dreams of
his life.
Its meaning was that his own personal work
was to now return to Europe.
The I-Ching, or Book of Changes, is an ancient
Chinese method of divination.
This means having knowledge of the future.
Orthodox Christianity is highly suspicious
of this.
It regards foreknowledge as dabbling in the
occult.
Science is also deeply suspicious of this.
Jung however was always deeply drawn to the
questions posed by these ideas.
Along with the Book of Changes he was steeped
in astrology, alchemy and the gnostic writings
from the early church era.
Its too easy to dismiss all of these as ancient
superstition.
Instead Jung read them as rich symbols springing
from the soils of our various myths.
He taught that life is lived through and in
these mythic symbols.
Quote.
When a man is fifty years old, only one part
of his being has existed for half a century.
The other part, which is also in his psyche,
may be millions of years old.
Unquote.
That other Jung started to map.
His tools were myths, symbols, dreams, divinations.
And all these were in union with the most
powerful analytical tool of western thought
the left brain.
Jungs vision was the exploration of inner
world or soul.
And how it related to the outer world.
Thus mythos and logos were both necessary
in our search for meaning.
Let me repeat Jung's astonishing insight.
When a man is fifty years old, only one part
of his being has existed for half a century.
The other part, which is also in his psyche,
may be millions of years old.
Thats food for much thought.
Thanks for watching.
Join me next week as we explore what Jung
meant by the term psyche or soul in our group
Practical Theological Reflection for Better
Daily Living.
