Carl Jung – Retrospective from Memories, Dreams and Reflections
Memories, Dreams, Reflections Publisher
More than twenty years earlier (in 1918), in the course of my investigations of the collective unconscious, I discovered the presence of an apparently universal symbol of a similar type the mandala symbol.
To make sure of my case, I spent more than a decade amassing additional data, before announcing my discovery for the first time. The mandala is an archetypal image whose occurrence is attested throughout the ages. It signifies the wholeness of the self.
This circular image represents the wholeness of the psychic ground or, to put it in mythic terms, the divinity incarnate in man. In contrast to Boehme’s mandala, the modern ones strive for unity; they represent a compensation of the psychic cleavage, or an anticipation that the cleavage will be surmounted.
Since this process takes place in the collective unconscious, it manifests itself everywhere. The worldwide stories of the UFOs are evidence of that; they are the symptom of a universally present psychic disposition. ~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections.
The natural function of the animus ( as well as of the*anima ) is to remain in [their] place between individual consciousness and the collective unconscious [q.v.]; exactly as the persona [q.v.] is a sort of stratum between the ego-consciousness and die objects of the external world. The animus and the anima should function as a bridge, or a door, leading to the images of the collective unconscious, as the persona should be a sort of bridge into the world.” (Unpublished) ~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections, Retrospective.
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