Carl Jung: “There is another way in nature, the way of a tree
C.G. Jung Letters, Vol. 1: 1906-1950
Often we are led to a wall, it is too high, we cannot get over it and we stand there and stare at it.
Rationalism says, “There is no getting over it, just go away.”
Yet natural development has led the patient up to an almost impossible situation to show him that this is the end of his rational solutions.
It is meant that he should get there, and perhaps stay there, make roots and grow like a tree; in time overcome the obstacle, grow over the wall.
There are things in our psychology that cannot be answered today.
You may be up against a stone wall but you should stay there and grow, and in six weeks or a year you have grown over it.
The I Ching expresses that beautifully.
A similar situation which looks quite hopeless is depicted thus: “a goat butts against a hedge and gets its horns entangled.”
But in the next line: “The hedge opens; there is no entanglement/ Power depends upon the axle of a big cart.”
So if you could stop butting against the fence you would not get your horns entangles, and presently you would have the power of a cart with four wheels.
There is another way in nature, the way of a tree…The tree stands still and grows and makes roots and eventually overcomes the obstacle. C.G. Jung. The Seminars. Volume One, Dream Analysis: Notes of the seminar given in 1928-30. p.249
