Another useful analogy to the modern psychological Gnostic process is the fourfold structure of the classical Greek drama
This process of confrontation and experience has been characterized-once again by Jung himself-as a “Gnostic process”.
Another useful analogy to the modern psychological Gnostic process is the fourfold structure of the classical Greek drama: agone or contest; pathos or defeat; threnos, or lamentation; and theophania, or a divinely accomplished redemption.
It is significant to note that, of the four stages of development, only the fourth and last may be described as pleasant and joyous, while the other three are characterized by struggle, defeat and mourning. Is this pessimism?
Yes, but by no means a hopeless, despairing pessimism.
The pessimistic view of the present existential condition of the soul or psyche is more than compensated by the hope of the potential ultimate denuhent of wholeness and redemption.
Similarly, in the classical ancient form of Gnosticism, the so-called cosmic pessimism (recognition of the existential evils of life in the cosmos) was set off against the glorious eschatological vision of the liberation of the soul from the bonds of darkness, oppression and ignorance and its reunion with the Pleroma, the transcendental fullness of being.
Philosophers may argue endlessly and theologians may speculate fruitlessly about the abstract issues of the goodness or evil of the created world, but the psychologist has little reason to doubt that the psyche aspiring toward wholeness must first experience keenly and fully those unpleasant existential conditions of alienation and darkness which alone may convince it of the true necessity for growth.
The sick person unaware of his or her illness is less likely to seek for means of healing than someone who experiences the symptoms of the disease.
As Buddha taught suffering and the cessation of suffering, so Jungian psychological teaching recognizes that those unaware of suffering are much more likely to have their development arrested at the level of shallow, personalistic concerns than their fellows who are aware of the facts of suffering.
The neurotic personality, resentful and fearful of the growing pains of the soul, tends to seek refuge in self-deception and thus frequently convinces itself that growth is really unnecessary, for things are quite satisfactory just as they are at present. ― C.G. Jung, The Gnostic Jung, Page 40
