ECSTASY AND DIVINATION Since the sacred, the divine, always appears as out of the ordinary and wholly other, the overwhelming experiences of a changed and extended consciousness are, if not the sole origin, at least one of the most essential supports of religion. The experience may rest on natural disposition, acquired technique, or the influence…
Symbols of the Mother and of Rebirth The vision that follows the birth of the hero is described by Miss Miller as a “swarm of people.” We know that this image symbolizes a secret, or rather, the unconscious. The possession of a secret cuts a person off from his fellow human beings. Since it is…
The Collective Unconscious, Instinct and Archetype, and Archetypal Images for the Theory of Synchronicity Jung’s project on synchronicity as a meaningful coincidence dates from 1925 to 1939 during which he opened a series of seminars at the Psychological Club in Zurich. It is from this period that his theory of synchronicity becomes a major part…
The Value and Meaning of Depression by M. Esther Harding It is some years now, since I began collecting material about the Wilderness, which is perhaps the most apt symbol for depression. It symbolizes a psychological condition or experience when one has the feeling of being in a desert place or in a wilderness—a feeling…
Marie-Louise von Franz: Archetypal Dimensions of the Psyche [The Self] When a person has inwardly struggled with his anima or with her animus for a sufficiently long time and has reached the point where he or she is no longer identified with it in an unconscious fashion, the unconscious once again takes on a new…