The Psychology of Individuation has nothing to do
with politics at all because it deals with the ultimate values. Yet it has
shattering political implications. We must demand psychological illumination otherwise;
we get people and nations sparring with their own shadows. (Like Nazi Germany in WWII.) Jung often said to
me, ‘The human being who starts by withdrawing his own shadow from his
neighbor, is doing work of immense immediate political and social importance.—Sir Laurens Van der Post
From a Jungian perspective most of
us give our attention away almost continuously to secular deities. In the world
today the two predominate secular deities are economics and politics. We hear
our daily sermons from the “expert” economists and politicians who say they
have answers. Although we are constantly reassured that these deities serve us
well we only have to look back to 2008 to see how vulnerable the world economy
is. The political scene is also in dire straights. As I write this President
Obama is preparing for a meeting with Israel’s’ Prime Minister Netanyahu on how
to deal with Iran’s nuclear weapons threat. As for our political commentators
there seems to be no limit to the absurdity. Rush Limbaugh’s comments this past
week are the latest case in point.
The Internet provides all of us with outrageous
access to all parts of the world. I suggest it may be a road around the programming
of fear that is the primary message of those who preach the gospel of the
secular deities. These political and
economic institutions have served most of us well. Yet, that they are crumbling
is obvious. So what is one to do?
Let’s go back to Van der Post’s plea for “illumination.”
Each of us can take charge of their own powers of attention and direct them to
the deeper, sacred aspects of the world. This begins by taking back the
rejected aspects of ourselves that Jung termed “the shadow.” This is something
we can all start doing right now regardless of our situation. Even short
periods of contemplation yield potent forces of change. Although this process
takes considerable moral fortitude the fruits of the quest, the development of
soul and spiritual capacities, may provide us a way out of the current
wasteland. The great scholar and mythologist Joseph Campbell gave the most
compelling definition of the wasteland to us. “The wasteland is a world where
people live not out of their own initiative but by doing what they think they
are supposed to do.” In the wasteland everyone is leading a false, inauthentic
life. The task of soul-spiritual development is to revivify the wasteland.
Consuming a steady stream of words and images from
the priests of the secular deities is, to borrow a phrase from the Brother’s Grimm,
like eating stale bread baked from ashes. Hasn’t this habit of consuming the
dusty sermons run its course? Jung was very pessimistic at the end of his life
and seemed to be captured by a dark apocalyptic vision of the future of
humankind. This quote seems to capture part of the essence of his message. “Not
nature, but the “genius of mankind” has knotted the hangman’s noose with which
it can execute itself at any moment.” None of us can know if this is yet
another example of Jung’s precognitive capacity. Yet, his call is for us to all
begin this process of individuation immediately. As Van der Post emphasized,
the work has “shattering political implications.”
To all of you out there the time for the cultivation
of soul spiritual capacities is now. Please share your ideas on appropriate
actions.
