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ARCHIVE.
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Blog
entries beginning with #101 are not essays but minimally-edited notes and
reviews from the files I've collected over the last few decades. I no longer
have the time and energy needed to sort out and put together into decent
essay-form the many varied ideas in these files, but I would like to share them
with all who are interested.
If
you have questions and think I might help, you're welcome to send me a
note: sam@macspeno.com
Post
#124 is some rough notes about an essay/talk by Jung's long-time assistance and
collaborator, Marie-Louise von Franz; it profoundly grabbed my attention back
around the same time (1996) as the Klaus Theweleit material I shared in the
previous post. The topics of the two posts-- the berserk and the berserk
transformed-- obviously go together.
===
These are
notes on an especially significant essay by Marie-Louise von Franz I found in a
collection of talks and essays from the 1980s entitled Human Survival and
Consciousness Evolution. [Edited by Stanislav Grof with the assistance of Marjorie Livingston
Valier. (State University of New York Press, 1988).]
The
essays are disturbing; there is much focus on nuclear war. But the essay by
Marie-Louise von Franz stands out.
It was
originally a talk, “The Transformed Berserk: Unification of Psychic Opposites,”
which she gave at a 1983 conference on "Individual Transformation and
Universal Responsibility."
The focus
of her essay is C. G. Jung's understanding of a vision experienced by the
little known 15th century Swiss figure, Nicholas von Flue. Referred to as
"Brother Klaus," he was a patriot and is patron saint of Switzerland.
I found it an amazingly profound essay and highly relevant to our contemporary
situation.
===
Summary.
Jung says there will always be leaders of society who like the media lime-light
(and who may or may not be responsible persons) and those who are leaders of
individuals (of souls, of inner work).
In 15th c
Europe, there was much political dissension and the church was falling apart,
all of which constellated a great need for inner guidance.
Nicholas
von Flue had led an active life involved in military and political activities
and was married with 10 kids; at the age of 50 he was called to become a
religious hermit, and at the age of 64 he politically saved Switzerland from
internal destruction and external extinction.
In his
vision, a pilgrim appeared to him. He “comes from the place where things dawn
on us.” The pilgrim changes first into a nobleman dressed in grey/blue,
"where Truth and people’s selfish dislike of it are manifest."
Then the
pilgrim becomes a bear with shining fur who, on departure, bows deeply and
humbly, manifesting great love, which Nicholas von Flue experiences as the
fulfillment of all satisfaction (“honey”).
Thus does
the Self appear, says Marie-Louise von Franz.
It comes
from where new-ness arises from the unconscious. Here, she says, the pilgrim is
Wotan, understood to mean Truth, absolute knowledge, objective love, the
interconnectedness of all reality, "honey."
The bear
is the dangerous, animal aspect of the Self. Her whole point is that the inner
union of this Christ (Wotan) Self and the shadow Bear allowed Nicholas von Flue
to influence external reality as well, thus making peace at a time of crisis
and saving Switzerland.
“To work
on oneself is also to have invisible and imperceptible influence on others.”
“If the sage, abiding in his room, speaks well, he meets with assent a thousand
miles away.”
These
ideas are accompanied by a diagram which tries to show how conscious events and
the personal unconscious are connected to larger psychic units such as the
family group, tribe, nation and ultimately the whole human race.
The
integrated Man (Self) in Nicholas von Flue’s vision is a version of the Whole
Christ image which according to Jung is a 2,000 year old unofficial development
in Christianity.
The
official image, as we know, incarnates only the light side of God. But a more
whole image is needed, which is why the anti-Christ image arose, says Jung. He
thinks that the image of the monstrous lamb in Revelations 5 and 6 indicates a rebirth
of a more complete Christ image; he also notes that the alchemists were
especially interested in it.
This
anti-Christ image, representing the animal, dark side and opposite of the
light, indicates aggression. When it is autonomous, i.e., unintegrated, it
produces world events like WW II.
Our job,
then (the job of contemporary humanity) says Jung, is to integrate it (the dark
side) “in our depression, in our hermitage.” Von Franz notes that if “we” means
personal consciousness, then it can't be done. “We” can’t do it. But the Self
can.
The best
“we” can do, she says, is to integrate our personal shadow. But we can be a
place where the divine opposites come together, “by enduring to absolute
extreme and accepting it within ourselves.”
In
alchemy, the dark/dangerous animal brings forth rose-hued blood, which she
interprets as the "honey" of cosmic love and the interrelatedness of
All.
When
integrated, the dark/dangerous animal no longer acts brutally or without
insight and enlightenment (not “behind their backs” or
"unconsciously").
Western
culture, says von Franz, needs to differentiate the Feeling function. Even our
Intuition function, she says, isn’t as undifferentiated as Feeling is in
Western society.
We have
to take back our projections (that what is true for me is also necessarily true
for you), especially between groups (“them” and "us"), and most
especially between male and female. Only then are relationships possible.
Relationships
require an optimal distance: closeness, but not so much as to intrude. Also
required: a profound respect for the “otherness” of the others.
Beyond
all this, there is yet something else: a personal link with selected others via
the Self: relating to the Self in others. This is a primal, spiritual,
immediate presence. Jung calls it an “eternal secret” and laments, “How shall I
ever speak of it?” (When have we ever seen Jung nearly speechless!)
Relationships
are the only compensation for the fragmentation of modern society. One unique
being relating to another... with warmth, humor, a twinkle in the eye.
The I
Ching says that a
person can either be an external hero or a holy sage in the hermitage. Thus,
says Marie-Louise, people felt Brother Klaus’ “honey” aspect and did not think
him mad.
In the
Great [i.e., "together"] Person, aggression is integrated and
transformed into a clearly defined separateness and firmness which does not
succumb to general paranoiac emotion. And this, says Jung, is “the only way to
avoid war.”
===
Some
personal reflections. An antiphon at Vespers for the First Sunday of Advent has
had immense numinosity for me for four decades. Only with my reading of this
essay have I understood why. "In that day, the mountains shall drop down
sweetness and the hills shall flow with milk and honey. Alleluia."
That our
personal development has cosmic implications is certainly not a new idea, but
this essay helps make more sense of it. As Jung says, “in my depression, in my
hermitage,” the dangerous, animal aspect must be integrated with the light. “By
enduring to absolute extreme and accepting it [the darkness] within myself,” I
can become a sacred place, a kiva, where the light and dark can come together.
The
result is interrelatedness.
So a
major problem of our day is differentiation of the Feeling function: taking
back our projections, especially between ethnic groups and most especially
between male and female, and having a profound respect for the otherness of
others: “right relationship” with “all my relations.”
By
enduring opposites within myself, I become a place from which lac et mel come forth, specifically the
sweetness and honey of profound mutual respect for the otherness of the
opposite sex.
The break
with nature is healed and sacred manhood recovered via my enduring alone in my
sadness, tears and grief, and accepting within myself, the absolute extreme of
the other. Not the dark, dangerous animal but the dark, dangerous
feminine/earth/unconscious.
As the
antiphon says, "In that day, the mountains shall drop down sweetness and
the hills shall flow with milk and honey. Alleluia!"
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