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"waking" life). In some dreams the dreamer takes an active part and himself participates in the play. Often he represents himself (the ego), but sometimes he may take the part of one of the archetypes. In such a role he may do many things that he ordinarily cannot do (like flying through the air), or that he would not do (like murder), and can experience great successes and great failures. Proper analysis and reflection upon these plays can lead us to greater self-understanding, and also to inner growth. To do this requires some understanding of ancient symbolism, however. Our dream figures do not always appear as cowboys and bandits and other easily recognized figures. Often they appear as ancient or archaic images. Dr. Jung s dream analysis rests upon his postulation anent the arche-types, where he often associates dream symbolism with the symbolism of ancient cults. Arriving thus at his abstract conclusions we see why these have served to baffle many of the more orthodox psychologists of our day, and why they would be inclined to think of Dr. Jung as being mystical. His conclusions about this do, however, agree in the main with the teachings of the Mystical Qabalah, and other genuine occult systems. One of the structures Jung finds in the psyche he calls the Persona. This, he says, is the mask the self-conscious personality wears to meet the exigencies of its world. If the personality becomes totally identified with the Persona it becomes a "grown on" mask that thereby rules and dominates the true personality. This results in the conscious mind being cut off from, and therefore unable to recognize the inferior element or function, which Jung calls the Shadow. (In occult terms the true personality would be the "unit of incarnation," and the Persona would be the conditioning, mores, etc., that this personality becomes identified with, including one s position in life-doctor, lawyer, merchant chief, butcher, baker, candlestick maker, to quote from the old nursery rhyme.) Jung s shadow archetype would equate with the Dweller on the Threshhold of occultism one s inferior proclivities hidden in the unconscious. The cutting off of this element from consciousness, as the "good" Christian in particular does, results in psychic eruptions that must (due to their subconscious origin) be projected onto one s world. In terms of current psychology, the Persona is the role which a person plays, the major or predominant role. Most people have several roles to play: businessman by day, boy-scout leader at night, church-elder on Sunday, etc. Most of us are aware of these roles and can play them without becoming fully identified with them. That is, we are aware that we are playing a role, and do not fully believe that we are what we are playing at being. This does not mean that we are not serious in our play; we can be deadly serious. But we do not intend to become one of those roles for 24 hours a day. In fact we usually cannot keep it up for 24 hours. This is the success of the "marathon therapy" currently in vogue; it wears down the Persona which a person cannot maintain, and it then permits the personality to emerge. The fact that such large numbers of people profit from this therapy suggests that very few of us ever show our real selves in public. But the ease with which the person may be unmasked (by sheer 24 hour endurance) also shows that marathon therapy is not dealing with the psychological depths, but only with the most superficial aspect of the psyche. Anyone who is able (or rather willing) to drop his mask at will is neither frightened by such therapy nor helped by it. The personality is the "it" which knows that it is the businessman, the boy-scout leader, and the church elder all together and is also "itself," Harry, who once fenced hot goods to work his way through college and who has a secret passion for the poetry of Keats. Harry is the unifying intelligence which keeps all the others together, and the danger comes only when he forgets he is Harry and starts to believe that he is one of Harry s roles, like Mr. Business man. If he comes to believe that he is Mr. Businessman to the exclusion of all the rest, then the other parts of Harry become repressed and have no chance to live. Living unconsciously, they will turn mean and nag him. Mr. Businessman comes to dominate Harry, and will not let him remember that he was once a fence. This is how the Shadow becomes totally split off from consciousness. Not that the Shadow is conscious, by any means. But most of us are aware to some extent of our own failings and shortcomings, of our Mr. Hyde. It is only when we will not own up to being bad, even to ourselves, even in darkest night, that we are in deep trouble psychologically. When this happens, we can do nothing but project this dark side onto the world and begin to see horrible criminals on every side, threatening our own false goodness. When this happens on a mass level the world turns to witch-hunting, an event as common today as it was in ages past. Witch-hunts inevitably follow ages of spiritual purity, for a witch-hunt is the ultimate in holier- than-thou-ness. The individual, or society, is constantly oscillating between projecting his better self onto the world and projecting his lesser self. These are but two aspects or sides to life, though manifesting as separate in time. Life experiences alternate in this cyclic fashion, back and forth, back and forth, forever and ever. This forms the basis of the Hindu concept of the cyclic rhythms of the cosmos, whereas we in the West tend to view everything in a straight line: progress onward and upward and things getting better and better every day. The fact that we have wars and peace in quite regular rhythms does not dissuade us from this linear way of thinking, but if there is progress to be had, it would appear from the evidence of psychology and occult science that it is only the cycle itself which progresses. For the individual person, the period or length of time between the "highs" and "lows" gets progressively shorter as psychological unity (Individuation or Adepthood) is approached. For modem nations the period seems, at least in our known history, to be about twenty years. A war (with inflation) followed by a period of peace (with a depression) and again followed by a war, the whole sequence taking about twenty years. For ordinary man the period is somewhat shorter, maybe fourteen years, with seven "good" years followed by seven "bad" years in a continuing pattern throughout his life. As with nations, the period is so long that it is usually not recognized as being part of a cycle and therefore not dealt with or adapted to. For an Initiate, the period begins to shorten radically, to months and then to weeks. As he begins to work at becoming conscious, the two sides of himself start to assert themselves with increasing frequency until angel and devil (Christ and anti-Christ) are battling it out together, each demanding control of the personality. When the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |