The path to individuation and self-discovery
By Konstantinos Fytopoulos
It was a sunny summer morning. Tall pine trees cast thick shadows around me, the clusters of their needles swaying, each to its own indefinable rhythm. A pleasant breeze was blowing as I sat on a bench in Katerini Park with my leg in a plaster cast, unable to accept the difficulty in moving that had unexpectedly arisen. I was gazing at the pine trees, feeling their peace, their soft and still rhythms, their different place in time. At some point, I got up and lazily, went to the nearby library. On my left, next to the door, I “noticed” nearly all the translated works of Carl Jung for the first time. My contact with Jung and the systems of inner development, began here 25 years ago.
Until recently, the matter of a person’s inner or mental development was the exclusive domain of schools of esoterism and religion. Certainly, when we say “religion” we do not mean its external and for many people, its cosmic organization, but its internal dimension, its inner character, which is usually transferred through personal experience from the teacher to the student, from the master to the neophyte, from the elder to the young.
Jung stumbled upon this human mental development and transformation in his attempt to explore and shed light on the contents of the unconscious, through another very different approach, the methods of psychology and science.
The ultimate drive
Psychology is a relatively new science, with only one hundred years of existence. It dates back to the beginning of the 1900s with Freud's publication of the ‘Interpretation of Dreams’ and in effect, the discovery of the unconscious – that unknown area of our being that unconsciously affects our actions, our feelings and our deepest thoughts, that distant area full of repressed fears, unfulfilled hopes and forbidden desires…
Freud described it as the area of primal desire, (especially sexual desire), which the conscious mind considers unacceptable and chooses to repel. Furthermore, according to Freud, the basic instinct that stimulates our psychic economy is the sexual instinct. At the beginning of the Psychoanalytic Movement, some of his students diversified regarding this assumption. Adler believed that the human primal instinct is the propensity and desire for enforcement, dominance and power. The instincts mentioned above, which we clearly share with the animal kingdom and are essential to the evolution of the species and our personal survival, are, according to the modern Swiss mystic and psychologist Manuel Schoch, linked to the hormone-dependent emotions of aggressiveness and fear.
Jung (1875-1961), however, discovered an additional drive, more important than the previous two and characteristic of the anthropos (ano-throskon) human: the instinct for attainment, personal fulfilment and completeness. A particularly powerful drive in some people that compels them not to fear the effort or sacrifice involved in the search for the real self in its entirety - a quest for true identity, a drive that directs and transforms fast hormone-dependent responses into diametrically slow emotions: internal peace, happiness, ecstasy, blessedness and selfless love (Manuel Schoch).
The need for individuation
Much has been said and written recently about concepts such as self-realization, personal fulfilment and development of consciousness, but what exactly is this “consciousness” that is subject to development? What is the “self” that needs to be realized? Is my “self” something that already exists, or something arising during the course of my life? Does it require some active effort on my part, or is it a natural development like the maturity of the body or the growth of a tree?
The more one focuses on such concepts, the more nebulous and elusive they become. These questions were central to Jung’s speculation. In his early years as a psychiatrist, Jung worked in a Swiss mental institution. While working there, mainly with psychotic patients, he made the surprising discovery that his patients’ fantasies and hallucinations had similarities with ancient myths! Remarkably, it was in most cases impossible for his patients to have heard or read something relevant to those myths.
How could such a coincidence be explained? Jung discovered that there is an unconscious area in the human psyche containing global symbols from religions and from ancient and modern myths. He called this area the collective unconscious. The symbols in this area are generated by forces (or unconscious entities) common in all humans, the well-known “archetypes”. In some way, our collective unconscious constitutes an area-network where all of us interconnect with each other, as well as with the source of our Existence.
Most schools of psychotherapy seek to rid patients of psychopathological problems and offer them a more balanced life, something that is totally legitimate and useful, of course. However, according to Jung, if we do not find meaning in our personal lives, we essentially can be neither healthy nor complete, because what one considers as “I”, does not correspond to the wholeness of the self. It is nothing but a very small part of it, something like the tip of the iceberg, the biggest part of which is under the sea. The life one leads is usually oriented only towards the desires of the superficial “ego”, the everyday self with its varied “wants” and “don’t wants”, ignoring the callings of the inner self. In this case, the more one moves away from the real self and the dynamic hidden within, the more the unconscious, through the body, (they both have physical substance), tries to return one to his or her own personal path.
The development of one's capacity for personal development, the entire process of broadening the personal consciousness, is termed individuation by Jung and is compared to the unfolding and gradual growth of a tree. However, like the seeds of a tree that are not all going to grow and become trees, not all psyches will reach their individuation and “blossom”.
The ability of individuation exists in the symbols of transformation, which are capable of bringing one into contact with his or her internal source (the “Id” according to Jung’s terminology, the “Atman” according to the Indian or the “Tao” according to the Chinese tradition). These symbols exist, but are deeply hidden. “Nature loves to hide”, said Heraclitus and it rather has its reasons… They are the same reasons that, according to Gurdjieff, make the access of the ordinary perfunctory man to the upper centres impossible. The shadow, like another distorting mirror, removes the unholy.
The meeting with the shadow
There is a popular saying that one can easily see his neighbour's hump but not his own. One recognizes the other's mistakes and flaws, expresses indignation and anger and… rests content! However, this happens because all these are pieces of that person's own unconscious entity, which is why he or she becomes so emotionally involved when projecting them onto someone else. Of course, the one attracting someone else’s projection obviously possesses these qualities as well. It works, as Jung says, like a hook that brings the contents of the other person’s shadow to the surface from their dark refuge. On the other hand, no one can claim effort toward self-knowledge and not recognize what takes place when transferring his or her own characteristics onto others, or when ignoring them. It is no coincidence that the most severe accusers are the alleged "innocent ones", i.e. those who are unable, or do not want to see their hump.
The shadow is not necessarily equated with Evil or the Devil, it simply includes all those personal characteristics that we cannot accept as ours. An objective look would reveal that the shadow includes important qualities that for some reason, we do not allow ourselves to have. Because it is manifested mainly as a projection and remains (an unconscious) shadow, it is somehow the guard at the gate to our inner treasure. Therefore, when we recognize it and accept it, it can become an ally.
Jung, in his works “Answer to Job”, “Aion, the Sign of the Fishes” and the “Archetype of Wholeness“, investigated the shadow's cosmological and collective dimensions. Even so, he could see the answer in the individual expansion of the consciousness and individuation. That is why the unconscious is neither a threat nor a cause for fear. It is the fountain of life, both for the individual and the nations of the world. The hazards that someone who attempts the journey to self-discovery will encounter are real, yet, what really matters is the experience. Only when someone falls into “ditches” during this internal journey, not once but repeatedly, does one come to realize his or her existence. As Ibsen observed, “There is always a risk in being alive, and if you are more alive, there is more risk”, but danger has a purpose here. It is Rumi’s “bewilderment” (sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment), or the “insecurity” of time therapy.
Man learns through disappointment and by giving up certainty and the illusion of knowledge and control, regains the freshness of innocence and child-like wonder. He regains the ability to experience the (external and internal) world directly, now liberated from the distorting mirror of judgment, comparison, interpretation, description and categorization. The internal journey does not consist only of hazards of course. It has stops and changes that transform it. This profound experiment leads to a “rich life”, a different quality of existence that begins egocentrically, but evolves in due course on a different level.
The inner opposite sex
When we come face to face with our shadow during the journey to our own individuation, (it should be noted that this is a life’s work), we eventually face another archetype of our personal unconscious. We meet the inner woman in the case of a man and the inner man in the case of a woman…
The function of the unconscious in relation to the conscious is compensatory. Therefore, since the characteristics of our sex are dominant in the conscious, the characteristics of the opposite sex are dominant in the unconscious. Jung wrote, “in the unconscious of every man, there is hidden a feminine personality and in that of every woman, a masculine personality”, terming these hidden personalities Anima and Animus respectively.
The archetypes of Animus and Anima appear in the conscious either as projection or as identification. When projected onto a real person of the opposite sex, we have the so-called love at first sight. Anima is what we would call the ideal image that a man has of a woman. With her negative aspect, she personifies immorality, the femme fatale who “leads a man by the nose” using her charm. Stories and themes of the film industry are full of such figures. The 1930 German film, The Blue Angel, directed by Josef von Sternberg, presents a strict professor's love for a cabaret singer. The singer uses her charm to humiliate the professor, while her positive side is that of a muse, an ideal woman. She is Dante’s Beatrice, the goddess Isis in Apuleius’ dream, Sulamith from The Song of Songs.
Animus respectively appears in women’s dreams or projections as the knight, the athletic thrill-seeker, the charming bandit and even the dangerous figure, like Bluebeard who secretly killed his wives. The positive side of Animus personifies the spirit of initiative, courage and honesty. His negative side personifies stubbornness, adherence to strict ideas and inflexibility. In all cases, Animus and Anima are demonic, transcendental forms rather than human. The process of individuation follows the path stricken by internal conflict.
Jung understood that the solution is not found in the dominance of one side of the conflict, or suppression of the conflict, but in the reconciliation of opposites, the “coniunctio oppositorum” (conjunction of opposites), a kind of internal “sacred marriage”. It concerns the emergence of a third force that surpasses the conjunction of opposites, a transformational power. Unity with the internal woman and the internal man respectively, requires the withdrawal of the Animus’s or Anima’s projections onto others and the release from identification with them.
Whenever this creative integration occurs and is maintained, a new type of energy flows. This does not mean that persons in whom this energy flows, lead a peaceful life. On the contrary, they are obliged to struggle and endure like ordinary people, perhaps more than before. They do not however struggle in vain. New and creative sources of activity emerge from deep within and throughout this struggle, the person realizes that he or she functions like a channel through which “creative waters “ run and are channelled toward life.
The meeting with the Self
Unified with the internal man or woman, respectively, the woman can now embrace the characteristics of power, decisiveness and courage, which until now she had projected toward men, while the man can achieve the feminine qualities of receptiveness and flexibility, the unconscious thereby changing and presenting itself in the form of symbols of the Self.
The Self, the deepest cell of the psyche, in a woman’s dreams takes the form of a supreme female being: a priestess, a sorceress, a goddess, etc. In a man’s dreams, it can take the form of a wise old man, a guru, a hierophant, etc. More rarely, It can take the form of a helping animal from a fairy tale, a rock, or a precious stone. The connection between the Self (the deepest cell of the psyche) and the Philosopher’s Stone of the alchemists is apparent here. Morienus, the Arab alchemist says “For this matter [the Philosopher’s Stone] comes from you, who are yourself its source, where it is found and whence it is taken [by the alchemists], and when you see this, your zeal for it will increase. Consider this, and you will find that it is true”.
The Self appears in the form of the Cosmic Man in many legends and religious teachings as a divine and helpful power. The Mystics of the East and the Gnostics of the West knew that it was more of an inner psychic representation than an objective reality. According to an Indian tradition, it lives within man and is his only claim to immortality. This inner Greater Man leads the person out of the created world in order to restore the eternity of the primordial sphere. However, the inner Man can only assume his redemptive role when man acknowledges him and welcomes his guidance after awakening from his sleep.
The Cosmic Man represents the ultimate purpose in life according to many legends, the reason for Creation’s existence. Meister Eckhart writes, “The inner nature of all grain is wheat, of all metal gold, of all birth man”. Despite its exaggeration, this definition reflects a psychological reality to the extent that external reality exists with regard to a conscious that perceives and illuminates it as such. In the West, the Cosmic Man was often identified as being one with Christ, or with Krishna or Buddha in the East. At other times, however, the Self takes the form of the Hermaphrodite or Divine Couple.
The best-known image of the Self and the one that particularly appealed to Jung is the Mandala. In Sanskrit Mandala means sacred circle. It is something more than a circle, though. Jung says, “There are countless variants of this pattern… but all of them are based on the squaring of the circle… It is a kind of a central point, to which everything is related, within the psyche, where everything is in order and which is an energy source in itself”.
The “squaring of the circle”, one of the old, unresolved mathematical problems, here symbolizes the incarnation of man’s divine nature in materiality. If the archetype of the Self appears in one’s personal life, (usually in the second half of one's life), it offers a source of meaning for existence and life. The path to individuation is of course not determined linearly as presented for descriptive purposes. No one can say, “I am now individuated, I am moving on to the next stage”. No. It is a constant communication with the depth of the unconscious, with our total self. Either the symbols emerge spontaneously or they don’t emerge at all. Comprehending these transformative symbols is an important part of the journey. If this is missing, then although we will see the person mature, possibly harmonizing the mental attitude regarding his or her self, it will not be a conscious process. The crucial stages of the journey are usually accompanied by “synchronistic” events that help one connect his or her internal and external life.
Finally, we must point out that individuation is a highly personal matter and this is why it is alive. Any imitation destroys it, whereas the correlation with true experience and personal authenticity awakens it.
And in closing, a passage from Jung himself: “People living in cultures more securely rooted than our own have less trouble in understanding that it is necessary to give up the utilitarian attitude of conscious planning in order to make way for the inner growth of the personality. I once met an elderly lady who had not achieved much in her life, in terms of outward achievement. But she had in fact made a good marriage with a difficult husband, and had somehow developed into a mature personality. When she complained to me that she had not 'done' anything in her life, I told her a story related by a Chinese sage, Chuang-Tzu. She understood immediately and felt great relief.
This is the story:
A wandering carpenter, called Stone, saw on his travels a gigantic old oak tree standing in a field near an earth-altar. The carpenter said to his apprentice, who was admiring the oak: 'This is a useless tree! If you wanted to make a ship, it would soon rot; if you wanted to make tools, they would break. You can’t do anything useful with this tree, and that’s why it has become so old.'
But in an inn, that same evening, when the carpenter went to sleep, the old oak tree appeared to him in his dream and said: 'Why do you compare me to your cultivated trees such as whitethorn, pear, orange, and apple trees, and all the others that bear fruit? Even before they can ripen their fruit, people attack and violate them. Their branches are broken, their twigs are torn. Their own gifts bring harm to them, and they cannot live out their natural span. That is what happens everywhere, and that is why I have long since tried to become completely useless. You poor mortal! Imagine if I had been useful in any way, would I have reached this size? Furthermore, you and I are both creatures, and how can one creature set itself so high as to judge another creature? You useless mortal man, what do you know about useless trees?'
The carpenter woke up and meditated upon his dream, and later, when his apprentice asked him why just this one tree served to protect the earth-altar, he answered 'Keep your mouth shut! Let’s hear no more about it! The tree grew here on purpose because anywhere else people would have ill-treated it. If it were not the tree of the earth-altar, it might have been chopped down.'
The carpenter obviously understood this dream. He saw that simply to fulfil one’s destiny is the greatest human achievement and that our utilitarian notions have to give way in the face of the demands of our unconscious psyche. If we translate this metaphor into psychological language, the tree symbolizes the process of individuation, giving a lesson to our short-sighted ego.”
C.G. Jung: Gesammelte Werke, Valter verlag Olten, Sw
Dawn Kolokithas: Symbols of Transformation, Journal Gnosis No. 10
Marie-Louise von Franz: The process of Individuation, Arsenidi
P.W. Martin: Experiment in Depth, Spageiria
Carl G. Jung: Four Archetypes, Iamvlichos
Manuel Schoch: Healing with Qualities
Manuel Schoch: Frei Sein
George Gurdjieff: All and Everything
Konstantinos Fytopoulos
