via jung depth psychology
The numinous experience of the individuation process is, on the
archaic level, the prerogative of shamans and medicine men; later, of
the physician, prophet, and priest; and finally, at the civilized stage,
of philosophy and religion.
The shaman’s experience of sickness, torture, death, and regeneration
implies, at a higher level, the idea of being made whole through
sacrifice, of being changed by transubstantiation and exalted to the
pneumatic man in a word, of apotheosis.
The Mass is the summation and quintessence of a development which
began many thousands of years ago and, with the progressive broadening
and deepening of consciousness, gradually made the isolated experience
of specifically gifted individuals the common property of a larger
group.
The underlying psychic process remained, of course, hidden from view
and was dramatized in the form of suitable “mysteries” and “sacraments”
these being reinforced by religious teachings, exercises, meditations,
and acts of sacrifice which plunge the celebrant so deeply into the
sphere of the mystery that he is able to become conscious of his
intimate connection with the mythic happenings.
Thus, in ancient Egypt,we see how the experience of “Osirification,”
originally the prerogative of the Pharaohs, gradually passed to the
aristocracy and finally, towards the end of the Old Kingdom, to the
single individual as well.
Similarly, the mystery religions of the Greeks, originally esoteric
and not talked about, broadened out into collective experience, and at
the time of the Caesars it was considered a regular sport for Roman
tourists to get themselves initiated into foreign mysteries.
Christianity, after some hesitation, went a step further and made
celebration of the mysteries a public institution, for, as we know, it
was especially concerned to introduce as many people as possible to the
experience of the mystery.
So, sooner or later, the individual could not fail to become
conscious of his own transformation and of the necessary psychological
conditions for this, such as confession and
repentance of sin.
The ground was prepared for the realization that, in the mystery of
transubstantiation, it was not so much a question of magical influence
as of psychological processes a
realization for which the alchemists
had already paved the way by putting their opus operatum at least on a
level with the ecclesiastical mystery, and even attributing to it a
cosmic significance since, by its means, the divine world-soul could be
liberated from imprisonment in matter.
As I think I have shown, the “philosophical” side of alchemy is
nothing less than a symbolic anticipation of certain psychological
insights, and these to judge by the example of Gerhard Dorn were pretty
far advanced by the end of the sixteenth century.
63 Only our intellectualized age could have been so deluded as to see
in alchemy nothing but an abortive attempt at chemistry, and in the
interpretative methods of modern psychology a mere “psychologizing,”
i.e., annihilation, of the mystery.
Just as the alchemists knew that the production of their stone was a
miracle that could only happen “Deo concedente,” so the modern
psychologist is aware that he can produce no more than a description,
couched in scientific symbols, of a psychic process whose real nature
transcends consciousness just as much as does the mystery of life
or of matter.
At no point has he explained the mystery itself, thereby causing it to fade.
He has merely, in accordance with the spirit of Christian tradition,
brought it a little nearer to individual consciousness, using the
empirical material to set forth the individuation process and show it as
an actual and experienceable fact.
To treat a metaphysical statement as a psychic process is not to say
that it is “merely psychic,” as my critics assert in the fond belief
that the word “psychic” postulates
something known.
It does not seem to have occurred to people that when we say “psyche”
we are alluding to the densest darkness it is possible to imagine.
The ethics of the researcher require him to admit where his knowledge comes to an end.
This end is the beginning of all wisdom. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, Pages 294-296, Para 448.
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