“The archetypes are, as it were, the hidden foundations of the conscious mind. Archetypes are systems of readiness for action, and at the same time images and emotions… They represent, on the one hand, a very strong instinctive conservatism, while on the other hand they are the most effective means conceivable of instinctive adaptation.”
“All human control comes to an end when the individual is caught up in a mass movement. Then the archetypes begin to function, as happens also in the lives of individuals when they are confronted with situations that cannot be dealt with in any of the familiar ways.”
“The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not?”
“The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it.”
“Individuation is thus naturally not only psychological, but also a religious process. They are organically intertwined. The “organic unity” of psychological and religious experiences, described by Dourly (1984), elevates, on one hand, an everyday being into a process of incarnation of the holy and on the other hand approximates the divine to the human doing away with its infinite remoteness and unattainability. Only if there is a “place” where a perceptual and experiential connection is possible is a pragmatic ground of Jungian inquiry justified. Our intentions here are equally practical: to explore various psychological processes identified as specifically religious and to reveal possible influences on human well-being if such processes reach dangerous levels of intensity. Jung (1940) famously said, “Wherever [the] unconscious reigns, there is bondage and possession” (p. 84). The absence of consciousness and the absence of unconsciousness or their mutual domination over the each-other are always obstacles for achieving happiness. It is the fine and fragile balance of both which protects us from fanatic entrapment on one hand and a feeling of spiritual desertion on the other.”
Vlado Šolc
