This is a topic every human being seems to have to come to terms with! And it is a tricky one for the ego (who we think we are and bears our name) to deal with because if we have a strong sense of self worth, we may feel guilty of inflation, and if we have a lack of it, we feel defeated and useless and unappreciated. So what is the solution?
There is one! Jung likened the psyche to a mandala, a circle, and every circle has a center and a circumference.
• Every circle can be made bigger or smaller.
• The center generates the circle.
• That center is the SELF; it is a hole in the wheel through which Spirit shines and gives us life.
The first dream I had of Jung, years ago, we were walking in a wood. He had a cane and poked it in the ground making a circular hole. Then he remarked in German, “Ein Loch ist auch eine Mandala.” [A hole is also a mandala.] Needless to say, I didn’t get the meaning right off, but it made sense later on. That image is very helpful, because if the psyche can be represented symbolically as a mandala, then the ego is a point on the circumference, and we even have the expression “to keep going around in circles!”
So what gives us our Self Worth is the Spirit shining through our center. The problem is it dwells in the Unconscious!! Aaargh!
But this is logical, bear with me. What is missing so far is the line connecting the ego (me) with the center, the radius. However, there is one: The Only Way. We now have a Jungian psychological trinity.
In Christian terms:
• The center hole – God, the Father – the individual Self
• The X on the circumference – the Son – the individual Ego
• The radius – the Holy Spirit – the connecting individual, the “Only Way” between the two.
(Another term for the Holy Spirit is the Paraclete meaning Comforter!! This is a positive feminine energy, a theological upgrade of the archetypal Fairy Godmother. Her name gives her away!)
The purpose of the following diagram is to help make conscious what is essentially an unconscious process!
The only part of us that is conscious is our ego, the part that we call by our name and that is exposed both to the outer world through our persona and to our inner world which we encounter both by intuition and our dream life. The persona is the actor’s clothing! We are constantly changing as we encounter a parent, a colleague, a lover, a salesman, a stranger, etc. This just happens automatically as the ego faces the outer world of relationships! At the end of the day or in meditation, we are given the opportunity of confronting the question of the mystery of who we really are! The answer, I suspect is the Self at the center that allows Spirit to incarnate in any unique individual. I hope this makes sense!
lovingly,
ao
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