The acausal ordering principle underlying both, the psychical and physical worlds is regular and preset everywhere as Jung’s Unus Mundus. The synchronistic events are those instances in which this acausal order becomes visible to consciousness, i.e. it breaks into consciousness. Naturally, the question arises why we could not always experience the world in its acausal reality. As von Franz puts it: “Obwohl diese Akte wahrscheinlich ständig in der Natur geschehen, werden sie n

For Jung, the ego is a conglomerate of associated elements. These elements are organised in a linear structure which gains its coherence due to a central interpretative perspective provided by a central complex around which all elements gravitate which is referred to as the ego complex (Jung, 2019, pp. 354-356): One metaphor capturing this mechanism is to think of this central complex to be posing as the ambassador of all elements. Surely, this ambassador somehow represents w

It is confrontation with Chaos that triggers some change in the way one experiences oneself. Under normal conditions, the scripts people hold of themselves and their abilities can be projected onto the future. Such a projection creates a continuous image of one’s self through which actions in the present can be used to navigate towards future selves. In this sense, as will be elaborated on later in the book, individuals experience their identities as narrated entities that th

It is generally assumed that the Ark that we have introduced in the previous part of the book and the individual that seeks shelter inside it are two different entities. If we, however, think of the Ark as a metaphorical concept of the values framing a culture or an individual and the people inside the Ark as people living in that culture or adhering to its values, this differentiation becomes obsolete. We have to think of the Ark as narrated body, a body that is inhabited by

The article discusses literature's function as a vessel for mythical or 'sacred' transformation.

Part one of a five part excerpt from my book on the YiJing and DaoDeJing discussing the process of Ego sacrifice and Psychic dynamic.