HoroscopoDiario
When we observe the diagram above, we can see that the overall psyche – the main circle that encompasses all its other components – has been divided into two halves. The lower half is what we call the subconscious, while the upper half is known as the superconscious. Together, these two halves comprise what Jung referred to as the unconscious – the combined totality of all the elements of the psyche that are typically inaccessible to our everyday, conscious awareness, represented by the small circle at the center of our diagram.
The conscious mind is the interface through which we interact with the world around us, or, better yet, through which our inner world interacts with the outer world. It is what the alchemists refer to as sulphur – the individual soul, or personality, which is made up of our unique psychic constitution and our consciously held ideas, attitudes, beliefs, preferences, etc. To aid us in our understanding, we can think of it as a combination of the elements of fire and air. Simply put, it is what makes us ourselves as individuals, but it is also the point at which all three levels of consciousness converge and express themselves in the world of action.
The subconscious is made up of the elements of the psyche which lie below the threshold of consciousness, represented by the dividing line at the center of the diagram. The alchemists refer to it as salt – the innate wisdom of our body (earth) and its etheric substratum, from which our instincts and emotions arise (water). To better illustrate this point, think of a time when you experienced an emotion so profoundly that you literally felt it in your body. This can be considered a message from the subconscious, like a gut feeling that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up when you sense danger. More relevant to our purposes, however, the subconscious also encompasses the faculty of memory, which includes what early psychologists called the apperceptive mass – the sum total of our knowledge and learned experience, which is used as a reference point by which we interpret and judge new experiences. Those experiences that fit in with our conscious idea of self and the world at large are stored in a readily-accessible memory bank in the upper levels of the subconscious, but those that do not – especially those which are too painful for us to accept – are tucked away in a deeper layer through the mechanism of repression. This, as we will examine later, is the basis of the shadow. Beneath the shadow, in the deepest recesses of the subconscious, lies what has been termed the race memory – the sum total of humanity’s collective experience as a species, which may be passed on transgenerationally through our genetic material.
The superconscious is composed of the psychic elements which stand above the threshold of consciousness. In alchemical parlance, it is referred to as mercury – the spirit, or the fluid, vital essence of life that unites the individual soul (conscious)with the body (subconscious) and allows them to operate as one harmonious unit. We can also think of it as an expression of the combined forces of water and air. The superconscious is the point of origin for our concept of self. It holds our highest ideals and aspirations, as it is the driving force behind the faculty of will – our innate drive toward self-actualization. This is where the line between free will and determinism becomes increasingly blurred, and one’s own will is ultimately found to be an extension of what we think of as divine will, or True Will in Thelemic terms. As we progress along our path, the superconscious communicates with us through inspiration, intuition, and synchronicity – and the practices of meditation and divination help us to cultivate an open channel through which we can receive these messages more clearly and frequently. The upper stratum of superconsciousness is, by its very nature, incomprehensible to us, as it culminates in the point of union between subject and object, where the individual psyche dissolves into the collective unconscious, and, ultimately, into undifferentiated oneness.
The concept of archetypes has exploded in popularity in recent years, but our understanding of them has evolved since the early days of Jung and company. Today we view archetypes as primal, autonomous thoughtforms that exist as centers of potentiality within the collective unconscious and seek expression in our daily lives through the agency of the personal unconscious. To further illustrate this point, imagine a flashlight. An archetype can be likened to the potentiality of light that exists within the flashlight (the unconscious) rather than the physical manifestation of light it emits once it has been turned on (the conscious manifestation). They are the primordial causes behind the effects we witness in the world of action, or for our purposes, those that we observe in human behavior.
Archetypes seek expression through the mechanism of projection. When we have an experience, it is interpreted subconsciously through the apperceptive mass – the sum total of our learned experience – and we are impelled to respond according to our established relationship with the archetype that is activated thereby. If we have a good relationship with this archetype, our psyche will likely project a clear, positive image onto the experience, but if the relationship is strained, the archetype will be filtered through our distorted perception of it, and a negative image will be projected onto the experience. For our purposes, we can think of positive projections as rooted in the Self, and negative projections as a product of the shadow, but the truth is likely much more nuanced than that. In fact, positive projections can also go awry, such as when we project the image of the Self onto a guru or charismatic leader, rather than recognize that we too possess those qualities that we admire – they simply exist in an archetypal form within our own psyche, as they have yet to be actualized and integrated into our conscious perception of self, or our ego.
In the Jungian process of individuation – the progressive unfoldment of one’s innate potential – we often think of four primary archetypes – the shadow, the anima/animus, and the Self. I have also chosen to include the Freudian ego in our current exploration, as I have come to view it as the central point of consciousness, where all the aforementioned archetypes and layers of our being converge.
The Ego
The ego, as we alluded to previously, is a complex constellation of all the elements that make up our unique conception of self. It is the focal point of our conscious awareness, and the lens through which we view the world around us. When it is polished and clear, it can be likened to a crystal ball – but when it has been clouded by the eruption of unconscious contents, our interpretation of the world is inevitably distorted. As we can observe in the diagram, the ego is the center of our psychic totality; it rests on the threshold of consciousness, receiving constant input from the sub- and superconscious via the four central archetypes, whether we are aware of this or not. The object of individuation is to “bring the unconscious to light,” and expand the scope of our awareness so that we are able to consciously integrate these archetypes into our daily lives and thereby bring their (potentially) pathological expressions into balance.
(Please note: Jungian analysis often deals with the persona archetype as well, which I view as the mask through which we filter the ego in order to conform to perceived societal standards and make ourselves more palatable in our interactions with others. It often operates according to educational, familial, and cultural conditioning, and it too can become pathological if we begin to over-identify with it and mistake the mask for who we actually are as individuals. Imagine the teacher, for example, who experiences an identity crisis once they retire from the profession they’ve come to identify with after several years in a classroom.)
The Self
The Self is an individualized personification of the superconscious. It is the fountainhead of our ideals and aspirations, and as such, it can be considered the guiding light of our ego on its journey to wholeness. To put it simply, it is the deeper aspect of us that seems to be running the show from behind the scenes – the director of our life’s story, if you will. As we can see in the diagram, it sits above the threshold of consciousness, imparting its influence to the ego and the superconscious portion of the anima/animus complex, which we will soon explore. We experience this influence most notably in our daily lives through sudden insights, intuitions, and inspirations, but its mechanism underlies all that we do and everything that happens to us. The Self exists outside the spectrum of human judgement, so its actions may at times seem impersonal, but we can rest assured that it seems to operate by its own life-affirming form of morality. We may, for example, experience what seems to be a tragedy, only to discover later that it was the catalyst for a vital life change that we may not have been able to initiate on our own. Above all else, the Self seeks to expand our ego’s limited perspective to help us achieve the highest level of integration possible, both within ourselvesand in the world at large.
The Shadow
Before we explore the shadow, it is necessary to elaborate on the mechanism by which experience is sorted and assimilated into our psyche. Keep in mind, however, that this is just a frame of reference to help us explain a subject that is virtually incomprehensible to our linear, problem-solving mode of consciousness. To make sense of this process, it can be helpful to imagine the psyche as a grand filing system. Each archetype is like an individual folder, containing a series of reinforcing memories, ideas, images, associations, etc. (It also helps to think of the folder itself as the transpersonal core of the archetype, and its contents as our own unique expression of it.) When we have an experience, it is instantly cross-referenced against all the active folders in our psyche. Once the corresponding archetype has been activated, the new experience is assimilated into its overall structure, and a projection arises to seek expression in the world of action before retreating back into the apperceptive mass.
I believe the Freudian superego plays an important role in this sorting process. We can think of the superego as our conscience – a guilt/punishment complex created during the trial-and-error stages of our growth, as we learned the dos and don’ts of our familial, cultural, and societal groups.* If we were to include it on our chart, I would place it behind the ego, at the point of intersection between the Self and the shadow. (See the diagram below.) When an experience resonates with our concept of self, and it is acceptable by the terms of our superego, it is stored in a readily-accessible memory bank in the upper subconscious, but when it does not, it is repressed and storedwithin the shadow complex. Repression is the mechanism through which our psyche “buries” a traumatic thought, feeling, or experience beneath the level of conscious awareness so we don’t have to deal with it in the moment. But, as we all know, if we hide something away in the back of our refrigerator, it will eventually begin to fester and emit a foul odor – and our first instinct is often to blame someone else before we come to realize that it was our own doing. That is the shadow at work.
