The Power of Reflective Capacity in Meaning Making

In Answer to Job, Jung states, “Whoever knows God has an effect on him.” If, as Jung claims, individual human consciousness affects God, what we are matters monumentally. When we serve our neuroses, the gulf between ego and Self widens. Pursuing individuation not only sets our personality in right order, it permits our personal experiences to enrich the collective unconscious – who we are is added to God. When Jung visited the Navajo, they told him they helped the sun, their father, cross the sky each day, a spiritual observance that sustained the world. Jung said, “I had envied the fullness of meaning in that belief and had been looking about without hope for a myth of our own. Now I knew what it was, and knew even more: that man is indispensable for the completion of creation, that in fact, he himself is the second creator of the world….” Human consciousness weaves meaning into the dance of life. Our psyches companion God crossing the sky each day and so participate in creation. As we confront the mystery of our lives and uncover the unique meaning unfolding in us – we become conscious co-creators.

HERE’S THE DREAM WE ANALYZED:

 “I stand up from the couch and move toward the hallway. Three older women have entered the house. They look to be in their 50s or 60s, with long, draping clothes. They look like ordinary women and do not appear threatening, but I immediately feel menacing energy. I ask them who they are and what they are doing in the house. The women brush off my questions and mock me for my concern, suggesting that I am frightening the little boy. They have pushed past the hallway and are now in the kitchen. Their forcefulness tells me that they are here with ill intent, and I fear that they are here to rob the family. I grab the little boy and take him upstairs to hide him in his room while I deal with the old women, but when I am closing the boy’s bedroom door to go back downstairs, the women are already on the second floor of the house, entering all the rooms, opening drawers and cabinets, and taking things. They seem to be everywhere, and yet their movements are not chaotic but very controlled and methodical in a way that is unsettling to me. They seem particularly intent on taking books, paper files, and personal documents. I begin to think about what the family might have that the women want, what value is here that I had not known about. I remember or realize that the father is a famous novelist, and I wonder if maybe the women are trying to steal his work. I try to stop them, but they won’t listen to me, and I wonder how I am going to explain this to the family later. After following them around for a bit, I take the boy back downstairs. I decide to call 9-1-1 and leave the house until help arrives. I am barefoot and carrying the boy on my hip as I walk away from the house. While I wait for the 9-1-1 responder to answer, I realize that I do not know the house’s address. The dream ends before I find out whether help arrives.” 

REFERENCES:

King, Warrior, Magician, Lover. Robert Moore

Memories, Dreams, Reflections. CG Jung

Answer to Job, CG Jung

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