Man and His Symbols

I know that I like a book, specially when it’s non-fiction, when I want to highlight every paragraph on it. It’s when I feel I’m learning something. This happened recently to me when I was reading Man and His Symbols by Carl Gustav Jung. I highlighted no less than 189 paragraphs. It taught me so much about symbols, the psyche, the shadow, the individuation process, anima and animus, and the unconscious. It prompted me to write my dreams in a journal to try and interpret them later. And why not? It pushed me to write in my blog everyday.

I will just post below a couple of these highlights, and let you dive into them. Jung believed that anything could be used to reach the unconscious. He started with dreams, but anything out of the ordinary could be used. I hope the images below can help you in this adventure.

Man has developed consciousness slowly and laboriously, in a process that took untold ages to reach the civilized state (which is arbitrarily dated from the invention of script in about 4000 b.c.). And this evolution is far from complete, for large areas of the human mind are still shrouded in darkness. What we call the “psyche” is by no means identical with our consciousness and its contents. Three of the sons of the Egyptian god Horus are animals (c. 1250 b.c.). Animals, and groups of four, are universal religious symbols.

Man and His Symbols, Part 1: Approaching the Unconscious, page 5 by Carl G. Jung

No genius has ever sat down with a pen or a brush in his hand and said: “Now I am going to invent a symbol.” No one can take a more or less rational thought, reached as a logical conclusion or by deliberate intent, and then give it “symbolic” form. No matter what fantastic trappings one may put upon an idea of this kind, it will still remain a sign, linked to the conscious thought behind it, not a symbol that hints at something not yet known. In dreams, symbols occur spontaneously, for dreams happen and are not invented; they are, therefore, the main source of all our knowledge about symbolism.

Man and His Symbols, Part 1: Approaching the Unconscious, page 40 by Carl G. Jung

One could begin from Cyrillic letters, from meditations upon a crystal ball, a prayer wheel, or a modern painting, or even from casual conversation about some trivial event. The dream was no more and no less useful in this respect than any other possible starting point.

Man and His Symbols, Part 1: Approaching the Unconscious, page 11 by Carl G. Jung

Man and His Symbols was a revealing book to me. It taught me to get more in contact with the unconscious. I learned the importance of symbolism not only for humanity. It is also important in my personal life. In the end, all of it contributes to my individuation process. And if there’s something that I learned in life is that I’m a work in progress till the day I die. My aim is to always keep growing.