I would like to illustrate the parallelism [between Gnostic symbolism and the findings of the psychology of the unconscious] by summarizing the symbols previously discussed:
For this purpose we must first of all review the facts that led psychologists to conjecture an archetype of wholeness, i.e., the Self. These are in the first place dreams and visions; in the second place, products of active imagination in which symbols of wholeness appear
CW9.2 ¶ 351GEOMETRICAL STRUCTURES
The most important of these are geometrical structures containing elements of the circle and quaternity; namely, circular and spherical forms on the one hand, which can be represented either purely geometrically or as objects; and, on the other hand, quadratic figures divided into four or in the form of a cross
FOUR OBJECTS OR
PERSONS
They can also be four objects or persons related to one another in meaning or by the way they are arranged. Eight, as a multiple of four, has the same significance
DILEMMA OF 3 + 1
TWELVE (3 X 4)
A special variant of the quaternity motif is the dilemma of 3 + 1. Twelve (3 x 4) seems to belong here as a solution of the dilemma and as [twelve] a symbol of wholeness (zodiac, year)
CW9.2 ¶ 351THREE REGARDED AS
A RELATIVE TOTALITY
Three can be regarded as a relative totality, since it usually represents either a spiritual totality that is a product of thought, like the Trinity, or else an instinctual, chthonic one, like the triadic nature of the gods of the underworldthe “lower triad”
CW9.2 ¶ 351THREE IS `DEFECTIVE'
IN CONTEXT OF THE SELF
Psychologically, however, threeif the context indicates that it refers to the Selfshould be understood as a defective quaternity or as a stepping-stone towards it. Empirically, a triad has a trinity opposed to it as its complement. The complement of the quaternity is unity
Five corresponds to the indistinguishability of quaternity and unity
CIRCLE AND QUATERNITY
From the circle and quaternity motif is derived the symbol of the geometrically formed crystal and the wonder-working stone. From here analogy formation leads on to:
CW9.2 ¶ 352City
Castle
Church
House
Vessel
THE WHEEL
Another variant is the wheel (rota). The former motif [the circle and quaternity] emphasizes the ego's containment in the greater dimension of the Self; the latter [the wheel] emphasizes the rotation which also appears as a ritual circumambulation
CW9.2 ¶ 352Psychologically, it [the wheel] denotes concentration on and preoccupation with a centre, conceived as the centre of a circle and thus formulated as a point. This leads easily enough to a relationship to the heavenly Pole and the starry bowl of heaven rotating round it. A parallel is the horoscope as the “wheel of birth”
IMAGE OF CITY,
HOUSE AND VESSEL
The image of the city, house, and vessel brings us to their contentthe inhabitant of the house or city, and the water contained in the vessel
CW9.2 ¶ 353The inhabitant, in his turn, has a relationship to the quaternity, and to the fifth as the unity of the four
WATER IN DREAMS
The water appears in modern dreams and visions as a blue expanse reflecting the sky, as a lake, as four rivers (e.g., Switzerland as the heart of Europe with the Rhine, Ticino, Rhone, and Inn, or the Garden of Eden with the Gihon, Pison, Hiddekel, and Euphrates), as healing water and consecrated water, etc. Sometimes the water is associated with fire, or even combined with it as fire-water (wine, alcohol)
The inhabitant of the quadratic space leads to the human figure. Apart from the geometrical and arithmetical symbols, this is the commonest symbol of the Self. They include:
CW9.2 ¶ 354Admired example
Dearly loved father
God or godlike human being
Great man
Historical personality
Priest
Prince
Successful elder brother
FEMININE FIGURES AS SYMBOLS OF THE SELF
There are corresponding feminine figures in a woman's psychology:
CW9.2 ¶ 354Admired example
Dearly loved mother
Goddess
Goddess-like human being
Great woman
Historical personality
Priestess
Princess
Successful elder sister
In short, a figure that transcends the ego personality of the dreamer
CIRCLE CONTRASTED WITH SQUARE
Just as the circle is contrasted with the square, so the quaternity is contrasted with the 3 + 1 motif, and the positive, beautiful, good, admirable, and lovable human figure with a daemonic, misbegotten creature who is negative, ugly, evil, despicable and an object of fear
CW9.2 ¶ 355SELF HAS A PARADOXICAL
ANTINOMIAL CHARACTER
Like all archetypes, the Self has a paradoxical, antinomial character. It is male and female, old man and child, powerful and helpless, large and small. The Self is a true “complexio oppositorum,” though this does not mean that it is anything like as contradictory in itself. It is quite possible that the seeming paradox is nothing but a reflection of the enantiodromian changes of the conscious attitude, which can have a favourable or an unfavourable effect on the whole
CW9.2 ¶ 355CONSCIOUSNESS SHOULD
NOT BE UNDERRATED
The same is true of the unconscious in general, for its frightening figures may be called forth by the fear which the conscious mind has of the unconscious. The importance of consciousness should not be underrated; hence it is advisable to relate the contradictory manifestations of the unconscious causally to the conscious attitude, at least in some degree
CW9.2 ¶ 355CONSCIOUSNESS SHOULD
NOT BE OVERRATED
But consciousness should not be overrated either, for experience provides too many incontrovertible proofs of the autonomy of unconscious compensatory processes for us to seek the origin of these antinomies only in the conscious mind
CW9.2 ¶ 355Between the conscious and the unconscious there is a kind of “uncertainty relationship,” because the observer is inseparable from the observed and always disturbs it by the act of observation. In other words, exact observation of the unconscious prejudices observation of the conscious and vice versa
CW9.2 ¶ 355SELF APPEARS IN ALL SHAPES
FROM HIGHEST TO LOWEST
Thus the Self can appear in all shapes from the highest to the lowest, inasmuch as these transcend the scope of the ego personality in the manner of a daimonion
CW9.2 ¶ 356THERIOMORPHIC
SYMBOLS OF THE SELF
It goes without saying that the Self also has its theriomorphic symbolism. The commonest of these images in modern dreams are, in my experience:
Elephant
Horse
Bull
Snakes
Bear
White and black birds
Fishes
Occasionally one comes across:
Tortoises
Snails
Spiders
Beetles
The principal plant symbols of the Self are:
Flower
Tree
Of the inorganic products, the commonest are:
Mountain
Lake
UNDERVALUATION OF SEXUALITY
Where there is an undervaluation of sexuality the Self is symbolized as a phallus. Undervaluation can consist in an ordinary repression or in overt devaluation. In certain differentiated persons a purely biological interpretation and evaluation of sexuality can also have this effect
CW9.2 ¶ 357`MYSTICAL' IMPLICATIONS
OF THE SEXUAL INSTINCT
Any such conception overlooks the spiritual and “mystical” implications of the sexual instinct. These have existed from time immemorial as psychic facts, but are devalued and repressed on rationalistic and philosophical grounds. In all such cases one can expect an unconscious phallicism by way of compensation. A good example of this is the mainly sexualistic approach to the psyche that is to be found in Freud
CW9.2 ¶ 357