Depth Psychology Aspects of the Christian Myth

1. Depth Psychology Aspects of the Christian Myth Arthur George Mythologium Conference Morro Bay, CA August 3, 2019

2. Summary of Presentation Will cover depth psychology aspects of: • Garden of Eden myth • Christ myth • Christian Gnostic myth

3. Garden of Eden Myth “This story yields its meaning only to a psychological interpretation. . . . The Garden is a metaphor for the following: our minds, and our thinking in terms of pairs of opposites.” Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That, p. 50 “Cosmogonic myths are, at bottom, symbols for the coming of consciousness.” Carl Jung, CW 9.2, para. 230

4. Biblical Creation Myths: Background • 2 separate creation myths in Genesis 1 vs. 2-3, written at different times by different authors with different agendas • They share commonalities with other ancient creation myths: • Preexisting primordial “chaos” • Creation is an ordering process, leading to multiplicity, time and space, and the existence of opposites

5. Genesis 1 Creation Myth • Start with a dark formless primordial waters (Gen 1:2) = “chaos” • Then opposites are created to order creation: • Light vs. darkness, day vs. night, morning vs. evening (Gen 1:3-6) • Sky vs. earth surface (land), land vs. sea (Gen 1:6-10) • Sun (for daylight) vs. moon (light at night) (Gen 1:16) • Male and female humans (Gen 1:27) • Multiplicity: plants, fish, birds, animals (Gen 1:20)

6. The Result in Genesis 1 Creation Myth

7. Why Is Creation the Ordering of Chaos? • “Chaos” symbolizes the unconscious • Jung: “Cosmogonic myths are, at bottom, symbols for the coming of consciousness.” • We see this in our own coming into ego consciousness, which is experienced as the world coming into being: • Waking up from sleep each morning • Psychic development of infants/young children • Likewise in the initial rise of ego consciousness in early humans • Therefore, corresponding symbols appear in creation myths.

8. Creation vs. Chaos is Never-Ending • Chaos is never eliminated, so the cosmos is inherently unstable. Chaos is always trying to infiltrate and disrupt the ordered cosmos, and it does. • One cosmic manifestation of chaos in human nature is sin. Chaos is thus regarded as evil. • Psychologically, the infiltration of chaos into the cosmos is unconscious content impacting and disrupting ego consciousness. • Ego consciousness resists this to preserve the order of which it consists. • This dynamic is at work in the Eden myth.

9. Garden of Eden Myth: Genesis 2-3 • Starts with chaos, in the form of barren wasteland • Opposites emerge: human vs. divine (God); male vs. female; animal vs. human; good vs. evil; life vs. death; naked vs. clothed; civilized vs. uncivilized. • Humans gain knowledge of good vs. evil and other opposites, and are “driven” from the garden into the real world. • The myth represents the emergence of ego consciousness from an unconscious state (the garden) so that humans can get along in the world and build civilization.

10. The Nature of the Transgression It was an elevation of human consciousness to full ego consciousness, dramatized as a singular epiphany. It was disobedience, but not a full “sin,” which first occurred with Cain. Therefore, no “fall of man” or “original sin.” Bruce Naidoff: “Genesis 2-3 reflects a coming to a state of awareness that, as it were, precedes sin.” David Wright: “if there is a vertical movement in the story, it is not a ‘Fall’ but an ‘Ascension,’ toward the rank and species of deity.” Cyrus Gordon: “not so much an account of the ‘fall of man’ but rather of the rise of man halfway to divinity”

11. The Advent of Christianity and its Myth • “If ever anything had been historically prepared, and sustained and supported by the existing Weltanschauung, Christianity would be a classic example.” Carl Jung, Answer to Job, CW 11, para. 687 • Whereas the Eden story was about the rise of ego consciousness, the Christ figure is about the opposite: how to correct the overweening dominance of ego consciousness, which was characteristic of contemporary Roman civilization and prevailing Jewish religion. • The old religions were failing, and people sought more spiritual answers > popularity of mystery religions, Gnosticism, Christianity. • Psychologically, this meant a new religion that facilitates integration of the Self.

12. More Fundamental Reason for Success of Christianity • Christianity formulated a myth that enabled people from all walks of life to have authentic religious experiences, to experience religious truth, individually and in Christian communities. • The myth and ritual were structured using Christ as a mediating figure for salvation in heaven (not a future king on earth), and also using the action of the Holy Spirit. • Christianity also had an appealing initiation rite (baptism), and the requirements were simple and easy to understand. • Gnostic Christianity, by contrast, had a complicated myth at odds with the proto-orthodox myth, was intellectual, elitist, and imposed many demands. It was also opposed as a heresy by the Roman Church. So it died out.

13. Christ as a Symbol of the Self (1) • Jung called Christ a symbol of the Self. • In order to understand what this means, we must understand the evolution of the God image. • Because the Self contains a variety of numinous/divine archetypes, it naturally produces a variety of deities, or at least various aspects of an ultimately single head deity. The aggregate of these is the God image, the archetypal imprint on ego consciousness. • Therefore, it is hard to maintain monotheism. Split-offs of Yahweh’s god image included Wisdom (feminine Sophia), Satan, and the Son of Man figure, and eventually Christ together with his Father embodying only good.

14. Christ as a Symbol of the Self (2) • Static: Christ bridges the unconscious and ego consciousness, but is not a symbol (snapshot) of the entire Self. Certain key aspects are lacking, especially: • Shadow – carried by Satan • Feminine – eventually carried mostly by the Marys • Father archetype – carried by God • Dynamic: Christ is a symbol of the Self in a second sense: As God-man he symbolizes the dynamic (dialectical process) occurring between the unconscious and ego consciousness: • In form is a mediator – as Son of Man and Son of God • Is a carrier of the Holy Spirit - psychic energy (libido) that carries unconscious content to ego consciousness • Incarnation – represents the impact of unconscious content on ego consciousness > integration of the Self

15. The Divine Child • Conceived by Holy Spirit > divine child, spiritual birth, so incorporates the unconscious. • In a young child, the ego is not so separated from the unconscious. The divine child represents integration of the psyche. He wants the attention of ego consciousness, which must recognize and accept him. • Thus, Jesus says, “unless you change and become as little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” - Matt 18:4 • Enacted “parable of the child amongst” - Mark 9:33-37 • But ego may reject the child, as symbolized in story of the massacre of the innocents – Matt 2:16-18

16. The Passion • “Because individuation is an heroic and often tragic task, . . . it involves suffering, a passion of the ego. . . . [A man] suffers, so to speak from the violence done to him by the self. . . . Through the Christ symbol, man can get to know the real meaning of his suffering: he is on the way towards realizing his wholeness. . . . The cause of the suffering is . . . ‘incarnation,’ which on the human level appears as ‘individuation.’ . . . The drama of the archetypal life of Christ describes in symbolic images the events of the conscious life – as well as in the life that transcends consciousness . . . .” Jung, CW 11, para. 233.

17. The Resurrection • “I say that if one is integrated one will be filled with light, but if one is divided one will be filled with darkness.” Jesus, Gospel of Thomas, saying 61

18. Christ and Self-Knowledge In sum, Christ figure can be a means toward Self-knowledge, and therefore integration of the Self (Wholeness): • Luke 17:21: “The Kingdom of God is within you.” • Gospel of Thomas 70: “When you give rise to that which is in you, what you have will save you.” • Gospel of Thomas 3: “The kingdom is within you,… When you know yourselves,… you will know that you are the sons of the living Father.”

19. The Christian Gnostic Creation Myth • The myth is a combination Greek Platonic philosophy and Jewish and Christian myth and thinking. It is highly mental (intellectual) in its plot. • Originally there is only the Invisible Spirit (ultimate God) at rest. • God is indefinable, unlimited, ineffable, immeasurable, incorruptible, and ultimately unknowable > God archetype

20. Gnostic Creation Myth (2) • God’s first thought can only be about himself, and so it is self-knowledge, an image of himself. It is called Forethought (also the Barbelo). • We learn about God only indirectly through his image, Forethought. Forethought is the highest approximation of God that we can know. • Forethought has thoughts, so other aeons emerge. Aeons exist as male-female pairs of opposites, including an ideal, perfect androgynous human. • The Pleroma (Fullness, Entirety) is the totality of the spiritual realm, the aggregate of God and his thoughts (aeons). It grows in complexity.

21. Gnostic Creation Myth (3) • Sophia creates an aeon without involving God, and therefore it is imperfect, actually ugly. • She hides it outside the Pleroma, names it Yaldabaoth. Yaldabaoth is ignorant and doesn’t know about the Pleroma except for his mother and what he gets from her, which includes some of her power. • Yaldabaoth is the Old Testament creator god. He creates rulers and the cosmos, including humans. • He creates humans consisting of body and soul, but they also have divine spirit because Sophia, by tricking Yaldabaoth, caused it to be placed in Adam.

22. Gnostic Creation Myth (4) • But Yaldabaoth then renders humans ignorant of their spiritual essence. • There ensues a struggle: • Forethought and Sophia want humans to know (have gnosis) about the divine sprit within, because then at death each human will rejoin the Pleroma. • Yaldabaoth tries to prevent this by keeping humans ignorant. • The divine Christ incarnates into Jesus on earth in order to teach humans about their real divine nature, to give them gnosis.

23. Psychological Aspects of Gnostic Myth • Same initial situation of murky, undefined, undifferentiated unity, which is the unconscious. • When thought appears and there is differentiation, multiplicity, and some opposites in the Pleroma, we can detect the appearance and evolution of ego consciousness, which also inhabits the earthly realm. • Most aeons are categories of mind. These resemble Kantian categories, as well as the imprint of archetypes upon ego consciousness. • Yaldabaoth is like ego consciousness, thinking that he is all that exists and repressing what lies in the unconscious. • Human existence is characterized by a dynamic and interaction between the unconscious (cf. Gnostic divine spirit) and ego consciousness.

24. Thank you! Questions? Arthur George Email: artlgeorge@gmail.com Blog: www.mythologymatters.wordpress.com Website: www.mythologymatters.com Cell: 847-624-7256