Grounded in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages, alchemy formed a bridge: on the one hand into the past, to Gnosticism, and on the other into the future, to the modern psychology of the unconscious.
Carl JungRead
The God-image in man was not destroyed by the Fall but was only damaged and corrupted (“deformed”), and can be restored through God's grace. The scope of the integration is suggested by the descensus ad inferos, the descent of Christ's soul to hell, its work of redemption embracing even the dead. The psychological equivalent of this is the integration of the collective unconscious which forms an essential part of the individuation process.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The God-image within humanity remains corrupted but can be restored through divine grace, paralleling the psychological journey of individuation.
This quote by Carl Jung suggests that while humanity's intrinsic divinity has been tainted by the Fall, it is not beyond repair. Through God's grace, individuals can rekindle this divine image, which connects to the deeper psychological process of individuation, whereby the conscious self integrates aspects of the unconscious, including the collective unconscious that shapes our shared human experience.
Themes
God-ImageGraceFallRedemptionIndividuationCollective Unconscious
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on spirituality, one might express how the God-image within us can guide us back to grace.
More from Carl Jung
All quotes →The majority of my patients consisted not of believers but of those who had lost their faith.
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Complexes are psychic contents which are outside the control of the conscious mind. They have been split off from consciousness and lead a separate existence in the unconscious, being at all times ready to hinder or to reinforce the conscious intentions.
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We are in a far better position to observe instincts in animals or in primitives than in ourselves. This is due to the fact that we have grown accustomed to scrutinizing our own actions and to seeking rational explanations for them.
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From the viewpoint of analytic psychology, the theatre, aside from any aesthetic value, may be considered as an institution for the treatment of the mass complex.
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I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life.
Carl JungRead
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