THE GREAT MYSTERY IN OURSELVES
by Paul Levy
Jung writes, “It has yet to be understood that the mysterium magnum [the great mystery] is not only an actuality but is first and foremost rooted in the human psyche.” Both the origin and solution of the collective madness that we are acting out in the world is to be found nowhere other than within the human psyche—this is in essence what the idea of a “mind-virus” means. Our inner life is what Jung calls “the secret place” where the miraculous elixir that heals humanity is to be found. This same idea is expressed in an ancient alchemical doctrine which says, “man’s greatest treasure is to be found within man.” Jung equates this secret place with what he calls “the secret church,” which is the inner sanctum where what he refers to as our “stellar nature” is waiting to be discovered (we are truly forged from the stars). Jung writes, “The secret is first and foremost in man; it is his true self.”
In a world that is so outwardly focused, it can be a bit challenging to find the way within. Jung writes, “Small and hidden is the door that leads inward, and the entrance is barred by countless prejudices, mistaken assumptions, and fears.” Jung’s called his experiences of encountering the reality of the psyche “ineffable” and “secret” (in the sense that nobody who hasn’t had the experiences themselves can relate to them), though these experiences formed the inspiration for his life’s work. He considered these experiences the greatest and most incisive experiences of his life.
Describing the path that led him to these life-transforming experiences, Jung writes in a letter that “this door, a highly inconspicuous side-door on an unsuspicious-looking and easily overlooked footpath—narrow and indistinct because only a few have set foot on it—leads to the secret of transformation and renewal.” In other words, the doorway to the secret place within—where true healing can be found—can easily be missed because of its seeming ordinariness. Oftentimes this small and hidden door is found by withdrawing our projections onto the world and recognizing they are originating and reflecting something within ourselves.
The initial stage of the magnum opus (the great work) of alchemy is the “nigredo,” the blackness of death, the darkness darker than dark, which is actually the seed for the future birth of the living opus. “The good tidings announced by alchemy [analogous to the “Good News” of the Bible] are that, as once a fountain sprang up in Judea,” Jung contemplates, “so now there is a secret Judea the way to which is not easily found, and a hidden spring whose waters seem to be worthless and so bitter that they are deemed of no use at all” …. But the spring is in a place so secret that only a few know of its ‘gushing.’” This “Fount in Judea” is known as the “Fount of the Savior or of Blessedness,” whose healing waters are like none on earth. Its waters are harsh and bitter, likened to vinegar, practically undrinkable. Jung points out that the psychological equivalent to this water is the unconscious.
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A pioneer in the field of spiritual emergence, Paul Levy is a wounded healer in private practice, assisting others who are also awakening to the dreamlike nature of reality. He is the founder of the Awakening in the Dream Community in Portland, Oregon. Among his books are The Quantum Revelation: Awakening to the Dreamlike Nature of Reality, Undreaming Wetiko: Breaking the Spell of the Nightmare Mind-Virus, Wetiko: Healing the Mind-Virus That Plagues Our World, and Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil. An artist, he is deeply steeped in the work of C. G. Jung, and has been a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner for over forty years.
Please visit Paul’s website www.awakeninthedream.com. You can contact Paul at paul@awakeninthedream.com; he looks forward to your reflections.
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