Animal instincts

The previous post, a quote about animals in dreams, points out that animals in dreams are expressions of our instincts. Jungians typically see dream figures as archetypes, and archetypes as instincts ... And I agree, even though I don't wish to be labeled as Jungian, although I mostly agree with those views and I turn to Jungian writers for understanding about ... everything. Omigosh, I might be Jungian.

Anyway, if frightening animals in dreams are instincts that need to be reintegrated, then the animals that we are on friendly terms with are conversely the animal-instincts that we have incorporated as part of our psychological make-up, which sounds almost academic but is actually really cool ~ ! To be friends with the primal animal instinct is to befriend one's self.

Animals in Dreams

"The familiar dream in which the dreamer is pursued by an animal nearly always indicates that an instinct has been split off from the consciousness and ought to be (or is trying to be) readmitted and integrated into life. The more dangerous the behavior of the animal in the dream, the more unconscious is the primitive and instinctual soul of the dreamer, and the more imperative is it's integration into his life if irreparable evil is to be forestalled." - Aniela Jaffe

Impressiveness #6

This is my final post on impressiveness.

In the quote I posted earlier - Quote C - Jung discussed an ancient text, The Shepherd of Hermas. In the text, a woman makes such a strong impression on Hermas that when a feminine spirit appears to him later, the spirit takes on the appearance - the image - of that woman.

This also occures when a man's inner-feminine nature, the anima, or a woman's inner-masculine nature, the animus, takes on the image of another person. Jung calls this projection - projecting your own psyche onto another person, making that person and your own anima or animus (or whatever inner-figure it happens to be) indistinguishable from that external other. Jung, Sartre and others have written that love isn't possible without a degree of projection, and that the realization of projection can end love.

My interest here is in impressiveness and it's connection to images. The image alive in your unconscious psyche is able to break through the barrier into your conscious awareness when it causes you to become impressed by an external object with matching qualities.

I wrote in an earlier post about a tree that made an impression on me. In reality it wasn't the tree that impressed. It was an internal image trying to make me consciously aware of it by projecting itself onto the tree. This is why I consider it important to watch for moments of impresssiveness, because in those moments we learn most about ourselves. This is also why the connection between impressiveness and images, especially in dreams and in art, becomes important to understand.

Impressiveness #5

The following quote from Aniela Jaffe shows impressiveness - having an impact on a person's psyche - in art:
"French painter, Marcel Duchamp set up an object chosen at random (a bottle rack) on a pedestal and exhibited it. Jean Bazaine wrote of it: 'This bottle rack, torn from it's utilitarian context and washed up on the beach has been invested with the lonely dignity of the derelict.'"
Jaffe continues to describe the bottle rack using the words "disturbing," "exalted," and "magical."
The quality of being magical wasn't in the bottle rack itself. The magical quality was imbued when viewers became disturbed and questioned whether the object qualified as art. This reaction shows that art makes an impression - has impressiveness - and has the power to move us psychologically.

Impressiveness #4

I visited a friend and as I walked through her yard to her front door I passed a tree covered in moss or lichen. She said, as a passing comment, "When the lichen falls off the tree it gives nutrients to the soil."

She then changed the subject and talked on something else. I'd been trying to condition myself to watch for moments that made an impression on my psyche - impressiveness. This was the moment but the conversation moved on.

That night I had a dream about that tree where I could see the lichen falling to the lawn. Later, I talked with my dream-mentor about it. She pointed out that the lichen falling from the tree was synonymous with unconscious understanding coming into consciousness. For me the encounter was an example of the benefit of watching for impressive moments.

Impressiveness #3

In my meditation, glimpses of the future would come to me, precognitive images.

I didn't think of this as a psychic ability. It seemed more a byproduct of a great deal of time spent in a very intense introspection.

These flashes of precognition were puzzling because they were mundane, such as a vision of a coin falling to the floor. Nothing special - but they were little events I would see later in the day.

The question I asked myself was, why did my unconscious focus on these specific occurrences among the various happenings of the day?

The answer, although I have no evidence for proof, seems to be that the cause of those precognitive visions is that they had some level of impressiveness. When I saw the coin drop to the floor it made an impression on me so strongly that it passed precognitively into my meditation.

As von Franz points out (quote A) impressiveness is synonymous with energy, and as the literal meaning shows, the encounter of being impressed is to have the experience "forced in."

With that in mind, I realized the importance of watching for anything during my day that made an impression. Going through life as if asleep, not even noticing the most impressive events is all too easy. But if I can watch and see what it is that makes the coin dropping to the floor so important maybe I can live in a way as someone fully awake.

Impressiveness Quote C

“It is, in fact expressed quite clearly in the thought that he would have liked Rhoda for a wife, though, as Hermas is at pains to emphasize, it is confined to this simple statement since anything more explicit and more direct instantly fell under a moral ban and was repressed. It is abundantly clear from what follows that this repressed libido wrought a powerful transformation in his unconscious, for it imbued the soul-image with life and brought about a spontaneous manifestation.” Carl Jung, Psychological Types


From the 2nd century text, The Shepherd of Hermas:
Hermas 1:1 The master, who reared me, had sold me to one Rhoda in Rome. After many years, I met her again, and began to love her as a sister.
Hermas 1:2 After a certain time I saw her bathing in the river Tiber; and I gave her my hand, and led her out of the river. So, seeing her beauty, I reasoned in my heart, saying, "Happy were I, if I had such an one to wife both in beauty and in character." I merely reflected on this and nothing more.
Hermas 1:3 After a certain time, as I was journeying to Cumae, and glorifying God's creatures for their greatness and splendor and power, as I walked I fell asleep. And a Spirit took me, and bore me away through a pathless tract, through which no man could pass: for the place was precipitous, and broken into clefts by reason of the waters. When then I had crossed the river, I came into the level country, and knelt down, and began to pray to the Lord and to confess my sins.
Hermas 1:4 Now, while I prayed, the heaven was opened, and I see the lady, whom I had desired, greeting me from heaven, saying, "Good morrow, Hermas."
Hermas 1:5 And, looking at her, I said to her, "Lady, what doest thou here?" Then she answered me, "I was taken up, that I might convict thee of thy sins before the Lord."

Impresssiveness Quote B

“The erotic impression has evidently become united in the collective unconscious with archaic residues which have preserved from time immemorial the imprint of vivid impressions of the nature of woman – woman as mother and woman as desirable maid. Such impressions have immense power, as they release forces, both in the child and in the adult man, which fully merit the attribute ‘divine’ i.e., something irresistible and absolutely compelling. The recognition of these forces as daemonic powers can hardly be due to moral repression, but rather to a self-regulation of the psychic organism which weeks by this change of front to guard against loss of equilibrium. For if, in face of the overwhelming might of passion, which puts one human being wholly at the mercy of another, the psyche succeeds in building up a counterposition so that, at the height of passion, the boundlessly desired object is unveiled as an idol and man is forced to his knees before the divine image, then the psyche has delivered him from the curse of the object’s spell. He is restored to himself again and, flung back on himself, finds himself once more between gods and men, following his own path and subject to his own laws. The awful fear that haunts the primitive, his terror of everything impressive, which he at once senses as magic, as though it were charged with magical power, protects him in a purposive way against that most dreaded of all possibilities, loss of soul, with its inevitable sequel of sickness and death.” Carl Jung, Psychological Types

Impressiveness Quote A.

“As Jung points out at the end of ‘On the Nature of the Psyche,’ the concept of energy is originally derived from the primitive concept of energeia or mana, which simply means the extreme impressiveness of something. Whenever something is enormously or intensely impressive and therefore affects one psychologically, i.e., makes a psychological impact, then primitives say it is mana, or mugu. Therefore the original concept of energy was more the idea of psychological intensity.” Marie-Louise von Franz, Synchronicity and Divination

Impressiveness #2

Before I post thoughts on "impressiveness" I'll post some quotes on the topic so I can refer back to them. Before those quotes, however, here are some words to consider:

Impress - force in
Depress - force down
Express - force out
Repress - force back

Impressiveness #1

This is the first of several posts I'll make on the topic of "impressiveness" which seems to be the key to staying alive and awake psychologically. I'll write more about that in future posts. I'm posting with my i-phone, so I'll keep the posts short but more frequent. I don't think anyone reads these posts, at least not yet. Oh well, I write them for myself I suppose.