It was in AION that Jung explained thoroughly the Self as the subtitle of the book is Researches into the phenomenology of the Self. The first part of his book is devoted to prove his thesis, supported at length with numerous examples that the Self is a complexio oppositorum, e.g., a combination of two pairs of opposites.
Every chapter makes the demonstration of that hypothesis under a different angle. That is why, for example, the symbol of the fish is double in astrology and that the symbol of Christ is counterbalanced by the symbol of the Antichrist. Since the fish and Christ could be seen as symbols of the Self, they necessarily consisted of two opposites. In the same way, Jung uses the symbol of the magnet which, as we know, contains a positive and a negative pole that are opposites. Let’s dive in his explanations.
In paragraph 243 of AION, Jung introduces the symbol of the magnet and gives an abundance of synonyms and Latin expressions that state its qualities. Then, in paragraph 250, he lets us know that the magnet is a symbol of the Self. Referring to the Elenchos of Hippolytus (Refutation of the Gnostics by the early Christians), Jung mentions that the magnet appears three times in Gnostic writings:
(1) In the doctrine of the Naassenes, the four rivers of paradise correspond to the four openings of the head: the eye, the ear, the nose and the mouth. The mouth is the opening where the food enters and from which the prayer comes out. It is from the mouth that the water of teaching (aqua doctrinae) comes. The latter is an alchemical term that corresponds more or less to the Self and therefore to the magnet.
(2) In the theory of the Perates, no one can be saved without the Son. And they say that this Son (Christ) is the serpent. For the Perates, the serpent attracts iron (it is therefore a magnet and the Self).
(3) Finally, for the Sethian doctrine, the magnetic attraction (magnet) comes from the spark, the ray of light, that is to say from the Logos (reason, thought, word and discrimination).
In paragraph 293, Jung concludes on the three forms of the magnet or magnetic agent:
- It is a passive substance: water. It is drawn from the bottom of the source.
- It is an animated being: the snake or the serpent. It arises spontaneously or is discovered by surprise. It represents Christ.
- It is the Logos, an abstraction of the son of God (from the prologue of the gospel of John) and the power of thought or of speech.
It is in paragraph 295 that Jung explains what is probably the most important sentence of AION:
“All three symbols are phenomena of assimilation that are in themselves of a numinous nature and therefore have a certain degree of autonomy.” Knowing that autonomous phenomena are irruptions of unconscious contents into consciousness and that the archetype of the Self (identified here as the three forms of the magnet) appears in consciousness with a numinous glow like every other archetype, Jung is telling us, in that paragraph, that the water, the serpent and the Logos are three experiences of the Self or mystical experiences.
Opposites never merge because of their nature. When opposites merge as a numinous symbol in consciousness, it is always a phenomenon that is called a mystical or transcendent experience. We should understand here that Jung linked those experiences to the Self.
Jung used the term phenomena (or phenomenon) of assimilation only eleven times in his Collected Works and he defines it as “the reaction of the psychic matrix, e.g., the unconscious, which becomes agitated and responds with archetypal images” (CW Addenda, § 1828). These phenomena, according to him, began with Gnosticism and continued through the Middle Ages and are still observed in modern times (addenda, § 1830). To Jung, mystical experiences are phenomena of assimilation because, for him, mystical experiences are irruptions of the archetype of the Self in consciousness.
In the next paragraph (296) of AION, Jung mentions: “This process revolutionizes the ego-oriented psyche, for it places beside it, or better, opposite it, another goal and center that is characterized by a multiplicity of names and symbols.” To Jung, mystical experiences, as phenomena of assimilation of the Self, are proof that the psyche is not just a conscious ego. There is a center and a goal in front of the ego and this center can manifest itself in consciousness three times. The Self is therefore Jung’s hypothesis to explain mystical experiences and it manifest itself autonomously according to certain conditions that he explains further.
Jung continues (§ 303) and specify that the image of God, the imago dei (the Self) is not a discovery, but a lived experience that occurs to man spontaneously. It is this spontaneous experience, the mystical experience, that is the core subject of AION.
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