Det symbolske liv

C.G. Jung skrev Man and his Symbols for at formidle betydningen af symboler til det almindelige menneske.

I vores moderne liv har vi brug for symboler. Ellers bliver vores liv meningsløst. Det er nødvendigt at åbne øjnene for værdien af det indre, subjektive psykiske liv – at opdage det symbolske liv.

Her er hvad Jung sagde i et seminar med titlen Det Symbolske Liv i 1939:

“You see, man is in need of a symbolic life. Badly in need. We only live banal, ordinary, rational or irrational things … But we have no symbolic life. Where do we live symbolically? … Nowhere, except where we participate in the ritual of life. But who among the many, are really participating in the ritual of life? Very few …

Have you got a corner in your house where you perform the rites, as you can see in India? … We have our own room of course  – but there is a telephone which can ring us up at any time, and we always must be ready. We have no time and no place. Where have we got these … mysterious images? …

Now, we have no symbolic life, and we are all badly in need of the symbolic life. Only the symbolic life can express the need of the soul, the daily need of the soul … And because people have no such thing they can never  step out of this mill – this awful, grinding life, in which they are “nothing but”. .. Everything is banal, everything is nothing but …

These things go pretty deep, and no wonder why people get neurotic. Life is too rational. there is no symbolic existence in which I am something else, in which I am fulfilling my role, my role as one of the actors in the divine drama og life”.  (C.G. Jung, CW, vol.  18,  p. 273-274)

Når vi kvantificerer og rationaliserer den ydre virkelighed – verden –  fratager vi den dens fortryllelse. Når vi neglicerer og devaluerer meddelelserne fra vores indre, psykiske virkelighed reducerer vi os selv. Vi gør os selv mere flade og mekaniske,  end vi er og end det er meningen, at vi skal være. Der er en tendens til at sige: Det var blot en drøm, et pudsigt indfald, en skør tanke, eller en pinlighed, der ikke skulle være blevet sagt eller gjort. Eller det var blot et tilfælde, hvis noget mystisk eller uforklarligt finder sted.

Mandala - symbol på Selvet

Men. Mennesket er et meningsskabende væsen. Et symbolsskabende væsen. Mennesket lever ikke af sten alene. Eller brød. Vi har brug for symboler og billeder for at holde sjælen i live. Sjælen skal næres for at vi kan være fuldt i live. Det er Soul-making som James Hillman kalder det:

“The poetic basis of mind places psychological activities in the realm of images. It seeks to explore images rather than explain them. Within this is the idea that by re-working images, that is giving them attention and shaping and forming them until they are clear as possible then a therapeutic process which Hillman calls “soul making” takes place. Hillman equates the psyche with the soul and seeks to set out a psychology based without shame in art and culture. This draws from a sense of images as that which a person is drawn to and looks at in a meaningful way. Indeed the act of being drawn to and looking deeper at the images presented creates meaning”. Wikipedia om Hillman

Jeg håber at det har givet dig inspiration og stof til eftertanke. I en senere post vil jeg komme med bud på, hvordan vi konkret kommer i kontakt med symboler og billeder – hvordan vi kan leve det symbolske liv i den moderne hverdag.