Ego and Consciousness (Jung)

Question 1

What is consciousness, according to Jung?

Answer 1

It is awareness, and can be visualized as a field upon which the ego is centered. Consciousness is thus broader than the ego—it is basically the state of being awake, aware of what is going on in the world and within.

Question 2

What does Jung mean by the “ego”?

Answer 2

Jung defines the ego as follows: “It forms, as it were, the centre of the field of consciousness; and, in so far as this comprises the empirical personality, the ego is the subject of all personal acts of consciousness.” Consciousness is a “field,” and what Jung calls the “empirical personality” here is our personality as we are aware of it and experience it firsthand. The ego, as “the subject of all personal acts of consciousness,” occupies the center of this field. The term ego refers to one’s experience of oneself as a center of willing, desiring, reflecting, and acting.

Question 3

Why is the ego necessary for consciousness?

Answer 3

Because, as Jung put it, no content can be conscious unless it is represented to a subject. In this sense, the ego is like a mirror in which the psyche can see itself and become aware. The degree to which a psychic content is taken up and reflected by the ego is the degree to which it can be said to belong to the realm of consciousness.

Question 4

How does Jung distinguish the conscious from the unconscious?

Answer 4

The unconscious is not simply the unknown, but the unknown psychic. Conscious psychic materials are those that are reflected in the ego and subject to further examination and manipulation, while other psychic contents lie outside of consciousness, either temporarily or permanently.

Question 5

What makes up the bulk of the psyche, according to Jung?

Answer 5

The unconscious. He saw ego consciousness as analogous to a little island upon a vast ocean of the unconscious, much of which had never been explored.

Question 6

Can consciousness be separated from its contents (e.g. the things of which one is conscious)?

Answer 6

In theory, yes—though for most of us the two are so interweaved that we cannot conceptualize, let alone experience, a pure “consciousness” as distinct from the specific thoughts and stimuli which are subject to consciousness, and so becomes identified with consciousness. Certain states of meditation seem to make such awareness of “pure consciousness” possible, however. Still, for most people, consciousness without a stable object to ground it seems to be an exceedingly ephemeral and transparent thing.

Question 7

What powers does the ego have over psychic material?

Answer 7

To a large extent, it determines what remains in consciousness, and what drops away into unconsciousness. It can “repress” contents it finds intolerably painful or incompatible with other contents, and it can also retrieve contents from psychic storage (e.g. memory) so long as (a) they are not blocked by defense mechanisms, such as repression, which keeps intolerable contents out of reach, and (b) they have a strong enough associative connection to the ego—e.g. they are “learned” strong enough.

Question 8

How are the contents of consciousness connected?

Answer 8

They are connected through a network of associations, all of which are linked directly or indirectly to the ego, which is the center of consciousness by geographically and dynamically, an energy center that moves psychic contents around and arranges them in orders of priority.

Question 9

How is the ego the “individualizing” agent in human consciousness?

Answer 9

It is the seat of decision-making and free-will, and is the stable element through which psychic material passes. It is also what allows us to defy our instincts and do engage in purposeful action.

Question 10

What characterizes a “strong” ego?

Answer 10

It is one that can obtain and move around in a deliberate way large amounts of psychic content. It is also able to identify and defy instincts and integrate psychic material in purposeful ways.

Question 11

What characterizes a “weak” ego?

Answer 11

It is one that easily succumbs to instincts and emotions, is easily distracted and overcome by psychic content. As a result the ego lacks focus, consistent motivation, and fails to grapple effectively with the psychic content that enters consciousness.

Question 12

Is it possible for the ego to be entirely passive?

Answer 12

Maybe for short periods of time, but the ego (and wider psyche) has a tendency to become involved in whatever is being observed. We see this in movies, for example, as the viewer quickly becomes emotionally identified with the hero. The ego, once activated, becomes a center of wishing, hoping, intending, and finally acting.

Question 13

What limits the ego’s freedom?

Answer 13

It is easily influenced by both internal psychic and external environmental stimuli. The ego may respond to a threatening stimulus by taking up arms and defending itself; or it may be activated and stimulated by an interior urge to create, or to love, or to seek revenge. It may also respond to an ego-impulse—that is, narcissistically.

Question 14

Does the ego change over time?

Answer 14

While the ego goes through profound changes in the course of a lifetime—particularly in cognition, self-knowledge, psychosocial identity, competence, etc., there also seems to be a continuity of ego through the course of one’s lifetime. We still seem to be the same “I” that we were as children, even if much about us has changed.

Question 15

What distinguishes human consciousness from that of animals?

Answer 15

At least as far as we know, animals lack the self-mirroring capacities of human beings, which are enabled partly through human language but also through other powerful facets of the ego. If animals do have an ego, they seem to have much less of one than human beings.

Question 16

What is an ego impulse?

Answer 16

These are urges or drives that come from the conscious part of the mind, as distinct from those that stem from the unconscious. Ego impulses are driven by a person’s conscious desires, goals, and sense of self. Examples might include an urge to work hard to achieve a good goal, to seek revenge after a personal slight, or acting in ways that reinforce one’s desired appearance to others.

Question 17

How does culture influence and shape the ego?

Answer 17

According to Jung, after a certain point in development, the human ego and human consciousness become largely defined and shaped by the cultural world in which the person grows up and becomes educated. This is a layer, or wrapping, of ego structure that surrounds the central ego. Over time, with conditioning and experience, this “cultural layer” grows thicker and thicker. Jung refers to the innate, core ego as Personality No. 2, and one’s culturally-acquired layer of the ego as Personality No. 1.

Question 18

How do some contents of ego-consciousness show more stability than others?

Answer 18

Certain things that are cultural artifacts, like one’s own name, for example, become staple feature of most people’s consciousness, and may even seem permanently welded to the ego. This occurs due to its habituated uses concerning the deepest places of self-feeling. Yet such artifacts are still less fixed to the ego than things like, for example, the body. People have changed their names and retained the same body, after all.

Question 19

In what sense is the ego’s connection in the body unique?

Answer 19

While the ego is not identical with the body, the connection runs deeper than most things, including culture. Empirically just how deep the two run is up for debate. Experience seems to show that the relationship between them is complex but that they rest on seemingly different bases, referred to as the somatic and the psychic. For Jung, the ego is based in the body only in the sense that it experiences unity with the body, but the body that the ego experiences is psychic: it is a body image, and not the body itself.

Question 20

What are endosomatic perceptions?

Answer 20

These are what one can consciously feel of the body, and are produced by endosomatic stimuli—only some of which cross the threshold of consciousness. (However, the fact that they are subliminal does not necessarily mean that their status is merely physiological, any more than this would be true of psychic content).

Question 21

How far can the ego penetrate into the somatic base?

Answer 21

It remains unclear. Trained Yogis claim to exercise very large control over somatic processes, and researchers have shown that some can change the surface temperature of their palm at will by ten or twenty degrees, but we still don’t know how far into cellular substructure the ego can penetrate. Can a trained ego shrink a cancerous tumor, for example, or effectively overcome hypertension?

Question 22

What are the two major jungian thresholds concerning the psyche?

Answer 22

One threshold separates consciousness from the unconscious, while the second separates the psyche (both conscious and unconscious) from the somatic base. Note, however, that these are fluid boundaries, not fixed or rigid barriers.

Question 23

Is the body part of the psyche?

Answer 23

No, not in its purely physiological dimension, though we do have a body-image that is experienced psychically.

Question 24

Is the ego psychic or somatic, according to Jung?

Answer 24

Jung argues that the ego is purely psychic, though it is deeply connected with the soma.

Question 25

What aspects of the psyche does the ego have access to?

Answer 25

Hypothetically, nearly all of it, though in practice most of the psyche will remain unconscious throughout one’s lifetime.

Question 26

What limits the ego’s range?

Answer 26

The psyche. That which lies completely outside of the psyche is, in Kantian terms, the “thing in itself”—that which is beyond mental access. Jung was therefore not a panpsychist. In other words, he believed that there was an external world and body beyond and greater than the psyche.

Question 27

What is the “grey area” between psyche and soma?

Answer 27

Jung didn’t draw rigid lines, and acknowledged that the psyche and world can meet in areas where there are shadings of “inside/outside.” He referred to this realm as “psychoid,” and in this domain things act in a psychic-like way but are not altogether psychic—they are, instead, quasi-psychic. This is the realm where certain psychosomatic puzzles reside: for example, how do mind and body influence one another? Where does one leave off and the other begin?

Question 28

What does it mean, practically, to say that the ego’s roots reach both into the soma and into the unconscious?

Answer 28

Basically, this means that the ego, though itself purely psychic and conscious, can be easily disturbed by somatic problems and by psychic conflicts. In its upper structure, the ego is rational, cognitive, and reality-oriented, but its deeper and more hidden layers are subject to a flux of emotion, fantasy, conflict, and intrusions from the physical and psychic levels of the unconscious.

Question 29

Is consciousness completely under the ego’s control?

Answer 29

No, though it can gain distant from it sufficient to observe and study its flow. The ego moves around within the field of consciousness, observing, selecting, directing motor activity to an extent, but also ignoring a good deal of material that consciousness is otherwise attending to. When you drive a car on a familiar route, for example, the ego’s attention will frequently wander and attend to matters other than driving. However, the ego will take over should a crisis occur (such as a potential collision)

Question 30

Is it pathological for the ego to leave aspects of consciousness unattended?

Answer 30

Not in its mild form, as we all dissociate to a degree when engaging in everyday tasks.

Question 31

What makes the ego grow?

Answer 31

According to Jung, the ego grows through “collisions”—e.g. conflict, trouble, anguish, sorrow, and suffering. These cause the ego to develop through a lifetime, as people are forced to draw upon and strengthen its capacity to adapt and mobilize in the world. A moderate amount of conflict with the environment, along with some frustration, are the best conditions for ego growth. It is like building a muscle through isometric tension, which over time leads to stronger problem-solving ability and greater individual autonomy.

Question 32

How do “collisions” injure the ego?

Answer 32

This occurs when an ego is so severely traumatized that its later functioning is radically impaired. Infant abuse and sexual trauma are examples of psychic catastrophes, which can cause permanent impairment in the lower psychic registers. This can lead to a situation in which a person is able function normally at a cognitive level, but be blown around by psychological turmoil beneath the surface, leading to severe character disorders and dissociative tendencies. Such egos are fragile and hyper defensive, fragmenting easily under stress, and thereby resorting to primitive (but very powerful) defenses to wall off the world and protect the psyche from intrusions and possible injury.

Question 33

How does the nascent ego strengthen itself?

Answer 33

By creating numerous small collisions, e.g. when a toddler cries “No!” And “I won’t!,” which are attempts to change or control aspects of its environment, thereby developing a sense of autonomy—believing that consciousness can be harnessed and directed at will. The guarded characteristic of an overly anxious person indicates that the ego has not fully achieved this level of confident autonomy. In turn, a person develops openness and flexibility when the ego has acquired a degree of control sufficient to insure survival and basic need-gratification.

Question 34

Why is it important not to be overly protective towards our children?

Answer 34

Because the ego develops through facing collisions with the world and learning to handle them well. When a child is excessively insulated, he will have fewer opportunities to develop his ego through grappling with resistances from the environment.

Question 35

What are the two attitudes and four functions of the ego?

Answer 35

Jung believed that the ego had four major functions for adapting to the world (thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition), each of which could be oriented either by an introverted (inward-looking) or extroverted (outward-looking) attitude. Each person has an innate preference for one of the attitudes and one of these functions, will reveal itself in certain fixed tendencies, transforming into a personality “type.” For example, a person may develop an introverted attitude toward the world, combined with an innate tendency towards adapting to the world through the “thinking” function. This has a potent influence on a person’s decisions and activities, leading him to thrive in arenas which match these tendencies, while struggling with discomfort and stress in arenas that conflict with personality orientation.

Question 36

How did Jung believe that the four functions play out hierarchically in an individual?

Answer 36

Each individual can use all four functions, but one is always preferred, and has an accompanying attitude (e.g. extroversion or introversion). This combination (of preferred attitude and function) makes up the ego’s single best tool for adapting to and interacting with the inner and outer worlds. The “secondary function” is the next most useful, and generally operates using an an attitude opposite to the primary function. Thus, for example, if a person’s primary function is thinking and their second is sensing, and if they use an introverted attitude for thinking, then they will use an extroverted attitude for sensing. The inferior fourth function, on the other hand, is the least available for ego utilization.

Question 37

As a general rule, how do people balance the first and second functions in the world for orientation and accomplishment?

Answer 37

Generally one of the functions is introverted and the second is extroverted, with the extroverted function used to give a reading of external reality, and the internal function providing information about what is going on within.

Question 38

What happens when someone is born or forced into an environment that does not reward his personality type?

Answer 38

The ego is forced to adapt by developing the less dominant attitude and/or function. This comes at a high price, forcing the person to assume a good deal of chronic psychological stress to make it work. Such a person will have a handicap, as their attempts at adaptation will not come naturally and will likely appear artificial to observers.

Question 39

How do typological personality differences create conflict in families and groups?

Answer 39

Those who are typologically different from their parents or the “norm” are often misunderstood, and may be coerced into adopting a false typology that conforms to expectations. Those with the “correct” typological profile will be preferred and become the favorite, setting the stage for sibling rivalry and envy.

Question 40

How can typological personality differences be of benefit to families and communities?

Answer 40

When properly understood and appreciated, typological differences can form the basis for creative pluralism and familial and cultural life, with different types able to contribute and enrich in unique ways.

Question 41

Does the ego define the entirety of the personality?

Answer 41

No. Much of what we experience of other people, and that we come to recognize as our own personalities, does not belong exclusively to ego-consciousness, but to the larger psyche as a whole. The ego is simply an agent, a focus of consciousness, a center of awareness. We can attribute either too much or too little to it.

Question 42

What is free-will, in the jungian sense?

Answer 42

It exists in the ego, but is limited—both by external factors and by our own internal “demons” and character structure, though we often only become aware of these internal limits later in life, if at all. Our actual “range” of free will is limited by habit, pressure, availability, and many other factors, many of which come from within. St. Paul reflects this internal curtailment of the ego’s free will when he confessed: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate—I can will what is right but I cannot do it.”

Question 43

What are the three levels of consciousness?

Answer 43

Simple, complex, and enlightened.

Question 44

How does Don Quixote embody "simple" consciousness?

Answer 44

Like Don Quixote, simple consciousness is dominated by inner world of archetypes, but is not conscious of their influence. The inner reality triumphs over outer. It is a "garden of eden" state of consciousness, full of naive certainty and optimism, disconnected from external reality but in-tune with the internal realm of ideals. He is "two-dimensional" man--complete in an unconscious sense.

Question 45

Who does Sancho Panza represent in the "simple" stage of consciousness?

Answer 45

Sancho Panza is the shadow of Don Quixote: practical, immediate, and ruled largely by appetite. Unlike Don Quixote, he has no interest in changing the world or following an idealized path, and instead follows Don Quixote out of "excitement and love for his master."

Question 46

What do the "Sanchification" of Don Quixote and "Quixotification" of Sancho Panzo represent?

Answer 46

This occurs near the end of the narrative, as Don Quixote lays dying. He has a moment of lucidity, in which he realizes that his adventures have been unreal exercises of the imagination. Yet when he lays all this before Sancho, his servant reverses his role and begins to argue that they should set forth again and begin a new search for Dulcinea. Surely, this time, they will find the sweet one and the knightly vision. Ultimately, this event signifies the integration of the shadow of simple consciousness, and through it the movement into complex consciousness.

Question 47

How does Hamlet represent "complex" consciousness?

Answer 47

In Hamlet we find the man of tragedy, who makes chaos and failure of everything he touches due to his uncertainty and paralysis. He is the opposite of Don Quixote--the ultimate "divided man"--the most human of all characters in modern literature. His undoing begins with endless uncertainties, constant debate and vacillation over which action to take. There is no peace in such a man. He knows too much to be simple, but not enough to be whole. He is "three-dimensional man"--he knows too much to be simple, but not enough to be whole. It is the wound of self-consciousness.

Question 48

Why does Hamlet destroy the women in his life?

Answer 48

Hamlet's destructive behavior towards the feminine is characteristic of complex-consciousness, of being caught between acting by instinct and acting by enlightenment. Indecision festers within the psyche as impotent rumination, which in turn destroys the feminine aspects of the psyche.

Question 49

How does Hamlet reach towards enlightenment?

Answer 49

Near the end, he comes to see the futility of indecision and incessant rumination. He finally takes action, and though it results in his demise, he is able to find peace in the trajectory of fate, and in final silence.

Question 50

Psychologically, what led to Hamlet's tragedy?

Answer 50

He failed to integrate his "red-blooded" shadow, symbolized by Fortinabras, which was able to take action, to act on instinct and to put rumination aside. Eventually he does take action, but at this point it is too late, at least for himself, though he is able to take down the corrupt king and clear the way for a future ruler in the process.

Question 51

What does the relationship between Faust and Mephistopheles represent?

Answer 51

It depict the relationship between complex consciousness and the shadow, which must be come to terms with in order to achieve enlightenment.

Question 52

Psychologically, what is the crisis Faust symbolizes in the beginning of the play?

Answer 52

He has reached complex consciousness and realized it won't support him--that all his intellectual knowledge leads to a dead end. It is the classic "existential crisis" of modern man, and it is the crisis that killed Hamlet.

Question 53

Psychologically, how does Faust initially break out of his Hamlet isolation?

Answer 53

On the brink of committing suicide, he hears Easter music outside, which inspires him to go mingle with the festival crowd, dance with a peasant girl, drink beer, and draw close to the ordinary world. This symbolizes the importance of waiting out one's "terrible night of the soul" and allowing the perennial music to burst forth. It is a brief reprieve, but it is enough to allow him to survive the night.

Question 54

How do most people respond to the "dark night of the soul" encountered at the zenith of complex consciousness?

Answer 54

They often attempt to regress back into simple consciousness, but find it is no longer possible--the "Garden of Eden" is no longer open to those that have gone beyond its gates psychologically. Others remain in perpetual indecision, like Hamlet, or they resort to suicide or take solace in madness. This point of evolution is highly dangerous, and most do not find the answer paved by Faust.

Question 55

What does the black poodle represent?

Answer 55

This is Faust's shadow made visible, which follows him back to his study after his reprieve at the Easter festival. One may hope that a great vision will bring about an angelic experience, but its most salient effect is to constellate the shadow: wholeness implies that we must find those repressed parts of ourselves that are missing in life.

Question 56

How does the black poodle make redemption possible?

Answer 56

The shadow (symbolized by the black poodle) cuts strongly through our sentimentalized notions of goodness, bringing energy and paradox into Faust's study, which is necessary for true redemption. In fact, there is so much energy in the room that as the poodle moves about the study, flames leap up from its footprints on the stone floor. The black poodle thus provides Faust with his missing energy. The lifelong scholar who has lived by words now embraces the world of action and finds a whole new dimension of life.

Question 57

What is symbolized by Faust's retranslation of the Gospel of John?

Answer 57

Faust changes the text from "In the beginning was the word" to "in the beginning was the act." This symbolizes that, when your shadow finally becomes incarnated, there is often a huge flux of energy. This is the return of the vitality that was missing in Hamlet, the man of mere "three-dimensional" consciousness. It was also missing in Faust because of his one-sided life as the man of "word" rather than "act."

Question 58

What is the "pact" between Mephistophes and Faust?

Answer 58

Mephistophes will restore youth and vitality to Faust for twenty-four years, during which he can live out the unlived life of his youth. However, at no time can he become attached to any part of it, lest he forfeit his soul to Mephistophes. He can thus remain safe spiritually if he refrains from attachment to any of his experiences: this is a spiritual truth so profound that it can take years of observation before its full impact can be comprehended.

Question 59

What is the most important lesson of Faust?

Answer 59

That ALL of one must be redeemed: it is not simply a matter of the triumph of one part of oneself over another. At the beginning of Faust, the two partners (Faust and Mephistophes) are as unlike each other as possibe: at the end they have tempered each other until they are nearly indistinguishable. The point of the Faustian transformation is that opposites temper and restore each other, rather than one overcoming the other. At the beginning of the relationship Faust is weak, shy, frightened, and inept; Mephistopheles is ruthless and bold, without mortality or ethics. At the end of the play, Faust has become strong and Mephistophes has learned to love. Such is the true transformation of a pair of oppostes: tempering, not triumph.

Question 60

What sums up the adventures of Faust in part 1 of the play?

Answer 60

They depict Faust's experience, for the first time, of being an irresponsible youth: of falling in love, seducing the innocent Gretchen, killing her brother in a duel, attending the abandonment of a witch's sabbath, only to find that his love has committed suicide out of shame after being abandoned by Faust. These experiences lead Faust to realize that vitality and freedom do not lead to happiness, and that they gave rise to little but destruction. Faust is left in a state of profound but conscious suffering.

Question 61

What is symbolized by the failure of Faust's adventures to give him happiness in part 1 of the play?

Answer 61

This failure symbolizes the longing of a middle-aged man for the youth he missed, for one's unlived life. Yet even when one is permitted to actualize these "unlived desires," one soon finds that they are unfulfilling--they do not bring happiness or fulfillment. To attempt to literally live out these unlived sections of ourselves is to fall into Faust's error, leading to depression, guilt, and misery. Indeed, the American ideal of perpetual youthfulness dies very hard in us. We refuse to relinquish what is irretrievably out of our reach: Faust, at the end of part 1, shows us that there is no *literal* solution to unlived life.

Question 62

What lesson can be learned from the tragedy of Faust part 1?

Answer 62

That the problems of meaninglessness and loneliness, the results of our unlived lives, can be made conscious. This is a painful task, but it sets the stage for what we need to learn in part II, the best guide in Western literature for resolving the Faustian dilemma.

Question 63

What must happen to the ego when engaging in inner work?

Answer 63

The ego must consent to a subordinate role. Faust, in part I, allowed the ego to dominate, running the show but making a horrible tangle in the process. Further progress is not possible unless we realign our ego's place in life. Jung describes this moment of realignment as the relocation of the center of gravity in the personality--a dethroning of the ego--which gives honor and dignity to every dimension of one's life, even the dark elements. It is the unity of life, not the triumph of one faculty over another, that is the goal of transformation.

Question 64

What does Faust: part II symbolize?

Answer 64

It is an expression of the symbolic workings of man's soul, depicting our path out of the three-dimensional consciousness of Hamlet and Faust in Part I into the realm of symbol and fourth-dimensional consciousness.

Question 65

What is symbolized in part II by the opening in an emperor's court?

Answer 65

In Part II, we open in an emperor's court, where gold-making is in progress. There is great heat, fire, and energy, but it isn't certain that any gold has been produced. These images symbolize the fact that, when one initiates the interior journey, a great deal of energy is produced--especially when one touches a symbol or potent symbolic experience: emotions flare up, fear and exhilaration alternate, and inflations are extremely common. If you come to the emperor's court, a symbolic place deep in the unconscious, you must have enough emotional stability to withstand the intense heat and strangeness of the journey.

Question 66

What is symbolized by the boy charioteer, who mounts a horse and gallops off furiously, never to be heard from again?

Answer 66

This is the "eternal youth," an archetypal inner child whose mentality is geared to fantasy and whose eye is on heaven rather than any practical endeavor. When poorly integrated, this can turn men into dreamers: but we still need these inner-child qualities to break through three-dimensional consciousness: this inner child alerts us to the fact that, in our symbolic quest, we will be swept into one enthusiasm after another, which provide the energy for mystic vision.

Question 67

What is symbolized by Faust's demand to see Helen of Troy?

Answer 67

This is his request to have a vision of beauty and femininity

Question 68

What task must Faust complete to see Helen of Troy?

Answer 68

He must go to the place of the Mothers in the eternal depths, insert his key into the tripod, and by this means summon Helen of troy.

Question 69

What is symbolized by "going to the depths?"

Answer 69

This indicates that the journey is profoundly inward and solitary. Mephistophes may not accompany Faust on this journey; he must go alone. The journey requires extreme introversion, an inward turning, forty days and nights in the desert.

Question 70

What is symbolized by "going to the place of the Mothers?"

Answer 70

This symbolizes an act of regression, a psychologically incestuous act. Done indiscriminately this would be fatal for consciousness, but when done intelligently it can be the opportunity for salvation. The place of the Mothers is where consciousness and cultural and spiritual power originate. Returning to your origins and generating or regenerating yourself is the act of creating consciousness. An old alchemical saying proclaims: "I find myself, I mate with myself, I generate myself, I gestate myself, I give birth to myself, I am myself."

Question 71

Why is the transition from "three" to "four" so painful and difficult?

Answer 71

It involves an evolution from three-dimensional to four-dimensional consciousness, a dark night of the soul in which the center of the personality is relocated from ego to a center greater than one's self. This "superpersonal" center has been variously called the Self, God, Buddha nature, cosmic-mindedness, and so-on. It appears to be death when viewed from the perspective of the ego, since the ego loses supremacy and goes through a short time of violent suffering. Indeed, the relocation of the center of personality is a form of suicide or death, though not one that harms the body.

Question 72

What is symbolized by jointing the tripod and key?

Answer 72

It indicates the addition of one to three, resulting in four--the "wholeness" of consciousness that is the true goal of humanity. Be working most of a lifetime at the task of civilization, an educated, intelligent man has erected a "tripod" of life. Civilization has raised high culture but it now must reckon with its shadow or "dark side" as the neglected element. It is the addition of the neglected element that brings an individual or culture to wholeness.

Question 73

What mistake does Faust make when he sees Helen of Troy?

Answer 73

He attempts to embrace her. This causes an explosion, and Faust is nearly destroyed. This symbolizes the danger of trying to "personalize" our experience of archetypal forces. Archetypes and archetypal energy are bigger than we are; we cannot try to embrace that energy without causing a psychological explosion.

Question 74

How does Faust recover from his disastrous encounter with Helen of Troy?

Answer 74

Mephistopheles brings him back to his study, for a period of orderliness and the ordinary. This is the best medicine for psychic inflations or egocentricity, as it can restore us to our human dimensions and purge the inflation. Wagner, who up until now did not play an attractive role in the story, now displays his usefulness through his dry, pedestrian, and bookish nature, which has a healing effect at critical moments. An iconoclast needs to learn that a little reason and discipline are not hindrances on his way to enlightenment.

Question 75

What does Wagner's creation, the Homunculus, provide to Faust?

Answer 75

This is the second appearance of the "eternal youth," this time created by Wagner and the size of a thumb, which has the power to serve as a guide back to Ancient Greece--a symbol of the archetypal realm, where there is no equivalent to the Christian concept of evil. Yet this Homunculus, being a creation of man, explodes in a blinding flash when it encounters the Greek idea of beauty. This symbolizes that none of our human ideas of beauty and nobility hold up in the face of archetypal beauty.

Question 76

What happens when Faust journeys to Ancient Greece?

Answer 76

He is able to make a more cautious and worthy approach to Helen, the ultimate expression of feminine beauty. This time, he is allowed a less personal and brief marriage with Helen, resulting in the immediate production of a full-grown youth, Euphorion, the patron of art, whose energy can produce inspiration and artistic expression. He tries to help Faust by flying to the heavens to get the tools of the poet for Faust, but like Icarus he flies too close to the sun and falls into the sea.

Question 77

What does Euphorion represent?

Answer 77

He is the third appearance of archetype of the "eternal youth." He attempted to assist Faust, but his limitations and vulnerability to inflation and egocentricity are now clear. Euphorion reminds us of the danger in using creativity in an egocentric way. This is not to say that we should not seek to paint or write, but warns that our first attempts will be so ego-contaminated that they will catch fire and fall to the sea like Euphorion.

Question 78

What is symbolized by Faust's second loss of Helen despite retaining her garment?

Answer 78

In his second loss of Helen, Faust (on Mephistophes' direction) grabs onto her garment as she slips away, retaining it even after she disappears. Helen of Troy vanishes once more, and the great archetypal vision fades away, but she has left him with enough of herself to activate the artistic, visionary faculty in Faust. And this lesser way of possessing Helen is not too much for mortals to bear. This may seem only a tiny sliver of one's first vision, but that is quite enough to bring into the everyday world. Many artists fail in their calling because they refuse a limited, less-than-perfect expression of their original vision. A man cannot handle the great artistic tools of the boy-god Euphorion, and he may not be able to embrace the superhuman vision of pure beauty. However, a man can touch her garment, which is sufficient to bring s small part of his artistic vision into creation. To do more would be to burn us up in a gigantic inflation.

Question 79

Why, near the end of their time together, does Faust ask Mephistophes for a piece of coastline that he might reclaim from the sea?

Answer 79

This symbolizes the work of our latter life, which is the cultural process of bringing up some of the contents of the unconscious and integrating them into consciousness. Mephistophes arranges this quite easily for Faust, and we soon find him dredging canals, building dikes, taking land from the sea and adding it to the land mass. He is happy and content with this project and is deeply absorbed in it.

Question 80

What is symbolized by Mephistopheles' destruction of the old couple, Baucis and Philemon?

Answer 80

Faust had asked Mephistophes to get rid of the couple, as he sees them as obstructing his view. He doesn't anticipate that Mephistophes will scare them to death, and is horrified when he discovers what happened. Yet he also grows more aware of what his alliance with Mephistopheles is costing him, learning that he has power over Mephistopheles and is capable of misusing that pwer.

Question 81

What four grey sisters approach as Faust is preoccupied with reclaiming land from the sea?

Answer 81

They are Want, Debt, Need, and Care--dark forces symbolizing the power of necessity, Faust, due to his wealth, is immune to three of them, but not to Dame Care, and when Faust refuses to take her dark force seriously, she blinds him, after which Faust returns to his work of reclaiming land from sea. This may suggest, symbolically, that Faust exchanges "sight" for "insight", a transformation required of every man as he grows old.

Question 82

After Faust is blinded, what does his excavation become?

Answer 82

It becomes the digging of his own grave, since his lack of sight has cost him all awareness of what he is actually digging. You can recognize here one of the dangers of old age: you dig or hack away at a project more out of inertia and habit than out of any sense of purpose.

Question 83

What finally causes Faust, moments before death, to lose his wager?

Answer 83

He steps back from his labors and sees a utopian vision of a noble band of free people inhabiting the region he has separated from the sea. He utters the fatal words, "Linger, thou art so fair," and Mephistopheles rushes in triumphant to claim Faust's soul, according to the terms of their contract twenty-four years before.

Question 84

How does Gretchen save Faust from Mephistophes?

Answer 84

Gretchen appears, who persevered in her love for Faust, and appears at the head of a choir of angels to plead for Faust's release from Mephistopheles. They beg at the gates of heaven, pointing out that it was a vision of heaven, not anything that Mephistopheles had produced for him, that caused Faust to utter the fatal words. Faust is saved and, led by Gretchen, enters heaven in a flood of light. Finally, at the gates of heaven, it is grace, not justice, that prevails: the masculine stuff of law and order are superseded by grace and love.

Question 85

Why is it necessary for Mephistopheles to be redeemed as well?

Answer 85

Because, in psychological terms, true redemption only comes through the transformation and integration of the whole, with one half tempering the other.

Question 86

How is Mephistopheles redeemed?

Answer 86

He catches sight of a boy angel in the heavenly band around Gretchen and falls in love with him. This leads him to forget to press his partially legitimate charges against Faust. Mephistopheles is thus redeemed by his first experience of love, with ego and shadow each finding its own level of redemption and its own appropriate salvation.

Question 87

What does the boy angel symbolize?

Answer 87

The boy angel is the fourth manifestation of the archetype of the "eternal youth," symbolizing love and summing up the power of that figure. To touch the "eternal youth" is to touch eternity, to touch love, and to be delivered from the realm of Maya--illusion.

Question 88

Why is it important to understand which level of consciousness we are currently in?

Answer 88

Because the different stages come with different needs, and what might be helpful at one stage could be harmful or even fatal at another.

Question 89

How does our capacity to detect the color "blue," along with musical "harmony," evince our cultural evolution?

Answer 89

Earlier civilizations, like Greece, were unable to perceive blue, which appears nowhere in Homer nor in the Old Testament. Likewise, our ability to hear harmonic structure, as opposed to mere melodic lines, appears to have developed only in the fifteenth or sixteenth century. One could argue from this that a new faculty--that of four-dimensional consciousness--is only now appearing in ordinary men and women.