‘In all chaos there is a cosmos in all disorder a secret order…’

‘…we are caught and entangled in aimless experience.. It is a moment of collapse…Only when all the crutches and props are broken, and no cover from the rear offers even the slightest hope of security, does it become possible for us to experience an archetype that up till then had lain hidden.. this is the archetype of meaning’. The source of the quote comes from Swiss Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung (1875-1961) whose work has influenced wide breadth of disciplines anthropology, theology, archeology, literature, philosophy, religious studies and significantly in human psychology. Some of his key concepts include synchronicity, archetype, collective unconscious, psychological complex and extraversion and introversion personality types. Jung believed the predicament in the human condition lie in the conflict between one’s conscious and a repressed lack of attention to our unconscious life. This was not only repressed sexual drives as Freud saw it but a collective unconscious, an inherited network of mythological symbols articulating patterns of human existence that influence our instincts and drives on an unconscious level. By process of individuation the path to individual wholeness through paying attention to dream interpretations active imagination one can make contact with the unconscious and attain not perfection but a wholeness. Often in existential crises when the ground is shaken beneath our feet we are confronted with chaos we collapse and turn into the depths to make this contact with the unconscious archetype find meaning in our suffering, reinvent and orient our life toward a worthwhile transcendent purpose.

See our tribute to Carl Jung by viewing our Chaosmos Tee.

For further investigation see ‘Psychology and Alchemy’ Carl Jung, ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ by Viktor Frankyl.