The symbolic and psychological meaning of the Birth, Baptism, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost in our spiritual journey through the Cakras.

 

Preface

Edward Edinger’s work in Judeo-Christian psychology has influenced the depth of my understanding of psyche.  After reading his book: The Christian Archetype: A Jungian Commentary on the Life of Christ, I felt the hidden meaning of the life of Jesus had finally been revealed to the public.  Edward Edinger describes the true psychological meaning of the Christian story.  An archetypal pattern most of the western world is inextricably tied to.  The understanding of the symbolic meaning of Christ’s story is critical for anyone on the path to individuation.  Archetypal stories and images allow us to develop a metaphorical understanding of our life’s experiences.  It appears to me that without the ability to understand this psychological concept, our ego runs the risk of being crushed by the burden of the individuation process.  It is these symbolic images like the Christian Archetype, that help us to move through the “valley of darkness” and find our way out to the “green pastures” of consciousness.  In essence, it is a lifeline that supports us when we are lost in complexes and in the grip of overpowering archetypal energy.

I would be remiss if I did not reference Anthony Fisichella a teacher I had the privilege of studying with back

 

in the early 1970’s.  Tony as we called him, did a lecture on: The Life of Christ Seen Esoterically, this is where I was first exposed to the symbolic nature of the Jesus story.  It was probably about the time that the “birth” or my ego awakening to the Self took place, because that is when I first encountered, The Undiscovered Self, written by C. G. Jung.

 

Abstract

This article explores the Christian landmarks of faith, and the symbolic and psychological ways these landmarks guide us on our own spiritual pilgrimage.  Birth, Baptism, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost are archetypal events that take place within the psyche and drive us toward individuation.  By looking at the life of Jesus symbolically and his experience with these seven significant events, we can learn to understand the psychological process we encounter in our intra-psychic world.  These monumental experiences in the life of Jesus marked tremendous changes in his psyche and can be interpreted as symbolic events in our psyche.  These experiences understood psychologically, gives us meaning and the tools to understand the changes taking place in our spiritual nature.  The Jesus drama is representative of an allegorical process describing the psychological changes that take place between the ego and the Self.  The ego encounters the world with trials and tribulations only to learn its true identity in relation to the organizing principle of the psyche (Self).  It is God's mission that Jesus the personality is living out.  The task is to suffer the human condition in order to become conscious of the true nature of God. As we study the symbolic life of

Christ and references made by C. G. Jung to the cakra system, we will understand how this archetypal story reflects the ultimate individuation process.

 

Introduction

The Gospels of the New Testament have traditionally been read as historical fact.  The four Evangelists who wrote the Gospels chronicled the life of Jesus.  However, if we were to look at the life of Jesus as if it were an allegorical story (psyche’s spiritual evolution), we would have to agree the authors of the gospels were spiritual geniuses. Biblical scholars refer to five gospels as their source for information about Jesus.  The Gospel of Thomas discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1946 has been included with Mark, Matthew, Luke and John by most mainstream churches.  Your average churchgoer is typically unfamiliar with the “Book of Q” the supposed source of Jesus’ sayings and the primary reference used by Matthew and Luke (Johnson, 1994).  Both the “First Edition of Thomas” and the “Book of Q” were written around 50 CE to 60 CE.  Mark’s gospel (70 CE) according to biblical scholars was also a source for Matthew and Luke.  John’s gospel was written around 90 CE and is directly influenced by a scripture called “Signs”, written around 60 CE (Johnson, 1994).  These scholarly points surrounding the time frame in which the gospels were written is interesting from a historical frame of reference, but irrelevant for our topic in this article.  The truth contained in the gospels surrounding the life of Jesus has nothing to do with a point in historical time, because I will be writing about an archetypal theme that is timeless and transpersonal relevant to all of us, living at any moment in time. 

 

The symbolic nature of the birth, baptism, transfiguration, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and Pentecost is something that takes place in our psyche as we awaken to our spiritual nature.  It has no boundaries and happens outside of space and time.  These are archetypal events that are transpersonal and timeless, orchestrated by the Self on the individual ego living in time and space. The Jesus story is an archetypal image of the ego's conscious unification with the Holy Spirit/Self.

 

BIRTH

The story begins with the Angel Gabriel coming to Mary to tell her she will bring forth a son and he will be conceived by the Holy Spirit and will be called the Son of God    (Luke 1: 26-38).  Mary the virgin conceives a child miraculously without copulating with a man.  Of course in the 21^st century artificial insemination could be an explanation, but we are looking at this occurrence symbolically and metaphorically.  Mary is symbolic of matter the physical world, the divine principle of the feminine; she is representative of Sophia (divine wisdom). The Holy Spirit enters the physical world through Mary as Jesus the baby.  A new spiritual awakening is beginning to take shape within the psyche/soul.  Just as when we dream of a pregnancy, a woman with child, we can usually interpret this to mean something new will be taking place in our psyche.  In this case we are looking at the awakening of a divine consciousness.

 

It should be noted that Mary and Joseph go to a cave to give birth to the divine child.  Symbolically this happens deep within the unconscious.  One must delve to the depths of the unconscious to uncover the divine.  This divine birth does not happen without a great deal of suffering.  Just as a woman literally suffers the pain of giving birth to a child, we experience the psychological pain of bringing forth this new consciousness.  Divine awareness is difficult to experience because for this to happen the ego must give up control. Ego will fight the process every step of the way.  Hence, this new awareness is difficult to manifest because it comes with pain and suffering.  This divine birth seems to be the moment when we first encounter a realization of the Self.  We have a glimpse of our divine nature a transpersonal moment when we feel connected to the universe.  Many of us could probably remember when we first encountered the Holy Spirit or Self, as Jungians would call it.  Maslow might call it your first “peak experience”.  Holding on to this moment is impossible.  Jung said, “We can never hold an image of totality because our consciousness is too narrow; we can only see flashes of existence” (CW Vol. 18 par. 13).  In essence our ego awareness is too limited to grasp the Self in its totality.  In addition, this is the first awakening of the ego to the Holy Spirit/Self, it does not last long because of the ego’s limited level awareness, but it is the beginning.  The ego has had a taste of the divine fruit (“Tree of Life”) and will seek more for spiritual nourishment.

 

It appears as if the birth is the awakening of the kundalini energy in the root cakra the Muladhara cakra.  This corresponds to the earth element; perhaps we could say the sensation function.  Once this cakra is awakened, the sleeping “Self” becomes activated in the psyche; there is a sense of a world outside the three-dimensional space the ego lives in.   Muladhara  “is a place where mankind is a victim of impulses, instincts, unconsciousness, of participation mystique, where we are in a dark and unconscious place”  (Jung 1996, pg.15).  The birth of Christ symbolizes the rise or awakening of kundalini in the lowest cakra.  Ego, which up to this point is completely enmeshed in earthly and instinctual pursuits, becomes aware of the divine aspect of psyche/soul.

 

As our story continues we find King Herod hot on the trail of our new king.  He sends his soldiers out to snuff out the existence of this new light on earth (Matthew 2:8).  Herod is representative of the darkness that sets in to destroy the unity and comfort of the divine.  Psychologically we are unable to hold the divine unity for long.  Ego needs, and weaknesses creep in to bring us back to earth to experience the human condition.  (It is a descent back into the depths of Muladhara).  This is when Joseph receives a message in a dream from an angel that the divine baby is in danger and he should flee to Egypt until Herod dies (Matthew 2:13-15).  Herod symbolizes the past, old habits, self-indulgences and the ego’s desire for materialism and worldly gains.  The divine encounter now requires the ego to adjust itself to the presence of the Self and start working toward love and sacrificial service to mankind.  Fleeing to Egypt is psychologically equivalent to the ego’s retreat to the unconscious. It is the Self’s attempt to reorganize the psyche so it can move to the next level of experience which will bring more suffering for the sake of more light in consciousness.

 

BAPTISM

After the birth of Jesus and his fleeing to Egypt we know nothing of his life until he was twelve years old. When Jesus was twelve years old his parents found him with the teachers at the Temple in Jerusalem where he was learning and questioning the meaning of scripture (Luke 2: 41-51).  The Temple of Jerusalem is symbolic for the home of the divine; therefore I think it is safe to assume that Jesus was preparing himself for his life’s mission for many years by contemplating the divine energies of the psyche. There is much speculation about what Jesus did during the years from birth to 30 years of age.  Suffice it to say he must have been studying and meditating during those years to prepare himself for his life’s mission.

 

“When He had been baptized Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him”. (Matthew 3:16)

This is a significant occurrence in the soul’s journey to consciousness.  As Jesus is submerged under the water at the river Jordan and emerges; recognizing heaven is now upon him, we also experience this event psychologically in our individuation process.

The symbolic meaning behind the Baptism is the ego has been submerged in the unconscious.  Water is symbolic of the unconscious and when Jesus is dunked into the River Jordan (“that which descends”) he is essentially going through a transformation.  Water represents feelings, emotions, wisdom and regeneration.  Many people experience water images in their dreams, perhaps suggesting emotional concerns.  Jesus demonstrates symbolically through the baptism how his feelings and emotions are altered and wisdom is some how gained through this event. This is a major milestone in the individuation process.  The ego must delve deep into the unconscious and experience psychic forces that appear as demons and angels.  Afterwards, psyche goes through a reorganization or integration process creating a broader ego perspective of the world.

 

The descent into the unconscious, symbolized by Jesus’ immersion into depths of the Jordan River is an initiation rite. It is perhaps an initiation into the svadhisthana, second charka, the element of water, where we meet the leviathan, the beast of the dark ocean waters.  Psychoanalysis allows us to wonder into and through the dark ocean of the unconscious. This experience can be either destructive or a source of regeneration (Jung 1996, pg. 17).  Moving from the first cakra to the second cakra does not happen with out risk of ego annihilation.  Raising the kundalini energy requires a great deal of spiritual preparation and self-analysis of one’s shadow.

 

 In this case it is regeneration, Jesus and God now have a conscious relationship.  A new “Ego-Self” alignment takes place, a more balanced psyche.  The image of the Dove descending from Heaven as Jesus emerges from the depths of the River Jordan represents purity and innocence.  This is the symbolic manifestation of the Holy Spirit/Self merging with the ego in a conscious relationship.  We experience this psychologically as a new force entering our life and cleansing us of old habits and attitudes.  We become cognizant of new possibilities and for the first time aware of our mission or dharma in this life.  This baptism is felt psychologically as a rebirth, a new awareness of love and compassion for our fellow man.  This is when the psyche experiences a true sense of a life of service.  The ego has become fully aware of its relationship to the Self.  We know for certain that our individual ego and all its talents and abilities are to be used purely in service to God/Self.

 

C. G. Jung in his seminar on The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga given in 1932 refers to the Christian baptism as a symbolic event representing how we receive “the immortal soul, which we did not possess before.   He goes on to say:  “Christ receives his mission and the spirit of God in his baptism in the Jordan.  He is only a Christus after Baptism because Christus meant the anointed one.  He too is “twice-born.”  He is now above the ordinary mortal that he was as Jesus, the son of the carpenter.  He is now a Christus, a nonpersonal or symbolic personality, and no longer a mere person belonging to this or that family.  He belongs to the whole world, and in his life it becomes evident that this is a very much more important role than if he were the Son of Joseph and Mary”(Jung 1996, pg. 31). It is when we discover the magnitude of the meaning of the “Anima Mundi” the “World Soul”.

 

JOURNEY INTO THE WILDERNESS

Once on the road to individuation we quickly discover that with every magnificent encounter with the Self/God there is a long dark descent into the unconscious.  This journey into the depths of the unconscious does not come without pain and suffering.  This is the law of psychic compensation.  The closer the ego gets to an encounter with the archetypal image of the Self, the further the subsequent drop into depression and darkness.  There is an ego inflation that takes place within psyche after these glorious experiences with the Self.  It seems that we cannot hold on to these moments of mystical union with God for very long.  The ego is incapable of venturing out side the three-dimensional space-time it exists in for any length of time.  Ego must always descend back to earth to reorganize itself in psyche.

 

The Baptism of Jesus resulted in a significant encounter with God/Self and as a result he is sent into the wilderness for a cosmic wrestling match with Satan.  Satan, the adversary and opposite image of the loving, compassionate Christ, is pumped up for a down and dirty fight with Jesus.  Jesus readies himself for the three rounds of the fight by fasting for forty days and forty nights.  We learn from our bible stories every significant event takes place after forty days and nights.  Jung has pointed out the significance of the number four (“Quarternity”) in many of his writings.  Four is a universal number of wholeness that crops up all over the world in every culture and religion. When it appears in a dream it could be pointing to wholeness or a positive resolution to a conflict in our psyche.  In the wilderness battle it is a sign of Jesus’ potential for success.

 

In the first battle between Satan and Jesus the devil tells Jesus to turn stones into bread since he is the Son of God (Matthew 4:1).  Symbolically the bread is representative of materialism and money.  We all face the temptation of selling our souls for promotions at work, that new house or car we so desperately desire.  Before we can develop further on the spiritual path to wholeness we must face our material cravings.  This would also include food, alcohol, drugs, sex, and all the lusts of the body.  We must find a way to control these desires with moderation. 

 

Jesus is tempted once again by the devil with a journey to the top of the Temple and commanded to jump for God will send his Angels to save him (Matthew 4: 5).  This test is illustrative of the temptation to become arrogant and inflated with self-importance.  As the ego gains understanding of the archetypal world it develops an understanding of cosmic laws and can lead to misuse of one’s powers. 

 

The last temptation takes place high on top of a mountain, where the devil offers Jesus control over all the kingdoms of the world if he would just fall down and worships him (Matthew 4: 9).  Any time we talk of control we know the ego is overly involved in the situation.  Ego control equates to trust in the rational mind, an ability to dictate the outcome of our actions.  This test is one that breathes the unattainable belief in a government that can bring about a utopian state.  One of the greatest problems the early Jewish followers had with Jesus is that he was not working toward a secular political change.  He emphasized his kingdom to be not of this world, which made the fundamentalists of his time very frustrated.  After the devil left him, angels came and ministered to him (Matthew 4: 11).  Anyone that has fallen into the deep abyss of the dark scary unconscious, and grapples with his dark demons hopes and prays the angels will save him from annihilation.  

 

This encounter with the demons of the wilderness is essential for every soul on the road to individuation.  One cannot hope to reach the resurrection in Calvary without going through this psychic process.  These three temptations epitomize the struggle our ego faces in gaining power and control over the forces of nature.  Since we are all unique individuals these struggles will appear to each of us in different shapes and forms.   However, since these battles are archetypal we must all take them on. We must fight the fight with our entire spiritual might because there does not seem to be any other way to wholeness.  “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). 

 

I associate this particular encounter Jesus had in the wilderness/desert to be the balancing and centering of physical, emotional and mental aspects of our psyche.  We all struggle with our physical bodies, fighting illness, food addictions, drug/alcohol issues, sexual desires and a host of other problems.  We seem to have emotional imbalances making us nervous, aggressive or so afraid we cannot act appropriately.  Our mental state of mind seems to interfere with our every day activities causing us to lose concentration and focus.  It is hard to delineate what is a physical issue from an emotional or mental concern.  However, Jesus’ encounter with the three temptations in the desert seems to depict how we must balance our physical, emotional and mental desires with our true spiritual nature.  Until we have some discipline over these desires/temptations we cannot move on to the next stage of spiritual development.  The lesson to be learned from the Satan encounter in the desert is; the ego must have discipline over its physical, emotional and mental desires in order to gain more knowledge of the spiritual world.  The ego must develop an ability to understand it is in service to the Self and be disciplined enough to keep its mundane desires in check. “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as My Father taught me, I speak these things.  And He who sent me is with me.  The Father has not left me alone, for I always do these things that please Him” (John 8:28-29). 

 

Edward Edinger describes Jesus’ three temptations in his book Ego and Archetype as a very dangerous situation for the ego.  It is perilous for the ego because it is encountering the over powering energies of the Self.  A relevant transpersonal image is required to provide the necessary orientation to prevent a dangerous inflation.  Christ uses the words of scripture to ward off the dark temptation presented by the Satan. 1) “Man can not live on bread alone” (Matthew 4:4).  2) “You are not to put the Lord your God to the test” (Matthew 4:7).  3) “You shall do homage to the Lord your God and worship him alone” (Matthew 4:10).  Edinger points out the importance of finding the right myth or archetypal image necessary that expresses the individual situation.  Archetypal images are critical for all of us to understand our personal situations.  If we can find an archetypal or mythic image that supports our personal experience, we can make it transpersonal which gives us the appropriate perspective to work through the crisis.  It allows the ego to ward off the enormous archetypal energies it is encountering by making the issue transpersonal not personal.  “The relevant transpersonal image will provide the needed orientation and protect from the danger of inflation” (Edinger 1972).

 

It appears to me that the wilderness encounter with the shadow, represented symbolically by the encounter with Satan, is the passing through the third cakra; Manipura.  This is the center representative of the element of fire, where we experience the “fire of passion, of wishes, of illusions” (Jung 1996,pg. 35).  The ego must separate out its passions and illusions by encountering the dark shadow forces of our lower nature.  This occurs through projecting our inferior qualities onto other people and things in the world. (Just as Jesus projected his shadow onto Satan.)  Once we wrestle with these demons and see them as aspects of our own psyche, we can withdraw them from out there and integrate them into our own nature.  This is where we develop conscious awareness of our lower nature and acquire the necessary ego discipline to act in conjunction with the higher purposes of the Self.

 

The Baptism and Wilderness initiations seem to be tied together as a psychic compensation for each other.  Jesus rises out of the river and is crowned with the dove of the Holy Spirit. However, a “conquering of the serpent” (Satan) in the wilderness of the unconscious is required to pass to the next level of awareness.  The third cakra “Manipura, is the center of identification with the god, where one becomes part of the divine substance, having an immortal soul. You are already part of that which is no longer in time, in three-dimensional space; you belong now to a fourth-dimensional order of things where time is an extension, where space does not exist and time is not, where there is only infinite duration-eternity” (Jung 1996, pg. 31). Jung goes on to cite an ancient Egyptian story of “ the Pharaoh climbing into the sun bark and traveling through the night and conquering the serpent, and then rises again with the god and is riding over the heavens for all eternity” (Jung 1996, pg. 31) This initiation in the wilderness is part of the steps leading to individuation and the next encounter with the Self on top of a mountain where a transfiguration occurs.

 

TRANSFIGURATION

“The transfiguration and ascension of Christ is the symbolical representation and anticipation of the desired end, that is, being lifted above the personal and into the suprapersonal.  In the old church Christ represents the leader, and hence the promise of what the mystic or initiate could also contain” (Jung 1996, pg. 68).  We learn from the gospel of Matthew (17: 1-8), “Jesus took Peter, James and John led them up a high mountain by themselves and He was transfigured before them.  His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.”  The symbolism here leaves nothing to the imagination. Going up high on a mountain symbolically brings one closer to God in heaven. The Sun is representative of the Self only accentuated by the white light of purity and perfection. This image is symbolic of wholeness and individuation. This is a numinous moment, glossed over by most religious teachers because it is difficult to explain.  Jesus, Peter, James and John encounter Moses and Elijah, two of the most prominent prophets of the Old Testament or First Testament, if you prefer.  Peter asked Jesus if he should “make here three tabernacles: one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah?”  Psychologically, what we find in this question by Peter to Jesus is an ego attempted to try and capture and contain the numinous light of the Self.  The ego finds itself experiencing a mystical moment outside of time and space. Jung might describe it as” being lifted above the personal into the suprapersonal”(Jung 1996 pg. 68).

 

We know that Peter is referred to as Petros, the rock, and from my perspective, representative of earth/physical realm, and the first cakra: Muladhara.  James could be symbolic of water/emotion, the second cakra: Svadhisthana and John known for his opening lines in his gospel “ In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God”, the third cakra: Manipura the center of fire/mind.  The transfiguration is an initiation that brings us into the fourth cakra: Anahata, the element of air/intuition.  It is the opening of this energy center that exposes us to the conscious realization of the Self.  “In anahata you behold the “perusa “, a small figure that is the divine self………the first germlike appearance of the self” (Jung 1996, pg.39).  It is the place that one overcomes or withdraws from emotions; there is a detachment from the passions and desires, a conscious discipline over one’s lower nature.  The appearance of Moses and Elijah alongside Jesus with Peter, James and John symbolizes the perfect union of an “Ego-Self axis”.  Peter, James, John and Jesus represent the quaternity of the four elements: earth, water, fire and air.  We could say the four functions of: sensation, feeling, thinking and intuition.  The manifestation of Moses and Elijah points toward the possibility of the Kundalini energy rising even further toward the fifth and sixth cakras.  The transfiguration like every encounter with the Self leads to a collapse of the ego into darkness and despair. The psyche must now integrate the experience requiring a complete reorganization of the psyche.  Ego and Self must be realigned to handle this new perspective of the universe. The inflation experienced in this numinous moment can only be followed by an equal degree of depression, leading us to a descent from the mountain to the crucifixion, the demise of the old ego perspective for a new world view.

 

CRUCIFIXION

As Jesus prepares himself for the his crucifixion he prays in the garden of Gethsemane to God the Father in heaven: “ Let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”(Matthew 26:42).  The Lords Prayer helps us to make a distinction between the personal and the transpersonal.  Recognition of a divine will having precedence of over the individual will gives us a better sense of our relationship to the spirit of God. “The ego stands to the Self as the moved to the mover. Or as object to subject” (Jung CW 11, par. 391).  Psychologically this is a struggle between “flesh and spirit”. As we approach the crucifixion the difference between the personality of Jesus (ego) and that of the divine God (Self) is becoming very distinct.  This separation manifests as a splitting of the opposites, the symbolic equivalent of nuclear fission.  “The reality of evil and its incompatibility with good cleave the opposites asunder and lead inexorably to the crucifixion and suspension of everything that lives.  Since “the soul is by nature Christian” this result is bound to come as infallibly as it did in the life of Jesus: we all have to be “crucified with Christ,” i.e., suspended in a moral suffering equivalent to veritable crucifixion” (Jung CW 12, Par. 24).

 

The cross is an image of wholeness, a mandala symbolic of individuation.  Christ on the cross between two thieves represents the opposites.  One thief asks for forgiveness of his sins, goes to heaven with Christ, the other thief is not redeemed and goes to hell.  The struggle to unite the opposites is depict as beatings, mocking, whippings and death. “The divine process of change manifests itself to our human understanding……as punishment, torment, death and transfiguration” (Jung CW 13, par 130). The psychological process of recognizing collective shadow and personal shadow requires a tremendous amount of self-analysis.  Peering into the mirror of darkness and squarely looking at the ugliness within does not come easily.  As a matter of fact, most of us refuse to take the necessary steps to become conscious of this aspect of psyche (shadow/evil/sin).  The pain and suffering it entails is far more than the average ego can tolerate.  Witnessing the agony and suffering of the crucified Christ is too excruciating for the mere human being to handle.  This is why as Jesus said: “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24).  When we are so identified with our wealth and possessions, it becomes very hard to let them go.  We identify with them as being our true selves.  We struggle to hold on to this ego illusion.  If we try to let go of our earthly identity we feel as if we are being crucified.  As a matter of fact, it psychologically feels like dismemberment and hurts so much we refuse to walk from Bethlehem to Calvary in the footsteps of Christ. The ego represented by Jesus (the personality) must be completely destroyed, torn apart and dismembered so that it can be buried and reborn through the resurrection.  The world created by the ego must be dismantled.  Once the opposites are split they must be united to create a new world-view.  Psyche is reorganized to establish in this particular initiation a universal cosmic perspective, a sense of immortality, and a new identity existing outside of three-dimensional space-time.  It is through this process that a complete understanding of the transpersonal Self and acceptance of the immortality of the soul/psyche is understood.  A cosmic consciousness, a universal relationship with the cosmos becomes possible, bringing us to the doorstep of heaven.

 

RESURRECTION

It is hard to imagine someone dieing and actually being brought back to life three days later.  Many of us have either heard or read of people having near death experiences that have literally changed their lives.  The resurrection of Christ is an entirely different story.  This is a psychological event that takes place after the crucifixion, which symbolically represents the outcome of the complete annihilation of the ego.  It is when we have completely let go of who we think we are in the three dimensional world and still have a sense of being in the world. Sort of “being in this world but not of it.”  The resurrected body refers to “the transformation of ego into archetype” (Edinger 1987).  A new spiritual body is formed after this transformation.  We know from the gospels, Jesus’ followers did not recognize him after the resurrection (John 20:14, Matthew 28:16, Luke 24:16). He no longer looked like the person they knew.  The scriptures make it very clear there was a visible transformation of the risen Christ.  “The fact that only a few people see the Risen One means that no small difficulties stand in the way of finding and recognizing the transformed value” (Jung CW 11, par 149).  Paul the apostle said “There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another” (Corinthians 15: 40).  This “celestial body” is not of the ego world the material world of space and time. It is of the transpersonal dimension beyond space/time the realm of the archetypal.  The resurrection is an event that defies any sense of logic.  It is a point in our spiritual journey when we recognize the all-inclusive nature of psyche.  The objective world and subjective world become one in psyche.

 

In my mind’s eye, this transformation raises the kundalini energy to the fifth cakra the “visuddha center”.  Some yoga scholars might argue that the energy is actually descending into the cakra.  There seems to be an ascent and descent of kundalini energy.  This would suggest that there is an involution as well as an evolution of psyche in progress.  Jung refers to this center as the element of ether in his 1932 seminar on “The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga”.   He goes on to say: “The reality we reach there is a psychical reality; it is a world of psychical substance……..a climbing up from gross matter to the subtle, psychical matter……….the transformation of gross matter into subtle matter of the mind….the sublimation of man, as it was then understood”(Jung 1996, pg. 43).  Jesus the man has now become Christ the anointed one.  A transformation of the earthly into the heavenly or we could say matter into spirit.  The resurrection changes our perspective of the world.  Hence in “visuddha, the whole game of the world becomes your subjective experience.  The world itself becomes a reflection of the psyche” (Jung 1996, pg.50).  It sounds as if matter and spirit have been united as one substance.

 

ASENSION

 Jesus after his resurrection continued to preach to his apostles for forty days about the kingdom of heaven.  After forty days, “He (Jesus) was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight” (Acts 1:9).  The assumption of Jesus into heaven in physical form is one of the miracles of faith Christians believe wholeheartedly. Psychologically the ascension symbolically represents the soul’s complete absorption into the “Anima Mundi” the “World Soul”.  It becomes united in God, as energy in spirit.  Jesus the personality (ego) disappears and is completely assumed into heaven as Christ the second aspect of the Trinity.

 

I associate the ascension with the sixth cakra called Ajna.  This energy center is referred to as the “winged seed” (Jung 1996, pg. 57).  This is an appropriate symbolic image of the ascension.  What better way to be carried off into the sky to heaven than with wings?  This is how Jung describes the Ajna center:  “One could say it was the center of the unio mystica with the power of God, meaning the absolute reality where one is nothing but psychic energy, yet confronted with the psychic reality that one is not. And that is God. God is the eternal psychical object. God is simply a word for the non-ego…….The ego disappears completely; the psychical is no longer a content in us, but we become contents of it” (Jung 1996, pg. 57). Psychologically this is very difficult to grasp because most of us have not experienced this level of awareness.  However if we could experience this level of consciousness it would “be an exceedingly extended consciousness which includes everything—energy itself-- a consciousness which knows not only “Thou is Thou” but more than that every tree, every stone, every breath of air, every rat’s tail-- all that is yourself; there is nothing that is not yourself.  In such an extended consciousness all the cakras would be simultaneously experienced, because it is the highest state of consciousness” (Jung 1996, pg. 59).

 

PENTECOST

Jesus tells the Apostles (John 16:7) that he must go in order for the Holy Spirit to come to them.  After Jesus disappears into the sky the Apostles are told  (Acts 1:8-11) that Jesus will return in like manner.  In Acts 2: 1-13 the Holy Spirit comes down from heaven like “ tongues of fire”.  The Apostles are baptized with the fire of the Holy Spirit, (comforter/paraclete), which descends upon them and fills them with the spirit of God.  If we look at this process psychologically we find that the Apostles project their image of God unto Jesus demonstrated by the Ascension.  They watch Jesus disappear into the clouds to join his Father in heaven.  They then must withdraw their projections and find the spirit of Jesus the Christ within them as the Holy Spirit. “For through him (Jesus) we both have access to the Father by one spirit.  Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and profits, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.  In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.  And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit” (Ephesians 2:18-22). Pentecost ties together the concept of the Trinity, three gods in one; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Hence, it appears that we must project the God image unto Jesus the Christ to make it more personal and then withdraw the God image from Jesus and incorporate it into our psyches as the Holy Spirit.  It does seem as if this all-pervasive Holy Spirit (“Divine Energy”) is encapsulating our entire being and universe, but we are just not fully conscious of its existence.

 

The image of the Holy Spirit descending upon the heads of the Apostles suggests the opening of the seventh cakra (Sahasrara). Jung said the “Sahasrara center, is quite superfluous because that is merely a philosophical concept with no substance to us whatever; it is beyond any possible experience” (Jung 1996, pg. 57). This is the Divine center (cakra) where cosmic energy either goes out into the universe or where the cosmic energy of the universe enters our being.  As Jung says this concept is beyond our understanding, so to try and make any sense of it is an exercise in intellectual gymnastics. 

 

If anyone could achieve this level of spiritual awareness they would undoubtedly have to go through the symbolic trials and tribulations described in the Jesus drama.  The Holy Spirit may indeed descend upon us through the seventh cakra (Sahasrara), but kundalini seems to have to first awaken in the root cakra: Muladhara.  Once awakened the energy rises and is developed through the opening of each cakra, represented by the seven initiations of Christ illustrated in our story.

 

 

CONCLUSION

We started our Jesus story with the Holy Spirit descending upon Mary conceiving a child and end our story with the Holy Spirit descending upon the disciples.  The child (Jesus) evolves and ascends into heaven with God the Father only to return by descending upon the apostles as the Holy Spirit (Pentecost).  Psychologically the ego and Self are initially merged together as one with no conscious separation. The Birth represents in our story the separation or the beginning of the “Ego-Self” differentiation process.   The ego symbolically differentiates itself from the all encompassing transpersonal Self by going through each initiation: birth, baptism, transfiguration, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and Pentecost.  It is through this process the ego separates or differentiates itself from the Self and in the end is consciously reunited with the Self as one in psyche.  If we believe  “the ultimate goal of individuation is the transformation of the ego into archetype” (Edinger 1987), then the conscious ego realization or conscious ego reunification with the Self/Holy Spirit is possible.

 

 

 

                                      References

Edinger, E. F. (1987). The Christian Archetype: A Jungian Commentary on the Life of Christ. Toronto, Canada: Inner City Books.

Edinger, E. F. (1972). Ego and Archetype. C. G Jung Foundation for Analytical  Psychology: New York, New York.

Fisichella, Anthony. (1975). The Life of Christ Seen Esoterically.  www.higher-ground.com

          Johnson, L. T. (January 23, 1994). Bible scholars: What did Jesus really say?. Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA.

Jung, C. G. (1953). Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12. Bollingen Foundation Inc., New York, N.Y.

Jung, C. G. (1958), Psychology And Religion: West And East CW 11. Bollingen Foundation Inc., New York, N.Y.

Jung, C. G. (1967). Alchemical Studies , CW 13. Bollingen Foundation Inc., New York, N.Y.

Jung, C. G. (1996). The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga. Princeton University Press, New Jersey.

Mack, B. L. (1993). The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q. New York, N.Y.: HarperCollins.

Slusser, G. H. (1986). From Jung To Jesus: Myth and Consciousness in the New Testament. John KnoxPress, Atlanta,Georgia

 

 

Copyright 2004 John F. Golden

 

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