PART THREE: The Field of the Collective Unconscious and Its inner Dynamism

Transcription

1 26 PART THREE: The Field of the Collective Unconscious and Its inner Dynamism CHAPTER EIGHT: Archetypes and Numbers as "Fields" of Unfolding Rhythmical Sequences Summary Parts One and Two: So far there have been two main ideas in the book: The transcendental continuum (chs. 1-3); Numbers are symbols of typical phases of the individuation process (chs. 4-7). Part Three I see as an interlude between Parts One and Two and Parts Four and Five This chapter eight continues the idea above that numbers are symbols (not really introducing any big new ideas, just developing what we've already worked on) and also asks how numbers, as symbols, are different from images. The next chapter nine talks about numbers and energy. Summary of Parts Four and Five: the next main idea that forms the basis of the rest of the book concerns mandalas of the unus mundus. I have chosen the main sentences which develop the two points in chapter eight just described above. I. Numbers are symbols which have a fieldlike aspect 140, read: "In modern number theory one speaks of integers in their entirety as a field." See p , read: "This concept of a field or structure appears to me to be applicable... to an aspect of the qualitative one-continuum." 142, read: "... all postulated an equation between archetypal images... and numbers... seeking to arrange them in hierarchical order. In his paper on synchronicity Jung speaks of... [an author who] associates a set of religious and alchemistic symbolic contents with every number. Similar attempts to regard the relation of archetypal images to number in terms of correspondence, or simply identity, were also made by... certain numerologists..." 142, read: "How can we differentiate natural numbers from other archetypal symbols, such as the natural numbers from other archetypal symbols, such as the sun-wheel, the tree of life, and so forth?" 142f., read: "Although numbers have always been considered analogies for such figurative

2 27 symbols, they definitely possess a more abstract aspect. Jung defined natural number as the archetype of order which has become conscious. This would mean that our idea of order possesses a preconscious aspect, or, to put it another way, it is based on an inborn unconscious psychic disposition in man. As a secondary effect this inborn disposition engenders the knowledge and rational formulations of order which we experience in consciousness." 143f., read: "In contradistinction to numerical symbols and certain geometrical symbols, all of which bring 'pure order' to consciousness, most of the other symbols known to the human mind are images whose 'Gestalt' is derived partly from out experience of the outer world.... The element of "pure order" is far more predominant in numerical symbols than in other ones. Nevertheless mythological images and numbers have always been associated with one another. 'Indeed,' Jung once remarked, one only subsequently recognizes the relation of number to mythological assertions, although the contents of number undoubtedly adhere in an a priori fashion to these assertions; they are only later made conscious.... In this sense number is a genuine symbol, not only by virtue of its arithmetical nature, but its contents as well. 144, read: "The association of archetypal images and numbers... " 144-7, read: "The idea of a fieldlike arrangement of the archetypes, or the collective unconscious... derives from the fact that the archetypes exist in a state of mutual contaminations; they overlap in meaning.... [T]hey are contained in a field of inner qualitative nuances.... In this way every archetype forms the virtual center of a fieldlike realm of representational contents definable strictly in relative terms, a region overlapping other archetypes. This structure is also characteristic of natural numbers when they are regarded qualitatively." 149f., read: "The question we must first ask about the archetypal field is whether all its nuclei (see illustration p. 145) possess equal rank and value, or are ruled by a central ordering factor... Jung sought to demonstrate the existence of this central structure,... the Self.... Jung says 'The mandala symbolizes, by its central point, the ultimate unity of all archetypes as well as of the multiplicity of the phenomenal world... '" II. How are numbers, as symbols, different from images? 150, read: "[T]he single differentiable partial aspects of a constellated archetype are not manifest in an arbitrary time sequence but in typical sequences. Comparative mythology does not only present typical images but typical phases of narration as well. Individual motifs accordingly tend to arrange themselves in regular recurring temporal phases." 153, read: "In this way most mythological stories may be described as temporal number sequences.... In this phenomenon lies proof, in my opinion, of the isomorphism between archetypes and numbers when they are taken to be qualitative configurations.... In present-day

3 28 depth psychology, we can demonstrate the probability of archetypal manifestations in the human unconscious, in the form of typical image sequences." 154, read: "[N]umber appears to pertain essentially to the behavior of archetypal dynamics. The archetypes are given to manifesting themselves in an 'ordered sequence,' of which the number series forms, as it were, the most primitive expression." 154, read: "The element connecting the sequence of archetypal image with the series of natural numbers seems to be psychic energy." CHAPTER NINE: Numbers as Isomorphic Configurations of Motion in Psychic and Physical Energy Summary: the relation between numbers and energy. Review Jung's concept of psychic energy: C.G. Jung, "On Psychic Energy" [1928], in The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 8. "It is a generally recognized truth that physical events can be looked at in two ways: from the mechanistic and from the energic standpoint. The mechanistic view is purely casual; it conceives an event as the effect of a cause, in the sense that unchanging substances change their relation to one another according to fixed laws. "The energic point of view on the other hand is in essence final; the event is traced back from effect to cause on the assumption that some kind of energy underlies the changes in phenomena... The flow of energy has a definite direction (goal) in that it follows the gradient of potential in a way that cannot be reversed. The idea of energy is not that of a substance moved in space; it is a concept abstracted from relations of movement. The concept, therefore, is founded not on the substances themselves but on their relations, whereas the moving substance itself is the basis of the mechanistic view." "[T]he progressive action of the cause cannot at the same time be the retrogressive selection of a means to an end." pars. 2-5 "Empathy leads to the mechanistic view, abstraction to the energic view." par. 5 "If... the qualitative side of the event comes into question, then the energic point of view takes second place, because it has nothing to do with the things themselves but only with their quantitative relations of movement." par. 6 "Values are quantitative estimates of energy." par 14

4 29 "What to the causal view is fact to the final [energic] view is symbol, and vice versa." par 45 "Psychic development cannot be accomplished by intention and will alone; it needs the attraction of the symbol, whose value quantum exceeds that of the cause." par. 47 "The causal mechanistic view sees the sequence of facts, a-b-c-d, as follows: a causes b, b causes c, and so on.... The final energic view, on the other hand, sees the sequence thus: a-b-c are means toward the transformation of energy, which flows causelessly from a, the improbable state, entropically to b-c and so to the probably state d. There a causal effect is totally disregarded, since only the intensities of effect are taken into account." par. 58 "The spiritual principle is not recognizes as an equivalent counterpart of the instincts [in the mechanistic view]." par. 104 Some parts of this chapter we'll skim very quickly, others we'll look at in close detail. I. Energy and archetypes 155f., read: "Jung has already... introspectively perceptible." 156f., read: "This archetypal idea... feeling (valuation)." II. Energy, rhythm, numerical structure 157-9, skim III. Ordering space , skim IV. Dream 162f., read: "Such patterns... value numbers." See also p. 158 to understand the meaning of "stripes" as "nuance." V. Quality again 164, read: "to estimate worth, not quantity." VI. Number, unity, meaning 164-6, read: "Subjectively we experience... quantitative numbers."

5 30 VII. Good summary of book 166, read: "In spite of... nature possible." See also this study guide p. 4.