3 bodies of the Trinity, 3 stages of the Psyche. 12 Disciples of Christ, 12 Archetypes in Jungian Psychology
Carl Jung and Jesus Christ were friends
He who looks outward dreams, He who looks within Awakens. — Carl Jung
That was the aspect of Jungian psychology that did it for me. Damn! Very enlightening. That quote in particular resonated with the notion of Christ I have been nurturing for a while, especially the part where he said, “The kingdom does not come by observation; the kingdom is within you.”
It just clicked.
Carl Jung was a psychologist analyzing the human consciousness through many lenses of scholastic perception, many of which we won’t be able to go through here to keep this a short Medium post. But in essence, many of the man’s theories resonate pragmatically with the gospel that Jesus Christ was preaching.
Let’s start with the Trinity.
I must warn you that my resolutions of the similarities I noticed are a product of open-minded rationalization of the resonance of these theories with the precepts of universal absolutes, not the deductions of a religious stance or spiritual movement whatsoever.
The three bodies of the Trinity: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. Carl Jung’s three stages of the psyche: The Conscious, The Personal Unconscious, and The Collective Unconscious.
The Father? In this context, it would be the source of creation we all emanated from — that essence we journeyed down here from, for which we can only receive but have no power to interfere or partake in its flow. It’s a universal definition of the pool of consciousness that sustains all existence. This analogy closely aligns with Jung’s concept of the Collective Unconscious. In his view, the Collective Unconscious is where we inherit many aspects of our personality, which reside in our Personal Unconscious (subconscious). Carl Jung postulated that the concept of complexes was not a result of childhood trauma but our natural inheritance from the Collective Unconscious, which we have resolved here as the Father.
The Son. This would be the Personal Unconscious, our subconscious. In the subconscious is where aspects that define and control our consciousness reside. The subconscious is like a remote frame that creates the filter through which we perceive reality. If we equate the subconscious with the Son by drawing parallels from Christianity, the Son is the ideal configuration of consciousness fit for the manifestation of the will of the Father.
Remember, we equated the Father to the Collective Unconscious — a pool of consciousness that all individuals emanate from. The Son, which here represents the subconscious, signifies the ideal mentality that should form the intention behind all human actions.
If there is any work for a human to do in order to attain conscious control over themselves, it is to observe their subconscious closely and use self-reflection to reconfigure themselves into the purest state possible, in tune with their highest self. The Son here is the human personality, and the human personality is a result of the configuration of the subconscious mind. Therefore, it suffices to say that the subconscious mind is the personality.
The Holy Spirit. This would be the manifestation of the personality in synchronization with the will of the Father (Collective Unconscious) and the Son (Personal Unconscious). The Holy Spirit, which is the manifestation of pure, infinite creative energy harnessed through the matured (purified) Son, is what expands the frontiers of heaven to earth. This is the will of the Father (Collective Unconscious): that the essence of creation refines itself toward greater purity to extend the frontiers of its grandeur into the void.
12 Disciples, 12 Archetypes.
One other interesting thing I noticed is the parallel between the 12 Jungian archetypes and the 12 disciples of Jesus. These archetypes represent 12 possible instances of the human consciousness, which are direct permutations of the three stages of the psyche (Conscious, Personal Unconscious, and Collective Unconscious) and the four stages of the self (Persona, Shadow, Anima, and Animus).
Together, in their different possible combinations, they give birth to the Archetypes.
These Archetypes serve as a glossary of possible manifestations of the human personality. This correlation also relates to the concept of the 12 disciples of Jesus as a metaphorical explanation of the 12 possible states of the human mind. Jesus leading them means he shows each one the way to liberate themselves from the traps of their psyche that prevent them from reaching synchronization with the Father (Collective Unconscious) and the Son (Personal Unconscious), in order to reach the state of Christ, the “divinely intended” being — the Holy Spirit.
So, the 12 archetypes were led by the ideal model of consciousness (Christ) to show the deficiency of each possible instance of human personality (the disciples) and to be an example of the necessary reconfiguration and healing needed to unite with the Father and give birth to the Holy Spirit.
