“The crux of the matter is man’s own dualism, to which he knows no answer. This abyss has suddenly yawned open before him with the latest events in world history, after mankind lived for many centuries in the comfortable belief that a unitary God had created man in his own image, as a little unity. Even today people are largely unconscious of the fact that every individual is a cell in the structure of various international organisms and is therefore causally implicated in their conflicts. He knows that as an individual being he is more or less meaningless and feels himself the victim of uncontrollable forces, but, on the other hand, he harbors within himself a dangerous shadow and adversary who is involved as an invisible helper in the dark machinations of the political monster. It is in the nature of political bodies always to see the evil in the opposite group, just as the individual has an ineradicable tendency to get rid of everything he does not know and does not want to know about himself by foisting it off on somebody else.” C.G. Jung, CW, The Undiscovered Self, par.576.

“Where love stops, power begins, and violence, and terror.” C.G. Jung, CW, The Undiscovered Self, par. 580.

Where are we now?

Alchemists, like Gnostics and other ancient wisdom-keepers before them, wanted to liberate individuals from false concepts and preprogrammed ideas and open their eyes to greater self-knowledge and self-trust.  But the true spiritual essence of their work had to be veiled in esoteric symbols and language to avoid persecution from the established religious order of their times. A millennium later, repressive elements in society still wage war against the liberation of the human spirit.

Currently the bulk of humanity appears to be in Epoch II, although some individuals have not yet left Epoch I and others have attained Epoch III integrated consciousness.  Despite the efforts of many governments and religions to bring healing and peace, much of our world is tormented by a malaise of fear, anxiety, hopelessness, frustration, and violence. The basic reason? We are incomplete. Why? Because we are unable or unwilling to evolve beyond Epoch II ego-consciousness. Because we are incomplete, our “God” is incomplete.

We still suffer from the primal trauma of our sacred parents’ divorce. Like profoundly wounded, self-absorbed adolescents we mask our fears with bluster, cling frantically to like-minded peers, struggle to prove our worth, and lash out at intimidating otherness.  Our gang wars have gone global and our colors are sending challenges to the world. If a critical mass of us does not soon evolve into Epoch III, we will be unable to heal the divide that leads to global catastrophe.

Epoch III consciousness knows that God is not dualistic: God is unified duality. Or to put it another way, God is unity in multiplicity. Insofar as any group—religious or otherwise—fosters greater openness and understanding, it contributes to the healthy development of its members and our progress toward wholeness. Wholeness does not mean perfection. It means to acknowledge the realities of our whole selves—feminine and masculine, dark and light, mind and matter, love and hate—and create conscious relationships with them.

“The serious problems in life, however, are never fully solved. If ever they should appear to be so it is a sure sign that something has been lost. The meaning and purpose of a problem seem to lie not in its solution but in our working at it incessantly.” C.G. Jung, “The Stages of Life” CW 8, par. 771.

In this series I’ve discussed many aspects of the dominant God of Western and Middle-Eastern culture, whose repression of the Sacred Feminine expresses our own incompleteness as Epoch II Egos. Integrating the feminine and masculine principles into our personalities, world-views, and God-images is the next necessary step toward increased consciousness in which our egos become less self-centered and more centered in a God of unified duality. Working incessantly to heal our divisiveness will help us create our magnum opus: Epoch III integrated consciousness. This is our contribution to healing individual and global strife.

As Jungian analyst Edward Edinger has written,

“The union of opposites in the vessel of the ego is the essential feature of the creation of consciousness.” The Creation of Consciousness:  Jung’s Myth for Modern Man, p. 21.

If God is unified duality, our repressed suffering and inner splits are sacred. They are open invitations to heal ourselves. What are you doing to heal the sacred divide within yourself?

This material was taken from Healing the Sacred Divide.

Art Credits:  The Union of Opposites, by Christiaan Diedericks. Artsy.

Jean Raffa’s The Bridge to Wholeness and Dream Theatres of the Soul are at Amazon. Healing the Sacred Divide can be found at Amazon and Larson Publications, Inc. Jean’s new Nautilus Award-winning The Soul’s Twins, is at Amazon and Schiffer’s Red Feather Mind, Body, Spirit. Subscribe to her newsletter at www.jeanbenedictraffa.com.