This view of the second half of life as filled with struggles and hardships is not inconsistent with Dr. Jung's view of the second half of life. However, Dr. Jung was a sweet-talker, so he did not go around talking about the second half of life with vivid imagery of struggles and hardships. Instead, he spoke of the individuation process.
As Dr. Jung discusses the individuation process, it involves a certain amount of inner work -- and inner struggle. When the individuation process works out, it results in personal transformation of the person. Because Dr. Jung came from a Christian background, perhaps I should mention that personal transformation has long been in the Christian tradition of thought.
Now, what connection, if any, is there between Dr. Jung's view of the individuation process and his view about the possible emergence of the Age of Aquarius?
Dr. Jung interpreted the imagery of Aquarius in astrology to mean that Aquarius was not a fish swimming in the sea of the collective unconscious, but instead a water-bringer bringing water to fish.
But why would fish need water? Aren't fish swimming in water?
Of course in the Gospel According to John (3:1-8), the imagery of the water of life is used. This use of the imagery of the water of life would seem to indicate that the mythic Jesus the Christ can be understood to be a symbolic representation of Aquarius. In this passage the water of life somehow leads to rebirth in this life. But rebirth in this life involves personal transformation. No doubt this passage is NOT what Dr. Jung had in mind.
But what was he thinking of?
In the fictions of the Roman Catholic Church to this day, the pope is imagined to be the successor of Peter. In the Christ myth, the mythic Christ appoints Peter to be a fisher of men.
Like many other Protestants in his day, Dr. Jung tended to be anti-Catholic. (In his day, Roman Catholics reciprocated by dismissing Protestants as heretics. The Second Vatican Council in the Roman Catholic Church (1962-1965) inaugurated a more irenic spirit toward Protestants and also toward other religious traditions as well.)
So perhaps the imagery of Aquarius appealed to Dr. Jung as a sly way to put the pope out of business as a symbolic fisher of men and women. Get it? (Historically, Protestant preachers routinely denounced the pope as the Antichrist and the prostitute of Babylon. Compared to those colorful descriptors, it is pretty mild to suggest that the pope should stop being a symbolic fisher of men and women.)
Listen up, Pope Francis -- you are supposed to stop being a fisher trying to catch men and women in your net and instead bring the water of life to the fish.
Aeschylus constructed the story of Clytemnestra catching Agamemnon in a net and then killing him.
So non-Catholics should watch out for Pope Francis the fisher trying to catch non-Catholics in his net -- to contribute to the net worth of his church. Perhaps we can think of being caught in the pope's net as a fate akin to Agamemnon's fate of being caught in Clytemnestra's net.
The alternative to Agamemnon's fate is Odysseus' lengthy journey back to Ithaca.
However, even if Pope Francis does not stop fishing for men and women to help increase the net worth of his church, Dr. Jung's account of the individuation process can be connected with his view about the possible emergence of the Age of Aquarius in another way.
Figuratively speaking, each person who undergoes the experience of personal transformation becomes an Aquarius figure in this life -- a person who brings the water of life to other persons around him or her.
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