Dr. von Franz sums up the four characteristic stages involved in processing and working through material from the unconscious such as the material Dr. Jung experienced during his self-experimentation using active imagination: (1) confession, (2) elucidation, (3) education (or self-education), and (4) transformation (pages 66-69).
For Dr. Jung's public confession and public elucidation of material from his self-experimentation using active imagination, see the 2012 Philemon Series Edition of the book INTRODUCTION TO JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY: NOTES OF THE SEMINAR ON ANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGY GIVEN IN 1925 BY C. G. JUNG, original 1989 edition edited by William McGuire, 2012 edition edited by Sonu Shamdasani (Princeton University Press, 2012).
Dr. Jung's breakthrough in his understanding of the material from the unconscious that he had experienced years earlier during his self-experimentation with active imagination, as a result of Wilhelm's translation of THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER, should be categorized as involving education -- and his self-education. What a fortuitous event for Dr. Jung! What a lucky break for him!
However that may be, Dr. Jung went on to write a massively researched study of symbolism of transformation: MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS, mentioned above.
Briefly, the synthesis of psychic opposites involves the inner "mysterium coniunctionis" of the feminine spirit in one's psyche with the masculine spirit. Figuratively speaking, the inner "mysterium coniunctionis" can be symbolized as involving the personifications of the sun (Sol), representing the masculine spirit in the human psyche, and the moon (Luna), representing the feminine spirit in the human psyche that Dr. Harding writes about in her book WOMAN'S MYSTERIES. The inner experience of the "mysterium coniunctionis" results in personal transformation.
Now, in the Christian tradition, the mythic Christ represents the symbolic Sol, and the mythic Blessed Virgin Mary represents the symbolic Luna. According to the Christ myth, the mythic Christ rose to heaven in his ascension. According to Pope Pius XII formal declaration of the dogma of the Assumption in 1950, the mythic Blessed Virgin Mary was bodily assumed into heaven, the same heaven in which the mythic Christ rose in his ascension. Symbolically, the mythic Blessed Virgin Mary and the mythic Christ are both together in heaven with one another. As a result, Pope Pius XII's declaration of the dogma of the Assumption should help practicing Catholics today understand the symbolism involved in the inner "mysterium coniunctionis" that results in personal transformation. (I should point out that King Odysseus and Queen Penelope are portrayed in the ODYSSEY as being on this earth -- not on MountOlympus, home of the gods and goddesses. In contrast, the mythic Christ and the mythic Blessed Virgin Mary are said to be in heaven, not on this earth. Of course they are not portrayed as being married to one another, as Odysseus and Penelope are portrayed.)
In any event, in his book THE DUALITY OF HUMAN EXISTENCE: AN ESSAY ON PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION (1966), David Bakan of the University of Chicago writes about the masculine spirit in the human psyche in connection with agency and about the feminine spirit in the human psyche in connection with communion. He argues that the over-development of the spirit of agency, to the exclusion of the spirit of communion, or the serious under-development of the spirit of communion, results in a certain imbalance. Conversely, the over-development of the spirit of communion, to the exclusion or the serious under-development of the spirit of agency, results in another kind of imbalance.
Vicki S. Helgeson in psychology at CarnegieMellonUniversity has used Bakan's conceptual framework in her research studies. She sums up her own research results in her 700-page textbook THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GENDER, 4th ed. (2011).
CONCLUSION
In summary, Dr. Jung contributed to the discussion of a new age that he referred to as the Age of Aquarius. Of course the expectation of a new age has been part of the Christian tradition of thought for centuries.
I would like to round off this essay by recounting a dream that Dr. Jung had late in his life. Here's the context. He had been approached once about the possibility of doing a popular treatment of his ideas in a book. He promptly rejected the idea. But then Wolfgang Foges, the managing editor of Aldus Books, persisted. Evidently, Dr. Jung was on the brink of declining once again, but he decided to sleep on it. He had a dream that inspired him to accept the idea. In the introduction to the co-edited anthology titles MAN AND HIS SYMBOLS (Aldus Books, 1964, pages 9-15), John Freeman recounts Dr. Jung's dream:
"It was at this moment that he dreamed a dream of the greatest importance to him. (And as you read this book, you will understand just how important that can be.) He dreamed that, instead of sitting in his study and talking to the great doctors and psychiatrists who used to call on him from all over the world, he was standing in a public place and addressing a multitude of people who were listening to him with rapt attention and understanding what he said. . . .
"When, a week or two later, Foges renewed his request that Jung should undertake a new book designed, not for the clinic or the philosopher's study, but for people in the market place, Jung allowed himself to be persuaded" (page 10; italics and ellipsis in the original).
Dr. Jung in the agora -- a man of the people addressing the multitude. In theory, the multitude can bring about bottom-up change.
If the multitude of Americans in the second half of their lives today came to understand what he said about the individuation process, would they undertake the inner work necessary to work self-consciously toward personal transformation?
In conclusion, for a new age to emerge, not only many Christians but also many non-Christians would have to experience the kind of personal transformation that involves the inner "mysterium coniunctionis" that Dr. Jung experienced and studied and wrote about.
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