Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) April 30, 2014: More than three decades before the Fifth Dimension recorded their hit song "The Age of Aquarius" (1969), C. G. Jung (1875-1961) pointed out that we are entering the Age of Aquarius. No joke. Let me explain.
In the 1930s, when Adolf Hitler's Nazis were rising in Germany, Jung conducted a seminar in English about Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra in Zurich. They used an English translation. But of course Jung's native language was German, and he had studied Nietzsche's works in German. Therefore Jung was not bashful about criticizing the English translation when he thought it was deficient.
In the seminar on May 22, 1935, Jung made the following statement: "The symbol of our time and the coming time is Aquarius, the man with the vessel to catch whatever flows, and he must transform it into the fertile water of life. The symbol of the time before was the Fishes, and they are able to swim. . . . Therefore we must be careful not to swim as if we were fishes, but remember that we are human; and we must not resist by shutting ourselves up and defending ourselves blindly."
This passage appears on page 140 of the 1998 abridged edition of Jung's Seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra, skillfully edited by James L. Jarrett. The passage appears on page 500 of the 1988 two-volume edition, edited by Jarrett.
In the two-volume edition (on page 1165), but not in the abridged edition, Jung refers to the pope as the Fisher King (in the seminar on June 16, 1937). Evidently, many of the followers of the historical Jesus were fisher people. To this day, the pope of the Roman Catholic Church is a fisher of people -- the Fisher King, figuratively speaking. So Pope Francis today is the Fisher King. As Jung says, "we must be careful not to swim as if we were fishes" -- so that we don't get caught by the Fisher King -- Pope Francis. He's fishing for people, you see.
In the United States today, there are many former Roman Catholics. Basically, they are on the right track -- get away from the Fisher King, Pope Francis. (Disclosure: I come from a Roman Catholic background. However, for many years now, I have not been a practicing Catholic.)
Of course there are also many former Protestants in the United States today. Perhaps we could refer to former Protestants and former Catholics as former Christians. All former Christians could be eligible for living in the Age of Aquarius, but they must not be careful not to swim as if they were fishes.
However, in the Age of Aquarius, you must enter the sea, the symbol of the collective unconscious. But how can you enter the sea, but not swim like a fish? Perhaps we could imagine ourselves as surfing the sea, figuratively speaking -- but dealing with and working through whatever may rise to the surface as we go.
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