On car trips, kids often ask, "Are we there yet?" Years ago, C. G. Jung predicted that the Age of Aquarius would emerge next in Western culture. So liberals and progressives today may ask, "Are we there yet?" For example, in the U.S. in recent years, public opinion about same-sex marriage has shifted dramatically. Doesn't this show that the Age of Aquarius is emerging slowly but surely? Let's examine what else Jung says.

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Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) March 15, 2015: On car trips, kids at times ask, "Are we there yet?"

Years ago, C. G. Jung, M.D. (1875-1961), the Swiss psychiatrist and psychological theorist, predicted the emergence of a new age in Western culture, which he styled the Age of Aquarius.

So liberals and progressives today may ask, "Are we there yet?"

After all, in recent years in the U.S., public opinion has shifted dramatically on same-sex marriage, despite the vocal opposition of certain elements in the Christian right..

But does this shift in public opinion signal the emergence of the new age?

Few would say that Western culture has yet emerged into the new age, the Age of Aquarius.

However, this shift in public opinion does show that many Americans are now ready to stop making unconscious projections of evil on to homosexuals. According to Jung, unconscious projections of evil on to homosexuals are projections that people make from the unconscious. But in his view, adults in the second half of life need to work to integrate their shadow contents into ego-consciousness. Evidently, many American adults are doing this with regard to homosexuals.

So when are we going to get there? In my estimate, we will get there when a critical mass of people in Western culture have integrated their shadow contents into ego-consciousness. Let me explain.

To formulate a sense of what it will take for the new age to emerge in Western culture, we should turn to Jung's thought in the great synthesis of his life-work that was original published in German in two parts in 1954 and 1955: Mysterium Conjunctionis: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy, 2nd ed., translated by R. F. C. Hull (Princeton University Press, 1970).

Jung worked on this book from 1941 to 1954. By 1941, Jung had worked out an elaborate psychological theory. As a results, he is able to construct analogies and parallels between certain psychological processes that he has written about elsewhere and certain aspects of alchemical thought.

As the subtitle of Jung's book indicates, he focuses on psychic opposites in his psychological theory, and he finds numerous parallels and analogies in the opposites discussed by the alchemists -- usually as personified opposites.

Liberals and progressives of a certain age might be interested in what Jung says about the psychological process of individuation. According to Jung, all adults undergo the psychological process of individuation in the second half of life (roughly from the proverbial mid-life crisis onward). However, people can get stuck along the way and not complete the process.

In all honesty, I should say that Jung does not make the individuation process sound easy or like much fun to go through. As I will explain momentarily, he repeatedly uses the alchemical term the nigredo to draw parallels and analogies with the individuation process. According to the index, Jung uses this term on 45 different pages. You see, the nigredo involves melancholia (depression). But you must keep working on the opus. You and your psyche are the opus that you must keep working on. If you ever succeed, you will have succeeded in making psychological gold, so to speak.

All of the alchemists that Jung studied were Christians, and all were men. Granted, they used fanciful terminology and imagery. To be sure, I am not recommending their fanciful terminology and imagery.

However, in plain English, the unio mentalis represents Christian Spirituality 101, just as the nigredo represents the novitiate experience in religious orders in the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, over the centuries, numerous Christian mystics advanced to and lived the unio mystica (a.k.a. the unio mundus).

So you don't have to wait until the second half of life to undertake the unio mentalis and experience the nigredo. But people in the second half of life should not avoid undertaking the unio mentalis and experiencing the nigredo.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT MYSTERIUM CONJUNCTIONIS

All of the alchemical texts that Jung discusses were written by Christian authors. The authors thought that they were writing treatises in alchemy, not treatises in modern chemistry.

To many people, their terminology and imagery sound a bit fanciful, to say the least. But Jung interprets their terminology and imagery as expressing certain kinds of information about their unconscious processes as each alchemist proceeded to work on his opus. Oftentimes, the alchemists conceived of their work on the opus as designed to produce gold. However, no alchemist is known to have claimed that he had succeeded in producing the gold. But this did not stop one alchemist after another from writing treatises about the work on the opus.

I will not say that alchemical treatises were ever as common as self-help books in psychology are today. However, over the centuries numerous Christian authors wrote alchemical treatises. Apparently all of the Christian alchemists were men. In any event all of the alchemists that Jung studied were men.

By way of a brief overview, the alchemists referred to certain stages in the process involved in producing gold: (1) the unio naturalis is the starting point; (2) the unio mentalis comes next; and (3) the culminating stage is the unio mundus (also known as the unio mystica).

(1) In terms of the psychological equivalents, Jung sees the unio naturalis (page 488) as referring to the human condition.

(2) Jung sees the equivalent to the unio mentalis as the psycho-spiritual efforts many Christians made to control and moderate their concupiscible and irascible appetites and tendencies (page 143-144).

(3) Jung sees the equivalent to the unio mystica (a.k.a. the unio mundus) as the personal transformation involved in deep mystical experiences. Jung mentions in passing three stages involved in the emergence of the unio mystica: (1) emundatio (purification), (2) illuminatio, (3) perfectio (page 451).

However, Jung focuses his attention primarily on the unio mentalis. In part, his focus reflects the focus he finds in the alchemical texts. In part, his focus on the unio mentalis reflects the applications and parallels and analogies between the alchemical processes and the psychological processes involved in the process of personal individuation.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JUNG

Jung rarely expresses himself succinctly. But I will try here to explain succinctly certain key points in his thought. I will number them in an order that I have constructed. I wish I could have formulated a new Ten Commandments according to Jung. Instead, I have formulated the following 17 points points.

(1) Jung sees the human condition in modern Western culture today as being characterized by the divided self. As I explained above, in alchemical terminology, the human condition is the unio naturalis.

(2) The divided self is divided into ego-consciousness and the unconscious. The unconscious includes one's own personal shadow and the collective unconscious, including the archetypes.

(3) The unconscious contains certain forces that are powerful enough to overpower ego-consciousness, resulting in a person having a psychotic episode (a temporary break with reality -- pages 498, 530) or in a person becoming insane (permanently losing contact with reality -- pages 531, 549).

(4) At times, the unconscious may overpower ego-consciousness because of the hubris of ego-consciousness (page 546).

(5) At times, the unconscious may overpower ego-consciousness because of the weakness of ego-consciousness (page 546).

(6) Implicitly this means that ego-consciousness needs to have certain ego strengths.

(7) At times, the unconscious may overpower ego-consciousness in such a way as not to cause a break with reality, but to flood the person in a profound mystical experience (i.e., experiences that have a numinous quality).

(8) According to Jung, ego-consciousness up to a certain point is characterized by structuring opposites.

(9) According to Jung, ego-consciousness up to a certain point is also characterized by the personal shadow.

(10) According to Jung, at a certain juncture in the second half of life, ego-consciousness may begin the process of assimilating and digesting and integrating shadow contents into ego-consciousness.

(11) From the successful assimilation and integration of shadow contents into ego-consciousness, the person emerges with a certain sense of wholeness. This process is part of the unio mentalis mentioned above. But this process does not yet complete the overall individuation process, because the transformation of the person into psychological gold, so to speak, has not yet emerged.

(12) In working toward the assimilation and integration of the shadow contents into ego-consciousness, a new pair of opposites emerges, according to Jung: bitterness versus wisdom (pages 246, 248, 495, 496). Evidently, the emergence of this new pair of opposites is still part of the unio mentalis. I should point out that Jung's bitterness versus wisdom is equivalent to Erikson's despair versus ego-integrity.

(13) Jung sees bitterness as characterized by emotionality (i.e., affect) and resentment as an expression of that emotionality (pages 248, 295, 297, 495). In his view, wisdom must prevail over bitterness for the unio mundus (a.k.a. the unio mystica) to emerge.

(14) Jung sees the successful resolution of bitterness as involving wisdom. He says, "wisdom is the comforter in all psychic suffering" (page 246; also see 90, 192, 248-249, 432, 497).

(15) Jung sees the emergence of wisdom as involving "the transformation of the feminine element [in a man's psyche -- all the alchemists that Jung studied were men] from a serpent into a queen" followed by the inner psychic marriage [of the Queen archetype with the renewed King archetype] signal[ling] the equal status of [ego-]consciousness and unconscious" (page 380). This inner psychic marriage process marks the emergence of the unio mundus (a.k.a. the unio mystica).

(16) Without denigrating the possible importance of psychotherapy and psychotherapists, Jung stresses that each person needs to work through the inner psychological work (figuratively speaking, the opus) toward inner psychological wholeness, because nobody else can do the work for him or her (page 520).

(17) As a result of communing with oneself, one experiences healing self-knowledge (pages 90, 432, 497).

I should now discuss the bitterness versus wisdom opposition a bit further. In connection with all of the other opposites that Jung discusses in Mysterium Conjunctionis, he discusses the synthesis (or conjunction) of the particular pair of opposites. However, in his discussion of bitterness versus wisdom as opposites, he does not explicitly mention a synthesis. Instead, he says that "wisdom is the comforter of all psychic suffering" page 246). It strikes me that this does not necessarily mean that the self-healing that he mentions will somehow remove and/or correct all psychic deformations a person may have suffered in the past. To be sure, the person may be comforted regarding his or her sense of woundedness and his or her wounds. But certain tell-tale psychic deformations from the past may not be completely erased. But their debilitating limitations may be significantly reduced. In this way, a kind of synthesis may emerge.

THE NEW AGE IN WESTERN CULTURE

Now, nowhere in his book Mysterium Conjunctionis does Jung discuss the possible emergence of the new age. However, elsewhere, he does famously discuss the possible emergence of the new age, which he refers to as the Age of Aquarius.

From what Jung says about the individuation process, it appears that a critical mass of adults in Western culture in the second half of life will have to undertake the unio mentalis successfully before the new age is likely to appear.

In short, a critical mass of adults in Western culture in the second half of life will have to advance to the unio mundus (a.k.a, the unio mystica) before there will be any likelihood of the new age emerging in Western culture.

The new age is not likely to emerge as the result of a top-down initiative from any already existing organizational structure in Western culture today.

Nevertheless, the emergence of the new age in Western culture will require the transformation and cooperation of certain already existing organizational structures in Western culture today, because for a critical mass of persons to emerge organizational structures will be needed.

Considered as a whole, Christianity in Western culture includes already existing organizational structures with grassroots reach.

Now, I should say that Christianity, or at least old-fashioned Christian sexual morality, will have to undergo a deep sea-change for the new age to emerge in Western culture.

Jung (page 196) rightly criticizes the spirit of being beyond good and evil that Friedrich Nietzsche articulated.

Jung correctly understands that people who have integrated their shadow contents into ego-consciousness will stop making unconscious projections of evil on to other people.

But people who have integrated their shadow contents into ego-consciousness should undertake to review and revise old-fashioned Christian sexual morality.

So the primary battle ground in which the battle for the emergence of the new age in Western culture will be fought, will be in the organizational structures of the Christian churches.

In recent years in the United States, we've seen a dramatic shift in public opinion on the issue of same-sex marriage.

No doubt many American adults who have shifted their view on this issue -- from opposing same-sex marriage to supporting it -- are Christians or at least come from a Christian cultural and religious background.

No doubt this dramatic shift involves withdrawing unconscious projections on to homosexuals.

Granted, this dramatic shift does not signal the emergence of the new age quite yet.

But it does signal a shift in attitudes about certain aspects of old-fashioned Christian sexual morality.

No doubt the Christian right will fight to resist any significant changes in old-fashioned Christian sexual morality, as many on the Christian right have been fighting against same-sex marriage.

No doubt liberals and progressives should expect the Christian right to fight against changes in old-fashioned Christian sexual morality.

No doubt liberals and progressives need to be on guard against making unconscious projections on to the Christian right.

No doubt the emergence of the new age in Western culture will depend on revisioning and revising old-fashioned Christian sexuality morality as taught by the institutional Christian churches.

No doubt the Christian churches have grassroots reach -- the kind of grassroots reach that will be needed for bottom-up change to emerge in Western culture and produce the critical mass of people to help bring the new age in Western culture into existence.

No doubt Jung envisioned the Age of Aquarius as superseding the Age of Christianity as he knew it -- with its baggage of old-fashioned Christian sexual morality.

Nevertheless, in my estimate, the old Christ myth could become a living myth again in Christianity in Jung's envisioned Age of Aquarius, provided that a critical mass of Christians shed the baggage of old-fashioned Christian sexual morality.

In terms of the Christian myth, the centuries old baggage of Christian sexual morality grows out of the unio mentalis and the nigredo rooted in the suffering and death by crucifixion of the historical Jesus.

But the unio mystica (a.k.a. the unio mundus) involves individual Christian mystics coming to life with the resurrected Christ.

In this view, the old-fashioned Christian sexual morality grew out of the one-sided cultivation of an anti-body spirituality that involved the cultivation of shadow contents, which resulted in unconscious projections of the shadow on to other people.

But for the dialogue that Pope Francis repeatedly urges people to engage in to be genuine dialogue, the participants in the dialogue will have to stop making unconscious projections of shadow images on to the other.

For Pope Francis and other Christians to stop making unconscious projections on to others, they will have to integrate their own personal shadow contents into ego-consciousness.

Because most Christians have formed shadow contents based on old-fashioned Christian morality, they will have to examine the claims of old-fashioned Christian sexual morality as they work to integrate their own personal shadow contents into ego-consciousness, as Garry Wills, a practicing Catholic does in his new book The Future of the Catholic Church with Pope Francis (2015).

Authors Website: http://www.d.umn.edu/~tfarrell

Authors Bio:

Thomas James Farrell is professor emeritus of writing studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). He started teaching at UMD in Fall 1987, and he retired from UMD at the end of May 2009. He was born in 1944. He holds three degrees from Saint Louis University (SLU): B.A. in English, 1966; M.A.(T) in English 1968; Ph.D.in higher education, 1974. On May 16, 1969, the editors of the SLU student newspaper named him Man of the Year, an honor customarily conferred on an administrator or a faculty member, not on a graduate student -- nor on a woman up to that time. He is the proud author of the book WALTER ONG'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO CULTURAL STUDIES: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE WORD AND I-THOU COMMUNICATION (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2000; 2nd ed. 2009, forthcoming). The first edition won the 2001 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology conferred by the Media Ecology Association. For further information about his education and his publications, see his UMD homepage: Click here to visit Dr. Farrell's homepage.

On September 10 and 22, 2009, he discussed Walter Ong's work on the blog radio talk show "Ethics Talk" that is hosted by Hope May in philosophy at Central Michigan University. Each hour-long show has been archived and is available for people who missed the live broadcast to listen to. Here are the website addresses for the two archived shows:

Click here to listen the Technologizing of the Word Interview

Click here to listen the Ramus, Method & The Decay of Dialogue Interview