Two new books published by the Catholic University of America Press can help us deepen our understanding of C. G. Jung's thought about Dionysian mysticism and deification. Dr. Jung himself had profound mystical experiences in 1944 involving Dionysian mysticism and deification. But the most important aspect of Jung's work involves the cultivation of the unio mentalis and virtue -- not the rare experience of the unio mystica.

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Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) July 3, 2015: During my undergraduate education (1962-1966) at Jesuit institutions of higher education in the United States, the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) in the Roman Catholic Church took place in Rome.

Vatican II is often described as a watershed in the Roman Catholic Church.

(Disclosure: I come from a Roman Catholic background. However, for many years now, I have not been a practicing Catholic. Today I would describe myself as a theistic humanist, as distinct from a secular humanist.)

DIONYSIAN MYSTICISM AND JUNG

Approximately 50 years after Vatican II, the Catholic University of America Press published Bernhard Blankenhorn's new book MYSTERY OF UNION WITH GOD: DIONYSIAN MYSTICISM IN ALBERT THE GREAT AND THOMAS AQUINAS (2015).

Even though the multi-national Thomistic Revival was still alive and well during my undergraduate education, as it had been for decades, I cannot imagine that any Dominican theologian or other Roman Catholic author would have ever dared to use the term "Dionysian," as Blankenhorn does, to describe the psycho-spiritual process involved in working through the mystery of union with God.

Dionysian mysticism involves profound mystical experiences. For Example, St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), the founder of the Jesuit religious order in the Roman Catholic Church, had profound mystical experiences. He eventually wrote up a guide-book known as the SPIRITUAL EXERCISES, based on so-called spiritual exercises that worked for him. Spiritual exercises are forms of meditation and contemplation involving the imagination. The book titled the SPIRITUAL EXERCISES contains detailed instructions about how to proceed to engage one's imagination in meditation and contemplation. However, there is no guarantee that engaging in meditation and contemplation will result in one's having profound mystical experiences, as St. Ignatius Loyola did. In other words, Dionysian mysticism is not a frequent experience.

Concerning St. Ignatius Loyola, see W. W. Meissner's book IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF A SAINT (Yale University Press, 1992).

Now, in the 1930s, C. G. Jung, M.D. (1875-1961), the Swiss Reform psychiatrist and psychological theorist, did use the term "Dionysian" to characterize the psycho-spiritual process of personal psychological individuation.

See Jung's 1,600-page commentary titled NIETZSCHE'S ZARATHUSTRA: NOTES OF THE SEMINAR GIVEN IN 1934-1939 BY C. G. JUNG, 2 vols., edited by James L. Jarrett (Princeton University Press, 1988; see the index entry on Dionysos/Dionysian for specific page references).

Because Blankenhorn discusses not only Thomas Aquinas but also Albert the Great, I also want to note that Jung discusses both of them in his last major book, MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS: AN INQUIRY INTO THE SEPARATION AND SYNTHESIS OF PSYCHIC OPPOSITES IN ALCHEMY, 2nd ed., translated by R. F. C. Hull (Princeton University Press, 1970; orig. German ed. in two parts, 1955 and 1956; see the index entries for each man's name for specific page references).

Jung himself thought of MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS as have a third part: Marie Louise von Franz's book AURORA CONSURGENS: A DOCUMENT ATTRIBUTED TO THOMAS AQUINAS ON THE PROBLEM OF OPPOSITIES IN ALCHEMY, edited with a commentary by Marie-Louise von Franz, translated by R. F. C. Hull and A. S. B. Glover with parallel Latin and English texts (Toronto: Inner City Books, 2000; orig. English translation, 1966; orig. parallel Latin and German ed., 1957).

In MYSTERIUM CONJUNCTIONIS (1970), Jung discusses (1) the unio naturalis (page 488), (2) the unio mentalis (see the index for specific page references), and (3) the unio mystica (pages 443, 537, 540).

Basically, the unio naturalis refers to the human condition.

Jung sees the unio mentalis as representing the special challenge of psycho-spiritual inner work that everybody undertakes, or should undertake, in the second half of life. However, he does not rule out the possibility that certain people may start cultivating the unio mentalis earlier in their lives.

Jesuit spirituality, mentioned above, involves deliberately and self-consciously cultivating the unio mentalis, and so does Jungian psychoanalysis.

In secular American culture, the unio mentalis is represented by Ralph Waldo Emerson's self-reliance. Emersonian self-reliance depends on a healthy inner relationship with the anima in one's psyche.

In secular American culture, the unio mentalis is also represented by Henry David Thoreau's book WALDEN, edited by J. Lyndon Shanley (Princeton University Press, 1971; orig. ed., 1854).

Historically in American culture, there has been no shortage of writings about the unio mentalis, as Donald L. Gelpi, S.J., shows in his book VARIETIES OF TRANSCENDENTAL EXPERIENCE: A STUDY IN CONSTRUCTIVE POSTMODERNISM (Michael Glazier Book/ Liturgical Press, 2000).

Jung sees the unio mystica as the highest possible psycho-spiritual experience involving profound mystical experiences -- such as St. Ignatius Loyola's profound mystical experiences, mentioned above. Jung reported having such profound mystical experiences himself in 1944 when he was hospitalized with a grave illness -- after he had completed the first draft of MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS.

DEIFICATION AND JUNG

Now, about the same time that the Catholic University of America Press published Blankenhorn's new book, it also published Daria Spezzano's new book THE GLORY OF GOD'S GRACE: DEIFICATION ACCORDING TO ST. THOMAS AQUINAS (2015).

Also see Norman Russell's book THE DOCTRINE OF DEIFICATION IN THE GREEK PATRISTIC TRADITION (Oxford University Press, 2004); A. N. Williams' book THE GROUND OF UNION: DEIFICATION IN AQUINAS AND PALAMAS (Oxford University Press, 1999).

Evidently, Jung was not aware of the patristic and medieval Christian tradition of thought about deification. Or at least he does not happen to advert explicitly to it in his lengthy commentary titled NIETZSCHE'S ZARATHUSTRA, but he does discuss the psych-spiritual process of deification (1988, pages 448, 657, 816, 1526, 1527, 1533, 1538).

According to Jung, Dionysian mysticism involving profound mystical experiences is connected with the psychological experience of deification.

JUNG AND THE STORY OF ADAM AND EVE

Now, Jung was enormously fascinated with ancient gnostic thought -- so much so that he has at times been characterized as a modern gnostic (whatever that means).

In Willis Barnstone's 1,500-page book titled THE RESTORED NEW TESTAMENT: A NEW TRANSLATION WITH COMMENTARY, INCLUDING THE GNOSTIC GOEPELS THOMAS, MARY, AND JUDAS (Norton, 2009), Barnstone notes that ancient gnostics tended to interpret the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis as a kind of Promethean myth.

As everybody knows, St. Augustine, building on hints in St. Paul's texts, interpreted the story of Adam and Eve as introducing so-called original sin. That interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve turns the gnostic Promethean interpretation on its head. In the gnostic Promethean interpretation, Eve emerges as the hero guiding Adam to join her in heroic resistance to God's tyranny. But in the original-sin interpretation, Eve emerges as the villain leading Adam into villainy -- villainy for which the entire human race is to pay for, for all the time of this earth, because God is too stubborn to forgive them for their disobedience -- and too wrathful.

Of course the original-sin interpretation contributes to the interpretation of the historical Jesus' crucifixion as somehow "redeeming" those who "believe" in him, the interpretation associated with St. Paul's contribution to the formulation of the doctrine of original sin.

Concerning the crucifixion of the historical Jesus, see Paula Fredriksen's book JESUS OF NAZARETH: KING OF THE JEWS (Knopf, 1999).

As everybody knows, orthodox Christianity accepted St. Augustine's interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve as supposedly involving so-called original sin.

Basically, orthodox Christianity rejected gnostic thought.

TEILHARD DE CHARDIN AND THE STORY OF ADAM AND EVE

But it is hard to reconcile the doctrine of original sin with evolutionary theory.

As a result, the French Jesuit paleontologist and religious writer Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) set aside the doctrine of original sin in his posthumously published visionary book THE HUMAN PHENOMENON, translated by Sarah Appleton-Weber (Sussex Academic Press, 1999; an earlier English translation was published in 1959 as THE PHENOMENON OF MAN).

For Teilhard's view of the spiritual life, see his book THE DIVINE MILIEU, translated by Sion Cowell (Sussex Academic Press, 2004; an earlier English translation was published in 1960 as THE DIVINE MILIEU: AN ESSAY ON THE INTERIOR LIFE).

Unfortunately, the Roman Catholic Church has not yet officially declared Teilhard to be a doctor of the church -- nor has it yet formally and officially expunged the doctrine of original sin and denounced it as anathema.

In American culture, Protestant fundamentalists have not adjusted their interpretations of the two accounts of creation in Genesis in ways that are not inconsistent with up-to-date evolutionary theory.

See James H. Fetzer's book RENDER UNTO DARWIN: PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT'S CRUSADE AGAINST SCIENCE (Open Court, 2007).

But merely setting aside the doctrine of original sin, as Teilhard does, is not as bold as it would be to reverse St. Augustine's original-sin interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve in favor of the ancient gnostic interpretation of that story as a kind of Promethean myth.

But apart from evolutionary theory, does it make any difference how we interpret the story of Adam and Eve? After all, ancient gnostics lived centuries before modern evolutionary theory emerged. So are there any other reasons to favor their interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve?

Historically, the original-sin interpretation of the story of Adam and Eve was and still is a major strut in the conceptual and social construction of male patriarchal culture in Western culture.

Plato and Aristotle and certain other ancient Greek thinkers recognized that we humans are not born virtuous. But they did not blame this admitted lack of virtue on a supposed original sin. Instead, they recommended the cultivation of virtue. In light of their example, it really is hard to understand why the doctrine of original sin appealed to St. Augustine and other Christians.

EVE AND THE ANIMA ARCHETYPE

In the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis, Eve is an anima figure (i.e., she is a feminine character who symbolically represents the anima archetype in the human psyche). As the story unfolds in Genesis, Eve is portrayed as the one who listens to the talking snake. Today talking animals are a regular feature in stories for children. But the story of Adam and Eve and the talking snake and the talking monotheistic deity was undoubtedly designed not only for ancient Hebrew children to hear but also for ancient Hebrew adults to hear and ponder.

Arguably all men and all women at all times have had difficulty working out a healthy and vibrant relationship with the anima archetype in their psyches. Working out such a relationship with the anima archetype is the major challenge in men's and in women's lives in the second half of life.

In the DIVINE COMEDY, Dante the poet vividly commemorates his proverbial mid-life crisis. He creates a character named Dante who visits the underworld (also known as the unconscious). Dante-the-character is not exactly impressive, to put it mildly. Evidently, Dante-the-poet had a self-effacing sense of humor about himself. As Dante-the-poet portrays the character known as Beatrice, she is another anima figure. To be sure, Dante named her after a young woman he had known; but the character Beatrice that he portrays is a composite figure based on Dante's experience of a number of women.

Similarly, the character named Virgil is a composite figure based in part on the historical Roman poet named Virgil. Just as the composite character named Beatrice symbolically represent the anima archetype in the human psyche, so too the composite figure named Virgil symbolically represents the Wise Old Man archetype in the human psyche. All men and all women have both the anima archetype and the Wise Old Man archetype in their psyches.

In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Blessed Virgin Mary is an anima figure, albeit one based on the historical mother of the historical Jesus. Of course the veneration of Mary in the Roman Catholic tradition includes not only men but also women. Nevertheless, the figure of Mary that is venerated is best understood as an anima figure -- that is, as a figure based on projections of the anima archetype in men's and women's psyches.

For Christians, the mythic figure known as the Christ symbolically represents the Wise Old Man archetype in the human psyche.

As these three divergent examples of anima figures show, there is great variety in portraying anima figures -- including of course a wide range of pagan goddesses. However, in the present essay it is not my purpose to discuss anima figures in greater detail.

Concerning the anima archetype in the human psyche, see Erich Neumann's books THE ORIGINS AND HISTORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS, translated by R. F. C. Hull (Princeton University Press, 1954; orig. German ed., 1949) and THE GREAT MOTHER: AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARCHETYPE, 2nd ed., translated by Ralph Manheim (Princeton University Press, 1963; orig. German ed., 1954).

What Neumann refers to as the Great Mother archetype is what I refer to as the anima archetype in the human psyche.

JUNG AND THE ANIMA ARCHETYPE

Jung went through the proverbial mid-life crisis, just as Dante and Nietzsche did. During Jung's experience of the mid-life crisis, he engaged in self-experimentation using a technique of imagistic meditation that he came to refer to as active imagination. He found his active imagination exercises so helpful that he subsequently encouraged other people to use this form of meditation. His various statements about this technique of imagistic meditation have been collected together in the book JUNG ON ACTIVE IMAGINATION, edited and introduced by Joan Chodorow (Princeton University Press, 1997).

Evidently, Dr. Jung engaged in this kind of imagistic meditation by himself. But by doing this, he set a bad example. I would urge people not to engage in this kind of self-experimentation by themselves because archetypes in the human psyche are powerful enough to overpower ego-consciousness, resulting in a psychotic episode. So it is advisable to talk with a psychotherapist or spiritual director once a day when you use this kind of imagistic meditation.

Figuratively speaking, in using this form of imagistic meditation, Dr. Jung in effect visited the underworld -- just as Odysseus visits the underworld in the Homeric epic the ODYSSEY and just as Aeneas visits the underworld in Virgil's epic the AENEID and just as Dante the character visits the underworld in the DIVINE COMEDY. In other words, Dr. Jung visited his unconscious.

Dr. Jung's verbal and artistic record of his visits to the unconscious through the use of active imagination can now be seen in the over-sized book titled THE RED BOOK: LIBER NOVUS, edited and introduced by Sonu Shamdasani (Norton, 2009). A more compact and portable version of this work, but without Jung's art works, has been published as THE RED BOOK: LIBER NOVUS: A READER'S EDITION (Norton, 2009).

On page 370 of the over-sized edition, Shamdasani has included Dr. Jung's record of the following message he received from the anima archetype in his psyche on January 16, 1916:

"If I am not conjoined through the uniting of the Below [i.e., the unconscious] and the Above [i.e., ego-consciousness], I break down into three parts: [1] The serpent [e.g., the talking snake who talks to Eve], and in that or some other animal form I roam, living nature daimonically, arousing fear and longing. [2] The human soul, living forever within you. [3] The celestial soul, as such dwelling with the Gods, far from you and unknown to you, appearing in the form of a bird [e.g., the dove is the traditional Christian symbol of the Holy Spirit]. Each of these three parts then is independent [of the other parts in the male psyche]."

(This passage appears on page 577 of the reader's edition.)

I refer to this passage as the revelation given to Dr. Jung by the anima archetype in his psyche. It is a revelation for all men about the anima archetype in their psyches.

You see, men such as the fictional Adam and the fictional character named Dante need to be guided in their lives by the anima archetype in their psyches. When men do not have a constructive working relationship with the anima archetype in their psyches, then they will be subjected to having the anima archetype in their psyches arouse fear and longing in them (i.e., in their psyches).

But this is also true for women.

In patristic and medieval times, certain Christian writers had no problem with discussing the possibility that the mythic figure known as Christ could deify them.

After all, if we are made in the image and likeness of God, as the Bible says we are, then it would seem to follow that we are made for deification -- this is our common human destiny -- to be like God in some sense.

But in the natural course of our lives, men and women need to work out a healthy relationship with the anima archetype in their psyches before they are ready for the psycho-spiritual experience of Dionysian mysticism and deification.

But I want to say that these psychological developments are not quick and easy for men and women to work through from the onset of their proverbial mid-life crises onward in the second half of their lives. In Jung's case, he cultivated the unio mentalis for approximately three decades before he himself had profound mystical experiences in 1944 when he was hospitalized.

However, many Jesuits cultivate the unio mentalis by practicing Jesuit spirituality, but without ever having the kind of profound mystical experiences that St. Ignatius Loyola had.

To take a mundane example, we could liken the inner work that men and women need to undertake to work out a healthy and viable relationship with the anima archetype in their psyches, to undergoing something like the character Dante's extended visit to the Inferno and Purgatory -- with the character Virgil as his guide. Virgil represents the Wise Old Man archetype in the human psyche. Those two fellows took in all the sights in the Inferno and Purgatory. Beatrice, the anima figure, appears only when Dante-the-character is ready to enter Paradise in his grand tour, at which point Virgil disappears as Dante's guide.

Regardless of how long it takes, all men and women face the challenge in the second half of their lives to work out a healthy relationship with the anima archetype in their psyches -- and so all women in the second half of their lives, as Jean Houston suggests in her book THE HERO AND THE GODDESS: THE ODYSSEY AS MYSTERY AND INITIATION (Ballantine Books, 1992).

Dante-the-character's transition from having Virgil as his guide to having Beatrice as his guide involves the inner transition that all men and women need to make in the second half of life as they cultivate the unio mentalis.

BAKAN ON AGENCY AND COMMUNION

Next, I want to discuss David Bakan's book THE DUALITY OF HUMAN EXISTENCE: AN ESSAY ON PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION (Rand McNally, 1966).

In it, Bakan works with two key dimension of the human psyche: (1) agency and (2) communion.

By definition, a person who embodies optimal forms of both agency and communion would be described as a psychologically androgynous person.

On the negative side, individuals may be seriously under-developed in either agency or communion -- or both.

Granted, we at times may make impulsive decisions about how to act (agency). However, when we deliberate before we act, our deliberations involve the Wise Old Man in our psyches inasmuch as this archetype has been constellated in our psyches.

I claimed that the character named Virgil in Dante's DIVINE COMEDY symbolically represents a composite masculine figure in Dante-the-poet's psyche that can be understood as an example of the Wise Old Man archetype in the human psyche.

Similarly, the Wise Old Man archetype that we have constellated in our psyches involves a composite of our learning experiences about how to act in public that we use to guide our decision making as we enact our agency.

I also claimed that the character named Beatrice symbolically represents a composite feminine figure that can be understood as an example of the anima archetype in the human psyche.

Similarly, the anima archetype that we have constellated in our psyches involves a composite of our learning experiences about how to experience and express our inner sense of relatedness that we use to guide our ongoing sense of openness and relatedness and communion.

Optimal Agency = Wise Old Man Archetype.

Optimal Communion = Anima Archetype.

Optimal Agency + Optimal Communion = Good Enough Person.

Dionysian Mysticism + Deification = Optimal Person.

No doubt it is admirable that certain persons such as Dr. Jung in 1944 and St. Ignatius Loyola in the 16th century have had profound mystical experiences.

But the vast majority of human persons are not likely to have profound mystical experiences.

However, the vast majority of human persons are capable of cultivating the unio mentalis -- and of cultivating virtue as Plato and Aristotle conceived of it.

Happy Fourth of July!

Concerning Jesuit spirituality as one way to proceed to cultivate the unio mentalis, see James Martin's book THE JESUIT GUIDE TO (ALMOST) EVERYTHING: A SPIRITUALITY FOR REAL LIFE (HarperOne, 2010).

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