The Symbolic World
Should we interpret this as a literal story or does it carry a symbolic meaning?
We live in a materialistic culture, and it’s epistemological (the theory of knowledge) view is based on scientific evidence, observation, facts. This has been of great value to our society as a whole. Without it, much of what we know today would still be a mystery and we wouldn’t have electricity, penicillin, computers… But, what have we traded, in order to gain this knowledge?
We traded a symbolic interpretation of reality and the world. Before the enlightenment and the shift from religious/mythological thought, into reason and science, the world was interpreted much by a symbolic view of reality. This means that, myths and symbols were used as an interpretation of the world, like: the origins of the world, the seasons, the mind and the whole scope of “gods” of Greek mythology or the “gods” of hinduism. (Something is considered symbolic when it implies something more than its obvious meaning.)
While some of it can be quite confusing and also a sort of magical explanation for the world, a lot of myths were symbolic explanations of reality that had no scientific or proper words to be described. It’s very different reading a dictionary definition of what love is and reading a poem about love. (And still very different than feeling love itself). But most often then not, symbolic language has a greater power into communicating truths into our hearts.
So, why couldn’t we just keep both worlds? A symbolic world with its symbols, myths, religions, intuitions and a rational world based on scientific evidence and facts? One completes the other, and one without the other is incomplete.
One main reason of why a symbolic reality is important is because our mind works mostly with symbols and archetypes. One simple way of confirming this reality is the dream language. We do not dream at night with rational arguments and scientific based events. We dream using symbols. Our unconscious mind is shaped by symbolic thoughts, memories, desires, fears. But if that is not convincing enough, if we do not give proper attention to this symbolic manifestation of the unconscious, it can somatize, or express these emotional contents into a symbolic form in our bodies. For example, one may feel a sense of difficulty breathing as a way of expressing how he is feeling overwhelmed by unpleasant facts and is unconsciously feeling tired of taking them in. Or a will to vomit, as a way of expressing that he cannot digest some unpleasant fact. These are more common than we think, but most often then not we take the reasons for granted and instead take a pill (a gift from science) for the symptoms, leaving the cause unattended.
It’s no wonder that Freud and others realised that the language to get in touch with the unconscious is a symbolic one. But one must bring these unconscious symbolic thoughts into the conscious mind and interpret them rationally, understanding what they mean and solving their mystery into a coherent understanding. This is the only way we can get rid of these unwanted unconscious contents that, believing in it or not, shape most of our actions and thoughts.
So, in as much as we distance ourselves from this symbolic realm, we distance from ourselves. If we can’t understand the language of our minds, we are in big trouble. Imagine trying to know someone else that does not speak your language. It will require a much greater effort and sometimes it will become impossible to do so.
But not only this factor is important. How can we understand religious or mythological writings from a time where a symbolic interpretation of the world was welcome, with the modern eyes of materialism? We will assume that everything is either non-sense or we will pretend that the nonsensical makes sense. Either way we lose so much. Just like we advanced incredibly into the scientific realms of the world and nature, these man of the past advanced incredibly into the realms of the world within and the symbolic language of our unconscious minds.
So, bringing back that opening passage from Genesis. Should we interpret the passage, as God, a literal person, who was walking in a garden, put Adam to sleep, opened up his body and took one of his ribs out, and from that he created a woman?
That is one way of understanding it. And I cannot possibly affirm this ain’t so. But a possible symbolic interpretation of this passage is that our conscious mind was put to sleep (unconscious) and from that, it was separated: the conscious mind from the unconscious mind. And our aim is to united them together once again or bring the unconscious into conscious. Another interesting fact is that in the original Hebrew the word “tsela” is mistranslated as rib, when it means in fact “side”. So it separated two sides of the consciousness of man.
Interestingly enough, it is after this separation that the temptation and fall occurs, and Eve, symbolically representing the unconscious mind and it’s repressed desires, emotions, thoughts, (moved by the life force/serpent unto it's own desires) gave the fruit to Adam (conscious mind). This fruit represents the temptation of becoming like a God, a reality in itself, an opening up of the world of duality, or separateness from God (our true consciousness). And so it opened up the realm of the Ego and its identification with the body and its bondage to the unconscious mind.
Notice that "Unto the woman he said…and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” (Gen 3:16)
Man (males) shall not rule over woman (females) in the “real” life, but the conscious mind, shall rule over the unconscious mind.
This whole world of understanding the unconscious was the aim of psychoanalysis like Freud, Jung and others. It is also part of the aim of oriental philosophies (vedas) to bring the unconscious mind into the conscious mind. Understanding and Purifying these unconscious blockages of energy from complexes, traumas, repressed memories, desires, etc…) Similarly both of these apparently separated fields, understands that the life energy, libido or kundalini are constantly blocked by the unconscious conflicts and repressed emotions. (If this blockage is too big, it can lead to depression or other symptoms), and it prevents this life energy to flow freely in the conscious and unconscious mind and redirecting this potent energy for divine purposes (the goal) or other purposes such as creativity.
This is one possible symbolic meaning of the baptism of John the baptist: It’s a baptism into the waters of the unconscious. It’s a representation of diving into the depths of the unconscious and emerging with its contents to the surface (Conscious mind). (Water has largely been used as a symbol of the unconscious). This is the root cause of the Ego and consequently: sin. When we face our most dark inner thoughts, desires and instincts, we understand some of what Jung called "The Shadow" (our dark and repressed side of the mind, with all its impulses). Sin is nothing other than acting according to our own will, according to the Ego. (Ego in latin, literally means "I")
"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire"( Matthew 3:11)
But a more powerful baptism is the one by Christ, the baptism of fire and spirit, which is the transmutation of our Egoic consciousness into the Spirit Consciousness. This is a revelation, an unveiling of reality that enables us to see what was already there but hidden by our ignorance and identification with the illusion of our Ego's.
Prior to this transformation, it is necessary to purify the unconscious mind and unblock energy that has become stuck within repressed thoughts, desires, and emotions. This prepares us to redirect our energy toward spiritual matters and achieve our ultimate goal: to stop identifying ourselves as our bodies, minds, and Ego's and to recognize ourselves as the conscious force behind all of these transient experiences. Our energy is where our mind and focus are. Once it is clear of blockages we can achieve this:
"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.This is the first and great commandment" (Matthew 22:37-38)
This process of purifying the unconscious, is just a preparation of the grounds of our mind and energies in order to be able to surrender (with all our energy) our last form of bondage and ignorance, the Ego and its identification with the body. This is figured in the crucifixion and this is not something we do, but something that is done by our surrender and desire to/for this higher realm that lives within us, our Spirit. We must only get out of the way or let go of ourselves.
This whole process is painful, first to get in touch with our "shadow" and sinful nature and acknowledge who we are (or better, our sense of who we think we are - EGO). And later, to let go of this identity we created for ourselves, our most precious possession, must be sacrificed. We are often invited in the scriptures to take up our own cross and lay down our own life.
"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." (Matthew 16:24-25)
"And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me"(Mt 10:38)
So, it is not that everything can be described and reduced to psychological aspects; inside ourselves, we have a Spirit (divine consciousness), which can be described as Christ in Us, or The Spirit of Christ, or The Holy Spirit, our Light, or the Atman, the Logos, etc… It is this Spirit and power that impulses, conducts and realises this process of transformation. It is a constant call to itself, to free us from the bondages of our Ego's (and unconscious), into a divine life, or our true life. We only feel this need to transcend ourselves and fill this emptiness inside, because there is a Spirit calling us towards itself.
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Revelations 3:20)
“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4)
"In him was life; and the life was the light of men”, “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world”, He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:1-13)
For Christians, understanding the symbolic language of scriptures is not to diminish or devalue the truth of it. But on the contrary, to be able to understand that there is much more to take away from it. It is to understand that it expresses the higher truths about ourselves and reality. Also Christ has a much larger role into our lives, other than just being a historical character that you must believe. It is a life and Spirit that should BE LIVED. It’s indeed our redemption and salvation.
Comments
Post a Comment