|
__Paper __________________________________________________________________
The Redemption of Biblical Imagery in Counselling
Author: Martin Samson
Introduction Over the last one hundred years, in which psychology has become a discipline in its own right, some authors have tried to explore the images given in the Bible as a key to the human psyche. An example of this is Jung who wrote his ‘Answer to Job' in ‘Psychology and Religion' (1960). Jung even goes so far as to identify the images of Christ's life in the Bible as a symbol of the Self in ‘Aion' (1951), for example. Edward Edinger (1999) has explored, amongst other themes, the book of the apocalypse in ‘Archetype of the Apocalypse'. Prior to that he wrote ‘Ego and Archetype', in which he explores the symbols and images of the Bible to elucidate the idea that Christ is a symbol of both the transpersonal Self and the ego. The Self for me is the transpersonal archetype that we draw on and interact with on our journey as we individualize and try to grow in our personality, akin to the Higher Self in the ‘Psychosynthesis' of Assagioli (2000). The ego, on the other hand, is our every day consciousness of our selves within our personality that is striving towards an expression of the ideal Self, akin to the personal self in the ‘Psychosynthesis' of Assagioli (2000). The ego should not be confused with the persona we present as a mask to the world. This already gives a clear picture of the role or position the Christ plays in the narrative of the Bible. When the imaginations of the Bible are read as archetypes, the Christ figure can be seen to fill the place of the Self of an individual. The imaginations also reveal that the teaching of Christ is about the process of individuation. In this respect Edward Edinger (Edinger, 1972, pp 240-241) says; Christ is sometimes represented as a grape being pressed in a wine press. In this picture the divine sacrifice is releasing energy to sustain the daily life of man. For example a fifteenth century woodcut shows Christ in a press. From his breast blood flows into a chalice and from the chalice a number of streams flow out to various activities of man. In the picture the divine sacrifice is releasing energy to sustain the daily life of man. The Self is supporting the existence of the ego. This idea is the reverse of the ancient view that man must sacrifice in order to nourish the gods, i.e., the ego must support the Self. A striking representation of the latter is in an Aztec picture showing a stream of blood flowing from the sacrificial victim into the mouth of the sun god. Understood psychologically, both processes operate at varying times in the psychic life of the individual. At times the transpersonal totality must be fed by the sacrificial blood of the ego. At other times the ego can not survive unless it finds contact with the life-promoting effects of the sacrificial blood of the Self. The reciprocal, two fold nature of the psychic life-supporting process is expressed in the Christian symbolism itself. According to the myth, Christ is both God and man, i.e., both Self and ego. In terms of the sacrificial rite he is both the sacrificing priest and the sacrificial victim.” [1] This exploration by Edinger (Edinger, 1972, pp130-132) shows that Christ is the symbol, archetype, and paradigm of the individuating ego of a person. The image of Christ, and the rich network of symbolism which has gathered around Him, provide many parallels to the individuation process. In Fact when Christian myth is examined carefully in the light of Analytical psychology, the conclusion is inescapable that the underlying meaning of Christianity is the quest for individuation. The myth of Jesus Christ is unique in its assertion of the paradoxical double aspect of Christ. He is both God and man. As Jesus he is a human being living a particular, limited, historical existence in space and time. As Christ, he is the “anointed one”, the king, the Logos that has existed from the beginning beyond space and time, the eternal deity itself. Understood psychologically, this means that Christ is simultaneously a symbol for both the Self and the ideal ego. [2] Many of Edinger's explorations (1972, 1987, 1992, 1996, 1999) take this view of Christ as the symbol for Self and ego. He looks at the Biblical narrative and the stages of development of Jesus Christ as a symbol of the unfolding of both Self and ego, and how they nourish each other. The events of suffering, doubt, and the harder, darker processes that Christ encounters are also very conducive to understanding the psychic and spiritual development of an individual. It is also possible to take the methodology of analyzing the Biblical narrative to another level. In this paper I want to explore the whole narrative of the gospels in the interaction of all the various characters and events that enter the story as the symbol or archetype of the Self and ego, and their processes with various complexes, as understood in Jungian terms, or sub-personalities, as understood in Psychosynthesis. It will require the development of a methodology for creating composite pictures out of the four accounts in the Bible, and will draw on apocryphal texts to elucidate certain relationships. In this way I hope to show that the whole narrative is an amazing wealth of knowledge about the psychic processes within an individual. The relationships between Christ, as the Self and ego, and the other personalities, can reveal the nature of a complex or sub-personality, and how the relationship to the Self can bring the archetype into play within the soul. Thus a constructive co-working relationship between the ego and the Self can create health within a person's journey. As counsellors, our task could be to identify an archetypal position for ourselves, and then also to understand where it lies on a continuum leading towards individuation. This journey can lead us to expressing aspects of the Self that can possibly be called Christ Consciousness. Before going into this possibility, it is necessary to deconstruct a few collective complexes within the counselling world that close our own inner doors to working with biblical imagery in our counselling. This paper is written primarily for counsellors and educators, who work from models using archetypes and symbols, such as Jungian Depth Psychology and the Transpersonal Psychosynthesis of Assagioli. It is my hope to create an openness towards incorporating Biblical imagery as a valid symbolic narrative. To do this, I think it is important to establish a methodology that counsellors and educators can apply to working with the symbols of the Bible. I believe that creating an informed openness towards Biblical imagery can also be helpful to other counselling models. This might be relevant to clients seeking counseling, even if they do not come out of a Christian tradition. Difficulties The use of Biblical imagery in counselling is fraught with the history of interpretation, and church history itself. When people access counselling, they may well be seeking an alternative to the pastoral care offered through many Christian churches. Many people experience the emptiness of Biblical interpretation at times of crises. Many priests, clergy and chaplains turn to psychological or therapeutic models to help people because of the fraught language and models offered by doctrinal interpretations of Christianity. Counsellors may, for the same reasons, have ambivalence about sending someone in spiritual emergency or with a spiritual dilemma to church representatives. There are inherent weaknesses in current models of interpretation of the Bible within Christian doctrines. The most obvious of these is the literalist point of view. In his book, The Spirituality Revolution [3] , David Tacey (2003) points out that many people today say they are spiritual and not religious. The book is based on his experiences of teaching University courses, and questioning by his students. He has found that when people say they are not religious, they mean they do not attend a church; they find the content lacking in its ability to address their intellectual inquiry and their psychological needs. At the same time, he has found that people consider themselves spiritual because they already experience, and are searching for, the numinous at work in their lives. As modern people, we have embraced natural scientific and deductive, analytical thinking. We enjoy and agree with the findings of scientific research. To then attend churches that reduce the Bible to literal happenings, or, at best, an historical account of a good man in Israel , is not helpful when we need counselling or help to work out our crises in life. Biblical teaching is not sufficiently immanent or existential to give us counsel and comfort, nor is it applied with enough philosophical substance to aid our journey towards individuation. In fact, many of the churches apply compliance to doctrine and ethical codes as the base message, and enforce the view that our moral-ethical life is held through compliance to a group. This is a stance that runs against the grain of the current collective intuitive understanding of the process of individuation. (For further exploration of this theme see Appendix A) It is also understandable that the counselling world shies away from the maze of Biblical interpretation offered today. Some of us have had the same experience that many of our own clients bring: deferring to the authority of the doctrines and theologians To help people address their own complexes about approaching the Bible, free of the church doctrine, authority and guilt, we counsellors need to have looked at our own issues on these matters. Once we have found a healthy relationship to our own authority to understand, and to the mythical side of the Bible, then we can help others do the same. It is necessary for many of us to work through the western Christian complex in our own psyche before approaching the subject matter. Most of us who come out of a Christian tradition have, within ourselves, the authoritative voice of official interpretation and institutional academia. We tend to want to defer to it in how we understand the Bible. We often do not go beyond the authority of official opinion. When do we ever say to ourselves, “What do I think about what the Bible says?” or “What were the actual intentions of Christ and the authors of the gospels?” For example, do we draw a conclusion from the fact that nowhere in the Bible did Christ ordain a priest or start a church? The churches have taken certain sayings in the Bible and given them certain weight to justify the authority of the church, but Christ did not actually start an institutionalized church! Do we draw a conclusion from the fact that Christ in his teachings and actions flew in the face of the religious leaders and doctrinal interpreters of his time? It is also likely that other, from traditions other than Christianity, would need to go through a similar process of freeing their own complex relationship to the authority, and the codifications of their own background. In order to access the symbolic aspects of any tradition it is probable that the counsellor will need to check their own relationship to authority and interpretation. As counselling educators, we can begin to find our own relationship and position to the mythological aspects of the Bible, and find a language that no longer defers to the cultural complex of authority and doctrinal interpretation. To do this, we need to educate ourselves about the true content of the actual Biblical narrative, so that we can refer to it from our own authority. Just as we study symbols and myths of other cultures as archetypes, so too we can consider the pictures of the Bible as symbolic metaphor. I believe this self appraisal of attitudes towards any symbolic imagery with which we are not familiar to be good practice. Changing the Method In order to gain freedom from ‘official' understandings, it is necessary to find another message in the symbols that will take our own ability and authority to interpret the narrative to another level. We need a methodology that does not lead to the one-sided interpretations we have known, but enables us to explore the narrative from the understandings, sciences and collectives of our times, and allows us to break open the symbols ourselves. In his considerations of the Bible, Emil Bock, (Bock, 1984, pp 45-49) a German theologian in the 1950's, described the tendencies of interpretation explored above; Up until now we have only ever turned our attention to single pieces or passages of the gospels; be it as a striving towards a more moralistic-religious or towards a more historical-scientific understanding of the Bible… The narrow considerations of the Bible up until now have shown themselves in that the religious-moralistic understanding tends towards dogmas, and on the other hand the historical-scientific considerations tend towards legends… [4] Dogma and legends, however, are insufficient to unravel the deeper aspect of any sacred text. The first provides no possibility for an enquiring mind to unravel the mystery of God/Goddess or their own Self, beyond a prescriptive code of ethics and beliefs, while the other does not allow the mystic or psychologically adept person to plumb the opportunities of a truly inspired archetype. The first awaits a transcendent being to save us from the suffering of our lives, and the second actually leads to a denial of the activity of the divine in the human field. Emil Bock (Bock, 1984, pp 45-49) defines a possible method that allows us to ask meaningful questions of the Bible, and to use our own intuitive faculties to unleash powerful metaphor, myth and healing symbols; What today is taken for granted in the contemplation of art must still be won for the reading of the gospels. The gospels are works of art, but are at the same time God's works of art. Whoever understands their configuration looks at the same time at a symbol that in its order and composition reveals the holy order and laws of a higher divine world. When we look at the Secret of Composition we are given a key that is able to unlock unsuspected depths of the gospels. However, the key does not unlock if it used mechanically by an intellect that names itself as ‘scientific'. Even a truly artistic consideration of a work of art differs from a more mechanical consideration of mere singular details by having more wonder and respect. To turn our gaze to the composition of the gospels is an enterprise that reaches over and above an artistic attitude or state of mind. Here science and art must be lifted towards religion. In a new gospel-theology science, art and religion become one. Together the four gospels enable a discerning of the ‘Eternal Gospel'. However, we may not just join the content of the four gospels by adding them together; we need to let the hidden, inner, higher configuration of the figures and imaginations in the four gospels grow together. These figures are earthly pictures of the rhythms, levels and spheres of existence of the higher divine worlds of the ‘Eternal Gospel'. When we try to understand the consciousness of the gospel writers in this way we can no longer validate the dogmatic interpretations of the inspired character of the Bible. We can no longer demand a ‘belief in the gospels'. We can only call for a greater respect and reverence in the face of the gospels. However, free thinking and research must combine with this respect. [5] An interesting method is given to us in that we are challenged to work inclusively with science, art and religion. The method asks us to not remain in intellectual analysis, but to gather the stories from the gospels, apocryphal writings, archaeology, history, science and art together, and then contemplate, meditate, imagine into and work intuitively with the collage of information as a doorway to a personality or figure within the narrative. Writers such as Edinger have done this in respect to the actual person of Jesus Christ, and found many images opening up into the mythological dimensions of Christ, releasing our understanding of him from the clutches of the doctrines and legends. As counsellors and educators, we can work with Biblical imagery to create our own imaginative relationship to the narrative, in turn opening the door for us to use the Christian mythology in counselling. This method of breaking open the old images through the contemplation of the compositional character for new mythological depths, I would like to name the ‘composite biographical picture method'. This name allows it to be applied in the direction of the Biblical characters to access the archetypes and then also to search the continuum of the archetype in relation to the client's biography for the healing imagination. Changing the message When we plumb the teachings of Christ they do not stand out in world history as having anything particularly revolutionary in their content. Yet, one message is clear, and remains interpreted at a literal level to protect the doctrines of Christianity. In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Christ gives us a message that he is here to fulfill the law. Traditionally, this has been interpreted to mean that all the laws given in the Old Testament remain in force, and it is up to the clergy to police, interpret and offer atonement. However, Christ then goes on to explain how he fulfills the law. Christ says to his followers a number of times that ‘you have heard it said that ..., but I say to you…' (Mt5:21-22) If we take Christ as the symbol for the Self, we can broaden the possible understanding of Jesus' saying to mean that, in the times of Moses, we would obey the law literally, but when the Self is experienced and active within us we will be able to interpret the law and create our own moral evaluations of situations. We can ask how we will experience Christ or the Self within us. (For an exploration the ethical shift announced in the words ‘but I say to you…' see Appendix B.) Here I would like to promote the view that the Biblical narrative, especially the gospels, is a pictorial/archetypal narrative on the need to take the step from the Old to the New Testament for our psychic health. The step that Christ fulfills is not the reaffirmation that the laws are still valid as external injunctions on the ethical behavior and psychic evaluation of an individual. Rather, we see an affirmation that the Self of humanity, or the process of individuation, has fulfilled itself and we as individuals are now able to take ownership of the law and responsibility for our actions and their consequences. This is really what Christianity is all about. As Christ says in The Gospel of Luke; ‘The Law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.' (Luke 16:16) We could say that through the inner effort an individual makes on his or her journey to individuation; he or she can enter into a moral and ethical life and thus fulfill the Law. As counsellors and educators, re-imagining the base message of Christ to humanity is an important journey we need to take ourselves. We can free Christ from an old paradigm of a mere continuation of the Old Testament ethic that places an external code being our guide, to that of individuation and personal responsibility. This could allow us to integrate the mythical symbolic of the Bible with other myths and symbols and give the message of the story of Christ its full potential as a healing narrative. The ‘composite biographical picture method' explained Spong, (1992, p222) says “Ideas have consequences”. [6] When we bring the two ideas explored so far, that of Christ being the symbol of both Self and ego, and that of bringing the ‘ composite biographical picture method' into our considerations and contemplations of the images, it opens the opportunity to ask if using the life and images of Christ alone is sufficient to plumb the depths of the human psyche. It is easy to follow the path that Edinger, (1972, pp131-156) takes in the chapter on ‘ Christ as the Paradigm of the Individuating Ego' [7] where he explores the whole story of Christ as the emptying out of self, finding self love and becoming a self oriented ego. He finds the journey and events in Christ's life, such as the baptism and the temptations, to reveal land marks and difficulties within the journey towards individuation. A wonderful consideration with profound insights, but it is pertinent to ask what the relationship of Christ to the other people in the narrative may reveal in a broader picture of the human psyche. The consideration of the relationships within the gospel stories opens many new levels of possible symbols and archetypes that could be used in counselling situations. To do this we need to first create composite or compositional pictures of each character. What is the story of Mary Magdalene, her sister Martha and their brother Lazarus? The same applies to Peter, Judas, Mary the mother, Salome, Simon the leper, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea and all the other people we encounter. They come in and out of the texts, have many apocryphal and Gnostic writings to support their characters, yet do we really know their stories? It is necessary to take all the various individual passages in the texts and create a chronological tapestry of the events and then contemplate that particular person's journey in relationship to Christ. Each character in their own story, as recreated through the imaginative and symbolic nature of their ‘compositional biography' , then reveals an aspect of our human psyche in its complexes, its healing through a particular relationship to the Self (Christ), and how that particular aspect of our soul or biography can find a healthy integration in our lives by maintaining relationship to the Self. As this picture unfolds, Christ no longer becomes the sole symbol of Self and ego; all the characters and the imagination of the Bible give us manifold symbolic pictures. We can call upon these stories in counselling practice to give to clients to contemplate or meditate on as a symbol or archetypal picture that can assist their own work with a particular complex or self-transformation. The imagery of the Bible given in human stories becomes a source of archetype within the psyche, and in the shadow complex. Through knowing the symbolic import of each story out of the insights of our own efforts, counsellors can intuitively select an imagination from the continuum of the mythology for the client. The client is asked to actively contemplate the imagination each day by reconstructing the picture in their mind as a meditation. In this way, the power of the archetype becomes immanent in the psyche of the individual, thereby assisting the person in their journey to be a self oriented and integrated ego. Another possibility is to ask the client if a picture or imagination from the Bible arises for them in connection to their own journey at this moment. This would allow the intuition of the client to act as a healing agent in the process. It would be necessary for the counsellor to place the client's imagination into the continuum and context of the mythology. Opening the single story or event to which the client relates into the greater healing archetype of the compositional biography for contemplation also requires the counsellor to know the mythology well. Practising the method An obvious personality to look at to illustrate the potential of this methodology would be Mary Magdalene. The images and recorded history of Mary Magdalene have been interpreted in so many different ways: to suppress women in the clergy, to curtail female sexuality, to construe women as the cause of the demise of humanity, and to keep them subservient in marriages. More recently we have seen Mary Magdalene placed as an equal redeeming force in history, working out of her own legitimate priesthood of sensuous body-based wisdom, and even as the wife of Jesus who bears his children in a secluded community. This has resulted in church doctrine at times proclaiming her a prostitute, and using the label of Magdalene as something unworthy, and then later revoking all those claims as well. Feminist theologians such as Karen L. King (2003) have tried to redeem her by dissociating her from the unnamed sinner. [8] This, however, has also made the positive possibility of exploring the prostitute complex in our souls less accessible. We can free ourselves from all the histories of the discussion about Mary Magdalene, and through creating a ‘ composite biographical picture', plumb the depths of the very passionate and full life of a woman who actually anoints The Anointed One! There is no proof that the unnamed sinner and the woman caught in adultery can be held to be the same person as Mary Magdalene, but the method to apply is not the adding of various stories together in an intellectual way. The stories need to grow together into a higher configuration through our imaginative intuitive work. The intellectual analysis of facts leads to the discrediting of the imagination as contradictory or manipulative. When the higher configuration is sought, the narrative is no longer about a woman in history and who she was or what she did, but is symbolic of inner psychic processes. The name Mary Magdalene becomes a symbol of that part of our soul that, amongst other things:
This entering in of conscience happens at the beginning of Mary Magdalene's story in the Bible. The stoning of the Adulteress (John 8) could be taken as the first entry of Mary Magdalene into the narrative. Even though she is not named, it could be read that the accusations of the old Law, as represented by the men, possess her and render her unable to live or act in the world. This would connect her to the Mary who was healed of seven demons; at this point of healing, she takes up a centered relationship with the Self. This is evident in the description at the end of the story, ‘ he alone was left, and the woman was standing in the middle .'(John 8:9) The demons, the old Law, are calmed and integrated as the accusers all leave, starting with the eldest, led by their conscience. (John 8:9) It is important to know that, in some of the original manuscripts of the Bible, this is the first time that the word ‘conscience' is used. This once again points us to the start of the individuation process when an aspect of our soul takes up a centring and healing relationship to the Self. Mary Magdalene also becomes that part of our ego that marries the Self, is kissed on the mouth by the Self and becomes (with the Mother) the co-redemptive force in the narrative, in that she anoints the Self into the soma. She helps the Self prepare for death and facilitates the emptying required to become a centered, self aware ego. The symbolic power of words is revealed. Words like ‘prostitute' and ‘priest' or ‘adulteress' and ‘spirituality' are not so far apart. The imaginations become powerful keys to help unlock the complexes of the soul. Pictures that seem to be antagonistic and mutually exclusive can find harmony and deepen in meaning because the contradictions and complexities complement and complete each other in an imaginative way. This process can be applied to the stories of all the people in the gospels and we find that many other possibilities in the various characters stories start to become evident, such as;
Three Mary figures and three John figures can become the central compositional elements of the relationship of the psyche to the Self, in its variegated feminine and masculine dynamics. The other characters become doorways to a second circle of complexes, sub-personalities and their paths. Through our work with the ‘ composite biographical picture method', a whole new configuration of the images in the Bible appears in imaginative form around the central imagination of the moment of crucifixion, where the Self is in its most profound moment of consolidation, and around it the three Mary figures appear with John/Lazarus the Evangelist. It appears that the three Mary figures each take on a part of the more feminine aspects of our psyche. John together with John the son of Zebedee and John the Baptist represent similar aspects of the more masculine processes. Around these people, a second circle of men and women appear; Martha, The daughter of Jarius, Salome, Herodias (representing more difficult and dark processes), Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Simon the leper, Pilate, Herod and Judas, who broaden the interaction of the Self with the ego and the transformation of our complexes and sub personalities. Each story of meeting, healing and further integration of the relationship to Christ provides opportunities for counsellors to apply the archetypes within a client's story for contemplation. A further step can also be taken in looking at whole narratives in the gospels as images of healing processes. An example of this would be chapter eight in Luke's gospel. The narrative of chapter eight is really the start of Christ's public works; He has been baptized, called his apostles together, delivered the Sermon on the Mount and started healing. The last two pictures given before chapter eight are of John the Baptist proclaiming that Christ is the one to look to and then, even more profoundly, the anointing of Christ by the unnamed sinner! Christ has now become the anointed one and his priestly qualities have been released by the feminine. Then chapter eight tells us of:
On the journey to Self, the ego requires the feminine to sustain it. We should avoid the literal interpretation of a group of women cleaning dishes and ironing clothes for the men. When a person awakens to the possibility of personal development and wants to go a journey, he or she must start the process of individuation. As the ego enters the psychological or soul world it meets fear, and storms arise until the Self is drawn in as the part of the person in charge of the healing journey. Many complexes and sub-personalities need to be balanced and reintegrated to release us from a type of possession by our own ego and aspects of our psyche. Ultimately the person becomes the wounded healer and can access their own psychic energy as a healing source for others. As educators we can give Biblical imagery a valid place in the Pantheon of mythologies in that we do the work of releasing our own complexes around Christianity, and of creating the ‘ compositional biographies'. This can happen regardless of our own standpoint or tradition, If we can speak freely of Biblical imagery in counselor training, this will allow those counsellors who work with symbols and mythology to adopt a positive relationship to the biblical narrative. Using the method with clients To be able to draw these archetypes into our work it is necessary to use the same method as for any other archetype or image; the pictures need to be opened and released from historical interpretation. Before doing this, it is necessary to ask one more question: can the psychic make up of a westernized person really access the mythological archetypes of indigenous imagery or other mythologies without first identifying with it? The converse question also applies; the psychic make up of many of our clients is already infused with Christian Archetypes, albeit in a counterproductive way. It may well be easier to turn to other archetypes in the world than open the Biblical imagery. Our clients can receive much healing from the process of going onto the high seas of their own wounded, church history and bringing a centered imagination to the pictures. Releasing the Biblical imagery in a person's soul opens the possibility of finding a reintegration into his or her own psychic context. Rather than asking clients to work themselves into being able to release the symbolic nature of other mythologies in their psyche, counsellors can also access the Christian story as a healing archetype for those that need it. As a case example, I will draw on the experience of working with a woman in counselling. As a child, she was abused by her father, uncle and members of the clergy. Through her life she had addressed her wounds via feminist theology, psychotherapy, years of dream work and participating in goddess religion. She had an outspoken antipathy towards anything Christian. Her psychotherapist sent her to complete a grief ritual, which my colleague and I helped her to create, to release many aspects of the complexes and sub-personalities left her by her father, now dead. Through the ritual, she realized that she needed to find a constructive relationship to the masculine in her life as well as in her religious expression. This filled her with fear and anger as she knew that embracing the Christian archetype was part of a journey towards balancing her own feminine and masculine sides. In later counselling sessions, when I was listening to her story, I would hear a reflection of a particular aspect of Mary Magdalene's compositional biography archetype . Sometimes it was the accused tormented adulteress, and at other times the quiet Mary sitting at the foot of the Lord, or the Anointer or the One who greets the resurrected One. I would end each session with an imagination from the life of Mary Magdalene in my mind. I would then use the image to paint an imagination for her of where her story was in the continuum of the Magdalene archetype. Further work and imagining was done using the John/Lazarus story to support the growth into the archetype she had taken on to explore. In this way she built constructive relationships with many parts of her psyche, and, whenever the fear or anger would fill her, she could find calm and integration by sitting with the power of these imaginations. This woman continues on her journey and often uses the imaginations of the Magdalene story to centre herself and move on when the shadows close around her. Conclusion Both depth psychology and transpersonal psychology can use Biblical imagery to help clients find a positive relationship to their shadows. The use of intuitive moments in the counselling process, when an image enters the consciousness of the counselor, can be a key moment to suggest to a client that they may like to use this image as a contemplative process that can assist them to finding their own keys in their lives. The redemption of Biblical imagery involves releasing our own psychological complexes about our relationship to Christianity and church history, doctrine and misuse of power by the church. The images then become alive, and stand with all the other mythologies of the world as archetypal healing stories.. Through using this method of ‘compositional biographical pictures' we ourselves can authorize the subject matter of the Biblical images, and find our own authentic relationship to the whole story, thus empowering both the mythology and ourselves. Appendix A A picture of various tendencies in biblical interpretation
Over many years within the Christian churches, the traditional battle has been waged between literal interpretation with more fundamental doctrines of the Bible and the ancient living Bible version that is more open to a personal connection to metaphor and mytho-poetic aspects of the imagery. In recent decades the Christian world seems to have been ‘taken over' by a resurgence of Christian doctrine and churches that base their philosophies and life on an absolute literal interpretation of the stories and images in the Bible. This is epitomized by the ‘creationists' introducing the ‘Intelligent design' theory into science classes in many schools around the world. This topic is hotly debated in America and Australia right now as it claims that ‘evolution' is also only a theory based on a priori knowledge and supposition, not scientifically verified. The argument is that either they both belong in the realm of science or in the ethics/religion classes together. In answer to this literalism, the drive towards historical interpretation within the church and theology is a step to save the Bible from total annihilation and discredit. Many scholars have taken time to study the history and culture in which the Bible was written, giving an insight into the person of Jesus as a first- century Hebrew Rabbi. Interpretation of texts took place out of a deep, cultural understanding, making the Bible credible again to modern, thinking people. One of the great proponents of this methodology is John Shelby Spong. His work has opened the possibility for people who embrace modern, scientific thinking to be religious Christians again, and to find their faith in their own cultural context, using the Bible out of its historical context to assess and redefine some collective archetypes for our times. An example of this comes from his book, Born of a Woman (Spong, 1992, pp175-176), where he says; The very abstractions of theological language can be so difficult as to be emotionally draining. But this also means that these very literalized symbols will inevitably have to die in the passage of time. The only way to keep symbols alive forever is to crack them open periodically so that they can be filled with new meanings. No symbol can ever remain as a timeless truth, inerrant or infallible. If this analysis is correct, then, despite the furor traditional religious folk raise against those who insist on opening the symbols, the fact remains that only those who are aware that symbols must always be changing can in fact be “defenders of the faith” of the past…. The symbols of our faith are always literalized. Time moves on and knowledge expands until the literalized symbols begin to break apart. [9] The messages and re-enlivening of the symbols in his works are pleasing and can be applied in challenging ways within the counselling context, as a challenge to both our individual and our collective complexes around the interpretation of the Bible. In this book, he breaks open many myths around the role of women in churches, marriages, their own sexuality and our own literalized understanding of words like ‘prostitute' and ‘virgin' that have been held at a manipulative level by the church. However, it also only highlights the actual dilemma we face as counsellors in our approach to the Bible as an archetypal or mythological text and narrative; the deferment of authority of understanding, and therefore approach the Bible out of a sub-conscious anti-individuation attitude; by implication, this is also anti-Christian! Just as John Shelby Spong is a good proponent of the use of science and history to break open symbol from the claws of literalization, it is also useful to remember that other attempts at interpreting the Bible through history, anthropology or science often fall far short, and can actually drive the narrative and the imaginations to the level of nice stories and theories of plots and legends. One of the people who have done this is Barbara Thiering (1992) [10] who, out of a code of interpretation called the Pesher, deduces that Jesus survived the cross and tried to create an utopian community. She, therefore, gives credence to the phenomenon of the Da Vinci Code, and all the literature that surrounds it, ultimately reducing myth, symbol and archetype to a physical manifestation of a blood-line . The search for the divine feminine is reduced to a search for a genealogy! No wonder people stop turning to the churches and theologians for counsel!
Appendix B A picture of how the teachings of Christ promote individuation and therefore the move from Old Testament ethics to those of a Christian New Testament.
These words, ‘but I say to you…' can at first be seen literally as Christ teaching a broader interpretation of the Mosaic Law, but as Edinger (1972, p133) says, These passages have a major psychological import. They represent a transition from a kind of crude behaviouristic psychology to one which is aware of the reality of the psyche as such without concrete actions. [11] He goes on to explore the moral justification people now use out of Old Testament images to defer responsibility of action, and how we need to take the path of Christ in his journey to find our own independent psychic relationship to the ethical and moral implications of action in our lives. This is a path of individuation in relationship to ethical action. When these words ‘but I say to you…' are used in the gospels, and read in relationship to all the other sayings of Christ about the power of the ‘I Am' as an active force in the human being, it could be understood that Christ speaks of the experience of Selfhood or individuation. When a person is in tune with them selves then they can actually take on the consequences of their own decisions and can learn to apply the law in a moral way in each situation. In fact, Christ could be seen to be saying; under the Law of Moses you were told not to kill, yet when your ‘I am' is active in you (I say to you…) you will experience even anger as a deed which kills something in the other. This is a broader imaginative understanding than a literal analysis of mere words can provide. This leads to the question of the real relationship of Christianity to the Old Testament. Much of Christian doctrine is really only a reapplication of all the pre-Christian teachings and laws into a new Christian context. In fact, the institutions and powers given to the clergy are only a redirection of all the laws given in the Old Testament, given authority out of a particular interpretation of the teachings of Christ to support the doctrine. When we look a little closer, Christ distanced himself from this form of moral- ethical life, and created a basis for the moral-ethical self-evaluation of an individual. To do this, we as individuals need to be strengthening our moral fiber or psychic health, and also take a step from the Old Testament into the New.
Notes 1- Edward F. Edinger, Ego and Archetype (Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc. 1972) pp 240 -241 2- Ibid., pp131-132 3- David Tacey, The Spirituality Revolution: the emergence of contemporary spirituality ( Melbourne : HarperCollinsPublishers, 2003) 4- Emil Bock, Das Evangelium, Betrachtungen zum Neuen Testament (Stuttgart: Urachhaus, 1984) pp 45-49 For the sake of completion the original German text is given here. This English translation is by the author. “Man hat bisher den Blick im Grunde nur auf die einzelnen Stuecke der Evangelien gerichtet; sei es, dass man mehr nach einem moralisch-religioesen oder mehr nach einem historisch-wissenschaflichen Evangelienverstaendnis strebte… Die Engigkeit bisheriger Bibel-Betrachtung zeigte und zeigt sich darin, dass das religioes-moralische Verstehn immer zu Dogmen neigt. Auf der anderen Seite zeigt sich die Engigkeit bisherigem Bible-Verstaendnisses in der historisch-wissenschaftlich Betrachtung immer zu Legenden neigt” 5- Ibid., pp45-49 For the sake of completion the original German text is given here. This English translation is by the author. “Was heute fuer die Kunstbetrachtung weithin selbstverstaendlich und gelaeufig ist, muss fuer das lesen im Evangelium erst errungen werden. Die Evangelien sind Kunstwerke; aber sie sind zugleich unendlich viel mehr: sie sind Kunstwerke Gottes. Wer ihre hoehere Figur erkennt, schaut in ein Symbolum hinein, das in seiner Ordnung und Komposition die heiligen Ordnungen und Gesetze einer hoeheren, goettlichen Welt offenbart. Mit dem Hinblicken auf das Geheimnis der Komposition ist ein Schluessel gegeben, der es vermag, ungeahnte Tiefen des Evangeliums aufzuschliessen. Jedoch schliesst dieser Schluessel nicht, wenn er mechanisch von einem sich ‘wissenschaftlich' nennenden Intellekt gehandhabt wird. Schon die wirklich kuenstlerische Betrachtung eines Kunstwerkes unterscheidet sich von einer mehr mechanischen Untersuchung der blossen Einzelheiten durch die Gesinnung: durch mehr Ehrfurcht. Den Blick aber auf die Komposition der Evengelien zu richten, ist ein Unterfangen, das hoch und weit ueber eine kunstlerische Gesinnung hinausweist. Hier muss Wissenschaft und Kunst zur Religion emporgehoben sein. In einer neuen Evangelien-Theologie sind Wissenschaft, Kunst und Religion vermaehlt… Erst die vier Evangelien zusammen lassen das ‘Ewige Evangelium' erahnen. Dann aber darf man nicht nur das Inhaltliche der vier Evangelien zusammenzaehlen, addieren, sondern muss auch die in den vier Evangelien verborgenen, hoeheren Figuren ineinanderwachsen lassen. Diese Figuren sind irdische Abdrucke der Rhythmen, Stufen und Dasienskreise in den hoeheren, goettlichen Welten in der Sphaere des ‘Ewige Evangeliums'. Versucht man, in dieser Art die Inspiration, das Evangelisten-Bewusstsein zu verstehen, so folgt auch aus dem inspirierten Charakter der Bibel nicht mehr ihre dogmatische Geltung. Es kann nicht mehr der ‘Glaube an die Bibel' gefordert werden. Es kann nur zur groessten Ehrfurcht vor dem Evangelium aufgerufen werden. Aber mit dieser Ehrfurcht darf und muss sich ein freies Denken und Forschen verbinden.” 6- John Shelby Spong, Born of a Woman (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1992) p222 7- Edinger, Ego and Archetype, pp131-156 8- Karen L. King, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala, Jesus and the first Woman Apostle ( Santa Rosa : Polebridge Press, 2003) This book explores all the theological claims in this paragraph. 9- John Shelby Spong, Born of a Woman , pp175 – 176 10- Barbara Thiering, Jesus the Man, a new interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Sydney: Doubleday,1992) 11- Edinger, Ego and Archetype, p133
Bibliography The Redemption of Biblical Imagery in Counselling Assagioli, Roberto. 2000- Psychosynthesis . Amherst MA : Synthesis Center Publishing, (First edition published 1965).
Baker, Carolyn. Ph.D. 1996- Reclaiming the Dark Feminine, The Price of Desire. Tempe : New Falcon Publications.
Bock, Emil 1955- The Three Years. Edinburgh : Floris Books 1957- The Apocalypse of Saint John . Edinburgh : Floris Books 1984- Das Evangelium, Betrachtungen zum Neuen Testament . Stuttgart: Urachhaus. Dourley, John P. 1984- The IllnessTthat We Are: A Jungian Critique of Christianity. Toronto : Inner City Books.
Edinger, Edward F. 1972- Ego and Archetype . Boston : Shambhala Publications, Inc. 1984- The Creation of Consciousness. Toronto : Inner City Books. 1987- The Christian Archetype: A Jungian Commentary on the Life of Christ. Toronto : Inner City Books. 1992- Transformation of the God-Image, an Elucidation of Jung's Answer to Job. Toronto : Inner City Books. 1996- The Aion Lectures: Exploring the Self in Jung's Aion. Toronto : Inner City Books. 1999- The Psyche in Antiquity, Book Two, Gnosticism and Early Christianity. Toronto : Inner City Books. 1999- Archetype of the Apocalypse. Illinois : Open Court Publishing Company.
Jung, Carl Gustav 1951- Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (Collected Works Vol. 9 Part 2). Princeton : Bollingen. 1960- Psychology and Religion: West and East, Vol.11 of the Collected Works. New York : Meridian Books. 1969- Answer to Job. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
King, Karen L. 2003- The Gospel of Mary of Magdala, Jesus and the First Woman Apostle. Santa Rosa : Polebridge Press
Perera, Sylvia Brinton 1981- Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women. Toronto : inner City Books. 1986- The Scapegoat Complex, Towards a Mythology of Shadow and Guilt. Toronto : Inner City Books.
Qualls-Corbett, Nancy 1988 - The sacred Prostitute: Eternal Aspect of the feminine. Toronto : inner City Books.
Spong, John Shelby • Born of a Woman . San Francisco : HarperCollins.
Tacey, David 1995- Edge of the Sacred: Transformation in Australia . Melbourne : Harper Collins. 2000- Re-enchantment: the new Australian spirituality . Melbourne : HarperCollins. 2003- The Spirituality Revolution: the emergence of contemporary spirituality Melbourne :HarperCollins
Thiering, Barbara 1992- Jesus the Man, a new interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls . Sydney : Doubleday.
__________________________________________________________________________ |