"Oh see ye not yon narrow road,
So thick beset wi' thorns and briers?
That is the Path of Righteousness,
Though after it but few inquires.
"And see ye not yon braid, braid road,
That lies across the lily leven?
That is the Path of Wickedness,
Though some call it the Road to Heaven.
"And see ye not yon bonny road
That winds about the fernie brae?
That is the Road to fair Elfland
Where thou and I this night maun gae.
I am starting this post with the words of the Queen of Elfland to Thomas in the tale of “Thomas The Rhymer” (See,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the_Rhymer) to make the point that there is a third alternative and dimension to the way we often see things. The poem uses somewhat exaggerated medieval terminology in speaking of the life directed towards “higher” things in contrast with the life in this world. Still, I am used to people that speak of “Vertical” spirituality directed towards God and “Horizontal” spirituality lived out in the world (corresponding generally to the spirituality lived out and expressed along the first two roads). In contrast to these two is the third road, which leads to places of strange and profound beauty and even stranger terrors in legend and in the poem.
Whether there is actually a road to “fair Elfland” is not my point, though I sometimes think I wouldn’t mind finding it myself. Perhaps my point is that we often concentrate on our road through the world (with emphasis on our conscious mind) and our efforts to advance spiritually (with emphasis on developing or contacting the higher part of ourselves and/or the universe), but seldom directly think about our subconscious or unconscious mind—except as the dusty attic (or moldy basement) where things we occasionally need for the other two are stored. In fact, if we think of it as something other than a storage bin, we mainly seem to think of it as a source of problems.
I’ll have to cut it off here as my time is limited, but there is much more to say about this side of ourselves. I hope someone else with more experience in Jungian thought would chime in here, as I can easily get over my head, despite the fact that it is a subject of interest to me. I am particularly interested in the relationship between the various “parts” of our psyche and in the relationship between Jungian Individuation and other forms of Spiritual growth. There is also a side of this conversation that belongs to the arts, as the Jungian archetypes are the almost constant subject of their best works one way or another.
Cordially,
S&S
):
)
