Transcendence – Going Deep to Gain Height

WHILE HEIGHT IS A METAPHOR FOR THE SPIRIT, DEPTH IS A METAPHOR FOR THE SOUL. Might it be possible to reach the transcendent heights of the spirit by diving deep into the soul? Could the “ascent of Mt. Carmel,” advocated by St. John of the Cross, be a soulful descent?

The answer in both cases, it seems to me, must be yes. Indeed, in our post-modern world, down may be the only way for us to go on our spiritual quests. Still, we have to keep in mind that “up” and “down” are both metaphors, as are “heaven” and “the underworld.” None of these symbolic images of place and movement through space refer to any location in the universe as we now know it to be. To paraphrase Joseph Campbell, we’re dealing with the inner reaches of space.

When we speak of descending into the depths of the soul, we’re really talking about encountering and engaging the unconscious psyche.* Because the unconscious is not conscious, it remains fundamentally unknown and essentially unknowable. It is, metaphorically, terra incognita, an unknown land — or in Shakespeare’s image, an “undiscovered country.” So, we describe the unconscious psyche as dark and mysterious, imagining it to be the hidden depths of our being.

If the unconscious always remained quiet and inactive, our conscious minds wouldn’t have even an inkling of its existence. For all practical purposes, it wouldn’t exist.

Throughout history, however, self-observant humans have sensed there is something beyond consciousness. Shamans and seers, prophets and philosophers, mystics and sages experienced that something more. Then, at the turn of the 20th century, Sigmund Freud brought the reality of “the unconscious” to the attention of the modern world through “scientific” expositions of his clinical experience treating “neurological” disorders.

From Freud and his successors, including especially Carl Jung, we learned the ego is not the master in its own house. And because we also learned the psyche mediates all human experience, we discovered that our spiritual quests always take us inward, into the psyche.

The unconscious is far from quiet and inactive, however. It interacts with consciousness quite dynamically, manifesting itself in our nightly dreams, and through symptoms of psychological disorder. Other manifestations of the unconscious, which we value highly, reach consciousness through prophetic visions, gifts of the spirit, mystical awareness, and similar “close encounters.” In spite of what some psychologists say, the latter cannot be reduced to the former.

Because interactions between consciousness and the unconscious bring both “rational” and “irrational” elements into the equation, Jung borrowed a term from mathematics to describe it, calling it “the transcendent function.” Although Jung vigorously rejected any metaphysical claims the term might imply, its spiritual implications still seem apropos. Paradoxically, then, the trail up the spiritual mountain, leads us down, through the depths of the soul into transformative encounters with the mysterious “something” that transcends ego consciousness. To reach the heights, it seems we must go deep within.

*Because psyche is the Greek word for soul, psychology is the science of the soul.