Many Kabbalistic teachers present metaphysical concepts about the nature of God and creation…with a psychological twist. Words describing spirit’s emanation into the universe become descriptions of human consciousness. Teachings about traditional Jewish practices become guidelines for deeper self-knowledge and growth.
God and human spiritual experience are not identical, but they meet in language. A single set of powerful metaphors describes both God and human consciousness. Thus, religious language gains depth, and a broader practical application.
Similarly, Carl Jung takes the language of psychoanalysis and uses it to describe spiritual experience. In his hands, psychoanalytic language gains depth; spiritual language becomes more accessible.
Melissa Klay took our Depth Psychology class on a field trip to the Rubin Museum in New York City. After the trip, she asked us to analyze the Himalayan religious art we saw, using concepts from Depth Psychology. “Describe an image,” she said, “and use one or more technical Jungian concepts to explain what you see.”
I chose the image above. A short, squat figure, looking like a cross between a Buddha and a deity, stands in a frog-like position. His frightful face has three eyes and bared teeth. Each of his hands ends in sharp pointy fingernails. Held in his mouth and balanced on his knees is a large disk consisting of four concentric circles.
The outermost circle (1) depicts dwellings and pilgrimages.
The next circle (2) is divided into six sections, showing various human activities including war, religious worship, and animal husbandry.
The next circle (3) is divided in half. On the right half, impoverished people, nearly naked, dance against a black background. On the left half, figures clothed in aristocratic dress stand in repose against a white background.
The center circle (4) shows a battle between two mythical beasts.
The divine figure holds the disk as if it were his own belly, showing what he carries inside him. From one perspective, he is a god who holds the whole world. From another perspective, he represents any ordinary person, carrying the imprint of human existence inside. The circle is a map of the psyche, showing the collective unconscious, the basic structures that make up human life.
The outermost circle (1) represents the ego. The ego knows that something is to be achieved; something is sought in life’s pilgrimage. The ego is driven by unconscious energy to which it does not have direct access. So it walks in circles through life, stuck in endless cycles of dwelling and seeking.
The next circle (2) depicts activities of everyday life that demand the focused attention of consciousness. These activities create a barrier between the ego and the unconscious. They inhibit the transcendent function of the psyche, the ability to open the ego to unconscious material for dialogue and growth.
The next circle (3) represents the shadow, troubling inner qualities a person denies in themselves but sees in others. On one side of the circle, the poor work ceaselessly, scorning the indolence of the rich. On the other side, the rich denigrate the pain of the poor. In reality, the rich also suffer the poverty of endless psychic searching, and the poor have the potential for spiritual repose. But trapped in the circle of everyday life, neither sees this truth.
In the inner circle (4), two battling animals represent the libido, psychic energy that expresses itself through symbols. Symbols express resolutions of opposites at the core of the psyche, the tensions that drive personal evolution.
Usually I think of the “Wheel of Existence” as a metaphysical view of a soul’s travels across lifetimes. The wheel conjures a pessimistic mood: centuries of failed lifetimes stand between us and liberation. Rephrased in Jung’s psychological language, however, the wheel is an encouraging guide to cycles of inner growth.
At times during life’s journey, we find ourselves stuck in the outer circle (1), experiencing a “dark night of the soul.” We are unable to see clearly any way out, our vision limited by the practical daily repetition of home and work responsibilities (circle 2).
As frustration with the limiting screen of everyday life builds, we become angry. We blame our companions for the drudgery, seeing them negatively (circle 3).
Inner battle results. Relief comes when we dissolve the inner dualities we created, freeing our psychic energy for a new direction (circle 4).
We find ourselves journeying productively again (circle 1), until the journey becomes too limiting for us (circle 2), and we begin again.
Perhaps it is not surprising to interpret Buddhist imagery psychologically; after all, many Buddhist teachers say Buddhism is sacred psychology, rather than religion. Perhaps the cosmic “wheel of existence” is interpreted correctly when seen as a metaphor for a soul’s journey through one lifetime.
What happens when we apply psychological concepts to understanding Jewish maps of the spiritual life? Stay tuned over the next few weeks for a post on the sacred psychology articulated by Adin Steinsaltz in The Thirteen Petalled Rose.
— Image: Wheel of Existence, Tibet 19th century, Rubin Museum
