Glossary

GLOSSARY

Anima: Latin for soul. Jung's term for the unconscious feminine aspect of a man.

Animus: Latin for mind. Jung's term for the unconscious masculine aspect of a woman.

Archetype: The original, unconscious imprint behind all religious, historical, cultural and social patterns and experiences.

Archetypal Field: The collective environment surrounding an archetype.

Archetypal Identification: Identifying with a mythic pattern.

Attitude: A one-sided psychological perspective of life.

Collective Confusion: Term we use to describe the current collective crisis of humanity.

Collective Shadow: Humanity's unconscious primitive side.

Collective Unconscious: Jung's term to indicate the oldest and deepest layer of the unconscious common to all humanity. Home of the archetypes.

Complex: An unconscious embedded image surrounded by obsessive emotions. According to Jung, complexes can have a positive meaning in our life if we can begin to explore their hidden dynamics.

Consciousness: Ego awareness, self-reflection and understanding of the opposes.

Crone: Archetype of the Wise Old Woman. See EROS PAGE.

Depression: Depletion of the Ego-consciousness and the energy it creates for self-identity.

Devouring Mother: An archetype representing the feminine at it's most primitive and instinctive.

Dreams: The symbolic language of the unconscious.

Ego: the will or center of consciousness.

Ego-Consciousness: Same as ego.

Eros: Greek for love. The archetype behind all attraction, sexuality, creativity and feminine psychology in society.

Fairy/Folk Tale: A symbolic story delineating eternal psychological insights and truths.

Hero & Heroine: The archetype of the fully individuated person in which the opposites are balanced. Examples Buddha, Christ, Joan of Arc, etc. The hero is often a tragic figure such as Antigone or King Lear. For a full discussion of this archetype see Joseph Campbell's masterpiece, Hero With A Thousand Faces.

Individuation: Jung's term for the process of becoming fully adult by taking personal responsibility for all of one's thoughts and actions. These include the withdrawal of projections upon people, places and things.

Inflation: An ego with no limits. The ego's identification with the God image.

Instincts: The primordial drives of the unconscious, e.g. hunger & sex are the two most common.

Libido: A concept originally created by Freud to describe the sex drive. As used by Jung, the term refers to a person's use of unconscious energy as a whole not just limited to the biological.

Logos: Greek for word, logic and reason. The archetypal drive behind evolution, science and technological development.

Myth: An original psychological experience retained in a symbolic form as a story. Often held together as an ritual.

Mythologem: A localized myth or story. For example, almost every ancient culture or tribe on earth has a creation myth, based on it's unique geography, religious traditions and so on.

Negative Logos: Our term for the collective masculine principle contaminated by unconscious factors. The Terrible Father archetype is almost synonymous with it.

Opposites: The differentiation of ego-consciousness from unconscious contents.

Participation Mystique: Group rapport under unconscious influences creates a feeling of wholeness amongst the individual members.

Persona: Latin for mask. The ego's means of social adaptation and the roles we play.

Personal Unconscious: Jung's term for the personal aspect of the unconscious as opposed to the collective. Synonymous with the Shadow.

Primitive Eros: Our term for the feminine archetype in it's undeveloped, unconscious form as the Great Mother.

Projection: The process of dumping our own unconscious behaviors onto someone or something else without being consciously aware of it. Avoidance and lack of responsibility for own inner world.

Psyche: The totality of an individual's psychological system which includes both the conscious and the unconscious.

Psychic: Of or referring to the psyche.

Puer: Latin for boy. Jung originally used the term to describe a man so attached to the mother's energy that he was unable to individuate and become an independent person. We use the term as a description of our contemporary obsession with youth.

Puella: Latin for girl. Somewhat similar to the archetype of the Puer. We use the archetype to describe the 'beauty' complex that many women have fallen prey to today.

Quaternity: Four-fold image of wholeness. Another way to represent the Self. In Jung's view it contains both the shadow and the light, conscious and unconscious together.

Self: Jung's term for the archetypal image of God as represented by symbols of wholeness, e.g. the mandala, UFO, etc.

Shadow: Jung's term for all the repudiated traits of personality which we consciously reject about ourselves and therefore ignore of. Also known as the Personal Unconscious.

Symbol: An object that communicates and bridges the gap between the conscious and unconscious. Symbols open up reflection.

Synchronicity: A simultaneous, acausal connection between two seemingly unrelated and random events.

Unconscious: The part of the psyche that lacks consciousness and is a repository for all future consciousness. Home of all the instinctual drives.

Uroboros: The image of the serpent swallowing it's own tail is a metaphor for the eternal cycle of death and rebirth.

Will: Ego strength and stability. Indicates some amount of control over the instincts.

Wise Old Man: The archetype of wisdom and integrated psychic experience. Most balanced aspect of central core archetype of Logos.

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