"Belief sloshes around in the firmament like lumps of clay spiralling into a potter's wheel. That's how gods get created, for example. They clearly must be created by their own believers, because a brief resume of the lives of most gods suggests that their origins certainly couldn't be divine. They tend to do exactly the things people would do if only they could, especially when it comes to nymphs, golden showers, and the smiting of your enemies."
—Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man
"That is the way it is in the world—men make gods and worship their creation. It would be fitting for the gods to worship men!"
—Gospel of Philip
"I am human. I consider nothing human alien to me."
—Terence
Around the turn of the twentieth century, societal alienation had become a big issue. We're talking the era of Nietzsche and 'God is Dead.' Midway into the 1910s, the first World War begins and humanity gets our first taste of modern, brutal warfare on a mass scale and how horrifying it can be. We're also right around the time of early psychology, which had been growing before the War.
Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud met for the first time in 1907, after a correspondence; contrary to the casual reader's perception of the two as having a sort of 'mentor-student' relationship, Jung was an independent practitioner who came from a psychological background of his own. Their relationship isn't something that really needs to be discussed here, though it is a fascinating subject.
One of the things Jung noticed in his patients was the prior-mentioned sense of societal alienation. This occurred prior to the War, but of course it was exacerbated by the number of people haunted by 'shell shock' or, as we call it today, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Jung had all sorts of interesting theories, but over time he came to notice that people were leading unfulfilling lives. Factory work is not fulfilling; religion and the rites associated with it, like prayer, no longer had the effect they once had in easing people's troubles and providing a sense of community—something akin to the Third Stage of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Nietzsche's 'God is Dead,' had something to do with this and kinda sums up a bit of this apathetic attitude; the First World War plays a role as well, because seeing that level of mass, meaningless death and destruction haunted Europeans in particular. (In the US, at least in my school, we more discussed the Roaring Twenties, expatriate authors, flappers, and kinda skimmed FDR to avoid pissing off conservative parents [I remember my folks pissed we didn't focus enough on Reagan] so, you know, fun superficial trivia night shit to avoid deep discussion/controversy > important history).
In the end, interestingly, Jung and Nietzsche come to roughly similar conclusions. One arguably approached it more positively, the other more negatively; perhaps this accounts for why one man spent the rest of his life treating patients for their ill minds and the other spent the last eleven years of his life in an institution after losing his mind.
“The doctor is effective only when he himself is affected. Only the wounded physician heals.”
—Carl Jung
In Nietzsche's view, the "ubermensch" went through a three-stage process: first, one grew up as a Camel. This involved taking on the yoke and responsibilities assigned by others, slotting into society and finding one's place within it. This can be compared to the First Half of Life in Jung's psychology: a person develops a healthy ego through accomplishments and finding ones place in society via employment, social ties, etc. In the end, this allows one to create a Persona for day-to-day life.
Next comes the Lion stage: that is, throwing off the burdens put upon one by society. Nietzsche's comparison is, characteristically, a bit more physical than Jung's in conjuring up an image of a lion ripping and tearing up the burdens of the Camel. Again, it corresponds to Jung's Second Half of Life: we realize that it's fine being successful in society, but it doesn't satisfy us at a deeper level—we want a deeper sense of purpose.
At the end of this process, Nietzsche believes one becomes liberated, a Child who is innocent of the burdens of the camel and the ferocity of the lion. In this form, one can feel free to find meaning in life—which, despite the nazis trying to take over the word 'ubermensch' was more about making good art and living a fulfilling life than trying to genocide the brunt of the world population.
In Jung's philosophy, a similar process can be seen in the ongoing process of individuation: that is, reconciling the conscious and unconscious selves. This is not an endgame, as personal growth is an ever-ongoing process. Note this process of Individuation is not exactly a smooth, easy, happy road: Jung himself described it as "a crucifixion of the ego, its agonizing suspension between irreconcilable opposites."
But that's philosophy. Where does religion slot in here?
Borrowing from Edward Edinger, a Jungian analyst: "Religion of the community carries the self-projection of each individual ego."
Well, great, that's meaningless. Let's speak English.
Tying back to individuation: the idea is to slowly come to terms with our 'Ideal Self,' or who we wish we were at our most perfect state. (Well, actually, the idea is to open an ongoing connection between the unconscious and the conscious Self in order to reconcile the two: you have, say, a troubling dream, analyze the unconscious imagery, understand its meaning, adjust your behavior by 'Integrating' it into your life, and go back to being at peace—you see hungry people, dream of starving, and the next time you see someone hungry, you make an effort to help them get food; this allows you to sleep more peacefully because you are actively working to improve the circumstances you find distressing. This process is called Integration: thanks to an open connection/dialogue between your your conscious/unconscious).*
This Ideal version of ourself is often trapped in what is called our unconscious "Shadow"—which, in Jungian psychology, can be both good and bad. The Shadow is simply the aspects of ourself that we are ignorant of: it could be our anger, or it could be our compassion, it's whatever we repress because it doesn't align with our Persona, or how we present ourselves to the public.
So, in this Shadow, people can have unconscious thoughts of what their Ideal Self would do—but see it instead as what a God would do. See Pratchett's quote at the start: given the opportunity, Gods tend to do the same sort of things we wish we could. And now, we're not even in an era of gods: superheroes might be a better analogy here, given the amount of oddball wish fulfillment that goes into those movies.
What makes the religion/deity of a community is, therefore, where a community's values and beliefs all overlap on a Venn Diagram.
Religions, Jung noted, also draw on Great Individuals: Buddha, Orpheus, Moses, Zarathustra, Jesus, Mani, Mohammed, etc. A Great Individual is someone who fills an archetypical role for culture and large groups of people, and they tap into a part of the collective unconscious (as opposed to the individual unconscious—the collective is more comparable to 'ancestral memory,' or, in some cases, akin to the 'instinct' newly-hatched turtles have to go to water despite being alone).
(This can be done by embodying the values of a society, either consciously or unconsciously—I'd point to the Milgram experiment's findings here when it comes to obedience to authority; just swap out the lab coat for whatever the profession of choice is right now. With the amount of nationalism we've had pumped into our veins over the last twenty years, it'd probably be a military uniform instead of a lab coat).
Great, of course, is a subjective term; it can mean good as much as terrible. The brighter the light, the larger the shadow it can cast.
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
—Kurt Vonnegut
Great Individuals become Symbols of Power—but Symbols lose power over time. So do people: when standards of living go up, we go from grateful for the increase to it becoming the New Normal, then we're dissatisfied all over again; when I'm further and further along into sobriety, it's easier to forget how brutal hangovers are given my liver has a lot in common with Dresden after the firebombing. The more distant a memory, the easier it is to repeat that mistake.
For example, we've got people who doubt the Holocaust despite all the evidence. Per Korda's biography of Ike, he was so horrified when he first came across the concentration camps he immediately called for documentation. He did not believe that, without proof, people would be able to believe the enormity of the horrors that had been found. It needed to be documented so that people could never do it again.
Hell, even with that, some of the things done are unimaginable: pillows with human hair, fillings and false teeth ripped out to be boiled down for its base valuable metals, lampshades and suitcases made out of human skin turned to leather... when some moldy shithead pitches out his ideas involving the Matrix or biodiesel. Suddenly, they don't seem that joking, do they? Once the standards drop and the dehumanization continues...
And yet, we've got fascism on the rise, again less than a century later. We've still got survivors who can tell us about those times. We have the pictures. And as of tomorrow, the incoming president plans to start ripping families apart and throwing them in camps. We haven't figured out what to do in the interim, after all.
Symbols fade. People are cold and callous. And Jesus died a long time ago. And, anyway, Jesus is a libcuck loser, right?
All hail the Gospel of Supply-Side Jesus, Huey Lewis got a new drug, and we got a new god, right?
In both Jung and Nietzsche's philosophies, the idea was that through a process of learning, we would become capable of forming a moral system of our own. That we had developed from people who needed to be told laws from on-high to people who could reason for ourselves what right and wrong were.
Given who we've chosen to put in power time and again, I question that conclusion.
I do agree that the old methods of religion don't seem to be working—people no longer seem to find the same solace and support in Church as they used to. And, frankly, churches have been perverted from their purpose. But compassion and all those Christian ideals are out of style now.
Learned a bit more about that last night watching a video of a trans woman passing as male to record a hate church and hear the vile things said about trans people there. Talking about having a Wall like The Handmaid's Tale, with people hung from hooks and put on display—well, why should I describe it when you can look for yourself? Here's an article and here's her video. The teachings of Jesus are out of style in Christianity and that, unfortunately, is the uglier side of my home state.
And it's been out of style for a long time. "Humanism" and things like "compassion" are demonized as Satanic—and sure, the actual Satanic Temple has had a field day poking fun at how stupid that is by having a set of tenets that is very respectable—but geez, you go to a "Christian" church and you leave to hear something memorable like my mom saying, on the way back from that church my half-sister's friend's husband used to run out of AMC theaters, "I'm glad they don't tell us to accept the gays and the trans."
(Why yes, this was around the same time my English teacher acknowledged being gay and after I was already tackling this life-changing booklist. Same teacher who told us he originally wanted to study in a seminary, but he couldn't talk about his conflicted feelings about his sexuality with any of the other students or the guy in charge; after continual anti-LGBTQ drilling, he chose to drop out altogether. Around the same time churches were so cool with kicking out men who wanted to have consensual adult relationships with other men, they were, of course, covering up the ACTUAL, SERIOUS crimes committed on altar boys by priests).**
Thoughts like that make me pretty sure if Jesus went to church today, decent chance it'd be a Satanic one. Assuming he wasn't profiled and shot on the way.
Anyway, I'll end with: since people create gods in their own image rather than vice-versa, then what can we expect from the cultural God of overlapping values and belief systems the right-wing is building with their culture of banning books, greed, and attacking the downtrodden while embracing monarchism and brutality, combined with a rejection of compassion and rational thinking as "woke"?
And this, from a track I've quoted before: Peacekeeper:
"You know all of our friends are Gods,
And they all tell us how to paint our face;
But there's only one brush we need,
It's the one that never leaves a trace..."
—
*"Conversations with the soul," I believe was the term Jung used and is another way to view an ongoing dialogue between the Conscious and Unconscious. I touched tangentially on this in an earlier post about Dennis Wilson, alluding to such an idea in the form of the song 'Constant Companion,' as well as in Socrates and his Daemon, Mani and his Divine Twin, and Jung and Philemon.
**From Reaganland, discussing just how abhorrent homophobia became in the late-seventies; this was a wedge issue that conservatives in the Reagan era in particular loved to bring up in order to "Other-ize" the LGBTQ community. We still see it happening today with the right-wing's full-fledged assault on gay rights:
"A New York Times feature on [Jerry] Falwell, for instance, noted how he was 'sunburned from visits to refugee camps in Thailand last week.' They neglected to share more unsavory elements of his appeal.
He was back on tour with his multimedia revue. At Trinity Christian Academy, in Jacksonville, Florida, a teacher was so riled up after Falwell's preachments about the dangers of homosexuality that he told his class, 'In my day, we knew how to deal with faggots.... We knocked a guy's head into the side of a fountain! He was bleeding like a squashed tomato.' When a student complained to another teacher about tis un-Christlike utterance, the concern turned on him, not the teacher: 'Are you thinking of turning gay, Dwayne? A gay person cannot be saved.'"
This would've been the same era Harvey Milk was gunned down by nutcase Dan White in cold blood (White was fully aware of his actions and rooted on by police officers after his double murder; this is the era in which Dianne Feinstein rose to prominence. It was also the era in which a group of butch lesbians, sick of bigoted cops, put several dozen in the hospital).
—On a parting shot, great work to all the MAGA moms out there.
When I grew up, girls got told they could be astronauts or lawyers or professors or engineers—anything they wanted to be!
Now, you can point to the president who used to talk about how big his baby daughter's tits would grow to or how nice her legs would be and say, "Look, honey, if you grow up to be enough of a bimbo, you might be able to strip for the president one day!"
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