DECEPTIVE MYTHIC PERSPECTIVES?
(Jungian Influence)
Fr. Jim Whalen
Many Christians have fallen into traps and been deceived by the New Age Movement (NAM). They have been influenced by a Jungian perspective on spirituality and psychology and teach others to do the same. The mythic perspectives of Carl G. Jung’s interpretation of Christian doctrine has led many into the NAM, accepting it in the larger pattern of archetypes of the collective unconscious. He treated Christian doctrines as psychological symbols. Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J., points out a prime example of Jung’s mandala archetype: his interpretation of “Pope Pius XII’s definition of the Assumption of the Blessed Trinity, with Mary as an additional fourth person of the Blessed Trinity” (Catholics and the New Age (1992) p. 46). His reasoning was that she brought a necessary feminine element for the mandala. The fact is that the Catholic Church cannot add anyone to God. We submit to the truths God reveals about Himself. The Catholic Church teaches that there are three persons in one God, which is historically and objectively true. Jung’s gnostic ideas brought him to Monism and Pantheism, making him a source of New Age thought with his concepts of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Three basic concepts underlie his interpretation of Christian doctrines: 1) Faith, a blind acceptance of doctrine, forestalls experience and blocks a believer from true psychological wholeness. 2) Personal experience of God, who has a dark side (God is the source of both good and evil) had to replace faith in dogma. 3) Archetypes provide the real knowledge of the world.
Jungian concept of God (Monism and Pantheism)
“Like every other being, I am a splinter of the infinite deity, but I cannot contrast myself with any animal, any plant or any stone” (Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections (1961) p. 210). Everything is one; and that oneness is God, so everything is God. Jung states that God arranged everything so that our first parents would have to sin: “Therefore it was God’s intention that they should sin”. (Ibid., p. 55). The teaching of the Catholic Church is clear: God reveals Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19): “There is only one God, the Almighty Father, His only Son, and the Holy Spirit: the Most Holy Trinity (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #233, p. 59).
Jungian concept of Jesus
“My attempt to bring analytical psychology into relation with Christianity ultimately led to the question of Christ as a psychological figure” (Ibid., p. 210). Jung saw Christ like Buddha, as one of many historical manifestations, a symbol rather than a Saviour, a psychological figure who represented the self, with different strengths and weaknesses. Jung took a mythical approach to Christ. He picked and chose the parts of Christ that fit into his system of thought and consciousness and neglected anything that did not fit. Jung’s astrological interpretation of Jesus’ birth is dominated by the conjunction of evil and good planets. Saturn, representing the evil side, and Jupiter the good side, meaning that Jesus is both good and evil. The Catholic Church teaches that Jesus never sinned: “Sin is not in Him” (1 Jn 3:5). “He did not sin” (1 Pet 2:22). Jesus is the only Son of the Father (Jn 1:14). “He is God Himself” (Jn 1:1). “He is the Son of God” (1 Jn 2:23). Christ is not a pattern. He is the second person of the Blessed Trinity.
Jungian concept of the Holy Spirit
“The Holy Ghost was a manifestation of the inconceivable God… who shares in strange and questionable qualities of God” (Ibid. p. 98). Jung refers here to a morally dark side of God, which is a definite distortion, claiming good and evil in God. Interpreting Catholic faith through the lens of Egyptian, Oriental, or Greek myths distorts the revelation given through Jesus Christ.
Jungian astrology
Jung’s fascination with astrology and the occult constitute a definite theme in his life and work. One third of North Americans believe in astrology today. Jung expounded on the Age of Aquarius explaining that a New Age begins every 2,160 years. He saw Christ in an Aquarian perspective. The main principle for Jung and astrologers is ‘above, so below’. Any event in the heavens affects earthly existence, as all reality is a single whole. Astrologers claim they can apply their knowledge of the laws and human personalities work to help discover one’s personality and future as part of the one whole world. The personal characteristics of each god - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, determines the kind of influence its planet has on a person. Christians should reject astrology for it is self-contradictory and irreconcilable with faith in God and the Bible. How can humans have free will if the stars determine their personality and future? Canon law prohibits divination, fortune telling, magic, witchcraft and delving into the supernatural. This includes astrology and enneagrams, a personality typing system with occult origins, which unfortunately, has grown popular with many Catholics. We must reject the use of Cabala; of medieval, Jewish, esotericism; the I- Ching, a Chinese divination tool; and the occult connection with the Arica training (Mitch Pacwa, S.J., Catholics and the New Age, 1992, p. 121). It was brought to the Western world by Oscar Ichazo in the 1960s. The non-Christian elements in the enneagram system show the need for great caution. “Test everything; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thes 5:20-21). When we test the enneagram, we use the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the norm by which we judge it.
Jesus Christ alone bestows eternal life. The goal of the enneagram is enlightenment. The goal of Christianity is our salvation. “Jesus promises to raise us from the dead and to glory if we are righteous, or to damnation if we turn from Him. This is the future God reveals to us in Christ, the life Christ died to offer us” (Pacwa, loc. cit. p. 124).
Jung’s Gnosticism
Jung believed his knowledge of the psyche (the collective unconscious and its archetypes) unlocked the real meaning of religion and personality. Jung was influenced by the gnostic thought of the alchemists as well as the Gnosticism of the pantheist Paracelsus, a Swiss physician and alchemist (1493-1541). His own words reveal his perspective: “Alchemy formed the bridge on the one hand into the past, to Gnosticism, and on the other into the future, to the modern psychology of the unconscious” (Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections, pp. 200-201). His dependence on his own inner experiences and gnostic ideas led him to treat Christian doctrines as psychological symbols, separating his philosophy from saving faith. Jung’s key omission is the need to relate to Jesus, which he rejects. He sees faith as a blind submission, a hindrance to individualization. For Christians, the opposite is the reality, the more closely we are united to God, through Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to become individuated. By our Baptism we are members of the body of Christ, His Church.
Excerpt: Christian reflection on New Age: Secularization of psychology
“Jung, indeed, …not only psychologized esotericism but he also sacralized psychology, by filling it with the contents of esoteric speculation. The result was a body of theories, which enabled people to talk about God while really meaning their own psyche, and about their own psyche while really meaning the divine. If the psyche is ‘mind’ and God is ‘mind’ as well, then to discuss one must mean to discuss the other” (W. J. Hanegraaff, p. 513). Jung’s response was “psychology is the modern myth and only in terms of the current myth can we understand the faith (T.M. King, S.J., Jung and Catholic Spirituality in America, 3 April, 1999, p. 14). It is true that Jung’s psychology sheds light on many aspects of the Christian faith, on the need to face the reality of evil, but his religious convictions are so different at different stages of his life that one is left with a confused image of God. A central theme in his thought is the cult of the sun, where God is the vital energy (libido) within a person (Hanegraaff, op. cit., p. 501) As he himself said, “this is no mere play of words” (Hanegraff, op. cit. p. 503). This is “the God within”, to which Jung refers the essential divinity he believed to be in every human being. The path to the inner universe is through the unconscious. The inner world’s correspondence to the outer one is in the collective unconscious (Pontifical Council for Culture, Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life, a Christian Reflection on the New Age, Rome, Feb. 3, 2003).
Summary
Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, states clearly that the New Age Movement is a new way of practicing Gnosticism, replacing God’s word with purely human words. The above research has shown that the NAM advocates various forms of Monism, Pantheism, Millenarianism and Relativism, which must all be rejected by Catholics. The slippery slope agenda that relativism advocates was made clear by Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae, in his warnings of the consequences of immorality, of rejecting God’s laws of human love and human life, and of ignoring objective truth. We have all witnessed to his prophetic teaching coming true: the rise of divorce, the breakdown of families, and the disrespect for human life. It is especially evident in the increase of promiscuity, contraception, abortion, sterilization, euthanasia as well as the increase in disordered sexuality, the abuse of women and children, homosexuality, and more recently the recognition of some governments of same-sex marriage by law.
Jung’s psychology has been researched and found to have sacralized psychology with esoteric perspective (occultism) by Rome in their Reflection on the New Age as well as other researchers. He psychologized esotericism (taste for or tendency to occultism) and has a very confused view of God, as his own words reveal. His position in regard to Gnosticism and Relativism has been repeatedly brought to light, and his acceptance as a source of New Age ideas and movements are widely recognized. Readers are encouraged to do their own research should they have any doubts about these findings. V
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Bibliography
1. Pontifical Council for Culture, Pontifical Culture for Inter-religious Dialogue, Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life - A Christian Reflection on the New Age, (Rome, Feb 3, 2003).
2. Wouter Hanegraaff, New Age Religion and Western Culture, (Leiden; New York : E.J. Brill, 1996).
3. Mitch Pacwa, S. J., Catholics and the New Age, (Ann Arbor, MI, Servant, 1992).
4. Pope John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, (Random House, N., 1994).
5. Pope John Paul II, Address to the U.S. Bishops “Ad Limina” Visit, May 28, 1993 (Iowa, Kansas. Missouri and Nebraska: L’Osservatore Romano).
6. Elliot Miller, A Crash Course on the New Age Movement, (Eastbourne, Monarch, 1989).
7. Randall Baer, Inside the New Age Nightmare, (Huntington House, 1989).
8. Archbishop Norberto Rivera Carrera, Pastoral Instruction on New Age, Mexico, 1996.
9. Thomas King, S.J., Jung and Catholic Spirituality in America, April 3, 1999.
10.Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections, (edited by Anelia Jaffe, Vintage Books, NY: Random House, 1965).
11. Carl Jung, Man and His Symbols, (London, Aldus books, in assoc. with W.H. Allen, 1964).