The Archetype of the Search for Self
(The Night Journey)
Tony Crisp
Each of us are constantly gathering information about who we are, what we are capable of and what the meaning of our life is. This is often put into an archetypal form in the great quest, or the great pilgrimage. See: first example under active imagination; third example under yoga and dreams. The search for God; the often extraordinary efforts people make to grow beyond the pain of childhood or adult trauma; the quest for knowledge when one truly tries to understand rather than simply remember facts; the artists attempts to go beyond themselves in creative acts; the spiritual quest for the imperishable - are all aspects of this search for self.
Throughout history we have examples of how such quests were lived out. Mohammed for instance, describes his massive breakthrough into what he felt was a cosmic revelation as The Night Journey, which occurred in a dream.
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Muhammad's Night Journey - British Musem |
In a sense, every dream is a part of this huge journey which is our life. Each dream is a facet of what is met in experiencing - meeting - our own existence. There are definitely highlights in our many dreams - times of critical and arduous difficulties, such as we find in the great quests such as Jason and The Golden Fleece, and the Odyssey. The journey is one we are all on, and our dreams and archetypal images are but ways of depicting aspects of what we meet, the enormity of the ordinary, the hidden depths of a problem we encounter, the wonder of possibilities awaiting discovery, the way into the trackless realm beyond collective norms. The journey is from dependence toward independence, from being a part of collective humanity to the actualisation of our own unique identity. This journey to oneself is, paradoxically, also the journey to the universal, to God. There are grand stages or points on the journey. Most of the great religions attempt to depict these stages, although there can never be a final definition. In Christian symbols for instance we have the annunciation, the divine birth, the recognition at the temple, the baptism, the teaching, the trial and crucifixion, the death and the resurrection, and finally the ascension. All of these depict psychological events in the process of meeting ones own depths. |
Example: I remember leaving someplace and embarking on a journey at night. I’m frightened but I want to make this journey. I approach a stream with a very narrow bridge. It’s dark and I’m afraid I may fall off the bridge. But to continue I must cross the bridge. R. This extract from R’s dream is typical of the starting of the process of uncovering ones own unconscious darkness and light - the beginning of the Night Journey. Example: My dream is of an endless journey, which takes a road that turns into a circle or maze that is endless. There is cloth covering the sides of the pathway. I have to take sticks of wood to try to lift it out of the way. J. P. |
Jung's image of the Self |
Our dreams often insist that the journey is everlasting, not even ending with death, but moving through the great cycles of the universe.
Only by making the journey can we find our own wholeness and our own place in life with any awareness.
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