Become Enlightened or Brave Enough

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious.” C. G. Jung

So, The Red Book was a disappointment, but Jung’s writings continue to intrigue me. What he says above is quite controversial really. What is imagining a figure of light? And if one does not become enlightened this way, how does one make the darkness conscious? I would propose, that it is often through imagining figures of light that we do indeed create lanterns for ourselves by which to make the darkness conscious.

It is easy to see the dark side of figures of light, and how people can internalize destructive religious based schemas and distort messages of light, and so for Jung, perhaps easy to discredit what he called ‘figures of light.’ It is easy for new agers, even now, to latch onto their own figures of light, and not realize them for what they are, systems for understanding chaos and uncertainty.

In order for the darkness to become conscious, we need to see the darkness, to bring it into our realm of vision, and to see the need for this to become a welcomed part of self. Oftentimes, it takes another to see our darkness, to be ok with it, in order for us to also embrace this darkness. Perhaps then, the darkness is not blackness, not emptiness, but gradient dark shades of color, deep plum, dark grey, intense blue, like the water in the lake on an overcast day.

Who is brave enough to face the darkness? Oftentimes it is those who carry a God figure as a lantern. Is this God figure imagined? Constructed? Learned through sacred texts? Does it matter? I would propose that as long as the figure of light, is indeed a figure of light, of security, of hope, of compassion, that this figure could prove a strong talisman on the journey into darkness, and it is this light, which cast upon the darkness, will show that truly, the darkness is not empty and dark, but a myriad of tones, of which without, our lives would be only less contextual and rich.