I just love pictures, the more intereesting, beautiful and fascinating, the better. I am a very visual person, I see things as images and visualize them, for example when reading a book or thinking about mythological tales. I like very much to visualize things when meditating. Probably that is why I am so fascinated by the symbolism, especially the Jungian and Pagan. The pictures and images are so rich with meanings and tell you more things and subtleties than mere words ever could. And so I love to post pictures, be it on a blog, comment or e-mails to you. I wish you like them too.

Is not this picture beautiful? What does it bring into your minds? What does it mean to you? Images are so fascinating because they appeal to our unconsciousness. They remind us of important things, tell stories full of energy and meaning. They awaken our imagination and creativity, the unconscious vital and mystical Forces deep within our human being, the Self, the Spirit.

These are some examples of the Mandala symbolic image:

The Mandala represents the Self, the Inner Divinity, the Unity of the opposites. This is the most important journey, the inner journey, the individuation, the becoming the whole Self, the actualizaton of our inner potentials. Probably that is a reason why all the cultures everywhere and in all the times have made up these powerful images and why these images have become sacred and appeal us so strongly. The Mandala form, the squares which represent the Wholeness, and the circle emcompassing all, are considered to be protective too. The circle is the inner goal, our inner being, the inner sanctuary, the most important thing in all the life. The Mandala image represents all this.

The Mandala just above has some very familiar symbols, has it not? They all have inherent meaning and energy to our unconsciousness. That is why we are still using them, even in our rituals and ceremonies, and why they still work for us. These images and symbols are alive, they represent living arhetypal forces both in our inner collective unconscious and the Nature and the Universe.

This Lotus Mandala is very beautiful, is it not? I love this image the best. It is so whole, so peaceful.

I have currently reading a very interesting book by Doctor Carl Gustav Jung titled "The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious". It explains about the symbols and images found in the dreams, visions, paintings, writings and myths. These mythical and archetypal images are the personifications of our own inner unconscious potentials and forces. This is so interesting because the Jungian psychology can be well applied to the Neopagan philosophy, for example the Wicca. An author named Vivianne Crowley has studied and applied the Jungian psychology to the Wicca. She has written about it for example in her book "Principles of Jungian Spirituality". Unfortunately I have not yet been able to get that book to read.

The archetypes live their life in the many myths and mythological personifications, for example the Triple Deities and the life-cycle of the Sun God. In my opinion that is the reason why I am so much interested in the many myths, their appeal to my unsconscious arhetypes. The archetypes are the personifications of the Universal and Elemental Forces both in the Nature and inside us.

The most important thing in the many Neopagan philosophies is to get to know oneself as well as possible, the self-actualization. The same is in the Jungian psychology, the most important thing for a person is to become a whole Self through an individuation process. This means that a person gets in his/her disposal all his/her inner potentials. The Jungian Self may well be equated with the Inner Divinity, the gnostic True Will. The Self is a unity of all opposites, for example the Feminenity and the Masculinity. A very dramatic and fascinating metaphore for this is the union of the Goddess and God in the Great Rite. And the "Drawing down the Moon" and the "Drawing down the Sun" calls for the Goddess and God to become us, in the Jungian language it calls for our Self, the Inner Divinity, to manifest Itself. The Self is the Spirit, the Soul. "As above, so below" is an old and wise gnostic phrase.

The very important archetypes are the "anima" and "animus". The anima is the feminine side of a man and the animus a masculine side of a woman. They act as a bridge between the unconscious Self and the ordinary conscious ego. They are a messenger, an angel, "angelus", from the Divine Self to the consciousness. It is very important to assimilate the anima or animus to the ego-consciousness, to become whole. But these personifications are tricky, they are very apt to be projected into appropriate real persons. It means that a man very often sees his own femininety in certain women, and a woman her animus in men. This causes often problems in the relationships with the opposite sex. But as always is the case with the archetypes, they have both the good and bad side. And as always, there much to be gained by recognizing and assimilating the arhetype to the ego, may it at first seem as unfamiliar and strange and opposite as ever.

But to gain the advantage of the help of tha anima or animus, a person must first confront his or her Shadow, the dark and repressed side of the personality. The shadow corresponds to the Freud´s subconscious, the negative and unpleasant repressed traits of the personality. Usually the Shadow manifests itself as a human being of the same sex as the person. But I think that the many folk-tale monsters such as vampires and werewolves and such horrific beasts may very well represent the Shadow aspect in the human beings. In my opinion the Sith Lords of the Star Wars represent very well the Shadow. "Join the Dark Side." As there is the Light and the Dark Side of the Force, so there is also a light and a dark side of the personality. The Jedi may be said to represent the ego-consciousness or sometimes the Hero-archetype. But in order to become whole, one just has to recognize and accept and assimilate the Shadow into the ego-consciousness. This means to be psychologically healthy. Because the repressed things may often cause neuroses. Or more often and usually, the Shadow is projected into our neighbours as all the negative and bad things in humans in our mind. Jung argued that the Shadow-projection causes all kinds of prejudices and fights and strifes and even wars with whomever we deem our enemies, because it´s oh so very much easier to see in others the traits which really are inside and part of us.

I am quite fascinated by the animus-archetype, the masculine side of myself. But Jung being quite a sovinist he did not write much about this, he only refers to a book by Emma Jung titled "On the Nature of the Animus". Unfortunately I haven´t been able to get this book either, at least not yet. Not unexpectedly the anima fascinates many romantic poets, and I may say that the animus appears as a very popular dream lover and lover in the romantic women novels.

There are still many more interesting archetypal symbols and aspects to study and much to learn about and apply in the Jungian psychology. For example the symbols and images of the Tarot cards and the old alchemists and the Qabala, and of course the astrology.

And what about the homo- and bisexual? How are these archetypes to be interpreted and apply to their psychology? Jung being so old-fashioned did not say hardly anything about this.