Archetype of the Apocalypse: A Deficit of Consciousness

We are living through a critical time; a deficit of consciousness and juncture that leads us ever closer to the edge of environmental catastrophe. We hear daily of new catastrophes taking place all over the world, and in state after state, or close-in within our own neighborhoods. We are drowning in flood water, leveled by fires, and our food and water supplies are already endangered in many parts of the world. Today I heard a PBS report on the California central valley that has been dramatically sinking due to a century of exploitive water extraction since the gold rush.

We may feel our inner alarm signals going off repeatedly as eccentric, unpredictable weather patterns become normal. Our planet is under siege. We know coral reefs, animals, forests, parklands — all living entities are threatened.

Overcoming a Deficit of Consciousness

This post is not about substantiating data points. It does not focus on climate evidence, carbon levels, scientific validation for climate change/global warming/the greenhouse effect, but rather speaks to our human deficit of consciousness. This post is about inciting the collective push toward consciousness. That collective push necessitates staying in contact with reality so as to sustain an experience of the wrenching pain of our situation. Can we feel our degrading habitat? We witness displacement, our parched soil recently pictured in East Indian deserts, dehydrated from an absence of water.

By now are you feeling numb after reading these first two paragraphs? Likely — as it is challenging to sustain consciousness for very long in the presence of this crushing crisis that feels too demoralizing to even begin to make a dent in its magnitude.

The lens of this post is inspired by an article in the Jung Journal entitled The Alchemy of Catastrophe, by Jungian Analyst Patricia Damery (2018).  As she hikes Bryce Canyon, its deep steep-sided valleys with layers of red rock and dissolving hoodoo rock formations that mimic the human form, the article is complemented by photographs revealing majestic green trees against burnt red geological layers, with a stunning backdrop of blue and white big skies.  A natural site exhibiting its miracles for all to revere.

Jung felt that with our “dominion over” nature we have lost our spiritual wisdom and become cruel, mean and heartless masters over each other and our environment. Dr. Damery poses a challenge: how do we “grow soul” at a time when we have lost our capacity to listen to the earth, to be in relationship with it in a way that we can hear its wisdom rather than dominate, abuse, exploit, and willfully exterminate our delicate, fragile ecosystem while acting out a collective suicidal despondency of inaction. We can apply the psychological term for the defense of denial — a way to block reality by denying it.

Psychological Meaning of Apocalypse

In this article, Dr. Damery references Edinger’s book, Archetype of the Apocalypse: A Jungian Study of the Book of Revelation, that defines the psychological meaning of apocalypse as ‘the momentous event of the coming of the Self into conscious realization,’ involving the ‘shattering of the world as it has been, followed by its reconstitution.’ (Edinger 1999, 5) This process can occur individually through health crises, profound loss and grief, displacement, loss of employment, etc., resulting in a personal reconstitution. Edinger is suggesting this apocalypse in the collective space can also create a reconstitution.  The reconstitution demands a process that shifts us from an egocentric focus to one centered on the wholeness of Self, of Earth, of the Universe. This shift represents a movement from individuation, seen as a personal act of transformation within, to a global expansion on the collective level. (26)

She notes Edinger’s interpretation of The Book of Revelation as a critical one and potentially positive in that “…although it is important we each do our work, there are levels of development, and only a few — a critical mass — need reach a certain level of consciousness in order for the collective shift to occur. Now more than ever, what we do individually affects the whole. If enough people understand, internalize, and take responsibility for our destructive aspects, the worst of the external catastrophe may be softened.” (26-27) Can we “… suffer the realization of what we have done to the earth, to each other and ourselves and internalize its meaning — in time?” (27)

I believe the beginnings of a critical mass is forming, a conscious shifting making its way forward. The farmers tilling in city plots, the culture of ceremonial tree planting, activism on many fronts, in many states and international bodies determined to stem the rising tide; each individual choice indicating a lower carbon footprint through embodiment of a non-consumptive attitude, and further sacrifices/freedom we can all commit to,  create the push toward a collective shift in consciousness.

Conscious Shifting

Can we embrace the roar descending on all of us to move to a higher plane of consciousness; to overcome our deficit of consciousness and become collective healers of individual and community pain; can we listen to our individual suffering; can we respond to each other with heart rather than defense? Can we make changes NOW in our lives?

Pain is a gift and it breaks us down, allowing us to drop to our knees in prayer as if that is all we have left to do. In those moments, we have a chance to soften into our hearts and become one with all that lives and all who have passed. Be with the earth and stones, the grasses and the pulsating alive trees busy connecting underground as they reach out to each other, an alive network, a tree community if you will, doing their part for our planet as they process light energy, remove carbon dioxide, while storing it in their living tissues.

Like the trees connecting their roots in community, hidden secretly underground; in truth, like all living creatures, we are one and we simply lack contact and consciousness to sustain this awareness except in extremely awakened times. Can we cultivate resonance so we can hear the abiding hum and see the light of the universe pulsating like an aura around each of us?

As Thich Nat Hanh offered: walk softly, delicately, with gentleness on the earth as you breathe easily one breath after the other. We can do this! Every day, walk lightly, feel your steps, not as rapid intense, hurried anxious walking or dominating pounding, but rather gentle steps that reflect your consciousness of walking on our earth. Listen carefully to each and every sound surrounding you: bird songs, breezes, silence, see with clear eyes: all colors, shapes, and forms. Discover and embody your state of reverence and your specific prayer that joins us to each other in the collective experience of our reverence for our planet and all its inhabitants.

“Winter 2018 / Vol. 18, No. 1.” Education Next, 2018, www.educationnext.org/journal/winter-2018-vol-18-no-1/.