09-05-2009, 11:48 AM
Jan Klimkowski Wrote:I have the utmost respect for anyone who lives a truly moral life. My problem is that whilst morality and religion should go hand in hand, they frequently do not.
And religion is routinely used to justify the most immoral of acts.
As an example, who uttered the notorious words "Kill them all, God will know His own!"
Was it an imam? A Buddhist monk? A Hindu priest or brahmin? A rabbi?
In fact, it was Arnaud Amalric, a Cistercian monk, and the seventeenth abbot of Cîteaux.
Amen.
The worst human excesses can, and have been, channeled through the the religious instinct. It is an easy "lens" to manipulate of course, and thus becomes the ruling house of the Shadow.
However, reducing the Archetype of religion with the actual history of religion denudes the essential meaning of the myth. But the religious mythos is incredibly important for the individual. If channeled with care and with the right purpose in mind.
As Jung said in Memories, Dreams, Reflections:
Quote:As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. It may even be assumed that just as the unconscious affects us, so the increase in our consciousness affects the unconscious. [p. 326]
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14