I4O
MAGIc AND THE QABALAH
life is so constricted by this mental attitude that its course is deflected and various forms of mental illness appear. The most spectacular of these is extreme mental dissociation such as that already referred to in the case of Evelyn Lancaster, but very many lesser forms oimental ill-health abound on every side of us. one of the ways in which the libido reacts to such inner conflicts is to withdraw into the depths of the personality. This means that the conscious self is deprived of much of the vital force which it needs, and becomes impotent in the affairs of life; fighting where it should be diplomatic, being diplomatic where it should be fighting, and at the same time unable to c-arry any such attitude to the point where it could really be of use. But the regression ofthe libido into the unconscious depths causes it to bring ce{sin healing power to bear, and when the latent energies become sufficienfly strong, they may emerge into the field of the conicious mind. Such an eruption of the unconscious can, when properly directed, break down much of the rigidity of the conscious seli and enable the person concerned to make new adjustments to outside circumstances. so it will be seen that tlere is a certain rhythm in the working of the lifeforce. There
is a period of progression, then a period ol regression, and this enantiodromia. as it was termed by Heraclitus, is a normal action of the mind.. But trouble begins when the mind sticks too strongly to either pole of activity. Now there are many things in the unconscious levels which relate to the early primitive attitudes to life, and there are very many experiences in conscious life which are distasteful and repugnant to the individual. These tend 0o be thrust down by the 'tensor" beneath the threshold of consciousness, and so are prevented from being manifested in conscious thought, word and deed. Such inhibition is a normal and necessary activity of the mind. The trouble arises when the conscious self adopts an attitude of 'All these things are below me , and I am not responsibti for them. Neither do I allow such thoughts and feelings in myself, I have put them out of my mind.',
I,llfortgnately, although such primitive outlooks may have been put out of sight, they are anything but 'but of mind". They attract to themselves some of the inflorving psychical energy and are, as it were, a .,resistance pocket".in tle personality, constantly at war with the waking self, and constantly attempting to rise up into, and influence, the waking ionsciousness. In the waking life these att€mpts usually show themselves as irrational words or actions, for which there appears to be no apparent reason. But^it in the sleep state that these buried complexes are ible to emerge is more fully, just as, in our "resistance pocket" analogy, its members weie able to operate more freely in the night. So in the dream-life of the
MODERN PSYCHOLOGY
l4t
individual these imprisoned "things" emerge into the waking con_ sciorrsness in the symbolic form of dreams. tn their true form th'"y unable to pass the censor, but in symbolic disguise they can get by and"re so emerge on to the conscious levels. Both Freud and Jung oeuetopeo a t€chnique of dream analysis which would enable them ti discover the
nature of the hidden complexes which were causing the neurotic troubles of their patients. This, together with the method of .7free association'f was leld by many of the early psycho-analysts to be sufficient to effect a cure.
Jung, however, not satisfied with thii, held that it was not sufficient to relieve the blocked waters ofthe emotional complex by breaking downthe psychic dam which had confined them. It was also nl.esr"ryio cut new channels and redirect the incoming libido in such a *uy thut t ttn", trouble of that kind could be avoided. Another characteristic teaching of Jung is that men and women may be classified with two main types, the outward-turning and the inwardturning, the extrovert and the introvert. pure types aie rare and human personalities can generally be classified undir one or otler of these headings- Bothtypes are representative of normal attitudes to life, but both can develop a form of mental disease when they are carried to extremes by a desire to escape from the stress and strain ofthe realities oflife. In the dreams of both types there occur cefiain symbols which, on investigation, turn out to be symbols which were coniciously employed in the childhood of mankind, or even, for that matter, in .o-p"ritiJeiy recent human-history though to the average person they are usually unknown._Such symbols-appear to be uery dat iources of energy withiir the self. They are lermed.'h_rchetypes,', and are held to Ue of tfr! gr;;s; importance, since they indicate the direction in which ttre tiuido is attempting to flow When such symbols appear in a composite form, then we havg a glyph, or "mandala". A glyph ias been defined as the coat of arms of the forces being dealt with, andlt is a normal activity of the human personality !o build up such glyphs. In neurotic and psychop-athic subjects, such glyp-hs appear in the dream state, or arise-spontineously i"n the yaking life, and they indicate the nature of the forces which are concerned
in the neurosis. _ Y!"o
we study the Tree of Life, which is a very ancient mandala, we
find that it conforms very closery to the Jungian ioncepts, or should we ratler say that the teachings ofthe school oTJung are very close to the
ancient teachings? There are other teachings of the zurichpsychologist which cannot be touched upon here, since they would take up too mrictr of our space, but ma1 b9 said that they are capable of being ,.placed on *re free',, is., it ^ they fit into the scheme of thamighry glypfi.