Lecture 3
Psychology and Kundalini: Lecture 3
•
Jung begins this lecture by making an interesting parallel between the first four chakras and the four elements (earth, water, fire, air).
He remarks, “so one can see the whole thing as a sort of transformation of elements, with the increase of volatility - of volatile substance.”
From here, we go beyond the elements, into the ether.
Throat Chakra - Visuddha (Blue)
Definition: “the cleansed one or cleansing.”
Psychology: “One reaches a sphere of abstraction. There one steps beyond the empirical world, as it were, and lands into a world on concepts; the reality we reach there is a psychical reality…it is a world of psychical substance. Another point of view would be of climbing out of gross matter to a subtle, psychical matter.”
To gain a further understanding into the transition from the lower four chakras to this fifth energy center (or state of consciousness), we must take a closer look at the previous chakras.
From Physical Matter to Psychical Matter
This is a bit “alchemical” but bare with me. After we have been born into the earth (1st chakra) and have been “baptised” in the waters of the second chakra, we must cook up and digest material (emotions and passions) that arise in the third chakra. Through this process, a new element (air) may arise in the fourth chakra. This element, air, resemble feelings and thoughts (the psyche) which are psychical matter.
Jung remarks, “the heart is characteristic of feeling, and the air is characteristic of thought.”
So, in this process we notice how in the 4th chakra (anahāta) psychological matter begins to truly take shape.
“This chakra is truly the center where psychical things begin, the recognition of values and ideas”
As one rises through the chakras, one psychologically develops towards wholeness. An additional world is now accepted, one outside the visible and physical. This 4th chakra, with the experience gained through the previous three, provides Truth to the matter of your mind.
“This is the first inkling of a being within your psychological existence that is not yourself - a being in which you are contained, which is greater and more important than you but which has an entirely psychical existence.
While this battle through the lower three chakras unlocks the psychic world within the fourth, it isn’t until the 5th chakra (visuddha) is reached when this new world is truly accepted.
“We already have a more farsighted view in anahāta; we become aware of the purusa, but we do not yet trust the security of psychical existence, so we have not reached visuddha. We have not yet found the bridge between the ideas of physics and psychology.”
The reason for this breakdown is to grasp psychologically what is occurring throughout each chakra. It is, again, a structure of reaching higher levels of energy or consciousness. Psychologically, we see this rise towards a psychic world. A world difficult to describe.
“The concept of the atom might be considered as corresponding to the abstract thinking of the visuddha center. For visuddha means just as I said: a full recognition of the psychical essences or substances as the fundamental essences of the world, and by virtue not of spectuation but of fact, namely as experience.”
In regards the final two chakras, “It does not help to speculate about ajna and sahasrara and God knows what; you can reflect upon those things.”
Animal Symbolism in the First Four Chakras
In order to get a better glimpse at the chakras through their symbolism, Jung breaks down the animal symbols related to the first four chakras. Specifically, the focus is held in on the elephant, as it is the first symbol. While it is not a complete chakra breakdown, we can understand the progressions through each chakra.
•
Mūlādhāra: Elephant
“that supports the earth, meaning that tremendous urge which supports human consciousness, the power that forces us to build such a conscious world. It means the force of consciousness, the power of will, and the ability to do what one wants to do.”
Svādhisthāna: Makara or Leviathan
“what is the elephant on the surface of the world is the leviathan in the depths - these are the same animal: the power that forces you into consciousness and sustains you in your conscious world proves to be the worst enemy when you come to the makara or leviathan.”
Manipūra: Ram
“is the sacred symbol of Agni, the god of fire, and the ram, Aries, is the domicilium of Mars, the fiery planet of passions, impulsiveness, rashness, violence, and so on - it is again the elephant but in new form; it is now a sacrificial animal, and it is a relatively small sacrifice, not the great sacrifice of the bull but a smaller sacrifice of the passions. You have overcome the worst danger when you are aware of your fundamental desires or passions,”
Anahāta: Gazelle
“it is shy and and elusive, it vanishes in no time. It is an animal of earth, but it is almost liberated from the power of gravity - such an animal would be apt to symbolize the force, the efficiency, and the lightness of psychical substance - thought and feelings.”
A Psychological Summary of the Chakra Journey
Jung breaks down a system of transformation within the chakra journey to make a connection to the functioning mind.
“So crossing-over from the manipūra to the anahāta is really very difficult. The recognition that the psyche is a self-moving thing, something genuine and not yourself, is exceedingly difficult to see and to admit. In your consciousness everything is as you have put it, but then you discover that you are not the master in your own house, you are not living alone in your own room, and there are spooks about that play havoc on your realities. But if you understand it rightly, and as tantric yoga shows you, this recognition of the psychogenic factor is merely the first recognition of the purusa.”
We continue to the final Lecture next.
