Therapist Unlimited Blog

Written by: Eric Bryant of Gnosis Arts

The Self is, to use a Jungian concept, an archetype hidden within the collective unconscious. It is the original concept, ideal form, or the God-created prototype of the unified personality.

As more and more of the personal unconscious is known to the conscious mind (Freud’s ego) this unconscious is united with, integrated with, or absorbed into the conscious mind. The Self is produced as a result of this absorption or unification.

Thus, the Self is the unity of the unconscious and conscious soul of a person. This unity is realized as the unconscious is made aware; the unconscious is thereby integrated (or harmonized) with the conscious mind. This is what both Freud and Jung termed the process of individuation.

Individuation means becoming a Self. It is what Nietzsche meant by his injunction to “become who you are.” To use Freudian lingo, individuation is the process of integrating “the it” (id) with “the I” (ego).

The archetype of the Self is symbolized by a circle, square, or mandala. The mandala is a religious symbol from Hindu spirituality. It is a geometric pattern which represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically, “a microcosm of the universe from a human perspective.” Another example of a mandala is the yin-yan symbol of Taoism. The yin-yan represents an integrated soul as well as an integrated cosmos. In fact, the term Self appears frequently in the I Ching–an essential taoist text–to describe this authentic, integrated, or unified soul.

All this can also be expressed in ancient Gnostic terms. The Self emerges as more of the personal unconscious becomes known. That is, as the “light” shines upon the dark unconscious, it is absorbed into the conscious; the Self is the by-product of this light shining in darkness.

But according to the gnostics, this light is divine in nature. It could be viewed as the spirit of man which serves as the Lord’s lamp to illumine his inner being (see Proverbs 20:27). As the spirit–the Lord’s lamp, the divine light, or the imago Dei within–shines within the darkness of the personal unconscious, this unconscious is integrated with the conscious part of the soul; the Self supervenes.

For gnostics, knowledge of this Self is synonymous with knowledge of God. In fact, for some gnostics, God is this very supervenient Self (cf. Jung’s identification of the “Self” with the “God-image” within). And since knowledge of Self is contingent upon knowledge of the unconscious (or small self), knowledge of the small self is the path towards knowledge of the God within.

This, for gnostics, is the process of salvation, which for them meant the liberation of the conscious soul from the overpowering, self-destructive forces of the unconscious. Interestingly, the word “salvation” in Greek (sozo) connotes both the idea of “being delivered from evil” and “being made whole.” Thus salvation for the gnostics could be understood as “finding one’s Self through knowing one’s self.”