On Divination & Synchronicity: The Psychology of Meaningful Chance by Marie-Louise von Franz

Author:Marie-Louise von Franz
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 7.

Excited points (archetypes) in field. The I Ching like a network of an electrical circuit.

Calculating with a whole block of numbers arranged in a certain field has only come into use in Western mathematics with the discovery by the French mathematician, Evariste Galois, of the so-called Galois field, the idea by which one mutates or permutates a group of usually four numbers. These Galois fields are used nowadays in computer and many other forms of mathematics. The idea of matrices or of such number fields, as one could call them, has more and more invaded modern mathematics. The Chinese were familiar with them but never developed them, although in some basic forms they used these matrices in their calculations from the beginning. This would correspond to the archetypal idea of the field. One could call it a field arrangement of numbers, and the concept of the field invades practically all branches of science nowadays.

For instance, in modern geometry one defines space as a manifoldness in which one can define neighbouring relations. That is the modern mathematical definition of the field, and Lancelot L. Whyte gives a general definition of the idea of field in the natural sciences when he says that it is a network of relations in every situation; i.e., in every situation there is an acting network of relations. For example, on the level of elementary particles the field consists of the tendency to take on certain ordered positions, not to move at random but to arrange themselves in a certain order. This field, as Whyte points out, is not only a conceptual framework but an active factor: an electro-dynamic field arranges the particles and actively creates order. It can naturally best be mathematically described by a matrix.

I want now to introduce a new idea, which Jung has not used, but which I think obviously lies to hand, namely that we introduce the idea or the concept of field to explore what Jung calls the collective unconscious, a field in which the archetype would be the single activated point. Wheeler, for instance, defines matter as an electro-dynamic field in which the particles are the excited points. Now I propose to use the hypothesis that the collective unconscious is a field of psychic energy, the excited points of which are the archetypes, and just as one can define neighbourhood relationships in a physical field, so one can define neighbourhood relationships in the field of the collective unconscious.

I will give an example. Let's take the archetype of the world tree no, the Great Mother, the two are very often connected. For instance, in the tomb of the Egyptian king, Sethos the First, there is a world tree and on its trunk it has a breast from which the king drinks; he drinks literally from the breast of the world tree. The tree represents the cosmic mother who nourishes the king. Or, for instance, there are many sagas that the souls of unborn children live under the leaves of the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.