Page 27 - Ruminations

25. Mandala confusion

A conceptual muddle lies at the intersection of Jungian complexity
and logical simplicity: an improper use of symbols, both graphic and
linguistic. The phrase “symbol of completeness”, as used to refer to
mandalas in Jung’s psychological theory, is reification on the grand
scale.
This concept slides around in reference both to individuals (their
personal completeness or integration) and the purported set of all
people (an attempt to encompass all human traits) in an interrelated
pattern represented by a geometric shape, usually a sectioned square
or circle. It is part of yet another metaphysical miasma, the
“microcosm-macrocosm correspondence” allegedly validating
divination (I Ching, astrology, tea leaves, assorted auguries—all
survivals of sympathetic magic). That leads to the reductio ad
absurdum of total interconnectedness and the elimination of unknown
variables; these ideas manifest a pseudoscientific veneer borrowed
from relativity physics (e.g., light-speed’s zero interval distorted into
“synchronicity”), as do many modern spiritualist propositions.
It is striking that “completeness” is another way of expressing
finitude where none can possibly be empirically established. The
extent—and therefore boundaries and components—of either a single
personality or the wide sweep of our species (wherever and whenever
it began and will end) are not knowable. What these system-builders
really should be selling or telling us is that their analysis yields abstract
qualities which, in combination and emphasis, fairly adequately explain
individuals or populations in a way that is not all-inclusive but rather
non-exclusive.
Those two adjectives are not equivalent: the former is meaningful
but impossible; the latter, meaningless but necessary. The inherent
tension between those alternatives is resolved by people according to
their lights: those to whom absolute meaning is more important will
redefine reality to fit their limited model (theology, what is now called
“faith-based” imposition of theory on facts, now on its ascendant in
the political sphere); those willing to sacrifice meaning in the search
for better explanations of observed reality will revise theory on the
grounds that it is provisional and dependent on facts (science, enough
branches of which are currently under attack to threaten the entire
tree of knowledge). Mandalas are fine if you can see the fuzzy edges.