Page 100 - Eclipse of God

Religion and Modern Thinking 73

There are supposed to exist, however, a few ancient manda-
las and many modern ones in whose centre “no trace of divin-
52
ity is to be found.” The symbol which takes its place in the
modern images is understood by the creators of these man-
dalas, according to Jung, as “a centre within themselves.” “The
place of the deity,” Jung explains, “appears to be taken by the
wholeness of man.” This central wholeness, which symbolizes
the divine, Jung, in agreement with ancient Indian teaching,
calls the self. This does not mean, says Jung, that the self takes
the place of the Godhead in these images in which the un-
conscious of modern man expresses itself. One would grasp
Jung’s idea better if one said that from now on the Godhead no
longer takes the place of the human self as it did in mankind
up till now. Man now draws back the projection of his self on a
God outside of him without thereby wishing to deify himself (as
Jung here emphasizes, in contrast to another passage, in which,
as we shall see, deification is clearly stated as a goal). Man does
not deny a transcendent God; he simply dispenses with Him.
He no longer knows the Unrecognizable; he no longer needs to
pretend to know Him. In His place he knows the soul or rather
the self. It is indeed not a god that “modern consciousness”
abhors, but faith. Whatever may be the case concerning God,
the important thing for the man of modern consciousness is to
stand in no further relation of faith to Him.
This man of “modern consciousness” is not, to be sure, to
be identified with the human race that is living to- day. “Man-
53
kind,” says Jung, “is still in the main in a psychological state
of infancy— a level which cannot be leaped over.” This is il-
lustrated by the Paulinian overcoming of the law which falls
only to those persons who know to set the soul in the place of
conscience. This is something very few are capable of doing.
What does this mean? By conscience one understands of
old, whether one ascribes to it a divine or a social origin or