Carl Jung

Circle Symbolism and Consciousness Part 4

Shell

Emanations as Creations

So far we’ve considered the primal or unconditioned subject and its emanations as two separate things.  But the emanations of the unconditioned subject don’t immediately disappear or dissolve because they continue and undergo further transformations.

The emanations of the primal subject extend as rays of energy from an unseen source.  This emanating energy radiates and is the first manifest expression of the primal subject.  But as the subject’s emanations extend further they begin to spread out and transform themselves.  The transformations continue to variate and grow exponentially defining complex phenomena and eventually different dimensions based on the density of their manifestations and the complexity of their resulting constraints.

It’s important to note however, that the earliest emanations are not yet any type of force but acquire force only as they become increasingly constrained due to their separating out.  These radiating emanations don’t manifest initially as time, space and matter, but they do manifest as the simplest expressions of extension and pure growth.

I also believe it’s important to stress at this juncture that the relationship between the primal subject and its manifesting emanations isn’t a two way street.  There is something very asymmetrical between them in that the primal subject’s emanations arise naturally from the primal subject but the primal subject isn’t fully contained in its manifesting emanations.  Yet at the same time the primal subject’s emanations in spite of their continuing on and extending can’t be anywhere else other than with the primal subject.  This peculiarity is due to the fact that primal subject exists prior to space and time.  The primal subject indirectly creates space but isn’t in space.  Yet space is nowhere other than with it.

But if the primal subject isn’t in any way constrained by its emanations and their transformations what’s the nature of the relationship between the primal subject and its emanations?  I would say the primal undifferentiated subject experiences these emanations not as constraints on its unconstrained nature but as superimpositions of its manifestations upon itself.  The primal subject is loosely speaking clothed in these superimpositions of its manifested nature, but just as a particular set of clothing doesn’t create a human body, so the superimposed emanations cannot constrain the primal subject.  What they are instead is the presentation of the universe of the primal subject’s creations.

Another relevant point is that while the primal subject isn’t visible that doesn’t mean it’s not real.  In fact, in spite of its being un-manifest in any way in its natural state, the primal subject is the least constrained reality there is and because of this it’s the most real thing there is.  And as the primal subject is alive and completely aware it experiences the nature of its emanations even though they’re no longer part of its inner nature but have extended from it.