David Rosen

The Tao of Jung : The Way of Integrity

(New York: Arkana-Penguin, 1997, 197pp.) (Book)

Carl G. Jung (1875-1961) was one of those who dealt most directly with the passage
of the Piscean Period to the Age of Aquarius, especially in his book Aion. He analyses
astrological imagery embodied in Zodiacal ages in order to deal with the psychological
problems of this period of transition. The astrological sign of Pisces is often represented as
two fish one light, the other dark in color swimming in opposite directions. The Age of
Pisces which started roughly at the same time as the birth of Jesus is the period in which
Christianity developed and became the normative spiritual influence for much of the world.

The Piscean Period, true to its image of the fish going in opposite directions, has been
one in which the dominant ideologies have been of opposing dualism: the kingdom of the
saved and the world of the damned in Christianity, the dar al-Islam and the dar al-harb (the
region of Islam and the region of war) in Islam, the antagonist socialist and capitalist worlds
in Marxist thought.

The chief psychological as well as political problem of the Piscean Period was how to
prevent one of the dualities from destroying the other how to keep a balance of power.
None of the dominant ideologies contained the key to a creative balance between opposite
although in the late Cold War period (1970s-1980s) the idea of co-existence was developed
by thinkers on the edges of political power in East and West. Co-existence implied a
relationship among groups in which none of the parties is trying to destroy another. Co-
existence provides a starting point for succeeding generations to reframe their understanding
of the enemy without necessarily abandoning other political or cultural principles.

However, co-existence is much less than the Taoist concept of equilibrium, of a

balance between forces which would create greater harmony and wealth of being. Thus Jung
looked to Chinese Taoism for that integration of the principles and energies of yin (the
receptive and feminine) and yang(the active and masculine).

The Tao is the ground of being, the void from which all arises. As Lao Tzu in the Tao
Te Ching notes The Tao is like a well:
Used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void
Filled with infinite possibilities.

In another verse he writes: The Tao is called the Great Mother:

Empty yet inexhaustible,
It gives birth to infinite worlds.

In the infinite world of created things, the Tao is most often represented as the
harmonious balance between yin and yang. Lao Tzu noted Of the energies of the universe,
none is greater than harmony. Harmony means the regulation of yin and yang.

Jung became interested in Taoism by meeting in 1922 Richard Wilhelm, a German

missionary to China, who had become very interested in Taoism. Jung viewed Wilhelm and
his work as creating a bridge between East and West. Wilhelm was the messenger from
China who was able to express profound things in plain language which disclose something of
the simplicity of great truth and deep meaning. Wilhelm had translated and analysed a Taoist
healing text The Secret of the Golden Flower to which Jung wrote a psychological
commentary published in 1929. Wilhelm had also produced a translation of Lao Tzus Tao
Te Ching, as well as the I Ching (The Book of Changes) a widely used book of Chinese
divination, some of which predates the rise of Taoism in the 6th century BC.

The Chinese Taoists were directly concerned with mental health and healing, and there
were contemporary healers which Wilhelm had met. The Taoist balance between what could
be considered at one level as opposites was close to Jungs psychoanalytical efforts where he
contrasted the introvert and the extrovert, thought and feeling, the person and the shadow.. As
Rosen points out, the essential task of Jungs psychology is to help in the process of
individuation a process toward wholeness, which like Taoism is characterized by
accepting and transcending opposites.

As Jung noted, Taoist thought would play an increasingly powerful role in the
transition between the Piscean Period and the Age of Aquarius. The spirit of the East is
really at our gates. Therefore it seems to me that the search for Tao, for a meaning in life, has
already become a collective phenomenon among us, and to a far greater extent than is
generally realized.

As Lao Tzu wrote Let the Tao be present in your life

And you will become genuine.
Whoever is planted in the Tao
Will not be rooted up.

Ren Wadlow