Pabst and Carl do some garden work

So, Mr. Carl Jung, do you think we will experience a world war in the next couple of years?

“I think it depends on how many people can stand the tension of the opposites in themselves. If enough can do so, I think the situation will just hold, and we shall be able to creep around innumerable threats and thus avoid the worst catastrophe of all: the final clash of opposites in an atomic war. But if there are not enough and such a war should break out, I am afraid it would inevitably mean the end of our civilization as so many civilizations have ended in the past but on a smaller scale.”

OK, so yes, then?

All you had to do was say yes.

Well, pack it up people. That’s what our answer.

I guess we’ll just pound sand until the Middle East looks like glass… Wait.

Fr. Seraphim? Oh, I’m glad you’re here. Dr. Jung is saying that if the world doesn’t integrate its shadow nuclear apocalypse is inevitable. Maybe you can talk some sense into him.

That’s crazy, right?

“My purpose is not to frighten you, but to make you aware of what is happening around us. It is truly later than we think. The apocalypse is now. Some recent observers of our contemporary life have called the young people of today the ‘Me’ generation characterized by a worship and fascination with oneself that prevents a normal human life from developing. The message of this universal temptation: Live for the present. Enjoy yourself. Behind this message is another more sinister undertone: Forget about God. Forget about any other life but the present one. The world’s best culture properly received refines and develops the soul. Today’s popular culture cripples and deforms the soul. Therefore, in our battle against the spirit of this world we can use the best things the world has to offer in order to go beyond it. Everything good in the world, if we are only wise enough to see it, points to God…”

OK, that was almost less helpful than the prediction of an inevitable nuclear war. But perhaps you’re onto something when you say forget about any other life but the present one… When we’re focusing on the play that is happening outside ourselves we are pulled into these worldly actors’ and isms and all that stuff that may be concerning, but what can we really do about it?

I mean, seriously. What the hell are we supposed to do with the threat of nuclear Armageddon?

I guess these things may not be worth our attention, because what they are doing, whether intentionally or unintentionally, is only derailing our peace. When we look outside and see this inhuman chaos and loss of centre what are we to do except to go inside and find centre ourselves?

The world is not going to find centre for us.

Clearly.

The centre is within us and Christianity is uniquely endowed with the ability to confront the opposites within Man as it is a religion of holding the tension between the dichotomy of our interior. The God-Man, the Virgin Birth, Life-through-Death; Christianity is a religion of paradoxes. If we are to hold the line when the world falls into chaos, then we must rely on the Holy Wisdom of our tradition and furthermore to follow the sacred words of perhaps the most important Psalm:

“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

The Apocalypse is neither a simulation nor nigh, it is now. But what does that mean, really? It seems like a whole lot of reason to be thrown off course and fall into despair, where nothing matters because the world outside is chaotic and reaching its boiling point. This is the tohu va-bohu of the age, the proverbial flood waters raging outside the doors of the Ecclesia.

It is easy, in difficult times, to throw our hands up and turn away from doing the real work of eradicating the subconscious, “What you call ‘repression’ is totally unacceptable in real spiritual medicine. In the spiritual arena of the logismoi, we aim at the transmutation or metamorphosis of our passions, not the actual storing of them into the so-called subconscious” (Markides, quoting Fr. Maximos, The Mountain of Silence 144). When the world steals our peace by implanting the logismoi (assaulting thoughts) of fear and anxiety it is riling up our passions to the point where we are pushed and pulled in every direction which goes doubly for our inability to confront ourselves in a truly meaningful way.

The world, the spirit of the age, the culture, whatever we want to call it, represses its desires which is, according to Dr. Jung, part of the reason we’re coming face-to-face with World war III—we would rather annihilate each other than attempt to “force ourselves to bring everything out from the subconscious and clean it up” (Ibid.).

It may seem like a if-you-can’t-beat-them-join-them situation, where so many of us will fly off the handle and fall into anxiety and despair that to try anything else may seem insane by contrast with the world. However, this is not about beating anyone but ourselves and by seeking centre we will be able to ride out this storm, with all the grief and joy and absolute FUBAR that may be on the horizon. This is a call to the business of the year as the momentum shifts and speeds up toward catastrophe because it may be that the world refuses to stand the tension of the opposites is no excuse to do the same, right Marcus?

“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

Thanks, Marcus. Do you have any other words of wisdom to help with the coming year?

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:4-9).

That’s the words of the Apostle, Marcus, do you have something more original?

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” 

Sure, sure. Thanks, Marcus.

I guess… And I hope this is not true, but from experience I would suggest I am right in my observation that if we rejoice in the Lord always and make supplication with thanksgiving to Him then that will set us apart, mentally, then the vast majority of the world. We will live in joy, remembering God, rather than the popular notion to forget Him entirely. Here, we will refine and develop the soul. And what better way to refine and develop the soul than amidst the apocalyptic age we are living in, now?

If God be for us, who is against us?

“So then, brothers and sisters, we are obligated, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:12-17).

To my mind, living by the flesh can be simply stated as living based on the external world, based on the push and pull of whatever desire floats by our field of view, based on the fear that the world will push on us, is pushing on us, is economically viable for the world to push on us. We do not need to fall into the conspicuous consumption of their fear, for we received the spirit of adoption!

There will always be signs of the end times outside our windows and knocking at our door, but the true war is within us and giving into the world is losing the battle that rages on. When we focus on the material, sensual, and external world that is constantly in flux and passing away then we are taking energy away from the war that is our individual obligation to fight.

The world is become a reflection of the chaos that rages inside each of us, refusing to stand the tension of opposites within. The world darkens as the collective unconscious is overwhelmed by the shadows of the individual not being integrated.

“Persons who have repressed their passions will get angry, will get into a punishing mood. If you tell them that you committed a sinful act, they will become very upset and judgmental. They will become intolerant without a trace of compassion.

Do you know why?

Because they themselves are suffering” (Markides, quoting Fr. Maximos, The Mountain of Silence 145).

This is about each of us as individuals doing our part of the collective work for the world. The weeding and the tilling of the earth’s garden begins within our hearts; it cannot be done elsewhere. So, my advice to myself is to start doing the world’s spade work, because every quieted mind, supplication in thanksgiving, and remembrance of God counts. This year, someone I trust predicts, will be hairy to say the least and to my mind this is as good of a time as any time cultivate silence through a contemplative practice and seek the centre—what Meister Eckhart called the ground of the soul—where the eternal Trinity unfolds and the Logos is born.

Breathe.

Bringing the shadow to our awareness.

In and out.

Bringing that unmanifest potential under the reign of our conscious mind, harmonizing the unconscious with the conscious.

Breathe.

Becoming whole.

In and out.

Becoming holy.

It is our dharma to hold the tension of opposites within us, to stand in their presence and let them be. Let us not be swept away by the chaotic tides of this contemporary age. Let us not live for the present, but in the present; in the world, but not of it.  

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Watch out that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:6-8).

Let us refine and develop our soul by walking in Christ on the surface of the tempestuous waters of this age like St. Peter, because we are soon to walk further into the valley of the shadow of death. “My purpose is not to frighten you, but to make you aware of what is happening around us.” The world’s shadow is emerging externally. “It is truly later than we think. The apocalypse is now.” So then, brothers and sisters, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise… think about these things,” for “everything good in the world, if we are only wise enough to see it, points to God…”

Let us find our centre: the table He has prepared for us and rejoice, again I say, rejoice, amidst our enemies. May the spirit of Christ bless and keep you in the year to come and in life everlasting. Amen.

Would you mind playing us out, Paul?

“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4).  

Si comprehendis, non est Deus