Finding meaning

To me, finding meaning is not a question of ‘what does it mean,’ but rather of ‘how it is meaningful.’ What purpose does it serve? How does your image inform or compensate for your initial state of mind?

Creative inner work has two components. Expressing unconscious content creatively is only the first part. The more difficult ethical part is to formulate some sort of understanding of the content and purpose of the image.

Most of the time, meaning gradually dawns on one, and that is completely and utterly sufficient. No interpretations are needed. I do not recommend the use of symbol books. Soon after completion, glancing back at your original notes, you might feel “answered.” As Jung said:

So it is with the hand that guides the crayon or brush, the foot that executes the dance-step, with the eye and the ear, with a word or a thought: a dark impulse is the ultimate arbiter of the pattern, an unconscious a priori precipitates itself into plastic form… Over the whole procedure there seems to reign a dim foreknowledge not only of the pattern, but of its meaning. Image and meaning are identical and as the first takes shape, so the latter becomes clear… The pattern needs no interpretation. It portrays its own meaning.

CG Jung, CW8:400-2

And it comes with inner alignment and greater objectivity.

It is worthwhile to unpack your images on the floor and to trace your use of colour and shape over time from image to image. A certain colour may present itself as a mountain in one image, in another image as an umbrella, and in a third as a woman, circling, describing different aspects of a single psychic fact.

Put your image somewhere where it is visible but private. Relating to your work is crucial, for one continues to project unconscious content into the image; one sees it reflected and becomes conscious of something new. On the other hand, never force anything. Resistance is there for a reason.

By continuing to project and by relating to not-loved, repressed parts of one-self, it enters one’s life and may gradually influence one to accept previously rejected aspects of one’s personality. It becomes real. This is beautifully portrayed in Ovid’s Pygmalion.

From Ovid’s Pygmalion

Pygmalion became disillusioned with women. He thought of them as spiders, and was afraid. His fear held him back from entering into a relationship. He determined to remain celibate and to devote himself to his sculpting.

When he decided to make the sculpture of a woman, it was as if his hands worked on their own, as if she shaped herself into being, for it was Venus herself who worked through him.

The statue fascinated him and he became obsessed with it. To him it was real, a woman, his beloved; he loved the sculpture and brought her gifts, for to him she was alive. But gradually he came to realize that he had a problem.

Then it was time for Venus’s festival. By this time, his attitude towards women had changed because he was influenced by his love for his statue, and he became aware of his longing for a relationship with a real woman.

He made offerings at Venus’s altar and quietly prayed for a bride who would be like his ivory girl. On his return home, he kissed the statue as he was used to do. To his astonishment he found that her lips felt warm, that she was alive! Venus had granted his wish, and Galatea woke up as if from sleep, to meet life and her lover alike.

Discussion of the story

First there is a need and a problem in the fulfilling of it: Pygmalion suppressed his natural needs out of fear and developed a severe crisis. This activated the archetype and resulted in the making of the statue.

He then became so fascinated, enchanted by the archetypal content of the statue that he treated the statue, the symbol, as a living reality. He lived with it, and related to it in an authentic and devoted way. The 2007 movie, Lars and the real girl, takes up the same theme.

Pygmalion treated his statue almost like a teddy bear. In this way, the statue, a symbol, influenced his one-sided viewpoint and helped Pygmalion to accept and learn to love this feared and estranged part of himself. Jung described how the created symbol influences our one-sidedness:

When [the patients] look at [their artwork,] they feel that their unconscious is expressed. The objective form works back on them, and they become enchanted. The suggestive influence of the picture reacts on the psychological system of the patient and induces the same effect which he puts into the picture… They cast their magic into our system and put us right, provided we put ourselves into them…  to the extent that you can put yourself into it, it answers and comes into you. It has a magic effect.

CG Jung, CW18

When Pygmalion went to the festival, great sacrifices were made: the old fearful approach to life could be sacrificed and replaced by a more life-affirming attitude. He overcame his earlier aversion and acknowledged his need. This change of heart is due to the nourishing influence of the statue as a symbol.

When he prayed to Venus, he expressed the wish of the archetype to enter his life. The statue had a meaningful purpose: the natural development and growth of Pygmalion’s personality, and therefore it became real.