God, as the typical ideal, is a transcendent Being, a bastion of wholeness/unity. Yet God is initially unconscious within the individual, according to the logical analysis and decades of investigative pursuit by Carl G. Jung in the previous century. Discernment of differentiation between subject and object is a functional capacity of consciousness. No such separation is available to wholeness/unity; pure spirit is undivided and lacks opposing principles. Duality is a result of the split between opposites and is the potential for transformative progression via resolution. One must wonder why Yahweh wants profuse praise and worship. Anthropomorphic projection of vanity and pride seems like a good fit, but such attributes are not highly respectable in an exalted Being. Jung explains such dependence as due to God’s need for feedback about Himself since He lacks self-reflection (God cannot subjectify/objectify to obtain self-insight). Those who are “put off” by a murderous, diabolical Biblical God who vacillates between vindictiveness and forgiveness should note that an unconscious God lacks the consistent morality facilitated by consciousness. His focus on fallen women (prostitutes) thus seems less uncanny. Numerous Biblical characters were notoriously unscrupulous prior to honorable redemption, e.g. cowardly thief-like Jacob, adulterous David, and even the Almighty who sought to kill Moses (Ex 4:24) [Yahweh’s redemption: the trend of the New Testament]. Christianity cherishes reformed sinners more so than non-sinners, but so many conversions also attempt to drive home a compelling theme: the importance of transforming the unconscious portion into conscious awareness and utility, typically a lifetime process [and often an incomplete work-in-progress supposedly to be resumed in another lifetime]. Jung agrees with Eastern Religion and Jewish mysticism in declaring that the ultimate purpose of mankind is salvation, not for the sake of the individual, but for the sake of the incarnate God within. Mankind is only the medium [for the growing God-seed]. God resides in the psyche of an individual and can overtly manifest as a universal image (archetype) arising spontaneously as a mysterious phenomenon in anyone who is not adversely indoctrinated. Such an appearance of God may be perceived as an objective fact [perhaps the epiphany-like experience of those who report having been so visited or having “found God,” “found Christ” or, if equivalent, “became saved”]. The God within is often referred to as the “Self.” Brahman, the impersonal Hindu God, is inherent in everything, including matter, animals, and humans (Jung believed that warm-blooded animals have a soul). Animism allows for spirit to be in all aspects of nature. Jung deplored the de-spiritualization of nature by Christianity and its unbalancing of the split between spirit and matter through overemphasis of spirit and downplay of mankind’s emotional connection to nature. Christianity adds to its sterile influence by suppressing the joy of nature, a joy seen as temptation by the devil. Jung and some others are critical of modern tendencies to excessively intellectualize and rationalize aspects of spirit [in ways that distort and diminish proper understanding]. Jung faults Christianity for ignoring the stage of creation he calls the “Shadow,” in which pure spirit descends into matter, a process labeled “involution” in the theology offered by Aurobindo hundreds of years prior. Supposed existence of the popular transcendent God-being is largely unsupported by Jung, whose influence towards steering away from that concept is at least faintly discernable. [On the other hand, the immensity and complexity of the cosmic frontier may involve something more than maturation of individual psychic spirit-infusion]. Which God is yours, the one outside of yourself, the one inside you, both, or neither?
