You don't know Jung ... and it's his own fault. Jung concepts are frequently misunderstood by Pagans, both by those who love him and those who hate him. Part of the confusion surrounding Jung is due to his choice of terminology. Jung chose terms that -- at least when translated into English -- are commonly used to mean something very different than what he intended. In this series, I discuss five Jungian terms which are easily and commonly misunderstood: psychic, energy, self, individuation, symbol, and archetype. In this part, we'll talk about "Self".
"Self" is a terrible Jungian term because Jung means it in almost opposite sense in which people commonly use it. What we usually mean when we speak about our "selves" is our sense of "I", often restricted to our waking consciousness. What we commonly think of as our self is what Jung called the "ego". The ego is the central organizing complex of consciousness. What Jung meant by the "self" was a much broader term. It is, according to Jung, that "wholeness that transcends consciousness" (CW 9i, P 278) and "the psychic totality of the individual" (CW 11, P 232). It is what we might call our "True Self", "Deep Self" or "Big Self".
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Mr. Halstead, I agree, in general terms, with your broad categories of modern Pagan belief. It was also interesting to learn th
