Circumambulation
Circumambulation
– A term used to describe the interpretation of an image by reflecting on it
from different points of view. Circumambulation differs from free association in
that it is circular, not linear. Where free association leads away from the
original image, circumambulation stays close to it.
But if the life-mass is to be transformed a circumambulatio
is necessary, i.e., exclusive concentration on the centre,
the place of creative
change. During this process one is "bitten" by animals; in other words, we
have to expose ouselves to the
animal impulses of the unconscious without
identifying with them and without "running away"; for flight from the
unconscious would defeat the purpose of the whole proceeding. We must hold
our ground, which means here that the process initiated by the dreamer's
self-observation must be experienced in all its ramifications and then
articulated with
consciousness to the best of his understanding. This
often entails an almost unbearable tension because of the utter
incommensurability betwen conscious life and the unconscious process, which can
be experienced only in the innermost soul and cannot touch the visible surface
of life at any point. The principle of conscious life is: "Nihil est
in intellectu, quod non prius fuerit in sensu." But the principle of the
unconscious is the autonomy of the
psyche itself, reflecting in the play of its
images not the world but itself, even though it utilizes the
illustrative possibilities offered by the sensible world in order to make its
images clear. The sensory datum, however, is not the causa
efficiens of this: rather, it is autonomously selected and
exploited by the psyche, with the result that the rationality of the cosmos is
constantly being violated in the most distressing manner. But the sensible
world has an equally devastating effect on the deeper psychic processes when it
breaks into them as a causa efficiens. If reason is not to be outraged on
the one hand and the creative play of images not violently suppressed on the
other, a circumspect and farsighted
synthetic procedure is required in order to
accomplish the paradoxical union or irreconcilables. Hence the alchemical
parallels in our dreams.
It
it seems that this content can never be found and integrated directly, but only
by the circuitous route of
projection.
For as a rule the
unconscious first appears in projected form.