While what I propose to write here about is commonly known as a “Grail Quest,” it’s not exactly of the sort one might suppose. Actually, it’s not even similar - since in this case, I’m not ‘seeking’ “the grail,” but rather, seeking to deliver it. But among the many things which I do not know, (yet) - is exactly where it is meant to go.
Before you say “Stop - that’s just too absurd a storyline to continue with,” there’s a couple of things to consider. Leaving aside, for the moment, the matter of whether it is indeed absurd to propose that one has been entrusted with an object of such weighty import as “the grail” - the idea, in principle, should probably not be ruled out.
After all, at a moment when our entire species is under attack from multiple directions - rapidly advancing efforts to create “AI” entities designed to mimic, and then replace “us,” global ‘pandemics’ produced by shadowy players in league with corrupt governments and scientific establishments, as well as nefarious projects to modify the weather, hatched by same insane parties - potential salvation from that nexus of threats is likely to require help from quarters of the extraordinary sort!
And I didn’t even mention the social conditioning projects designed by the very same caste of ghouls which seeks to render our species’ tried and trusted procreative means and gender alignments null & void. Yes - by my guess - it’s going to ‘take a miracle’ to get out of this whole mess - “whole” of body, mind and soul that is. But since, for the most part, ‘miracles’ are associated - just like ‘grail quests’ - with religion, there’s some stuff to get out of the way, before proceeding.
Because where I’m coming from is surely not from the angle of the ‘religious.’ Nor, from the ‘agnostic,’ for that matter; those categorizations are just not relevant to the requirements of the task. At one time, our shared human sense of ‘the miraculous’ lay in a different strata of consciousness from that which has come to be called the ‘spiritual’ or ‘religious.’ It’s my determined impression that we’ll need to be finding that ancient strata, for there to be any chance of finding a way out of the fix that we’re in. And rather than talk about it, prozelytize about it, or somehow ‘market’ the idea - as seems to be the modern day trope as to how to communicate valuable information -
I’m just going to go about exactly that, via execution of the instructions delivered me.
Which brings us to the matter of why I was drawn to name this little corner of the substack universe “numinosum,” even though such a title might be frightfully ineffective at producing either readers or renown. Neither of those common goals are necessary components of achieving the appointed task, so that’s not going to be an issue. You might think of this as more a ‘chronicle’ of a journey about to begin, rather than advocation of a point of view. As such it should well serve need as my current ‘workspace/sketchpad,’ while this journey transitions from one of the mind, to one ‘on the road.’ .
That should serve as sufficient introduction to what’s going on herein. In short - a “quest” is about to begin. It’s purpose or ‘goal’ is shadowy, as the conception for it comes from somewhere other than the chief protagonists’ conscious mind. That does not imply however, that it is therefore rooted in the ‘unconsciousness;’ what will transpire on these pages is very much about the repeal of the whole doctrine of ‘the unconscious’ - and how the mentioned journey plays out exactly that theme. However, not even that overly-ambitious schema is enough, for it will play out thru the lens of a intended ‘repeal’ of historiography itself.
Knights of the Kizil Cave Grotto Murals
Such a journey as would overturn the very foundations upon which ‘modernity’ perches might seem to harken to those destructive impulses which from time immemorial have caused the end of cultures, civilizations, and societies. I cannot judge whether the root of this particular quest is similar; all I know is that my intention is to liberate what has been bound, most definitely on the personal level -and perhaps even on a societal plane.
The ‘technique’ employed for doing so will be to ‘roll back’ the doctrines and devices of those ‘pretended liberators’ who have covertly sought - and now come very close to achieving’ - the permanent shackling of all that the human mind has sought to give heed & expression to. The best within us, in other words. As it turns out, the ‘best within us’ happens to correspond to something vast and inexplicable which exists ‘without us.’
To the end of expanding upon how that seeming dichotomy seamlessly resolves, a couple of ‘definitions,’ as produced by third parties, are in order.
Numinosum is the term Jung appropriated from Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non-rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and Its Relation to the Rational, produced during the First World War. It is a philosophical work that incorporates the thinking of Schleiermacher, Marett, Husserl, and neo-Kantianism; although it is the central experience depicted in it, referred to as the numinous, that particularly attracted Jung’s attention. Otto adopted the term from a word coined from the Latin numen defined in the Oxford Dictionary as a presiding deity or spirit. The Latin dictionary further defines numenas “nod” or “will” both of which are important in Jung’s usage of the term numinous. For example, he often refers to a numinous experience as a “hint” that there are greater powers in the psyche than those of which ego is conscious.
Otto’s original musings, as well as his coining the neologism by which our workspace/travelog could claim - a full century later - it’s idiosyncratic identity- will likely be of interest to us down the road a ways. For now, what principally matters about his ‘discovery’ is that it makes it possible for me to explain why a “Grail Quest” can be neiher ‘religiously’ driven or ‘faith-inspired,’ as well as open the door to indicating purpose and propulsion of the affair. A second ‘definition’/explanation of the third party kind:
In analytical psychology, a type of involuntary mystical or religious experience described by Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) in 1937 as ‘a dynamic agency or effect not caused by an arbitrary act of will. On the contrary, it seizes and controls the human subject, who is always rather its victim than its creator. The numinosum—whatever its cause may be—is an experience of the subject independent of his will’
Thus, via Jung’s appropriation of Otto’s term - numinosum - we can see immediately the outlines of how the idea (and it’s power to illumine)will be quickly incorporated into the sticky hive mind of those who tinker with the human ‘pysche’ - supposedly as ‘caregivers’ and self-defined restorers of ‘wholeness’ - via ‘individation.’ If the damage done to that nebulous human ‘faculty’ by almost a century and a half of the better known “Freudian” or mainstream ‘psychoanalysis’ has begun to be accounted, the similiar socially deleterious effects of the “Jungian” variety must also be brought to light; nothing is so dangerous as the advancement of doctrine which comes close to encountering the truth, and then veers away from it to the regions of deception!
To illustrate which point - and this space’s ‘point of departure’ - I found a wonderfully suitable piece by an orthodox ‘Jungian’ mindworker - one daring enough to even critique the masters’ material - as well as providing the necessary ‘food for thought’ by which I would be made able to articulate the wholly irrelevant nature of ‘the holy’ in a quest of salvation, individual or otherwise. She describes her purpose as -
to argue that Jung's use of Otto's term (and, consequently, the use of it by commentators of Jung) is inaccurate. Jung is too quick to incorporate Otto's term into his own theory. Indeed, one would be forgiven for thinking that Jung was blinded by his enthusiasm for its appropriately mysterious and fascinating connotations, for he fails to grasp its essential meaning, and subsequently facilitates its mistranslation into his psychological theory. In this chapter I shall argue that the 'numinous' is not, strictly speaking, applicable to aspects of Jung's psychological theory, with particular empbasis being placed on the individuation process. Rather, it is to Otto's term 'the holy' that Jung, and we, should turn.
Taking a moment to note that any intersection on the part of humankind with the “numen” is definably “impersonal,” in that the force encountered is neither a ‘personal’ nor ‘purposeful’ one, let’s read a bit more from the same author:
Moreover, the difference in meaning of a 'numinous' experience and one that is 'holy is critical to the development and healing of the personality that is at the heart of Jungian theory. As I shall argue, a numinous experience cannot induce progressive change or enrichment of the ego, for, although an encounter with the numinous is overwhelming, it is without purpose; only in an experience of the holy can the ego be reborn into Selfhood. see footnote below
It can be forgiven if notions such as ‘the development and healing of the personality’ or, to ‘be reborn into Selfhood’ sound like positive practices'; the past century became a minefield of sweet and/or innocous terminology developed and employed by the agents of projects of ‘social change.’ That ‘weaponization’ of the language has only intensified in the first part of the present one. Words designed to effectively ‘bypass’ the pysche’s ‘immune system’ of protections drill like viral invaders deep into the victim’s consciousness, where they can lie ‘latent’ until ‘activated.’
The perfecting of the method by which that attack upon our ‘wholeness’ hs reached it’s present denouement, in the form of a medico-scientific-industrial mafiya cartel pyscho-social project, has roots in very olden times, but it’s direct antecedents in the so-called ‘renaissance’ era will be our focus starting out. That will allow for the introduction of they who will be our ‘guiding muse’ in the journey - and the ‘mise en scene’ wherein which it begins!
Holy, Holy, Holy: The misappropriation of the numinous in Jung.
July 2006 In book: The Idea of the Numinous: Contemporary Jungian and Post-Jungian Perspectives (pp.200-212)Publisher: Routledge Author:Lucy Huskinson
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