Apocalypse, Archeptype, and Paradise

This is merely an attempt at exploring the book of Revelation, the visions of John the beloved, from a Jungian Perspective.  Often our obsession with the last day events suggests the longing for paradise, for a place where evils have been overcome, conflicts removed, pain erased, and life is now without the trace of misery.  This obsession may also imply the level of pain that has been accumulated and hence the solution is contained in the eradication of this miserable life.  I wonder if it may also be possible to look at the images from the book of Revelation from an archetypal perspective.  Archetypes guide us toward wholeness which is its primary function.  Could these visions of John reflect, at some leve, an archtypal journey that may culminate in a different type of paradise?  Could these images of the beasts suggest the conflicts that we are all going through in our lives?  The beasts, the tribulation, the plagues are parts of the archetypal images that reflect the quality of our souls, the territory within which we need to deal with.  These images are conflicts fuel by our personal narratives, the background, upbringing, the teachings, and the social rules.  It also reflects the current economic, social, political tension that express themselves through wars, crimes, and violence.  And when we are not able to manage these tensions (intrapsychic and external), we yearn for a paradise, for a God who will remove all obstables.  From my perspective, there is yet another possible interpretation.  With the presence of Christ comes the place of reconciliation.  With the presence of the unconditional, comes the possibility of harmony.  And Christ invites us to live in the world as an agent of reconciliation.  Paradise, accoding to the book of Revelation is a perfect cube, the width, height, and depth.  Four, in archetypal psychology, refers to completion.  Hence when, through the redeeming grace of Christ, our internal conflicts are reconciled, we see lions and tigers and sheep and goats all remain together.  When the primal force that drives conflict within ourselves are tamed, one achives harmony and the beasts turn into lambs and the plaguegs, the tree of life, and the tribulation, the stream of living water.

Read Full Post »