…Both God and the devil are at an infinite and dissociated remove from human experience, and this reflects the structure of civilization. Conversely, among primitive peoples, all antinomies [Contradiction or opposition, especially between two laws or rules; a paradox] are bound into the ritual cycle. The sacred is an immediate aspect of man’s experience. Good and evil, creation and destruction–the dual image of the deity, as expressed in the trickster–are fused in the network of actions that define primitive society. Therefore, moral fanaticism, based as it is on abstract notions of pure good, pure evil, and the exclusive moral possibility or fate of any particular individual–what may be called moral exceptionalism–is absent among primitive people. In primitive perspective, human beings are assumed to be capable of any excess. But every step of the way, the person is held to account for those actions that seriously threaten the balance of society and nature.
Stanley Diamond
from the introduction to The Trickster, by Paul Radin
October 19, 1998
Considering the archetype of the self as a purposive intelligence or meaning, as expressing itself in an unfolding “vision” of what we are meant to be, is a truly revolutionary idea. Only when we seek to make this process conscious and intentionally attempt to actualize this meaning, this vision, to bring it into concrete reality, does it truly become the individuation process. …
For Jung, activating and implementing the individuation process is the highest goal in life. The ego [center of conscious self] must develop a dialogue with that primordial wisdom or meaning, that ray of divinity within us, the self, and consciously realize its [the self’s] vision of wholeness in our everyday activities.
Victor Mansfield
Synchronicity, Science and Soul-Making
The Hero's Journey: A resource for educators, teachers, and students
…Both God and the devil are at an infinite and dissociated remove from human experience, and this reflects the structure of civilization. Conversely, among primitive peoples, all antinomies [Contradiction or opposition, especially between two laws or rules; a paradox] are bound into the ritual cycle. The sacred is an immediate aspect of man’s experience. Good and evil, creation and destruction–the dual image of the deity, as expressed in the trickster–are fused in the network of actions that define primitive society. Therefore, moral fanaticism, based as it is on abstract notions of pure good, pure evil, and the exclusive moral possibility or fate of any particular individual–what may be called moral exceptionalism–is absent among primitive people. In primitive perspective, human beings are assumed to be capable of any excess. But every step of the way, the person is held to account for those actions that seriously threaten the balance of society and nature.
Stanley Diamond
from the introduction to The Trickster, by Paul Radin
October 19, 1998
Considering the archetype of the self as a purposive intelligence or meaning, as expressing itself in an unfolding “vision” of what we are meant to be, is a truly revolutionary idea. Only when we seek to make this process conscious and intentionally attempt to actualize this meaning, this vision, to bring it into concrete reality, does it truly become the individuation process. …
For Jung, activating and implementing the individuation process is the highest goal in life. The ego [center of conscious self] must develop a dialogue with that primordial wisdom or meaning, that ray of divinity within us, the self, and consciously realize its [the self’s] vision of wholeness in our everyday activities.
Victor Mansfield
Synchronicity, Science and Soul-Making