I am still contemplating the art I saw on my recent trip to Europe. A couple of themes seemed to catch my attention throughout the trip. One of those was the sea or water. I was drawn to a painting called "Children of the Sea" and to another entitled "The Rape of Europa." In the latter, Zeus in the form of a white bull is carrying away Europa, against her will, into the sea. In the other, four children are standing in the surf with a toy boat at their feet.
Jung said that the sea is representative of the collective unconscious. Going into the sea in a dream or image suggests allowing oneself to disengage from the day-to-day nuts and bolts of life in order to experience and bring into consciousness what may be going on in the unconscious. It is an experience that the Western mind is more adept at avoiding than embracing. We tend to repress those things which we do not wish to confront. Facing the unknown that may come up from our personal depths can be frightening, especially when those things may come to us in symbolic images which can range from puzzling to bizarre.
But without allowing the hidden or lost parts of ourselves to emerge, without accepting and dialoguing with those parts, we can never truly be whole. Worse still, those repressed or dissociated elements sometimes find ways of sneaking out in spite of our best efforts to ignore or deny their existence. I grew up learning that I should love all people as children of God. I believe that hate is bad and destructive. I can defend my position intellectually. I think I am not a prejudiced person. Yet at times I feel emotions and react toward certain groups of people in ways that do not go with my intellectual position. I do not intend to be hypocritical or to contradict myself, but if I pay attention, I am doing exactly that. Why?
There exist within me opposites. There are "shadow" parts of me. Am I willing to step outside of what I was taught as I was growing up and acknowledge the opposites? Better still, can I embrace both as parts of myself, even the ones I don't like, then more consciously choose how I will act upon the whole issue? Perhaps I need to be more open to what is in my depths and explore whatever comes up. I may learn reasons for my reactions to certain things. All of what makes us who we are is not readily available to us in our consciousness all the time. Much is in that sea of the unconscious.
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