Inspirational Quote
“The most sophisticated people I know – inside they are all children. ”
― Jim Henson
The Depth Psychology Perspective
Ah… Jim Henson. What a wonderfully brilliant man. Today’s quote reminds us of that divine child that lives in all of us… that archetypal force that brings with it renewal and regeneration.
As I look back upon my life, I realize that when I think of myself, I still see the young 20 year old man that was ready to take on the world. Yes, I have grey hairs older than that image now, but that divine child has never changed.
What is the divine child? It is that etherial essence of renewal, regeneration, and rejuvenation that exists in us all. It is our need to look in the mirror and elicit that sense of youth. It is the need to rekindle those divine dreams that once drove our purpose in our youth-felt life. As Carl Jung once said:
In the psychology of the individual there is always, at such moments, an agonizing situation of conflict from which there seems to be no way out—at least for the conscious mind… But out of this collision of opposites the unconscious psyche always creates a third thing of an irrational nature, which the conscious mind neither expects nor understands… For the conscious mind knows nothing beyond the opposites and, as a result, has no knowledge of the thing that unites them. Since, however, the solution of the conflict through the union of opposites is of vital importance, and is moreover the very thing that the conscious mind is longing for, some inkling of the creative act, and of the significance of it, nevertheless gets through… The new configuration is a nascent whole; it is on the way to wholeness, at least in so far as it excels in “wholeness” the conscious mind when torn by opposites and surpasses it in completeness… Out of this situation the “child” emerges as a symbolic content… this new birth, although it is the most precious fruit of Mother Nature herself, the most pregnant with the future, [signifies] a higher stage of self-realization.
Carl Jung, 1951/1969, p. 168
Thank you for reading. I look forward to hearing your comments or questions.
©2020 by Dr. Thomas Maples