Before anyone kooks out, I’m not endorsing any particular religious movement (and Dr. Peterson isn’t either), nor am I trying to convert anyone to anything specific.
One of the benefits of religious practice, though, is the integration of what Jung called the shadow.
The shadow roughly corresponds to Freud’s id. It’s the carnal, dark, violent, sexual part of the human psyche. Religion was given to us by our creator, or was developed by men, as a ritual way to harness the energy of its psychic forces.
One of the consequences of growing up is greater self-awareness. I’ve become convinced that secular types, atheists and agnostics (like me) can find a home in the church (mosque, temple, whatever), and use ritual and aesthetic to fuel greater self-knowledge and balance in a chaotic world.
this is where ya boy Boxer spends his Sunday mornings…Jung noted, both in Memories, Dreams, Reflections and in Modern Man in Search of a Soul, that psychoanalysis only developed because of a historical imperative, necessitated by social atomization. Prior to this, religious ritual functioned along the same lines, and produced similar results.
There are monsters under the bed. Once you make friends with them, they cease to be frightening. In fact, you can make them work in your interests.
Finally, here’s some good Canadian shadow-oriented music. Start the integration, and I’ll see you at mass…
The easiest way I can explain it is…this is the temporal world (what we can see, feel, experience) which has a distinct beginning and end. The spiritual world (that which we can’t see) is the eternal world. Humans are the only creation by God that has both body and spirit (angels are spirits only, animals are just bodies)…and that’s why our passions and interests are often in conflict with each other.