“In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.”
― Carl Gustav Jung
Jung and Duality: Contemporary Thought
Jung emphasized the importance of ‘making darkness conscious.’ To facilitate the confrontation of the unconscious with consciousness, Jung involved a variety of practices such as active imagination, dream work, tending to the soul, alchemical transformation, and transpersonal techniques. In encountering the vast unconsciousness with the light, the psyche transforms, light learns from darkness, and darkness dares to lose some of its mystery. However, if left uncalibrated and unleashed, these encounters can lead to “the emergence of the unconscious opposite in the course of time” (Jung, 1990, Psychological Types. P. 426).
The conference theme addresses contemporary concerns in relation to the notion of the dualistic nature of contrasting elements. Together, we will contemplate how creatively addressing topics such as polarization, cancel culture, self-idolatry, individualization to the detriment of individuation, the need for duality to individuate (or not), and other relevant issues of modernity, which may reveal more profound organizing principles beneath the surface. Perhaps these themes are evidence of processes of individuation as the psyche guides us through these challenging experiences or the necessary obstacles in the Nekiya, consolidating our determination to individuate. These challenges include the theories of good and evil and how we may view them regarding transformation.
Title Presentation by Farânak Mirjalili
Good and Evil at Work in the Zoroastrian Creation Story
Creation stories often intertwine cosmogonic narratives of both creation and destruction, grounding the human psyche in its origins while providing cultural and ancestral meaning to the workings of the universe. The Zoroastrian creation story stands out with its unique dance between opposites, reflecting the stark dualities in Zoroaster’s teachings. Here, the force of evil is equal to the God of light and wisdom, and both exist in the cosmos from the beginnings. In a heretical branch of Zoroastrianism called Zurvanism, they are even born from the same source as twin brothers. Another noteworthy motif is the place of ‘evil’ as Ahriman, the Zoroastrian shadow twin of the truthful God Ohrmazd is not only destructive but becomes the catalyst for the transfiguration and regeneration of earthly life. This paper explores a psychological perspective on this cosmic drama by drawing on the insights from Analytical Psychology to explore this cosmic drama for the first time in (post) Jungian studies. The work of Donald Kalsched in particular, a contemporary Jungian author and clinician, offers a compelling psychological lens for interpreting the archetypal dichotomies of ‘good and evil’, so starkly portrayed in this creation story. Through looking at both Jung’s work on the ‘dark side of God’ and Kalsched’s theory on the ‘light and dark angel’, the paper gives a comprehensive view on the cosmic drama of duality that has captivated humanity for millennia.
Bio:
Farânak Mirjalili is a Jungian analytical therapist, trained in The Netherlands and currently undergoing her second round of analytical training at the C.G. Jung Institute in Küsnacht. Her therapeutic focus revolves around feminine consciousness, embodiment, and cultivating the mythic imagination. She earned her Research Masters’ degree at theCenter for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam, concluding three years of field research at the intersection of laboratory and psycho-spiritual alchemy.
Farânak is also the founder of the Anima Mundi School, where she collaborates with a small collective of women from diverse backgrounds blending depth psychology, ecopsychology and the mythic imagination through a three-year program called "Ecologies of the Imagination."
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