Jungian Psychology

The Rapture as a Symbolic Process

A Symbolic Map. For Jungian and other transpersonally-oriented psychologists, the archetype of the Apocalypse, and the Rapture as an event within it, are understood symbolically as a map for an internal journey of the soul into consciousness. The sequences within the story of John's Revelation in the New Testament are a way to understand the process of integrating the shadow and coming into a realization of the Self. As an individual, one experiences the apocalypse as a time when all of one’s old structures seem to be collapsing and one is beset with a string of plagues—doubts, fears, setbacks—that test one’s vision, courage and strength. From an archetypal point of view, this is the journey of the soul through some of the same kinds of trials that Christ endured and is often seen as a dark night of the soul. All of one’s old beliefs are stripped away, followed by a series of tests, resulting in an experience of being reborn or alive in a new world. The Rapture would be the time(s) of feeling one with God, of being relieved of suffering, if only momentarily.

"I think the Book of Revelations makes more sense as a [...] depiction of the ongoing struggle of the individual Christian everywhere at all times. In times of trouble or doubt, they could turn to this book, and map its symbolism onto their outward life. In doing so, they can experience the psychological mystical transfiguration it implies. The Tribulation is their own struggle through life. The Second Coming of Christ is into their heart, and the New Jerusalem is the person who is made whole by parousia of Christ."
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2005/05/28/apocalypse-the-dark-night-of-the-soul/

In Jungian psychology, the Revelation is seen not just as an individual event, but as a collective description as well, where we are in a collective struggle to become conscious of the Larger Self of humanity. What is most interesting, and perhaps most inspirational, about the interpretation of the Apocalypse as a symbolic process is the underlying belief that the more people understand this map and are willing to internalize the meaning of "Apocalypse" in their own life process, the less the events needs to be manifested externally.

According to Edward Edinger in The Archetype of the Apocalypse, Revelation read psychologically, and Apocalypse understood psychologically, “means the momentous event of the coming of the Self into conscious realization… The content of the Apocalypse archetype represents: the shattering of the world as it has been, followed by its reconstitution. ..[A]ll the social, political, economic, military, familial and natural disasters in which our world is engulfed is evidence that the Apocalypse is a transpersonal reality, an archetype, a patterned movement, collection and manifestation of universal energies released in our time. Its purpose is destruction of the Old World order and the ushering in of a time of chaos and transformation that will lead to a new world order. John’s Revelation describes symbolically the concluding events of the Judea-Christian myth – a myth that has been the womb and the metaphysical container of Western civilization.”

Specifically in regard to the Rapture, he says: “I think the "rapture" refers to the capacity to bear or endure great hardship and distress: provided one understands the circumstances to be meaningful, provided one sees the events one is suffering to be part of a larger purposeful pattern with a goal. That gives the sufferer a certain viewpoint "above" the difficult circumstances, so to speak, and outside the immediate concrete events. It does not put one in heavenly bliss, to be sure, but it does make the events bearable." This is the experience one has after having been immersed in conflict, when suddenly a resolution appears and the opposites integrate into a larger perspective, a greater whole.

Dangers of Literal Interpretations. He warns of the dangers associated with the fundamentalist Christian interpretation that the Rapture is a literal event that is immanent in our outer experience. "This belief allows people to anticipate the very real terrors of the Apocalypse with relative equanimity since they are sure to be "caught up" and spared. A more negative interpretation is justified, however, for those who joyfully expect literal rescue from the coming tribulation on the basis of their elect status. Such a state of mind is a dehumanizing inflation that seeks permanent release from egohood and materiality. To embrace such a literal eschatological fantasy means, in effect, that the individual has already been "raptured" (literally "seized"). These people, therefore, have abandoned allegiance to the human enterprise and abdicated commitment to the historical process."

Edinger then references the Heaven's Gate suicides, 39 people who committed suicide together to avoid Armageddon by concretely enacting the Rapture to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He goes on to say: "Those of us who are more psychologically alert cannot take this imagery literally, but must admit that it is part of the "living myth" and deserves to be understood.” The Rapture is an expression of the universal longing to rise above the level of the problem, to be taken out of the pain of suffering, to be spared the agony of conflict. Jungian psychology is founded on the principle that through the process of experiencing the tension of the opposites, a new consciousness arises that often feels like the "state of being transported by a powerful emotion; great joy; ecstasy--i.e. Rapture."
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“Psychologically speaking, apocalyptic phenomena represent the birth, in full-bodied manifestation of what Jung calls the archetype of “the Self.” In religious terminology, the emergence of the Self is analogous to the incarnation of God or the coming of the Messiah. Being a conjunction of opposites, when the Self, or God incarnates, the opposites split and become totally polarized. …The opposites being totally polarized like they are in our world today is itself an expression that some deeper process is emerging and being revealed to us. The inner meaning of the word apocalypse is ‘something hidden being revealed.’

…To the extent that this conflict is not dealt with consciously via the inner process of individuation, it will be unconsciously acted out and ‘dreamed up’ in the external world in a destructive way, as is fully evidenced by what is happening on our planet today.

…It is a very dangerous situation we are in- because of the position of power they find themselves in, the religious right can literally dream up and create the very apocalypse that they are imagining is prophesized, like a Self-fulfilling prophecy. In a perversely self-reinforcing feedback-loop, the more death and destruction happens, the more this confirms to them the truth that their deluded end-time scenario is actually happening as prophesized.”
http://www.awakeninthedream.com/apocalypse.html

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