… the approach of the next Platonic month, namely Aquarius, will constellate the problem of the union of opposites. It will then no longer be possible to write off evil as the mere privation of good; its real existence will have to be recognized. This problem can be solved neither by philosophy, nor by economics, nor by politics, but only by the individual human being, via his experience of the living spirit,…The point where the ecliptic intersects with the meridian at the tail of the second fish [that is part of the sign of Pisces, the fishes] coincides roughly with the sixteenth century, the time of the Reformation, which as we know is so extraordinarily important for the history of Western symbols. Since then the spring-point has moved along the southern edge of the second fish, and will enter Aquarius in the course of the third millennium….
Jung (1950)[1]
Carl Jung is recognized as the originator of the term “new age,”[2] as well as the term “Platonic month, to refer to the two-thousand-year intervals demarcated by the precession of the equinoxes.[3] Jung understood the astronomical principle of precession and how it meant that the Piscean age—the age of the fishes, the age marked by the appearance of the Fisherman, whose religion was symbolized by a fish—would eventually give way to the age of Aquarius—the age of the water-bearer.[4]
Because such shifts happen so rarely, they mark momentous times of transition, when many of the old verities are questioned and features of civilization (like religions, forms of government, societal and economic structures) undergo transformation or disappear.[5] Jung understood that these intervals are often when all sorts of psychic upwellings manifest collectively, e.g. in the rise of new religions, of prophets and prophecies, apocalyptic cults, apocalypticists warning of the “end times,”[6] and reports of “portents” in the sky, in the form of UFOs and other signs.[7]
As I have indicated in earlier essays on this blog site, Jung was himself a prophet, predicting both the “end of the age”[8] and a major devastating event. He was on his deathbed when he had his last vision, and he told his daughter (who was taking notes) that this would be 50 years in the future, i.e. around 2011.[9] Even as he lay dying Jung displayed concern for the welfare of the world, and sought to warn us of the need to become conscious and to undertake to handle the shift he foresaw as consciously as possible.
Some Background
The third millennium, when the first day of Spring is to enter Aquarius, is now into its second decade, and those of us devoted to Jung and his ideas have witnessed events in our lives that help to carry his work forward. I could cite many instances of this in my own life—dreams that have sparked Jung-related courses, dreams that led to the creation of the Jungian Center back in 2005—but one dream recently bears quite directly on the theme of this essay.
Before relating that dream, some background is required. For 29 years, beginning on November 25th, 1983, I have occasionally had an odd type of dream. There is no action, no storyline, just blackness, and my dreaming self hears words. Sometimes these are words of advice, sometimes predictions. I have come to call these my “voice-over” dreams. Rhea White, the editor of the journal Exceptional Human Experience, called these “auditory hallucinations.”[10] Whatever you might want to call them, when they speak of the future or tell me what’s going to happen at some future time, they are always spot-on. At first, with no track record about this, I had no idea what to make of them. Actually, I felt like I was going crazy—which was what eventually led me to take up analysis, when I finally (after 20 months) found a Jungian analyst living nearby. Twenty-nine years of experience with these dreams has led me to take them very seriously.
So, when I had the most recent of my “voice-over” dreams this past November 4th, 2011, I paid close attention. It said that I was to create a program on preparing for the great attunement. I know enough by now to know that I can never say “No” to one of these directives (not if I value my sanity and a life worth living!). So I woke up, wrote down the words, said OK, and then “Huh?”
What in the world was my psyche asking of me? Attunement? The great attunement? Preparing for it? A program about this? Mystification mixed with a sinking feeling of overwhelment characterized my initial response. This is so common! How often I have gotten one of these “voice-over” dreams that seems initially unintelligible or impossible! The sinking feeling didn’t last, but I knew I would have to stay open, pay attention, watch for synchronicities, spread the word among my friends and students, and I would be guided to what I needed to know, the people I needed who would help me to realize this directive, and the pieces would eventually fall into place.
Definitions of Terms
The first discovery I made, after having this dream, is that the work I was already doing on preparing a workshop on “The Power and Uses of Sound” was very helpful for giving me an understanding of what “attunement” means. The dictionary defines “attunement” as “an attuning or bringing into harmony; to put in tune or accord.”[11] Anyone who comes to a symphony hall just before a performance hears the musicians tuning their instruments so that, before the conductor appears, they are all in attunement.
While the concept is familiar in the context of musical instruments, it is not so familiar in reference to persons. Operating, as we do, in the world of Newtonian physics, we tend not to think of ourselves as vibrating systems. But the world of quantum reality recognizes the truth of ancient wisdom,[12] which regards all things—cells, organs, bodies of plants, animals, animate and inanimate objects—as vibrating. “Everything vibrates” is one of the major principles of esoteric wisdom.[13]
Orchestras that are not in attunement sound horrible. Similarly, people who are not in attunement find it hard to interact well, and if an organ system is not vibrating properly, we feel sick.[14] Health means having all our cells, organs and systems working in harmony. On the collective level, a society is healthy when all of its aggregate parts are in attunement. Given the wars, poverty, disease, discontent, drug use, substance abuse, protest movements and environmental destruction in our current reality, our world is massively out of attunement now. For us to be healthy, personally and collectively, this must change.
Back to my voice-over dream: It spoke of “preparing for the great attunement.” The definite article “the” suggests a singular attunement, and the adjective “great” made it sound very important. Singular and important. This reminded me of the Mayan calendar, which identified December 21, 2012 as the end of the baktun,[15] rather like Jung’s idea of the end of the age.[16] It made sense that I was being given this directive for an event that was more than a year away, if we were to “prepare” for it. And certainly such a momentous event would be “great,” singular and worth preparing for.
What “Preparing” for the “Great Attunement” Involves
By mid-December, 2011, I felt pretty good that I had a handle on what my psyche was referring to by “the great attunement:” I was to do something that would help people get ready for the shift from the old to the new era. But how? The “preparing” part still eluded me. What might it involve?
I looked to Jung at this point. Early in life, Jung wanted to be an archeologist, but, having little money, he took another career path.[17] Throughout his life, however, he drew on history, mined the past and dug up the riches, symbols and artifacts from earlier cultures, to form his psychology. He knew we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, that what has gone before can provide guidance and signposts on the path. When I followed Jung’s lead it became obvious to me that, as a race, we humans have been “preparing” for this transition for a long time.
Thousands of years ago the Mayans gave us their amazingly complex calendar, which multiple students of Mayan wisdom have more recently mined for its insights.[18] Some of this “mining” has taken the form of books, while others have shown up as activities, e.g. the “Harmonic Convergence” in 1987.[19] Many centuries after the Mayans, the 12th century monk Joachim of Flores announced the coming of a “new age of the spirit”[20] that would supercede the current “age of the Son,” just as the age of the Son had superceded the age of the Father when Christianity developed out of Judaism. Jung was aware of Joachim’s predictions and drew upon them in formulating his ideas of a “new age” that was coming.[21]
More recently a wealth of developments in modern science have been part of the preparation for the attunement. David Bohm, Fred Alan Wolf, Fritjof Capra, Gary Zukov, Wolfgang Pauli[22] and other physicists who have been willing to think “outside the box,” have explicated some of the mysteries of their discipline to a lay audience, and in this way, have made more people aware of the limitations of the old materialistic, mechanistic paradigm. Likewise in the biological sciences, people like Candace Pert and Bruce Lipton have demonstrated the strong mind-body connection and the powerful role played by our emotions in creating physical reality.[23] The “frontier sciences”[24]—psi research,[25] chaos theory,[26] holography,[27] morphogenetic field research,[28] the work on consciousness in the noetic sciences[29]—have also helped prepare people by offering a wider, more “extended”[30] knowledge base for our culture.
Jungian analysts and Jung-oriented authors have also helped us prepare for the coming shift. Joseph Campbell’s multiple works on mythology[31] give us “myths to live by”[32] and vivid images of the new form of heroism that is emerging as we move into the new era.[33] Jean Houston also writes of myths and archetypes and how awareness of these can guide and enrich our journey.[34] Thomas Moore brings the insights of archetypal psychology to bear on how we can care for our souls, relate to others, “re-enchant” everyday life and reperceive religious verities.[35] Clarissa Pinkola Estes developed the Jungian Storyteller Series to introduce us to many of the myths and legends that live in our native heritage.[36] Another Jungian analyst, June Singer, provides us with portraits of Jungian analysis and androgyny, Jung’s idea of psychic wholeness.[37] Marion Woodman draws on her practice as a Jungian analyst and her workshops with Robert Bly, in addressing some of the common problems now facing men and women.[38]
Other intrepid researchers have ventured into the field (literally) in their investigations of crop circles, those inexplicable formations that have been appearing suddenly all over the world for several generations.[39] The question of the origin of this phenomenon has led to hypotheses of extraterrestrial visitors, which is connected to the whole issue of UFOs, which held such fascination for Jung in his later years.[40] Are beings from some other reality coming to Earth to help us prepare?
On a more grounded note (no pun intended), current research in acoustics and the physics of sound has shown just how powerfully our bodies can respond to vibration,[41] and how limited our thinking has been about physical reality. For example, modern reports tell of Tibetan monks levitating huge boulders weighing many tons through the intentional use of sound.[42] Such accounts call to mind the marvels of engineering of the pyramids in Egypt, the temples and city at Macchu Pichu, the stone faces on Easter Island and the megaliths of Stonehenge. Perhaps these ancient peoples understood more about attunement that we give them credit for.[43] More immediately applicable to our theme of attunement is the work of Alfred Tomatis and Peter Guy Manners in applying sound to physical healing.[44] These intrepid pioneers have done much to make it possible for us to shift the vibratory rate of our bodies more consciously and effectively. In doing so, we can draw on ancient wisdom and modern discoveries in our preparing.
So, resting on the solid foundation provided by the distant and recent past, we can undertake to prepare for the time ahead. What does this entail? Again, I look to Jung to address this question. He would ask us to focus on the individual (that’s you and me), for Jung understood that only individuals can bring out change.[45] As individuals, what do we need to do? First, become aware—aware of the concept of vibration and that all of reality vibrates all the time, that we can fall out of sync with ourselves, with others, with the land, with society, that such conditions cause dis-ease, trauma, conflicts, all sorts of problems—and then, with this awareness, we become aware of the value and need for attunement—for getting our “vibes” back in harmony.
The second piece of preparing after becoming aware of the need for and value of attunement is to set the intention to do so. It’s all well and fine to know about attunement but if we don’t want to do it, no manner of information will bring it about. We have to want to get in tune.
Only then will the third piece be relevant: learning how to do it, the myriad ways to get ourselves in harmony, internally (to restore physical, mental, emotional and psychological health) and externally (to improve personal relationships, and eventually, global society’s health). Some of these ways Jung used with his patients, e.g. working with symbols, working with dreams, working with imagery. Other ways he used himself, e.g. meditating and techniques that work with energy, like yoga.[46] Other such techniques include tai chi, martial arts, reiki, and dance movement.
Other ways Jung did not use, like working with sound,[47] creating sacred space (temple making),[48] developing intuition,[49] developing sensory awareness, and drawing on our innate powers of creativity, however these manifest in us. I’m sure there are other ways we can prepare, and by the time the program occurs, more will come to my attention.
The Coming Conference
Which brings me to the final part of this essay. The “program” has begun to manifest, in outline, as a 4-day (66 hours) event in mid-November, 2012, beginning with a reception on Friday evening, November 9th through Monday morning, November 12th. There will be a variety of presenters, each calling on their particular expertise in one or more of the ways we can prepare.
The conference begins with the assumption that people attending are aware of the concept of attunement and have set the intention to achieve it. The “how” is the focus. What are the best ways for the particular individual to prepare for the coming momentous time that Jung foretold? How might we each prepare? The presenters will help attendees identify which methods are most suited to their interests, abilities and lifestyles.
In keeping with Jung’s distaste for “mass mindedness,”[50] as well as the Jungian Center’s commitment to “small is beautiful,”[51] this will not be your typical international conference of thousands, but will be quite small, allowing for a lot of personal attention and opportunities for people to meet and get to know one another. Also in keeping with Jung’s preferences, the conference will be experiential, rather than a head-trip. Empiricist that he was,[52] Jung determined “truth” by what he experienced, what he did, what tested out in his own life. So we will provide participants with hands-on experiences of attunement, e.g. how it feels when our vibrations come into attunement, or how working with a symbol, with movement, with a mandala, with a mantra etc., can shift us from inner conflict to harmony.
If you would like further information about this conference, please see the Web site of the Jungian Center, where up-to-date specifics will be posted as the details are worked out.
Sue Mehrtens is the author of this essay.
Bibliography
Argüelles, José (1987), The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology. Santa Fe: Bear & Co.
Bair, Deirdre (2003), Jung: A Biography. New York: Little, Brown & Co.
Bly, Robert & Marion Woodman (1998), The Maiden King: The Reunion of Masculine and Feminine. New York: Henry Holt & Co.
Boynton, Robert (2004), “In the Jung Archives,” The New York Times Book Review (January 11, 2004), 8.
Brodie, Renee (1996), The Healing Tones of Crystal Bowls. Vancouver: Aroma Art Ltd.
Calleman, Carl (2004), The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness. Rochester VT: Bear & Co.
Campbell, Joseph (1949), The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New York: Meridian Books.
________ (1972), Myths to Live By. New York: Bantam Books
________ (1986), The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion. Novato CA: New World Library.
________ (1988), The Power of Myth, with Bill Moyers, ed. Betty Sue Flowers. New York: Anchor Books.
________ (2004), Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation. Novato CA: New World Library.
Capra, Fritjof (1975), The Tao of Physics. New York: Bantam Books.
Ehrman, Bart (1999), Jesus, Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. New York: Oxford University Press.
Estes, Clarissa Pinkola (1992), Women Who Run With the Wolves. New York: Ballantine Books.
Friedman, Norman (1994), Bridging Science and Spirit: Common Elements in David Bohm’s Physics, The Perennial Philosophy and Seth. St. Louis: Living Lake Books.
Gilbert, Adrian (2006), 2012: Mayan Year of Destiny. Virginia Beach: A.R.E. Press.
________ & Maurice Cotterell (1995), The Mayan Prophecies. New York: Barnes & Noble.
Gleick, James (1987), Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin Books.
Green, Elmer & Alyce Green 1996), “Healing: Self Reliance versus Intervention,” Revisioning Science, ed. S. Mehrtens. Waterbury VT: The Potlatch Press.
Hannah, Barbara (1976), Jung: His Life and Work. New York: G.P. Putnam.
Harman, Willis (1988), “The Postmodern Heresy: Consciousness as Causal,” The Reenchantment of Science, ed. D. Griffin. Albany NY: SUNY Press.
Houston, Jean (1992), The Hero and the Goddess. New York: Harper Collins.
Jahn, Robert & Brenda Dunne (1987), Margins of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Jenkins, John Major (1998), Maya Cosmogenesis 2012. Rochester VT: Bear & Co.
Jung, C.G.(1959), “Aion,” Collected Works, 9ii. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
________ (1970), “Civilization in Transition,” CW 10. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Leeds, Joshua (2010), The Power of Sound: How to Be Healthy and Productive Using Music and Sound, 2nd ed. Rochester VT: Healing Arts Press.
Lipton, Bruce (2008), The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles. Carlsbad CA: Hay House.
Meier, C.A. (2001), Atom and Archetype: The Pauli/Jung Letters 1932-1958. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mitchell, Edgar (1974), Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
Moore, Thomas (1992), Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life. New York: HarperCollins
________ (1994), Soul Mates: Honoring the Mysteries of Love and Relationship. New York: HarperCollins
________ (1996), The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life. New York: HarperCollins.
________ (2009), Writing in the Sand: Jesus & the Soul of the Gospels. Carlsbad CA: Hay House.
Pert, Candace (1997), Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine. New York: Scribner.
Pinchbeck, Daniel (2006), 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. New York: Tarcher/Penguin.
Powell, Robert & Kevin Dann (2009), Christ and the Maya Calendar. Great Barrington MA: Lindisfarne Books.
Rubik, Beverly (1996), Life at the Edge of Science. Philadelphia: The Institute for Frontier Science.
Schumacher, E.F. (1973), Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered. New York: Harper & Row.
Sheldrake, Rupert (1981), A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation. Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher.
________ (1988), The Presence of the Past: Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature. New York: Times Books.
________ (1991), The Rebirth of Nature: The Greening of Science and God. New York: Bantam Books.
Silva, Freddy (2002), Secrets in the Fields: The Science and Mysticism of Crop Circles. Charlottesville VA: Hampton Roads.
________ (2010), Common Wealth: Our Legacy of Places of Power and the Transfiguration of the Human Soul. Portland ME: Invisible Temple.
Simon, Tami (2007), The Mystery of 2012. Boulder CO: Sounds True Press.
Singer, June (1977), Boundaries of the Soul. Garden City NY: Anchor Books.
________ (2000), Androgyny: The Opposites Within. York Beach ME: Nicolas-Hays.
Stray, Geoff (2005), Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Ecstasy? Lewes U.K.: Vital Signs Publishing.
Talbot, Michael (1980), Mysticism and the New Physics. New York: Bantam Books.
________ (1991), The Holographic Universe. New York: Harper.
Three Initiates (1912), The Kybalion. Chicago: Yogi Publication Society.
Tilly, Margaret (1977), “The Therapy of Music,” Jung Speaking, eds. William McGuire & R.F.C. Hull. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Wagner, Suzanne (1998-1999), “A Conversation with Marie-Louise von Franz,” Psychological Perspectives, 38 (Winter 1998-1999), 12-39.
White, Rhea (1993), “A Life Reoriented by Dreams,” Exceptional Human Experiences, 11, no. 1 (June 1993), 33-39.
Wilcock, David (2011), The Source Field Investigations. New York: Dutton.
Wolf, Fred Alan (1984), Star Wave: Mind, Consciousness and Quantum Physics. New York: Collier Books.
________ (1991), The Eagle’s Quest. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Woodman, Marion (1980), The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter. Toronto: Inner City Books.
________ (1982), Addiction to Perfection. Toronto: Inner City Books.
Zukav, Gary (1979), The Dancing Wu Li Masters. New York: Bantam Books.
[1] Collected Works 9ii, ¶s142 & 149. Hereafter Collected Works will be abbreviated CW.
[2] Boynton (2004), 8. Jung uses the term “new aeon” in ibid., ¶148.
[3] Precession of the equinoxes is a astronomical phenomenon due to the change in the orientation of the rotation axis of the Earth. The Earth goes through one complete precessional cycle in approximately 26,000 years, or 1 degree every 72 years. For a full explanation, and the distinction between axial and perihelion precession, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession.
[4] CW 9ii, ¶136.
[5] CW 10, ¶589.
[6] Ehrman (1999), 4-5. For Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet of the shift from Aries to Pisces, see Ehrman’s chapter 8, pp. 125-139.
[7] CW 10, ¶589.
[8] Hannah (1976), 337. For his numerous references to the “new age,” the “new era,” Jung has been labeled the father of the New Age movement; see Boynton (2004), 8.
[9] Wagner (1998-9), 24.
[10] White (1993), 38.
[11] World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary, I, 129.
[12] Leeds (2010), 15-6, 20-1.
[13] Three Initiates (1912), 30-1,137-47.
[14] This was the discovery of Sir Peter Guy Manners, creator of Cymatics; see Brodie (1996), 109.
[15] Jenkins (1998), 105.
[16] Hannah (1976), 337.
[17] Bair (2003), 37.
[18] Cf. Jenkins (1998), Stray (2005), Gilbert (2006), Gilbert & Cotterell (1995), Pinchbeck (2006), Calleman (2004), Argüelles (1987), Powell & Dann (2009) and Simon (2007).
[19] For an in-depth discussion of this event, spearheaded by Jose Argüelles, see www.siskiyous.edu/shasta/fol/har/index.htm
[20] CW, 9ii, ¶137.
[21] Ibid., ¶141.
[22] Friedman (1994), Wolf (1984) & (1991), Capra (1975), Zukav (1979), Meier (2001), Talbot (1980).
[23] Pert (1997), Lipton (2008).
[24] “Frontier Science” is Beverly Rubik’s term; see Rubik (1996).
[25] Mitchell (1974), Jahn & Dunne (1987), Green & Green (1996).
[26] Gleick (1987).
[27] Talbot (1991).
[28] Sheldrake (1981) (1988) & (1991).
[29] Mitchell (1974). Mitchell, the sixth astronaut to walk on the Moon, founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences in 1973. I.O.N.S. defines the “noetic sciences” as “a multi-disciplinary field that brings objective scientific tools and techniques together with subjective inner knowledge to study the full range of human experiences.” Mitchell coined the term “noetic sciences.” For more information on I.O.N.S., go to their Web site: www.noetic.org.
[30] Harman, in Griffin (1988), 115-28.
[31] Cf. Campbell (1949) (1986) (1988) (2004).
[32] This is the title of another of Campbell’s books (1972).
[33] For more on this new form of heroism, see the blog essay “Jung’s Hero,” posted to this blog site in January 2012.
[34] Houston (1992).
[35] Cf. Moore (1992) (1994) (1996) (2009).
[36] Estes (1992)
[37] Cf. Singer (1972) (2000)
[38] Cf. Woodman (1980) (1982) and Bly & Woodman (1998).
[39] Silva (2002) provides a very comprehensive discussion of crop circles.
[40] CW 10, ¶593.
[41] Leeds (2010), 172-92.
[42] Wilcock (2011), 293-6.
[43] For more on this possibility, see Silva (2002), 204-27, especially 207.
[44] Leeds (2010), 30-1,48-9,189,214 and 260.
[45] CW 10, ¶719.
[46] Jung practiced yoga for decades; Bair (2003), 434.
[47] Jung was not much into music; he told Margaret Tilly that it moved him too much, but when, late in life, he met Tilly and sat through her demonstration of music therapy, he came to realize just how powerful sound can be in its transformative potential. Tilly (1977), 273-5.
[48] For more on temple-making, see Silva (2010).
[49] One of Jung’s dominant functions was intuition, so he never had to develop it, but for Sensates it can be a very good way to both develop the inferior function and become more attuned to the changing energies.
[50] CW 10, ¶718.
[51] This is the title of E.F. Schumacher’s classic; Schumacher (1973).
[52] Jung repeatedly described himself as an empiricist; cf. “Letter to Pastor Ernst Jahn,” 7 September 1935; “Letter to Norbert Drewett, O.P.,” 25 September 1937; “Letter to Swami Devatmananda,” 9 February 1937, all in Letters, I, pp. 195, 237 & 227, respectively.
