St. Germain Cults
Archetypal Wisdom Figures
Archetypal Wisdom Figures
Philemon and other figures of my fantasies brought home to me the crucial insight that there are things in the psyche which I do not produce, but which produce themselves and have their own life. Philemon represented a force which was not myself. In my fantasies I held conversations with him, and he said things which I had not consciously thought. For I observed clearly that it was he who spoke, not I. . . . Psychologically, Philemon represented superior insight. He was a mysterious figure to me. At times he seemed to me quite real, as if he were a living personality. I went walking up and down the garden with him, and to me he was what the Indians call a guru. --Jung, Memory, Dreams, Reflections
Why Are There So Many St. Germain Cults and Channels?
(You Know Who You Are)
by Iona Miller, (c)2015
Immortal -- yes; Mystery -- yes; Literal -- no
The difference between a Psychological and Religious Approach
Do not mistake a historical personage or form
for an archetypal force
All of the Ascended Masters, Avatars, and Secret Chiefs of new age philosophy are personal or collective personifications and projections of archetypal wisdom figures. None of them are literally the historical personae some attribute to them to increase their numinosity and familiarity. The qualities attributed to them are not those of the human personality but qualities of the deep unconscious, which can produce both wisdom and nonsense. Personification is a by-product of the transformative quest for instinctive wisdom. Such idealized immortals are generally gods and goddesses.
St. Germain has been made-over into a myth of an immortal cult hero, based on the spiritual, philosophical and literary fantasies and projections about him as a new age avatar or time-traveling superhero. He is a magic hero converted to an immortal who can engage in some sort of time travel or astral projection, at will. Projection is a misattribution -- a form of self-delusion mixed with belief standing in for lack of understanding psychological dynamics. We might as well choose Buck Rogers to contrast with our earthbound selves. This is how history is transmogrified into mythology.
In psychological projection our unconsciousness is attributed to others, and they carry that unconscious content until or unless we become aware of it as our own. All assertions of ascended masters, channeled gurus, and secret chiefs fall into this category of archetypal protectors, mentors or teachers. The historical figure carried many of these qualities, powerful in collective wisdom and knowledge of the beyond. But being dead does not make you smarter.
Modern Myth in Search of a Soul
St. Germain is a good candidate for such attributions because of the ambiguity of his his historical record and his mystical inclinations. Like the serpent and the dragon, he becomes a symbol of transcendent wisdom, immortality, and rebirth, embodying immortal yearnings of those making the projections. In earlier times such attributions of sacred mysteries -- enlightenment, wisdom and spiritual vision -- were associated with Osiris or Metatron.
Let's Pretend
Projection is self-mystification, a self-induced trance state, whether the content is positive or negative. The ego splits off the unconscious content, either over-valuing or undervaluing it. When we reach our archetypal boundaries we begin projecting, sort of an adult form of "let's pretend." Thus, for many St. Germain becomes naive a projection of hope and wisdom -- standing in place of the Unknown as an immortal soul sharing the qualities of the divine.
Emotionally appealing truths are sandwiched into idiosyncratic notions ranging from the speculative to the fantastical, and trap many individuals like flypaper, because our minds love a good story. The brain feeds on stories, but the wrong stories just lead us down the garden path into ancient worlds that never happened, and mythic scenarios that were never meant to be taken literally.
Through their icons, "followers" seek the meaning of life and supernatural existence. Projection is mistakenly attributing your own repressed thoughts onto someone else, including thoughts, feelings, motives, and attitudes. In this case, it includes unowned emotions, metaphysical speculations and pseudo-scientific worldviews. Such figures stand in place of one's own self-actualization.
Modern notions of St. Germain as a reincarnating or immortal master fall into this category. He has been "written into" the stories of various events of historical importance. Immortality is another fundamental archetype,with two basic narrative forms: a) Escape from time: “Return to Paradise, the state of timeless bliss enjoyed by man before his tragic Fall into corruption and mortality. b) Mystical submersion into cyclical time: the theme of endless death and regeneration – man achieves a kind of immortality by submitting the vast, mysterious rhythm of Nature’s eternal cycle, particularly the cycle of the seasons.
There is no literal explanation of such recurrent themes, only their psychological appearances arising from the needs of those who weave such notions into their personal narratives. Such figures of the unconscious are naturally represented as immortal, as they are eternal archetypes in personified dress...a sort of adult "imaginary friend." This is the source of channeled wisdom and spirit possession. During his lifetime the moral rectitude of St. Germain was questioned, but in the immortal version he becomes sanitized.
Jung elaborated on such transformative wisdom figures as the archetypes of the "mana personality" and Self: the Wise Old Man and the Wise Old Woman. They can also appear as aspects of one's anima or animus. Jung even experienced one or more such characters he personified as his soul guide Philemon, who he linked back to the historical Simon Magus. But he did not take such interaction literally but rather imaginally -- an "as if real" experience he engaged with dialogue. Such figures can offer guidance and wisdom gleaned from personal and cultural experience. They can also spew faulty logic, silly notions, inferior thinking, and pseudo-scientific ideas.
A false idea can be hyped through hysteria, lack of critical judgment, and naive enthusiasm. Without critical thinking we can derail the dynamic process of self transformation, by leading us down the garden path of false beliefs. Accepting such beliefs uncritically is precisely the opposite of what Jung recommended as individuation. Such false beliefs tend to cluster around an individual's personal issues, but are mistaken for and confounded with historical, philosophical and scientific 'reality'. Much of the "self-delusion" can be linked to exposure to memes functioning as emotional strange attractors or cultural artifacts or fallout,, as well as pre- and pseudo-scientific notions of by-gone centuries, and lack of understanding of standards and discernment.
Jung's Wise Old Woman and the Wise Old Man are archetypes of the Collective Unconscious. 'The "wise old woman"...[or] helpful "old woman" is a well-known symbol in myths and fairy tales for the wisdom of the eternal female nature'. One of her current popular incarnations is Mary Magdalene, a soul-mate, or Sophia, who has captured contemporary imaginations with ideas about the divine feminine and gnosis. The 'Wise Old Man, or some other very powerful aspect of eternal masculinity' is her male counterpart.
In Jung's thought, the individuation process was marked by a sequence of archetypes, each acquiring predominance at successive stages, and so reflecting what he termed an ascending psychic scale or 'hierarchy of the unconscious'. Thus, starting with the intermediate position of 'anima or animus...just as the latter have a higher position in the hierarchy than the shadow, so wholeness lays claim to a position and a value superior' still. The Wise Old Woman and Man, as what he termed "Mana" personalities or "supraordinate" personalities, stood for that wholeness of the self: 'the mother ("Primordial Mother" and "Earth Mother") as a supraordinary personality...as the "self"'.
As von Franz cautions, 'If an individual has wrestled seriously and long enough with the anima (or animus) problem, so that he, or she, is no longer partially identified with it, the unconscious again changes its dominant character and appears in a new symbolic form representing the Self, the innermost nucleus of the personality. In the dreams of a woman this center is usually personified as a superior female figure - a priestess, sorceress, earth mother, or goddess of nature or love. In the case of a man, it manifests itself as a masculine initiator and guardian (an Indian guru), a wise old man, a spirit of nature and so forth'.
The wise old man (also called senex, sage or sophos) is an archetype as described by Carl Jung, as well as a classic literary figure, and may be seen as a stock character. The wise old man can be a profound philosopher distinguished for wisdom and sound judgment but confounded with Shadow it can be a Trickster.
This type of character is typically represented as a kind and wise, older father-type figure who uses personal knowledge of people and the world to help tell stories and offer guidance that, in a mystical way, may impress upon his audience a sense of who they are and who they might become, thereby acting as a mentor. He may occasionally appear as an absent-minded professor, appearing absent-minded due to a predilection for contemplative pursuits.
The wise old man is often seen to be in some way "foreign", that is, from a different culture, nation, or occasionally, even a different time, from those he advises. In extreme cases, he may be a liminal being, such as Merlin, who was only half human.
In medieval chivalric romance and modern fantasy literature, he is often presented as a wizard. He can also or instead be featured as a hermit. This character type often explained to the knights or heroes—particularly those searching for the Holy Grail—the significance of their encounters.
In the individuation process, the archetype of the Wise old man was late to emerge, and seen as an indication of the Self. 'If an individual has wrestled seriously enough and long enough with the anima (or animus) problem...the unconscious again changes its dominant character and appears in a new symbolic form...as a masculine initiator and guardian (an Indian guru), a wise old man, a spirit of nature, and so forth'.
As Borges contends:
No one is anyone, one single immortal man is all men. Like Cornelius Agrippa, I am god, I am hero, I am philosopher, I am demon and I am world, which is a tedious way of saying that I do not exist. Any life, however long and complicated it may be, actually consists of a single moment — the moment when a man knows forever more who he is. Doubt is one of the names of intelligence.
Subconscious Supernatural
We can be sincerely convinced of the utterly wrong. Why do we continue to accommodate the irrelevant and easily falsifiable? Are we conscientious about our own self-delusions or simply unconsciously immersed in them due to a delusional perspective on our own misguided "gnosis" and obsessions with misguided theoretical perspectives? Even conscience is no ineffable guide to inner authority. There is no shortage of new myths to capture our attention. Dreams tell us who we are, collectively and individually.
If Inner Authority is linked to authentic power and wisdom, we need to examine our personal interaction with inner wisdom figures (archetypes) and values in order to create lives of positive action that arise from deep inner wisdom. Most of us shirk such important inner work, substituting a fantasy of transformation and mindfulness. Delusional self-improvement projects are aimed at adorning the ego.
People claim to hear messages that ring in their hearts as truth, or 'resonate' with material that confirms their own tacit or recognized beliefs, but most it originates in cultural conditioning and memetic patterning. Some of it echoes parental authority. All we hold is a piece of the Mystery. Buzzwords such as True Nature, intentionality, and mis-identified integrity compound the situation. Premature spiritual fixation can just as readily be a form of transcendental escapism.
Both the strategies of "transcendence" and "reduction" are expressions of bad faith — i.e., forms of self-deception and escapism that seek to deny the realities of the human existential situation. Self-delusion may be self-evident but few give themselves a reality check on it and doing so is compounded by our own psychological blindspots. This is a form of escapism or neo-mythology.
(You Know Who You Are)
by Iona Miller, (c)2015
Immortal -- yes; Mystery -- yes; Literal -- no
The difference between a Psychological and Religious Approach
Do not mistake a historical personage or form
for an archetypal force
All of the Ascended Masters, Avatars, and Secret Chiefs of new age philosophy are personal or collective personifications and projections of archetypal wisdom figures. None of them are literally the historical personae some attribute to them to increase their numinosity and familiarity. The qualities attributed to them are not those of the human personality but qualities of the deep unconscious, which can produce both wisdom and nonsense. Personification is a by-product of the transformative quest for instinctive wisdom. Such idealized immortals are generally gods and goddesses.
St. Germain has been made-over into a myth of an immortal cult hero, based on the spiritual, philosophical and literary fantasies and projections about him as a new age avatar or time-traveling superhero. He is a magic hero converted to an immortal who can engage in some sort of time travel or astral projection, at will. Projection is a misattribution -- a form of self-delusion mixed with belief standing in for lack of understanding psychological dynamics. We might as well choose Buck Rogers to contrast with our earthbound selves. This is how history is transmogrified into mythology.
In psychological projection our unconsciousness is attributed to others, and they carry that unconscious content until or unless we become aware of it as our own. All assertions of ascended masters, channeled gurus, and secret chiefs fall into this category of archetypal protectors, mentors or teachers. The historical figure carried many of these qualities, powerful in collective wisdom and knowledge of the beyond. But being dead does not make you smarter.
Modern Myth in Search of a Soul
St. Germain is a good candidate for such attributions because of the ambiguity of his his historical record and his mystical inclinations. Like the serpent and the dragon, he becomes a symbol of transcendent wisdom, immortality, and rebirth, embodying immortal yearnings of those making the projections. In earlier times such attributions of sacred mysteries -- enlightenment, wisdom and spiritual vision -- were associated with Osiris or Metatron.
Let's Pretend
Projection is self-mystification, a self-induced trance state, whether the content is positive or negative. The ego splits off the unconscious content, either over-valuing or undervaluing it. When we reach our archetypal boundaries we begin projecting, sort of an adult form of "let's pretend." Thus, for many St. Germain becomes naive a projection of hope and wisdom -- standing in place of the Unknown as an immortal soul sharing the qualities of the divine.
Emotionally appealing truths are sandwiched into idiosyncratic notions ranging from the speculative to the fantastical, and trap many individuals like flypaper, because our minds love a good story. The brain feeds on stories, but the wrong stories just lead us down the garden path into ancient worlds that never happened, and mythic scenarios that were never meant to be taken literally.
Through their icons, "followers" seek the meaning of life and supernatural existence. Projection is mistakenly attributing your own repressed thoughts onto someone else, including thoughts, feelings, motives, and attitudes. In this case, it includes unowned emotions, metaphysical speculations and pseudo-scientific worldviews. Such figures stand in place of one's own self-actualization.
Modern notions of St. Germain as a reincarnating or immortal master fall into this category. He has been "written into" the stories of various events of historical importance. Immortality is another fundamental archetype,with two basic narrative forms: a) Escape from time: “Return to Paradise, the state of timeless bliss enjoyed by man before his tragic Fall into corruption and mortality. b) Mystical submersion into cyclical time: the theme of endless death and regeneration – man achieves a kind of immortality by submitting the vast, mysterious rhythm of Nature’s eternal cycle, particularly the cycle of the seasons.
There is no literal explanation of such recurrent themes, only their psychological appearances arising from the needs of those who weave such notions into their personal narratives. Such figures of the unconscious are naturally represented as immortal, as they are eternal archetypes in personified dress...a sort of adult "imaginary friend." This is the source of channeled wisdom and spirit possession. During his lifetime the moral rectitude of St. Germain was questioned, but in the immortal version he becomes sanitized.
Jung elaborated on such transformative wisdom figures as the archetypes of the "mana personality" and Self: the Wise Old Man and the Wise Old Woman. They can also appear as aspects of one's anima or animus. Jung even experienced one or more such characters he personified as his soul guide Philemon, who he linked back to the historical Simon Magus. But he did not take such interaction literally but rather imaginally -- an "as if real" experience he engaged with dialogue. Such figures can offer guidance and wisdom gleaned from personal and cultural experience. They can also spew faulty logic, silly notions, inferior thinking, and pseudo-scientific ideas.
A false idea can be hyped through hysteria, lack of critical judgment, and naive enthusiasm. Without critical thinking we can derail the dynamic process of self transformation, by leading us down the garden path of false beliefs. Accepting such beliefs uncritically is precisely the opposite of what Jung recommended as individuation. Such false beliefs tend to cluster around an individual's personal issues, but are mistaken for and confounded with historical, philosophical and scientific 'reality'. Much of the "self-delusion" can be linked to exposure to memes functioning as emotional strange attractors or cultural artifacts or fallout,, as well as pre- and pseudo-scientific notions of by-gone centuries, and lack of understanding of standards and discernment.
Jung's Wise Old Woman and the Wise Old Man are archetypes of the Collective Unconscious. 'The "wise old woman"...[or] helpful "old woman" is a well-known symbol in myths and fairy tales for the wisdom of the eternal female nature'. One of her current popular incarnations is Mary Magdalene, a soul-mate, or Sophia, who has captured contemporary imaginations with ideas about the divine feminine and gnosis. The 'Wise Old Man, or some other very powerful aspect of eternal masculinity' is her male counterpart.
In Jung's thought, the individuation process was marked by a sequence of archetypes, each acquiring predominance at successive stages, and so reflecting what he termed an ascending psychic scale or 'hierarchy of the unconscious'. Thus, starting with the intermediate position of 'anima or animus...just as the latter have a higher position in the hierarchy than the shadow, so wholeness lays claim to a position and a value superior' still. The Wise Old Woman and Man, as what he termed "Mana" personalities or "supraordinate" personalities, stood for that wholeness of the self: 'the mother ("Primordial Mother" and "Earth Mother") as a supraordinary personality...as the "self"'.
As von Franz cautions, 'If an individual has wrestled seriously and long enough with the anima (or animus) problem, so that he, or she, is no longer partially identified with it, the unconscious again changes its dominant character and appears in a new symbolic form representing the Self, the innermost nucleus of the personality. In the dreams of a woman this center is usually personified as a superior female figure - a priestess, sorceress, earth mother, or goddess of nature or love. In the case of a man, it manifests itself as a masculine initiator and guardian (an Indian guru), a wise old man, a spirit of nature and so forth'.
The wise old man (also called senex, sage or sophos) is an archetype as described by Carl Jung, as well as a classic literary figure, and may be seen as a stock character. The wise old man can be a profound philosopher distinguished for wisdom and sound judgment but confounded with Shadow it can be a Trickster.
This type of character is typically represented as a kind and wise, older father-type figure who uses personal knowledge of people and the world to help tell stories and offer guidance that, in a mystical way, may impress upon his audience a sense of who they are and who they might become, thereby acting as a mentor. He may occasionally appear as an absent-minded professor, appearing absent-minded due to a predilection for contemplative pursuits.
The wise old man is often seen to be in some way "foreign", that is, from a different culture, nation, or occasionally, even a different time, from those he advises. In extreme cases, he may be a liminal being, such as Merlin, who was only half human.
In medieval chivalric romance and modern fantasy literature, he is often presented as a wizard. He can also or instead be featured as a hermit. This character type often explained to the knights or heroes—particularly those searching for the Holy Grail—the significance of their encounters.
In the individuation process, the archetype of the Wise old man was late to emerge, and seen as an indication of the Self. 'If an individual has wrestled seriously enough and long enough with the anima (or animus) problem...the unconscious again changes its dominant character and appears in a new symbolic form...as a masculine initiator and guardian (an Indian guru), a wise old man, a spirit of nature, and so forth'.
As Borges contends:
No one is anyone, one single immortal man is all men. Like Cornelius Agrippa, I am god, I am hero, I am philosopher, I am demon and I am world, which is a tedious way of saying that I do not exist. Any life, however long and complicated it may be, actually consists of a single moment — the moment when a man knows forever more who he is. Doubt is one of the names of intelligence.
Subconscious Supernatural
We can be sincerely convinced of the utterly wrong. Why do we continue to accommodate the irrelevant and easily falsifiable? Are we conscientious about our own self-delusions or simply unconsciously immersed in them due to a delusional perspective on our own misguided "gnosis" and obsessions with misguided theoretical perspectives? Even conscience is no ineffable guide to inner authority. There is no shortage of new myths to capture our attention. Dreams tell us who we are, collectively and individually.
If Inner Authority is linked to authentic power and wisdom, we need to examine our personal interaction with inner wisdom figures (archetypes) and values in order to create lives of positive action that arise from deep inner wisdom. Most of us shirk such important inner work, substituting a fantasy of transformation and mindfulness. Delusional self-improvement projects are aimed at adorning the ego.
People claim to hear messages that ring in their hearts as truth, or 'resonate' with material that confirms their own tacit or recognized beliefs, but most it originates in cultural conditioning and memetic patterning. Some of it echoes parental authority. All we hold is a piece of the Mystery. Buzzwords such as True Nature, intentionality, and mis-identified integrity compound the situation. Premature spiritual fixation can just as readily be a form of transcendental escapism.
Both the strategies of "transcendence" and "reduction" are expressions of bad faith — i.e., forms of self-deception and escapism that seek to deny the realities of the human existential situation. Self-delusion may be self-evident but few give themselves a reality check on it and doing so is compounded by our own psychological blindspots. This is a form of escapism or neo-mythology.